USA > Texas > Eastland County > History of Eastland County, Texas > Part 8
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The promoters of this enterprise are men who are ready to further large undertakings.
Mr. McSpadden, who at one time was owner of the telephone exchange and materially enlarged and strengthened that service, set up the light plant, wired the buildings, and, pressing the button, turned on the light.
Wood McSpadden is a very young man, was born in Tyler, Texas, and displays much energy and business acumen. He was married in 1899 to Miss Hines Mitchell and has one child.
Mayhew & Company are thoroughly abreast of the advance interests of the town, and prominently identi- fied with several enterprises.
J. L. G. ADAMS-EYE SPECIALIST.
"Seeing is believing," and from the truth of this proverb many testify to the ability of Dr. Adams, who was partly raised in this County. After having grad- uated from the Chicago College of Medicine and Sur- gery in 1895 he located in Cisco. He usually maintains four or five different offices in as many different places, associating himself with a leading physician.
Since 1895 he has taken Post Graduate courses in the following institutions; Illinois College of Medi-
THE COMPRESS
A
INTERIOR VIEW OF MARTIN & CO.'S DRUG STORE
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
cine and Surgery and the College of Ophthalmology and Otology, St. Louis.
Some of the cures Dr. Adams has effected are little short of the miraculous-reading vision after twenty years darkness, because of scarred eyes, after continued terms in the Blind Asylum, or after treatment at va- rious well known hospitals.
Dr. Adams is a skilled surgeon, and has straight- ened many hundreds of eyes. Leading physicians everywhere testify gladly to his ability as an oculist. His practice is limited to diseases and deformities of the eye that are curable, which are about ninety-five per cent. He has references from many who have been pro- nounced hopelessly blind and were led to his office, but who received sight after having received his treatment.
Dr. Adams is associated with Dr. B. F. Jones and offices over the Merchants' and Farmers' Bank.
CHAPTER II.
RISING STAR.
The year 1875 had passed into history, yet no hunter nor early settler, with his ax, his gun and his dog, disturbed the pudder of the wild tur- key mothering her young, the feeding of the prairie chicken in the high sage grass that abounded, nor the gambols of the deer that sported on the banks of the streams. But in the dawn of 1876 a star of promise began to shed its radiance, and in the light of its dawning six families from Gregg County wended
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
their way to the valley, over which it settled and made their homes there. These fortunate pioneers were W. W. Smith, Dave Mckinley, Isaac Agnew, Fletcher Fields, Allie Smith and Andy Agnew. Finding good soil, abundance of wild game, and water, they decided to remain permanently, and began the improvement of their claims. Fort Worth was the nearest railroad sta- tion, and from this town and Waco the people bought their supplies and marketed their products.
In these early days, 1876-1879, the mail was brought once a week from Sipe Springs on horse back. Mr. Os- borne, who lived two miles east of where Rising Star is now located, was the postmaster. It may or may not have been this postmaster who could not read and whose wife carried the mail in her pocket. When a call was made she handed the letters to the party and he, taking out his own, returned the rest. She carried one for the postmaster a week.
When application was made for a postoffice, Osborne was suggested as a name, but the authorties sent *Rising Star instead.
In the Fall of 1879 Uncle Tommy Anderson bought from Dave Mckinley the tract of land on which the town has been built. In the Spring of 1880 he moved the postoffice to his home and put up a small storehouse. Here he kept the postoffice, groceries and farm supplies. In 1883 a larger store was built near by. since which time the town has grown steadily, and now numbers about seven hundred souls.
*It is said that Mr. Anderson, a son-in-law of Mr. Ag- new, suggested the name of Rising Star.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
The people early evinced a strong desire for enlight- enment by raising a 10x12 log school house and electing a Mr. Bill Welch as teacher. Mr. Welch was thor- oughly in harmony with his environments, often teach- ing under the branches of the trees, and not infrequently going to school barefooted. This small, floorless, log school house stood one and one-half miles east of the present town. A few years later a better and a larger log house was built near the cemetery, and here many of the substantial citizens of this County were educated. Mr. James Irby, who came here in 1877, was one of the pioneer teachers.
The business interests of the town are represented by loyal citizens. There are several large dry goods and grocery firms, drug stores, hardware, a bank, hotel, and the usual number of smaller shops and eating houses. There are two newspapers, five church buildings with as many organizations, and a handsome school building with seven teachers and three hundred and fifty pupils.
The town is supported by a very rich farming and truck growing district of fifteen miles radius. The soil is a light sand with a red clay subsoil and is especially adapted to the drouthy climate. Corn, cotton,maize, cane and oats grow luxuriantly ; berries, apples, peaches. plums, apricots, grapes and all kinds of fruits are easy and proli- fic producers. As a truck growing section it has no su- perior. Cabbages, without irrigation, have produced heads weighing thirteen and a half pounds, beets have weighed twenty-five pounds, onions two; tomatoes, and potatoes of both varieties, grow easily and are heavy bearers.
UNCLE JIM TYSON GATHERING APPLES
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
The nearest railroad point is about twenty miles. Carloads of fruit and vegetables rot on the ground for lack of convenient shipping points.
In 1903 forty-five hundred bales of cotton were marketed and forty-two hundred were ginned by the iwo plants here. This same year eighteen thousand bales were ginned at the ten plants within the neighborhood of the Star country.
This section of the county is especially free from grasshoppers, boll weevil and all crop and garden pests.
THE X-RAY.
Albert Tyson is the founder and proprietor of this original paper.
If one wants truths frankly told; if when one is hit, one prefers the blow to come straight from the shoulders, one would do well to read Mr. Tyson's paper.
The illustration on the opposite page represents Mr. J. M. Tyson-the editor's father-gathering apples from a six year old Early Harvest apple tree. He moved to Eastland in 1878, and has a thirty-acre apple orchard two miles north of Rising Star. At the Farmer's Insti- tute held in Eastland City November, 1903, he was awarded a prize on the apples he exhibited.
THE RISING STAR RECORD.
The Rising Star Record' came into existence April ยท 4. 1903. George T. Barnes, with T. B. Staton, under- took the establishment of the paper. Without a single subscriber the first issue was brought out, but the third
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
issue was distributed to three hundred regular subscrib- ers. January 1. 1904, the subscription list was five hun- dred.
January 1, 1904, the Record Company began the pub- lication of the May Enterprise. Both papers have a cir- culation of over nine hundred. The Record, while not given strictly to politics, stands for Democratic princi- ples, for the upbuilding of the Sandy Belt-the garden spot of Texas-and for the dissemination of local and general news among the people.
George T. Barnes and C. A. and Sidney W. Smith are the proprietors of the Record Printing Company.
W. A. BUCY AND BROTHER.
Fifteen years ago W. P. Bucy opened a stock of fur- niture and did well, but soon discovered that to be able to accommodate the patronage he had he must keep farming implements. The business proved so success- ful that Mr. Bucy's oldest son, William A., became a partner in 1895, and the supply was increased. Seven years later, January 1, 1902, this son bought the entire stock, and three months later sold it to H. E. Anderson.
That Mr. Bucy is never so happy as when trading is evidenced by the following figures: On September 23, 1902, he bought out the J. H. Montgomery drug business and sold it January 1, 1903, to Levi McCollum and Minnix, and took in exchange their stock of general merchandise, which he increased.
On January 1, 1904, Ed Bucy bought an interest, and the store is now the second largest in town. The
W. P. BUCY
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
floor space is being enlarged and will cover, when com- pleted, 5,610 square feet.
Bucy Brothers expect to do a $50,000 business the year of 1904. Rising Star is fortunate to have such energetic men as citizens.
H. E. ANDERSON
Has the largest store in Texas in an inland town, and it contains everything except drugs.
Long years ago Uncle Tommy Anderson sold one acre of ground to J. V. Hulse, and stipulated that if in- toxicants were ever sold on the land it would revert to the original owners.
In 1883, H. E. Anderson, son of Uncle Tommy, bought out Mr. Hulse's stock of general merchandise, but soon sold out to Rev. J. K. Miller and Mr. Sayles. Then he built a new and larger store, and has since car- ried a stock of general merchandise, employing from eight to fifteen clerks.
There are few men who have the courage of their convictions in a more marked degree than Mr. Ander- son. In 1885 and 1886, when conditions were vastly dif- ferent from the present time, a big barbecue and dance was twice given by the Rising Star community to influ- ence people to become citizens.
Twice did Mr. Anderson refuse to contribute to this entertainment because of the last feature of it-the dance. He was converted at sixteen years of age. made steward in the Methodist church at eighteen, was the first Sunday School Superintendent in the town, and
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
had lived what he professed. The stand he took on this occasion had great effect.
Mr. Anderson is the present Sunday School Superin- tendent in the Methodist Church, and his wife is a daughter of Major Munn of Nimrod.
CHAPTER III.
GORMAN,
A thriving little city of twelve hundred population, is situated on the Texas Central Railroad, twenty-five miles southeast of Cisco. The town was surveyed in 1891 by the railroad people and began its existence in the virgin forest-the Oliver Chill Plow having forced the stockmen westward. The era, thus inaugurated by the arrival of the railroad, made of this section a very attractive portion of the State by the development of the superior advantages of this immediate locality.
Fruits and vegetables, together with a thoroughly di- versified agricultural product, offered strong induce- ments to the emigrant from the East, and year by year the town has grown, developing rare commercial possi- bilities, and has attained a prosperous and established position.
It is the proud boast of this people that they are surrounded by the most productive soil that can be found west of the Brazos river, and with a thoroughly up to date lot of business men the little city is gradually but surely forging its way to the front.
WINTERS' GIN
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
All lines of business are well represented-from the bank and the big department stores down to the chili joint, and employ a capital of $500,000. Kimble & Crume, druggists; J. R. Huckabee, general merchandise ; Low & Troxell, general merchandise; Mr. Winters' gin, the largest and best in West Texas; Mrs. Yates' hotel. The May Drug Company, T. L. Gates Lumber Yard, the weekly newspaper, a canning factory in active and successful operation, are some of the stores and shopy and business interests of the town. These numerous interests enable Gorman to handle her own immense ag- ricultural products to the very best advantage.
The town is incorporated for municipal and school purposes. The splendid churches, together with organ- ized lodges, chartered clubs and business men's organi- zations, foster and keep in close touch the religious and social life with the commercial advancements.
Everything considered, the town stands without a ri- val in many respects in this section of the State, and of- fors special inducements to the home seeker.
F. B. WINTERS.
The accompanying illustration represents the gin plant built by Mr. Winters in 1899. From the stand- point of modern machinery and up-to-date equipment it has no superior in the State.
One hundred and fifty horse power boiler and en- gines are used, and it has a capacity of one hundred and twenty bales daily. Mr. Winters uses the Munger sys- tem. The gin is ligted by electricity and runs day and night.
THE GORMAN BANK
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
THE BANK OF GORMAN.
This bank was established in 1900, with W. H. Ed- dleman, president; W. A. Waldrop, cashier; R. R. Wal- drop, assistant cashier.
The responsibility is $500,000.00
Large and small accounts are desired, and Mr. Wal- drop and his assistant will make it both pleasant and profitable to all those who do business with them.
T. L. GATES, LUMBER.
This lumber yard was established in Gorman in the summer of 1899 and has steadily grown in popularity, both from the completeness and grade of stock carried and from the courteous treatment accorded to all custom- ers. It is now one of the strong financial interests of the promising town.
The founder and sole owner of this business, T. L. Gates, is a significant factor in the community. He came to Texas from Mississippi in 1893, and was for five years Superintendent of the De Leon Schools, and then served as cashier of the bank at that place for two years. He is at present chairman of the County Democratic Committee. Mr. Gates is a member of the Methodist church and superintendent of the Sunday School. He is known in church circles as an enthusiastic Sunday School worker and a most efficient layman,
RESIDENCE OF W. J. REED, POSTMASTER, CARBON
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
CARBON.
In 1881 the first lot in Carbon, a town on the Texas Central Railway, between Gjorman and Cisco, was sold to N. S. Haynes, who put up a small business house. An attempt to move the town three miles east having failed, J. F. White established a lumber yard, Mr. Fowler and son put up a cotton gin, and Mr. Train taught school.
From the number of business houses in this little town, shops, hotels and gins, a good weekly newspaper, with a hustling editor ; its bank soon to open in its own brick building; its Baptist and Methodist churches, Ma- sonic hall and neat two-story school building, Carbon bids fair to rival some of her more pretentious sister towns. When to this is added the fertile soil (a sandy loam!), which produces corn, cotton and a very great va- riety of vegetables of enormous sizes ; also fruit, as ap- ples, peaches, pears, apricots and plums, as well as the grape and berries of all kinds, one is not surprised that the country round about Carbon is being cultivated by thrifty farmers in rapidly increasing numbers.
Among the enterprising business people of Carbon are Finley Bros., dry goods; T. J. Morris, general mer- chandise ; Puett & Son, dry goods; W. A. Seastrunk, ho- tel, and many others.
There are about six hundred inhabitants.
Near this place Mr. J. H. Bransford, who has been in the county many years, successfully irrigates a truck patch.
ALINE CAMPBELL EASTLAND COUNTY'S PRIZE BABY
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
THE HERALD.
Published Friday, W. T. Curtis, editor and proprie- tor. The Herald, the local paper for Eastland County, pleases its readers and pays its advertisers, and is strict- ly a local and county newspaper.
Although not published at the County Town, it brings all court news of importance to the general public. It has a good circulation and is increasing rapidly.
Only clean advertising from clean people is in- serted.
THE BANK OF CARBON.
Responsibility, $500,000.00.
W. H. Eddleman, president; W. A. Waldrop, vice president ; J. E. Spencer, cashier.
That so able a financier as W. H. Eddleman is con- nected with this bank insures its solidarity. That J. E. Spencer, who has been in the banking business for sev- eral years, is its cashier, speaks for its popularity, while Mr. Waldrop, the efficient cashier of the Bank of Gor- man, only emphasizes the strength of the organization.
The Carbon Bank occupies its own two-story brick building
FINLEY BROS.
W. P. Finley.
S. P. Finley.
The members of this firm were born in Tennessee . and emigrated to Texas with their parents and the other brothers in 1867. They located in Eastland in the mem- orable year of 1876, and engaged in farming. Later some of the family lived at Jewell, and in the early '80's
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
W. P. Finley and Mr. Duke (now of Dallas) merchan- dised at Cisco.
This firm established itself here in a general mer- chandise business in 1895 and enjoys a long and grow- ing trade.
The Finleys are substantial and progressive citizens and foster every interest of the promising town.
Mr. S. P. Finley is the able President of the Board of Trustees.
A. C. POE, M. D.
Dr. Poe was born in Magnolia, Arkansas, and came to Carbon, Texas, in 1896.
He received his education in the public schools of his native State, and took his degree from the Memphis Hospital Medical College.
Dr. Poe is the senior member of the firm of Poe & Moore, Druggists. This firm is one of the three State agents in this county for the supply of school books adopted by the Board of Examiners.
It is such men as Dr. Poe that make a town grow. He believes in the future prosperity of the town, backed by its richly promising agricultural possibilities, and upon this belief he makes his investments.
With C. B. Poe as a partner, the Doctor is interested in a lumber yard, which does a large business and carries a complete and up-to-date stock.
Besides his various business interests this enterpris- ing citizen does an extensive practice. As an evidence of the prosperity of the people of this section, and of their integrity as well, they pay on an average 95 per cent of their physician's accounts.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
T. J. MORRIS, MERCHANT.
On January 14, 1893, with a small stock of "Racket goods," Mr. Morris began business in Carbon. Two years later he erected and moved into a building in the center of the town, where he is still located.
Few men have had more marked success than Mr. Morris. From the small beginning, made a little more than one decade ago, his business has grown until now be handles everything in a general merchandise line. Besides dry goods and groceries, hardware and every conceivable kind of farming implement, he handles furniture and undertaker's goods.
Mr. Morris' energy and ingenuity does not stop here. He is interested in the two gins of Morris Bros. and Fowler at Carbon and Hooker's Spur. His latest ven- ture is stockng his fine ranch near town with goats, some of which are thoroughbreds.
It is plainly evident that Mr. Morris invests strictly in Carbon "futures."
CHAPTER V.
RANGER.
Ninety-five miles west of Fort Worth the historic little town of Ranger stands. Many, many years ago, be- fore the valleys of Eastland had ever felt the thrill and jar of rumbling cars, or her hills had echoed the shrill cry of an engine, the Indians found and utilized a mag- nificent rendezvous a few miles east of Ranger, where
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
now the Texas and Pacific Railway bridges the deepest canon in Texas. After one of their usual raids the In- dians fled to this canon, now so famous for its rugged beauty, and were followed by the Texas Rangers, than whom no class of men have done more for Texas. These poorly fed and poorly paid guardians of life and property on the frontier drove the Indians on this occa-
THE HIGH BRIDGE
sion from their lair. On emerging from the deep and ragged gorge the Rangers found themselves in a beauti- ful, level * valley of richest soil and luxuriant grasses. but did not loiter, as they pushed hard on after the In- dians, overtaking them at what is known as "One Hun-
*It is said that the valley was known among the In- dians as the Caddo Indian Ball Ground.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
dred * Mile Mountain." Here a battle was fought and the victorious Rangers struck tent in the luxurious val- ley, where the Watson Ranch is now situated. The ex- act date of this battle could not be learned, but it is thought Captain Whiteside, who lost his life in the cy- clone at Cisco, was in command of the Rangers.
Twenty-five years ago the valley was dotted with tents. One year later A. J. Sims and a Mr. Griffin formed a partnership and carried a stock of general merchandise in a tent store. Mr. Griffin did a thriving hotel busi- ness, also in a tent, prior to forming this partnership. There were tent schools and tent churches. Tom Coop- er, brother of one of Rangers' most popular teachers, was the first boy born in the town. A little girl made her advent one day before Tom's arrival. In the Ran- ger valley some two hundred or three hundred people lived in tents until the railroad came, when houses went up as if by magic. Ranger was built a couple of miles west of where the tent town had had its existence. The oldest settler living in Ranger today is John Bryant, who came in 1881.
Ranger has three good church buildings, Methodist, Baptist and Cumberland Presbyterian, with leagues and young people's societies; a High School, which is corre- lated with the State University, a phone system and water works, bank, five doctors and the usual number of stores, eating houses, etc.
In the tent town there were saloons and gambling
*"'One hundred miles" from where could not be learned, but the mountain stands out clear-cut and runs down into the valley near the railroad.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
dens, in the Ranger of today there are no houses of vice of any kind.
Ranger has a population of about seven hundred and fifty.
The Ranger '03 Club-a woman's literary club-has founded a public library and is gradually increasing the number of volumes.
C. E. FROST, M. D .; A. B .; A. M.
Dr. C. E. Frost, the oldest resident physician of Ranger, was born in Tennessee. His father, J. B. Frost, fell heir to sixty-two negroes in 1859 and 1860, but set them free at once. As a result of this philanthropy the boy Cyrus had to work out his own destiny. He cut wood for two fireplaces and a stove, fed ten horses, twenty cows, a drove of hogs and a flock of sheep for his board, and worked Saturdays for his clothes. He took his lit- erary degree at the Northern Illinois Normal Univer- sity. He attended the Nashville Medical College, where later at the Missouri Medical College, he gratuated in 1878 with first honors. Mrs. Frost is a daughter of Dr. O. D. Tankersly of Arkansas.
Dr. Frost located at Ranger in 1892 and has prac- ticed his profession night and day continuously since that time with the most marked success, never having suffered from an accident of any kind, nor had a diag- nosis changed. He is a scholarly, scientific. up-to-date physician and surgeon, a consistent, Christian Methodist citizen, and is held in high esteem by the profession and his patrons.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
CHAPTER VI.
SCRANTON.
Scranton, a town of about one hundred and fifty in- habitants, is situated in a thickly settled, agricultural community, which lies twelve miles southwest of Cisco, near the line of Callahan County.
The first man who setlted in this locality was D. C. Lane, who came in 1875, and was followed by H. B. Lane, Mr. Huff, Aaron Brown, Uncle Joe Brown and Nat Hendrickson. These, together with Messrs. Sprawls, Ray, Gattis, Clement, Rutherford and many others, have made a progressive and substantial com- munity.
In 188- Mr. Snoddy taught a school here. The in- terest in education has gradually increased until Scran- ton now boasts of an incorporated school district, and one of the best schools in the county. There is a commodi- ous, two-story building, with a separate music room on the campus.
The Methodist and Baptist churches were organized here in 1893, the former by Rev. M. M. Smith, the lat- ter by Rev. J. R. Kelly. Both churches have good build- ings and are served at present by Rev. J. L. Mills, Meth- odist, and Rev. G. W. Parks, Baptist.
The Post Office was esablished in 1892, with Mr.
SCRANTON HIGH SCHOOL-O. C. BRITTON, SUPT.
2
SCRANTON HIGH SCHOOL BOARDING HOUSE
INTERIOR VIEW OF SCRANTON HIGH SCHOOL
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
Reydon as Postmaster. Mr. Reydon also put up the first gin in 188 -. The present fine gin is owned by a stock company of farmers. J. M. Williamson of Cis- co was the pioneer merchant. Among the present pro- gressive business firm's are E. E. Chunn, dry goods, groceries and hardware; I. E. Cook & Bro., dry goods, and W. L. Gattis & Son, druggists.
ROMNEY.
This prosperous and enterprising community was first settled by A. J. Fembling and Mr. Ballard. These were soon followed by E. J. Arnold, Dr. J. N. White and Mr. Green, all from West Virginia.
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