USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 17
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His father, John Whitfield Ballard, was a South Carolina soldier in the Confederate army and died of wounds received during Sherman's raid against Atlanta. John W. Ballard married Catherine Hardy, a native of South Carolina. She was the daughter of a small slave-holding planter in that state, and grew up with limited educational advantages. She did a splendid part in rearing and train- ing her children and providing for them when they were young, and her name and memory are held in high respect in Cooke County, where she lived for many years and where she died in October, 1903, at the age of sev- enty-four. She was an active member of the Union Hill Methodist Church. At her hus- band's death she was left with the following children : James Ellington, who died in Gainesville, leaving a family; John Summer- field, of Phoenix, Arizona; W. Robert, who was accidentally killed by a runaway team at Callisburg a few years ago and also left descendants ; Edward R .; and Josephine, who died in the old home locality, the wife of William McClelland.
Edward R. Ballard was born December 24, 1861. In 1870 he and his three brothers and sister accompanied their mother and an old family friend, Ancil Ashcraft, to Texas. They began their journey at Talladega, Alabama, traveled by rail to Vicksburg, thence by boat down the Mississippi to the mouth of Red River, and another boat carried them up that
stream to Shreveport, Louisiana. The rest of the journey to Hollsville, Texas, was made by railroad, and the party spent their first year in Wood County. At the beginning of 1871 they arrived in Cooke County and located on a farm adjoining the present home of Edward R. Ballard. This first settlement was made in the timber, on land that had never been cleared or cultivated. The first house was built of logs, with a stick and dirt chimney, and con- tained two rooms. It was a humble shelter, but it served the family as a home for ten years. The household experienced some of the real poverty of frontier life. The labor of the sons enabled them to provide a team and some stock. Cows which ran wild in the woods were taken up and milked the first year or two, until the family could make its start of stock growing on their own account. A limited acreage was planted to corn and cotton, hogs were raised largely on the mast in the woods, and the cattle pastured on the open range. It was on the old homestead farm that Mrs. Ballard lived with her children until her death.
Edward R. Ballard finished his education in the common schools of Cooke County, and lived with his mother until past his majority. His first home after his marriage was on the farm where his mother lived and adjoining his present place on the north. He parted with that place in 1905 and then moved to the old George Vaughn place, where he has continued with profit his efforts at general farming and stock raising. This is recognized as one of the well improved farms along the Lower Callisburg road, and he has added some substantial improvements, including a one- story, eight-room house, erected in 1906.
Mr. Ballard is a thorough American, be- lieves that a private citizen owes something to his community and has acted on that prin- ciple. He served as a member of the School Board of Union Hill District No. 15. For many years he has been a steward in the Methodist Church. In 1912 he was chosen a County commissioner from Precinct No. 2, and during his two-year term he participated actively in the work of the board with his fellow commissioners, J. F. McCollum, J. W. Thurman and James Clack, under County Judge C. L. Pearman. It was during this term that the contract for the new Court House was let to replace the old one burned. Before his term expired the first story of the
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new structure was finished. Mr. Ballard has always been a stanch democrat, casting his first vote for Cleveland and his last for Gov- ernor Cox. He has been a stanch upholder of temperance and prohibition. During the Hogg and Clark battles in Texas politics he espoused the cause of Governor Hogg. He supported the candidacy of the present gov- ernor, Mr. Neff.
At Whitesboro, Texas, December 23, 1880, Mr. Ballard married Miss Theodocia Steed, who was born in Grayson County, Texas, March 17, 1858, a daughter of Donison and Maria (Lowe) Steed. Her parents were mar- ried in Tennessee and settled in Texas some years before the Civil war. Her father was a Baptist minister and died in 1872, at the age of forty. The seven children of the Steed family, all of whom grew up, were: Spur- geon, who died at Whitesboro, Texas; Mrs. Ballard; Laura, wife of John Fox and a resi- dent of Shawnee, Oklahoma ; Leora, who be- came the wife of Holmes Akers, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, and died in 1920; Luella, Mrs. Thomas Cunningham, and a resident of Co- manche County, Texas; Lillie, wife of Abner Jones, of Whitesboro; and Dayton, who is the present county judge of Grayson County, living in Sherman.
Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Ballard the oldest is Eula, wife of G. W. Milner. They have a large family of children, named Thelma, Alma, Wilma, Randall, Homer, Docia and Bessie May. The second child, Es- tella, married Abner Cook, of Gainesville, and has a daughter, Lula Grace. Roy, the oldest son, is a resident of Gainesville, married Lucy Proffer, and has a daughter, Madge. James Dayton, the second son, was teaching the Union Hill schools when taken by death March 4, 1914, at the early age of twenty- three. The two younger sons are Fred and Grady D. The latter is the only one now left at the old home. He was registered in the draft but was not called to duty during the World war. Fred saw active service as a member of Company C of the Five Hundred and Thirteenth Engineers, went to France in April, 1918, and helped build roads and ware- houses behind the army front, racing charge of a squad of colored troops and German prisoners. He returned from Europe in July, 1919, and soon afterward became connected with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company of Akron, and now lives at Detroit, Michigan.
JAMES M. WAIDE. A companion during the early days of the picturesque old cowmen of the trail, a developer of proyerty and of the stock and agricultural industries, and a public- spirited participant in the various movements which have contributed to the advancement of Denton County, James M. Waide, of Slidell, has been a witness of the great changes which have been brought about in this part of the state and his career has embodied all manner of experiences, from conflict with the In- dians to equally engrossing engagements with the competition and financial conditions of the twentieth century.
Mr. Waide was born January 31, 1851, in Rusk County, Texas, a son of James M. and Martha (Bridges) Waide. His father was an only child and a member of a pioneer family of Tennessee, in which state he was born, at Knoxville, February 23, 1825. He received a good education, and when twenty- four years of age came to Texas, settling first in Rusk County, where he remained until 1861. In that year he came to Denton County and engaged in the horse and cattle business, and save for three years when he was at Stephensville, Erath County, continued to be a resident of the Chisholm ranch, on Clear Creek, during the remainder of his life. In Erath County he was captain of a company of Minute Men for defense against the ma- rauding Indians, and maintained his family on that frontier during those dangerous days. He was a strong Union sympathizer during the Civil war, and spoke his mind freely upon the subject, but was never personally inter- fered with, although other men, less outspoken than he, paid for their indiscretion with their lives at the hands of the southern sympa- thizers. Mr. Waide possessed excellent busi- ness qualifications. He wrote a splendid hand, was a good conversationalist and was capable of making a forceful speech or address. He had strong political convictions and voted the republican ticket in national elections, and while he was not a member of any church, he lived a temperate life and was choice in his conversation, avoiding profanity.
During the early days he kept a record of the raids of the Indians, annotating the number of persons killed and carried off and the value of the stock which he lost. This record shows that the Indian raids in his lo- cality began in August, 1866, when the Co- manches killed a Mr. McDonald and his child. In October, 1867, they carried off Dick Free-
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man, who was later recovered by the pay- ment of a ransom by friends of his family. On January 5, 1868, they killed one Fitz- patrick and his wife, as well as four others, and carried away four children. On August 27, 1868, they killed Sol Forrester and shot Jeff Chisholm, a brother of John Chisholm, and on October 30, 1868, they killed Sevier Fortenberry. The day the Fitzpatricks were killed, the Indians stole horses from Mr. Waide to the value of $600 and later in the month drove off another bunch valued at $500, and in pursuit of the band a stallion valued at $500 was killed by them. On October 23, 1868, they killed horses valued at $500, and a little later drove off others to the value of $750. On the 28th they killed five head of his horses near Dillon's, and drove off others to the value of $150. On December 31, 1871, they stole sixty-five head more of his horses, valued at $3,250. He followed his stock to Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and saw the gov- ernment sell it and made a demand on the authorities for its value, but it was refused and he was compelled to institute a suit for the money. Then only part of it was recov- ered, his claims for the year 1868 being de- feated.
Mr. Waide was married at Athens, Ten- nessee, to Miss Martha Bridges, who was born there, and who died in 1891, he follow- ing her to the grave February 17, 1897. They became the parents of the following children : James M., Jr., of this notice ; D. H., who is a ranchman and farmer of Cooke County, Texas; Mary, who married Bow Deason, of El Paso, Texas; John B., a developer and ranchman of Denton County; Frank, who married T. C. Ruby, of Dallas; Emma, who married I. F. Miller and resides at McCloud, Oklahoma ; Anna, who became Mrs. Marshall J. Nance, of Denton County ; Charley, who is a ranchman and farmer near the old home; E. Robert, who is engaged in farming and ranching in Denton County in the vicinity of the old home place; Joseph D., who occupies the old Chisholm ranch on Clear Creek where the Waide home was established; Zolley, a farmer of Texline; and Garrett, a farmer at Ochiltree, Texas.
The little schooling secured by James M. Waide, Jr., was in a log schoolhouse about ten miles west of Bolivar. He left home when a youth of seventeen years and went to work on the trail with John Chisholm first, making drives to Abilene, Kansas, as early as 1868.
He made twenty-three trips over the old trail. driving to Caldwell and Kiowa, Kansas, lastly, and during the dozen years he was engaged in that business became acquainted with most of the historic old cowmen of Texas. The Chisholm trail started from Red River and crossed the Kansas line in the neighborhood of Kiowa. The time required to make the trip across the territory was about thirty-one days and the trips were not made altogether without incident, for the Indians took and drove off beeves from the herds and annoyed the oufits very much. Herds numbered at times from 3,000 to 5,000 head and made a trail across the Indian Territory from 300 to 400 yards wide. Mr. Waide worked for Glid- den & Sanborn after he left Mr. Chisholm, the former being the same Glidden who later in- vented and patented the Glidden barbed wire. When he left this outfit Mr. Waide quit the trail, returned to the old home and began rais- ing stock and farming for himself. He estab- lished himself permanently on Clear Creek about 1880, although he had selected the loca- tion many years before. He built the first house on the farm, ploughed the first furrow, and started his domestic and home life there. His pioneer home was a one-room log cabin which sheltered him for ten years and was succeeded by a box house of two rooms, and this in turn gave way to a four-room frame, his present home.
Mr. Waide has given more attention to stock than to farming, and in the latter de- partment has grown much more wheat, oats and corn than cotton. He has met the era of low prices and of high war prices for the output of his ranch of a half section of land, and has witnessed the settlement of his com- munity from its pioneer stage to the fencing of the last acre of wild land. The school dis- trict near his home was laid off after he settled there, and is Cannon School No. 7. For fifteen years he was a trustee of the district. His activities in politics have been as a republican, and his first Presidential vote was cast for General Grant in 1872.
Mr. Waide was married in Denton County, Texas, in February, 1870, to Miss Lucy A. Fortenberry, a daughter of Sevier and Jane (Odell) Fortenberry. It was Mrs. Waide's father who was killed by the Indians as noted above in the records of Mr. Waide's father. Mr. Fortenberry, who had served in the war between the states as a Confederate soldier. came to Texas from Arkansas, and in his civil
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life was a farmer and stockman. When he lost his life he was one of a company of thirty men who were following 300 Indians, and in the northwest part of Denton County their leader ordered the command to dismount. Before they could remount the Indians were upon them, and after Mr. Fortenberry had fired his squirrel rifle at them his defense was gone and he was slain by bows and arrows.
Mrs. Waide was born in Denton County, Texas, in 1855, and is the only Fortenberry child. Her mother subsequently married D. D. Clampitt, and later became the wife of Dr. E. E. Howard, and died on Clear Creek without further issue. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Waide have been as follows: Thomas, who is engaged in farming in Hale County, Texas; Fannie, the wife of Charlie Hileman, of New Mexico; Sallie, who mar- ried Charlie Wilson, of Ochiltree County, Texas; William, who is engaged in farming on Clear Creek; Sevier, who is engaged in farming in Ochiltree County; Bettie, who married Lawrence Stover, of Greenville, Texas ; Carson, who is a farmer near Sanger ; Eula, who is now Mrs. Owen Kerr, of Acme, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Waide have twenty- eight grandchildren and five great-grandchil- dren.
JOHN ERASTUS BUSTER. Of the seventy years of his life John Erastus Buster has spent all but six in Texas, and the scene of his mature activities has been at and around Lewisville, in Denton County. He and his family were part of the pioneer colonists of Northern Texas, and his life has been a truly constructive one in more senses than one.
Mr. Buster was born in Kentucky, Decem- ber 30, 1851. His father, John P. Buster, was a tanner, who died before he was forty years of age. He operated a tan yard at Albany, in Clinton County, Kentucky, and that business was continued for a time after his death by his widow.
One of the noted pioneer women of North- ern Texas was the late Mrs. Martha Buster. who was born in Adair County, Kentucky, daughter of William Lair, who married a Miss Graham. Martha Lair grew up in a country home, and while she had only the advantages of rural schools she made good use of her opportunities, becoming a good grammarian and developing a taste for literature that sus- tained an influence all her subsequent life. She was helpful in the training of her own children as they were in school, and was a
household leader and model example in other ways as well. When a girl she joined the Mis- sionary Baptist Church, and lived in that faith to the end of her days. She was only eighteen when she became the wife of John P. Buster.
In 1857, with her children, she started for Texas, the other companions of this journey including her brother, Dr. William D. Lair. They traveled all the way from Albany, Ken- tucky, by wagon. and first located in Grayson County. The Buster family lived for a time on a rented farm west of Sherman, and in the fall of the next year moved twelve miles north of Mckinney and after a year Mrs. Martha Buster bought an interest of rights in a small tract of school land on the present site of Whitewright. That was her first permanent home in the state. She reared her family there during the war period, and in 1871 moved to Denton County, settling four miles from Lewisville. There her interests and labors were continued for almost twenty years, and she died at Pilot Point, at the home of her son, in the spring of 1899, when eighty years of age. Her children were: Eva, who married in Texas, Green Strather, and died soon after- ward; Waller W., who in the latter part of 1864, while in the Confederate army, was killed in an altercation with one of his comrades ; Fannie A., who became the wife of R. L. Burke and lives at Aubrey, Texas ; Dr. O. C., who joined the Confederate army at the age of seventeen, serving in Texas and Louisiana, and afterward practiced medicine for many years in Grayson and Denton counties and died at Pilot Point, leaving a family ; Miss Ellen, whose career as a teacher is well known, part of her service being with Franklin College at Pilot Point and later in public schools; and John E., the youngest of the family.
John E. Buster acquired a common school education in the country districts of North Texas. He also attended the school of W. B. Featherston at Ladonia. As a child he was fond of books and reading, and his period of learning has extended over practically a life- time. He is in every sense an educated man, and has the understanding and sympathies of one who has investigated broadly in the realm of truth. During his early years his labors were contributed to the benefit of his mother on her farm. After reaching his majority and about the time the Texas & Pacific Rail- road was being constructed through Dallas County he became a modest contractor, using his teams for work on the dump, He also had some limited experience as a freighter with
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short hauls out of Dallas. Eventually he re- turned to the farm, and to agriculture he gave the energies of his manhood until 1899. His farm was near Lewisville and was well im- proved under his management and direction.
Mr. Buster has always maintained an inter- est in public education. For thirteen years he was a trustee of the Lewisville independent school district. In 1882 he was elected a county commissioner, serving two years, and since then has accepted no official service. He was on the board with James Eads, A. J. Nance and J. A. Drye. At that time the country was changing from a pastoral to an agricultural district, and the board had the responsibility of opening many roads and the building of many bridges, some of the latter being con- structed through bond issues, resulting in the first bonds voted on by the county. He also helped in that capacity to establish the boundaries of the school districts over the county, such district taking the place of the old community schools. Mr. Buster was reared a Mr. Buster's oldest son, Enoch Lair Buster, is one of the honored soldier dead credited to Denton County. He entered the World war in September, 1917, was trained on the rifle range at San Antonio, and was with his com- rades from Collin and Grayson counties in Company A, Three Hundred and Fifty-ninth Infantry. The regiment went overseas in June, 1918, and he was a sergeant when death came to him during the battle of the Argonne Forest on November 2d. His body has been returned to Lewisville, Texas, for burial. democrat, though his father was a Whig. His first ballot was cast in Texas for Richard Coke, and he began voting for president in 1876, when he supported Samuel J. Tilden and has not missed a national election since then. He has been a member of the dominant faction of the democratic party in Texas, and has frequently been at state conventions as a dele- gate. He was in the convention when Culber- son was named for governor, and also when S. W. T. Lanham was named for that office. In the campaign of 1892 he supported Gov- Another soldier representative was John Reagan Buster, who was first trained at San Antonio, and after his assignment to the Engi- neers finished his course at Fort Sill. He reached the other side before his brother Lair, ernor Hogg. In 1920, although an admirer of Senator Bailey as a man and with faith in his statesmanship, he declined to follow him as a candidate for governor. When a schoolboy in Grayson County Mr. Buster joined the Good . being in the Thirty-fifth Division. He saw Templars, and he has supported the steady fight made for prohibition, realizing in his later years the triumph of the cause not only in the state but in the nation.
During his residence at Lewisville Mr. Bus- ter helped organize and for a time managed a gin business, and when the plant was sold he continued as manager of the Round Bale Gin for three years. At another time he took some stock in a lumber company, and was president of the company.
In Denton County, January 17, 1889, Mr. Buster married Miss Ada Hall, who was born in Missouri, daughter of Jesse Hall. She died about three years after her marriage, leaving one son, Enoch Lair Buster. The present wife of Mr. Buster was Miss Emma Mayfield, a
native of Georgia, daughter of G. W. and L. E. (Carpenter) Mayfield, who came to Texas when she was about seventeen years of age. She grew up in the Lewisville locality. Her brothers are Will and George Cleveland May- field, and her sisters are Mrs. Fannie Kelsay and Mrs. Pearl Robb. Her father was a Georgia soldier in the Confederate army, and the rest of his life was spent as a farmer. He died at Lewisville, surviving his wife about fourteen months. The children of Mr. Buster's second marriage are: John Reagan, Willola, Emmet, Johneva, Cleora and Joella. John Reagan is a telegraph operator with the Santa Fe and Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways at Celeste, Texas, and married Claud Mitchell ; Willola is the wife of Guy Tittle, of Dallas ; Emmet is in the Denison offices of the Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas Railway ; Johneva lives at Dallas; Cleora died in May, 1920, and Joella, the youngest, is attending school at Lewisville.
some of the real fighting of the war, but went through unscathed and returned home early in 1919, at once resuming his work as a railroad man.
WINFIELD SCOTT ESSEX. During a resi- dence of nearly thirty-five years in Fort Worth the late W. S. Essex achieved a defin- ite place in community life and affairs by his exceptional abilities and arduous devotion to the profession of law, by his public services in municipal affairs, and by his leadership in civic, religious, and other movements and organizations.
Mr. Essex, who died at his home in Poly- technic, Fort Worth, October 12, 1920, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1852, son of
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Nathan H. and Elizabeth J. ( Morris) Essex. He was liberally educated, attending the Uni- versity of Missouri, graduating March 30, 1882, and later the University of Michigan, graduating June 24, 1885. He came to Fort Worth in July, 1885, qualified for the pro- fession of law, and at once began practice and in after years had a clientage which was sig- nificant of his unusual abilities as a lawyer. He was greatly esteemed by the ablest and best known attorneys and jurists of north Texas. He was interested in other lines of business, was president of the Essex Land Company, and for twenty-five years was attor- ney for the Mutual Home Association.
Mr. Essex was elected and served from 1894 until 1898 as alderman from the fifth ward. For many years he lived in that portion of Greater Fort Worth known as Polytechnic, and was at the head of the local government when some of its most important improve- ments were undertaken. He served two terms as commissioner and in 1916 was elected mayor of Polytechnic. During his adminis- tration the water system of that municipality was completed. He was prominent in the Polytechnic Methodist Episcopal Church and at the time of his death was one of the trustees and was vice-president of the Union Gospel Mission Board. He was a member of the Bar Association, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Masonic Order.
In 1888, Mr. Essex married Miss Virginia Tucker, who died leaving one son, Winfield S. Essex, Jr. In June, 1909, Mr. Essex married Miss Esther Cowart, who survives him with two daughters, Mary Esther born in July, 1910, and Laura Beryl, born in August, 1912.
GEORGE W. HENNEN. As an ex-Confeder- ate soldier, as a Denton County pioneer, George W. Hennen has lived a life of varied circumstance and fortune, and his experiences and achievements make up a record that should be published for its historical value and will be read with interest by his many friends.
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