A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 97

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 97

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Mr. Morrow made his home in Anson until the building of the new town of Stamford, when he removed to the latter place in 1900. In January of that year he opened up a bank- ing business here in connection with J. G. Lowdon of Abilene, under the firm style of Morrow and Lowdon. They immediately set to work upon the erection of a handsome stone building, the first one of the kind to be erected in this city. The banking firm continued here

for about five years, at the end of which time Mr. Morrow purchased Mr. Lowdon's interest in the business and for a short time carried it on alone under his own name, but it was finally merged into the present Citizens Na- tional Bank of Stamford.

Mr. Morrow was united in marriage in 1885 to Miss Sarah Emma Grayum, a native of Falls county, Texas, and they now have two children, a son and a daughter. In political matters Mr. Morrow has always been an act- ive supporter of Democratic principles, but without aspiration for office. In his business life nearly all, of his ventures have proved suc- cessful. The principal exception, however, through no fault of his, was the fire which oc- curred in Anson in 1893 and caused him con- siderable loss, as it did many other citizens. He is resourceful, enterprising and energetic and whatever he undertakes is crowned with successful completion. Mr. Morrow is a close observer and possesses sound judgment in all business matters, while through his efficient management the Citizens' National Bank of Stamford is not only a leading institution of the city but also of a large extent of surround- ing country from which it draws its patrons.

THE CITIZENS' NATIONAL BANK. The Citizens' National Bank of Stamford, Texas, succeeded to the banking business of J. S. Morrow and he was the successor of the private banking firm of Morrow and Lowdon. The Citizens' Bank was organized February 28, 1905, and was opened for business on the 17th of March following. The officers are : W. H. Eddleman, president ; C. M. Pattillo, vice- president; J. S. Morrow, cashier ; and M. E. Manning, assistant cashier. The capital stock is thirty thousand dollars and a general bank- ing business is conducted, the bank being con- veniently situated at the corner of Swenson and McHard avenues, one of the excellent business corners of the city.

CHARLES BREWINGTON, who since 1899 has been connected with the Barzelton and Johnson Lumber Company, managing their western interests and who is now a resi- dent of Stamford, was born in Salem, Lee county, Alabama, February 27, 1872. His father was William J. Brewington, and the mother bore the maiden name of Lue Gass- away, both of whom were natives of Georgia. They were married in Putnam county, Geor- gia, near Macon, where they made their home

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

prior to removal to Alabama, taking up their abode in the latter state in 1871. There they remained until 1880, when they removed to Texas, settling in Milam county, and later came to Stamford, Jones county, where they now reside. William Brewington has 'prac- tically followed farming throughout his entire business career, leading an active life until the past few years when he retired to enjoy the fruits of his former toil. In their family were seven children, six sons and a daughter.

Charles Brewington, the subject of this re- view, was born on his father's farm in Ala- bama, and was about eight years of age when the family came to Texas. Here he made his home with his parents until twenty years of age. He acquired a common school education mostly in Calvert, Robinson county, but the last years were spent in the schools of Waco. His life has practically been given to the lum- ber business with which connection he was first in the employ of C. M. Patillo, at Craw- ford, Texas. Later he was associated with his brother, D. W. Brewington, at Brandon, Texas, and since 1899 he has been a represen- tative of the western interests of the Brazel- ton and Johnson Lumber Company, one of the largest lumber firms in the west with head- quarters at Waco. In January, 1900, when the town of Stamford was established, he came to this place and opened a lumber yard and office and also another lumber yard at Avoca, eight miles east of Stamford on the Texas Central Railroad. It is the intention of the company to practically cover the entire western coun- try as fast as developments take place. They have an extensive business with trade extend- ing throughout the country for sixty miles or more. The growth and development of the business is largely due to the efficient manage- ment of Mr. Brewington, who is thoroughly familiar with the lumber trade, is quick to rec- ognize an opportunity and to utilize his ad- vantages to the best possible end.

Mr. Brewington was married in December, 1892, to Miss Ida Wright, at Crawford, Texas. She is a native of McLennan county, and a daughter of Rev. J. M. Wright, a minister of the Baptist church. They have a family of five children, two sons and three daughters.

In connection with his other business inter- ests Mr. Brewington is a member of the board of directors of the Citizens' National Bank of Stamford, which was organized on the 25th of February, 1905, and opened its doors for busi- ness on the 17th of March, following. He is

a most public-spirited man and has identified himself with all community affairs and impor- tant movements for the betterment and ad- vancement of Stamford and this locality. Early in the history of the town he served upon the school board and upon various committees and for two terms he filled the important po- sition as clerk of the board. He was also early chosen for alderman from his ward and served in that capacity until recently, when he sev- ered his connection with the city council be- cause he established his home just outside the corporate limits of the city. Here in the south part of the town he has recently completed his beautiful residence, which is a monument to the enterprise of the owner and his abiding faith in the future development of the country.

JOSEPH H. NATIONS, a well known stock man of El Paso, was born in Gonzales, in Gon- zales county, Texas, January 5, 1857, a son of Eli and Eliza (Woodruff) Nations. The father was a native of Mississippi and in the early for- ties came to Texas, settling in Gonzales county. His wife was born in Texas. They are now liv- ing in El Paso and are among its pioneer set- tlers. She belongs to one of the well-known pio- neer families of Texas. She was born prior to the establishment of the Texas republic, lived under that brief regime and her father was a partici- pant in the events which brought independence to the state. Her half sister was the wife of Anson Jones, one of the earliest governors and contemporary of Samuel Houston.

Throughout his entire life Joseph H. Nations has been connected with the live stock interests of this state. He was one of the prominent cattle men of the early days in western Texas, coming to this part of the state before either the South- ern Pacific or the Texas Pacific Railroads were completed. He operated largely in the Pecos river country and still owns a large ranch in Pecos county. He located permanently in El Paso in the winter of 1887, and has here since made his home. He has been and is yet exten- sively interested in stock, being largely engaged in sheep raising in New Mexico and in addition he has large cattle interests in Texas. He is the owner of the J. H. Nations Meat & Supply Company, which business is conducted in his building, known as the Nations Block, located in the heart of the business section of El Paso, at No. 214 San Antonio street. He has made ex- tensive and judicious investment in real estate in El Paso, principally in East El Paso, where he has been associated with the Newmans and

JA Nations

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

others prominent in the development of resi- dence property there. He is president and stock- holder in the Highland Realty Company, the best improved addition to El Paso.

Mr. Nations was married to Miss Ida M. Hicks, of Lavaca county, Texas, and they have four daughters, Josephine, Annie, Catharine and Mary. Mr. Nations is a most generous and benevolent man and has a standing offer in the local papers to supply meat free to the worthy poor. He is unassuming in manner and free from ostentation, but is widely recognized as a prosperous and successful business man, and a gentleman of genuine, personal worth, whose life exemplifies many sterling traits of character, and he fully merits the confidence which is uniformly given him.

ED KENNEDY. No history of early de- velopment in Jones county would be complete without mention of Ed Kennedy, one of the old time residents here. He is a native of Camden, South Carolina, and comes of Scotch ancestry. His father, William Kennedy, was born in Greenoch, near Glasgow, Scotland, and when a young lad entered upon a five years' appren- ticeship with a company of ship chandlers. When he was seventeen years of age he came to America, landing at Charleston, South Caro- lina, and up to the time of his marriage he was engaged in merchandising at Charleston and at Columbia, that state. Subsequent to his marriage he became a cotton planter near Cam · den and one of his main business enterprises in early days of the state before railroads had been built was the propelling of flat boats by means of long poles up and down the Wateree, Con- garee and Santee rivers, hauling cotton and gen- eral merchandise to and from Charleston and Camden. In those days this was a paying business. His home was about seven miles west of Camden in a fine old country mansion, where he made his home for a number of years. In 1846 Benjamin Gass, with whom he formed a partnership several years before, went to Mis- sissippi with a view of buying land there, but in that state he learned much concerning the Texas country and finally changed his plans and came into the Lone Star state, purchasing fifteen hundred acres on Oyster creek, Brazoria county. Here he established his planting interests and spent the winters on his farm in Texas, while the summer months were passed with his family on the old home place in South Carolina until after the war.

In the latter part of the year 1865, however,

Mr. Kennedy permanently left the Empire state of the south and with his family came to Texas, arriving in January, 1866. In 1857 he had purchased the interest of Mr. Gass in the place on which they had settled on first coming to Texas, and he afterward made other purchases, so that when the family arrived in 1866 he was the owner of forty-five hundred acres of land here. He continued to make his home upon this ranch until his death, which occurred in February, 1869, his remains being interred in the old cemetery at West Columbia on the banks of the Brazos river in Brazoria county. He married Miss Mary White Haile of Camden, South Carolina, who died about Christmas time in 1894 at Colorado City, Texas, at the home of her son, Judge William Kennedy, a man prominent in the history of western Texas. In the Kennedy family were twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, of whom two daugh- ters and one son died in early childhood.

Ed Kennedy was born on the old home place near Camden, South Carolina, October 4, 1846. There was in the neighborhood an old school house and three families hired a teacher, under whose instruction Mr. Kennedy pursued his studies for a year. He afterward attended pri- vate schools at Camden for a time, or until the spring of 1863. The civil war was then in prog- ress and although but sixteen years of age he was an enthusiastic supporter of the cause of the Confederacy, and went to Virginia, where he joined Holcombe's Legion of South Carolina Cavalry. This was just prior to the battle of Chancellorsville, but the command to which Mr. Kennedy was attached did not participate in the engagement. When the main army went to Gettysburg this cavalry was attached to the bri- gade commanded by ex-Governor and General Henry A. Wise for the purpose of protection against the approach of the enemy to Richmond by way of the Yorktown and Jamestown Penin- sula. These troops did picket duty on the pen- insula that summer and fall, or until the end of the year 1863. In the early part of 1864 the Holcombe Legion joined some other cavalry troops brought up from the coast and joined the Seventh South Carolina Cavalry, com- manded by Colonel A. C. Haskell, and with three other regiments constituted Gary's Bri- gade of Cavalry in the Army of Northern Vir- ginia. Mr. Kennedy continued to serve in this regiment and brigade, which was afterward un- der the command of General Fitzhugh Lee un- till the surrender of the southern forces at Ap- pomattox on the 9th of April, 1865. Mr. Ken-

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nedy witnessed and participated in many en- gagements, some of which although not classed with the larger battles of the war were hotly contested. He can relate many interesting epi- sodes and incidents of his soldier life and' he experienced the usual hardships and rigors of war.

After the close of hostilities Mr. Kennedy spent the summer and fall at the old home place in South Carolina and in December, 1865, came to the plantation in Texas.

On the 17th of December, 1868, occurred the marriage of Mr. Kennedy and Miss Anna E. Quarles. Her people were from Alabama, but came to Texas during her infancy. The young couple remained residents of Brazoria county until December, 1882, when they removed to Jones county, to which Mr. Kennedy had made a trip in the previous June. Being pleased with the country and its prospects he brought his family here in December and located six miles east of Anson. He squatted on a section of land until it was placed upon the market in 1883, when he made purchase of the claim under the act of the state legislature of that year. He continued to engage actively in farming on his two hundred and fifty acres until 1899, when he sold the place and removed to Anson. In Janu- ary of that year he formed a partnership with L. M. Buie in the land business under the firm name of Buie & Kennedy and they are also con- ducting an abstract business in Jones county. They have a liberal clientage and have negoti- ated many important realty transfers. Mr. Kennedy is thoroughly familiar with land values and with the possibilities for development in this section of the state and is thus enabled to assist his clients in making judicious invest- ments.

Unto our subject and his wife have been born ten children, six sons and four daughters, of whom seven are now living. Mr. Kennedy be- longs to the Presbyterian church and he and his wife are prominent socially, having the warm regard of many friends and the esteem of all with whom they have been brought in contact.

JOHN PATRICK ENTREKIN. The score of years which John P. Entrekin has passed in Montague county have, on the whole, been years flecked with evidences of prosperity and the upward tendency which they have given his destiny, brings it into agreeable and pleas- ant contrast with his condition upon his advent to the county. With the help of Nature's favor- ing smile and the busy hand of the husbandman,

the sandy soil of the Texas postoaks, the meskeet and the short grass responds wonder- fully with bounteous crops, and in a few short years the farmer and the fruit man find them- selves strong, substantial and independent. With the labor of his head and his hands as his chief asset twenty years ago, Mr. Entrekin has revolutionized his condition and passed on in the race for success to within sight of "the last quarter," and the race and its purse promise surely to be his.

All his years in Texas Mr. Entrekin has spent in Montague county, and the first seven of them were passed as a renter on Denton creek. When he left what is now a part of D. C. Mc- Donald's farm he ceased to rent farther and purchased, on time, a little farm in the Glendale neighborhood and from its fertile surface he made the substantial progress of his career in Texas. In 1903 he parted with this little home and at once bought a block of one hundred and sixty acres in the Smyrna neighborhood, sub- stantially and attractively improved and a model place for a family home.

In proof of our introductory observations it is appropriate to declare Mr. Entrekin's cir- cumstances when he reached Montague county. Ten years of his independent career had been passed when he cast his lot with the Lone Star state and the few household effects and one hun- dred and fifty dollars in money, which he brought with him were his earthly belongings, and represented his visible assets when he be- gan renting on Denton creek. The story of his gradual and tortoise-like climb from obscur- ity to the enviable position he, with his family, have won is one that never grows old with the telling, and in the meshes of its details is scat- tered the decayed energies, the tears of mis- fortune and the heartaches of adversity which have spent themselves as each chapter of the story has been written.

John P. Entrekin was born in Pickens county, South Carolina, September 26, 1855, grew to maturity, was schooled limitedly there, and there first married. The family represented one of the ancient ones of the state, as his grand- father lived on a Lawrence county plantation and reared his family there. We are unable to give the maiden name of the latter's wife, but his children were: Amanda, wife of George W. Martin; James M., our subject's father; Newton, Theodore, William and Nancy, wife of Jackson Stewart.

James M. Entrekin was born in Lawrence county, South Carolina, in 1822, and he and his

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

wife are yet living in Pickens county. He mar- ried Mary Martin, and of this union there were born: William, Nancy C., Mary F., John P., our subject; James Max, Lizzie, A. Lawrence, and Henry. All of the above, save John P. and Lawrence, reside near the place of their birth.

It was during the days of reconstruction that John P. Entrekin grew up and at that time the facilities for educating the youth were very poor. He discharged his obligation to his father by remaining at home till of age and, December 27, 1877, he married Anna Stephens, a daughter of Bayless Stephens. By this marriage Mr. Entrekin is the father of: Nathaniel G .; James Walter ; Lillie; Lizzie; and Henry G. February 4, 1890, the mother of these children passed away, and April 12, 1891, their father married Mrs. Fannie Hall, widow of Ephraim Hall, and a daughter of William Beavers. William Thomas Hall, who is a member of the Entrekin family circle, is Mrs. Entrekin's oldest child, and she and Mr. Entrekin are the parents of : Effie, Rosa, Ola, Dessie, Earl and John Lloyd.

John P. Entrekin's citizenship is without alloy, and his integrity and sincerity stand unim- peached. He has essayed some interest in what- ever promised good to his community or county and has taken a good citizen's interest in the county's civil affairs. In politics he is a Demo- crat and, for two years, ex-sheriff John W. Raines made him his deputy for the Glendale locality. His interest in education prompted his selection as a trustee of the Glendale school for six years and, in other ways, he has served the community. in which he has lived.

JESSE VOWELL TYRA. One of the famil- iar figures of Young county who settled on the south prong of Fish creek in 1875 and who has aided modestly, yet substantially, in the domestic development of the county, is Jesse V. Tyra, men- tioned in the introduction as the subject of this sketch. He located in that wild and unsettled region, in the midst of the open range and sur- rounded by the wild game of the forest and plain, and bought a tract of two hundred acres at two dollars per acre, as the nucleus of his permanent home. Throughout the succeeding years he has clung tenaciously to this location, cleared up the meskeet and postoak, builded him a com- fortable yet modest home and brought up his family in the paths of righteousness and honor toward all mankind.

As in Hill and Robertson counties, where he resided a few years prior to his advent to

Young, he has been employed chiefly with the promotion of agriculture with stock as supple- mentary and an aid to a well conducted farm .. He spent seven years in Hill, and going to Robertson close upon the close of the Rebellion from Itawamba county, Mississippi, where his. birth occurred December 17, 1836.

Mr. Tyra was a son of Jesse V. Tyra, who settled in Itawamba county, Mississippi, in 1836, and became a successful planter there. The lat- ter migrated from Walker county, Alabama, where his life was launched in the early years of the nineteenth century, and from which state he joined the American troops in the last war with the Seminole Indians in Florida. He mar- ried, in his native state, Miss Frances Gilham, who passed away in early life, leaving issue, viz. : Joseph, of Des Moines, Iowa, who served in the Federal army during the Rebellion; Vowell, who died in Mississippi in 1860; Jennie, who mar- ried a Mr. Musgrove; and Elizabeth, wife of a Mr. Lawler. Jesse Vowell Tyra died in Walker county, Alabama, in 1867, aged one hundred and eight years. The latter was the grandfather of our subject and served with his son in the Flor- ida war. He married Patsy Tittle and had issue as stated above.

Our subject is the first of a family of eight children, the younger ones being: Joseph, who died in Arkansas; Elisha, who departed life in Mississippi, as did William, the next; Ransom, died in Texas; and Adaline married a Mr. Fred- erick and died in Alabama; Emanuel, who came- to Texas and died, and Josephine, who married' a Mr. Kanada and passed away in Mississippi.

Jesse V. Tyra, of this sketch, grew up near- a cotton patch and little more than peeped into' a country school house in his childhood. In' February, 1856, he married Martha J. Higgins,. a daughter of a Mississippi planter, A. J. Hig- gins, who was born in Alabama, in 1840, and died near Murray, Texas, April, 1898. Until the war came on Mr. Tyra followed the voca- tion of his fathers, and when the Confederacy called for troops he joined Company K, Thirty- Second Infantry, under Colonel M. P. Lowrey in Cleburn's Division of Hardee's Corps. His first fight was at Corinth and then followed Shiloh, Mumfordsville, Kentucky, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta campaign and Franklin, from where his command fell back to Shelbyville, Tennes- see, and remained in that vicinity and surren- dered with General Hood when the Confed- eracy collapsed.

Returning to the farm he had little more than.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

gathered up and rounded together his affairs when he set out for the Lone Star state. He came to Young county with fifty head of cattle and one hundred and eighty sheep, but while he succeeded well with the former, all of the latter died but twelve. He was successful as a farmer, and crops seemed to yield him as well then as now. Except during the year of the great drouth he has raised his own corn and with his stock, and his two hundred and forty acre farm, he is one of the independent men of the Fish creek settlement.

To Mr. Tyra and his faithful lamented com- panion were born five children, as follows : Russell D., who married Rosa Hart, and resides near his father on a farm; Nancy, widow of Jesse Cloud, who owns a farm in the home com- munity; Helen, wife of William Porter, of Louisiana: Earnest L., whose wife was Miss Walsh; and Miss Ethel yet with her childhood home.

In his political affiliations Mr. Tyra is a Demo- crat and he has served five terms as trustee of his school district. He has faith in religious teachings, believes in the church as the great agency for the purification of society and the lever which elevates its moral tone.

WILLIAM LA FAYETTE CORNETT. "The year 1873 witnessed the advent to Young county of William L. Cornett, then a young man, fitted and inured by long service to the range on the frontier and then doing what proved to be his last pony act in the drama of cowboy life. A year more in the saddle and he began the more prosy as well as more profitable career of a farmer by joining, for a brief year, the old settlers, Brooks, Pirtle and Fulkerson of the Caddo Reservation. In 1875 he settled in Upper Tonk valley, on the reserve of the Tonkaway Indians and near the head of Tonk branch where, being a single man, the state declined to patent to him more than eighty acres of land. For his reception he erected a log cabin which, however humble, was for some years in reality his home. With the lapse of years and the coming of greater prosperity, he provided more commodiously and conveniently for himself and his growing family in the erection of his present home.

While our subject acquainted himself with the broad prairies and the frontier as a cow- boy beginning with a few years subsequent to the war, he learned something about indepen- dent action and gained business experience first as a freighter over the old-time trails prior

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 97

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