USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 5
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 5
USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 5
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 5
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 5
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.2 > Part 5
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Of the career of these gentlemen in Texas, outside of what has been given in connection with their business interests, but little more need be said than that as citizens they have interested themselves in all matters pertain- ing to their town and county-have been foremost, in fact, in calling attention to the resources of this locality and have unhesi- tatingly put their money into every enter- prise that has given promise of legitimate private returns or lasting public good. They have confidence in Texas and pride and con- fidence in their own town and county. They believe in the future of the State and in the grand march to that future they desire to see their town and county assume the place that belongs to them.
They are Republicans in politics, active in State and national affairs, and generally make their influence felt. Wilbur F. has
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been a delegate to every State convention held since he came to Texas. He was also a delegate to the national conventions of 1884, 1888 and 1892.
Wilbur F. and Frank M. are members of the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, the Elks and Red Men, as was also their brother, Henry T., to each of which they accord a generous sup- port as well as to all benevolent purposes.
UDGE RICHARD S. WALKER, deceased .- Richard Sheekle Walker was a native of Kentucky, born in Barren county in 1824. Ifis early educational ad- vantages were ample and propitious. He graduated in 1842, at Centenary College, Jackson, Louisiana, and in 1844, when but twenty years old, received his diploma from the law department of Transylvania Univer- sity at Lexington, Kentucky, and his license to practice at the bar of that State. Return- ing to Jackson, Louisiana, which was then his home, he devoted one year to the study of the civil law preparatory to practice in the Louisiana conrts; bnt, Texas having just been admitted to the Union, his aspirations seized on its prospeets and he determined to cast his fortunes with the bar of this new State, and located at San Augustine, in Feb- ruary, 1846, where he began his long and distinguished professional career.
In the summer of 1848 he married Miss Eliza J. Clark, a daughter of Judge Amos Clark of Nacogdoches, and immediately after- ward moved to that place, where he formed a partnership with his father-in-law. With 'endowments of a high order, combined with anthority as an impediment to reconstrue- the advantages of his eminent association, his ; tion. Then he continued alone with inereas-
rise at the bar was rapid and confirmed, and in 1848 he was appointed District Attorney, and was re-elected to the same office at each snecessive term during a period of nearly eight years. In 1857 he formed a co part. nership with Judge George F. Moore. after- ward Chief Justice of the State, and con- tinned this connection nutil he was elected to the District Bench in 1880. During this association he was appointed, in connection with his partner, Reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court, and they prepared the Twenty-second, Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth of the Texas Reports, which were inade statutory models for subsequent issues. In 1866 he reported alone the Twenty-fifth volume, and was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention of that year, in which he took an active part in framing the constitu- tion, which would at the same time comply with the exigencies of the situation and as- sert the rights and dignity of the State. In 1873 he was appointed by Governor Coke to the Judgeship of his former judicial district, to which, after the expiration of the term of his appointment, he was elected by the peo- ple. In 1879 he was appointed a member of the Commission of Appeals, which posi- tion he held until 1890, when he resigned on account of ill-health. Ilis death occurred May 24, 1892.
As a lawyer Judge Walker's career was eminent and brilliant. The practice of the firms of Clark & Walker and of Moore & Walker, both in Federal and State courts, was large and extensive, and they were em- ployed in many important cases in both the civil and criminal branches of jurisprudence. He held the position of District Judge until 1865, when he was removed by military
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ing reputation nutil his professional abilities and pure character cansed him to be called into service in a high judicial capacity. and the features which he was instrumental in imparting to the jurisprudence of the State, both as a lawyer and judge, were important and varied. Ile devoted all of his physical and mental vigor to his profession, and con- seqnently his knowledge of law was profound and comprehensive. He was endowed with a high order of talent, and his intellectual powers were trained and whetted in a severe school of discipline and application. His capacity for intellectual labor was limited only by his physical endurance, and he possessed the highest of all intellectual traits, and that to which Sir Isaac Newton attrib- nted the excellence of his mental qualities, the power of concentrating his thought, the faculty of close attention and patient think- ing. His mind was vigorons and active; its researches rich and varied and constantly at his command. His perceptions were singu- larly prompt and aente, and his ripened judgment readily separated the practical from that which was speculative, while his sound reason and accurate association verified his knowledge. He was a man of exceed- ingly amiable character and free from any overwrought superficial sternness of judicial ethics. His manners were refined by a com- placency and polish, which indicated a heart full of kindness and -generons impulses. Ilis literary attainments were likewise of a high order. The versatility of his genins enabled him to cultivate a polished style of literary composition, rarely found in one whose thoughts were clothed in the starched and staid habit of legal diction. Ile had a fine classical taste and copions command of lan- guage, and his style was chaste, unique and spirited. In all the relations of life he main-
tained the same high standard of excellence, and his death was mourned as a genuine pub- lic loss.
Hle had but three children, two sons and a daughter. Hlis eldest son, John C. Walker, is a practicing lawyer of Galveston, while his second son, Amos Clark Walker, is a leading physician of Rockdale, Milam county, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. The daughter, Jennie May, was married to Cap- tain J. P. Alvey, of the mercantile honse of Finley & Co., New Orleans, and died in 1880, at Austin, this State.
- AMES H. TAYLOR, a son of McClem Taylor, whose history appears in the sketch of W. M. Taylor herein, was born in Martin county, North Carolina, October 22, 1530. His education, though very limited, was received in three States, because of successive moves of his father dur- ing our subject's school age. Ile came to Texas in 1856, two years in advance of the other members of the family. Being reared on the farm he of course knew but little of other callings. and engaged in it in this State, and was so employed until the opening of the late war.
In 1862 Mr. Taylor joined Company F, Eighth Texas Infantry, under Colonel Young, and participated in all the feasts, famines, forced marches and hard-fought battles inci- dent to a two-years' campaigu, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry being among the engagements. The command dis- banded at Hempstead, in May, 1865, and Mr. Taylor again sought Milam county and the farm. In 1866 he bought a small tract of land containing 150 acres on the south side of Pond creek, now owned by Mr. Car-
13. A. Goodwin
A C. Goodwin
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gill. Residing there until 1869, he bought a traet on the Brazos river, to which he moved in 1870. Ten years later he settled where he now lives, in the same locality. Here he owns 400 acres of fine farming land. and with his large family of sons is cultivat- ing 250 acres. Ile conducts a considerable stock interest in addition to the farm, having leased a large pasture in which he keeps cattle. Ilis average cotton crop is abont seventy-five bales per year, and his grain and stock prod- ucts are in proportion.
In 1859 Mr. Taylor married Sarah, daugh- ter of William Pruitt, an Alabama farmer and carpenter, who came to Texas about 1856. Mrs. Taylor was born in Alabama, in 1840. She and her husband are the parents of the following children: William McClem, who married Josie Smiley, who is row deceased; Patrick Henry; Maggie, now deceased, who was the wife of John Whitehurst; James; Joshua; John G .; Napoleon; Thomas B .; Ida; Dock; Alexander, deceased; Richard; and "Boy," who is yet unnamed.
Mr. Taylor is a Jeffersonian Democrat, but does not take much interest in political mat- ters. He is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity at Rosebud, and of the Missionary Baptist Church at Caddo.
B A. GOODWIN .-- Early in 1864, while the late Civil war was still raging in the older Southern States and many good citizens of that section who were exempt by age or physical infirmities from military service were seeking refuge from their perse- entors in this more favored section, there ar- rived in Milam county a caravan, travel- worn, weather-stained and exhausted in re- sources, having made its way overland from
Columbia county, Arkansas, and settled in the eastern part of this county on Little river, where it subsequently went into per- manent quarters. The head of this caravan was Thelston A. Goodwin, who had suffered severely for the cause of the South and who, though opposed on principle to secession, rendered good service to the movement in its earlier stages in the State whence he came.
Thelston A. Goodwin was born in Putman county, Georgia. June 29, 1818, and was reared and was married the first time in that State, and moved some time in the " '40s" to Macon county, Mississippi, and later to Talladega county, Alabama, and thence to Columbia county, Arkansas, where he was for a number of years engaged successfully in farming. By industry and good manage- ment he succeeded at the opening of the late war in aceminulating a considerable amount of property, which, however, was soon swept away by the ravages of that great conflict, and at the time of his removal to this State his possessions consisted of only a few hun- dred dollars, invested mostly in stock, wag- ons and household effects, with a few dollars in cash left over. He invested his cash in 400 acres of land lying on Little river, on which he took up his residence and where he soon resumed agricultural pursuits, which he followed successfully there for some years. Of modest demeanor, quiet, unassuming ways, he spent his time mainly about his home aud devoted his attention to his per- sonal interests. While a resident of Arkan- sas he had represented his county a number of terms in the State Legislature and was otherwise prominent in local affairs. Of good intelligence and pleasant social qualities he never lacked friends wherever he lived. and always succeeded in impressing himself fa- vorably on those with whom he was associ-
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ated. Ile came of old American stock, being a son of William W. Goodwin, an early set- tler of Georgia who moved into the " Empire State of the South " in Indian times and helped to fell the forests and lay the founda- tion of that great commonwealth.
The second wife of Thelston A, Goodwin bore the maiden name of Mary Elizabeth Avriett, and she was born in Alabama, Feb- rnary 8, 1828. They were married in Talla- dega county, Alabama, December 24, 1844, and were the parents of six children, two of whom died in infancy, the remainder reach- ing maturity and one dying since. The eld- est, Roxana, was married to Hon. J. M. Mc- Kinney and died, in Milam county, in 1874; the second, William W., is a fariner living in Lamar county, this State; the next, Benjamin A., is the subject of this notice; and the youngest, Sarah, is the widow of E. A. Ford and lives in Milam county. The mother died June 17, 1856, in Talladega county, Ala- bama.
Benjamin A. Goodwin was born in Talla- dega county, Alabama, January 7, 1850, and was reared in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, being a lad of fourteen when his parents moved to this State. His early years were marked only by such experiences as fall to the lot of the average farm boy. Of education he got but little, a few months attendance at the schools and one term at Port Sullivan Academy and a term at Salado, Bell connty, being all of the advantages of this nature which he enjoyed. Having been brought up on the farm he naturally took to farming par- suits, and when the time arrived for him to step out and meet the current of life for him- self he married and settled on a farm now oc- cupied by his brother-in-law, Hon. J. M. Mc- Kinney, on Jones prairie, this county, where he entered actively and energetically on the
business of his life. In 1878 he purchased 143 acres of his present place, to which he moved the following year and has since con- tinned zealously in the prosecution of his in- terests. His success is probably best attested by the simple statement that he now owns 1,200 acres of splendid black land lying in one of the richest agricultural sections of the county, which when it came into his posses- sion was practically nimproved, but all of which is now under fence and a reasonable portion of it under plow. About 1885, in addition to farming, Mr. Goodwin began to fecd beef cattle, and each year since he has turned out regularly for the market from 250 to 500 head. Liberal, active, earnest and intelligent, Mr. Goodwin pursues his own business successfully, and on all proper oe- casions lends his support to all enterprises looking to the welfare of the community in which he resides.
He is a Democrat " in whom there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning," and has been frequently importuned to rmn for office, but has never offered himself for any public position. He has been a Mason since he was twenty-two years old, zealous in the support of the principles of that order and especially in its broad and benevolent pur- poses.
Jannary 10, 1872, Mr. Goodwin married Miss Amanda Oliver, a danghter of James D. and Ava Oliver, who were natives of North Carolina. The father was born December 20, 1817, and the mother, whose maiden name was Ava Page, September 28, 1825. The parents were married April 1, 1851, in their native State by the Rev. William Ayres. They moved to Texas and settled in Hopkins county in the early '50s, where the mother died March 15, 1857. The father died in June, 1862, in the Confederate serv-
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ice at Enterprise, Mississippi. Ile was twice married, marrying first, on October 19, 1841, Miss Nancy Floyd, of North Carolina. The children of this union were: Clandins C., who was born September 23, 1843, and is now a resident of Alexander, Erath county, Texas; Augustns P., who was born Novem- ber 27, 1844, and is a resident of Rayner, where he is clerk of the District Court of Stonewall county, Texas; Lonisa M., who was born January 10, 1847, and is the wife of Calvin C. White, of Milam county, a sketch of whom appears in this work.
The children of James D. and Ava Oliver were: Amanda Katherine, who was born March 13, 1855, and is the wife of B. A. Goodwin, of this article; and Virginia Ann, who was born Jannary 11, 1857, and is the wife of W. II. Liner, of Hopkins county, Texas. Mrs. Goodwin was born in Hopkins connty, this State.
Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin have had one child, a danghter, Luella, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin belong to the Baptist Church, holding a membership in the church at Clarkson, Milam county. Mr. Goodwin was a member of the Advisory Council of the World's Congress Auxiliary on Farm Cnl- ture and Cereal Industry, and a member of the World's Agricultural Congresses, which met at Chicago in October, 1893.
R W. INSALL, a successful farmer of Williamson county, is a son of Thomas and Mary (Holdship) Insall. The father was born in Yorkshire, Eng- land, and at the age of twenty-five years emi- grated to the United States. For a number of years he was engaged in the mercantile business on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, i
using a keel-boat for the purpose, and while following that ocenpation met our subject's mother at a point about where the city of Bayon Sara, Louisiana, now stands, where they were married in 1809. She was born in Pennsylvania, where her parents were among the early pioneers. Her father was of Irish and her mother of Dutch descent. After marriage Mr. I.sall purchased a plant- ation on Bayou Boeuf, where he died in 1848, and his wife in 1858. They were the parents of ten children, namely: Thomas, Richard and Martha, deceased; Mary, widow of a Mr. Callahan, and a resident of Mineral City, Texas; Charlotte, widow of a Mr. Shaw, of Columbus, this State; John, de- ceased; Henry, deceased; R. W., our subject; Joseph, who resides with his brother, R. W .; and Alzira, deceased. Mr. Insall, Sr., was a Democrat in his political views and a mein- ber of the Episcopal Church. IIe held a parish office for many years corresponding with the County Commissioner's office of this State.
R. W. Insall was born in St. Landry par- ish, Lonisiana, August 30, 1831. In 1848 he visited relatives in Texas, and in Febru- ary, 1850, returned to this State, where he has ever since made his home. During the first four years he was located in Colorado connty and was engaged in the saddlers' trade, which he had learned in Louisiana. He then became a resident of De Witt county, where he remained until 1856, and in that year returned to Colorado county. Another period was spent in De Witt county with his wife's people, after which he went again to Colorado county. In 1873 Mr. Insall came to his present location, where he now owns 200 acres of land, 150 acres under a fine state of enltivation. The place is located one mile north of Leander. In addition to this
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farm he also owns timber aud pasture land.
Mr. Insall was married in De Witt connty, October 12, 1854, to Sarah, a daughter of Norman Woods, who was captured by the Mexicans at the time of Dawson's defeat, and died in prison at Perote. Our subject and wife have had eleven children, viz .: Norman, of Leander, this county; Robert, also of this city; Mary, wife of W. K. IInmble, of Leander; Alice, wife of Edward MeClure, of Coleman county, Texas; Ellen, now Mrs. John M. McDaniel, of Burnet county; Ida, wife of W. T. Jennings, of Leander; Herbert, Lillie, Eric, Eugene and Hugh at home. In his political relations Mr. Insall votes with the Democratic party, and, fraternally, is a Master Mason.
A ARON SEYMOUR, a farmer of Will- iamson county, is a son of G. W. and Saralı (Uticto) Seymour, of English and Irish descent. Isaac Seymour came to America before the Revolutionary war and located in Virginia. At the open- ing of that struggle lie entered the Conti- mental armny. Three other brothers of this family came to America as British soldiers; two were captured in the first fight and the other deserted. The three thien entered the American army. The father of our subject was born, reared and married in Virginia, subsequently moved to Knox county, Ten- nessee, later to Buchanan county, Missouri, and about twenty-five years later located in Georgetown, Williamson county, Texas, but in 1861 removed to Leavenworth county, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Seymour were the parents of four children: Amanda. wife of Sidney Richardson, of High Prairie, Leaven- worth county, Kansas; John S., of Buchanan
county, Missouri; Thomas Madison, of St. Joseph, that State; and Aaron, our subject. The mother died when the youngest child was four years of age, and the father after- ward married a Mrs. Russell. Both still re- side in Leavenworth county, Kansas. Mr. Seymour was formerly engaged in farming, but is now a merchant of Boling.
Aaron Seymour was born in Knox county, Tennessee, August 29, 1839. After his mother's death he made his home with Thomas Dittimore, a friend of his father, until twelve years of age, when he came with his father to Texas. In 1851 he went to Kansas, but two years later returned to this State. Our subject then entered Strahorn's cavalry company, afterward Company D, Thirtieth Texas Regiment, under Colonel Gurly, was appointed Second Sergeant, and sorved in the Trans- Mississippi department. Ile participated in the battles of Roseville, Prairie de IIan, Poison Springs, Saline river and Cabin creek. After the close of the struggle he returned to Williamson county, since which time he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits. He first located six miles north of Georgetown; eleven years later removed to a farin seven miles northeast of that place; five years later went to Corn Hill, and in 1890 purchased his present farm of 550 acres, which is located twenty miles northwest of Georgetown, and 140 acres of which are cultivated. In addition to his farming he also gives considerable attention to stock-raising.
Mr. Seymour was married in Williamsou county, in 1859, to Sarah E. Donnell. They have had ten children: Martha V., wife of Dr. W. P. Masterson, of Corn Hill; Amer- iea O., wife of V. B. Brewster, also of that place; Florrie W., at home: Apton .1., de- ceased; Marvin II., Barnett E., Myrtle M.,
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Thomas S., at home; and James and Tennes- see, deceased. Mr. Seymour votes with the People's party, and is a member of the I. O. O. F. He has been Steward and Class- leader in the Methodist Church, and has also served as Sunday-schoo! Superin tendent.
B EVERLY A. PORTER .- The subject of this sketch is probably the oldest native born citizen now residing in Burleson county. He was born near the old Spanish town of Jenostitlan, September 20, 1834. He was reared in this county and re- ceived his education in the schools of the same and at McKinzie's Institute at Clarks- ville, Red River county.
In 1861 he married Miss Sallie J. Lucas, of Burleson county, and having received his share of his father's estate-abont $10,000, consisting mainly of cattle-he branched out for himself and began caring for a separate household. He was soon called, however, from the paths of peace to take part in the great civil conflict of 1861-'65, entering the Confederate service at the opening of hostili- ties as a member of the Seventeenth Texas Infantry. His command began active opera- tions about Little Rock, Arkansas, and fromn that date on, in that general locality, le served until the close of the war. He was in all the fights along Red river following Banks' campaign: Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Jenkins' Ferry and Yellow Bayon; had the good fortune to escape wounds and imprison- ment, and surrendered at Hempstead, Texas, in May. 1865.
For three years after the close of the war Mr. Porter resided in Milam coanty, but at the end of that time returned to Burleson county, and with the exception of that period
and the period covered by the war has resided in the connty of his nativity all his life. He has been engaged in farming and stock- raising, in which he has met with the usual experiences, prospering with the prosperous times and meeting with reverses in seasons of adversity. Ile has made over forty crops and tells with just pride that, although he has failed to make full crops some years, he has never failed to try, and has never made an entire failure. He resides on part of his inheritance, located about six miles west of Caldwell. With the fondness exhibited by all old Texans for live-stock he still gives some attention to that industry, particularly the sheep business, in which he has met with good success in recent years. Politics have claimed but little of Mr. Porter's time, and yet he cannot be said to have been indifferent to political matters. Ile affiliates with the Democrats and occasionally takes the field for a favorite candidate or some measure whose success he especially desires. Mr. Porter's domestic life, like his business career, has not been without its unhappy ex- periences. His wife, who shared the joys and sorrows of his early manhood, died in 1886, after having borne him nine children. She was a daughter of the Rev. William Lucas, a pioneer minister of the Baptist Church in Texas, originally from Alabama, which was his native State. His wife's maiden name was Sarah Norwood, and by this union he had nine children, of whom Mrs. Porter was the third in age. Her brothers and sisters were Daniel. Fannie, William T., Mary, James, Martha, John W. and Emma. Mr. Lucas died in 1875 and was buried at Porter's Chapel, on Porter's prairie, where also rest the remains of Mrs. Sallie J. Porter. To this union of Beverly A. and Sallie J. Porter were born uine chil-
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dren: Eugene Eden, Theodore Beverly, How- ard Brnee, William Virgil, Newell Edwin, Horace Greeley, Susan Frances, Jemima Mar- tha, and one that died in infancy.
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