A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 98

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 98

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to the scream of the iron horse on the Texas prairies. The opening of his career began in Dallas county where his education was finished after attendance on the Cedar Springs and Dallas schools, giving him a fairly good in- sight into the common branches then taught. He learned to farm before he reached his ma- jority, and its recollections and the promising future for the husbandman in the early sev- enties, led him to his first love out on the Young county frontier.

In Logan county, Kentucky, February 12, 1846, William L. Cornett was born. His father, Dr. Cornett, was born near the corners of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia, February 16, 1817, and lived there some eighteen years. He married Mary, a daughter of a farmer, John Ward, and resided in the cornering states for a few years. He finally established himself in Logan county, Ken- tucky, and left there in 1861 for Texas, driving through and reaching Dallas while recruiting for the Confederate service was well under way. He enlisted and was assigned to duty as a surgeon and died at Tyler just before the "breakup" in 1865. His wife died in Kentucky in 1855 and he married the second time before leaving the Corn Cracker state. His second wife was Rebecca Simons who died in Dallas county as Mrs. W. B. Payne. Of Dr. Cor- nett's children, Flavius J. served in the Con- federate army and died soon after reaching home at the close of the war from exposure while in prison at Camp Douglas, Chicago; Augustus A., for many years a member of the northwest Texas Methodist Episcopal Confer- ence, but now retired in Fort Worth; Eliza J., wife of S. Y. Burr, of Fort Worth ; William L., our subject ; Alexander L., of Louisiana ; Mary J., who died in Fort Worth as Mrs. David McAnally; and Hester A., wife of George Pirtle, of Oklahoma.

Mr. Cornett's recollections of the results ob- tained by him as a farmer during his first years in Young county lead him to believe that the seasons then were more reliable than of re- cent years, and that planting was more surely attended with substantial results. While much labor has been expended without requisite re- ward, on the whole his material progress has been forward instead of backward, as is evi- denced by his possession of more than four hundred acres of land instead of the eighty acres with which he was originally endowed.

January 18, 1877, William L. Cornett and Mary M. Davis were married in Young county.

Williams. W. Fink

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Mrs. Cornett was a daughter of John Davis, who came to Texas from Berry county, Mis- souri, where she was born in 1851. Her mother's sisters are Mrs. Margaret Mondell and Mrs. Adaline Askew, of Young county, and John F. Davis, a brother, resides in Mc- Culloch county, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Cornett's children are: Rufus M., a teacher in Gray county, Texas ; Maud, a member of the family circle ; William A., of Gray county; and . Ophelia, Alvy and Armelia.

Mr. Cornett has ever maintained a lively in-, terest in public affairs, local and state, takes a strong moral position on all social questions and supports Democracy when policies of gov- ernment are at issue.

WILLIAM W. FINK, president of the Et Paso Fuel Company, belongs to that class of representative American citizens whose business activity is not only a source of individual profit but is a factor in general prosperity and progress in the community where they reside. Born and reared in Lima, Ohio, he spent his youth upon a farm and acquired a public school education there. He is one of the pioneer business men of this city, for he arrived here in the spring of 1881-the same year that the railroad was com- pleted to this point. On leaving his Ohio home with the determination of trying his fortune in the west he located first in Kansas, where he secured employment on the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad, on the branch then building from McPherson, Kansas. After three months there passed he went to Joplin, Missouri, where for a short time he was engaged in trading horses and later he proceeded to Kansas City, where he purchased a ticket on the Santa Fe Railroad to carry him as far west as the trains were then making regular runs, this point being Las Vegas, New Mexico. The rails, however, had been laid further south and he proceeded on his way to San Marcial, and afterward to Lava, the next station south. At that point he met Jim White, who afterward became sheriff and chief of police of El Paso, the two remaining together. Mr. Fink began shipping freight for some contractors on the construction work on the railroad, and was so engaged until his arrival in this city in February, 1881.

On reaching El Paso he entered the employ of William Garland, one of the most noted rail- road contractors of that day, who had been awarded some important contracts on the Santa Fe. In the employ of Mr. Garland Mr. Fink went to Arizona as commissary clerk with the

outfit, working on the Atlantic & Pacific Rail- road (the Santa Fe line) westward through Ari- zona. Several months were thus passed, during which time Mr. Fink was promoted to the posi- tion of head foreman of his outfit and during that time he saved some money with which he returned to El Paso, here to engage in business on his own account. He became connected with dairying in partnership with Mr. Doane, a pio- neer dairyman of El Paso, and there he devel- oped a large enterprise, having four hundred cows when they sold out. The business grew very profitably and the energy and enterprise of the partners brought to them a very gratifying measure of success.

After five years' connection with the dairy business Mr. Fink disposed of his interests, and with the capital he had thereby acquired he made extensive investments in ranch and cattle in- terests in New Mexico, still retaining his resi- dence in El Paso, however. On account of the hard times and the abnormal depression in the stock business this venture was not as success- ful as the preceding one, and Mr. Fink therefore turned his attention to farming in the valley be- low El Paso, being engaged in that business for two years. In the fall of 1891 he established his present business in El Paso as a dealer in coal and has since developed the enterprise until the El Paso Fuel Company now controls an exten- sive trade. From an investment of two thousand dollars, which represented the value of the busi- ness at the outset, Mr. Fink has built up a busi- ness that is now worth fifty thousand dollars. In addition he owns other valuable interests, mainly real estate in El Paso, and he has one of the finest homes of the city. The offices of the El Paso Fuel Company are located at the southwest corner of West Second and Leon streets in a substantial brick building, and here Mr. Fink is carrying on a wholesale and retail business as a dealer in lime, cement, building materials, plaster of paris, building and fire brick, hair, roofing felt, pitch, coal, wood, hay, feed and grain. A branch enterprise is also maintained as the White Oaks Fuel Company, corner of Texas and Noble streets, and the trade is constantly increasing in volume until it is to- day one of the leading enterprises of the char- acter in this part of the state.

Mr. Fink was married in El Paso to Miss Clara Doane, a daughter of his former partner in the dairy business, the family being from Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have two daughters, Laura Maude and Clara. Their home is one of the most attractive residences of the city and the

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

members of the household occupy an enviable position in social circles. Leaving his Ohio home in early manhood without capital Mr. Fink has made steady progress in the business world, undeterred by obstacles or difficulties which have seemed rather to serve as an impetus for re- newed effort. His persistency of purpose, his firm determination and honorable methods have proved the salient features in a success which is as desirable as it is gratifying.

HENRY MARION JONES. One of the widely known residents of Young county, whose settlement here dates from 1877, estab- lished himself on the waters of Fish creek upon one of the first farms to be settled in the county. It was opened by Jim Tackett who is said to have also built the first residence in Graham and its chief attraction to Mr. Jones was the abundance of water that the locality possessed and, as he remarked to a friend at the time, "I shall have plenty of water if noth- ing else." Here he has since resided, reared his family and improved, substantially and at- tractively, one of the desirable and productive farms of Young county.

Prior to his location, permanently, Mr. Jones investigated many counties in northwest Texas in search of the right place, but the Fish creek neighborhood maintained first rank with him and he started in with one hundred and sixty acres of land. He moved his family into the proverbial frontiersman's shanty and occupied it until the industry of his household had re- moved all obstacles to the building of his pres- ent splendid residence-chief of its kind on the creek-and his early efforts at farm;reduc- tion and improvement were directed toward the grubbing and clearing of his rich bottom land. While he gathered about him some stock, as was the custom of all intelligent farmers, he posed always as a farmer and the products which he gathered and marketed from his daily toil are chiefly responsible for his substantial condition today.

Mr. Jones started his Texas journey from Calloway county, Kentucky, and came by rail to Waco and overland, of course, to Graham. His cash capital was rather insignificant and there was just one thing left for him to do, upon choosing his future home in a new coun- try, and that was to work. This he had ac- customed himself to back at the old home in the cast, and work brings substantial results anywhere. He had received little or no educa- tional aid from the country schools of his

youth and when he arrived at his majority a strong body and a willing hand were his capi- tal stock. He was married in his youth and assumed the responsibilities of a householder when little more than a beardless boy. But he had had some experience as the active head of a family for he took care of his mother and the younger children while his father was absent in the Confederate service, and the thought of providing for his own family had no terrors for him.

March 23, 1855, Henry M. Jones was born in Calloway county, Kentucky, of parents, Thomas and Rillie (McBride) Jones. The fa- ther was born about 1832, passed his life on the farm and died in 1888, in Calloway coun- ty, Kentucky, where his widow yet resides. The children born to him are, with the excep- tion of our subject, residents of their native county and are: Henry M., of this review ; Bryant, Raish, Irving, Alsena, wife of Henry Carlton and Ezelle.

Henry M. Jones took in marriage Martha A., a daughter of James Townsend, now a resi- dent of Young county, Texas. Mrs. Jones was born in Tennessee, in 1855, and is the mother of Ella, wife of Lee Lane, the mother of Earn- est, Sallie, Rudy and Malcom; Nora, wife of Sam Lane, of Graham, has children, Jesse H. and Noel; Lula, who married Ben Malone, and Teeley, Dora, Jesse and Henry M. Jr., still with the parental household.

In his political affiliations Mr. Jones is a Democrat and his interest in active politics is confined to local matters only.

' THOMAS JEFFERSON GREENWOOD. Substantially identified with cotton raising and ginning in Montague county is the gentleman named in the introduction to this biographical notice. For nearly thirty years he has been adding his mite to the work of development in the rural vicinity about Sunset where he is now universally recognized as one of the leading citi- zens.

December 4, 1876, Mr. Greenwood settled on a small farm in Lake valley where he was em- ployed for a half dozen years in its cultivation and improvement. Selling that, he bought a tract two miles east of Sunset, and from 1882 until 1890 his efforts were directed toward the material development and successful cultivation of this farm also. From 1890 to 1898 he de- voted his efforts to the bringing of a third farm in the same locality, under subjection to the plow, and when he disposed of this, in 1898, he

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

purchased the old Perkins homestead and gin where he now resides. His present farm is one of the old-settled places on the waters of Brushy creek, and since the erection upon it of a gin in 1882, it has been one of the popular and wide- ly known farms of the county. The farms have an area of one hundred and eighty acres, and when Mr. Greenwood took possession of it he remodeled and renewed the gin plant. It con- tains now three seventy saw stands with a daily capacity of about twenty bales and during the season of 1904-5 thirteen hundred and forty-one bales of cotton went through his plant.

Mr. Greenwood was born in or near Effing- ham, Illinois, February 7, 1854, and two years later his father, Thomas J. Greenwood, brought his family to Texas and settled in Delta county. The father was born in Kentucky and was a son of Joseph Greenwood, who founded the family at Effingham, Illinois, and died there on his farm. Grandfather Greenwood married Charity M. Hart, and was the father of: Miles, Aaron, Thomas J., sons, and of nine daughters whose identity cannot now be given. Thomas J. was born about 1814 and died in 1864. He married Salina A. Murphy, who died in Hopkins county, Texas, in 1858, with issue as follows: Frances, wife of A. J. Blair, of Commerce, Texas; Sarah E., wife of W. C. Lee, of Greer county, Oklaho- ma; James, of Miller county, Missouri; Mary, who died in Montague county, was the wife of M. B. Smith; Thomas J., Jr .; Alice and Salina, who died in childhood. Mr. Greenwood, Sr., was married a second time, his wife being Mary Stafford, who bore children: Dora, wife of George Reeves, of Greer county, Oklahoma, and Amanda, who passed away in Louisiana.

At about ten years of age Thomas J. Green- wood, Jr., was deprived of his last parent, and he made his home among friends and with rela- tives until he set up a home of his own. At first John Divinity had charge of him for a year, and then John Hart and Mrs. Paul each had his services and permitted him to learn the exist- ence of a school. His last home was with his married sister, Mrs. Lee. His education was chiefly of the pick-up sort, and the years of his 'teens were passed largely as a hired man on a farm. His first employer had the meanness to beat him out of his wages, but he sustained himself with credit by the muscles of his will- ing arms until he came into his legacy from his father's estate. When he married he possessed a team, a small farm and a few cows. and with these as a nucleus his life career was begun.

November 26, 1874, Mr. Greenwood married

Miss Nancy Lee, a daughter of W. G. and Mary (Jeffries) Lee, who came to Hunt county, Texas, from Missouri. Mrs. Greenwood was born in Hunt county, October 25, 1857, and is one of seven of her mother's children. Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood's children are: James, who is again at home after the loss of his wife, nee Rebecca Barjinbruch, in June, 1903. He has a daughter, Gladys; Melissa, wife of J. V. Hud- dleston, with children : Minnie, Nellie, Virgil and Thomas L .; Thomas C .; Mary, wife of Ed Hall, with children, Blanche and Edna; Frances, wife of R. L. Beattie, of Wise county ; and Ollie, William J., Phebe, Miles and Dewey.

Mr. Greenwood has no interest in politics and is a Primitive Baptist.

WILLIAM A. AYRES. Montague county has looked with favor upon the citizenship and presence of William Albert Ayres. He has been numbered among her vigorous and thrifty popu- lation since 1884, the year in which he plowed his first furrow herein and rode his first race after a cow. James Ayres, of Bowie, and Robert E., another brother, together with William A., constituted the trio of determined young men of that year, with ambition for the eventual achievement of substantial results, and they con- 'stitute the same trio today who are in the actual enjoyment of the fruits of their early aspira- tions.

Since the year 1856 the Ayres of this branch have been citizens of Texas. That year Wil- liam Ayres, father of our subject, brought his family from Alabama and established it in Smith county. The father was a native of Alabama, grew up on a plantation and pursued the voca- tion of a farmer himself throughout life. He married Nancy Patton, a daughter of John Pat- ton, a Mississippi farmer. In Smith county the family belonged to the poor but honorable class of citizens, and were following their vocation without incident until the Civil war came up, when the father and oldest son were drawn into the conflict. They both joined the regular Texas contingent of the Confederate army and did their duty as soldiers as they had done it as citizens until the fratricidal contest came to an end. Just before he was to have returned to his family the father died, in 1865, and the respon- sibility of rearing and caring for a growing family fell to the lot of the mother.

By the marriage of William and Nancy Ayres there were children, viz .: Elizabeth, deceased, who married Kelley Pierce and died in Cooke county, Texas; Mary, who married James Jones

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

and died in the same county ; James, a leading merchant of Bowie; William A. and Robert E., twin brothers; Hallig M., of Tishomingo, Indian Territory. About 1868, the family moved from Smith into Cooke county and there the mother guided the footsteps of her children until years of discretion and accountability were reached. When the sons came into Montague county and established themselves, the mother followed in time, and at the home of her son, William A., she passed away in June, 1896.

The country schools provided all the advan- tages for an education that William A. Ayres had in childhood, and in Cooke county he reached his majority and began his serious, in- dependent career. The work of the family home was in common and the brothers lent each other a helping hand at every opportunity and every- thing seemed to make progress in harmony toward the goal of each ambition. The broth- ers bought and paid out a home of one hundred and sixty acres in Cooke county and when they came to Montague county they had a few hun- dred dollars with which to begin the stock busi- ness as well as farming. For many years Wil- liam A. and Robert E. Ayres were associated together in the stock business, made the ven- ture pay and became widely and favorably known as cowmen. In the beginning William A. Ayres purchased a bottom farm on Denton creek and made his home upon it until 1893, when he improved a site near Salona, where he has since resided. He owns nearly a section of land, has given up the stock industry and is devoting himself to systematic and intelligent and successful agriculture.

Mr. Ayres was born in Itawamba county, Miss., June 28, 1853, and in Cooke county, October 8, 1874, he was first married, his wife being Mary, a daughter of Dr. Russell, a former Geor- gian, who came to Texas from Louisiana, where his daughter Mary was born. Mrs. Ayres died January, 1889, leaving children: William Ray- mond, who married Cora Ditto and has a son, William Donaldson; Pearl, wife of Ed Archer, of Bowie, with children, Emmet and Floyd; and Arthur, yet with the parental home. April 3, 1890, Mr. Ayres married Mrs. Rachel Walker, a daughter of Mr. Carroll, formerly from Ten- nessee. By her first husband Mrs. Rachel Ayres left a daughter, Dessimond, now the wife of Albert Archer, of Salona, with issue, Carl and Edward. The children of William A. and Rachel Ayres are: Marvin, Viven, Mary Lee and Otis. June 2, 1900, the wife and mother died and May 28, 1901, Mr. Ayres took in mar-

riage Mrs. Lou Clark, widow of Mr. Clark and a daughter of B. R. and Ellen (Fontner) Mc- Carroll, formerly from Tishomingo county, Mis- sissippi. Mrs. Ayres was born in Johnson county, Arkansas, January, 1862, and is the mother of a son, James C. Clark.

As the evening of life approaches Mr. Ayres finds himself in the possession of a just reward for years of honest toil. His family are coming into lives of activity and some of them have taken their stations in the world's affairs and are maintaining the family name and fame. He has had little interest in politics, but is a sincere supporter of the interests of the church. He is a steward in the Methodist church, is an Odd Fellow and a Democrat.

THOMAS PHILIP PHAGAN. Among the settlers of Clay county, whose efforts have been felt in the domain of agriculture, and whose influence has permeated a community of interests with a wide radius, is Thomas P. Phagan, of Vashti. His identity with the set- tlement which his presence honors and his la- bors have enriched dates from the year 1883 when he purchased the tract of land south of the hamlet of Vashti, settled by John B. Bird, and assumed charge of this primitive pioneer estate. Here he has exhausted his energies, reaped the rewards of his toil and is quietly enjoying the emoluments of an industrious, well-ordered and well-spent life. On Wash- ington's birthday of 1839 Thomas P. Phagan was born in Lincoln county, Tennessee. His father, John Phagan, was born there April 29, 1812, some three years after Philip Phagan, our subject's grandfather, settled there. Philip Phagan was brought up in North Carolina where his birth occurred in 1778 and, with his new wife, made the trip to their new home in Tennessee on horseback. Jane Gillham was his wife and their children were: Martha, who married George Kidd; John; Peggie, whose first husband was a Nowlin and whose second was a Kidd; Polly, wife of John Dale; Sallie, who married Andrew Cochran; Betsy, who also married a Dale, and Philip T.

John Phagan came to manhood's estate upon his father's farm and followed that voca- tion himself until he was forty-one years old when he erected a grist-mill and saw-mill, with water-wheel power, along the country roadside and conducted that business from 1853 to 1868 when he moved to Lawrence county, Alabama, where his death occurred the following year. He was twice married, his

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

first wife being Eliza Wiley, a daughter of Thomas Wiley, a South Carolinian of Irish descent. Thus the Irish and the English inter- mingle and mix, for the great-grandfather of our subject, Philip Phagan, was a born Eng- lishman and established the Phagan family in North Carolina. In February, 1860, Eliza Pha- gan died, being the mother of : James H., who died in 1860, leaving two children; William M., who died at twenty-six leaving a child -; Thomas P., our subject; Jane, who died as Mrs. Byers of Blair, Tennessee, and left a family ; Mary A., married T. R. Steadman, of Ellis county, Texas; Sarah E., wife of John M. Blair, of Ellis county, Texas ; and John W. Phagan, of Kaufman county, Texas. For his second wife, John Phagan married Arminta Spence and their issue was: Laura, wife of Lawrence Caldwell, of Lee county, Missis- sippi; Emma, married Joseph Caldwell of the same county ; Caledonia, wife of Mr. Portner, of West Tennessee; Nannie, widow of James Clark, of Tennessee, and George, of Lee coun- ty, Mississippi.

Thomas P. Phagan passed his youth and early manhood on the farm and in the mill, and his education was such as could be acquired in the rural schools of his day and time. He gave his services to his father till twenty-two years of age and in the autumn of 1861 he went into the Confederate army, Company F, Forty-first Tennessee, Captain Harlan George and Colonel Robert Ferguson, Army of Tennessee under Johnston and Bragg. The Forty-first Tennes- see was captured at Fort Donelson, but Mr. Phagan was absent from his command, in the hospital, but he rejoined it after its exchange and his first engagement of consequence was in the vicinity of Vicksburg and his second and last was at Chickamauga, after which he went home on a furlough and ever afterward re- mained inside of the Federal lines.

After the war Mr. Phagan took up farming. He passed four years in Lawrence county, Ala- bama, one year back in his home county in Ten- nessee and then he came to Texas. He settled in Ellis county in June, 1874. He located on the west line of the county and resumed the life of a farmer there for eight years, when he dis- posed of his interests and became a resident of Clay county. In this county he first purchased two hundred and fifty-two acres and his labors for nearly a quarter of a century have had to do entirely with its cultivation and improvement. His prosperity has been gradual and permanent and it has enabled him to acquire additional real

estate, he owning now four hundred and ten acres in a body, the same responding gener- ously to the family touch.

May 5, 1864, Mr. Phagan married Mary Mc- Farren, a daughter of James and Betsy (Moore) McFarren, from South Carolina and Ten- nessee. Their other children were : Ca- sina, who died as Mrs. Smith, leaving a family; James M. and Thomas, of Lincoln county, Ten- nessee. Mrs. Phagan was born November 18, 1839, and is the mother of William B., of Beaver county, Oklahoma; Ida, wife of W. W. Wil- liams; Thomas C., of Ryan, Indian Territory ; John C., of Beaver county, Oklahoma; Lizzie, wife of Lee George, of Clay county, has chil- dren: Elder, Hester, Ethel and Bonnie; J. Russell, Archie and C. Hall are all with the family homestead.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 98

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