USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 61
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The only political office ever sought by him was the appointment by the Commissioners' Court of Shackelford County as county attor- ney. Mr. Jeffreys, who had been elected to the
office, had been shot and dangerously wounded by a noted outlaw and was endeavoring to regain his health in Virginia when Mr. Wray was appointed to fill the unexpired term. He acceptably served as county attorney for six months, when he resigned.
On December 25, 1881, Mr. Wray removed to Fort Worth, where he began the practice of civil law, in which he is today engaged. He has been a toiling student of law, and has attained that degree of success in its practice that labor always bestows upon its votaries. He is something of an idealist and philosopher and is the possessor of an exceptionally good literary library, as well as one containing much of the philosophy and literature of the Orient.
Mr. Wray is a lover of the field, as well as of literature, and indulges his taste on an attractive farm. He is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, of the American Jersey Cattle Club, of the Percheron Society of America, and is inter- ested in the breeding of live stock.
Mr. Wray has generously contributed to the growth and development of Fort Worth. He was closely associated both in friendly and professional relations with the splendid men who laid the foundation and partly built the superstructure of the marvelous city in which he resides. With them he aided and was a contributing factor to the funds and efforts that gave Fort Worth a transportation systemi that challenges the admiration of the city builder and commands the consideration of capitalistic development.
JOHN L. HOOPER, M. D. One of the well qualified and able physicians and surgeons of Denton County, Dr. Hooper, has practiced medicine in Denton upwards of twenty-five years, and his practice has represented an absolute devotion to the best ideals of pro- fessional achievement and service. He is a man of high standing in the community and a dependable, reliable citizen in all the varied relationships of a busy life.
The Hooper family is of Irish ancestry and was established in America in Colonial times. Dr. Hooper's grandfather, Isaac Hooper, is said to have been a relative of the Hooper who signed the Declaration of Independence. Isaac Hooper was a man of good intellect. with only a fair education, followed the life of a farmer and planter, and was not a be- liever in slavery, and while he gained wealth it was not from the products of slave labor. He participated in the public affairs of his
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county and was a stanch democrat. When in dead earnest over some matter of public or private interest his by-word and never failing expression was "by the eternal gods," and that represented his ultimate and positive de- cision. Of his nine sons all who were old enough for military duty became soldiers, three of them on the Union side and the others Confederates. Isaac Hooper died in Towns County, Georgia, in 1893, when almost ninety- seven years of age. His wife was born in France and was brought to the United States at the age of twelve. She lived to complete almost a century, dying when past ninety- nine. Their children besides the nine sons were six daughters.
The fifth child of his parents, Anderson W. Hooper, father of Dr. Hooper, was born in Towns County, Georgia, in 1839. He se- cured his education in country schools, grew up on a plantation and farming was his mature occupation. During the first year of the war between the states he entered the Confederate army with the Twenty-fourth Georgia In- fantry, in the Army of Northern Virginia. He participated in the first battle of Manassas, and was probably in as many of the great battles of the war as any of his comrades. Few of the historic battles of the Army of Northern Virginia were fought without him. He was in the famous Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. He continued through other cam- paigns, and at Appomattox stood close by and witnessed the surrender of General Lee.
The war over, he returned to the farm with unbroken spirit and began his life all over again. He had the industry and the qualities that made progress possible even in the de- vitalized condition of economic affairs in the South. Later he determined to come to Texas in order to place his growing children close to more favorable opportunities, and in 1882 he founded the family in Collin County, near Farmersville, where he continued his labors as long as his strength permitted. He died at Daugherty, Oklahoma, in 1904, and was laid to rest at Farmersville. He was a stanch democrat, a man of strong and unwavering convictions, but was satisfied to make the per- formance of his private duties a source of public benefit. He was never radical in re- ligion, though Orthodox.
Anderson W. Hooper married Elvira Day- ton, who was reared in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Her father, John N. Dayton, was a descendant of a Colonial family, was
a school teacher by occupation, and too old to join the Confederate army. Three of his sons were killed while in the Confederate service. John N. Dayton was one of the early settlers of Towns County, Georgia. He mar- ried Elizabeth Reed, and of their seven chil- dren Elvira was the fourth. She died near Denton, Texas, in 1914. The children of Anderson W. Hooper and wife were: Sam N., of Farmersville ; Dr. John L. ; William D., of Davis, Oklahoma; Isaac W., of Norman, Oklahoma; Mrs. Sallie D. Barker; and Maggie, wife of D. C. Addison, of Denton.
Dr. John L. Hooper was born near Hiawas- see in Towns County, Georgia, October 4, 1867, and was fourteen years of age when he accompanied the family to Collin County. In the meantime he had availed himself of the literary advantages in Peabody Academy at Hiawassee. He grew up on the farm in Collin County, and joined in its activities until he was about twenty-two. He then made a definite choice of the vocation of medicine, and after some preliminary study with medical books at home he entered the old Memphis Hospital Medical College, now the medical school of the University of Tennessee, and was graduated in 1893. He had practiced a year in Denton County as an undergraduate. Dr. Hooper has always been a student of his profession, and in 1904 he received another diploma from the medical department of Baylor University at Dallas. He is a member and past president of the Denton County Medical Society, and also a member of the Texas State and the North Texas Medical associations.
In his professional work he has been ex- aminer for nearly all the insurance companies and fraternal societies at Denton. He has engaged in general practice and is one of the men of acknowledged skill and ability who has been available to the community for nearly thirty years. Outside of his profession his only public service has been as school trustee at Denton. He is a democrat, is a Master Mason and Odd Fellow. Dr. Hooper has erected two of the good homes at Denton, and his present residence is a comforable place adjacent to the corporation limits. At Mckinney, Texas, December 25, 1893, Dr. Hooper married Miss Fannie B. Richards. She was born in Tennessee and was brought to Texas when a child and grew up in Collin County. Her parents were Charles and Callie (Cain) Richards. Her father was a farmer,
Char Pracy-
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and Mrs. Hooper was his only child. Her mother died in Denton, the wife of William Lowery, by whom she had two children.
The oldest child of Dr. and Mrs. Hooper is Hosea, who graduated from the Deaf and Dumb Institute of Texas, spent several years with the Goodyear Rubber Company at
Akron, Ohio, but lives at Denton, and by his marriage to Bernice Stanley, of Pilot Point, has two daughters, Catherine and Louise. Elbert O. Hooper, the second son, is a gradu- ate of the Denton High School, the Denton Normal and the University of Texas, and while at the university he acted as floor .com- mitteeman for both Houses of the Texas Legislature in 1921. He had started training for the World war in artillery but sickness prevented his achieving a lieutenant's commis- sion. He is now located in Denton, where he is practising law. The third son of Dr. Hooper is John M., a junior in the North Texas Normal School. The youngest child and only daughter Jewell, is a pupil in the model training school of the Denton Normal.
CHARLES J. SWASEY. Among the few remaining residents of Fort Worth who have witnessed the growth from a frontier village to its present metropolitan position, the subject of this sketch has prominent place.
Charles J. Swasey is a native of Haverhill, New Hampshire, where he was born, Septem- ber 3, 1847, a son of Samuel and Edith A. (Holmes) Swasey, natives of Vermont and New Hampshire, respectively, both families being prominently connected with early New England history. Samuel Swasey graduated from Dartmouth College, and was at one time speaker of the New Hampshire House of Rep- resentatives. He later became attached to the United States Naval Service, and was stationed at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. He later was engaged in the lumber industry in Chicago and Belvidere, Illinois, his death occurring in the latter city at the age of eighty-four years.
Charles J. Swasey was taken by his parents to Chicago in 1857, where he attended the pub- lic and high schools. He went to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1869, and there became a student in the Jones Business College, a famous busi- ness training school at that period. After spending some time in Baxter Springs and at Joplin, Missouri, he entered into partnership with Captain G. H. Day, and they came to Fort Worth, in 1873, and established a wholesale liquor business. Fort Worth at that time was but a village with no railroads or other modern
facilities, and the first store building with a modern "store front" was erected by these en- terprising newcomers. Captain Day afterward became the first mayor of Fort Worth, served as alderman for many years and was other- wise active in the political life of the city.
The original business name of Casey & Swasey afterwards became The Casey-Swasey Company, and in 1918 was again changed to The Casey-Swasey Cigar Company, of which Mr. Swasey continues as vice president.
During the time of the Civil war Mr. Swasey enlisted and served as a member of Company I. One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Regiment, Illinois Volunteers.
Mr. Swasey is a member of the Elks and politically is a democrat. He takes keen inter- est in athletic sports and it is of interest to note, in this connection, that he was a member of the historic Forest City Baseball Club, of Rockford, Illinois, which made baseball history back in 1866 and 1868. A. G. Spalding, who afterwards was called "the father of baseball," was a pitcher on the team. Mr. Swasey is, probably, the sole surviving member of that famous team which had so prominent a part in making baseball our national game.
ROBERT H. HOFFMAN has been a resident of Denton County over fifty years. He was brought to Texas when four years of age. His parents and his brothers and sisters con- stituted a generation of enterprising and worth-while citizens. Mr. Hoffman's own children have given a good account of them- selves, and the article which follows contains a number of names of more than represen- tative Texans.
Robert H. Hoffman was born near Sparta, White County, Tennessee, March 2, 1846. His father was Joseph F. Hoffman, who had the following children: Samuel S., who died at St. Joe, Texas; Margaret M., who became the wife of R. M. Howard and died in Fannin County ; May M., wife of Major J. B. Ford, living in Decatur, Texas; John C., who died in Oklahoma; Harriet E., who married Silas Bain and died in Fannin County ; Robert H .; Minnie, who died at Savoy, Texas, as Mrs. David McMahon; Josephine, who became the wife of Ben Hutchison and died in Missouri ; . and Helen, who died when young.
Joseph F. Hoffman brought his family from Tennessee in 1850. The journey to Texas was made overland, there being three parties in the company. They crossed the Mississippi at Memphis, where river traffic was then
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popular, the party being carried over on a flat- boat. Joseph F. Hoffman settled in Fannin County, buying land on the line between Gray- son and Fannin counties for $1.35 an acre. With that locality he was connected as a farmer the rest of his life. A few years after the Hoffmans effected this pioneer settlement occurred an incident that is a matter of his- tory connected with the navigation of Red River. Two bachelors named Kitchens con- ducted a store on the bank of the river at the point of a horseshoe bend. One season the river was full from bank to bank, and a little steamer from the lower waters came up and its advent was hailed with almost frantic joy by the people who considered that the be- ginning of permanent navigation and a means of communication with the outside world. The little craft went on as far as Preston, where it was swamped by low water, and remained in the mud for about four years, until another rise. Then occurred an unprecedented freshet. which not only swept the boat loose but cut the horseshoe bend at its base and left the store of the bachelors a mile from the stream. A rope was stretched across the river to oper- ate the ferry. On one occasion a boat came along and its owner attempted to cut the cable. He swung with his axe at the rope but missed and the force of the implement almost ruined the top of the little boat.
During the early years of settlement there was little necessity for farming beyond the raising of grain for bread. The range was full of fat cattle and was also overrun with deer and other wild game. The first Co- manche Indians Robert H. Hoffman ever saw were at Bonham during the Civil war. He went to their camp with other boys to pull off a horse race. The Indians won almost every- thing, defeating the fine horse brought by the visitors with a little Spanish pony. Mr. Hoff- man witnessed the Indians kill a beef and literally eat every part of it, seeming to relish particularly the "giblets."
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Robert H. Hoffman attended the country school only about three months during stimmer. When he went into the army he could not write home because of his illiteracy. His education was supplemented after the close of the war and he became able to read, write and cipher, and has kept well posted on events and affairs. Early in the war he joined Company F under Captain Ben E. McCulloch, in Col. John H. Baylor's Regiment of Cavalry.
This command did duty with General Hor- ton's Division. Most of his service was in Louisiana, and he was in many of the fights in that state, assisting in repelling the in- vasion of General Banks, whose Red River expedition was turned back at Mansfield. Mr. Hoffman's company was near Nacogdoches when the war closed, and it was disbanded at Gen. Henry McCulloch's headquarters at Bonham.
The war over and his schooling completed, Mr. Hoffman went to farming with a yoke of cattle. He had only the labor and industry of his hands to depend upon as his initial capital, but from year to year he saw the fruits of his toil increase and prosperity ac- cumulate. He came to Denton County in 1869, though for another year later he lived in Fannin County again. His settlement in Denton County was made five miles south of Denton, on Hickory Creek. He bought land there at $2 and $3.50 an acre. His first home was a loghouse 16 feet square, all one room, and in it his family was sheltered for a dozen years, when a much more pretentious frame home was erected. Other improvements came from time to time, including a good barn. The lumber for these buildings was hauled from Fort Worth. Mr. Hoffman, like other early settlers, depended for his substantial profits on cattle and other stock, but he early became a grain grower. With a yoke of cattle he plowed his first fields, and his life has been prospered because of the abundant and per- sistent labors which he put into successive years.
Mr Hoffman left his Hickory Creek farm and removed to Denton to give his children the advantages of schools. While keeping a general oversight of his farm, he employed a small tract at town for the growing of fruits and vegetables. He is a close observer, and has studied the ways of nature and for many years has been an authority on fruit and vegetables. The beginning of a profitable nursery business came through the sale of a few berry plants. His customers appreciated the stock and service, and widening inquiries led to an enlargement of his business until finally he handled a million and a half of trees and shrubs annually, this nursery stock going out by freight and express shipments over a large section of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisi- ana. For a number of years it was a growing and profitable industry, but of recent years
MR. AND MRS. W. S. DOYLE
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Mr. Hoffman has abandoned tree propagation and now confines his efforts to the growing of roses and berry plants.
He has taken an interest in politics at all times and until 1920 supported the democratic party nationally. He has been a constant friend of Senator Bailey, and was a supporter of George Clark for governor in the Hogg- Clark contest. His parents were Presby- terians, but for many years he has been a member of the Christian Church.
On September 1, 1869, Mr. Hoffman mar- ried Miss Mary P Clark, a native of Winston County, Mississipi. Her father, Col. W. T. Clark, took his family to Texas in 1856 and the following year settled in Denton County, and he spent the rest of his life as a farmer on Hickory Creek. He was a colonel of cav- alry in the Confederate army, serving with Bowling's command on the Texas frontier. Colonel Clark had a family of three daughters and four sons. The sons are Luther, of Quanah, Will, of Graham, E. W., of Fort Worth, and Sidney, at Childress. The only surviving daughter is Mrs. D. L. Painter, of Gainsville.
After half a century of married compan- ionship Mrs. Hoffman passed away April 13, 1920. She is survived and her memory cherished by children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The oldest is Claud E., of Oklahoma City, whose first wife was Miss Delia Williams. His son, Carl Claud, was in the American Expeditionary Forces with the Ninetieth Division and was gassed ten days before the armistice. This American soldier married Elizabeth Smith and makes his home at Denton, his son Carl being the great-grand- child of Mr. Hoffman. The second son, Carl F. Hoffman, is a farmer in the old home neighborhood on Hickory Creek and married Mabel Elliott. Myrtle E. Hoffman is Mrs. W. V. Roy, of Post City, Texas. Will C. Hoffman, a traveling salesman at Fort Worth, married Viola Riley, a great-niece of the poet James Whitcomb Riley. Robert H. Hoffman, Jr., was for twelve years pure food commis- sioner of Texas and is now connected with the Great Southern Life Insurance Company at Houston and married Eva Blount, a daugh- ter of Dr. Blount, of Denton. Nellie Hoff- man is the wife of W. M. Taylor, of Austin, judge of the Texas Court of Civil Appeals. Luther Hoffman, youngest of this family, is an able lawyer at Wichita Falls.
WILLIAM S. DOYLE. Only men of extraor- dinary energy may expect to qualify for such a record of progressive development as marks the career of William S. Doyle of Denton County. Mr. Doyle's youth fell in that trying time of Civil war and reconstruction, when there was no money, no opportunity to gain an education, and nearly every line of in- dustry and business was closed. He came to Northern Texas a few years after the war, and he has built up his fortunes from zero during the half century he has lived in Texas.
Mr. Doyle, whose ranch lies along the Denton-Wise county line, has been a resident of this community since March, 1885. He was born in Lee County, Virginia, December 20. 1852. His grandfather, Henry Doyle, came to the United States from Ireland with two of his brothers, but separated from them at New York and went to Virginia. In Vir- ginia he married Mary Silvers, a descendant of Pocahontas. They were the parents of four children: James, who reared a large family and spent his last years in Claiborne County, Tennessee ; John, who lived at Goose Creek Salt Works, Kentucky, and left two sons ; David, who remained in Virginia; and William, who went to Illinois and died, leav- ing descendants. David Doyle, father of Wil- liam S. Doyle, was a soldier in General Lee's army in the cavalry under General Long- street. While a forage master he was cap- tured on Chucky River while getting corn across that stream, and was sent to Rock Island, Illinois, and was kept in military prison eighteen months. He was exchanged as a convalescent two weeks before the surrender of Lee. Before the war he was one of the prominent planters of Virginia. He never owned slaves, and damage suits trumped up against him caused the loss of all his property. He accompanied his son William to Texas, and in this state was a tenant farmer and never recuperated financially so as to buy land. He died in Collin County in 1875 when about fifty-eight years of age. He married Lydia Weston, also a native of Virginia, who died in Collin County about 1888. They became the parents of fifteen children, and fourteen of them reached mature years. The sons were James B., a resident of Deming, New Mex- ico ; Willoughby M., of Collin County ; William S .; Joseph P., of Fort Worth ; George M., of Middlesboro, Kentucky; Henly F., who was killed in Washita County, Oklahoma ; John D., at Guyman, Oklahoma ; Andrew C.,
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a farmer in Wise County ; and Stephen H. at Belcherville, Texas. The daughters of this family were: Mary, who died unmarried in Virginia; Susan, wife of John J. Muncy, near Amarillo. Texas; Martha A., Mrs. George Rollins, of Oklahoma: Lizzie, wife of John Greenwood. of Collin County ; and Lucy, who married Price Clinton of Tascosa, Texas.
William S. Doyle lived on the home farm in Virginia until he was fifteen, when he ran away to Kentucky, and two miles north of Richmond, in Madison County, he worked for a farmer named Smith Collins. His father having learned of his whereabouts took him home that fall, and he remained in Vir- ginia until his marriage. Three months alto- gether was the extent of the time permitted him to attend school. After coming to Texas, conscious of his need of an education and without money to buy books or attend school, he borrowed some text books from I. D. Newsome, of Mckinney, and by a cob light in his own fireplace and cabin learned to read, studying the old speller and Fowler's arith- metic. When he was sixteen Mr. Doyle mar- ried, and in 1868, with his girl wife, started for Texas, going to Chattanooga on a flat- boat from Lee County, Virginia, from Chat- tanooga to Memphis traveled over the South- ern Railway, were hurricane deck passengers on a steamboat to the mouth of the Red River, and thence up that river to Jefferson, Texas. Jefferson was then a river town, its center being about three miles from where it is today. From Jefferson Mr. and Mrs. Doyle went by wagon to Wilson Creek in Collin County, and almost immediately he hired out to work for George Carruth on the "flat" for $15 a month as a farmhand. A vacant house nearby sheltered him, his wife and also his parents. After working two months he estab- lished a reputation for ability, so that his wages were raised to $1 a day for day labor on the farm and $2 a day for threshing work. From his two months' work he saved enough money to buy a cow. He next rented a place on the halves on Honey Creek from Tom Mc- Donald. He built his own house of logs, having cut the timber, hauled and hewed it, and he made his own chairs, bottoming them with rawhide, a table, and a bedstead corded with rawhide. At that time no railroads had been built into this region, all freight being hauled either from Jefferson or from South- ern Texas. After acquiring a team Mr. Doyle freighted salt from Grand Saline to Mckinney,
buying the salt at $2 a sack and selling it at $6. From 1875 to 1885 he freighted to Chat- tanooga, a distance of about 500 miles, by water, making two trips a year and running log and grain boats. While freighting he kept up his farm operations, and while a tenant farmer made only two moves. By trading and raising grain he accumulated $2,250, which he brought with him to Denton County, that being the hard-earned capital that marked his start in this section more than thirty-five years ago.
In Denton County Mr. Doyle bought 240 acres at $7 an acre. His fine country home and improvements stand on this land today. At that time it was only a grass range. His first shelter was two 14-foot rooms, the nucleus of his present home. This work completed, he began breaking sod, also rented land the first year or two, and his agricultural crops were grain and cotton. Outside of his capital he brought with him six head of cattle, and that proved the basis of his start as a stock- man. Two dry years, 1886 and 1887, struck him almost at the beginning of his Denton County venture. Crop failures compelled him to borrow money, and during the drought he drove his stock to Greenwood for water. Like other settlers of that time, he did not realize the abundance of pure water only a compara- tively few feet under the surface of his farm. Through all the years Mr. Doyle has promi- nently featured livestock and has sought addi- tional lands to round out his stockfarm, be- ginning his purchase at $15 an acre and còn- tinuing at different times while land was $30 and $40 an acre. His farm today comprises 400 acres, all paid for and substantially and conveniently improved. His residence con- tains eleven rooms, with full basement, and each tenant house is equipped with a cellar. Mr. Doyle is a farmer who believes in living as he goes through life, and his prosperity has been employed to furnish the family with practically all the modern conveniences of equipment. Besides the residence there is a fruit house and refrigerator built of concrete, a slaughter house with scalding vat, swinging pulley, cutting table, rendering kettle ; a milk house, and separator and churning plant ; wash house ; garage with concrete floor ; a blacksmith shop with full outfit of tools for the owner's use in repairing machinery; a shed for the storing of all implements and machinery ; three barns for stock; two large granaries, with a total capacity of 5,000 bushels, and
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