USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 4
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 4
USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 4
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 4
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 4
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
In 1843 Mr. Bird married Miss Callie R. Powell, a daughter of John and Celia Powell, then residing in Austin county, this State. Mrs. Bird's parents moved from Ohio to Texas in 1833. She was born in Ohio and was one of six children.
Mr. Bird settled in Burleson county in 1846 and has resided here since that date. HIe has been engaged in farming and stock- raising all his life and has met with moder- ate success. He has given his attention en- tirely to his own interests, never having con- cerned himself with publie matters nor held any public offices. He and his wife have raised a family of eight children, two sons and six daughters, all of whom were married and all but two of whom are living. His eldest, Elizabeth, was married to George Shephard and is now deceased; Melissa is the widow of Frank Zarr, of Temple, Texas; Isaac, died in Burleson county, leaving no children; Sallie is the wife of Jasper Haney; John; Wincey is the wife of J. M. Hladdox; Laura is the wife of Charles Morgan; and Dollie is the wife of C. P. Hall, -the last five being residents of Burleson county.
The religions connection of the family is with the Baptist Church. In politics Mr. Bird formerly voted with the Democratic party but in recent years he has espoused the cause of the Populists.
OHN E. CAMPBELL, of Travis con- ty. Texas, is of Seoteh- Irish descent, and the family have resided in this country for abont 200 years. Ilis parents, Jolm and
438
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Sarah (Kimbro) Campbell, were natives, re- Mrs. Campbell departed this life a short speetively. of east Tennessee and North time before the death of her youngest child, November 17, 1857, in Bastrop county, to which place the family had removed for a short time. Carolina. His father was born in October, 1781, and his mother in 1799. They were married in 1814, and reared a family of ten children, three now living: Alexander T., of Maury county, Tennessee; Amy C., now Mrs. Thomas White, and a resident of the old homestead in that county; and John E., of Travis county, Texas. The father died in Manry county, Tennessee, in 1851, and the mother in 1862.
OHN PETERSON, a prosperous citi- zen of the United States by adoption. is a native of Sweden, born July 16, 1860. He grew to manhood in his own country, and had the benefit of the superior educational advantages offered there. IIis father, M. P. Peterson, was born also in Sweden in 1827, and followed farming. He was united in marriage with Magdalena Swenson, a sister of Angust Swenson, of Hutto, Williamson connty, and to them were born six children: John; Amelia, wife of George Fler; Hilda; Amanda, wife of Henry Anquist; Carl, and Clans.
John E. Campbell, subject of this sketch, was born March 28, 1827, and raised in Ten- nessee, and emigrated to Texas in 1851, locating in Travis county. After settling in this county he taught school one year, and then came to his present place, four miles southeast of Austin, on the Fredericksburg road. In 1861 he enlisted for service in the late war in Company G, Sixteenth Texas Infantry, and served until the close of the struggle in the Trans-Mississippi Depart- ment. Mr. Campbell participated in the battles of Milliken's Bend, Red river expe- dition, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry. He votes with the Democratic party, and is a member of the Masonic order.
Alhired by the tales of plenty and good fortune attending his countrymen in the far West, John Peterson determined to leave his home and friends and native land and cross the sea in search of his share of the wealth abounding there. He shipped from Gutten- berg in 1881, bound for New York via IIull, landing on this shore April 24. He came directly to Anstin, and the following day to Williamson county, where he secured em- ployment with his uncle, who had supplied him with his passage money to America. After he had paid this debt he left the farm and spent two years in Anstin in the employ of S. T. Scott. By economy he saved during that time sufficient means to bring his father's family to America.
April 28, 1853, in Travis county, our sub- ject was nnited in marriage with Lavina C. Davidson, born in 1833, a native of Ten- nessee and a danghter of Andrew M. and Elizabeth M. Davidson. Mrs. Campbell came with her parents to Travis county, Texas, when a child. To this nnion were born two children. The oldest, Maggie, married Rob- ert E. White, Sheriff of Travis county, and they had six children, - Della C., John Dnd- ley. Thomas .B., C. C., J. C., and Frank (deceased). The wife and mother died in ; In December. 1889, he contracted for a 1888. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. choice piece of black land containing 141 Campbell was a son, who died in infancy. acres. Here he resides, and has under enlti-
Jours Mily boiler
439
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
vation 110 acres. Hle produced a large cot- ton erop in 1892, and, holding a portion, seenred the benefit of the high prices pre- vailing in the fall of that year.
Mr. Peterson was united in marriage, in June, 1892, to Miss Ellen Blomquist, a daughter of C. M. Blomquist. Both are worthy members of the Lutheran Church, and enjoy the regard of a wide circle of acquaintances.
R S. PORTER .- It is rarely the case that one expects to find inneh romance in the lives of successful business men, especially as it is known that the ele- inents that enter into and lead them step by step through the circuitous paths of toil and oftentimes deprivation, toward the attain- ment of financial success, are plain, hard, common-sense, energy, perseverance and de- termination. Yet to go over the life of the subject of this sketch one can not fail to de- teet the romance underlying it and to feel that he is perusing a work of fiction rather than the career of a practical man of busi. ness.
Raymond S. Porter was born in Hall county, Georgia, June 22, 1836. His par- ents were Benjamin F. Porter and Delaney Scott Bell, both of whom were also natives of Georgia, the father being a planter and merchant of some means. Raymond S. was reared in his native county, where he attended the local schools up to his sixteenth year. At that age he ran away from home and then began that wild life of adventure alluded to above. The ontlines of this portion of his career can not be better given than in the language in which he narrated it to the writer. Questioned as to his early life he said:
"My boyhood until I was sixteen was passed pleasantly enough on my father's farm, and there was no reason for the rash step I took when I ran away except a desire to see the world. It was in the spring of 1852 that I decided to take a trip to the then much- talked-of gold fields of California. Hastily gathering up a handful of clothing, I stole ont one day and sallied forth with heart brave enongh, as I thought, to conquer a world. I acknowledge now that my ignorance of what lay before me was one af the chief sources of my courage. I had heard only of the ro- mantie side of life in the " Far West;" I was now to learn some of its hardships and dis- appointments.
" On leaving home I went direct to Atlanta, where I secured transportation to New Or- leans, at which place I took passage on a steamer bound for San Francisco, California. Our route lay by way of Havana, Aspinwall, and Panama and thence round by the west coast of Mexico, where we touched at various ports, reaching San Francisco after a two months' voyage, travel then by steamer be- ing much slower than now and considerable time being consumed on our trip by the stops we made. Once in the land of gold I set off immediately for the ' diggings,' going out by way of Sacramento and Marysville toward the Yuba river country and thence to Dry creek, where I was soon fully initiated into the business. I mined in that locality for three years, mostly on Yuba river. It was a wild, desultory, exciting sort of a life, those three years that I spent on the Yuba river. I do not mean that it was immoral or nulaw- ful; it was just such a life as the average miner led in those days, -inevitable because of the condition of things around. The lit- erature of the country had been flooded dur- ing the last quarter of a century with de-
28
£
440
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
seriptive articles, personal recollections, in- cidents of travel, poems and novels, all seeking to portray some phase of the miner's life in California during the . ilish times ' there, but no one really knows what that life was or ever can know except the miner him- self.
" In the meantime, while I was working away on the Yuba river, one of those periodic crazes which sweep over mining camps broke ont and a grand rush was made for the Gila river country of Arizona, where everybody was reported to be getting rich. I went along with the rest, but soon found after reaching the new . field ' that there was nothing in it.
" I went back into northern California and mined for a while in Shasta county, when I determined to make a trip up the Pacific coast. A party of twenty-two was organized and we worked our way up the coast through the Territories of Oregon and Washington and into British Columbia. There we heard of promising fields in Alaska. This was in 1859, and Alaska at that time was one of those countries of which but very little had been heard and nothing practically was known. But I decided to see it and try my Inek in the newly found mines there. Join- ing three or four others we strnek out for the land of the ' Midnight Sun.' Our trip was with- ont venture save such as made up our every- day life, to detail which now would consume too mineh time. We reached the 'gold fields' in due time, and found to on chagrin that they were covered with from four to six feet of snow, which would probably lie on the ground for months. Our grub' supply was limited, and we were a long way from where more could be had; so we thought it prudent to abandon the enterprise and return south. " I went direct to San Francisco, where,
having heard of the ontbreak of the Civil war between the North and South, I undertook to join the Confederate army; but Union sympathizers were in anthority and I could do nothing. I had formed the acquaintance of a Kentnekian named T. J. Sears and a Georgian named Baldy Starks in San Fran- cisco, and I induced them to accompany me back to Washington Territory, whither we went by the nsnal route of travel, making our first stop at the Dalles on Columbia river. There we heard of the Nez Perces mines then bnt recently discovered, to which we im- mediately made onr way and staked off elains. We remained there during the winter, mining a little as we conld.
" By the following spring I had determined to return to the States and enter the Confed- erate army. In May or June a company was made up including Sears, Starks, myself and others, and taking the old Nez Perces trail we crossed the Bitter Root mountains, in northern Idaho, the Rockies in western Montana and made our way on foot and with pack-horses to old Fort Benton, Montana, then the head of navigation on the Missouri river. Here the horses were disposed of to Indians and traders and a good-sized flat- boat was constructed, on which thirteen of ns started down the river for civilization.
" That trip down the Missouri I have good reason to remember, for not only was it maked by hardships unusual even in those days of trial, but I came near losing my scalp on two or three occasions at the hands of the redskins, who then roamed over the entire Northwest and were practically without re- straint in their pillaging and murderons op- erations. Our first encounter with these was after we got about twenty miles out of the Bad Lands. We were hailed one day by a band of Indians in the Piegan language,
411
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
there being an old trapper in our number who understood that language. We pulled toward the shore, but did not intend to land until we saw two white men who had been stripped, their skiff' senttled and ten or twelve warriors around them in positions of hostile demon- stration. We then went over hoping to res- ene the white men. We found that there were thirty or thirty-five of the redskins when we touched shore, and that they were As- sinaboins, who were known to be hostile. It became a problem then to get away with our hides whole. The Indians began immediately to pile into our boat and throw out the oars, take our fire-arms and show signs of fight, but our old trapper said they were only bluff- ing and urged ns to offer no resistance further than was necessary to keep possession of our arms. We knew that we could . lick ' them, bnt we could not hope to get away with all of them, and those that might escape would send runners ahead and notify all the Indians down the river, and we would never get out in the world. We finally began to bribe them with tobacco, and while they were in- terested with this we gradually pushed away from the shore, and working out into the current we soon got beyond reach. From that day on we were shot at every day by straggling bands, some of whom made vig- orons attacks, but we kept well ont from shore and managed by skillful dodging and one kind of arnse and another to escape without injury.
" After we got pretty well down the river, we stopped one day at Fort Randall to get some supplies, and there found a Sioux chief who had got separated from his tribe. The agent induced us to take him on board and convey him down the river to his village. We did so, taking him some 300 or 400 miles. When we reached his village he called his braves around him, some 2,000 or more
in number, and made them a speech in which he told them how we had be- friended him, and instructed them that they should show us every favor possible. We were taken in and feasted for two days and nights, having a royal time, after which we resumed our journey, whichwas completed to Conneil Bluffs without further incident worth mention.
" At Council Bluffs our party disbanded, Sears, Starks and myself taking steamer for St. Louis, whence we went to Cincinnati, down to Lonisville and thence to Bowling Green, Kentucky. There Sears got married and Starks and I bought a horse apiece and joined a squad of Confederate soldiers. These happened to be part of Morgan's men who were then in Kentucky. I was with them in their subsequent operations in that State and took part also in the celebrated raid into In- diana and Ohio. I participated in all the ex- travagant, Indierons, novel and thrilling ex- periences of that raid, but will here mention only what befell me personally. I was cap- tured with the main body of the army in Ohio and after confinement at Cincinnati, Indian- apolis and Chicago, being nearly a year in Camp Douglas at the last named place, I escaped early in the spring of 1865, and with the aid of Southern sympathizers made my way back South.
" Again in the vicinity of Bowling Green, Kentucky, I secured a horse and saddle and started out by the ' Grapevine ronte ' to reach my command, or the remnant of it, which was then near Salt Works, Virginia. On the way I fell in with Major Jones, who had been sent back to organize what guerrilla bands he could find and conduct them over into Vir- ginia. A company of twenty-two of ns under his leadership were making our way through hostile lines, fighting from point to
113
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
point, when at a place between Columbia and Tennessee river we met some of Lee's men, who told us that Lee had surrendered. We pushed on intending to join Johnston's army in North Carolina, but in a few days more we met some of Johnston's men, who informed us that Johnston had also surrendered. We held an informal meeting, at which it was re- solved that we would never surrender, and an independent organization was immediately effected for the purpose of fighting our way through to Mexico. We moved slowly and cautiously through the mountains of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, for we were sur- rounded on all sides by Federal soldiers and sympathizers, until we reached Obie's river near the Kentucky and Tennessee State line, where on June 22, 1865, we had a sharp fight. We were in close quarters, but made onr es- cape. Finally, however, it became evident that if we continned as we then were we would all be killed or captured, so that we decided to separate, each man to look ont for himself. My horse had been shot from under mne a few days previously and I was afoot. In this condition I made my way, tramping part of the time and stealing an occasional ride on a freight train, to Chattanooga. Armed with a bogus parol which Major Jones had furn- ished me, I went to the Provost Marshal at Chattanooga and secured transportation home to Georgia. I used the transportation only to Marietta, where I stopped off and spent a few weeks with my grandparents. I reached my father's house in Angust, 1865.
" The following year I made a crop, which I turned over in the fall to my father, and taking a clerkship in a store I remained there until June 8, 1867. when I started for Texas. I came to this State for the purpose of set- tling down and doing something for myself, and I was therefore in no hurry to pitch my , have flown by.
tent. After prospecting for several weeks I finally took up my residence at Davilla, this county, where I got work in a store, and there began the career with which the people of this county are more or less familiar."
This career, to which Mr. Porter refers, is an exceedingly honorable one, and a brief mention of it properly belongs to this biog. raphy. After clerking for a time at Davilla he saved enough from his earnings to engage in business for himself, which he did at that place in the fall of 1871. lie soon built up a splendid trade; and when the town of Taylor in Williamson county was started in 1876 he went there and opened another honse, being one of the first merchants there and the first one who ever erected a business house in that place. Ile conducted these two establishments nutil 1880, when he sold out his business at Taylor, and, moving his Davilla house to Cameron, there started his present business.
The mercantile house of R. S. Porter at Cameron is a well-known establishment in Milam and adjoining counties. It enjoys the reputation of being one of the most solid concerns of that locality. Mr. Porter does a business varying from $65,000 to $75,000 a year, and has always done a uniformly large and successful business. In the last twenty- two years he has sold many thousands of dollars' worth of goods, having bought, as his books show, nearly $1,500,000 worth from one firm. ITis funds are mostly invested in his business, but he owns some land and town property. Quiet and nnassuming in manner, straightforward in his business methods, prompt in meeting his obligations, cco- nomical in expenditures and diligent in all things, his success has come to him as natur- ally, as easily and imperceptibly as the years
413
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Mr. Porter is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Methodist Church, to ; which latter his wife also belongs.
C RAWFORD AND CRAWFORD, pro- prietors of the Milam County Bank, Cameron, Milam county, Texas .-- With the exception of the railroads probably no single industrial or financial factor has contributed so largely to the advancement of the material interests of Milan county, and partienlarly to the commercial interests of thie towu of Camerou, as the Milam County Bank, owned and operated by Messrs. Craw- ford & Crawford, brief biographical mention of whom, together with a sketch of the bank, is here given.
This institution was founded ten years ago, or, speaking by date, in 1883. It was the conception of Wilbur F. Crawford, then as now senior member of the firm of Crawford & Crawford. Mr. Crawford is a Maine man and made his advent into Texas in 1882, as a representative of the general Government. Ile had had no previous experience as a banker, but being a shrewd man of affairs he was not long in seeing the advantages offered by several towns in the State for banking business, nor was he long in deciding to take up operations in that direction. A careful
In 1872 Mr. Porter married Miss Susan ; canvass of the situation resulted in the Howlett, a danghter of James Howlett, of selection of Cameron as the place for the en- Milam county. This lady died not long after- ward, leaving no issne. Ile married again in 1875, Miss Fannie C. Martin, danghter of Dr. Ed A. Martin, an old citizen of Milam county, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. To this union have been born three children: Ed Franklin, | conditions were favorable, as had been be- William Martin and Raymond Beanford. terprise. Ile gathered together all of his own funds, and enlisting the interest of his brother, Henry T., who was then at Bloom- ington, Illinois, they launched the Milam County Bank, as statedl, in 1853, on a capital of $30,000, furnished by themselves. The lieved, and the enterprise started off well. The deposits for the first year amounted to about 820,000, and the net earnings to $2,- 000. Each year brought increased prosperity, the business growing at a steady pace, until - -.. 1888, when the bank entered on a period of growth not theretofore known, and which fortunately continues to this time. Its working capital has been increased to $125,- 000, its average deposits have risen to $100,- 000, while its earnings have been correspond- ingly satisfactory. From a small loan and discount business of a local nature it has come to handle a large volume of general commercial transactions, and has facilities and equipments for carrying on safely and expeditiously all kinds of legitimate bank- ing. Itnumbers among its patrons a major- ity of the leading business men of Cameron, is the specially designated depository of val- uable public and trust funds, and has on its list of correspondents such well known and conservative institutions as the following: The Continental National Bank of St. Louis, in which Messrs. Crawford & Crawford are stock-holders, the First National Bank of New York City, the Southern National Bank of New Orleans, the Gardner Savings Institution and the Maine Trust and Sav- ings Company of Gardiner, Maine, Ball, Inteliings & Co. of Galveston, the First National Bank of Honstou, the City Nation- al Bank of Dallas and the Austin National
411
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Bank of Anstin. The bank isowned exclusively by Messrs. Crawford & Crawford, in addition to which they own a majority of the stock of the First National Bank of Lagrange, this State. of which they were the organizers, Wilbur F. being a member of its board of directors. They also own a controlling inter- est in the Cameron Cotton Oil Mills, started in April, 1892, on a capital of $40,000, and an interest in the Riverside Brick Works, which last represents an investment of $15,- 000. During the past ten years the firm of Crawford & Crawford, in addition to their banking business, have placed over a half million dollars in real-estate loans in Milam county, the bulk of which has gone to bny lands and improve homesteads and otherwise add to the prosperity and comfort of the com- munity and to the taxable wealth of the county. The growth of this business has been rapid, astonishing to many and most gratifying to those who have had it in charge. These gentlemen, although coming to Texas within the past ten years, have made a vast deal more history in that time than many who have resided here a life-time; and in view of this the following personal mention of them is warranted in this connection.
Wilbur F., Henry T. and Frank M. Craw- ford were born in the city of Brunswick, Maine, in 1852, 1858 and 1862, respectively. They were reared in their native place, and in the schools of that place and of that vicinity received their education. Their father, the Rev. George C. Crawford, a prominent Methodist minister, was for years connected as trustee with the Maine Wesleyan Semi- nary at Kent's Hill, Maine, and with Bow- doin College at Brunswick, Maine, and, being himself a gentleman of exceptional at- tainments, as a scholar. was enabled to give his sons the advantages of two of the best schools
of the State, and, what was of more moment to them, to " enter with spirit and understand- ing " into the matter of their education and proper training for the discharge of the dn- ties of manhood. In this labor he was ably assisted by a devoted wife and mother,-one who was qualified by her gifts of mind and heart and graces of person to arouse in her sons the best impulses of their nature and to direct them in a way to make them count for most in the after struggles of life.
In 1880 the three brothers came West and for a time were residents of Bloomington, Illinois, where Henry T. and Frank M. were engaged in the newspaper business. In 1882, as already noted, Wilbur F. came to Texas and laid the foundation of their inter- ests here. The same year, but later, Henry T. came. IIe died at Cameron in 1885, at which date his place in the bank was taken by Frank M., who took up his residence at Cameron for that purpose.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.