A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 99

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 99

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Mr. Phagan's duty as a citizen of his county has been well and faithfully performed. His personal interests have occupied him to the ex- clusion of other business connections and by reason of his oneness of purpose, and remark- able tenacity, he has accomplished a farmer's mission in life. He has never been consumed with political ambitions, nor has he waxed ex- ceedingly warm in his enthusiasm for those ambitious to serve the public, yet, as a Demo- crat, he has seldom failed to vote the party ticket at general elections. He believes in the inspiration of the Sacred Book and worships with the adherents of the Cumberland Presby- terian faith. For twenty years he served his church as an elder and the promotion of the. interests of his denomination has lain near to his heart.

JUDGE WASHINGTON B. MERCHANT, whose active business career is another illus- tration of the force of enterprise, keen discrim- ination and energy in the active affairs of the business world, is now closely identified with professional and financial circles in El Paso, where he is engaged in the practice of law and in the banking business. A native of Missis- sippi, he was born in Smith county July 9, 1845, and is a son of the Rev. James and Lu- cretia (Baugh) Merchant. His father was a Baptist minister, and both he and his wife were natives of Mississippi, in which state they were reared. They came to Texas when their son Washington was a youth of thirteen years, locating in Polk county and remained residents of Texas until called to their final rest.

Judge Merchant of this review pursued his

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

early education in the schools of Polk county, and afterward attended Mackenzie College in Red River county, which was a noted school in ante-bellum days. He was there pursuing his studies at the time of the inauguration of the Civil war in 1861, and when he left school he enlisted in Company F of the First Texas Infantry. The regiment was assigned to Vir- ginia and he participated in the battles of Seven Pines, Chickamauga and other impor- tant engagements. In 1862 he was transferred from his regiment by the secretary of war and assigned to the quartermaster's department in the Trans-Mississippi department under Cap- tain John Clemmons, who was in charge of the territory comprised of Liberty, Polk, Hardin and other adjacent counties in Texas and re- ported to General Magruder at Houston. Judge Merchant continued in that capacity until the close of hostilities.

When the war was over he located at Bra- shear City, now Morgan City, Louisiana, where he embarked in merchandising, in which he continued until 1870. In the meantime he took up the study of law and in the latter year was admitted to the bar and entered upon prac- tice in Brashear City. Subsequently he re- moved to New Iberia, Louisiana, and while a resident of the southern part of the state was elected district attorney and later chosen dis- trict judge. He was thoroughly versed in the Louisiana law, which is based on the civil code (Napoleonic). In 1881 he removed to New Orleans and became postmaster of that city under appointment of President Arthur, also serving during President Cleveland's first ad- ministration. It was while acting in that ca- pacity that Judge Merchant held the first ex- amination and made the first appointee, Miss Annie Gulick, under the new civil service law, she being the first in the United States to re- ceive appointment under that law.

In 1888 Judge Merchant removed to El Paso, where he has since made his home, and enter- ing upon the practice of law was soon accorded a large and distinctively representative clien- tage, representing important local and eastern interests. At a recent date, however, he has gradually dropped out of practice in order to devote his time and energies to other business affairs in El Paso, being quite extensively en- gaged in the investment banking business. He also has valuable realty holdings and is one of the capitalists of the city. His place of resi- dence and business was for some years Mer- chant place, comprising a quarter of a block

extending from Texas and North Campbell streets near the business center of El Paso. Merchant place was opened in 1900 and his home there was a beautiful residence.

Judge Merchant's wife, Mrs. Alice G. (Blackadder) Merchant, is a physician and they have two children, Geraldine and W. B. Merchant. In prominent society circles they occupy a leading position, especially in the homes where the atmosphere is one of superior education. Judge Merchant won distinction in a calling wherein advancement depends en- tirely upon individual merit and keen intellect- uality and in later years through judicious in- vestment has gained a place among the wealthy residents of his adopted city.

PRESLEY SMITH PARKER. The lead- ing merchant and business man of Buffalo Springs, and a gentleman whose efforts have contributed much to the value and importance of that old village as a trading point, is Presley S. Parker, whose career in Clay county has placed him in a position of financial indepen- dence, in contrast with his insecure, anxious and dependent condition on seeking the county some twelve years ago. As a farmer here he was unstable, unsettled and restless, a trader of no mean talent, while, as a merchant, his ability has shown itself in his successful grasp of sit- uations, turning them to his own financial ac- count and becoming the real center of interest in the village itself.

In 1892, Mr. Parker first came into Clay county. He was possessed of a team and wagon and a hundred dollars in money which he had accumulated in one of the counties of the black land after several years of unceasing and unre- mitting toil. He rented a tract of land and planted a crop and, with the proceeds of his crop, took possession of two hundred acres of new land southwest of Buffalo Springs and put on the initial strokes of its improvement. This tract he had bargained to pay the munificent sum of two dollars and fifty cents an acre for, borrowing the thirty dollars which constituted the advance payment on the place. While bus- ied with making his first home in Texas, some months after he took possession a purchaser took it at fifteen hundred dollars and his first stroke of real luck had made its appearance. He bought another new tract near by at five dollars an acre and went through the same formality as to its improvement and in a couple of years a buyer came along with one thousand seven hun- dred and fifty dollars and exchanged with him

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

"even up." "Now," he said to his wife, "we will go back to Collin county and buy us a little black land farm and settle down." They bought one of forty-four acres and, by dint of hard work at corn and cotton raising, and supplementing it with outside work with team and himself, managed to eke out a bare living until the last couple of years when he fenced his place hog- tight and planted his place to corn. Feeding this to his hogs brought him the "golden era," yet after five years he sold out and returned to the county where it seemed so easy to get along. He paid one thousand five hundred and fifty dollars for his old home and took possession with the idea of climbing this ladder to final independence. His trading propensities again took hold on our subject and he bought C. R. Saunders' store and adjoining property at Buf- falo Springs and began his mercantile career in 1901. A stock of goods of the value of three hundred dollars and sixty acres of land consti- tuted the property, and the first year he took in, as his partner in the store, F. L. Aulick. They increased the stock many fold and made it a desirable place to trade and bought and handled everything in the huckster line that the farmer had to sell. In 1902, Mr. Parker became sole proprietor of the business, and the business in- crease, as time went on, made a remarkable showing. His chicken, egg and butter trade amounted to more than a hundred dollars a month through 1904, and he turned his stock of goods in the store nearly three times in that twelve months.

When P. S. Parker came to Texas, in 1882, he was just past his majority and all his sub- stantial capital was invested in a pair of strong and willing hands. He stopped near Wiley, in Collin county, and passed two years as a farm hand by the month. In that time he had ac- quired a team and some cash besides and, after returning from a trip to his old home in Arkan- sas, he married and settled on a rented farm. From thenceforward to 1892 his career was one of "ups and downs," with a constantly backward tendency staring him and his young wife in the face. In desperation, he told his companion they would "pull out" for a new place and try their fortune elsewhere, as it was only a matter of time till their resources would be exhausted. With his team and all their possessions in a wagon a new life at Vashti, Clay county, began.

Mr. Parker was born in Washington county, Arkansas, May 5, 1860. Pleasant Parker, his father, was a native of Spottsylvania county, Virginia, born March II, 1824. The latter was

taken hy his father to Hawkins county, Tennes- see, in 1828, and was there orphaned at the age of ten years. He grew up there and at twenty- six years of age married Sarah Jones and moved west into Arkansas, making the trip through Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri, finally reach- ing their destination in Washington county, Arkansas, December 25, 1851. In 1853 he set- tled near Carter's Store, where he passed his life as a farmer and where he died September 21, 1895. He was industrious, was a useful citizen and a Christian gentleman. He joined the church at twenty-five years of age and was ever afterward a consistent member of the Baptist church. His wife, who was a daughter of Riley Jones, a Baptist minister who passed his active life and died in Washington county, Arkansas, is yet living and makes her home in Washita county, Oklahoma.

Pleasant and Sarah Jones reared the follow- ing children: Lizzie, wife of J. W. Dian, of Washington county, Arkansas; Sarah, wife of D. I. Perry, of the same county; Alexander, of Washita county, Oklahoma; Presley S., of this review; Perry, of Washita county, Oklahoma; John, of California, and Larkin, of Washita county, Oklahoma.

Presley S. Parker was limited and sparingly educated in the country schools and was mar- ried in Collin county, Texas, July 4, 1885, to Mattie, a daughter of W. C. Parker. Mr. Par- ker was from Humphrey county, Tennessee, and settled in Collin county, Texas, in 1855. His first wife was a Miss Wilson and his second was the mother of the following children: Dr. C. D., of Houston; Mrs. Lizzie Rolan, of Mon- tague county, Texas; Mrs. P. S. Parker, born January 28, 1865; Kate, who died single; Adelia, wife of Mr. Nottingham, of Dallas.

Mr. and Mrs. Parker's children are: Dennis C., of Oklahoma; and Centennial, Bennie, Sarah, Mary and Linton. Mr. Parker is a Dem- ocrat, is postmaster of Buffalo Springs, has at- tended county conventions of his party and is a notary public.

WILLIAM SHELBY NUCKOLLS. It is fitting that the midday of a life filled with indus- try should be crowned with those Providential blessings which are bestowed as labor's reward, and it is an occcasion for unrestrained domestic . felicitation when those social, moral and finan- cial obligations of our domestic fabric have been so met as to fill the esthetic and ethical require- ments and to place the home in substantial and material independence. In this connection it

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

is our privilege to present to our readers a life record not incompatible with the spirit of our introductory reference, and ask their indulgence while the career of the subject of this article is passed in review. ,

William Shelby Nuckolls is one of the sub- stantial ranchmen and farmers of Clay county. Within a score of years he has passed from ob- scurity to opulence, and Dame Fortune has so shaped and fashioned his affairs as to place him in the category of eminently successful business men. He was born in Hardeman county, Ten- nessee, January 31, 1854, of parents, William G. and Eliza ( Polk) Nuckolls, now resident farm- ers near Keller, in Tarrant county, Texas, where they settled in the year 1880. His father and mother were native to Tennessee, the former born in Hardin county, February, 1830, and a son of William Nuckolls, an early settler there. William Nuckolls was a Colonel of the Tennes- see militia, in the old training days, and Ken- tucky contributed him from her population to- ward the early settlement of the state. His ancestors were Virginians. The Polks were from Maury county, Tennessee, of the Scotch line and from North Carolina to that county. Shelby Polk was the grandfather of our subject and his daughter Eliza died in Tarrant county, Texas, in 1890.

The issue of William G. and Eliza Nuckolls were : Charles, Macon county, Tennessee; Mollie, wife of R. O. Nawsom, of Mansfield, Texas; William S. and Lenora, deceased wife of James Burnett, left a son in Tarrant county.

The school advantages of William S. Nuck- olls were not at all good and he acquired only a scant knowledge of the three r's, experience doing the rest. He attended a subscription school at Bolivar, Tennessee, when a young man and made the most of his advancement there. He began life as a tenant on the farm and prospered some from the start. When he came to Texas he went to Austin by rail and there bought a horse and began his search for a location. He stopped in Tarrant county and again became a tenant on some other man's farm. In 1884 he came into Clay county and entered an eighty acre tract near Buffalo Springs-scrap land belonging to the state-and upon this he began the erection of the super- structure of his modest fortune. It was the stock business that led him into the channel of success and as his profits came he invested in lands from time to time, his first purchase being one of three hundred and twenty acres on Buf- falo creek, six hundred and forty acres of the

Harris and O'Connor tract, three hundred and twenty acres of the James Harris tract, four hundred and ninety acres of the William Shields tract and another three hundred and twenty acre piece of the James Harris land, making, in all, two thousand one hundred and seventy acres, six hundred and fifty of which is devoted to the products of the farm.

Mr. Nuckolls made the acquaintance of hard work early in life and it has remained his fast and sincere friend through life. Its effects have told upon his constitution and the tread of fifty- one years has left traces of premature age and the tinge of gray and the furrowed brow tell the extent to which his vital energies have been taxed. In 1900 he took up his residence in Dal- lam county, where he entered four sections of land and made his home in the far northwest until he proved up on his claim, returning to Clay county with his family at the close of 1904.

June 23, 1895, William S. Nuckolls and Geor- gie Fair were married in Bellevue, Texas. Mrs. Nuckolls is a daughter of Michael and Louisa (Rohrer) Fair, from Cumberland county, New Jersey. Her parents reside in Washita county, Oklahoma, and have children: Alice E., wife of Richard Johnson; Ellen .K., wife of Charles Walker; Harvey; Lydia B., who married John Bridges; Mrs. Nuckolls, born in New Jersey, July 4, 1871 ; Irene, wife of Frank Johnson; and Josephine, married Lee Burson. The children are nearly all located near their parents and are engaged in farming or are living on the farm.

Mr. and Mrs. Nuckolls' children are: Willie C., born January 31, 1897 ; Winnifred, born Sep- tember 22, 1898, and Lawrence, born October 2, 190I.

The Nuckolls allied themselves with Democ- racy in politics and the grandfather and the father of our subject were more or less in the service in their native heath. William Nuck- olls, our subject's grandsire, was a Union man during the Rebellion, but his son, William G., served in the armies of the south. The latter was a deputy sheriff at Bolivar, Tennessee, but his son, of this review, has not made politics his business or even a pastime. The family are Christians of the Baptist faith and Mr. Nuck- olls is a firm believer in the teachings and good works of the Master.

WILLIAM L. CASON, a hardware mer- chant and representative business man of Has- kell, Texas, dates his birth in Polk county, Georgia, June 24, 1856, and is a son of Elihu and Elizabeth (Rogers) Cason. His mother,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

a native of Georgia, died at the age of thirty- two years, when he was two and a half years old. She had three children, two sons and a daughter, all living at this writing. Mr. Cason's brother, Mercer Cason, resides in Alabama near the Georgia state line, and his sister, Lizzie, is the wife of Jack Wheeler and lives in Pike county, Alabama. The Casons are of English and Scotch descent. Three brothers of this name came from England to America, one go- ing to South Carolina, another to Missouri and the third probably to Missouri, though his loca- tion is not known. One brother died in Mis- souri and some of his descendants came from that state to Texas and became residents here. The South Carolina brother was named Benja- min. He was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. After some years spent in South Carolina he moved to Polk county, Georgia, where he passed the rest of his life and died. He was twice married. By his first wife he had four sons and one daughter, one son dying when young, the others reaching adult years. By the second marriage there were a son and two daughters, of whom all lived to be grown. Elihu Cason, the son by the second marriage, was born in Polk county, Georgia, in 1830. He be- came a merchant, having a dry goods and gro- cery store in a little town called Esam Hill, in Georgia, about a mile from the Alabama state line. When the Civil war came on he entered the Confederate service as a cavalryman and served in the ranks four years, participating in much hard fighting, but escaping without wounds. As a result of the war most of his property was destroyed. When he left home he had a hundred bales of cotton stored and on his return he found the cotton and many other things stolen. Then he moved down to Griffin, Georgia, where he was engaged in the grocery business five years, and the next two years he was on a farm near Rome, Georgia. He came to Texas in 1872, settling on a farm in Collin county, where he remained until two years be- fore his death, when he came to Dallas. He died in Dallas April 10, 1895. He was first mar- ried in Polk county, Georgia, to Elizabeth Rog- ers, and some time after her death he wedded in Cedartown, that county, Miss Olivia Weath- erly, who was of German birth, and who bore him ten children, six sons and four daughters, of which number all except two grew to ma- turity.

William Lon Cason, after the removal of the family to Texas, worked on his father's farm

until he attained his majority. Then he hired out as a farm hand, at the rate of twenty dollars per month, and worked for one man two years. The next two years he cultivated land on the shares, afterward renting a place. He was mar- ried November 17, 1882, in Collin county, Texas, to Miss Lantie Parker. After living on the rented land two years he bought a farm, two miles north of Farmersville, which he sold at the end of three years and bought a hotel in Farmersville. He sold the hotel after conduct- ing it two years, but continued to live in Farm- ersville two years longer, owning and renting property there, and being engaged in the gro- cery business in partnership with W. D. Chap- man. He came to Haskell county in 1889. Here he bought a half section of land, located seven miles northwest of Haskell, three hun- dred acres of which he placed under cultivation, and for seven years made his home on this farm. From farming he drifted into the cattle business, dealing in cattle three years. He sold his farm and cattle about the same time, and in January, 1901, engaged in the hardware and implement business in Haskell, in partnership with B. F. McCullum, under the firm name of McCullum & Cason. In January, 1904, Mr. McCullum sold his interest to his brother, Levi McCullum, the firm style remaining the same. In the spring of 1905 Mr. Levi McCullum sold to Messrs. B. Cox, Thomas Russell and J. F. Jones and the firm name was changed to its present form, Cason, Cox & Company. An energetic man, with sound business methods and good judg- ment, Mr. Cason has made a success of what- ever he has undertaken, and he is recognized as one of the leading men of his town. For twen- ty-five years Mr. Cason has been a member of the Baptist church.

CAPTAIN W. W. FIELDS. One of the prominent citizens of Haskell county, Texas, and one who has been closely identified with its development most of the time since the county was organized, is Captain W. W. Fields. His father, Joseph Upton Fields, was born in 1818, in South Carolina, and when two years old was taken by his parents to Montgomery county, Alabama, where his boyhood days were passed. A youth of seventeen or eighteen years, we find him at Shreveport, Louisiana, where he re- mained a short time, coming thence to Clarks- ville, Red River county, Texas. This was in 1837. He lived in Red River county two years. At about the age of twenty-one he married Mrs.

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Martha Harris, daughter of 'Squire Noah Lil- ley, a pioneer of that section. The early settlers during those days had much trouble with the Indians, and Joseph U. Fields spent a great deal of his time as a ranger guarding the lives and property of the pioneers. On account of these frequent troubles with the red men he moved his family further east, seeking a safer place of residence, and settled in Harrison county, that being before the city of Marshall had an exist- ence. Harrison county was the seat of trouble later on between the Regulators and Modera- tors, and Mr. Fields, being a magistrate of the county and a member of the law and order party, was largely instrumental in breaking up the disturbances. He had a brother-in-law, John J. Kennedy, who was sheriff of the county and they worked conjointly in making peace between the two opposing factions. The first court in the county, held under a big oak tree, was presided over by Magistrate Fields. Two or three men were killed while it was in prog- ress. The Lilleys also were of the peace party and some of them were officers of the law. During the last two years of the Civil war Mr. Fields was an officer in the Confederate service. He moved from Harrison to Kaufman county in 1870, and in the latter place made his home until 1890, when he came to Haskell county. Here his death occurred in 1894. His widow is still living and makes her home with her chil- dren. In their family were six children, three sons and three daughters who grew to maturity. Two of the sons, Captain W. W. Fields and R. B. Fields, live in Haskell and two daughters, Mrs. A. C. Peden and Mrs. J. P. Harrison, are residents of Sherman, Texas. In many respects Joseph U. Fields was an exemplary man. He was never known to utter an oath or take a drink of whiskey, and from the early '50s he was a consistent member of the Christian church.

W. W. Fields was born in Marshall, Harrison county, Republic of Texas, March 6, 1843. He spent his boyhood working on his father's farm and at intervals attending the public schools near his home. At the time the Civil war came on he was still in his teens. In response to a call for protection against the Indian depreda- tions that were going on in northwest Texas, he joined an independent company, in which each member furnished his own horse and outfit, and went to the Red River district, where he re- mained five months. At the end of this time he offered his services to the Confederate cause,

enlisting as a private in Company H, Seventh Texas Infantry, and went to the front. While in camp at Enterprise, Mississippi, in 1863, he was elected second lieutenant of his company. Subsequently his senior officers having been killed or wounded, and Captain Craig killed, and first and second lieutenant and second brevet wounded, the command of the company fell to him and he was serving as captain at the time the war closed. On account of an accidental wound he was unable for service for some months and was out on furlough, rejoining his regiment and remaining with it long before he was able for active service. Among the engage- ments in which he participated were those of Fort Donelson, Fort Hudson, Raymond and Jackson, Mississippi, the skirmishes around Mis- sionary Ridge and the army's retreat to Dalton, Georgia, near which place he had a lively fight with the enemy.

After the close of the war Captain Fields re- turned to Marshall, arriving June 5, 1865, and soon after began teaching school, which he con- tinued four or five years. Meantime he became interested in farming, which he carried on suc- cessfully. In 1870 he moved to Kaufman county. There he engaged in stock farming on a large scale. On his place he also operated a cotton gin and gristmill and ran a drug store. He was near the border line between Kaufman and VanZandt counties. This line was twice changed, and so it happened that the first eight or ten years he lived there he was in Kaufman. county and afterward in Van Zandt county. While he prospered financially in that locality, he wanted a higher and a dryer atmosphere, and in 1890 he moved to Haskell county, where he has resided the past fifteen years. Here for fourteen years he and his brother R. B. have conducted a family grocery and feed business, and he is still interested in stock raising and farming. He and his son have a thousand acres of land in Haskell county.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 99

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