USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 23
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 23
USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 23
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 23
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 23
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 23
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B. SANDERS, a successful farmer of Burleson county, was born in Morgan county, Georgia, in 1829, a son of Simeon Sanders, a native also of that State. The elder Sanders was a teacher and followed his profession a number of years in his native State, was a fine surveyor and located a great
deal of land in western Texas. His death occurred in Hays county, this State, in his eighty-sixtli year. The maiden name of Simeon Sanders' wife was Arpie Sims, she being a daugliter of Charles Sims, formerly of Georgia.
Mr. and Mrs. Sanders were the parents of four children: Henry, William, J. B. and Nancy. Only the two younger menibers of this family are now living. The daughter was married to a Mr. Simington and resides now in Milam county, Texas.
J. B. Sanders was reared in Walton county, Georgia, whither his parents moved when he was yonng. He was brought up on the farm and received only limited educational advan- tages. In January, 1853, he located in Wash- ington county, Texas, where, after residing a year at Brenham, he settled on a farin between that place and La Grange and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He followed this suc- cessfully up to the opening of the late war, when he entered the Confederate army, enlist- ing in Company B, Sixteenth Texas Infantry, with which he served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, being in active service till the close of hostilities. He took part in most of the engagements west of the Mississippi river, among them Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mil- liken's Bend, Jenkins' Ferry and other smaller ones. After the surrender Mr. Sanders con- verted what property he had into money and with the proceeds-about $600-engaged in buying cotton. He was successful at this and by 1867 had made between $3,000 and $4,000. With this amount he purchased a stock of goods and began the mercantile business at Yegua in Burleson county. He was so en- gaged only a short time, when he again took up agricultural pursuits, which he has fol- lowed steadily and successfully ever since. He now owns a farm of 700 acres, lying in
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the western part of the county, 250 acres of which is in enltivation and reasonably well improved ..
November 25, 1859, Mr. Sauders married Miss Lydia Armstrong, who was born in Mississippi, and who was a daughter of John and Lydia Armstrong, the father being a native of Alabama, and the mother a native of Mississippi. The issne of this marriage was one son: J. D. Sanders. The wife and mother died in 1863, and six years later Mr. Sanders married Mrs. Naney Ann Oldliam, the widow of Thomas Oldliam, and a dangli- ter of Charles Leeper. This lady was born in Lawrence county, Alabama. By this union Mr. Sanders has had three children: Ida, who is now deceased; Dona, the wife of James Harvey; and Howell C.
UD. C. WOMBLE, the present popular and efficient Treasurer of Burleson county, was born in Coosa county, Alabama, January 5, 1853, and is the youngest son of William H. and Eliza J. Womble, who are natives, the father of North Carolina and the mother of Sonth Carolina. His parents were married in Alabama where they spent the greater part of their lives, the father dying there in 1857. The mother and children remained in Ala- bama till most of the children beeame grown when, in 1869, they came to Texas and settled in Burleson eounty. The mother died in Caldwell, this county, in 1890. Most of the children married in this county and settled here and elsewhere in the State. The eldest and youngest, Sallie J. widow of Rev. F. H. Carroll, and Sudie E. wife of Rev- James M. Carroll, reside in Lampasas; the
second and fifth, William T. and Jud. C., are residents of Caldwell, while the third, John E. lives at San Angelo, and the fourth, Henry G., died in Burleson eounty before the removal of the remainder of the family ont from Alabama.
Jnd C. of this article, being next to the youngest of the family, was sixteen when he came to Texas. His boyhood had been speut in Coosa connty, Alabama, in the schools of which county and at the Baptist college located at Talladega, he received his ednea- tion. His first employment on locating in this county was as a farm hand on Hooker's prairie. He was so engaged for three years when, in 1871, he secured a clerkship with Dean & Carroll, at Caldwell, and for three years following clerked in the mercantile business. He then formed a partnership with James L. Dean, and engaged in business for himself at Deanville in Burleson county.
In 1881 he disposed of his interest at Deanville, and returning to Caldwell just prior to the completion of the Gulf, Colo- rado & Santa Fe railway to this place, opened a general store here, out of which grew luis present establishment, namely, groceries, guns and sporting goods. Later Mr. R. E. McArthur became interested in the business, the firm becoming Womble & McArthur standing so at this time. Messrs. Womble & McArthur earry a select stock of goods in their line and control a large trade.
In Mareh 1888, Mr. Womble was ap- pointed to fill a vaeaney in the office of Treasurer of Burleson eonnty. In Novem- ber following he was elected to the same position, and two years later was re-elected, and in November, 1892, was again elected as his own successor. He has made the eitizens of Burleson county an honest and capable officer, and that they appreciate his
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faithful services is shown by the practically unanimons vote by which they have each timc elected him to this office.
In December 1884, Mr. Womble married Miss Mary E. Oliver, a danghter of Dr. J. P. Oliver, an old and prominent physician of Burleson county, a sketch of whom appears under an appropriate title in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Womble have three children, Iler- bert, Oliver and Henry, and both are mem- bers of the Baptist Church.
EORGE S. GRAVES, Justice of the Peace, merchant and Postmaster at Lilac, Milam county, was born in the town of Independence, Washington county, Texas, January 12, 1856, and is the youngest child of Dr. John H. and Julia Graves, of North Carolina, who moved to Texas in 1852, and six years later settled in Milam county, where they spent the remain- der of their lives. An extended notice of them is given in the sketch of their eldest son, Thomas H. Graves, which appears else- where in this volume. The subject of this notice was raised in Milam county in the vicinity where he now lives. Lack of school facilities interfered with his early education but by industry and application on liis own part he acquired some knowledge of books as he grew up and having determined on a college course he entered Davilla school at the age of sixteen, where he remained for five years, defraying his own expenses and taking the full course prescribed by the enr- rienhn. His inclination leading him to in- door pursuits he began the mercantile busi- ness at Lilac in 1879, which, with the exception of two years, he has followed at
that place since. The same year when the postoffice was established at Lilac he receiv- ed the appointment as Postmaster and has held it since. In 1890 he was elected Justice of the Peace of Precinct No. 5, and re-elected in 1892, which office he has since held. Mr. Graves has been moderately suc- cessful in a worldly way, but his chief value to the community in which he resides is not so much for the amount of his accumulations as for his services as a citizen. He lias be- come to the people of his locality one of those indispensable factors always found in well regulated communities on whom every- body feels at liberty to call for advice in mnat- ters of law, business, politics and the like, and who in the course of a year does as much work gratuitously as many men do on liand- some salaries. To his credit it may be said that he does such work cheerfully and does 'it well. He has been frequently solicited to run for office, but has never consented, simply accepting the offices he has held as a matter of accommodation to his friends and neigli- bors. In politics he is a Democrat and takes an active interest in everything of a political nature. Public enterprises -- whatever will improve, elevate or adorn the society in which he moves and the country in which he inakes his home-meet his cordial appro- bation and receive his prompt advocacy and assistance. The education of the masses through free schools provided or greatly as- sisted by the State government has always found in him a friend and a supporter and he has contributed from his own means in put. ting the schools in the locality where he resides on a permanent and advantageous footing, he and his two brothers, Thomas II. and Fred A., having erected a building near where they live; they have a good school maintained nine months in a year.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Mr. Graves married Miss Emma L. Bal- lard of Milam county, on September 15, 1881. Mrs. Graves was born in Halletts- ville, Lavaca county, October 22, 1858, being a danghter of Joseph J. and Sallie Ballard, her father a native of Kentucky and her mother a native of Georgia. Her father was a representative of the distinguished Ballard family of Kentucky, being a great-grand- nephew of Bland Ballard, an associate of Daniel Boone in pioneer days in the " Blue Grass State." Joseph J. Ballard came to Texas in 1854 and settled at Hallettsville, Lavaca county, where he was prominent in business and politics until his death, which occurred in 1861. Mrs. Graves' mother, whose maiden name was Hillyer, was a de- scendant of an old Georgia family, being a danghter of Dr. John F. Hillyer, a prominent physician, Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Laws of the State, and a niece of the eminent jurist, Jnnius Hillyer, and of Granby Hillyer of Atlanta, Georgia. She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Graves, while on a visit October 6, 1883.
Mr. and Mrs. Graves have had born to them three children, two of whom are living: Rnth C., born March 24, 1885 and Ada E., born December 20, 1887.
Mr. and Mrs. Graves are members of the Methodist Church, of which Mr. Graves has been a Steward for a number of years.
D R. J. P. OLIVER, for twenty-six years a practicing physician of Caldwell, Burleson county, being, in point of residence. one of the oldest physicians in the county, is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was born August 26, 1837. Ilis parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Oliver,
who were also natives of Tennessee, where they were born early in this century. The father died when a young man, and the mother was twice afterward married, and is still living, residing now in Caldwell parish, Louisiana, vigorons yet in mind and body. She is a woman of great piety, having been a member of the Baptist Church for sixty years and faithful in the service of her Master.
James- P. Oliver was mainly reared in Louisiana, whither his mother moved when he was young. IIe received but limited educational advantages, and at the age of twenty began to read medicine under Drs. John E. Wright and C. C. Merideth, of Columbia, Caldwell parish, Louisiana. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Louisiana in 1859, and immediately took up the practice of his profession in Moorehonse parish. Later he moved into Winn parish, where in 1860 he married. He was just entering on what promised to be a prosperous and very satis- factory professional career when the late Civil war came on. Like hundreds and thousands of others, he felt that his country had claims on him superior to those of a business or professional nature, and in 1862 he entered the Confederate army, enlisting as a private in the Third Louisiana Regiment of Infan- try, serving on detail duty as a physician and surgeon with this command until after the fall of Vicksburg, when he passed a success- ful examination, and thereafter served as army surgeon in the Trans- Mississippi Depart- ment until the close of the war. After the surrender he resumed the practice of his profession on his own account in Winn parish, Louisiana, and followed it there until November, 1867. At that date he came to Texas, and after stopping a short time in
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Bell eounty located, December 24th follow- ing, at Caldwell, Burleson county, which place has since been his home. During his resid- ence here Dr. Oliver has given his time chiefly to his profession, having also had some farming interests and been interested at different times in the drug business. But it is as a physician and surgeon that he is best known, and as a physician and surgeon that he has done the work for which he is best known. One could hardly have followed the profession as zealously as he lias without having accomplished some solid results, not so mueli in the matter of finances alone as in the good for his fellow-beings. The doctor is one of those physicians who look on their profession to be used in alleviating the ills of the race. He has there- fore never felt privileged to use it for purely personal ends, but has hield himself in readiness with all the knowledge and skill he possessed to be ealled wherever his services have been needed. While he has accumulated some means he has nevertheless done a vast amount of charity work. He has profited by association with his brethren of the profession, and has been an interested member of their meetings. He has wit- nessed many changes in the practice of medi- cine during the twenty-six years of his par- suit of it in this State, and he has gone through hardships and sufferings, which would have broken down a less robust constitution, and which have not been with- out marked effects on his. It is related, however, with pride by many of the Doctor's old friends and patieuts that he has never failed them in times of distress, respond- ing willingly to their ealls at all hours and in all kinds of weather and, staying with them as long as his presence was needed.
March 15, 1860, Dr. Oliver married Miss
Catherine Ann Haddox, a daughter of Thomas J. and Mary Haddox, then residing in Winn parish, Louisiana. Mrs. Oliver was born in Wileox county, Alabama, Sep- tember 22, 1840, and was reared in her native place. Her parents moved to Texas in 1867, and died in Burleson eounty. Dr. Oliver and wife have had a family of eleven children, as follows: Franees R., who was married to W. H. Hundley, and with their four children, William, Katie, Edena, and Cora, reside in Caldwell; James R., who is a clerk in a mercantile honse in Temple, Texas; Mary E., who was married to J. C. Womble, and with their three children, Herbert, Oliver, and Henry, reside in Cald- well; Katie M., who was married to J. H. Webb, and with their one ehild, Pauline, reside in Bryan, Texas; William H., a practicing physician of Merle, Burleson county; Tola J. and Frederick C., clerks at Caldwell; Edis T .; John P., deceased; and Charles B.
The religious connection of the family is with the Baptist Church, of which botlı the Doctor and his wife have been inembers for more than twenty years. Dr. Oliver is also a member of the State Medical Asso- ciation and of the Knights of Honor, of which latter organization he is local surgeon. He is also the local examiner of four or five of the leading life and accident insur- ance companies of the United States, and interested in all beneficent work and, in proportion to his means, liberal in his con- tributions to ehiarity.
W N. WILSON, a member of a promi- nent and highly respected family who have long been identified with the interests of Bastrop county, Texas, dates
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
his birth in Mississippi, February 21, 1840. tiinc, resides with her mother and brother; Cyntha L., wife of F. M. Browder, a Lee county farmer; W. N .; J. W., deceased; James M., engaged in farming in Lee county; Andrew J., a farmer in Bastrop county, and T. J., also a Bastrop connty farmer. The mother of this family is still living. She was born March 28, 1809. Since 1828 she has been a devoted member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, she and her husband both being converted at the same time. He came with his parents to Texas in 1845, and the following year they settled in this county. Here he grew up, receiving the benefit of a common-school education, and he still remains at the old home place, never having married. He was the sixth born in the family of thirteen children of J. L. and Martha (Sandifer) Wilson, the father a native of Georgia, born May 31, 1801, and the mother of South Carolina. His grandfather, James A. Wilson, a native of North Caro- During the late war the subject of our sketch and two of his brothers were among the brave soldiers who went out in the Con- federate lincs. Two were wounded, but all reached home in safety. W. N. enlisted in March, 1862, in Company A, Seventeenth Texas Infantry, and was in the Trans- Missis- sippi Department, in Walker's Division. He was in all the principal engagements of the West, and during his four years of service he was only three months away from the post of duty, then being at home on furlough. At Milliken's Bend in 1863 he received a flesh wound in his left leg. At the close of the war he was at Hempstead, from whence he returned home. His brother W. J., was wonded in the knee by a shell, at Mans- field, from the effects of which he is still a eripple. lina, and of Irish descent, served throngh the Florida Indian war. By occupation he was a farmer. The subject of this sketch still has the rifle his grandfather carried through the Indian wars. J. L. and Martha Wilson were married in Mississippi in 1826, and lived on a farm in that State until com- ing to Texas, as above stated. Upon locating in Bastrop county, Mr. Wilson purchased 100 acres of land, to which he subsequently added 550 acres-all wild land. Hc settled on it and at once began its improvement and enltivation, and before he died had nnder cultivation 150 acres. His death occurred May 18, 1881. Before the war he was a slave owner. He was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. In public affairs he took a com- mendable interest, though he never songht The subject of our sketch was reared a Democrat, and always voted that ticket until recently, when he fell in with the reform movement, and has since supported the People's party. official position. He was a Democrat all his life. Martha (Sandifer) Wilson was a daughter of Captain John Sandifer, a South Carolina farmer, who was Captain of a company in the war of 1812. He subsequently moved to Mississippi, where he died in 1854. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson had thirteen children, ninc of whom grew to maturity, namely: W. J., F REDERICK VOGELSANG, one of the largest land-holders and a success- ful farmer and stock-raiser of Milam a resident of Lee county, Texas; Sarah A., wife of J. B. Ormund, died, leaving five children; Caroline E., widowed the second I county, is a native of Oldenburg, Germany,
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where he was born in the year 1842. His parents were Jacob A. Vogelsang and Mattie Behrens, both of whom were also natives of Oldenburg, where they belonged to the re- spectable, well-to-do middle class. The father was well educated in the schools of his native country, and in early life engaged in teach- ing. He followed contentedly his calling until the government of 1848 was inau- gurated and began the acts of tyranuy, which rendered it odious to so many German citi- zens; when, in 1850, he left his native coun- try and came to America. His destination was Texas, and the ocean voyage from Bre- men, Germany, to Galveston, this State, was accomplished in the usual time and by the usual route of travel of those days. From Galveston he went to Houston, and thence to Anstin county, where he settled on a farm and after a year's residence purchased land, and engaged extensively in agricultural pur- suits. He died in Austin county in 1889, at the age of eighty-five. His wife died in the saine county in 1878. They left four chil- dren: Dora, wife of H. Mier, of Austin county; Theodore, a resident of the same county; Ernest, of Milam county; and Frederick the subject of this sketch.
Frederick Vogelsang was eight years old when his parents came to Texas and settled in Austin county. His boyhood and youth were passed in this county. What little edu- cation he received was obtained at home, the schools in this State during his youth being poor, and lie being of too delicate a constitu- tion to attend even such as there were. At the age of twenty he entered the Confeder- ate army, enlisting in March, 1862, in Com- pany A, Twentieth Texas Regiment, with which he served during the remainder of the war. From 1865 to 1869 he resided on a farm in Austin county, and was engaged
in agricultural pursuits. From 1869 to 1877 he and his brother Ernest conducted a mercantile business in Austin county, and from 1877 to 1883 he followed farming and stock-raising in that county. In the last named year he and his brother Ernest came to Milam county, and purchased a large tract of land, consisting of abont 3,000, acres, to which they added about 2,000 acres at a later date, and on which they settled and have been since engaged in farming and the stock business. This is one of the finest bodies of land in the county, all of it being susceptible of cultivation and lying convenient to mar- ket. Only a small part of it has as yet been put in cultivation, but all of it is under fence and on it is running a large number of horses and cattle. Mr. Vogelsang remains closely at home, and gives his attention to farming and the stock business.
In 1875 he married Augusta Schwarting, a danghter of John and Sophia Schwarting, and a native of Oldenburg, Germany. The issue of this nuion has been eight children: Ida, Freda, Ernest, Theodore, Herinine, Jacob, William and Helmuth.
ENRY GREGG, deceased, the subject of this sketch, a former well-known citizen of Burleson county, comes of one of the pioneer families of Texas, being a son of John and Sallie Gregg, who came to Texas in 1840. The Gregg family was from Alabama, and at the time of its removal to Texas consisted of father, mother and six children. Washington county, then supposed to be the garden spot of the Repub- lie, was their destination, to which point they were making their way by slow stages, travel-
37
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ing by wagon, when at a point just east of the Navasota river, in what is now Grimes county, one of those sad experiences befell them not uncommon in those days and which brought sorrow to the little party of imini- grants never afterward forgotten. The In- dians, who were then in a general state of warfare with the whites, and who were lurk- ing around in straggling bands seeking op- portunities to do mischief, fell suddenly upon the Gregg party, and, after stampeding their stock, killed the mother and eldest son, Thad- dens, and would have killed the remainder of the family but for a faithful old slave, who seereted the children in some undergrowth and kept them concealed until the savages retired. This old servant, Sarah, who after- ward married a Mexican named Francisco, is still living, residing in the Brazos bottoms in Burleson county, being the only one now living of the ill-fated party. The father, bringing his five remaining children on, crossed the Brazos river and settled in Bnrle- son (then Milam) county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was for many ycars an honored citizen of this county. Of his five children who came with him to this county, Lucinda married a man named Black and died in Texas many years ago; Mary was married to John Cade and died in Burleson county; John entered the ranging service when a young man and was killed somewhere on the frontier; Martha was married to a Mr. Harris and died in Texas; and Henry is the subject of this sketch.
Henry Gregg was born in Alabama, Octo- ber 3, 1836. Ile was about four years old when he was brought to this county. He was reared on a farm and followed farming pursuits all his life.
daughter of Joseph F. and Amanda M. Grant, who were early settlers of this county. Mr. Gregg resided most of his life on the Brazos bottoms, where he had large farming inter- ests, to which he gave his exclusive attention. He was a man of plain tastes and industrious habits and succeeded in accumulating cou- siderable property. His death occurred An- gust 25, 1886, being caused by an explosion in a gin. He left surviving him a widow and eight children: John, who was born Marchi 5, 1867; Frances Amanda, who was born Angust 31, 1868, and died July 23, 1883; Josiah G., born Angnst 6, 1872; Sallie, born October 22, 1876; Mary Elizabeth Tyler, born April 23, 1878; Lucy, boru February 28, 1880; Annie, born March 3, 1882; Rowena, born December 1, 1883; and Will- iam Henry, born September 11, 1886. Only one of these is married. John married Miss Mattie Bcancomb, of Burleson county, June 2, 1889.
Mrs. Gregg's parents were born in Mis- sissippi, the father February, 1824, and the motlicr October, 1830. The mother's maiden name was Farquhar, she being a daughter of James L. and Hulda Farquhar. The mother died in Burleson county, Texas, October 10, 1855, leaving three children: William F., now a resident of Rogers, Bell county, Texas; Fannie J. (Mrs. Gregg); and Elizabeth Tyler, who was married to William Lupton, of Burleson county, and died here December 21, 1876. Mrs. Gregg's father married a sec- ond time, his second wife being Miss Laura Goodwin, then of this county, originally of Virginia, and by this nnion had seven chil- dren: Green and Ruben, residents of Burle- son county; Thomas, who died here a few years ago mumarried; Annie, now the wife of Dr. J. II. Jenkins, of Caldwell; Josiah, who
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