USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 51
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Sidney B. Norwood acquired his early edu- cation in the Cleburne public schools, and spent three months in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. On returning home he began his association with the National Bank of Cleburne as a col- lector, and his abilities have won him steady promotion and a service that has contributed in no small degree to the successful standing of this bank. He served seven years as cashier and in April, 1907, was elected president as the successor of W. F. Ramsey.
Mr. Norwood has been peculiarly success- ful as a banker. In 1906, in association with Judge W. F. Ramsey, he also established a private bank at Riovista, Texas. The fol- lowing year he bought out his partner and is now president of the bank, O. T. Smyth being cashier. This bank has a capital of thirty thousand dollars.
When Cleburne has needed leadership for community projects and movements of general public benefit responsibility has usually fallen on Mr. Norwood, and he has responded with a willingness and with an energy that has achieved noteworthy success. He helped organize the Chamber of Commerce, was on its first board of directors, and was chairman of the committee to raise capital for the Citizens Hotel for the building of which a contract was recently let. In the promotion of a two million dollar bond issue for good roads he went over the county in the strenu- ous campaign to secure a majority approval for the issue, and derives a great deal of satisfaction from seeing this money spent in the building of permanent highways over Johnson County.
In Johnson County September 17, 1902, Mr. Norwood married Miss Emma Randle,
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who was born in Milan County, Texas, June 11, 1881, daughter of George D. and Emma (Cole) Randle. Her parents came from Ala- bama and her father was a merchant at Rock- dale, Texas, and later at Cleburne, where he died in 1909. Mrs. Norwood is the oldest of seven children, the others being Cole T., Isabel, wife of L. G. Carter, Miss Pattie, Miss Marguerite, George B. and John Randle. Mr. and Mrs. Norwood have two children: Judith is a graduate of the Cleburne High School with the class of 1921, and Sidney B., Jr., is in the sophomore class of high school.
F. HANNAN DAYTON. When the story is fully told of the development of such sec- tions of Texas as Cooke County, proper credit must be bestowed upon the labors and influence of such men as F. Hannan Dayton of Valley View. He has lived here nearly all his life, and while his father was a man of much prominence Hannan Dayton started his independent career relying entirely upon his labor and individual resources. His pros- perity has been achieved by many successive years, and even more important to the coun- try at large is the splendid and highly pro- ductive farm which he created practically from the raw land, and which gives added value and attractiveness to the entire rural community.
Mr. Dayton was born at Breckenridge, Illi- nois, March 12, 1872, and was a son of Dr. Aaron O. Dayton, a pioneer citizen of Cooke County, whose career is the subject of more extensive mention elsewhere in this publica- tion. Hannan Dayton was in his sixth year when his family came to Cooke County, and his first lessons were learned in the Downard schoolhouse near Valley View. Later he at- tended the Valley View High School and went to Florida with the family and lived two years in Dade City. He then returned to Cooke County and with his educational equipment taught a term in the Prairie Grove school. He had no intention of becoming a pedagogue permanently and his teaching merely fur- nished him a little money to tide him over while getting his bearings for other work. Having had a farm training, he determined to make agriculture his regular vocation. With 'only his time and labor he began on the home farm, and for two years shared crops suc- cessfully with his father. Then as a renter farmer he supplemented his efforts for two years with trading horses, cattle and other stock.
He became an individual land owner when he bought a hundred acres of the old Joshua Gorham homestead, one of the interesting landmarks of the locality. He paid part cash and had time for the remainder of the pur- chase price. Just prior to this transaction he had married, and he and his wife began house- keeping in a modest home on the farm. In subsequent years he added extensively to the improvements. He continued general farm- ing and trading, was a shipper for several years to the Kansas City markets, and later to Fort Worth, and his business expanded in volume until he became one of the large ship- pers out of this section of north Texas. A number of years ago his operations as a stock dealer met reverses that swept away practi- cally all his capital. He had credit left, and with determination set about to build up his business, and began dealing in stock on a larger scale than ever, for a time riding almost night and day over the country. He repaid his creditors the money advanced him to do business, and after nine years of struggle out- rode the storm of adversity.
About this time he bought a section of land in Reagan County in western Texas. This he subsequently exchanged for land near Val- ley View, later sold that farm, and then bought the place where he now lives. He began developing here the unimproved land, and his own enterprise has been responsible for it being accounted one of the most sub- stantially improved farms of the community today. These improvements include a hand- some nine-room brick farm residence, with bath and other modern facilities, a barn, silo, a garage, wash house and smoke house, while a deep well provides an ample supply of soft water for all purposes. Mr. Dayton has a thoroughly organized farm business. He fills his silos largely with the sorghum and cane crops grown on his land. He feeds about a hundred cattle and sixty sheep each winter, and his shipments to the markets are now almost entirely his own stock. His crops are produced from two hundred and fifty acres under plow. For several years he experi- mented with alfalfa, but his experiments were not satisfactory and he abandoned that pop- ular legume.
In a public way his efforts outside his home and farm have been most effectively bestowed in behalf of the public schools. He has been one of the five members of the Cooke County School Board since its organization. This board instituted a policy of erecting modern
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school houses so that the district now receives state aid. It graded the rural schools, intro- duced modern methods of teaching, including manual training, and has accomplished the organization of three rural high schools.
Near Valley View September 22, 1897, Mr. Dayton married Miss Bertie A. Stevens. She was born in Richmond, Indiana, September 25, 1875, daughter of Isaac W. Stevens. Her father brought his family to Texas in 1871 and established his home five miles north- west of Valley View, where he and his wife have lived for half a century. Her father was reared in Indiana, two of his brothers were Union soldiers in the Civil war, and he has been a democratic voter. He is still actively and enthusiastically engaged in poul- try raising. The five children reared in the Stevens home are Mrs. J. M. Wilson, Mrs. Dayton, Abner W., one of the very successful farmers of Cooke County, Miss Mary and Mrs. R. H. Speake.
Mr. and Mrs. Dayton have four children : A. Ogden, Frances, George and Greta. Fran- ces is teaching while continuing her own edu- cation in the C. O. A., Denton, Texas. A. Ogden Dayton trained as a volunteer for service in a Gainesville Company of the National Guard, but the company was not called in active duty during the World war. The family all gave their active support to war measures and Mr. Dayton was on a Liberty Bond sales committee and much Red Cross work was done in the home. Mr. Day- ton is a Democrat, cast his first vote for Mr. Bryan and supported the Nebraskan two times afterward, and has voted for the other party candidate. He has taken three degrees in the Masonic Lodge at Valley View and is a member of the Woodmen of the World.
JAMES EBERT DAYTON is one of the thor- oughly pracical farmers, a business farmer, in the vicinity of Valley View in Cooke County. His career shows that he has been aggressive, self-reliant, ready to face adver- sities as calmly as he has received good for- tune, and is a fine type of the sturdy citizen- ship found in this locality of North Texas.
He is a brother of George W. Dayton of Gainesville, and a son of Dr. Aaron Ogden Dayton, one of the most interesting and prom- inent pioneer characters of Cooke County. Much of the history and the varied experi- ences of the Dayton family in Texas and else- where are recounted more fully elsewhere in this publication.
James Ebert Dayton was born near Breck- enridge, Hancock County, Illinois, November 21, 1869, and was seven years of age when his parents came to Texas. He grew up in the locality around Valley View, and his first lessons were learned in the Downard school near that village. Later he attended the Gainesville High School, and at the age of twenty accompanied the family to Dade City, Florida, where he finished his education with a business course. He then began teaching and for one year was a teacher in Cooke County. He was associated with the family enterprise in the orange industry in Florida until the disastrous freeze of about a quarter of a century ago devastated practically all the orange groves of that state, killing some trees that were sixty years old. Following that Mr. Dayton took up the plumbing business and followed that trade for about three years, until he returned to Texas.
Resuming his place in the old neighborhood, he began farming and stock raising and con- tinued actively so until 1907. During the following six years he had some interesting experiences in southwest Texas in the district of Schleicher County. He did some farming there, but more particularly was identified with the sheep industry and stock raising, and his business was attended by considerable suc- cess. Since then he has lived in the Valley View section of Cooke County. His farms are three miles north of Valley View, another four miles east, and one six miles east of Gainesville. He still raises considerable stock, ships to the market and is a grain grower on two hundred and forty acres under cultiva- tion, feeding all his crops on his farm.
Mr. Dayton has interested himself in the affairs of citizenship. For seven years he was trustee of the Valley View School District and for five years supervisor of the road dis- trict. He cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland in 1892. He and all his family were intensely interested in the prose- cution of the war. He was a member of the committee for World war work, including the raising of funds for the Salvation Army, the Seven-in-one-drive, and carried a large share of the burden of promoting bond sales in his school district, of which he was trustee. He was appointed on the committee which can- vassed the rural district about Valley View for sales and contributions for other war work. Mrs. Dayton was one of the leading workers in the Valley View Chapter of the Red Cross, and her two daughters busily applied their
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FOUR GENERATIONS OF ISAAC GREGORY FAMILY
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needles in knitting work. Fraternally Mr. Dayton is a Master Mason, is consul com- mander of the Woodmen of the World at Valley View, and was delegate from this camp to the Waco insurgent meeting to pro- test against some of the actions of the head camp.
In Cooke County February 12, 1902, Mr. Dayton married Miss Cora Ethel Nall. She was born in Kentucky in November, 1880, and was brought to Texas by her father, Richard Nall. Mrs. Dayton was the third of nine children, and the others are Ernest, Hu- bert, Dayton, Arthur, Lizzie, wife of Elwood Barrett, Sidney, Warren and Bertha wife of Bart Terrett. Mrs. Dayton finished her edu- cation in the public schools. The two daugh- ters of Mr. and Mrs. Dayton are Ora Ola and Georgia Corine.
ISAAC GREGORY, with his father and other members of the family, was one of the first settlers of the black land region of Cooke County. One of the most interesting subjects of local history is determining the special influ- ences that mold and make a community what it is as a social, religious, educational and business environment. It would be difficult to overestimate the forces that emanated from the Gregory family during their long resi- dence in Cooke County. While they moved to the county primarily to acquire fertile lands for agricultural purposes, among their first thoughts were the church and school, and for fifty years they have upheld all the forces for good in this section of the state.
The head and leader of the family when it came to Texas was Isaac Gregory's father, Rev. William Gregory. He was born in Nel- son County, Kentucky, in November, 1820, and at the age of ten went to live with a sister in Louisville. In those years he had little opportunity to attend school. As a youth he became a drayman, hauling goods to and from the river boats .. As a young man in Muhlenberg County he was converted, and soon afterwards felt the call to preach. Prep- aratory to such work he endeavored to make amends for his lack of education. Though married and with children of his own, he attended school and became proficient in English grammar and other lines of study. He preached his first sermon in Muhlenberg County and in after life the ministry was his chief work. He was known as a pro- found student and thinker on theological lines, for a forcible preacher, and as a revivalist he
founded and built up many successful con- gregations. He also became prominent in the administrative sphere of the church, and was frequently a moderator and representative in the General Assembly.
In early life he was not a man of great physical vigor, and his move to Texas was made chiefly to benefit his health. It was in 1852 that he and his brother-in-law, Felix Grundy, started with their families to the Southwest, traveling from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Their first settlement was southeast of Sherman, in Grayson County, where they were near both wood and water, items to which they were accus- tomed in Kentucky. They developed farms and raised grain for their stock and fami- lies. There was not a cotton gin in that entire region of the state. They became familiar with Texas lands during the seven years of their Grayson County residence, and decided that the black land belt was more fertile, and accordingly disposed of their in- terests in Grayson County and drove on West to Cooke County, settling in what has since been known as Gregory Settlement.
Here William Gregory bought lands at the cheap prices then prevailing, and his home, the Allred homestead, was the first farm house erected in the locality. His brother-in- law had land adjoining, and the two pioneers spent the next ten years of their lives as neighbors and home builders. In 1868 Wil- liam Gregory moved to Denton County and for some years lived near Lewisville in the Flower Mound settlement, where he was pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Next he went to Wise County, near Chico, where he continued his church work as pastor, and where he performed his last act of service for the church.
Wherever his interests as a farmer and minister called him he was watchful of the moral welfare. He abhorred all things pro- fane, especially profaning the name of God. It is said that he spoke to a member of his church who then represented Denton County in the Texas Legislature, requesting that he introduce a bill making profane language on the public highways of Texas an offense, and such bill was introduced. In spite of frail health, by careful living his years were pro- longed to the benefit of many communities. He kept regular hours, practiced temperance in all things and was a bitter foe of liquor. When the Civil war came on he was staunch in his Union sentiments, and he and Felix
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Grundy supported the Union in the first elec- tion held upon the question of seccssion. Before the second election was held on that subject he realized nothing could keep the state true to its allegiance, and he told Mr. Grundy that it was useless for them to attend the polls. After the close of the war he cast his ballot as a Democrat, though he was never a strong partisan. Rcv. William Gregory lost his life by fire, being unable to save him- self when his home burned. This tragedy occurred in December, 1908, when he was eighty-eight years of age. His faithful wife survived him until January 13, 1915. She was then nearly ninety-five years of age, and they had been married seventy years before the death of Mr. Gregory. They were mar- ried in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, in 1838. Her maiden name was Millie Grundy. She was born in Indiana about 1820, and was three years of age when her father, William Grundy, moved from Indiana to Kentucky. William Grundy spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Muhlenberg County. He was born in 1785, and by his marriage to Ruth Osborne had the following children : Samuel, James, Felix, William, Robert, Garrett, Abra- ham, Priscilla, Letitia, Millie, Mary Ellen and Sallie Ann.
The children of Rev. William Gregory and wife were: Isaac; Joseph, of Gainesville ; Drusilla, who died as the wife of W. N. Can- non ; Nancy, wife of J. C. Griffis, living at Crafton, Texas; Mary, who was married to B. F. Donald and died in Denton County ; Caroline, wife of M. F. Carnes, of Chico, Texas; Samuel, of Valley View ; and Laura, wife of Charles Word, of Amarillo.
While his achievements and experiences make an interesting story of itself, Isaac Gregory has in many ways made his life conform to the honored example of his father. He was about eleven years old when brought to Texas. He was born in Muhlen- berg County, Kentucky, November 8, 1841. He attended school in Kentucky and finished his education in the log school houses of pio- neer Texas, where he became familiar with the dirt floor and the puncheon floor of the old time schoolhouse, and sat on the split log benches without backs. The terms of such schools were short and the teachers inferior, but as he did not complete his schooling until after his service in the Confederate Army he acquired a fairly complete and satisfactory education.
He had about reached his majority when he enlisted in February, 1862, in the Con- federatc Army, joining Company C of Colonel McCord's regiment of Texas Rangers. The rendezvous of this command was in Montague County on Red River. Indian raids upon the settlements made it necessary for the troops to remain on the frontier, and Mr. Gregory was never in the great theater of the war between the North and South. His command was stationed near Fort Belknap until the final surrender. He participated in several combats with hostile Indians. On Christmas Day, 1863, his comrades overtook a band of Comanches on Fish Creek, and with thirty- two while soldiers against a hundred and sixty-five Indians there was waged an un- equal conflict from which the soldiers had to retire as best they could. Again, on January 8, 1865, a band of Indians on Dove Creek in Tom Green County was attacked by McCord's Rangers, resulting in one of the hottest en- gagements in frontier annals. After several hours of fighting the soldiers were forced to retreat with the loss of several men. Mr. Gregory was in that battle and during the campaign, and in the absence of beef, he par- ticipated in the feast on the carcasses of seven Spanish ponies killed.
After the war was over Mr. Gregory con- tinued in the frontier service as member of a company of minute men and was subject to call at various times when the community was menaced by hostile raids. Indians con- tinued their stealing and killing expeditions for a number of years and Mr. Gregory was called out at the last raid made on the settle- ment, in October, 1878.
In the meantime he had devoted himself to the serious duties of a civilian farmer and in the community where he had grown up. For half a century he has been one of the leading farmers and stockmen and commu- nity builders of Cooke County. His home is nineteen miles southwest of Gainesville and adjacent to Clear Creek. Here he has created a farm of nearly six hundred acres, and has almost half of it under cultivation. His live- stock comprises sheep, horses and cattle. Mr. Gregory is also a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Valley View.
As a layman Mr. Gregory has been one of the prominent church leaders in this sec- tion of Texas, interested not only in his home church but in the extension of church build- ing elsewhere. After the war he united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and
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served as elder of the Mount Olivet Congre- gation, has attended Presbyteries and favored the movement to unite the two branches of the Presbyterian Church. In the process of that consolidation he was a delegate from his home church at the General Assembly at Dal- las of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. For many years he has been devoted to the building up and maintenance of a splendid Sabbath School in his locality. The cause of public education has always been an object calling for his best endeavors. He has served as trustee of his local district. Mr. Gregory is a democrat and singularly enough is also a believer in protective tariff for Amer- ican industries, a belief that gives him a unique distinction among the old-line demo- crats of his locality. For many years he has been affiliated with the Masonic Order, has mastered the esoteric work of the order and became a teacher of Masonry under a cer- tificate from the Grand Lodge of Texas.
On November 8, 1866, Isaac Gregory mar- ried in Denton County Miss Mary E. Copen- haver, and they were companions in home and all their interests for more than forty years, until the death of Mrs. Gregory on September 21, 1909. She was born in St. Clair County, Missouri, September 12, 1849, daughter of Benjamin F. and Margaret (Crig- ger) Copenhaver. The Copenhaver family came to Texas about 1860. Her brother, John F. Copenhaver, is now a resident of Texahoma, Oklahoma. In the declining years of his life Mr. Gregory is comforted by the presence of both children and grandchildren, a number of whom still live in his home com- munity. His oldest child is John William, a resident of Valley View. James F. died in the Gregory Settlement, leaving no children. Martha A. is the wife of John Ratliff and lives near Lone Wolf. Oklahoma. Marga- ret T. is the wife of W. H. Davis, of Aran- sas Pass, Texas. Joseph Edward, a farmer on the old homestead. married Daisy Wag- goner and has three children. Richard, Edith and Lowell. Laura Belle is the wife of Luther Atcheson. of Slidell, Texas. Robert Bruce lives at Orland, California. Charles Monroe has his home at Hood, Texas. Thomas J. remains a factor on the home- stead farm. Mary Eunice is the wife of John McFarland, a farmer on the Gregory estate. Edna Florence, the youngest, is the wife of Sam Flint, of Cleburne, Texas.
JOHN W. ROBERSON. Young men who think most of the avenues to substantial achieve- ment are shut off to them may read some sound lessons and find encouragement in the career of John W. Roberson of Cooke County, one of the most extensive farmers and land owners in that section of north Texas. Mr. Roberson, when a child, was given the name "Dick," and is everywhere over Cooke County known as "Uncle Dick" Roberson.
He reached this part of North Texas forty-four years ago and he put in several years of hard labor before he was able to acquire a modest tract of even the cheap land of that day and make his start toward a home establishment. A remarkable capacity for work, good man- agement and an unwavering faith in the future development of the agricultural lands of Cooke County have been important ele- ments in his unusual success. He was born in Louden County, Tennessee, February 9, 1851. His great-grandfather came from Ire- land, was of Scotch-Irish stock, and founded the family in Virginia. He is said to have had eighteen sons by three marriages. He served as a soldier of the Revolution. His son, Joseph Roberson, grandfather of the Cooke County farmer, was a native of Vir- ginia and in early times moved to Tennessee. He served in the War of 1812. He estab- lished a home on Sweetwater Creek in Sweet- water Valley of Tennessee long before rail- roads were built in that country, and hauled his surplus products to market for long dis- tances, taking his hogs to Atlanta, Georgia. Joseph Roberson married Miss Nancy English. Their four children were Mike, James, Mar- tha, who became the wife of Thomas Robin- son, and Mary, who married Blount Paul.
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