USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 35
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 35
USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 35
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 35
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 35
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 35
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W ILLIAM D. WALLACE, one of the most intelligent and successful agri- culturists of Travis county, has re- sided here since March. 1867. He was born in Laurens district, South Carolina, Septem- ber 4, 1838, a son of Martin Wallace, a na- tive of the same State, born in 1810. The father was a planter and carriage-mannfac- turer of excellent business habits and sound judgment. He was a prominent member of the Masonic order, and built a lodge room for the fraternity on his own plantation; this he deeded to his brothers, with an additional tract of land to be used as a burial ground. He was a stanch supporter of Southern in- dependence, and although he was too old for military duty cheerfully gave three sons to the service of the Confederacy. The pater- nal grandfather of our subject, Jonathan Wallace, removed from Virginia to Sonth Carolina about the beginning of the nine- teenth century. He was of Scotch ancestry and lived to the age of sixty years. He mar- ried Elizabeth Brown and they had three children: Martin, Wilkinson, and Mary, who died unmarried. The wife survived her lunis- band only a few years. Martin Wallace
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married Eliza, daughter of Nathan Davis. Mr. Davis married Charity Hughes, and they had two children, Thomas and Eliza. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace had born to them seven children: Thomas Jefferson, who died before the war; John M., deceased; William D., whose name heads this notice; Mary Eliza- beth, wife of A. W. Burnsides; Nathan and Angustus.
William D. was trained in his youth both to the occupation of farming and the wagon- maker's trade. When difficulties arose be- tween the North and South and the taking up of arms became inevitable, Mr. Wallace enlisted in Company F, Hampton's Legion of Confederate troops, and went at onee to Virginia; participated in the first battle of Manassas, following which were some of the hardest fights of the war; received a flesh wound at Seven Pines which disabled him for a short time; rejoined his regiment near Richmond and afterward took part in the en- gagements at Chickamauga and Lookont mountain. Sickness compelled a furlongh, and at the time of Lee's snrrender he was at home.
unity. He takes no interest in polities be- yond voting the Democratic ticket. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and fills the office of Trustee.
On November 7, 1867, he was married to Miss Callie C. Fowler, a daughter of William Fowler, a native of South Carolina, born in 1795. Mrs. Wallace was born May 1, 1848, and when she was six years old her family came to Texas and settled in Travis county. Iler mother, Mrs. Avaline Durham, nee Thompson, by her first marriage had thir- teen children. Mr. Fowler also had thirteen children by a former marriage, his wife be- ing Miss Holcomb. By this second union eight children were born: Pierce, died in the armny at the age of seventeen years; Callie C., James I., John P., Barney, Kate, wife of Ed. Ronssean; M. T., and Beatrice, wife of W. R. Stewart of Ellis county. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace are the parents of five children: M. Ada, wife of John Erhard; Augustus, William Allen, Lawrence and IInbert.
The war swept away his property, blighted W. RUDASILL, of Williamson connty, Texas, was born east of Blue Mountain, Virginia. December 17, 1843, a son of Phillip and Mildred Rndasill, natives also of that State. The father was a son of Phillip Rndasill, a native of Germany and one of the pioneer settlers of Virginia. The old Ruda- sill homestead has passed through four gen- erations. Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Rudasill had ten children, viz .: Andrew, who was killed at Fredericksburg in 1863; Mary J., wife of William Doyle, of Virginia; William K., who served through the Civil war, and still resides in Virginia; J. W., onr subject; Eliza, wife of B. Bolden, also of Virginia; Lucy, his prospects and paralyzed his energies for the time. Feeling that he could no longer content himself in an environment that was continually a reminder of former prosperity, lie determined to seek a new home, and in 1866 came to Texas, locating in Travis county near his present home, and engaged in farming. Ilere reverses still attended him : his erops failed, sickness prostrated his family and finally his home was swept away by an overflow of the Colorado river. Ile afterward located on higher ground and now owns 360 acres, in a high state of cultivation : he has made many improvements and has one of the most comfortable homes in the com- wife of John Swartz; Sally, who died in Vir-
MEontheer
WW OWsheen
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ginia, at the age of eighteen years; Robert E. came to Williamson county, Texas, in 1880; Fanny B., wife of John Scott, who came to Texas in 1872, and in 1877 returned to Vir .. ginia for his wife; and Ella, wife of Jolm Adams, who came to this State in 1883, and now resides in Tyler.
J. W. Rudasill remained with his parents until the opening of the late war, when, in 1861, he enlisted in Company B. Sixth Vir- ginia Cavalry, under General R. E. Lee. IIc participated in all the engagements until in the following May, when he was wounded at Front Royal, thirty-six men having entered the charge, and only six were left mounted. After his recovery, ten months later, Mr. Rudasill again entered active service, but was wounded at Fisher's Hill, from which he was disabled for months. One week before the surrender, between Appomattox and Rich- mond, he was again wounded, arriving home the day of the surrender. In the fall of 1865 he was paroled. During his service Mr. Rndasill had three horses shot while under him. After his recovery he assisted his father at home until 1872, and in that year located near where he now lives in William- son county, Texas. On arriving in this locality he first found employment as a farm hand, the second year farmed on rented land, and the following year purchased 160 acres of his present farm. He has since added 160 acres to his original purchase, and 170 acres of his place is under a fine state of cultiva- tion, a part of which he rents. Mr. Rudasill is engaged in general farming and stock. raising, and is giving special attention to the raising of hogs, of the Berkshire stock.
In 1881 our subjeet returned to his old home in Virginia, and while there was mar- ried to Miss Della B. Swindler, who was born in that State, April 6, 1864, a daughter
of Major A. A. and Mary (Hamrick) Swindler, natives also of Virginia. Mrs. Rndasill has one brother in Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Rudasill have three children: Phillip A., born December 1, 1881; Pearl, Jannary 9, 1886; and Clyde. December 15. 1888. Politically, our subject is a stanch Democrat; socially, aftillates with the Masonic fraternity; and religionsly is a member of the Baptist Church.
H ON. W. W. OXSHEER .- An impor- tanee attaches to the life, and interest to the personality, of the subject of this sketch not met with in the per- soual history of any other man of Milam county. This importance and interest grow partly out of the individuality of the man and are the results partly of environment. As the oldest settler now living in the county, as one who has been most prominently iden- tified with its history for more than fifty years, as a gentleman of intelligence and one who has enjoyed exceptional opportunites for observation, a biography of him with some reminiscences of early times will probably form the most interesting and valuable con- tribution of a personal and local nature that appears in this volume relative. to Milam county.
W. W. Oxsheer was born in Bledsoe county, Tennessee, March 9. 1815, and is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Wilson) Oxsheer. The father was a native of Virginia, born in 1778, and the mother a native of North Carolina, born in 1780. The parents moved to Tennessee abont 1812 and settled in Bled- soe county, where the father died in 1837 and the mother in 1859. They left a family of twelve children: William Wilson Oxsheer was the eighth in age, being the third son.
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Ile was reared in his native county, passing his boyhood and youth on his father's farm. Ile left there in 1836, being then in his twenty-first year, and went to Alabama, where he took np his residence with his maternal unele, William B. Wilson. 1Ie made his home in the family of this unele for some years, in fact until his removal to Texas and his marriage here at a later date.
Mr. Oxsheer first set foot on Texas soil in January, 1837, coming on a prospecting tour that year and remaining about six weeks, when he returned to Alabama. Ile came to make this his home in December, 1839, being one of a party composed mostly of relatives of his nnele, William B. Wilson, and his ser- vants. This party settled near old Wheelock in Robertson county, which was then the first halting place of most of those intending to make central Texas their home. From there he came, in the spring of 1842, to what is now Milam county. Ilis recollection of the country at that date and of early events and early settlers as well as his own personal record, is best given in the narrative in which he related it to the writer.
" As I was induced to come to Texas to live by the impression made on me during my visit in 1837, a reference to that impres- sion is proper at the outset of what I have to say. Texas then, according to my recol- lection of it, was as near an earthly paradise for a man of simple tastes and fond of nature as I have ever saw or have since read of. To the eye it presented the appearance of a vast stretch of undulating country, threaded at intervals by clear streamns of running water and divided almost equally between timber land and prairie. All kinds of game, such as buffalo, deer, antelope, bear, wild hogs and turkey were here in abundance, while the climate, barring the occasional heavy
rainfall in winter, was almost ideally perfect. To nse a little rhetoric, none too strong, however, for the facts, I would say it was the hunter's home, the pioneer's paradise and the poet's dream of breathing beauty. Added to this was the promised pleasure of associa- tion with a class of people the like of whom could be found only in such a country,-a people who were a little rude, perhaps, in ways, but honest, brave, candid, steady in purpose and steadfast in friendship, generous and hospitable to a degree, as I believe, never witnessed elsewhere in the world.
" It was in such a country and among such people that I took up my residence in what is now Milam county more than fifty years ago. For the first few months after coming here I lived with my uncle, William B. Wil- son, who settled on the homestead now occupied by his son, W. S. G. Wilson, about fonr miles southwest of Cameron We lo- cated in the woods on Little river and the first few months were occupied in clearing up some land, erecting buildings, making a crop and getting things in readiness to move out that fall the family, which was then at Wheelock. I had but little time to make excursions over the country, but the settlers were so few that we knew one another for miles and considered ourselves acquainted on first meeting. I remember there were several families living near where Cameron now stands, mostly in the river bottom and along the breaks from a mile to a mile and a half east of the present site of the town. These were Daniel Monroe, Josiah Turnham, Shapley P. Ross, Giles O. Sullivan, John and William Thompson with their widowed sister, Mrs. Frazier; Mat Jones, a Mr. Wor- tham and an eccentric old man without a family calied .Dad Anders.' At Nashville lived W. D. Thompson, John Beal, Daniel
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Collins and C. C. Bowles, and at Port Sulli- State, and a few who achieved more than a van lived A. W. Sullivan and Jonathan C. local reputation. I have in mind now one especially whom I remember seeing there at a horse-race which I attended on the 4th of 1 July, 1840. He was then a boy and a rider in one of the races, which I think he won, this being the subsequently famous Indian fighter and late distinguished Governor 'Sal' Ross. Pool. There may have been another family or two in one of these settlements or at other points in the county, but I have mentioned all that I can remember who were here when I came early in 1842. Not long afterward, however, the Mercer brothers- Peter and Jesse-and a man named Orr settled on the Gabriel, west of the present site of Cameron, where Peter Mercer, Captain Orr and a negro servant were killed by the Indians in 1843.
"Just when the first settlement was made in the county and by whom it was made I never knew; but I know that settlements were attempted at a very early date even as far as what is now Bell county, a man named Taylor settling in the valley in Bell county since named for him, whose widow I after- ward knew and who told me her husband was killed there by the Indians. W. HI. Walker, afterward connty judge of Milam county, told me that he had located on a claim on Walker's branch in 1835, where he had had a fight with the Indians and was run ont. About 1844-'45 settlers began to come in very rapidly, and the country soon came to be what we considered in those days as pretty thiekly populated. Milam county then embraced a considerably larger territory than now, the seat of justice for which was located at Caldwell, where most of the pub- lie business was done. Before that, however, old Nashville was the seat of justice. as it was the principal trading point, and to that place we generally went on publie business and to make our purchases. Old Nashville was then a point of some consequence. 1 remember being there as early as Jnly. 1540, and it was there that I first met some men who afterward became well known in connec- tion with the history of this part of the
" The first court I ever attended for this county was held at Nashville, and was pre- sided over by Judge John T. Mills. My recollection is that the court was a very in- formal, and I may add unimportant, affair; for the people then seldom had to appeal to the law for aid, those who were here being in the main law-abiding or able in extreme cases to redress their own grievances.
" By act of the Legislature of 1846 Burleson connty was created and Milam county was cut down to its present area, the county seat of which was fixed at Cameron, then a sandy spot among the scrub oaks. I happened to be one of those honored with office at the first election and I therefore retain a very good recollection of the early incidents attending the launching of the new goverment, as well as a pretty good idea of its personnel. The county seat was located by three com- missioners, Israel Standifer, Josiah Turn- liam and, I think, Daniel Monroe, appointed for that purpose. I am not able to give the exact date on which they rendered their de- eision, but it must have been early in 1846, for in June of that year, I remember, the town was laid off by A. W. Sullivan, Ben- jamin Bryant, John Hobson and Daniel Monroe.
" The first building erected was a conrt- honse. If I were an expert dranghtsman } believe I could draw an exact picture of Milam county's first temple of justice, for I
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retain a very distinct recollection of it. It houses- - followed them shortly afterward and was a ride structure of small dimensions. the town soon began to put on the airs' of a regular bn-iness center. Perhaps I should mention that among the carly buildings was a donble walled log jail, the interior of which was reached by a trap door from the top, and which was supposed to be, and I believe was, . bomb-proof' against assaults from without and within.
but abundantly large enough and sufficiently ornate for the plain people who used it. It was thirty feet east and west by twenty feet north and sonth, about nine feet high to the eaves, built of upright stndding mortised into sills and plates, weather-boarded on the ontside, floored with plank ent ont by hand with a whipsaw, and covered with boards
" The first election in the county was held rived and shaved. There was a door on the 'in Angust. 1846, and the officers who were north side and one on the south side and a: window in each end. On the south side two shed rooms abont ten feet square were added which were used as clerks' offices, there being a passage way between leading to the court- room. Jacob Gross and Wiley Jones took the contract and erected the building. selected to serve the people at the time were; Isaac Standifer, Chief Justice: John MeLen- nan, Sheriff; F. T. Dnffan, County Clerk; and myself District Clerk. The first term of the district court was held in November of the same year and was presided over by that versatile. eccentric and truly noble- hearted man, R. E. B. Baylor, Indge and preacher. I do not doubt that a faithful pen picture of that term of the district court, with some side-lights on incidents and men present, would be read with inter- est and would indeed be a valuable sonve- nir for the descendants of the old settlers. I wish I could draw such a picture, but my literary accomplishments are not equal to the task, and I shall not attempt even an oral description. I may mention, however, that among the lawyers who attended that sitting of the conrt were J. D. Giddings. afterward well known in State history and polities; William II. White, who later became a resi- dent of this county and was a very good lawyer as well as a good citizen; A. M. Lewis, of Brenham, and James Norris of Caldwell, both of whom became regular prac- titioners at the Milam county bar; and another, who was indeed a character. John Taylor by name. a man who possessed a sound knowledge of the law, was an interesting
" The second honse built in the new town was put up by C. M. Hubby-a hewed-log affair-which was opened as a mercantile establishment. the principal article of mer- chandise sold being whisky. This building stood near the present site of Davis' livery stable on the east side of the square, and and was thus sufficiently near the court- house for all practical purposes. A little later on George E. Burney and John Blair put up a tavern near where the jail uow stands. The style of architecture was changed a little in this building from what had been observed in the erection of the court- house and grog-shop. Instead of making it of stadding, weather- boarded on the ontside, the owners simply drove 'stubs' in the ground sufficiently far to make them steady, then put on a few eross pieces and weather-boarded the whole. My recollection is that this made a very substantial strneture. I know that if the guests ever 'kicked' they never succeeded in kicking it down. Other build- ings - some residences and some business conversationalist and one who might have
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left a lasting imprint npon the history of his connty and State had not his sloth, negli- gence or erankiness' made of him one the filthiest mortals that ever attempted to adorn an honorable profession. A year or so later two other lawyers who afterward made their mark in their profession began to make this point in their cirenit, these being James and Asa M. Willey, the latter District Attorney of this district at a later day and on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State. I held the office of District Clerk for six years. During that time there was not a great deal of legal business transacted at Cameron, nor indeed much general business.
". For several years after the town was laid ont and established as the county seat, Port Sullivan and Nashville were its successful rivals in trade, some people of the county going also to Wheelock and Caldwell. The buying of an article of wearing apparel or a piece of furniture or a lot of groceries in more than dollar quantities was such a rare event with the people then that they could afford to go thirty or forty miles to make selections and get good bargains. The chief employment of the people was stock-raising, and farming on small scale. For the first few years after I settled here immigration into the county was so heavy that we sold all we raised in the way of grain to settlers. A great deal of corn was grown and some wheat and oats. Cotton did not become one of the staple prodnets until abont the begin- ning of the war. The people as a whole were industrions and self-sustaining, and they were, with a few exceptions, moral and law-abiding.
" Schools. of course, were not plentiful, nor were those that we had what they onght to have been, but we had not then come to depend so much upon books as now. The resources.'
newspaper was not regarded in those days as a honsehold necessity, nor had the electric tele- graph brought the utmost parts of the earth to our doors. We were somewhat of a peo- ple nnto ourselves, not used to the high living and high thinking of these times. Onr spiritual needs were administered to by the itinerant ministry, supplemented by neigh- borhood and family prayer-meetings. We had occasional seasons of refreshing when there would be a general upheaval of religions sentiment and a taking of bearings upon the parts of the frivolous and nnregenerate. Church buildings were scarce but the settlers' honses were always open for gatherings of a religions nature, and when an extraordinary gathering was promised resort was not in- frequently had to what the poet has called ' God's first temples. the spreading trees.' I attended church a number of times in the courthonse at Cameron, and perhaps should mention in this connection those able and earnest divines of the Methodist Church, the pioneer organization of this connty, the Rev. W. C. Lewis, Pleasant M. Yell and Josiah W. Whipple, all of whom were early workers in the cause of Christianitiy in Milam county. I cannot say exactly when they began their labors here, but it was early in the '40s. The Methodists effected an organization in this county in 1847, and the first quarterly meeting was held at Cameron, that year, Rev. J. W. Whipple. the presid- ing elder, being in charge of it.
" I have spoken of the early settlement of the county and its elneational and religions interests by choice. I have been in politics some, but I am no politician, and I leave it to others to give, in their recollections, the political history of the county and to still others to speak of its material growth and
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Continuing on Mr. Oxsheer's career in this county for the purpose of completing this biography. it will be proper to say that in addition to having held the office of District Clerk of the county for six years as related by him. he was also Depnty District Surveyor of Milam land district from 1849 to 1852 in- clusive, and has represented this county in the State Legislature three sessions, the fourteenth. sixteenth and seventeenth. As Surveyor he has located thonsands of acres of land in the counties of Milam, Falls, MeLen- nan. Bell, Bosque and Coryell, and was at one time thoroughly familiar with the status of most of the grants and claims in this section of the State. During his service in the Legislature he assisted in the fourteenth ses- sion in getting the State Government in operation after the removal of the Federal authorities, and in other measures which at- traeted attention and were of moment at the time, such as the State's deal with the Inter- national & Great Northern Railroad, the re apportionment of the State into legisla- tive and senatorial districts, and similar measures. He has always taken great inter- est in public matters, but has never been a seeker after office, having consented to serve in the positions he has held solely from a sense of duty. His business is farming, to which his taste mainly leads him. He owns about 2,000 acres of land lying in the east part of the county, eight or ten miles from Cameron, a magnificent body of land front- ing on Little river, a considerable portion of which is in cultivation and well improved. On this place he has lived over fifty years. having settled there January 16. 1843.
As mentioned at the opening of this arti- cle. Mr. Oxsheer was a single man when he came to Texas. He married, in Robertson connty. this State, December 1, 1842, Martha
E. Kirk, a daughter of William A. and Ann R. Kirk, who moved to Texas from Missis- sippi in 1841, being originally from Will- imson county, Tennessee, where Mrs. Oxsheer was born. She, like her husband, comes of pioneer stock, her people being early settlers of Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas. IIer father died in Robertson county, this State, in 1843, and her mother in Milam county, in 1877.
Mr. and Mrs. Oxsheer have had born to them a family of eight children, only three of whom are now living, all residents of this State: Fountain G., of Colorado City; Viola M., wife of II. F. Smith of Cameron; and Medora M., wife of Dr. J. S. Fletcher of Dallas. Their children having married and moved away Mr. and Mrs. Oxsheer have been left to occupy the old homestead alone. This they are doing in comfort and ease, and the pietnre which their home life presents is one of peenliar interest and significance, and this allusion to it here is fully justified by the lesson it teaches regardless of its appropri- ateness to this biography. They have grown old together in a most affectionate and beanti- ful way. Their union has served to vindi- cate the law of affinities and to present a choice example of domestic harmony, conti- dence and devotion. The story of their wedded life is a sermon of radiant and salu- tary meaning, and its chief lesson is that there is honest, steadfast and imperishable goodness in the scheme of society. The cynic stands silent where fireside virtne is so well declared; the infidel enconnters here a form of religion that he is bound to respect. There could not be a more impressive picture of the better side of human nature. December 1, 1892. Mr. and Mrs Oxsheer celebrated their goklen wedding.
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