USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 38
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 38
USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 38
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 38
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 38
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 38
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In 1874 Mr. Darlington was married to Miss Mary Van Pelt, a native of Williamson
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county, Texas, born in 1854, and the only child of Edward and Lonisa (Jones) Van Pelt. natives of Lonisiana. At the beginning of the late war, her father removed to Texas and enlisted in the Confederate service, and was killed at the battle of Donaldsonville. IIe was for a number of years District Judge and was a man of rare judgment and honor. Mrs. Darlington's mother died when she was an infant, and after her father died she made her home with her maternal grandfather, Indge Jones, of Lampasas, Texas, and later of Travis county, where he died in 1875, universally lamented. Mr. and Mrs. Darling- ton have six children: Edward Van Pelt, Ennice, Lucretia, Benjamin F., Florence L. and Loretta.
Politieally, Mr. Darlington is a Democrat, and, fraternally, affiliates with the Knights of IIonor, of Manor. Mrs. Darlington is an active and useful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Darlington takes a deep interest in the welfare of his community, to the development of which he is prompt to contribute, and his labors and influence have figured prominently in the attainment of the present high standing which his vi- cinity enjoys.
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AMES K. QUINN .- Up to 1850 by far the greater number of immigrants to America were natives of Ireland. As a result of this the descendants of the Irish became scattered throughout the coun- try at an early date and have exercised a marked influence on the history of civiliza- tion in the western world. Some of the most conspienous figures in the annals of this country have been of Irish origin.
To this class of eitizens the subject of this sketch, James K. Quinn, belongs, being the third removed from the original progenitor of the name on this continent. He is a na- tive of Alabama, of which State his father, Oliver Quinn, was also a native, born about the year 1813. John Quinn, father of Oliver and grandfather of James K., moved from Sonth Carolina to Alabama about the begin- ning of this century and settled in what is now Bibb county. He was a planter by occupation and in an early day a large slave- owner. Oliver Quinn grew up in his native county in Alabama and there passed his en- tire life. He was a man of some distinction in the locality where he lived, having served as Sheriff of Bibb county and represented that county in the State Legislature. His early educational advantages were poor, there being few schools in Alabama when he was growing up, but he improved his opportuni- ties as he advanced in years, and became in middle life a man of good general informa- tion. He was distinguished for his knowl- edge of public matters and the interest he took in them, and for his liberality toward his friends, neighbors and acquaintances. He was a genuine patriot in sentiment and action, and was a humanitarian of the broadest and most generous impulses. He possessed an even temper, and in consequence of this and the general correctness of his life his years on earth were passel in peace. lle belonged to the old-school Presbyterian Church, but was liberal in his views as re- spects church polity, the practice of the vir- tnes and graces of the Christian religion being with him the test of the possession of these virtnes and graces.
HIe was twice married; first. in 1833, to Martha Lee, a daughter of William Lee and a native of Alabama, and after her death to
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a Mrs. Mayberry, widow of Jacob Mayberry. of Bibb county. By the former marriage he had nine children, and by the latter, two. The children of the first marriage were: Green, who now resides in Choctaw county, Mississippi; John, who resides in Blount county, Alabama; Chester, who lives in Tuscaloosa county, Alabama; Robert, who died in Milam county, this State, in Jannary, 1885; James K., of this sketch; Sarah, the deceased wife of Thomas Moss; Mary, the wife of Benjamin Moseley, of Alabama: Duff, of Milam county; and Jefferson D., of Choctaw county, Mississippi. Ida and Ada, the children of the second marriage, are now married and live in Ellis county, this State.
James K. Quinn, of this article, was born in Bibb county, Alabama, on Angnst 11, 1844. He grew up on his father's farm. and until the opening of the late war worked on the farm and attended the local schools. At the age of eighteen, in Angust, 1862, he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Captain Tarrant's battalion, from which at a later date he was transferred to Clanton's cavalry, with which he served during the greater part of the war. IIe saw active service through Mississippi, Ala- bama, Tennessee and Georgia, being on the skirmish line a large portion of the time during the operations in these States. He was never wounded, but was once captured at Cave Springs, Georgia, and placed in prison at Rome, that State, from which he eseape 1 by cutting a hole in the wall of the building in which he was confined and letting himself down from the upper story by means of a rope made from strips of his blanket. After the surrender he returned home, went theace to Mississippi, where some of his relatives resided, and remained for a year. He then married and settled in Tuscaloosa county.
Alabama, where he engaged in farming. In 1570 he came to Texas and made his first stop in. Washington county, whence after a year's residence he moved to Bell county, and thence to Burnet, the county seat of Burnet county, and in 1874 to Milam county. Since residing in this State he has been vari- ously engaged, -principally in farming, stock- raising and merchandising, at which he has met with very good success, owning now abont 1.500 acres of black land in Milam county, well stocked with high-grade horses and cattle, and he has a mercantile establish- ment in Thorndale that does an annual busi- ness of 825,000 to $30,000. In recent years he has given particular attention to the breed- ing and raising of thoroughbred and high- grade horses, and has now on his place some animals that have become noted throughont the country, having taken prizes at many of the principal horse shows in Texas and some also in other States. He exhibits great zeal in the matter of stock-raising, and pursues it intelligently and successfully.
In 1866 Mr. Quinn married Miss Hattie V. Hart, a native of Tuscaloosa county, Ala- bama, and a daughter of Velimns and Eliza- beth Hart, the former of whom was a native of Connecticut and the latter a native of South Carolina. Mrs. Quinn died in 1879, the mother of seven children, but two of whom are now living, most of them dying in infancy. The older of the two is Mrs. Minnie Flint, wife of James Flint of Austin; and the younger, Lee, who re:nains at home with his father. Mr. Quinn married a second time, in 18$2. his wife being Mrs. Alice Dangherty, the widow of Thomas Dangherty, and dangh- ter of William Phillips. To this nnion three children have been born: Two sons, Gleaves and Homer (twins), and a danghter. Jennie V. Mrs. Quinn was born in Fayette county.
Am Mo& Cutcheon
Mors E. J. Mccutcheon
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Alabama. Her parents were William P. and Annie H. Phillips, the father being a native of Tennessee and reared in Alabama, the mother a native of Alabama. The parents were married in 1846. The father was a prominent and influential farmer of Alabama. Hle died in Memphis, Tennessee, December 31, 1874. The mother is still living. Mrs. Quinn is one of four children, three now liv- ing, these being Mrs. Virginia Avery, Mrs. Alice Quinn, and Mrs. Willie Cheatham, the deceased one being Minnie B., who died nn- married.
ber of horses and a couple of hundred dollars when the Civil war broke out. In the spring of 1862 he enlisted in Colonel Darnell's reg- iment, Captain Hart's company, and soon afterward joined a regiment of Missouri State troops, with Captain Crisp in com- mand of the company and Colonel Coffey at the head of the regiment. A little later this command was mustered into the service of the Confederate government and was brig- aded with Joe Shelby. Mr. MeCuteheon re- lates with interest many of the incidents connected with his service while a private, courier and Sergeant Major, to which posi- tion he rose by merited promotion. In 1864 he was transferred to west Texas for service on the Rio Grande, and at the mouth of that river assisted in the capture of about 150 Yankee soldiers from Ohio.
OIIN MCCUTCHEON is another one of the popular and substantial men of Williamson county, Texas. "Jack " McCntcheon, as he is familiarly known, is a son of William Mccutcheon, whose name is A few weeks after the surrender of Gen- eral Lee our subject went home. A small amount of money and some horses was the sum total of his earthly possessions at this time. Soon after his return home he en- gaged to take a drove of cattle to Ottumwa, Iowa, these being probably the first Texas cattle that ever passed through Kansas. For this service he received $100 a month. The next season he and his brothers and father were equally interested in a herd of stock driven to Kansas, and for six years longer Mr. Mccutcheon followed the trail and made handsome profits out of the business. Withi these acenmulations he purchased his first farm and settled down to its enltivation and improvement. Ile is now the proud pos- sessor of 917 acres of fine black soil, all under fence, in Williamson county, and also owns 2,000 aeres of his father's headright in Bastrop county. Besides this he owns prop- erty in Taylor, Texas, and in Oklahoma. He well known in this vicinity. The former was born in Bastrop county, Texas, February 4, 1840, and received a fair English educa- tion in Travis county, to which place the family moved when he was a boy. When he was fifteen or sixteen years of age he lie!ped his father drive a band of cattle from a point west of San Antonio, Texas, to Quincy, Illinois, being several months in making the journey, and still retaining many pleas- ant memories connected with that trip. He grew up on his father's farm, receiving the best of training from his mother, who had charge of the farming operations during her linsband's absence. he being engaged in teaming and being away from home muehl of the time. When he was nineteen Jack began working for wages, receiving $18 per month. Early in life he had a desire to ac- cumulate property, and by saving his earn- ings and investing the same in horses in a few years he got a good start, having a num- Fis engaged extensively in the raising of
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horses, having now on hand abont fifty head. All this, together with a snug som of a few thousand dollars to his credit in one of the national banks of Taylor, gives one an idea of the hard work Mr. MeCntcheon has done since the war.
Politieally, Mr. MeCntcheon affiliates with the Democratic party. He has never joined any of the secret organizations, nor has he ever married.
married Martha Bowling; Miles, deceased, married Elizabeth Majors: Delia, deceased, was the wife of Charles Jones; Eliza, deceased, was the wife of Frank Cloud; Armstead married Elizabeth Townsend; Melvina, de- ceased, married William Allen; Albert C. married Elizabeth Hancock; Mary, deceased, was the wife of A. C. Olney; Robert, father of the subject of this notice; Lonisa married Jolin Olney: J. P. lives near Garfield; Jane is the wife of C. F. Graham. The mother of this family died in March, 1884, at the extreme old age of one hundred years and eight months.
R F. JONES, a prosperous and popular young farmer and stock-raiser of Gar- Robert Jones, father of R. F. Jones, was born in Oglethorpe county, Georgia, July 26, 1819. lle remained under the roof of his parents mitil twenty-six years of age, and then went out to wage life's battle nnaided. Hle began his career as a farmer, and con- tinned to till the soil of the old States nntil 1849, when he came to Texas and located in Bastrop county. Three years later he re. moved to Travis county and settled on his present farm. Ilis first purchase was 357 aeres, but as his means increased he bought other lands, and at one time owned 1,800 acres, which he divided among his children, retaining 416 aeres. Until 1880 he had de- voted considerable time to the raising of live-stock, but sinee then he has given his attention more especially to grain. He was a soldier in the service of the Confederacy. and was in the engagements at Honston and Sabine Pass under Major Towns. Ile later joined a company for service on the Rio Grande river, and took part in the last fight of the war, Palmetto ranch. field, Texas, is a native of the State, born in Travis county, June 30, 1858. IIis great-grandfather, Robert Jones, was a Virginian by birth, and was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. He witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and some of his military trappings are still in the possession of the family. He married a Miss Roberts, and they had two children, their son Robert being the grandfather of our subject. Robert Jones, Jr., received a limited educa- tion, and was reared to the life of a farmer. He was a Democrat in his political views, and at one time was a member of the Ala- bama Legislature. He, too, was a native of Virginia, born in 1783. In 1810 he re- moved to Wilkes county, Georgia, and later to Oglethorpe connty, in the same State. Abont the year 1830 he went to Jackson county, Alabama, where he passed the re- mainder of his days. He died in October, 1847. He was a man of exceptional force of character, and stood high in the estimation of his fellow-men. In his religions faith he In March, 1848, he was nnited in marriage was a primitive Baptist. He was united in ; to Mary Hancock, a daughter of Allen Han- marriage to Mary Wilson, and they reared a cock and a niece of Judge John Hancock. family of twelve children: Pleasant, deceased, ! They had a family of five children: Sarah,
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deceased, was the wife of Thomas Henry; Mattie is the wife of T. R. Pearce (see sketch): Louisa J. married II. C. Foster; R. F .; and the youngest, Susan, died at the age of ten years. The mother died in 1883. and Mr. Jones was afterward married to Mrs. Large, nee Burnett.
R. F. Jones was edneated in the district school, and received a thorough training in all the details of agriealture. He now owns a fine farm of 732 acres, 250 acres of which are eultivated to cotton. Ile also raises some live-stock, feeding from twenty-five to fifty head of cattle anunally. Politically, he affiliates with the Democratic party, but be- yond the exercise of his right of suffrage, takes little interest in the aetion of that body.
Hle was married December 25, 1879, to Miss Annie Berry, a danghter of James W. Berry, who married a Miss Motlow. Mr. and Mrs. Berry were the parents of seven children: George, Tom, Annie, Fannie, Rob- ert, James, and William. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have a family of five children: Ida, born in September, 1880; James, in August, 1882; Myrtle, in February, 1884; Ethel, in September, 1887; and Hattie, April, 1890. Mr. Jones has made a great success of life, and his many achievements are due to his untiring energy, industry and thrift, a most excellent heritage.
G. MATTHEWS, a successful business man of Williamson county, is a son of Abner and Senath (Henderson) Mat- thews. The grandfather of our subject, James Matthews, came with his wife from Ireland to Mecklenburg county, North Caro- : Texas to the United States, he was a mem- lina, about the time of the Revolutionary war, where they continued to reside until 1812.
In that year they located in Manry county, Tennessee, where they both afterward died. Abner Matthew was born in North Carolina, in 1792. and when a young man served with General Jackson in the Creek Indian war. lle was married in Maury county, Tennessee, in 1813; in 1834 located in Tipton county, that State, and five years later came to Texas. In the spring of 1840 he located in Travis county, where he died in 1862; and the inother, a native of North Carolina, died in 1852. Ile was a farmer by ocenpation, also served as Justice of the peace, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. The Henderson family moved from North Caro- lina to Tennessee. They were members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Abner Matthews were the parents of ten children, viz .: Mary D., deecased; James, deceased; Naney A., deceased; John G., the subjeet of this sketch; Easter A., deceased; E. S., a farmer residing three miles from Austin; and Eliza J., Martha M. and Robert F., deceased.
J. G. Matthews was born in Maury county, Tennessee, March 3, 1824, and was sixteen years of age when he came with his parents to Texas. During the '40s he was principally engaged in ranger service, was a member of a squad of Jaek Hays' rangers, under Lieutenant Coleman; served on the frontier and had many skirmishes with the Indians. ilis house was located in the extreme west- ern settlement from Austin. Mr. Matthews followed farming in Travis county until 1870, and for the following twenty years was engaged in the same oceupation near Liberty Hill, Williamson county. He then came to this city. At the time of the annexation of ber of Captain D. C. Caty's company of rangers, which afterward became a part of
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the United States army, and served during the Mexican war. Ile was principally en- gaged in seonting anty, and now draws a pension from the Government for services rendered in that struggle. Mr. Matthews was a member of a volunteer company dur- ing the latter part of the Civil war, of which he served as Lieutenant, and did dnty on the southern coast of the State. Ile now owns one of the finest farms in Williamson county. consisting of 250 aeres, 125 acres of which is enltivated. In his political relations he affili- ates with the Democratic party; socially, is a Master Mason; and religiously an Elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Matthews was married in Travis con- ty, in October, 1855, to Leonore Carnthers. Her parents came from South Carolina to Texas in 1853. To this union have been born seven children, namely: Addie M., wife of R. E. Allen, residing three miles from Liberty Hill; Abner B., a merchant of this city; Samuel H., who also resides three miles from Liberty IIill; Sidney J., a school-teacher by profession; Neally, attending the Hunts- ville Normal; and William Franklin and Leonora, at home. The wife and mother died April 1, 1892, having been a member and prominent worker in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
M ICHAEL HI. FLEMING comes of Irish ancestry, his father, Patrick Fleming, and his mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Holland. being natives of the Emerald Isle, born in the connty of Cork, the father in 1816 and the mother in 1524 They were married in their native country in 1853, and the following year came to America, settling in New York city, where they resided until they died, the - of foreman.
father in 1864 and the mother in 1862. The father was something of a merchant, being a dealer in naval stores, at which he earned an honest livelihood for himself and family but laid up nothing for the proverbial "rainy day." He was a type of his race, generous, impulsive, full of wit, not over-provident, a Democrat in politics and a Catholie in re- ligion. The mother was an industrious, eco- nomical honse-wife, devoted to her husband and children and attentive to all of her duties. They had bnt three children, the eldest dy- ing in infancy, the second being the subject of this notice, and the youngest, a danghter, Annie, now the wife of Patrick McCarty of Chatham, Columbia county, New York.
Michael II. Fleming was born October 12, 1854, in the city of New York. His boy- hood mtil he was twelve was passed in that eity. Then, his parents having died, he was sent up to New Lebanon in Columbia county, where he was put to work on a farm. Here he resided some three or four years, working as a farm hand in summer and at- tending the local schools in the winter. Co- lumbia county continued to be his home for twelve or fourteen years, which time he spent as a laborer among the farmers of that county and as a railway construction hand on railway lines in that vicinity. In 1880 he came to Texas and settled at Milano, where he entered the employ of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Company, with which he has continued since. Hle began with this company as a foreman at $55 per month, and in 1884 was promoted to the position of road master at a salary of $112.50 per month, but in a few weeks resigned and again became foreman of hissection. In 1-01 he was again promoted to the position of road master, but again resigned and still holds his old position
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Mr. Fleming is one Irishman who does not thirst for official distinction. He is con- teut to pursne the even tenor of his way as an mupretentious citizen, giving to his em- ployers a reasonable share of his time and labor for what he receives from them, reserv. ing the remainder to be devoted to his own private affairs. How well he has profited by this course can be easily seen by a glance at his financial standing. When he came to the State in 1880 he had about $1.500, which he had saved from his earnings in New York. Since then he has bonght 512 aeres of land in Milam county, 260 acres of which is in cultivation; he owns ten lots, a residence and a brick business building in Milano, and holds vendor lien notes to the amount of 84,000 or $5,000. Ile has made all of this in the last twelve or fourteen years, partly by labor and partly by judicious investments.
In 1879 Mr. Fleming married Miss Mar- garet Molyneaux. a native of county Kerry, Ireland, and a daughter of John and Mary Molyneaux, Mrs. Fleming coming to Amer- ica in company with an older brother when a girl. Mr. and Mrs. Fleming have had four children: Edward; Frank, who died at the age of two years; Charlie and Francis. He and his wife are members of the Catholic Church, and he belongs to the Knights of Honor, Milano Lodge, No. 3,678, of which he is Trustee.
A LVIN P. PERRY, of Rockdale, is a son of Milton and Isabella Perry and a brother of Judge J. S. Perry. of Rockdale, a sketch of whom appears in this work, to which reference may be had for the ancestral history of Alvin P.
The latter was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, April 20, 1844, and reared there to the age of eleven, coming with his parents to Texas in 1853. From that date until 1861 he worked on his father's farm, first in Travis and then in Washington county, and attended the local schools. He was in Baylor Uni- versity at Independence when the war came on, and quit school to enter the Confederate army, enlisting in Company F, Tenth Texas Infantry, commanded by Colonel Roger Q. Mills. He began his service in Arkansas, and was taken prisoner with his regiment at the fall of Arkansas Post. After a confine- ment of three months at St. Lonis he was exchanged at Petersburg, Virginia, and joined the army under Bragg, then at Tullahoma, Tennessee, and was with Bragg in his subse- queut operations about Chickamauga, Mis- sionary Ridge and Chattanooga, and in all of the Georgia campaign down to Atlanta. On the reorganization of the Confederate forces before Atlanta, he was placed with Hood, and was with him on the return into Tennessee, taking part in most of that disastrous cam- paign. He was wonnded at the battle of Franklin, where he was taken from the field with a severe gunshot in the left shoulder. He was placed in hospital at Columbia, where he remained until the retreat of Hood's army, when he walk to Corinth, Mississippi, and thence to Lordville Springs, at which latter place he had the ball extracted, when his wound began to heal. After a two weeks' stay in Mississippi, he returned to Texas on a furlough, and after a brief visit home re- ported for duty to Colonel Mills, who was then at Corsicana. Before being ordered to the front again the war closed.
After the surrender Mr. Perry settled on a farm in Brazos county, where he engaged in farming nntil 1867. lle then came to
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Milam county, and until 1879 engaged in farming on the San Gabriel, moving thence to the vicinity of Roekdale, and in 1887 into the town, where he now resides. Until the date of his last removal he was en- gaged actively in farming and later in the dairy business, and still owns his farm of 348 acres near Rockdale. He also owns property in Rockdale and a one-fourth interest in the cotton-yards at this place, where since 1887 he has been the weigher.
In 1871 Mr. Perry married Miss Ada Daniel. a native of Mississippi, and daughter of William and Jane (Gordon) Daniel, who moved to Texas abont 1858 or '59, settling in Williamson county. To this union four children have been born: Emma, who died at the age of seventeen; Andrew P., Sam and Harry.
In politics Mr. Perry affiliates with the Populists. being a zealous supporter of the Alliance and kindred organizations. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church.
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