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 42
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 42
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The Gazette to-day mourns not only the loss of its head, on whose clear judgment and steady hand so much hinged, but it mourns a friend, a counsellor, in whose com- pany there was untold satisfaction. There is no man connected with the business that does not feel Mr. Huffman's death a personal loss. His very presence begat confidence and his urbanity of manner created harmony from most incongruous elements. No per- plexity arose that defied his solution, and though unused to the business when assum- ing control, many of the new and taking features of the paper are the coinage of his clear brain.
As a friend we cannot speak of him, the wound is too recent to be exposed to the view of even the most considerate. "Blessed is the man who has one friend," and we were blessed. No cloud was too dense on the horizon for his geniality to penetrate, no de- tracting words of weight sufficient to change his estimate; tried and true was he, and we have lost our friend, -we cannot say more.
A large circle stand with bowed heads and aching hearts in the presence of so great a bereavement, but what shall be said of the aged father and mother, who, in what seems a violation of natural law, are called upon to mourn a son, to whom they right- fully looked as the stay and support of their latter years. With the overflowing cup of their sorrow is mingled a bitter draught his sister's grief must supply; herself a widow,
where will she turn for that brotherly devo- tion on which she could rely? Sad, inex- pressibly more sad than all such bereave- ment, is that of the family. A devoted wife, whose loving attention has followed him through all his illness, two lovely young daughters just merging into womanhood, a younger daughter, and two sons are to-day fatherless,-a word which says all. The precincts of the home are too sacred for even a loving friend to enter. What Wal- ter Huffman was as business associate, friend and neighbor, he was pre-eminently more so in the home. To see him at his best was to see him the center toward which his loving family was attracted, and to see there manifested that happy confidence which can only unite a family bound to- gether by bonds of love.
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To-day eyes blinded with tears can only see a white shaft, -broken ere the capital is placed, work unfinished, grand purpose stayed, a home invaded, and death tri- umphant. But to his wife and children Walter A. Huffman has left an honored name; to the town he served so faithfully . the memory of one who gave his time, talent and energy to its upbuilding, and to friends and associates a memory worthier than this, the memory of kind words, gen- erous deeds and earnest effort, with the sacred heritage of his unfinished work. "Knightly and noble gentleman, farewell."
ARRISON G. HENDRICKS, de- ceased, was one of the most promi- nent citizens of Fort Worth. He was born in Illinois, in 1819, and died in Fort Worth in 1873. When young his father, John G. Hendricks, moved to Platte county, Missouri, where the subject of this sketch remained until about fourteen years of age, employed on the farm at home and
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elsewhere. He then secured employment in a store and was a merchant clerk at differ- ent points in Missouri before going to St. Louis, where he was connected with General Dorris, a wholesale merchant and trader. . In 1845 he came to Texas, stopping by chance in Bonham, where he soon began reading law, under the preceptorship of Judge G. A. Evarts. He was admitted to practice in 1846, and the next year he married Miss Anne Evarts (the Judge's ouly daughter, by whom he was survived until 1894, her death occurring on April 12 of that year) and established himself in Grayson county. He located in Sherman and practiced most suc- cessfully his profession, accumulating large property interests by the time the late war broke out. Much of his practice brought into his possession real estate as fees, and he was compelled to buy slaves to open out his farms and get them on a paying basis. He moved to his large Brazos river plantation and remained until the close of the war, and was of course reduced to the extent of the value of his slaves. He was an ardent seces- sionist and believed thoroughly in the ulti- mate success of the Confederate arms. In this respect he was in direct opposition to his noble and patriotic father-in-law. This being the case, each was able to render the other valuable assistance as a protector against the intrigues of cowardly and evil- designing men.
In 1875 Mr. Hendricks came to Fort Worth and formed a partnership with Col- onel J. P. Smith, and at the time of his
death one of the leading law firms of Fort Worth was Hendricks, Sinith & Jarvis. In this city he made money rapidly, and in- vested a great deal in suburban real estate. At his death he owned the farm on which the Fort Worth Packing Houses are located, and was indeed a wealthy man.
His father, a native of Kentucky, went to Illinois about 1800, and at his death was Sheriff of his county in Missouri. He mar- ried a Miss Malone.
Judge Evarts was born in Athens, Ohio, in 1797, graduated at the University of Ohio when about twenty years of age, and went to Indiana, locating near La Porte, where he practiced law and was Judge of the Circuit Court for many years. He was married, in Ohio, to Miss Bingham, and had only one child. He came to Bonham, . Texas, in 1844, where he lived until 1865, when he removed to Sherman. He was a master of the law, a strong advocate, and handled his juries at pleasure, was a splen- did story teller, admired by all the bar, and doubtless would have won great fame in official capacities but for his adhering to Republican principles. He possessed a lov- able nature, was large-hearted and always cheerful. He came to Fort Worth in 1871, and died in 1884. His father was a civil engineer and a Revolutionary soldier, and was one of the boys at the Boston school who protested to General Gage against the "red-coats" tearing down their dirt mounds. He located in Ohio before that Territory was admitted as a State, and engaged in
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surveying until he died, in 1802, at the age of forty-five years.
Judge Evarts' daughter was born in 1830, and became the mother of the follow- ing children: Sallie, who married W. A. Huffman, deceased; George B. Hendricks, superintendent of the Fort Worth Street Railway; Mrs. Jane F. Wayne; Wallace, born August 27, 1860; Octavia, wife of George E. Bennett; and H. C., an attorney at Fort Worth.
The Hendricks heirs held on to their property until it became extremely valu- able by the growth of the city over it. They have not lost sight of Fort Worth's interests and of giving most liberally of their land to railroads and other enterprises. Mrs. Hendricks, widow of the subject of this sketch, was a member of the construc- tion company who built the Texas & Pacific Railroad from Eagle to Fort Worth. The land given for right of way and the depot facilities of this company by the Hendricks estate, at its present value would reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. "Tom" Scott was one of the projectors of this road, and Mr. H. C. Hendricks induced him to visit Tarrant county, and they to- gether went over the county and inspected the land. Long before the road reached west Texas he made a deed of the right of way to Scott through all his lands in Tar- rant county.
Wallace Hendricks was educated at Van- derbilt and Cumberland Universities, gradu- ating at the latter in 1883. He commenced
the study of law under the guidance of Judge Jennings, and was admitted to the bar be- fore Judge Hood, in 1884. He is one of the executors of his father's estate, the re- sponsibilities of which position require much of his time. September 3, 1884, he married Miss Bessie Faute, a daughter of Judge P. Faute, of Sherman, Texas.
E. BELL, of the firm of A. E. Bell & Sons, grocers of Weather- ford, Texas, was born near Galla- tin in Sumner county, Tennessee, February 12, 1839. At the age of six years he went with the family to Arkansas, and in 1859 came with them from that State to Texas, and upon their arrival here located at Mount Vernon.
In Mount Vernon young Bell secured a clerkship in the general store of R. E. Bell & Company, and was thus occupied when the war broke out. August 15, 1861, he entered the Confederate army, and remained on duty until near the close of the war, par- ticipating in numerous engagements, among which we mention the Atlanta campaign. Soon after his return home from the army Mr. Bell engaged in freighting from Waco to Millican, and while on one of these trips he hired his team to a circus, -Height's cir- cus, -being employed at $8 per day and re- maining with the company thirty days. The circus life, however, although having many attractions, chief of which was the salary, was not suited to him, and he returned with
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his brother from Shreveport to Black Springs, Palo Pinto county, where he spent one year. From there he came to Weather- ford and clerked for Bell & Miller. Then he opened a small store and soon afterward took in as partner his brother R. E. In 1871 they established a business in Palo Pinto, A. E. having charge of it until 1874. Finally he sold out his mercantile interests and in 1877 invested in the cattle business in Callahan county, where he remained thus occupied until 1885, then turning his atten- tion to merchandising in Weatherford. In February, 1892, he traded with the late D. C. Haynes for a stock of groceries, where he has since conducted business successfully.
Mr. Bell was married in Weatherford in October, 1869, to Miss Lue E. Leach, daughter of F. A. Leach, a pioneer of this city. Their children are Augustus E. and Frank M., in business with their father; Samuel L .; Maggie Lue, deceased; and Willie Kate, deceased.
Mr. Bell is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
ENJAMIN F. SAWYER, proprie- tor, at Arlington, of the finest cot- ton gin in Tarrant county, is a na- tive of Arkansas, born November 5, 1856, and raised upon a farm, remaining with his parents until of age, and after that still con- tinued in agricultural pursuits.
He came to Texas in 1876, married in 1879, and located in Tarrant county. In
1880 he purchased a farm, which he after- ward sold, and bought another of 191 acres, 120 acres of which are in cultivation and which' he rents. In 1893 he moved into Arlington. He was one of a party of three who built a large and commodious cotton gin, with all the modern improvements and a capacity of seventy bales a day. It is evidently the best and most commodious cotton gin in the county, and is situated in convenient proximity to the town and to water. There are eight gin stands and a complete system for handling cotton from wagons.
Mr. Sawyer is the son of Rev. George W. and Elizabeth (Johnson) Sawyer, of Alabama, and was fourteen years of age when his parents moved with their family of children to Arkansas. George W. Saw- yer was the son of B. F. Sawyer, a farmer and millwright of South Carolina. Rev. Sawyer served through the late war, part of the time running a mill with which he ground grain for the families of soldiers free of toll. In 1869 he began preaching, as a Missionary Baptist minister, and continued in that service for many years before he died. He came to Texas in 1877, locating on a farm in Tarrant county and taking charge of three churches. In 1865 his wife died, in Arkansas, and he afterward mar- ried again, and his second wife also is now deceased. .
Mr. Sawyer, whose name heads this sketch, married Miss Emma Mckinley, who was born November 3, 1856, a daughter of
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H. H. Mckinley, of Alabama, a farmer of Irish ancestry who came to Texas in 1876, locating in this county. Mr. Sawyer has five children, all sons, viz .: Jesse, Alonzo, Elma, De Witt and Benjamin. Mr. Saw- yer has all his life been interested in public affairs, sympathizing with the principles of the Democratic party, and is an honorable, self-made, enterprising man. In her relig- ious connections Mrs. Sawyer is a member of the Baptist Church.
0 R. W. A. DURRINGER came to Fort Worth in 1885, and has since been identified with the practice of his profession in this city, now being in part- · nership with Dr. Burts and Dr. Field. As one of the leading physicians and represent- ative citizens of the place, it is appropriate that some personal mention be made of him on the pages of this work.
Dr. Durringer was born in Pinckneyville, Perry county, Illinois, October 29, 1861, and when fourteen years of age came to Texas and located in Dallas. From there he removed to Tarrant county in 1876, and took up his abode on a farm on Deer creek, in the southern part of the county. His early education was obtained in the district school. In 1880 he went to New Orleans and entered Tulane University, where he graduated in due time. He was elected, after competitive examination, interne of the New Orleans Charity Hospital, hold- ing that position until 1885. He then de-
voted his whole attention to the study of medicine, making a specialty of surgery, and after he had prepared himself for this profes- sion, entered upon its practice in Fort Worth in 1885, as above stated. In the fall of 1888 he went to Berlin, Germany, and took a post-graduate course in both medicine and surgery, returning in Novem- ber, 1889. . Since that time he has usually spent a portion of each summer in the med- ical institutions of New York or other East- ern cities, reviewing and still further prepar- ing himself for his life work. Thus he keeps posted on the very latest and most approved methods of treatment. He is filling the chair of genito-urinary and rectal diseases in the medical department of Fort Worth Uni- versity at the present time. Dr. Durringer is a inember of a number of medical associ- ations, among them being the State Associ- ation of Texas, the Fort Worth Medical Club, and the American Medical Association. He was surgeon for the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company for seventeen years, when he resigned, and is at present surgeon of the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad Company, and is local surgeon for the Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas.
Referring to the ancestry of our subject, we find he is of German descent. His grandfather Durringer was born in Alsace- Lorraine, France. J. Durringer, the Doc- tor's father, is a native of New York. He left the East when a young man, going to St. Louis, Missouri, and a few years later engaging in mercantile pursuits in Illinois
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From there he came to Texas in 1875. The Doctor's mother was before her marriage Miss Sarah Ewing. Her father came to America when she was a child, and was an Illinois pioneer. J. Durringer and his wife reared a family of five children, namely: Frank, Robert E., W. A., J. and Emma Clyde.
Politically Dr. Durringer is a Democrat, and, fraternally he is identified with the following organizations: Royal Arch Masons, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor and Elks.
ICHAEL DILLON, of the Fort Worth Transfer Company, was born September 29, 1844, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he remained until 1866, receiving his education, and then joined a party to cross the Western plains. They went by way of Nebraska City and Denver to Salt Lake City, and came on from the latter place to the head- waters of the Missouri river in Montana, where they found a party of six to fifteen en- gaged in prospecting for mineral. Mr. Dil- len reached Ogden in 1869, on his return trip, and, the Central Pacific Railroad being ready for operation, he engaged with the company to run a train, with headquarters at Ogden. He remained with the company till 1873, when he came to Texas and secur- ed employment on the International & Great Northern road, running a passenger train between Houston and Longview. In 1874
he ran a passanger train between Houston and Galveston, on the Galveston, Houston & Harrisburg Railroad. In 1880 he went to work on the Gulf, Colorada & Santa Fe road, running a passenger train and follow- ing the advancing construction of the road through to Fort Worth. In 1886 he retired from railroad service and purchased the business of the Fort Worth Transfer Com- pany, in partnership with B. K. Coffman, the latter afterward being succeeded by Mr. Murphy. Mr. Dillon finds himself at home in this business, well understanding how to make it a success.
The subject of this sketch is the son of John Dillon, a native of Ireland who emi- grated to Milwaukee, where he became a prominent grading contractor. He died in 1889, aged seventy-seven years. He was a successful, upright business man. For his wife he married, in 1841, Mary Holland. Mr. Michael Dillon is the fourth of eleven children in the family. In January, 1883, in Houston, Texas, he married Sabina Hyll- iard, and they have one child, Mary, who was born in 1885.
3 UDGE HERSCHEL T. SMITH, Judge of the City Court of Fort Worth, was born in Richmond, Vir- ginia, January 17, 1869. His primary and in- termediate education was secured in the capital of the Old Dominion, and at eighteen years of age he came to Fort Worth, an en- tire stranger, and became a student in the
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Fort Worth University. After spending two years in that institution he withdrew in or- der to enter the law office of John D). Tem- pleton, ex-Attorney General of Texas, and a leading advocate at the Texas bar, and after eighteen months of study there he was ad- mitted to practice before Judge R. E. Beck- ham. Judge Smith associated himself in office with Newton H. Lassiter, general attorney for the Rock Island Railroad Company and attorney for the Cotton Belt and the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad Com- panies.
His first case at law after his admission to the bar in 1889 involved the possession of a horse, was tried before Justice Reynolds, and won by Mr. Smith. Our subject was appointed assistant attorney for the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad Company, and terminated his connectition with it just before entering on his duties as City Judge. Of foreign corporations he rep- resents B. F. Avery & Sons, of Louis- ville, Kentucky; N. M. Ure & Company, of the same place, wholesale distillers; the Walter A. Wood Harvester Company, of Chicago, and George W. Stieff, a dealer in pianos in New Orleans and Houston.
He was elected City Judge in 1892, by the City Council. He was not a candidate for the office, and was lending his influence in support of a friend, when the honor was conferred upon himself. The City Court has jurisdiction over aggravated assaults. The city jurisdiction is concurrent with that of the county in cases of drunkenness, va-
grancy, assault, violation of the Sunday laws and like offences. Appeals from this court. go direct to the Court of Criminal Appeals. This is the only city court of record in Texas, and all jurý charges are required to be delivered in writing, and the pleading and practice in this court are the same as in the county and district courts.
Judge - Smith is president of the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Construction.Company, organized for the improvement of suburban property; capital, $50,000, paid up; and he also is a director in the City Loan & Improve- ment Company, a stockholder in the First National Bank of Granbury, and otherwise also is interested in Fort Worth's material progress.
Judge Smith is a son of Peter C. Smith, a broker and capitalist, born. in Gallatin, Tennessee, who went to Richmond, Vir- ginia, soon after the war closed, having been himself a Confederate soldier, in the infantry of the Department of Tennessee. In the course of his business transactions he ac- quired some interests in Texas. In 1884 he came to this State to look after them, and while here he died, and was buried in Fannin county. He married Miss Louisa Thomp- son, a daughter of Dr. H. C. Thompson, of Richmond, an old Confederate army sur- geon. Mrs. Smith also came to Texas in 1884, and died in Fannin county, in July of that year, aged thirty-four years, being ten years younger than her husband. Their children were: the subject of this sketch; W. V., of the printing company of Smith
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& Brown, Fort Worth; J. C., of Paris, Texas; and F. H., of Wichita, Kansas.
Judge Smith was married in Fulton, Kentucky, April 25, 1894, to Miss Agnes Paschall, a daughter of Dr. N. J. Paschall, having met with her two years before, at the residence of W. J. Boaz, in Fort Worth. The Judge is a member of the K. of P. and of the Commercial Club of Fort Worth.
a HARLES H. LILLEY, of the firm of Lilley & Bibb, dealers in coal and grain, Fort Worth, Texas, is one of the enterprising young business men of the city. A sketch of his life and ances- try is as follows :
Charles H. Lilley was born in Lake county, Ohio, November 12, 1856, and was reared to farm life, receiving a fair education in the country schools of that county. Peter Lilley, his father, is also a native of Ohio, grandfather Jacob Lilley having emi- grated to the Western Reserve when it was a wilderness and made settlement in Geauga county, the famous maple-sugar pro- ducing county in the United States. It was there, in 1832, that Peter Lilley was born. In his early manhood he engaged in peddling throughout northern Ohio for prominent firms of Cleveland, a business which was popular then and quite paying. The last years of his life have been spent in farming. During the last year of the civil war he served in the Union army, under General
Rosecrans. In his father's family were twelve children, ten of whom are living, viz: John, Daniel, Jacob, George, Peter, Mary, wife of William Palmer; Margaret, wife of James Covert; Claire, wife of William Greenestreet; Orria, wife of Joseph Philpot; and Sarah, wife of David Orvald. Peter Lilley and his wife have had children as fol- lows : Charles H .; Edward, a resident of Oregon; Edith, deceased; Clifton, deceased; Margaret, wife of Frank Roper; Maynard, deceased; Mabel, wife of Clayton Baldwin; and Clifford and Eugene.
Tradition tells of the Lilley family being originally French, going into Germany by banishment, and finally reaching Pennsyl- vania, by way of New England. The family were prominent in the Christian Church in the Western Reserve, and our subject was . a pupil in the Sunday-school presided over by the lamented General Garfield in the old church at Willoughby. Many times has he listened to the word of God as read and in- terpreted by that earnest Christian states- man.
Charles H. remained at home until he was nineteen years of age. Then, with $2. 10 in his pocket, and in company with a neighbor boy, he started South. They had heard much of the agricultural resources of Georgia, and accordingly directed their course to that State, and in Lowndes county they rented thirteen acres of George McRay. This land they planted to watermelons and cucumbers and realized a net profit of $303. Not liking that country, however, they re-
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mained only one season, and came from there to Texas, each with a capital of $150. At Fort Worth they formed the acquain- tance of Joseph A. Ashford, a Christian gentleman who took an interest in them, and whose farm they agreed to cultivate for one half the product. They put out two crops of wheat, each crop being destroyed by the rust, and thus at the end of two years they were again at "rock bottom." Mr. Ashford then sold his farm and bought a mill, or an interest in one, in which he furn- ished the boys employment. After a time, when work became scarce, Mr. Lilley's com- panion, George J. Stover, went to San An- tonia and joined the Regular Army, and he himself went further West and spent six months on a cattle range. In the winter he returned to Fort Worth and secured work again in the mill, continuing with Mr. Ash- ford until the failure of the firm. After that he was in the employ of William Brown. His next employers were Hunt & Beck, fol- lowed by Mr. Hunt on Mr. Beck's retire- ment. Later Mr. Hunt failed and Mr. Lil- ley went to work for the Fort Worth Ice Company, for which Mr. Bibb was book- keeper. For five years Mr. Lilley and Mr. Bibb continued with this company, all the time carefully saving their earnings, and at the end of five years established themselves in their present business. Both being ener- getic and enterprising, and men of experience and ability, they have been prosperous in their undertakings, and their firm is consid- ered one of the substantial ones of the city.
Mr. Lilley was married in Tarrant coun- ty, Texas, May 24, 1885, to Mrs. Susan Richardson, formerly of Jefferson county, Missouri, and a relative of the famous Early family. Their only child is Henry C.
Mr. Lilley is one of the stanch Republi- cans of Tarrant county and manifests his in- terest in party matters by attendance at the conventions, frequently serving as delegate. His people before him, including his father, voted the Democratic ticket. The latter, however, has been identified with the Re- publican party since 1882.
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