USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 36
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Heath, a farmer near Argyle, married Grace McMakin.
WILLIAM A. JONES is the dean of the dental profession at Denton, where his practice has been continued for nearly a quarter of a cen- tury, since 1897. His study, thorough prepara- tion, long experience and abilities have made him well qualified for the honors and respon- sibilities of one who enjoys the title of a Doctor of Dental Surgery.
Dr. Jones, who has been a resident of Texas since 1877, was born sixteen miles from the famous resort of Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 2, 1869. His father, Joseph M. Jones, was a native of Georgia, and about the open- ing of the Civil war removed to Arkansas and settled in the Hot Springs region. He was then unmarried. During the last year of the war he served as a private in General Tige Cabell's command. While in Arkansas he married Sallie E. Gibbs, of Louisiana. Joseph M. Jones brought his family to Texas in 1877 and established his home on a farm at Spring- town in Parker County. He lived in that locality the rest of his life, where his industry gained him comfortable circumstances and his probity the esteem of a large following of friends. He died in March, 1902, at the age of eighty-two. The widowed mother is now living at Denton with Dr. Jones. There are six children: Dr. G. M. Jones, a physician at Springtown; Dr. William A .; Sarah J., wife of M. M. Plemmons, of Antelope, Texas ; Matthew G., in the lumber business at Devall, Oklahoma ; Anna, wife of James Spurlock, of Hamon, Oklahoma ; and J. Daniel, a lumber- man at Frederick, Oklahoma.
William A. Jones had no opportunity to acquire an education until he came to Texas and finished the work of the schools at Spring- town. Leaving that locality, he entered the Philadelphia Dental College, where he pursued the regular course and graduated with the degree D. D. S. in June, 1892. Nearly ten years later, in 1901, he went back to Phila- delphia for post-graduate work, and he has always kept in touch with advanced ideas in his profession and with the leaders by attend- ing conventions of his fellow dentists. He is a member of the State and National Dental associations. Dr. Jones practiced for five years at Chico in Wise County and since 1897 has been busy with his professional work at Denton. He has been satisfied to be known for his abilities in his profession and he has
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seldom participated in affairs outside his work. He has rejoiced in the great growth and de- velopment of Denton since he came here. Twenty-five years ago Denton had neither of the large state schools that now give it fame as an educational center, and the best church at that time was the little red Presbyterian Church which is still doing duty for that con- gregation. Dr. Jones has long been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, has passed all the chairs in the local lodge, has sat as a member of the Grand Lodge and was deputy grand chancellor during the administration of Grand Chancellor Bell. As a youth of six- teen he joined the Methodist Church, and has been a steward of his church in Denton.
In Parker County, Texas, August 19, 1890, Dr. Jones married Miss Nannie Peterson. Her father, Dr. O. G. Peterson, came to Texas from his native state of Illinois, and was at one time state commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for Texas. He enlisted at the age of fifteen as a drummer boy, and was all through the war with his regiment, never being injured or captured. Dr. Peterson married Miss McGee. Of their three chil- dren Mrs. Jones was the youngest. The only survivor is the wife of Dr. G. M. Jones, of Springtown. Mrs. William A. Jones died January 15, 1920, at the age of forty-six. She co-operated in the work of the Woman's Shakespeare Club of Denton, and was one of its valued and esteemed members and the Dorcas of the club. She also carried a promi- nent part in civic affairs and was held in high esteem as an example of usefulness rarely to be found in a community. Surviving her are six children: Nora, wife of T. E. Peters, Jr., and has two children, William Edward and Charles Owen ; Miss Willie A., who is the wife of J. S. McGloin, of Sinton, Texas, and has a daughter, Margaret Frances ; Opal, Mrs. R. H. Garvin, of Dallas; while the three younger children are Arthur, Owsley and George.
At Patoka, Illinois, February 8, 1921, Dr. Jones married Miss Caroline Walker. She was born in Kentucky, where her father, H. T. Walker, is a retired farmer. Mrs. Jones spent several years in Musselshell County, Montana, as a rancher, an experience not uncommon for women in the far north- west. While in Texas her interest in music drew her into close friendship and union with organizations promoting the welfare of instru- mental music, and she attended several notable
musical events at Denton, thus becoming ac- quainted with Dr. Jones.
ARON L. MAYHEW. Twenty years meas- ures the citizenship and business activity of Mr. Mayhew at Cisco. First as a merchant and later in constructive real estate development he has performed a notable part in the up- building of the modern city and has been act- uated by a thorough public spirit in all his relationships with the community. He is one of the present Board of City Commissioners, and has always found time from his private business to devote to the public welfare.
Mr. Mayhew has lived in Texas since he was eleven years of age. He was born in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, in 1866, son of W. C. and Sarah (Coward) Mayhew, the latter now deceased. W. C. Mayhew served in the Confederate army during the war between the states, and in 1877 brought his family from Mississippi to Texas and was a pioneer of Coryell County. He now lives with his son Aron at Cisco.
Aron L. Mayhew acquired some of his edu- cation in his native state, and grew up on his father's farm in Coryell County. His own career was that of a practical farmer until he was about thirty years of age. He began his career as a merchant in Coryell County, but his chief success began when he removed to Cisco in 1900. For a number of years he did an extensive business at Cisco and all over the county as a merchant, and since retiring from that field has devoted his time to the insurance. real estate and investment business.
In real estate his efforts have been thor- oughly constructive. Cisco owns more of its business blocks, residences and other struc- tures to his enterprise than to that of any other one man. During 1920 he completed seven new business buildings, mostly on Broadway and on Avenue E. Mr. Mayhew has prac- tically made it a rule to invest his money for the building up of the city as fast as he made it, and he has never been a hoarder of capital.
This accounts for his record as a useful and public spirited citizen. He has been a city official or school trustee for many years at different periods, and gives much of his time to his present duties as a city commissioner.
Mr. Mayhew and family are members of the Christian Church. He married Miss Cor- delia McGehee, a native of Texas. Their six children are W. H., Charles E., Cordie, Min- . tora. Emma Dean and Nona Florrie.
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LEVI G. BELEW. One of the prominent colonies of pioneers that came to. Denton County arrived in 1857, consisting largely of a group of Baptists in religion, one of the constituent families being that of Belew. An infant brought to Denton County at the time was Levi G. Belew, who for many years has been successfully identified with business and affairs at Pilot Point.
Mr. Belew was born in Gibson County, Tennessee, August 16, 1855. His father, Aaron Belew, in 1857, came to Texas by wagon, his family being one of some forty families that came to Denton County at that time. Two members of the party were Baptist preachers, John Steed and Asa Davis, who for many years continued prominent in the Baptist Church work of Northern Texas and both died near Whitesboro. Aaron Belew was a man of retiring disposition, had no ambition for financial success, and lived an honorable career without leaving any amount of prop- erty behind him. He entered the Confederate service the first years of the war. and most of the time was on duty on the frontier, fighting the Indians in the Wichita Mountains and re- turning home after the war. He was always a democrat, was a Baptist, and he died near the Belew Schoolhouse, near Pilot Point, in February. 1900, when past eightv-two. He married a distant relative, Mary Tane Belew. daughter of Zacharia Belew. She died in 1904. They had seven children : Elizabeth. who died at Denton, wife of S. P. Tabor : Samuel. who died near Vici. Oklahoma : T. B., a resident of Salina, Oklahoma: Polly Ann. wife of Henry Coppage. a resident near Pilot Point : Scotia, who died in Los Angeles. Cali- fornia, as Mrs. Daniel Mayberry ; Levi Green ; and Tennessee, who was the only child of the family born in Texas and is now living at Luther. Oklahoma, the wife of T. C. Arnett.
Levi G. Belew grew up near the hamlet of Pilot Point. and he acquired the advantages of the local schools. He was a country boy. and during the war. while his father was absent. he and the negro slaves did much of the work of the farm, his particular duty being to tend the sheen of his father. After the war he and his brothers did the farm work and were factors in the range cattle business when the entire country was open and unfenced. He continued to be identified with the farm at his parents' home until long past his majority, and then moved to Pilot Point and engaged in business.
For many years Mr. Belew has been one of the leading grain and cotton dealers in Pilot Point, with operations widely extended by a system of warehouses along the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Frisco and the Texas & Pacific railroads. His organization has handled immense quantities of cotton and grain grown in this region. At the time of the great Galveston storm in 1900 Mr. Belew had 40,000 bushels of grain on track in cars at Galveston. The entire lot was a total loss. There was no one personally responsible for this loss and disaster, and as he could not even blame himself he wrote the loss off his books and with his usual courage and spirit continued operations.
When he was seventeen years of age Mr. Belew began teaching, and followed that pro- fession for several years. His last work as a teacher was two terms at old Pottsville in Hamilton County. In subsequent years his interest in public schools has steadily in- creased, and much of his good work as a public-spirited citizen at Pilot Point has been in behalf of education and school facilities. He was an influential factor in laying out the independent school district at Pilot Point, is still one of the board of trustees of that dis- trict, and helped combat the opposition to public schools which existed for a long time among the old and wealthy people of the locality. He was chairman of the first Cham- ber of Commerce organized in the town, still an active organization but carried on under the name of the Young Men's Business League. Pilot Point was first incorporated as a city in the early seventies. At one time it had nine policemen on the force. Later the charter was surrendered and for a number of years there was no city government. Mr. Belew actively supported the second effort to incorporate, and after several elections the movement carried. In 1916 he was elected mayor to succeed Mayor S. I. Newton, and served a term of two years, until 1918. During his administration the old waterworks was practically made over, by enlargement and extension of mains, the erection of a water power and other improvements.
Mr. Belew has been an interested partici- pant in the democratic party, has served as chairman of the executive committee for the county and often as a delegate to state con- ventions. In the campaign for governor in 1892 he supported George Clark. In 1896 he gave his vote to the Palmer and Buckner
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sound money ticket. He was a stanch advo- cate of the nomination of Joseph W. Bailey for governor in 1920. In various campaigns he has taken part in the program by intro- ducing the speakers and acting as chairman of political gatherings.
At Pilot Point April 20, 1890, Mr. Belew married Miss Emelett McKenney, who was born in Denton County November 5, 1865, the year after her family settled there. Her father, S. A. McKenney, came to Texas from Missouri and was a member of the convention which framed the present constitution of Texas. Mrs. Belew's mother is still living at Pilot Point. Her surviving children are W. B., Mrs. Belew, Mrs. Avis Edwards and Miss Lillian. Mr. and Mrs. Belew have one of the splendid homes of Pilot Point. Both were active members of the Red Cross during the World war, and Mr. Belew gave his aid and influence as well as his personal means to pro- mote the sale of government securities and the Y. M. C. A. campaign.
J. RILEY JONES. One of the biggest mer- cantile organizations of Denton County, with a large stock and with a trade extending out into the district many miles from the store, is the Pilot Point firm of Peters, Jones & Company. The active head of this business is J. Riley Jones. Mr. Jones was born in this section of Texas and the story of his own career and that of his family gives record to many facts and names intimately associated with the history and development of this region from earliest pioneer times.
His father was that splendid old-time char- acter. Reason Jones, whose experiences might properly be told in any, history of North Texas. He was born October 10. 1813, and lived nearly all his life close to the frontier of civilization. He was successful in affairs of large magnitude, despite the fact that he had no literary education, and it is said that he could not write his name. As a young man he went to Green County, Missouri, and earned his first dollar there by clearing off the timber from the townsite of Springfield. He was a California forty-niner. While on his way to the Pacific Coast he passed through Texas and was favorably attracted to the region where he subsequently settled permanently. He was absent in the gold fields of California about nine months, and returned to his old home in Missouri by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Soon afterward he started for Texas, but pre-
liminary to the removal of his family he brought to the state some mules and Missouri mares to find a market for them. While riding across the locality northwest of Pilot Point he came into a valley where the grass rubbed his arm as he rode along. Then fol- lowed a careful inspection of the ground for the purpose of discovering the extent and character of the valley. He soon came on a trail that led to the rude home and first im- provement of perhaps the original pioneer of this section, a man named Strickland, who had headrighted a tract of 160 acres. Strickland's house was a wagonbed, well armored with rawhide to protect it from Indian arrows. The wagonbed had been elevated high above the ground, and two trees standing near a spring had been notched and improvised as a ladder by which the settler could mount to his bed. Further investigation revealed a plow with a pistol scabbard on it. The owner of this rude homestead was absent, as after- ward discovered, at the blacksmith shop at Ray Mills in Collin County. He returned after three days, and Reason Jones tried to buy out his right, but without success. Jones then took up his own headright adjoining that of Strickland. Two years later, when Mrs. Strickland died, he acquired the choice acreage of that first settlement, and thus became owner of one of the finest pieces of land in the county.
Reason Jones brought his wife and family to Texas in 1851. His first home was estab- lished a mile from the spring above men- tioned. For thirty-five years he hauled water with ox teams from that spring. Had he known it there was plenty of fine water almost anywhere under him and at no great depth. However, his early experiments in digging wells to a depth of fifty feet had brought no satisfactory results. Finally he drilled one of these wells ten feet deeper and found an abundant supply of pure water. Reason Tones in 1854 set about the building of what for years afterwards was regarded as a mansion. It was a double log cabin with a wide hall between and two stories high. Prob- ably no other settler in the country had any- thing to equal this dwelling. Reason Jones lived there in comfort the rest of his life, and his widow remained there until September. 1920, when she moved into the new home erected by her son Rilev. The two rooms of the old house were 18x20 feet on the outside. The logs were hewed by "Uncle Johnny"
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Johnson, a settler from Arkansas. Some of the logs measured eighteen inches across the face. The structure was completely dove- tailed at the corners and was perfectly solid and rigid, so that it might have been rolled over without much damage ensuing. It still stands in a fine state of preservation and brings a thrill to the hearts of the children who grew up there, and who look upon the house as a sacred shrine.
Reason Jones became one of the big cattle- men of his day. He adopted for his first brand R on the left shoulder and J on the hip, but subsequently had other brands, which covered cattle by the thousands. The war came on in the midst of this stage in his pros- perity. During the struggle between the states he was detailed to look after the "war widows," and while absent on such matters his cattle disappeared, and he always charged this act to the incursions of prominent white settlers, some of whose names have been well known in Texas and whose families are still in the state. Reason Jones was urged to put in an Indian claim to the government by his old friends Silas Hare and Governor Throckmorton, as was frequently done by others, but he declined on the ground that it was not the Indians but white thieves who took his cattle. Many horses were lost in a similar manner, but without reparation. Reason Jones acquired so much of this terri- tory that the locality was called the "Jones Nation" borrowing the descriptive title applied to the Indian Nation across the river. Reason Jones encouraged many settlers from the east to come and join him, trading them land for nearly anything they owned, and his residence was therefore a constructive contribution to the occupancy and development of the county.
While not a soldier himself, two of his sons were in the Confederate army and many of his sons-in-law wore the same uniform. He always refused office, though a man of promi- nence in the affairs of the county and district. He was an old-line democrat and finished his life unreconstructed. He was a Baptist, and his hospitable home was open to both preacher and politician. He was a good talker, and in old age was fond of reminiscing and relating the experiences of frontier times, particularly when he could stand in his door and kill game in the yard with his rifle. He was an advocate of diversified farming, and prided himself on good blooded livestock. His estate was so level that he could sit on his front porch and
see a hog anywhere on the tract. Of the splendid bottom land he brought 400 acres under cultivation. Grain and cotton were his good crops. The products of his farm were marketed at Houston until the railroad was built to Sherman, and he traveled long dis- tances to get his grain ground until the plant was established at Trinity Mills. He could remember when Pilot Point contained only one store, standing in the center of what is now the Public Square. Its chief stock was whiskey, though the business was known as a general mercantile enterprise.
It was on his farm and homestead that Reason Jones passed away in 1895, at the age of eighty-two. He married his first wife, Miss Montgomery, in Southwestern Missouri. She became the mother of eleven children, three of whom died in childhood. The others were: Elizabeth, who married A. C. Davis and whose descendants are still found in the old Jones locality; Anne, who married J. C. Montgomery and has a numerous prosperity in Cooke and Denton counties; Mrs. J. R. Sullivan, some of whose large family live in the county; Nina, who married H. C. French and is the only survivor of the first children still owning a part of the old homestead. Mrs. Susan Fuqua lives in Duncan, Oklahoma ; Elvira married Frank Fuqua and died in Cooke County, without children ; Sidney M., who died in Cooke County, and her children are in Oklahoma; William J. died at Duncan, Oklahoma, leaving a large family.
The second wife of Reason Jones was Malinda Sowder, who was born in Missouri March 22, 1840, daughter of Joseph Sowder, and she is still living at the old home farm near Pilot Point. She also became the mother of eleven children. Whereas the first set of children consisted of eight daughters and three sons, the proportion was reversed in the second marriage, there being eight sons and three daughters. Their names are: Sidney, who died in infancy; Andrew J., a veteran employe of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, living at Denison; James M., who was a Pilot Point merchant and a member of the firm Peters, Jones & Company, and died there February 25, 1920; D. E., a farmer and stockman at Canadian, Texas; Lucy, who died when two years old; John Riley, who was named in honor of Dr. J. S. Riley, a pioneer physician of Cooke County and a relative of the poet James Whitcomb Riley ; Henry Clay, who died in July, 1910. without children ;
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Charles, who died at the age of twelve years, from a disease subsequently known to physi- cians as appendicitis ; Cora, wife of Ed Alex- ander and living at Pilot Point; Frank H., a farmer near the old home in Cooke County ; and Sallie, wife of Clint Jacobs, living at the old homestead.
John Riley Jones was born in the south- east corner of the county, five miles from Pilot Point March 25, 1871. His birth oc- curred in the old log home previously de- scribed, and that is the scene of his happy early recollections. He was indebted for his education to instruction received in an old log schoolhouse on the farm. This building had an eight-foot fireplace, a sliding west window, puncheon floor and rude seats, but the in- fluence and instruction given there Mr. Jones believes were fully as effective in mental train- ing and the development of character as the modern schoolhouses of today. That old schoolhouse was also a true community center, and some of the most rousing popular meet- ings ever held in this region took place there. Mr. Jones remained on the farm until his marriage and then managed it two years longer, until he joined Pilot Point as a mer- chant with Peters, Jones & Company.
This firm was established in 1906. It is a business now practically a department store, handling hardware, groceries and implements. The original members of the firm were N. M. Peters, his son, A. E. Peters, and James M. and J. Riley Jones. In 1917 N. M. Peters sold out to the other partners, who continued the business. Mr. Jones is a good business man and is a public-spirited citizen of his community, being president of the Pilot Point School Board and president of the Denton County Board of Education, and is a warm and active friend of education in every phase. He is a democrat in national affairs, but has not mixed in county politics. He is affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter of Masonry and is a Baptist.
On September 5, 1894, Mr. Jones married Miss Willie Holt, who was reared in Burleson County, Texas. She died June 5, 1914, leav- ing three sons. Connie J., the oldest, was in the Medical Corps with the American forces in France, is now in the drygoods business at Denton, and married Gladys Lindsay, a former teacher in the North Texas Normal School. The second son is. Rex J., manager of the Jones-Light Petroleum Company of Burk- burnett and manager of the Pilot Point Oil VOL. IV-13
& Gas Association. The youngest son, John Paul Jones, is a junior in the Pilot Point High School. On January 21, 1917, Mr. Jones married Miss Minnie Kight, a native of Collin County, Texas, and daughter of W. E. Kight.
SAMUEL CARSON HENDERSON represents the third generation of a family that has had an honored place in Denton County for two- thirds of a century. While he was born and reared on a farm and has always maintained a connection with agricultural interests, Mr. Henderson is best known as a merchant and banker at Aubrey.
He was born on a farm three miles north of that village July 12, 1871. His grand- father, John Henderson, was born about 1818, probably in Tennessee, in which state he grew up and married. In a pioneer environment he had few opportunities to attend school, but learned sufficient to enable him to give a prac- tical and successful direction to his affairs. In 1844 he came from Greenville, Tennessee, to Texas, and settled near Bonham in Fannin County. Texas was still a republic, and the family has therefore been in Texas through- out the period of statehood. A few years later John Henderson moved to Denton County, where he died in 1855. His regular occupa- tion was farming, but he also assisted the civil engineers in surveying state lands. His wife was a Miss Parmon, who died near Aubrey in 1873. Their children were: Leah, who married Judge Holland, one of the early county judges of Denton County, and died in Brown County, Texas, where some of her posterity reside; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Jeff Welborn and died in Wise County, Texas, leaving descendants ; Emanuel, who was killed while a Confederate soldier ; Parmon, who died at Aubrey ; Jack, who died in Wise County, and John, who died at Aubrey, both having been Confederate sol- diers; Mrs. John Cantwell, who died near Aubrey during the epidemic of smallpox of 1873 and Newton, the youngest of the family.
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