USA > Texas > Tarrant County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Tarrant and Parker counties; containing a concise history of the state, with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named counties, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 37
USA > Texas > Parker County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Tarrant and Parker counties; containing a concise history of the state, with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named counties, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 37
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Resigning his position in the high school, he immediately entered a wider field of use- fulness, at San Diego, California, by engag- ing in the practice of the law, but finding that merchandising in that part of the State would afford greater opportunities for acquir- ing a competency, he temporarily abandoned the law and became managing partner of the firm of Francisco, Silliman & Company, which was succeeded later by that of Gruen- dike & Company. Mr. Silliman remained in business at San Diego until 1884, and then came to Texas to look after several tracts of land he had previously acquired in his trading enterprises. While investigating the inexhaustible resources of this State, he concluded that it would be a good field for a land business, and he accordingly opened an office in the Masonic Temple in Austin,
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Texas, being associated with John McDou- gall, an old Louisiana friend, who had a branch office at New Orleans. In 1885 Mr. Silliman went to England and succeeded in organizing the company of which he is now the manager. Through his exertions, aided by his wife's relatives, sufficient capital was raised and the company was organized with Mr. Alderman Benjamin S. Brigg, J. P., of Keighley, England, as chairman. The other directors were the Hon. Harold Finch-Hat- ton, David MacPherson, Esq., Swire Smith, J. P., Joseph C. Wakefield, Esq., and Will- iam Woodall, M. P. Messrs. Smith, Payne & Smiths are the London bankers, and Al- fred T. Jay is the London manager. The company organized with a capital of £500,- 000, of which only £11,000 was paid up when they began operations. The develop- ment of the business was rapid. Ample funds were offered as fast as they could be profitably employed, and in four years' time the nominal capital was doubled. The com- pany has confined itself exclusively to ad- vancements on first mortgage of free-hold real estate, not exceeding 50 per cent. of its market value, and has been eminently and uniformly successful, paying satisfactory div- idends to its stockholders, besides accumu- lating a reserve fund of £60,000.
From the conception of the company until the present time Mr. Silliman has had the management of its affairs in Texas, and its uniform success, and the fact that it went through the panic of 1893 without the slightest inconvenience, reflects great credit
upon his executive ability as a financier. In 1889 Mr. Silliman removed his offices from Austin to Fort Worth, and since his resi- dence there has been closely identified with the advancement of the "Queen City," and to his public spirit and liberality is due to a great extent the reputation Fort Worth en- joys as a commercial and financial center.
In his capacity as president of the Chain- ber of Commerce he has labored heroically and unceasingly to secure for the city fac- tories, railroads and other industrial enter- prises to employ labor, and has proven him- self a tower of strength in encouraging and aiding in the development of the city, her industries and institutions.
His interests are many, and he is an ex- tremely busy man. Three times he has visited Europe on business in connection with his company. He is a shareholder in several of the national banks, of the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company, and is largely -interested in Texas real estate. His worth as a progressive and enterprising citizen is fully appreciated by his fellow-citizens, and few stand higher than he in the esteem and admiration of all. He is a meinber of the various orders of Free Masonry, being a Past Master of Austin Lodge, No. 12, and a past officer in the commandery, and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, having received the thirty-second degree. He takes great interest in church work, being a Dea- con of the First Baptist Church.
Mr. Silliman was married on the 15th day of July, 1876, in the Church of the An-
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nunciation, at New Orleans, Louisiana, to the daughter of Benjamin Jackson, of Louis- ville, Kentucky. Mrs. Silliman's mother's maiden name was Swire, her people coming from Keighley, Yorkshire, England.
Mr. Silliman's home is known as the Somerville Place: it is situated on the bluff overlooking the Trinity river in the western part of Fort Worth, where he has recently erected one of the handsomest residences in the city. The residence is modeled after the Colonial style of architecture, and is built of granitic pressed-brick, with stone trimmings, and is three stories in height. On the first floor are the parlors, library and dining-room; on the second the sleeping apartments and billiard room; while the third floor is almost entirely taken up by the art studio of Mrs. Silliman, who enjoys quite a local reputation as an amateur artist. The entire house is lighted by electricity and is heated by the most approved appli- ances. Artesian water is supplied by a deep well located on the premises. The house is furnished in exquisite taste, and all in all is one of the most elegant and hospitable homes in Fort Worth, as will be attested by many at home and abroad who have been entertained within its walls.
R R. DARRAH, the enterprising storage and transfer man of Fort Worth, Texas, established his busi- ness here in the fall of 1885. His first loca- tion was on Weatherford street. Soon he
removed to Houston and Thirteenth streets, and in 1893 he moved into his new building on Rusk and Fourteenth streets, a two-story brick building, 50 x 95 feet, erected at a cost of $12,000. All of this sum he accumu- lated since he established himself in business here, he having landed in Fort Worth a. poor man with barely enough money with which to pay for a night's lodging. He stores household goods and general merchandise and operates three teams to accommodate his growing trade.
It was in 1882 that Mr. Darrah first landed in Texas and his first location was at Abilene. In that new town there was much building going on, and, although he was not a carpenter, he bought some tools and went to work at that business, working at it there and in Runnels for three years, and in the fall of 1885, as above stated, coming to Fort Worth, bringing as his sole capital, energy, industry and a determination to succeed.
Mr. Darrah was born in Belmont county, Ohio, October 8, 1862, and was reared chiefly in a country home. When seven years old he removed with his father to Ma- coupin county, Illinois, where he remained until November, 1872. December 24 of that year his mother died, and from that time until 1878 he lived with his grandfather, Alexander Darrah. From 1878 until 1881 he worked in a glass factory, then went to California and did ranch work until Septem- ber, 1882, and at that time came by way of the Southern Pacific Railroad to Texas.
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Mr. Darrah's father, David Darrah, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1834, and died April 9, 1890. He was a farmer the greater part of his life, but worked in a glass factory from 1872 until 1888, and at that time came to Texas to reside with his son. Here he passed. the closing years of his life and died. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Wiley, was a daughter of Alexander Wiley, a farmer of Belmont county, Ohio. Their children were Alex- ander, H. W., Jennie, R. R., George and David.
R. R. Darrah has never taken any active part in political matters until recently, when, in 1894, he was brought out by the Labor organization and endorsed by both the Pop- ulists and Republicans for the office of Sheriff of Tarrant county. Fraternally he is iden- tified with the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Labor.
He was married in Fort Worth May 22, 1890, to Anna E. Ferrel.
P. ROBERTSON, of the firm of Robertson & Witten, the leading undertakers of Fort Worth, was born in Meriwether county, Georgia, Sep- tember 29, 1857, and grew to manhood on a magnificent cotton plantation on Flint river, completing a course in the Senoia high school at the age of about eighteen years.
He remained at home and had the man- agement of his father's large plantation in-
terests, together with that of his own (a gift from his father a short time before) until 1880, when he went to Griffin, that State, and engaged in the cotton commis- sion business, in company with R. F Steph- enson, for the first season, however, receiv- ing a salary for his services. During the autumn of the next year he formed a partner- ship with E. I. Leach, engaging in the brokerage business in Senoia, handling cotton and guanna, the firm name being Robertson & Leach. This business was conducted two years, but did not yield its projectors material profits; on the contrary, they lost heavily, coming out with a wealth of experience and an absence of money.
Mr. Robertson then came to Texas, ar- riving at Fort Worth September 13, 1883; and December 26 following he secured em -. ployment as warehouse clerk in the establish- ment of Fakes & Company, furniture manu- facturers and dealers and undertakers. In four months he was promoted to the position of assistant undertaker, and ultimately be- came chief undertaker, and served that firm as such for eight years, retiring February 14, 1893, when the firin of Robertson & Witten was organized and the undertaking business of Fakes & Company was purchas- ed as a starting nucleus. This new firm has had gratifying success, especially considering the stringency of the times. Mr. Robertson attributes his success to his following the methods of W. G. Turner, of Fakes & Com- pany, one of the best business men in Fort Worth and a courteous, affable gentleman.
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Mr. Robertson is a Knight of Pythias, being a member of Queen City Lodge, and is a Master Mason.
He was married in Fort Worth, March 20, 1890, to Mrs. Susie Wright, whom he had known from childhood, and who is a daughter of Dr. Long, of Grange, Georgia, who married a Miss Griggs. Mr. Robert- son's only child is James.
Thomas J. Robertson, father of L. P., was a native of South Carolina, and was taken by his parents to Troup county, Georgia, when he was between five and six years of age. During the first two years of the war he served in the Confederate army, but, becoming affected with rheumatism, he was forced to retire. His father, John W. Robertson, was born in South Carolina in 1800, and died at the age of eighty-four years. For his wife he married Miss Polig, and of their six children three are still liv- ing, namely: George W., at West Point, Georgia; A. P., of Grange, that State; and Sarah, of the same place. Our subject's father died in 1891. . He married Sarah Pyron, whose father, Louis Pyron, was reared at Greensboro, Georgia, a pioneer there, being one of the first settlers of Meri- wether county. Of their children, the sub- ject of this sketch isthe eldest. Jennie is the wife of John H. Millner, at Zebulon, Geor- gia; Maggie P., who married Dr. J. W. Hogg; Sarah; Thomas, who died at the age of sixteen years; Mattie, who became the wife of S. W. Conley; Augusta Georgia is the wife of Benson Camp; C. P .; H. G.,
at Jacksonville, Florida; Thomas, at La Grange, Georgia; and J. W., of Concord, Georgia. The mother of these children died in 1876, and Mr. Robertson was again mar- ried in 1881, this time to Miss Sallie Sey- mour, and the only child by this marriage is Kate, residing at Senoia.
General Twigg, a distinguished Revolu- tionary soldier, was a great-great-grand- father of Mr. L. P. Robertson on his mother's side.
B. WHEELER, capitalist, and president of the Fort Worth Coal Company, was born in Chenango county, New York, July 23, 1840. In his youth he began to learn the carpenters' trade, and when the civil war was inaugurated he left the carpenter's bench before his apprentice- ship had expired, and enlisted in the United States service, being in the navy for nearly three years. Some time in the 'sixties, he went to Mansfield, Ohio, and for two years was employed in Senator John Sherman's lumber-yard. . He was married there, in 1867, and came to Texas, locating in Sher- man, where for several years he was pro- prietor of a hotel, at the same time deal- ing in real estate as a speculator. He made money rapidly in both branches of business. In 1879 he went to Bonham, with some capital, where he conducted the Burney House. Next he moved to Green- ville, where he kept the Endy House, and also prosecuted other profitable business,
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returning to Fort Worth with a capital that remunerated him well for his labors In 1884 he opened a steam laundry in Fort Worth, but sold it a year afterward, when he engaged in the coal and ice business. He built the factory of the Artesian Ice Company, and was its secretary and man- ager. This company was organized with a capital of $30,000, and began business in 1889. In 1892 they sold out to the An- heuser-Busch Brewing Company, since which time Mr. Wheeler has given his time to the coal trade and on a small scale also brokerage, conducting the business with his own money. The Fort Worth Coal Com- pany is capitalized at $10,000, and Charles A. Wheeler is its secretary. Mr. W. B. Wheeler is also a director and member of the Chamber of Commerce of Fort Worth.
In his political views he is a life-long Democrat. His first vote was cast for Horatio Seymour, for governor of New York. Being active in local matters, he is now chairman of the committee on member- ship in the Chamber of Commerce (1894).
Our subject is a son of Jeremiah Wheeler, who was born in Rhode Island, in 1808, and emigrated to New York when but a few country roads were laid out and these few unimproved. He and his father cut the first tree on the farm on which they settled in 1814. He died in 1864, near his old home. In his political views he was an old-line Whig, and later a Republican. He was a second cousin of . Vice-President Wheeler; the paternal grandfather of our
subject was Henry Wheeler, a Revolution- ary soldier who lived to be 100 years old. Jeremiah Wheeler married Elmyra Brown, a daughter of James Brown, who was a soldier of the war of 1812, a. machinist by trade and the conductor of a woolen mill. Jeremiah Wheeler's children were: Orrin, who is in the grain business in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Andrew J., residing at Santa Rosa, California; John G., a ranchman in Grayson county, Texas; George, a inerchant in New York; Edwin H., a farmer in New York State; Mrs. Elizabeth Bliss, of Bing- hamton, New York; and Lellia, wife of Royal Johnson, of Cortland county, New' York.
Mr. Wheeler, whose name heads this sketch, married Amelia, a daughter of James Larimer, whose father was a soldier of the war of 1812. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have one child, whose name is Charles A., and who was born March 28, 1874.
As to the fraternal orders Mr. Wheeler is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the. Knights of Honor, both of which he has represented in the Grand Lodge.
3 C. INGRAM, a prominent young business man of Fort Worth, now engaged in insurance, was born in Fannin county, Texas, August 19, 1859, a son of J. P. Ingram, a merchant of Bonham years ago but now a farmer of Fannin coun- ty. He was born sixty years ago, a son of a Virginia planter. He left the Old Domin-
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ion State in 1851 and made his home in Carroll county, Missouri, until 1859, when he came to Texas. After a successful career of many years he retired from merchandis- ing, about 1882. He served four years in the Confederate army. His first wife he married in Carroll county, Missouri, and the only child by that marriage is the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Ingram, whose name be- fore marriage was Emma Rollins, died in 1861. Subsequently Mr. Ingram married Miss Eva Allen, whose four children are in Fannin county excepting W. A., who is in Marshall, Texas. The others are: Minnie, Bertha, and Dryden.
Mr. J. C. Ingram secured a very limited education. Leaving home at the age of thirteen years, he served an apprenticeship at the trade of cabinetmaking, in the ser- vice of W. W. Babcock, in Paris, this State. Then he engaged in merchandising, as a member of the firm of C. T. Ingram & Com- pany, the senior member of the firm being his uncle. For the four years they were thus operating together they did a success- ful business. Our subject then sold out, and with a liberal capital came to Fort Worth, where in 1892 he entered the dry- goods business, as a member of the firm of Ingram & Company. In 1886 he disposed of this interest, and after some miscellaneous work he devoted himself to the real-estate and loan business, handling his own capital. He owns city property in Fort Worth and land in Tarrant and other counties. In 1892 he engaged in the insurance business
in company with K. L. Van Zandt, Jr. The next year Mr. Van Zandt sold his interest to Mr. Ingram, and the latter is now carrying on a prosperous business alone. He repre- sents the London and Lancashire, Manches- ter, Germania and Concordia Insurance Companies. He has stock in the Home Building and Loan Association and in the Live Stock National Bank.
Mr. Ingram was married in St. Louis, Missouri, June 5, 1892, to Susan R. Ham- mond, a native of that State and a daughter of William McChesney, who is a farmer of La Fayette county, Missouri.
J UDGE J. M. RICHARDS, of Weath- erford, was born in La Fayette, Chambers county, Alabama, February 8, 1848, the seventh of thirteen children born to Judge Evan G. and Mrs. Sarah Dickens Webb. Eleven of these children reached years of maturity, seven of whom are now living. Four of the older sons, Thomas, Robert, John and Andrews, served as soldiers in the Confederate army during the Civil war. Judge Evan G. Richards, father of J. M., was born in Northampton county, North Carolina, August 26, 1806; moved with his father to Madison county, Alabama, in 1815; was licensed a Methodist minister in 1830; located in La Fayette, Alabama, in 1833; shortly afterward was admitted to the bar and entered actively into the practice of law, becoming widely known throughout east Alabama as an able lawyer and an earnest,
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conscientious preacher. He died December 31, 1893, in La Fayette, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. Mrs. Sarah Dickens (Webb) Richards, mother of Judge J. M. Richards, one of the noblest of our noble Southern matrons, is a daughter of Colonel Thomas Webb and Martha Webb, née Dick- ens, of Perry county, Alabama, and is now living at the old homestead with her young- est son, S. M. Richards, editor of the La Fayette Sun. She was one of thirteen chil- dren, of whom, besides herself, only three survive, -John H. Y. Webb, of Greensboro, Alabama; and Drs. James and Sidney Webb, also of that State. One sister was married to L Q. C. De Yampert, of Greensboro; one to Hon. Dunston Banks, of Columbus, Mis- sissippi, and another to Rev. Charles E. Brame, a noted educator in west Alabama before the war.
Judge James M. Richards, the subject of this notice, acquired a good English educa- tion in the local schools. He was too young to enter the Confederate army, but, with old men and boys and a handful of men under General Forrest, entered the trenches and helped defend Selma when that city was at- tacked and captured April 3, 1865, by Fed- eral troops under General Wilson. April 12, of that year, he was paroled and returned home. In 1867 Mr. Richards bought and published the Chambers Tribune, edited at La Fayette; sold the paper in 1868; in the following year purchased the La Fayette Reporter, to which the Tribune had in the meantime been changed; was admitted to
the bar in the same year and practiced with his father under the firm name of E. Rich- ards & Son until 1872; and in the latter year was elected on the Democratic ticket as County Solicitor of Chambers county. He filled that office four years, during which time he was actively connected with the newspaper business. In 1871. he sold the La Fayette Reporter, and in the following year, with J. E. Roberts, established the Pensacola Mail, at Pensacola, Florida, which was in the same year traded for the Opelika Locomotive, Opelika, Florida. In 1873, with Mr. Roberts, Mr. Richards began the publication of the Morning News (a daily' paper) at Montgomery, Alabama, but in December, 1874, disposed of his interest in the News, returned to his old home in La Fayette, where he resumed the practice of law. Just previous to his return home he married Miss Irene Hawkins, a daughter of Benjamin and Delilah (Pope) Hawkins, of Birmingham, Alabama.
The Morning News was the first paper in Alabama to make a vigorous fight for white supremacy in that State, and with Colonel Robert Tyler (son of President John Tyler) associated as editor-in-chief with Judge Richards and William H. Moore, late of the Augusta (Georgia) News, led the campaign of 1874, that resulted in the overcoming of a previous Republican majority of 10,000, and the election of George S. Houston, the Democratic nominee, to the Governorship by a majority of over 10,000 votes. Judge Richards has been an active worker in the
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Democratic party since early manhood. He attended every State convention in Ala- bama from 1872 to 1876, was alternate Elector on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket for the Fifth Congressional District of Ala- bama in 1876, and has been on the stump to oppose Greenbackers, Union Laborites, Third Partyites, and all other enemies of Democracy in Parker county since 1878. He approves the platform of the Democratic party adopted at Houston, Texas, in August, 1872, and the National Democratic platform. He regards protection as robbery, the de- monetization of silver as a crime, and the appointment of Republicans to office by a Democratic administration as reprehensible.
Judge Richards came to Weatherford, Texas, February 3, 1877, and in 1889 was elected County Judge by the Commissioners' Court, serving until 1881. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was a delegate from the Northwest Texas. Conference to the General Confer- ence held at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1878. He is also a member of the Masonic and Knights of Honor fraternities. The Judge has won for himself a position in the front rank at the Texas bar, and has acquired a large amount of real estate by his energy, perse- verance, and faithful attention to business. He attributes his success in life to the les- sons of application, perseverance, and con- scientious discharge of duty fearlessly per- formed, taught by his parents, both by pre- cept and example. No man stands higher in the community, either as an earnest, con- 3
scientious attorney, or as a citizen, ever ready to uphold the right and oppose that which is wrong, regardless of consequences or personal popularity.
a NOCH HARDING, Assessor of Tarrant county, was born in Callo- way county, Kentucky, February 20, 1843, attended the academy at Murray, the county seat of the same county, and after the war attended the Kentucky Univer- sity at Lexington, graduating in 1871, in the scientific course.
In 1862 he started out to join the Con- federate army, in Mississippi, but was picked up near Lexington, Tennessee, by the Fed- erals and imprisoned at Jackson, that State. . for two weeks, and then taken to Alton, Illinois, and finally to Johnson's Island, and was exchanged at City Point, Virginia, in March, 1863. Then he joined Company H, Third Kentucky Regiment, A. P. Thompson Colonel, at Jackson, Mississippi. He was in the battle of Raymond and Jackson. His regiment retreated eastward, and were mounted as cavalry and attached to General Forrest's division. He afterward participat- ed in the battle at Paducah, Kentucky, where Colonel Thompson was killed. The regiment next retreated to Mississippi, and Mr. Harding was sent with a flag of truce to Paducah, with a squad of eleven, to look after some prisoners, -a dangerous expedi- tion. Rejoining his command, he took part
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in the battles of Franklin and Murfrees- borough.
For some time after the war Mr. Hard- ing was engaged in attending school and teaching in order to enable him to complete his course at the Kentucky University at Lexington, in which he was also a tutor. He located at Mansfield, Tarrant county, Tex- as, and taught school at Wyatt Chapel eight years, and two years at Pleasant Point in Johnson county. Quitting school work in 1890, he became a candidate for Assessor, and was elected by a large majority, and in 1892 he was re-elected. On retiring from office he will give his attention to his private interests.
Captain Harding is a son of H. W. Harding, a native of Stafford county, Vir- ginia, and a planter, who moved first to Tennessee and afterward to Kentucky. He was elected County School Superintendent of Calloway county, Kentucky, serving sever- al years. For his first wife he married a Miss Hansbrough, who died leaving to him these children: Lewis, William E. and Boswell. For his second wife Mr. Harding married Elizabeth, the daughter of Noah English, of Hardin county, Kentucky; and the children by this marriage were: Harriet; who mar- ried Colonel A. P. Thompson, and they are now both deceased; Richard M., who be- came a Captain in the Confederate army and is now deceased; John R., also a Confeder- ate soldier and now living in Henry county, Tennessee; Henry C., who died in infancy; Enoch, the subject of this sketch, was the
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