USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 57
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He was born in Obion County, Tennessee, and his full christian name is Peter Cooper. His parents were R. J. and Mary J. (Brown) Sanders. Reared on a farm in Tennessee, P. C. Sanders finished his early education in the Dickson Normal College, of Dickson, Ten- nessee. On coming to Texas in 1904 he taught school at Clifton, in Bosque County, and con- tinued to be identified with educational inter-
ests in that and other counties for a number of years. His law studies were begun in the office of Hon. C. M. Cureton at Meridian. county seat of Bosque County. Mr. Cureton has since gained fame in Texas as attorney general of the state. In 1906 Mr. Sanders removed to Palo Pinto, and in 1910 passed a successful examination for the bar at Fort Worth. He engaged in practice at Palo Pinto and has built up a high reputation as a lawyer in the county seat, where he remained until 1918, when he removed to Strawn. At that time he resigned the office of county attorney. after having filled the position twenty months.
Besides a large general practice, Mr. Sanders is attorney for the First National Bank of Strawn. His home is one of the most beauti- ful in that West Texas city, occupying a com- manding eminence in the extreme southern part. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Woodmen of the World.
Mr. Sanders married Miss Ethel Whitacre, of Lingleville, Erath County. Their two chil- dren are P. C., Jr., and Stanley.
JOHN WESLEY MILLIGAN, who is one of the business men of Sanger, has been connected with Denton County since 1899 and with Texas for more than thirty years. He was born in Hardin County, Tennessee, a son of John Milligan, a native of Alabama, where he was reared, but after he reached his majority he went over into Tennessee and there became a farmer. His life was lived unobtrusively as a producer of foodstuffs. His death occurred in 1905, when he was about eighty-four years old. Although sym- pathizing with the Confederacy during the war between the North and the South, he did not enter the army, but two of his brothers represented the family name during that titanic struggle. One of them, Eobert, was a resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, when last heard of, and James lived and died in Hardin County, Tennessee, and left a family behind him.
The mother of John Wesley Milligan was Miss Nancy Britton before her marriage, and was born in McNairy County, Tennessee, a daughter of William Britton. She outlived her husband. Their children were as follows : William, who is a resident of Hardin County, Tennessee ; James, who died while performing his duty as an officer of the Federal govern- ment in a raid against moonshiners ; John
Plo. Sauders
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Wesley, who was third in order of birth; and Robert, who is a farmer of Hardin County, Tennessee.
John Wesley Milligan is essentially a self- made man, and what he knows has been gained by his contact with men and affairs, for his actual school attendance was limited to three months. He remained on his father's homestead, giving his parents a faithful serv- ice, and then, deciding that he preferred a trade to farm work, went to Petty, Lamar County, Texas, to learn blacksmithing with N. A. McClure. While in Lamar County he worked for about five years on farms for which he was paid $15 per month, but even this low wage was acceptable, as he had re- ceived only $20 for three months' work just before leaving for Texas. In looking back over the past years Mr. Milligan cannot help but be impressed in the remarkable change which has come over agricultural conditions. He and his companions in the days when he was a farmhand put in long hours for meagre wages, and were thankful to get the oppor- tunity. Today men are refusing to go on farms at $5 and $6 per day, for a much less number of hours. Men of this caliber cannot help but reason that something must be wrong with arrangements which make the farmer leave much of his land uncultivated because he cannot get men willing to work for him.
After he had learned his trade Mr. Milli- gan worked at it in Petty and Abbott, and then, in February, 1899, he came to Sanger. Locating on his present site, he opened his shop, and for twenty-two years has been the leading blacksmith of this region, building up a wide connection because of the efficiency he displays, his willingness to accommodate his customers, and his skill at his trade. He erected his first shop with his own hands, and this served him until 1911-12, when his present brick shop, with a cement floor, 60x80 feet, was built, and at the same time he put up another brick building, two-story in height. When he came to Sanger his entire capital was less than $1,000. Today he is a man of ample means, and his holdings have been bought and paid for out of his savings from the money he has made in his business. He stands as a monument to his industry, thrift and good management.
On November 10, 1894, Mr. Milligan was married in Lamar County, Texas, to Miss Sallie Minshew, who was born in Pennsyl- vania, but lived during her childhood in Mis-
sissippi, from whence she was brought to Texas by her parents, who located in Lamar County. Mr. and Mrs. Milligan became the parents of the following children: Katie, who married Clyde Wilson, of Sanger, and has two children, Elizabeth and Glenn and John Marshall; Jennie Lee, Madell, Bess, Charles Wesley and Julian Wiley. Both by inheritance and conviction Mr. Milligan is a democrat and he voted for Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1888, being in that year a resident of Lamar County. Since then he has given his earnest support to the candi- dates of his party, but aside from exercising his right of suffrage, has not participated in politics to any extent. While residing at Abbott, Texas, ' Mr. Milligan was made a Mason by Abbot Lodge No. 777. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, but has since demitted to Bolivar Lodge No. 418, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Sanger, of which he is past master, and he has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge of the state. He has also become a Chapter and Knight Templar Mason, and is very well known in his order. A quiet, hard-working man, he has gained the respect. of his neighbors, and by them has been accorded the place in their midst to which his high character and business ability entitle him.
EDGAR KERR. As a boy in Northeastern Texas about thirty years ago Edgar Kerr began making occasional and modest deals in livestock, a business involving very little cap- ital and exceedingly small profits, but offering an opportunity for experience that Edgar Kerr utilized, and with passing years his business has grown and developed until it now repre- sents some of the largest transactions in the aggregate handled by any individual at the Fort Worth stockyards, where he has his headquarters.
Mr. Kerr was born in Fannin County. Texas, August 24, 1873, son of Robert and Sallie (McFarland) Kerr, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Texas. He was the second in their family of four chil- dren. He grew up on his father's farm and acquired a common school education.
After some years as a country trader Mr. Kerr moved to Fort Worth in 1905 and his business operations are now known to prac- tically all stock men who find their market at Fort Worth. In early years his business was measured by the handling of about 50,000 head of cattle in normal seasons, but for sev-
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eral years past he has bought and sold between 100,000 and 200,000 head of cattle a year.
Mr. Kerr is a Knight Templar Mason. In 1895 he married Louise Reynolds of Fayette- ville, Arkansas. They have two sons and four daughters, DeWitt, Adelia, Zola, Jay. Ileta and Leslie. All the children are now married except Leslie.
ED S. BRITTON, one of the executive officers of that group of corporations which have made Thurber one of the greatest productive centers in West Texas, chief among which is the Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company, of which he is assistant general manager, has had an interesting career of action and experience, is a former State Ranger and represents several of the pioneer names of West Texas.
He was born at Weatherford, in Parker County, in 1867. at the very time when that and every other community in that section was in almost constant danger of extinction from Indian hostilities. His parents were J. E. and Mary ( Bandy) Britton. His father. a native of Tennessee, came to Texas in 1854. He located at old Fort Belknap, one of the most distinguished of the Government posts established on the Texas frontier to guard against Indians and outlaws. While at Fort Belknap he married Miss Mary Bandy, also a native of Tennessee. Her parents had come to West Texas to engage in the cattle business on the open range. In 1859 J. E. Britton moved to Parker County, and located at Weatherford about the time the town was established, and for years was one of its honored pioneers. His chief interests, how- ever, in a business way were cattle raising. He died in 1880.
Ed S. Britton grew up on a cattle ranch and was an expert cowboy long before he reached his majority. His education was acquired in a private school at Weatherford. He left school to go to California, and had some experience on the coast in the lumber business. Soon after he returned to Texas he joined the Rangers, in the company commanded by Capt. S. A. McMurray. Most of the time he was on duty in Northwest Texas, with headquarters at Amarillo. Part of the time during his serv- ice he was with his company in Fort Bend County, in South Texas, during the serious local troubles between the political rivals known as the Jaybird-Woodpecker factions. As a Texas Ranger Mr. Britton was ever ready, a courageous and efficient officer, unflinching in the discharge of his duty, and
his record measured up to the high standards of one of the most famous police organizations in the world.
During his duty as a Ranger in Erath County Mr. Britton resigned from the service and went to work for the Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company. He has been with that corpora- tion and its associated companies ever since. with headquarters at Thurber, and in the capacity of assistant general manager has executive charge of affairs at Thurber. The affiliated companies are the Thurber Brick Company, the Thurber Earthen Products Com- pany and the Texas Pacific Mercantile & Manufacturing Company, these constituting the largest and most important coal, oil, nat- ural gas, brick manufacturing and crushed lime rock industries in the state.
Mr. Britton married Miss Lottie McKinnon. They have one of the beautiful and attractive homes at Thurber.
STEWART ATKINS CRANDALL. Among the honored residents of Sanger one who had led a useful, active and successful life, and who is spending his declining years in the comforts of retirement that are the award of those who labor faithfully and honorably, is Stewart Atkins Crandall, a veteran of the war be- tween the states and a resident of Texas since 1869. He was born in Virginia, October 1, 1845, a son of Asa H. Crandall, a native of New York State, who moved to Virginia in young manhood and there married Miss Maria Godby, a daughter of George Godby. The Crandalls and Godbys all moved from Virginia to Tennessee, and the men of the latter family were nearly all Methodist preach- ers. The Godbys were in the main Confeder- ate sympathizers, while the Crandalls were supporters of the Union. Reverend Daly married one of George Godby's daughters and he, too, was a stanch Union man of the war period.
Asa H. Crandall died at the age of eighty- four years in Roane County. on the farm upon which he had spent his life in agricultural operations. His wife died in early life, about 1850, leaving the following children: Joseph, now a resident of Sterling, Colorado, who was a captain of Union troops during the war between the states; Thomas, who was also in the Union Army and was killed in the engagement at Kingston, Tennessee; Jacob, who was unmarried when he lost his life in California : Newton, who died in Tennes-
Edis Britton
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see, where he left a family; and Josie, who married a Mr. Osment and died in Tennessee, where several of her children still live.
Stewart Atkins Crandall was a child when his parents removed to Roane (now Loudon) County, Tennessee, and there he secured a somewhat limited education in the country schools. When the war between the states broke out he was but sixteen years of age, but felt that he must have a part in crushing the forces that were threatening the stability of the government, and accordingly enlisted as a drummer boy in Company G, First Regi- ment, Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, his first captain being Wester and a later captain being his brother, Joseph C. He continued as a drummer boy for about a year, and was then transferred to bugler of mounted infantry. Activities with Mr. Crandall began with the battle of Mill Spring, following which his services covered Tennessee, Kentucky, a part of Virginia and Georgia, in addition to which his regiment was for a time in Ohio seeking the Confederate raider Morgan. Mr. Cran- dall went with a scouting expedition up the Kanawha River and Valley after Confederate troops, and later dropped back into Tennessee. He was doing guard duty when the battle of Chickamauga was fought, the troops being strung out from Knoxville to Chattanooga. After that battle his regiment went into Georgia, following Joseph E. Johnston's army, and while around Atlanta, with the forces of General Sherman, the expiration of service of troops of the First Tennessee occurred and they were returned to Nashville or Knoxville, as the case warranted, and mustered out, with the exception of Mr. Crandall and some others, whose time did not expire for three months. He did guard duty until the expira- tion of his service, at the end of which time he received his honorable discharge. He was wounded in the fight near Big Shanty, at Lost Mountain, where a Confederate ball struck his breastplate on the left side, passed under the flesh and out again without breaking a rib, and dropped down his trouser-leg to the ground. He preserved it as a souvenir for a long time, but when ammunition became scarce he finally melted it and made bullets for his brother's squirrel rifle.
Leaving the army, Mr. Crandall went to Illinois, where he became a farmhand at $25 per month. He remained about Jacksonville nearly a year as such and then returned to Tennessee and stayed until early in 1869, when
he came to Texas and stopped in Robertson County. He landed in the Lone Star State with less than $1, and went among absolute strangers, many of whom were plainly hostile to him because of his military service. He was in company with two other northern men, one of whom was his brother Newton, and despite their origin they made a favorable impression among the ex-Confederate people and remained about a year. The first work of the brothers in Texas consisted of the making of rails, following which they put in a crop of corn and cotton near Calvert, but before their crop became well started it was necessary for them to dispose of it and abandon the region because of an episode which excited the region, but for which the brothers were in no way responsible. New- ton Crandall accordingly returned to Tennes- see, while Stewart A. Crandall went to Bon- ham, Texas, where he established himself and remained for thirty or more years. He was a rail-maker for a time at first, then a farm- hand, and later a tenant farmer. When he married he and his wife soon occupied land of their own, a farm twelve miles south of Bonham, which was the scene of their dual actitivies for many years, they abandoning that locality only when they came to Sanger in 1905. In that community Mr. Crandall acquired lands by inheritance and purchase, and contributed three sets of improvements to the lands of himself and wife. These they still own and have devoted them through the years to the common crops of the locality.
Mr. Crandall was married near Ladonia, Texas, August 15, 1870, to Miss Sarah E. Henslee, who was born in Fannin County. Texas, November 20, 1851, a daughter of K. C. Henslee who settled in Fannin County when he came to Texas from Alabama during the early '40s. He became a successful stock farmer, served Fannin County as tax assessor and collector, and held that office at the time of his death, in 1860. He was married in that county to Miss Elizabeth Terry, a daugh- ter of Anselm Terry, who came from Illinois to Texas. Mrs. Henslee had eight children
by her first husband, and after his death she married James Bogart, by whom she became the mother of seven children. Those of the Henslee children to reach mature life were: Monterey, named after the Mexican city in which her father had been engaged in battle during the Mexican war ; Mrs. Crandall; John P. : Anselm : K. C., Jr. ; and Franklin P. The
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Bogart children were: Richard ;. Jim; Ann Emma, who married Alexander Shadden ; Jim Ann, who became Mrs. Will Head; Mollie, who married Fred Bays; George and Albert. Mrs. Crandall was the last survivor of her father's children, and she died June 19, 1921. Four of the Bogart children are alive.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Crandall were as follows: John J., of Bailey. Texas, who married Sadie Smith and has five chil- dren ; Floyd, Clayton, Cleo, Ruth and Celia Jo; Josie, who is the wife of I. S. Webb, of Floydada, Texas, and has nine children, Eula, Alpha, Clara, Daly, Varley, Mildred, Lola (called "Bill") Harry, and Myrtle May ; Jacob, of Sanger, who married Corda LaGear, and has seven children, Frank, Lorene, Alta, Leroy, Roy, Alvin and Alma Fay ; and Laura, the wife of Andy Green, of Fort Worth, who 'has three children, Frances, Fayette and Doris.
Mr. Crandall cast his first presidentitl vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has been a part ยท of the republican organization ever since that time. He has always voted in Texas when the party has had a ticket, but in the early days, after the close of the war between the states, the republicans were not strong enough to wield much influence. No public office at- tracted Mr. Crandall, although he was for a short time a United States constable in Rob- ertson County. He is now acting as game warden, an office which was thrust upon him. His active hours are spent in hunting or fish- ing, and the physical powers of his body are kept in excellent condition in this way. Mr. Crandall was made a Mason at Wolf City many years ago, and still maintains his mem- bership and interest, this being the only fra- ternal organization with which he is affiliated. The family belongs to the Methodist Church. of which he is a trustee.
ARTHUR G. RICHARDSON. There are several localities in North and West Texas besides his present home town of Breckenridge that know and appreciate the enterprise and civic qualities of Arthur G. Richardson. Mr. Rich- ardson all his life has been a man of action. and has a versatile ability that enabled him to do well in several different roles.
He was born in Jefferson. Texas, in 1882, a son of Frank and Mittie L. (Morton) Richard- son. His father died a few years later. Mr. Richardson's mother, now Mrs. R. W. Morgan. is one of the notable women of Texas, and her son has undoubtedly derived much of his
inspiration from her achievements. For a number of years she was prominent as a news- paper woman and writer. In 1889, when Arthur G. Richardson was seven years of age. she removed to Quanah, in Northwest Texas. She founded and for several years was editor of the Amarillo Daily Star, the first daily paper in the Panhandle. She was also editor of the Stayer, at Canyon City, and of another paper at Silverton. She is now retired from active newspaper life and is a resident of Houston. She represents an historic Texas family. Her father was a soldier in three wars, the Texas war for independence, the war with Mexico and finally the war between the states.
Arthur G. Richardson had a varied and interesting experience in the Panhandle. While well educated, his education has come rather from the school of experience than from long consecutive experience in educational institu- tions. In the Panhandle he worked as a cow- boy on the open range. He learned the fundamentals of the printing and newspaper business on his mother's paper, the Star, at Amarillo. For a time he was foreman on the Daily Panhandle. Mr. Richardson for seven years was editor of the McLean News in Gray County. He was one of the organizers of the Panhandle Press Association, and was honored as its second president.
While at McLean he had his first banking experience as assistant cashier of the Ameri- can National Bank. Later he was president of the First National Bank at Channing. Leav- ing his business affairs in Texas to take care of themselves, Mr. Richardson went to Wash- ington in 1918 and enlisted in the Regular Army, in the Adjutant General's Department. He had the opportunity of going overseas to France with the Ninety-second Division, and while abroad was transferred to the General Headquarters Staff at Chaumont, where he continued on duty until after the close of the war.
Mr. Richardson has been a resident of Breckenridge since the summer of 1919. He came to that thriving oil town to take the posi- tion of secretary of the Chamber of Com- merce, and performed those duties for several months. For about a year he was also city secretary. Subsequently he helped found the Breckenridge State Bank & Trust Company and served as its cashier from May, 1920, to November, 1920, when he resigned, but is still one of the directors of this important bank. In the meantime he has acquired some impor- tant oil interests in this field. and his time and
ichardso
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abilities are ever at the service of Brecken- ridge for its upbuilding and progress. Mr. Richardson is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He married Miss Atholee Guer- tin, of Liberty, Texas.
THOMAS HENRY JONES: The great South- west has developed some men of remarkable character and business ability, who, coming to it, have broadened with it, and, while ac- quiring large means, have at the same time rendered their section a great service because of their dependable and successful efforts in its behalf. Such a man is Thomas Henry Jones, prominent man of affairs and three times mayor of Sanger.
Thomas Henry Jones was born at Colum- bus, Colorado County, Texas, a son of Robert F. Jones, and grandson of Thomas Jones, a Tennessee farmer who reared a large family. Robert F. Jones left Tennessee, where he was born and reared, in 1857, being then about twenty-two years old, and located in Southern Texas, where he put his experience as a farmer to practical use on a plantation known as the "Nevada," and maintained his connection with it until the outbreak of the war between the two sections of the country. He then entered the employ of the Confed- erate government, and was a scout looking up deserters and returning them to the army.
With the declaration of peace Mr. Jones, in 1865, located at Dallas, Texas, and until 1872 was engaged in freighting in Eastern Texas, his route being from Jefferson to Dallas. In 1872 he established a stage line running from Dallas to Fort Worth, and oper- ated it for a year, but with the completion of the Texas and Pacific Railroad there was no further demand for his services in that line of business, and he therefore traded the block of land, on which his residence was located, on Pearl Street, San Jacinto, for a farm in Collin County, near Mckinney, and moved to it in 1874. There he rounded out his long and useful life, being fully occupied with agricultural pursuits, and dying at the age of seventy-two years. Although a firm supporter of the principles of democracy, he never aspired to public life. A man of sound common sense, he carried on his various busi- ness transactions capably and acquired a fair fortune. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church held his membership and received his generous support, and he was especially active in Sunday school work at Walnut Grove.
When he was forty years of age he was made a Mason, and was raised to be a Master Mason.
Robert F. Jones was married to Emily Cole- man after he came to Texas. She was born in Kentucky, but was brought to Dallas, Texas, in 1857 by her father, Thomas Cole- man, who is buried at Dallas. He died in that city immediately after reaching it. Mrs. Jones was two years younger than her hus- band, and died when she was forty-two years old. Their children were as follows: Thomas Henry, who was the eldest; Mollie, who is Mrs. Talkington, of Waxahachie, Texas; Robert L., who is a resident of Sanger ; Lee, who is the wife of S. Chalres, of Justin, Texas; and M. J., who is a resident of Fort Worth, Texas.
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