USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 29
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 29
USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 29
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 29
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 29
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 29
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Mr. Womack was married in 1876, to Aggie Yell, a native of Texas, and a daugli- ter of Judge P. M. and Mary (Rodgers) Yell The father was one of the pioneers and lead- ing men in Montgomery county, Texas, where he reared a family of five children. Mr. and Mrs. Womack have had six children: Cecil, Olga, Frank B., Jessie, a babe nn- named, and one deceased when young. Mr. Womack affiliates with the A. O. U. W., and both he and his wife are members of the A. L. H.
T HOMAS A. WIERMAN, a farmer of Williamson connty, was born in Penn- sylvania, August 5, 1829, a son of Thomas and Mary (Deardorff) Wier- man, natives also of that State. The paternal grandfather, Nicholas Wierman, was of Ger-
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man descent, and located in Pennsylvania when the Indians still inhabited that State, where he followed farming and mining. The Deardorff family were natives of Pennsyl- vania, and but little is known of their his- tory. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wierman were the parents of seven children: George W., a resident of Iowa; Thomas A., our subject ; Lydia A., deceased; William A., of Nebraska; Joseph F., deceased; Sarah D., deceased, was formerly a resident of Washington city; and Hannah M., deceased. The father died in September, 1852, and the mother in 1870.
Thomas A. Wierman, the subject of this sketch, remained under the parental roof nntil seventeen years of age, when he served an apprenticeship in Maryland at the millwright's trade, with his uncle, Daniel Wierman. In 1853 he went to Iowa; in 1858 returned to Maryland; the following year engaged in the milling business, in Virginia; in 1861 em- barked in the same occupation in Frederick county, Maryland; in the spring of 1863 went to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where he kept a large steam mill in repair two years: again followed milling in Frederick county, Maryland; in 1877 removed to Ans- tin, Texas, and a short time afterward came to Georgetown. After locating in that city, Mr. Wierman repaired and conducted a mill a short time, and then put in new machinery for a mill in the San Gabriel valley. In 1878 he purchased 100 acres of raw land in Will- iamson connty, on which he erected a dwell- ing, and immediately began the improvement of his place. He has added to his original purchase until he now owns 252 acres, 150 of which are in a fine state of cultivation, devoted to general farming.
In 1858 Mr. Wierman was married in Maryland, to Elizabeth Martin, who was born in that State, in 1838, and is a daughter of
John A. Martin, a farmer of Frederick county, and also a public anetioneer. Our subject and wife had seven children, viz .: Harry M., a farmer of Bell county, Texas, has three children; Willie M., deceased, at the age of sixteen years; Robert S., a farmer of William- son county; Rolasie, wife of William Rogers, also a farmer, of this county, and they have three children; Winfield Scott, at home; and two deceased in infancy. The wife and mother died June 11, 1879, and in 1881 Mr. Wierman married Mary E. Wierman, born in Pennsylvania. Her father, Joseph Wierman, also a native of that State, ran, at one time, for County Judge, against his brother, who was of different political opin- ion, but the latter was defeated.
Mr. Wierman, our subject, is independent in his political views, and was a candidate for Treasurer of Williamson county, on the third party ticket, in the campain of 1892. Mr. Wierman is President of the Williamson Connty Alliance, and was formerly a member of the I. O. O. F. He is an active and use- ful member of the Methodist Church.
AL C. GILES, of Travis county, Texas, was born in Tipton county, Tennessee, January 26, 1843, and is a son of Edward S. Giles. When six years of age he came with his parents to Texas and settled in Travis county, near Anstin.
He remained at home until the spring of 1861, and then enlisted in Company B, Fourth Texas Regiment, "Hoods Texas Brigade," serving under Lee and participating in the battles of West Point, Seven Pines, seven days' fight before Richmond, second Ma- nassas and Fredericksburg. Mr. Giles was twice wounded, once at West Point and again
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at Gaines' Mill. He followed Lee on both his raids into Maryland, fought at Gettys- burg, and was sent with Longstreet to re-en- force Bragg at Chattanooga. He was in the battle of Chickamanga, and, on the night of October 28, 1863, was captured by the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth New York Regi- ment, (all Dutch), in Raccoon valley near Lookont mountain. Ile was sent to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana, but escaped from prison on the day that Lincoln was elected President the second time. Ile walked to Owensboro, Kentucky, where he joined Major Walker Taylor's command and re- mained with the Kentucky cavalry until the " break up" and was paroled by General l'almer.
Mr. Giles then returned to his home in Texas, and, in the spring of 1866, drove some cattle to Kansas, which he shipped from there to Chicago. Ile remained in Kansas and Missouri two years and on his return to Texas went to farming and was soon afterward ap- pointed Deputy Sheriff of Travis county. In 1873, he removed to Austin, and was elected Sergeant-at-Arms of the Fourteenth Legis- lature. He next served as Public Weigher for two years, after which he received an ap- pointinent to a position in the Comptroller's Office, nuder Stephen Darden. He then served eight years in the General Land office, under Commissioner W. C. Walsh, his old army Captain."- ---
Mr. Giles was married in 1873 to Miss Lulu Barnhart, a native of Travis county and a daughter of Joseph and M. E. (Smith) Barnhart, natives of Pennsylvania. Her father came to Texas in 1835, and settled in Austin, where he built the first log house. Ile soon traded this for an ox team and cart, with which to leave the country to escape the Indians. The family are of German descent.
The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Giles, John W. Smith, was one of the signers of the Dec- laration of Texas Independence, and was the last man to leave the Alamo for re-enforce- ments before it fell. Mr. and Mrs. Giles have twochildren, Val C. and Annie B. II. Mrs. Giles possesses an unusual amount of execu- tive ability. She took charge of the Confed- erate Home enterprise when there was but $67.50 to its credit, and succeeded in raising 815,000 in various ways for its erection and support. As a result of her untiring efforts it has become a comfortable home for the old disabled Confederate soldiers, and is now the property of the State. She is one of nine who constitute the Texas Board of Directors of the World's Fair. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In his political relations, Mr. Giles is a Democrat.
W ASHINGTON HINE, an enterpris- ing and successful farmer residing near Davilla, Milam county, is a na- tive of Painesville, Ohio, and was born Octo- ber 15, 1850. His father, Homer H. Hine, was also born in Ohio in 1823 and still re- sides there, being a large and successful farmer. IIomer Hine, the father of Homer H. and grandfather of Washington Hine, was one of the early settlers of the Buckeye State moving there early in this century from Con- necticut, which was his place of birth. He was a lawyer by profession and served several terms in the Ohio Legislature. He was of Irish extraction and his wife, whose maiden name was Skinner, was of English descer.t. The mother of Washington Iline, Julietta Rne before marriage, was a daughter of Jona- than and Cynthia Rue, and was born in Ken- tucky, December 25, 1824. She is still liv-
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ing. Eight children were born to Homer H. and Julietta Hine of whom the subject of this notice was the third in age, the others being: Mary, the wife of Horace Bacon, of Painesville, Ohio; Samnel N., who died in infancy; Cynthia, the wife of William Doran, of Dallas, Texas; Anna L., the wife of Charles Field, of Cleveland, Ohio; Agnes, the wife of Minor G. Norton, of the same place; Clar- ence A. and Henrietta, both of Painesville, Ohio.
Washington Hine was reared on his father's farm in Ohio and in the public schools of his native place received his early education. At the age of eighteen, in 1868, he came to Texas, stopping at Independence, Washing- ton county, where he remained a year, work- ing at the carpenter's trade, when he moved to Milam connty, continning at his trade un- til 1872. In the meantime he purchased land in both this and Bell connty and return- ing East entered Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, where he completed ' his cdncation after which he come back to Texas and again took np carpentering and followed it nntil his marriage, October 4, 1876. At that date he settled on his Bell connty land and engaged in farming. After three years' residence in Bell connty he traded his farm there for land adjoining that previously purchased by him in Milam county, and moving to this in 1879, he has continued to reside here since. He has a farin of nearly 600 acres including what he owns and controls, 120 acres of which is in a good state of enltivation and furnished with a su- perior class of farm improvements. In ad- dition to raising the nsnal quantity of staple products he gives considerable attention to live-stock, his cattle herd embracing such strains as the Durham and Holstein. Mr. Hine has taken an active interest in every-
thing relating to farming and stock-raising since settling on the farm and has identified himself with every enterprise connected with the welfare of the community in which he lives. Formerly a Republican in politics he abandoned that organization on account of its centralizing and monopolistic tendencies and on the organization of the Farmers' Al- liance joined that order with which he has affiliated since. In 1892 he was nominated and clected Connty Commissioner.
October 4, 1876, Mr. Hine married Miss Virginia L. Hill, who was born in Lee eonnty this State, September 10, 1854, being a daughter of Green L. and Mary (Lanier) Hill. Mrs. Hine's father was a native of North Carolina, her mother a native of Virginia. Her parents came to Texas soon after the Texas Revolution and settled in the town of Bastrop where they lived for many years. Her father was a planter and before the war possessed considerable means. He died in Camp connty, this State, July 2, 1881. He was twice married, his first wife, the mother of Mrs. Hine, dying September 26, 1859. By his two marriages he has sixteen chil- dren, fourteen by his first wife and two by his last. Mr. and Mrs. Hine have had born to thein the following children: Clarence A., born July 12, 1877; Mary C., born Novem- ber 28, 1881; Anna L., born September 1, 1885; Helen H., born September 29, 1888; Homer H., born November 1, 1890; and one not yet named, born September 26, 1892, be- sides two that died in infancy.
S OLON JOYNES .- Accomack county, Virginia, lying between Chesapeake bay and the Atlantic ocean on the ex- treme east coast of the " Old Dominion " was
£
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
the birth-place of Mr. Joynes, in which connty his parents were also born. Ilis father, John R. Joynes, was engaged in plant- ing for many years in Accomack connty, but as a resident in later life of the city of Nor- folk, where he followed the business of ship- carpenter and joiner. He came to Texas in 1875 and died in Rockdale, June 11, 1881, in the seventy-second year of his age, having been born March 12, 1812. He came of old Virginia stock, the date his ancestors settled in the old State being so remote that it has not been preserved in the records or traditions of the family. He was a son of William Joynes who was also a planter of Aecomack county and a soldier in the war of 1812.
Susan (Colonna) Joynes, the mother of the subject of this sketch was born in 1817 and died in 1854, being a daughter of William and Elizabeth Colonna, and an industrions, devont, good woman. Both father and mother were members of the Methodist Church.
Solon Joynes is the eldest of five children born to his parents, but is one of eight, there being three others by his father's second marriage. He was born April 26, 1838, and was reared principally in the city of Norfolk, whither his parents mnoved when he was young. His education was obtained in the private schools of Hampton and Norfolk. He entered a commission house at the latter place at the age of sixteen where he remained till the opening of the late war. He entered the Confederate ariny early in 1861, enlisting in the Norfolk Light Artillery Blnes, with which he served in the army of Northern Virginia till the close of the war. He was literally " in the thick of the fight " through- out the entire struggle being present and taking part in all of the principal engage- ments that were fought on Virginia, Mary-
land and Pennsylvania soil and some naval engagements that occurred in that vicinity. Ilis battalion opened the fire at the first battle of Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville and was one of the first to take position at Gettys- burg and Petersburg. He took part as a member of the land force in the engagement between the Merrimac and Monitor in Hamp- ton Reads in 1862. At the fall of Peters- burg he was taken prisoner and conveyed to Point Lookout where he was held until June, 1865.
The war over Mr. Joynes returned to Nor- folk where he went to work in a eominission house, and remained for ten months. ile then came to Texas in the fall of 1866 and located at Galveston. At that place he re- sumed the commission business in partner- ship with his brother under the firm name of J. R. Joynes & Co., and remained there un- til the city was depopulated by the yellow- fever scourge of the following year. He then came out on the line of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad and followed the terminal of that road to Red river in north Texas, en- gaged in buying cotton and merchandising in connection with the firm of Littlefield & Company of Bryan. In 1873 he went to Hearne, the initial point of the Inter- national & Great Northern Railroad and following the terminal of that road west of the Rio Grande, engaged in the same busi- ness. He then located permanently in Rockdale and began his business on a settled basis and has since resided here. He weighed and shipped the first bale of cotton ever weighed and shipped out of the town, this being February 4, 1874, and since that time he has bought and shipped thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of the prodnet besides handling a large amount of grain, machinery and implements.
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Mr. Joynes has. been Commissioner of Milam connty, Alderman of Rockdale, Mayor pro tem. of the City Council, President of the City School Board and was founder and first president of the Business Men's Associa- tion of Rockdale and has served in other of- ficial and semi-official capacities connected with the administration of town and county affairs. Whatever has been of interest to the people among whom he has lived he has actively interested himself in and has always borne his share of the expense of every public enterprise.
When he came to the State he was a single man. In 1872 he married Sophia, a daugh- ter of J. W. McCown, Sr., and sister of J. W. McCown Jr., a sketch of whose lives appears elsewhere in this volume. This lady died in March, 1877, at the age of thirty-five leaving surviving her but one son, John W., who is now a student at the State University. April 29, 1879, Mr. Joynes married Florence, a daughter of Benjamin F. Hubert, an old settler of this State, mention of whom will be found in the sketch of Frank W. R. Hu- bert in this volume. By this marriage he has had three children: Hester, Susan C. and Cyrus McCormick.
Mr. and Mrs. Joynes are communicants of the Episcopal Church of which he is a Warden. He is also a member of the Knights of Honor, Uniform Rank, in which he is Senior Past Commander. He is an apprent- iced Mason, and, in politics, a Democrat.
As a citizen, soldier, business man and public servant, Mr. Joynes' reputation is now fairly made, the record in a great measure being closed. He has always shown himself worthy of confidence reposed in him by his fellowmen and has labored without thought of reward, making duty his sole counsellor and guide in all that he has done. His has
been an unpretentious life, yet in years to come when the remote descendants of the first settlers of Rockdale look back among the records for the names of the "early fathers " it is doubtful if any of them will have reason to feel more sincere pride in the part taken by their " kith and kin" in the making of the city than his will have.
*
W ILLIAM B. WOODY, Postmaster of Rockdale, and secretary and gen- eral manager of the Rockdale Min- ing and Manufacturing Company, was born in Halifax county, Virginia, January 13, 1848. His parents were Samuel B. and Mary A. Woody, both of whoni were also natives of the Old Dominion. Samuel B. Woody was a son of John and Mary Betts Woody, natives of Virginia. John Woody was a planter of the old regime, a man of wealth and influence, one who lived in elegant style and enjoyed the esteem and friendship of those among whom he lived. He died in 1841 at an advanced age. Mary Betts was a daughter of Captain Elisha Betts, also a Vir- ginia planter and a soldier in the war of 1812, where he obtained his title by merito- rious services. He died in 1866 at the ad- vanced age of eighty; Mary Betts Woody died in 1857. Samuel B. Woody was the eldest of eight children born to his parents. He married Mary A. Blackwell, only child of William James Blackwell, both parents dying when she was an infant. She was born in 1828 and is still living, being now a resident of Lonisville, Kentucky, where she makes her home with her son, Dr. S. E. Woody, Professor of Chemistry in the Kentucky School of Medicine. Samuel B. Woody was born in 1818 and died in 1855. He was a
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planter. He inherited considerable property, to which he added by his own industry and good management, and left at his death a handsome estate. Ile had no public record, bnt was an official in the State militia, and in the days when that was one of the institu- tions of the land he was in military matters a figure of some consequence in his section of State.
Of the five sons of Samuel B. and Mary A. Woody, the subject of this notice was the second in age. He was reared in his native county, and what education fell to his lot was obtained at a private school at Harmony, Virginia. At the age of sixteen he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Decem- ber, 1864, in Wright's Battery of Heavy Ar- tillery, with which he served in the Army of Northern Virginia during the remainder of the war, surrendering with General R. E. Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, before he was eighteen years of age.
For a year following the close of the war, he remained at home. He then secured a clerkship in a mercantile establishment at Oxford, North Carolina, where he was em- ployed for two years, after which he engaged in business for himself as a member of the firm of Bremer, Woody & Co., at Blooms- bnrg (now Turbeville), Virginia. From there, in 1875, he came to Texas, locating at Rock- dale, which has since been his home. He has been variously engaged in this place. Until 1882 he was engaged in merchandising. He then became manager of the Kansas Man- ufacturing Company, with headquarters at Rockdale, which position he held until 1891, when he became president and general man- ager of the Southwestern Bridge Company, of Little Rock, Arkansas, and in February, 1892, secretary and general manager of the Rockdale Mining & Manufacturing Com-
pany, and in March, 1893, was appointed by President Cleveland Postmaster at Rockdale.
November 8 1870, Mr. Woody married Miss Mollie E. Walton, a danghter of Sidney E. Walton, of Bloomsburg, Virginia, and the issue of this nnion has been seven children, all of whom are living: Samuel S., John C., Willa B., Rnby W., Kate R., Helen V., and Carrol.
Mr."Woody is a Democrat in politics, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church here, of which organization he is Deacon, and has been since its foundation.
D R. HIRAM HENRY DARR, Cald- well, Texas, was born on the old Darr homestead in the vicinity of Yellow Prairie, Burleson county, this State, April 4, 1853.
Dr. Darr's parents, George and Kittie A. (Wooten) Darr, were natives of Tennessee and and Virginia, respectively, the former born in 1797, and the latter in 1819. Both were in Texas at an early date, Mr. Darr certainly as early as 1825, and Mrs. Darr probably earlier. They mnet in what is now Brazos connty, at the home of the latter's father, Dr. Thomas J. Wooten, and in 1837 they were married. As near as can now be determined they settled within the present limits of Burleson county, about 1840, and in this county spent the rest of their lives. They had seven children, the youngest of whom is the subject of this article.
Iliram Henry Darr was reared at the old home place. and received in the local schools and by private stndy a good general education. At the carly age of seventeen (1870) he began to read medicine under the instructions of Dr. J. P. Oliver, of Caldwell, and gradnated
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at the Louisville Medical College, at the head of his class, February 25, 1875. He then took an ad eundem course at the Kentucky School of Medicine, graduating in that insti- tution the following Jnne. Locating at Ilearne, this State, he entered at once upon the practice of his profession, and followed it successfully there until 1879. The winter of 1879-80 was speut in New York city, where, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, lie took a post-graduate course, giving special attention to diseases of the eye, ear and throat. Returning to Texas again, he this time located at Caldwell, in his native county, and here resumed the practice of his profes- sion, which for thirteen years past he has pursued uninterruptedly and with marked success. He is a member of the following organizations, having joined them at the dates indicated by the figures in parentheses: Texas State Medical Association (1877), of which he has been once (1884) vice- Presi- dent; American Public Health Association (1882); American Medical Association (1883); Burleson County Medical Society, which he helped to organize and of which he was first President (1885); Ninth Interna- tional Medical Congress held at Washington (1885); National Association of Railway Surgeons (1891); and American Academy of Political and Social Science (1892), of which last organization he was elected a member before he was aware of the fact that his name liad been presented that body for considera- tion. Dr. Darr has also been a member of the Medical Board of the Twenty-first Judi- cial District for ten years; has been the local surgeon of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Company for ten years; has been Connty Physician of Burleson connty for nine years; was for three years President of the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools of
Caldwell, and is now a member of the Board of Aldermen of this place. He has contri- bnted but little to the literature of the pro- fession, his time having been taken np almost to the exclusion of everything else with active practice. Two articles, however, contributed by him to the Columnbns Medical Journal, one on dysentery, published in 1883, and one on typhilitis, published in 1889, are worthy of mention in this connection. Dr. Darr is the examiner-in-chief at Caldwell for the fol- lowing life insurance companies: Equitable Life Insurance Society, of New York; New York Life Insurance Company; New York Mutual Life Insurance Society; New York Mutnal Reserve Fund Life Insurance So- ciety, Providence Savings Life Assurance Society, Union Central Life Insurance So- ciety, of Cincinnati; Mutual Benefit Life Iu- surance Society, of Newark, New Jersey; Manhattan Life Insurance Company, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, Imperia! Life Insurance Company, of Detroit, Michi- gan; and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. The Doctor is a Knight Templar Mason, and a member of the Baptist Church.
October 25, 1881, he married Mrs. Lula Chiles, of Caldwell, ond they have had four children, two of whom, Willie T. and George C., are living, Hiram Henry and an infant being deceased. To his family, his profes- sioa and the best interest of the community in which he residos, Dr. Darr is devoted withiont reservation, and as a physician and citizen stands deservedly higlı.
The foregoing facts show that the subject of this brief notice has done sufficient to en- title him to honorable distinction in the his- tory of his State without resorting to family name and influence to assist him in this di- rection. But the following facts touching his ancestry are added for the benefit of his
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children. His father, who in early life pos- sessed an adventurous spirit, served in the Indian wars in the Northwest Territory and fought under General William H. Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe. He also served in the war by which Texas won its indepen- dence, and took part in the battle of San Jacinto. A fearless, genial, unselfish man, fond of sport, possessing an accurate knowl- edge of woodcraft and a remarkable memory for names, faces and localities, he was well adapted for the life he led : that of the Indian figliter, citizen, soldier and pioneer, and in his day and generation discharged all the multifarious duties devolving upon him in the several capacities in which he was called to act. He died at his home in Burleson county, Texas, February 9, 1853. His wife survived him a number of years, dying at the same place, May 3, 1875. Only two of their seven children are now living, the Doctor and an older sister, Mrs. Sallie Downing, a resident of Burleson connty.
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