A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 8

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 972

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II > Part 8

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Professor Roberts has taken much interest in the work of the leading fraternities, being past high priest of St. Jo Chapter of Royal Arch Ma- sons, a member of Godfrey Commandery of Knight Templars, a Shriner of Hella Temple, past chancellor of Raleigh Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and is past grand of Bowie Lodge of I. O. O. F. He has represented the Pythian Knights in the State Grand Lodge and is a lead- ing member of the Missionary Baptist congrega- tion in Bowie.

ROBERT A. FOSTER, M. D., a capable and popular physician and surgeon of Nocona, Texas, was born at Glasgow, Kentucky, December I, 1862. His parents were Joseph and Clina M. (Ritter) Foster, who were also natives of the Blue Grass state. The grandfather was Bartlett

Foster, likewise of Kentucky. The Fosters have largely followed mercantile pursuits and are un- ostentatious but honorable and upright people. Bartlett Foster died in Kentucky, respected by all who knew him. In his family were four chil- dren, Joseph, Rice, Susan and Betsy.

Joseph Foster was reared in the state of his nativity, where he learned and followed the shoe- maker's trade during the years of his active busi- ness life. At the time of the Civil war he re- mained neutral and always lived the life of a quiet but reliable mechanic. His death was occasioned by a cyclone in 1879, and he is yet survived by his wife, who is living upon the old homestead in Kentucky, at the age of seventy-two years. She is a daughter of Josiah Ritter, of Kentucky, whose children are Mrs. Foster, Joseph and Thomas. Mr. and Mrs. Foster became the pa- rents of six children; John, a mechanic; Elzie and Elven, both of whom are farmers; Nancy, the wife of J. Forester; Robert A., of this re- view, and Cyrus M., who is editor of a newspaper in Kentucky.

Robert A. Foster was reared to farm life and acquired his early education in the common schools, but greatly broadened his knowledge by reading and study in his leisure hours. Becoming imbued with a desire to direct his efforts in the walks of a professional life he began reading medicine when twenty-one years of age under the direction of Dr. Graven, and went with him on his visits to his patients. Thus he added to theoretical knowledge the practical training and he learned to readily diagnose a case. After read- ing with his preceptor for a few years he became well informed concerning the principles and practice of medicine and in 1899 he began attend- ing medical lectures in Rush Medical College, at Chicago, where he remained for one term. He then entered upon active practice, and in 1901 he did post-graduate work in the Post-Graduate Col- lege of Chicago, while after study in 1903-04 he was graduated at the Yates City Medical College. In all of these different medical institutions he studied surgery and he pursued a special course in surgery in Texarkana. In 1903 he was grad- uated in pharmacy at that place and is therefore prepared to analyze and compound all medicines as well as to administer the remedial agencies which tend to alleviate human suffering. He has become well informed concerning pharmacy as well as medicine and surgery, and his ability is widely acknowledged. He opened an office and began practice in Kentucky, where he remained for five years, and in 1898 he came to Nocona, Texas, since which time he has given undivided attention to his professional duties and has met

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

with good success, well meriting the confidence which is given him throughout a large territory. His success is sure, his practice already being ex- tensive, and he has a well equipped office, sup- plied with all modern appliances. He keeps in touch with the progress of the profession, and his labors are being attended with a gratifying measure of prosperity. He has successfully oper- ated on a number of cases of appendicitis, and his intimate and accurate knowledge enables him to do his surgical work in a most skillful manner. He has a commodious residence in Nocona, where he is now comfortably and pleasantly situated.

Dr. Foster was married in Kentucky in 1888 to Miss Molly Smith, who was born in that state in 1868, and is a daughter of Hiram and Biddie ( Everett) Smith. Her father was a farmer and manufacturer of salt, and both he and his wife died in Kentucky. They were consistent advo- cates of the Missionary Baptist church and their family numbered two sons and three daughters: J. R., a practicing physician ; James, a farmer ; Betty, the wife of Jasper Harper ; Anna, the wife of F. Frei, and Molly. To Dr. and Mrs. Foster have been born two sons: Frank, born in April, 1802, and Jack, in February, 1897.

Dr. and Mrs. Foster are members of the Meth- odist church and he is connected with the Fra- ternal Brotherhood. During their residence in Nocona they have gained a wide acquaintance and the hospitality of the best homes is cordially extended to them. Dr. Foster has become a well known and capable physician, making continual progress in his profession and he ever maintains a high standard of professional ethics.

HON. WILLIAM D. WILLIAMS, for the past fifteen years a prominent and successful lawyer of Fort Worth, came to Texas about thirty years ago, when a boy fresh from college, and gained his legal training in this state, and since then, barring an initiatory period of several years spent in all the phases and activities of ranch life, he has been practicing and has ad- vanced to notable rank at the bar of the state and in particular of Fort Worth.

Hle is still only in the middle period of life's years and work, for he was born August 26, 1857, at the town of Mount Vernon, in castern Kentucky. His parents were Jesse C. and Mary (Collier) Williams His father was born in Vir- pinia. but was of a Maryland family and with all In- ancestors from the latter state. He is still liv- mig in Kentucky. having spent most of his life as a merchant and also farmed for some years.

The farik belonged to the Christian church and after the preliminary educational training

Mr. Williams was sent to Abingdon College in Abingdon, Illinois, one of the old-established col- leges of that church. He was graduated at the age of sixteen, and immediately thereafter. in 1873, came to Texas and located at Seguin, in Guadalupe county. This part of the state was then given up almost entirely to cattle-raising, and was infested with numerous "bad men," who on frequent occasions and without previous cere- mony or intimation made life burdensome to the respectable citizens. In Seguin Mr. Williams entered the law office of Judge Goodrich and studied diligently under the direction of that hon- ored preceptor until his admission to the bar, which occurred before he was twenty-one years old. He eluded the regular "starvation period" of a young lawyer's career by going upon a ranch and engaged in "punching cows" and the various other activities of that famous western industry, whereby he not only laid by some store of the "sine qua non" so necessary to self-preservation and advancement in his career, but also acquired by this vigorous outdoor regimen, the rugged health and physique which have enabled him to prosecute his profession from that day to this with untiring energy. He first took up his prac- tice in Austin, where he resided for eight years, and in December, 1889, came to Fort Worth, where he has maintained his office and built up a large and profitable patronage during the inter- vening years.

In April, 1897, he was elected to the office of city attorney, and, by succeeding elections, served most ably in that office until 1902. In that year he resigned in order to make the race for the state legislature, and was elected to represent the seventy-eighth district in that body. He has made himself an important factor in state legislation and during the sessions has devoted himself heart and soul to the interests of the state as affected by statute and legislative enactment. His most important achievement was, perhaps, his author- ship of the "intangible tax" law, which he pre- pared and had enacted. This is a very skillfully drawn and beneficial measure, and provides a means of taxing the intangible property or busi- ness of railroad companies, express companies, and other similar public utility concerns doing business in the state. Before this act became law the assessor had no means of valuing the prop- erties of such companies, however valuable might be their concessions or business in the state. Mr. Williams has the record in the state for special service, by appointment of the governor, as judge of the district court, and no other lawyer in the commonwealth has been so often called upon for this duty.

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Mr. Williams is a strong Democrat in politics. He is and has been for several years treasurer of the State Bar Association. He is a high de- gree Mason, being a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He is also a litterateur of no mean ability and has gained considerable distinction for his literary work, which he does for recreation, consisting principally of short stories contributed to the eastern magazines. Although he spent some years in connection with the rougher side of western life and has been acquainted with all sorts and conditions of men, he is himself a man of fine qualities and of broad, sympathetic at- tainments, open to all the influences of the high and nobler living.

Mr. Williams was married at Lockhart, Texas, December 5, 1876, to Miss Jettie Pearson.

DR. JAMES R. TEMPLE, physician and sur- geon of Memphis, Texas, is an old and exceed- ingly able practitioner, and has, during a period when the science of healing and its kindred branches have been progressing by leaps and bounds, kept entirely abreast of all this advance- ment, and is today as thoroughly equipped and modern in his methods as he was when he began practice a third of a century ago. Dr. Temple is a broad-gauged and experienced man of the world and affairs, having, in the course of a life- time of sixty-five years, come in close contact with many phases of life, and himself having been during his earlier years a teacher and soldier before entering upon the professional career which has since brought him so much honor and proved such a useful field for the application of his labors.

Born at Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1839, he was at an early age deprived by death of the care and protecting guidance of his parents, J. Clark and Fannie ( Brashear) Temple. His father, a native of Kentucky and a nephew of the famous George Rogers Clark of Northwest Ter- ritory fame, was a prominent and successful farmer, and died at Auburn, Logan county, Ken- tucky, in 1852. J. Clark Temple's father came to Louisville, Kentucky, from Virginia in 1801. Dr. Temple's mother was born at Beaufort, South Carolina, and died in 1849.

Thus orphaned at an early age he was, when eleven years old, taken to Marshall county, Mis- sissippi, to be educated. He prepared for a teach- ing career, and after several years' schooling in Mississippi he returned to Bowling Green, Ken- tucky, where, as also at other places, he taught school. When the war broke out in 1861 he en- listed in the Federal army, Company J, Fifty- ninth Ohio Infantry, becoming first lieutenant of

his company. During his three years' enlistment he was successively under Buell, Rosecrans and Grant, and among the numerous battles in which he participated were those at Shiloh, at Corinth, Stone River, Mill Spring. At the conclusion of his service he went to southern Indiana, in Spen- cer county, where he resumed his profession of teaching during 1864-1866. He then entered the medical department of the University of Ken- tucky at Louisville, from which he graduated in 1870. His first practice was in Warrick county, Indiana, near the Spencer county line, and his field of work was in both counties. During a part of his practice at this point he was also superin- tendent of schools, for he kept up his interest and connection with educational affairs a number of years after entering the medical ranks. In 1881 he moved to Brooksville, Hernando county. Flor- ida, where he did an extensive practice, and where, likewise, he was superintendent of public instruction. From Florida he came to his pres- ent location at Memphis, Hall county, in 1897.

At Memphis and in the surrounding country Dr. Temple has acquired a very large and profit- able practice, for the people have become very much attached to him on account of his good qualities, both professionally and socially. As mentioned before. he has constantly kept pace with the march of progress in medicine and sur- gery, and as an indication of his ambition in this line he took, in 1901, a general post-graduate course in Chicago and a course in the Illinois College of Electrical Therapeutics. Of late years he has extensively studied and applied the science of electro-therapy, and has attained recognition as a specialist in this line of treatment. He has invested a large amount of money in an X-ray machine and other electrical apparatus for his office at Memphis. He has been peculiarly suc- cessful in the treatment of rheumatism, sprains and stiff joints by use of dry hot air, and in treat- ing nervous affections and diseases of women by static and galvanic electricity, and cancer by the X-ray. Dr. Temple is a member of the Pan- handle and the Texas State Medical associations.

In the course of his school teaching days he taught hundreds of young men and women at Bowling Green and other places, and many of these pupils have since achieved prominence in their respective walks of life, and many of them are residents of Texas, delighting to honor, whenever opportunity occurs, their old-time pre- ceptor and their fellow Texan. Dr. Temple is a Methodist in church relations, and fraternally is a Royal Arch Mason.

He was married in Spencer county, Indiana, to Miss Mary McCoy, member of a very prominent

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

family of that name in southern Indiana. They have five children : Mrs. Fannie Branch, Robert E., Charles B., Max G. and Mrs. Blanche Palmer.

JAMES P. BRASHEAR, a druggist of Fort Worth, has successfully conducted his mercan- tile enterprise since 1896, and is now advan- tageously located at the corner of Twelfth and Main streets, where he has a well equipped store, to which the public accords a liberal patronage. A native of Logan county, Kentucky, he is a son of William Henry and Sarah J. (Rife) Brashear. He was only six years of age at the time of his father's death. The father had belonged to an old family descended from the Huguenots of Normandy, who fled from France and settled in Virginia, but, meeting with an unwelcome recep- tion from the English in that colony, they re- moved to Maryland.

James P. Brashear was reared upon his father's farm and devoted his time and energies to gen- eral agricultural pursuits for a number of years after attaining his majority. His education was acquired in the country schools of Logan county, and with his mother went to Arkansas in 1870, where the latter died in 1882. Determining to take up the study of pharmacy, he prepared him- self for the profession, which he followed in Ar- kansas for a time. The year 1883 witnessed his arrival in Fort Worth, Texas, where he has since made his home. He has held various positions in clifferent pharmaceutical establishments here, and in 1896 embarked in business on his own account. His store was first on Houston street, but he later removed to Main street. between Eleventh and Twelfth streets, and subsequently came to his present location on the corner of Twelfth and Main streets. This is an excellent business cor- ner and in the conduct of his store he is meet- ing with gratifying prosperity. In 1894 he was appointed one of the three pharmacists compos- ing the state examining board of pharmacy and has continuously acted in the position up to the present time.

Mr. Brashear was married to Mrs. Heman Lonnily, a member of the well known Monnig family of Fort Worth, prominent as wholesale and retail merchants. Mr. Brashear is one of the original members of the Bohemian Club, found- ed several years ago by Mrs. Gorman, composed of people of literary tastes and habits for the en- largement of social and literary intercourse, and he has contributed as his time would permit to the pages of the club magazine-the Bohemian. lle is entirely a self-made man, and his life stands in exemplification of what may be accom- plished by a young man who starts out alone in

the world unequipped save by energy and strong determination. He has made consecutive ad- vancement in his mercantile career, brooking no obstacles that could be overcome by determina- tion and honorable purpose, and today he is one of the prosperous representatives of commercial in- terests in Fort Worth.

CHARLIE L. TAYLOR. His residence in Clay county and his connection with its commer- cial interests have amply justified its founders in perpetuating his christian name by christening the well known rural village in the northwest portion of the county "Charlie" in his honor, and thus preserving to the generations to come a memorial to the pioneer merchant of that locali- ty. His advent to the county dates from 1880, when he closed his connection with the drug busi- ness in Sipe Springs, Texas, in Comanche coun- ty, and established himself in a general store about a mile south of Red river, near the crossing above the Big Wichita's mouth. The cowboy and Indian trade of that vicinity was considerable, and when it was determined a postoffice should be established there his "given" name was chosen for its name and the trading point of Charlie has continued one of importance in Clay county ever since.

Charlie Taylor is widely known over Clay and adjoining counties as a post-bellum pioneer. In 1866 a couple of young Missouri boys made their way on horseback across the Indian Terri- tory and down through the fertile and sparsely settled section of central Texas and halted at Belton as the terminus of their maiden journey. One of them was only nineteen and his posses- sions consisted of his saddle horse and the little "budget" of clothes he carried, a stock sufficient for his needs just then, but insignificant for the vonth of today emerging into manhood and em- barking on the initial voyage of the journey of life. This boy was Charlie L. Taylor and, al- though his home county of Washington, in Mis- souri, was comparatively a new one, he thought to come to Texas, where the "new" of the coun- try was yet visible and where opportunities to ac- quire a ready hold were only waiting to be snatched up.

His first stop was at Belton, where Mr. Town- send was superintending the roundup of cattle for the Galveston Jew, Jalonica, and it was to aid in this work that our subject was employed. They gathered np cattle everywhere Townsend indicated, and if other people's cattle got into the old Jew's herd and were sold at Houston and Galveston under the Jalonica brand it was no fault of young Taylor, although, in after years,

J. P. BRASHEAR

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

he wondered whether his first labors in the Texas cattle roundup were not largely those of the early "rustler" with himself unconscious of the im- morality of the act. They drove cattle from the prairies of Coryell county, and as they moved southward their herd increased amazingly and there is no doubt that of the thousands so gath- ered into Israel's fold immense numbers of them were of a Gentile brand.

Leaving his first employer, Mr. Taylor joined a Mr. Young, in Williamson county, on the cow range; and was with him about eight months, fol- lowing which he engaged with the well known Rubarth ranch, its owner being one of the oldest settlers of the county. For Mr. Rubarth he rode the range for seven years, and during the era of driving cattle to .the nearest railroad points for shipment he accompanied herds to nearly all the historic shipping points south and north. He made a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, to Gal- veston and Houston, at which latter place he saw manufactured ice for the first time, and to Baxter Springs, Newton, Abilene and Junction City, Kansas, closing up the Kansas drives in 1873. This same year he made a trip to New Mexico with a bunch of fifteen hundred cattle, crossing the plains and up the Pecos river, being four davs and nights without water for the stock.

These few experiences only tend to recall to the mind of the actual participator events of an exciting and oftentimes dangerous nature which he encountered and the most of which is doomed to remain unwritten history to the great judg- ment day.

On leaving the range Mr. Tavlor tried farming for a year or two and with the means at his com- mand then engaged in the drug business at Sipe Springs, from where, about four years later, we have established him as a merchant in Clay coun- ty. He was a merchant in Charlie some seven years, met with financial success and was finally closed out of business by. the loss of his stock by fire. He had accumulated a bunch of cattle dur- ing these years and these he sold and invested the proceeds in horses, engaging in the raising of the same. After the accumulation of several hun- dred head of horses and mules he traded them for land and then located his family in Henrietta. In the county seat he was engaged in the livery business for three vears, selling out to J. O. Cur- tis and since then being actually retired until he opened, in March, 1905, a large hardware and furniture store.

Charlie L. Taylor was born in Washington county, Missouri, November 3, 1847, and was a son of William J. Taylor. His father was a school teacher in early life, but in middle life

spent many years on the plains and on the west- ern frontier looking for the precious metal and seeking his fortune by the pick and the drill. He made one trip to California, returning by water, but without much gold. He made two trips to Pike's Peak during the days of "On to Pike's Peak" and on the last one himself and many of his companions were compelled, by the loss of their cattle, to roll their wheelbarrows, laden with their outfits, over a portion of the once Great American Desert and to their object- ive point. Although he dug some money from mother earth on these various trips, not enough was gathered to relieve the trips from the odium of "failures," and the year 1861 found him at home and ready for other and newer experiences.

At the outbreak of the rebellion William J. Taylor raised a company in Saline county, Mis- souri, and started to Fort Sumter with it. He was killed in battle at Arkansas Post during the prog- ress of the Federal campaign in straightening out things in the southwest. He was born in Virginia, and became identified with Missouri when a single man. He married Mary Cooper, of the famous Cooper family from Kentucky, who set- tled Cooper county, Missouri. Mrs. Mary Taylor died in 1857. The family of William J. and Mary Taylor consisted of F. W., who was killed by the Rangers in Texas in 1877 : Mary E., wife of W. E. Vernon, of Cisco, Texas; Charlie L. and Jennie, deceased.

At about ten years of age Mr. Taylor, our sub- ject, began contributing to his own maintenance. He worked from place to place and did his best with the limited mental and other training he had had. When he had finished his career as a cow- boy and had launched fairly in a stable business he married. This event in his life occurred in Sipe Springs in 1879, his wife being Gertie A. Percifild. The children are: Claudie, who died at the age of twenty years: Lottie, who died young, and Charlie L., Jr., now thirteen years of age.

Mr. Taylor is a lifelong Democrat, but politics has not been one of the fields of his achieve- ments, and, beyond the act of voting, he has had little interest in it. Twenty-five years ago he joined the "three-link" fellows, and the work of the subordinate degree has provided him with his knowledge of Odd Fellowship.

GEORGE Q. McGOWN, a prominent attor- ney of Fort Worth and well known throughout his community, was born in St. Charles county, Missouri. He is a son of Judge D. T. McGown, a native of the Old Dominion state of Virginia, but at the age of five years was brought by his

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

father, Daniel McGown, to Missouri, the family locating in St. Charles county, and there Daniel McGown spent the remainder of his life, dying at the age of ninety-five years, an old and greatly respected citizen of the county. His son there grew to years of maturity and in 1859 was mar- ried to Miss Agnes Gray. In 1870 the family removed to southwest Missouri, locating at Gold- (n City, Barton county, where he became a sub- stantial and prosperous farmer, well known in the county and for many years its judge. A few years ago he laid aside the active cares of busi- ness life and joined his son George in Texas. They make their home in North Fort Worth, where Judge McGown has property interests ..

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 8

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 972

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 972