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 48
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 48
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July 1, 1867, at the age of twelve years, F. G. Bean, our subject, became a resident of Falls county, Texas. He was then the main support of his mother. A three months' term of school in Texas concluded his preparation for a business career. His first employer was Dr. Killebrew, of Marlin, with whom he remained five years, and dur- ing that time succeeded in becoming a prac- tical pharmacist. He also accumulated suffi- cient means during those years of faithful service to engage in business for himself, and conducted a stationery store in Marlin two years. Mr. Bean then returned to Dr. Kill -- ebrew, and after serving as clerk for a time, a partnership was formed, under the firm name of Bean & Company. In 1880 he went to Waco, as bookkeeper for the whole- sale house of Lessing, Solomon & Company; from January, 1881, to 1884 was cashier of the Falls County Bank, resigning that posi- tion on account of poor health; was elected Secretary and Treasurer of the Marlin Lum- ber Company, of which he was a stockholder, and resigned that position in August, 1889, having held the position five years. In February, following, Mr. Bean was ushered into the service of William Cameron & Com- pany, as manager of their yard at Lott, Falls county, Texas. In October, of the. . same year, he was transferred to the Weath- erford yard.
July 5, 1877, in Falls county, Mr. Bean was united in marriage with Miss Dixie Shelton, a native of Courtland, Mississippi, and a sister of County Judge and ex-Mayor
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William Shelton, of Marlin. To this union have been born six children, -Mary, Fred- die, Gilbert, Delia (deceased), Willie (de- ceased), and Lewis. In his social relations Mr. Bean affiliates with the K. of H. and A. O. U. W.
A. RENTZ, the leading ginner and miller of Parker county, was born in Houston county, Georgia, June 6, 1850. His father, J. A. Rentz, Sr., was a farmer by occupation, and reared his sons to a like pursuit. He was a native of South Carolina, but moved to Georgia in early life. He was there married to a Miss Moore, and they had seven children, six now living, namely: George, a McLennan county farmer; Thomas H., a resident of Georgia; C. E., engaged in the dairy business in Fort Worth; J. A., our subject; J. H., a physician of Ferris, Texas; and S. M., a resident of Fort Worth. Mr. Rentz, Sr., departed this life in 1881.
J. A. Rentz, the subject of this sketch, came from Polk county, Georgia, to Texas, in 1866, and remained for a time in McLennan county. At the age of twenty years he be- gan work for himself, following the business of his father, farming. In January, 1872, he came to Parker county, settling three miles east of Weatherford, but in the fol- lowing year went to Clay county, and in 1875 returned to this county. One year later Mr. Rentz erected a small horse gin, in which he made money each year until 1881,
and then engaged in the same occupation in Weatherford for a Mr. Rainboldt. In 1877 he bought the gin of J. T. Blair, a one-stand, but enlarged it the second year to double its capacity, in 1885 added another stand, and still another change was made in 1888, when he put in a new engine. In 1890 the entire plant was lost by fire, but was soon rebuilt, and furnished with four stands. Four more stands were added to the plant in 1893. The capacity of the gin is now from sixty to seventy bales daily. A mill has also been added to the concern.
In January, 1874, Mr. Rentz was united in marriage with Lutitia Varner, a daugh- ter of C. Varner, who came from Ala- bama to Texas in an early day, locating in McLennan county. Mrs. Rentz died in 1881, leaving three children,-Joseph, James and John. In 1882 our subject married Emma, a daughter of Dr. E. L. King, of Harrison county, Texas. They have three children, - Harold, Emma and Dora. In his social re- lations Mr. Rentz has passed the chairs in the K. of H., and also affiliates with the K. of P. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
J OHN F. HENDERSON, one of Fort Worth's leading citizens, was born in Clinton, Tennessee, January 10, 1859, the eldest of eight children born to William and Martha Henderson, natives of Virginia. They moved to Texas in 1876, locating at Grape Vine. Tarrant county. John was an invalid for many years, and
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therefore did not receive the school ad- vantages he desired, having attended only the high-school at Grape Vine. He began work for himself as clerk in a general mer- cantile store in that city, was afterward engaged in drilling wells for a time, and then found employment with the South- western Telegraph & Telephone Company at Fort Worth. Owing to his aptness to study and strict attention to business, Mr. Henderson was soon appointed manager of the company. He has made many wonder- ful discoveries in electricity, is one of the leading young men of his community, and is respected by all who know him.
S. MARSHALL, president of the Panhandle Machinery and Im- provement Company, of Fort Worth, is a progressive man of affairs, los- ing no opportunity of rendering assistance to the development of the city and county.
He was born in Nashua, New Hamp- shire, September 20, 1843, a son of Thomas Marshall, whose birth occurred in Newbury, that State, and was engaged in the manu- facture of cotton goods at Nashua until 1854, when he moved to Sauk county, Wis- consin, where he died, in March, 1869, aged fifty-one years. He married Emeline Pitkin, a daughter of Owen Pitkin, of Mont- gomery, Vermont. His first American an- cestor was one of the pioneers of Hartford, Connecticut, and related to the historic Winthrop family by marriage. Young
Winthrop, selecting his wife by lot, wedded a Miss Pitkin. She was about to return to England, in 1630, when she was induced to remain and become the wife of that young colonist. Among their descendants were soldiers in the Continental army, participat- ing in the battle of Bunker Hill, etc. Thomas Marshall was the father of the following children : W. S., subject of this biographical outline; T. H., now in Wis- consin; and R. D., Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of Wisconsin and a promi- nent Republican, elected twice in a Demo- cratic district of about 3, 800 majority.
Mr. Marshall, whose name heads this sketch, was reared to farm life till he was twenty-one years of age, when he entered the machine shop at Delton, Sauk county, Wisconsin, and in three years learned the machinists' trade. He then married and moved to Rushford, Minnesota, where he assumed charge of the shop and foundry of the E. G. Chase Manufacturing Company, remaining with them three years. Next for a time he had the agency of the United States Wind Engine and Pump Company for the State of Minnesota; then he was traveling agent for the same in Illinois, hav- ing his headquarters at Batavia, that State, meanwhile having charge of their exhibit at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. He served this company till 1880, when he took charge of the hydraulic de- partment of Fairbanks, Morse & Company's business, and during this time planned and . :
erected the water supply plants of the West
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Shore & Buffalo, Chicago & Atlantic, Nickel Plate and other railroads.
In January, 1886, he came to Texas, where he at first had charge of the work of putting in the water supply for the Capital Syndicate ranch in the Panhandle of Texas. He drilled the test well for the city of Fort Worth, 3,550 feet, in 1889, and, under contract, drilled twelve wells 1,000 feet, which now furnish a part of the city water supply. His profession is hydraulic engin- eering; was educated mainly in a Baptist academy at Delton, Wisconsin.
In 1888 he organized the Panhandle' Machinery and Improvement Company, and now carries a stock of steam furnishings and hydraulic pumps and appliances, running a branch house at Colorado City, Texas. Also he organized the Texas Salt Company, of Colorado City, and is its president and manager. He is a frequent contributor to agricultural journals.
For his first wife Mr. Marshall married Immogene Chase, daughter of E. G. Chase, of Wisconsin, but originally from Vermont. She died in 1884, leaving one child, Gerry, named in honor of Elbridge Gerry, Gover- nor of Massachusetts early in this century. The son is now an agent for a Chicago house dealing in pumps. In 1885 Mr. Marshall married Ida F. Huyler, of Roches- ter, Minnesota, now the secretary of the Panhandle Machinery and Improvement Company.
Mr. Marshall is a member of the Masonic order and of the B. P. O. E.
J UDGE EDWIN B. RANDLE, of Fort Worth, Justice of the Peace and attorney, was born at Lexington, in Lee county, Texas, January 10, 1856.
His father, Captain John A. Randle, was a pioneer of that county and conducted the first store in Lexington. He was born near Shipman, Illinois, in 1832, came to Texas in 1851, and stopped first at Austin, where he was employed by the month, assisting in getting out material for the first capitol building. He married, and in 1854 went to Burleson county, now Lee county, where he remained until 1860, when he moved to Brenham, Washington county. He imme- diately enlisted in the Confederate army, joining the Twentieth Texas Infantry. He was made Quartermaster for a regiment of State troops, with the rank of Captain, and he served through the war.
Soon after his return home, in 1865, he was elected County Clerk of Washington county. He erected some of the first sub- stantial buildings of Brenham, and was a resident there, progressive and prosperous, until 1885, when he came to Fort Worth. He is now retired, with a comfortable life competency.
Captain Randle's father, John H. Ran- dle, and the grandfather of our subject, was a native of Georgia and emigrated in 1812 to Illinois, but was married in Kentucky, to Sarah Arnold, a daughter of A. S. and Eliza Arnold. In early life he was a school- teacher, and was employed in the Illinois Land Office when the capital of that State
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was at Vandalia. His children were: Lovisa, who married George Hargrove, now a resident of Pana, Illinois; E. G., at Ship- man, same State; Lucy, who became the wife of Thomas Hansbrough and went to California in 1852; Samuel A., who is now in Oregon; and Charles A., a resident of Portland, Oregon. Captain John A. Randle married Miss Sallie, a daughter of Major W. W. Buster, one of the first settlers of Wash- ington county. Major Buster came to Texas, landing at Velasco, then the princi- pal seaport of the State. Judge Randle of this sketch, and Mrs. T. J. Pampill, of Brenham, are the only children of Captain Randle.
Judge Randle was educated at Brenham, Texas, and Bonham, same State, and in Franklin College, near Nashville, Tennessee, taking special work under Prof. Rote, after- ward in Brenham, Texas, and when so en- gaged in study he chose his profession. He spent three years on a farm in McLennan county, between the commencement of his · law studies and his. admission to the bar. He pursued his preliminary studies under the preceptorship of Seth Shepard and C. C. Garrett, and was admitted to the bar before Judge I. B. McFarland at Brenham, Texas. He opened an office at Brenham and practiced until coming to Fort Worth in 1888. His first case was before a justice's court at Independence, Washington county, levying for rent on two bales of cotton by distress warrant.
. He came to Fort Worth a stranger, and
opened an office on Main street, and waited long and anxiously for business, and was on the point of leaving for a new field, when a bundle of papers were thrown upon his desk by Mr. Tatum, of Cameron & Tatum, which proved to be a list of collections. From that time on his success was assured. In the fall of 1892 he was elected Justice of the Peace by a majority of 2,459, but he is not a candidate for re-election, and will re- sume the practice of law upon the termina- tion of his term of office.
In February, 1892, he was married to Mary Susie Gambrell, a native of Fort Worth, and daughter of John Gambrell, de- ceased, and they have one child, who is named John Gambrell Randle, now aged eighteen months.
Judge Randle is Chancellor Commander of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, and a sin- cere and exemplary member of the Chris- tian Church, and is a member of the State Bar Association.
J W. O'GWIN, the leading contractor and builder of Weatherford, was born in Waverly, Tennessee, March 6, 1856, a son of David O'Gwin, also a mechanic. . His death occurred in 1873, at the age of forty-eight years. J. W., the fourth of nine children, six now living, gained a fair knowledge of the common branches in the village school, and learned his trade under his brother-in-law, J. M. . Martin. Mr. O'Gwin came to Texas in
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1879, and for the following three years was engaged in farming in Collin and Ellis counties. Being unsuccessful in that ven- ture, he returned to the carpenter's bench at Abilene. In 1883 Mr. O'Gwin removed to Mckinney, this State, where he spent seven years at his trade, and during that time erected many of the costly and artistic resi- dences of the city. Since 1890 he has been a resident of Weatherford, and among the many structures erected by him are the resi- dences of Doctor and Professor Simm, Colonel Lanham, Major Penn, B. M. Por- ter, W. D. Taylor, H. B. Dorsey and John B. Gill, the Highland park addition and Chautauqua park pavilion, the cotton-seed oil mill and the Christian Church.
Mr. O'Gwin was married in Ellis coun- ty, Texas, October 20, 1878, to Laura E. Graves, a daughter of W. B. Graves, of Jack county, this State. Her death oc- curred in 1882, leaving one son, Edgar. She was buried in Ellis county. Mr. O'Gwin was again married, at Mckinney, October 20, 1883, to Amanda, a daughter of J. S. M. Brock, a farmer of Collin coun- ty. Mr. O'Gwin is a member of the Uni- form and Endowment Rank, Knights of Pythias, and of the Pythian Sisters. He is a member of the Christian Church.
ONTAINE E. ALBRIGHT, one of . the well-known members of the bar of Fort Worth, Texas, is a native of Simpson county, Kentucky, where he
was born December 18, 1845. His father was the Rev. Isaac N. Albright, who was a native of Sumner county, middle Tennessee, whence he removed to Simpson county, Kentucky. From Kentucky he removed to Illinois, when the subject of this sketch was two and a half years old. He married Judia A. Durham, a native of Tennessee; both are deceased. Rev. Albright was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving as such until death closed his labors.
Judge Albright attended McKendree (Illinois) College, then read law and was ad- mitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of Illinois, in May, 1868. On the second day of the following June he was elected State's Attorney for the Cairo (Illinois) district. At the end of his term as State's Attorney he removed to Murphysboro, Illi- nois, and formed a partnership in law with Senator Blanchard (a brother-in-law of General John A. Logan), and, the death of Senator Blanchard occurring soon afterward, all the business of the firm was thrown upon Judge Albright's shoulders. From 1875 to 1878 he served in the Illinois Legislature, representing the Fifty-first Senatorial dis- trict. In 1884 he was the Democratic standard-bearer for Congress in the Twen- tieth Congressional district of Illinois, lead- ing a forlorn hope, but making a gallant, aggressive fight, reducing the Republican majority from 3,000 to 1, 100 votes. The Judge was very active both in politics and in the practice of his profession. Up to the time he left Illinois he had probably
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tried and won more cases than any lawyer of his age in the State. President Cleve- land, during his first administration, appoint- ed Judge Albright Chief Justice of Dakota, it being then a Territory. The duties of this of- fice he discharged until compelled to resign the same on account of the severe climate, and he came to San Antonio, Texas. His health having been impaired by his legal and po- litical work while in Illinois, Judge Albright did not at once locate, but from 1887 until 1889 traveled over southern Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. It was in October, 1889, that he came to Fort Worth and per- manently located, and again entered into practice. Here he has since remained, tak- ing rank with the leading members of the bar, and establishing both a legal and social reputation. His sunny, genial temperament, warmheartedness and solid worth, both as a man and a lawyer, have won for the Judge a large circle of warm friends and admirers.
In September, 1893, Judge Albright was married to Mrs. Eva Wims, a most estima- ble lady of Fort Worth.
HOMAS WITTEN, the well-known liveryman and undertaker, of Fort Worth, has been a leading spirit in this city for more than a score of years, ar- riving here in September, 1873. For the first two or three years here he was engaged in the retail liquor business. 1878-9 he spent a season in England, his old home. Returning in 1879, he opened a frame stable
on West Weatherford street. In 1882-3 he was on the lot now occupied by the jail. During the latter year he sold out to Fogg & Blacker, aided in the formation of a new company and purchased R. S. Turner's transfer line; but he soon sold his interest in this enterprise also, to David Godwin, bought his old stock and moved to the cor- nor of Third and Throckmorton streets, where he remained until 1890. Then he sold out of business, except such as his farm offered, until February, 1893, when he opened a large barn at the corner of Seventh and Rusk streets, with stock entirely new, and employed a force of eight men. He is also a partner in the firm of Robertson & Witten, undertakers.
Mr. Witten's early history is a checkered one. Born in Devonshire, England, July 6, 1835, he was reared to agricultural pursuits. In 1854 he came to the United States, locating near Peoria, Illinois, where he was employed as a farm hand, at $12.50 a month. The next year he began work for the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad Company as fireman, soon becoming an engineer, and ran a construction train on the Burlington, Fairfield & Council Bluffs Railroad. Next he went to St. Louis and was a fireman on the steamer William M. Morrison, on the Mississippi river; on the second trip he was made engineer. He ran on this boat until 1861, when he went to the Yazoo river, in the State of Mississippi and was engineer of the steamer Hope, from Vicksburg to Yazoo City.
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Next he joined the Confederate army, enlisting in Company B, Colonel Starks' Twenty-eighth Mississippi Regiment, raised at Carrollton by Pink Scales. The regiment was first on the Mississippi river for about a year, and was then ordered to Tennessee, but soon back to Jackson, Mississippi, just before the surrender of Vicksburg. Mr Witten also saw some service in Georgia and other sections of the Southeastern States. At length he was forced by sickness to retire from the army and was not able to return to it before the war closed.
By the war he was left penniless and with a heavy attack of the "blues." He resumed employment upon a small tug be- longing to Dent & Ross. (This was the Dent who was a brother-in-law of General Grant.) He bought out Dent's interest in the vessel, and ran it on the Big Black river, carrying cotton to market, and making money rapidly, and afterward he followed the same business on the Yazoo river. Next he purchased the steamer Mertie, which vessel he employed in the regular trade until 1868; but it was finally sunk in the Yazoo river, which accident "swamped" Mr. Wit- ten again. Then he ran a sawmill and part of a plantation belonging to W. H. Foote for a year, clearing $11,000, which was so profitable that the plantation could not again be rented. Rheumatism then attacked Mr. Witten, and he went North to Illinois and Missouri, being two years in Kansas City. For a few months he conducted the Independence House at Independence, Kan-
sas, and from that point he came to Texas; the year 1872 he spent at Dallas.
Mr. Witten is the son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth · (Miller) Witten. In October, 1865, in Vicksburg, he married Miss Normie Bonnor, and they have one child, Thomas Crawford by name, now aged fourteen years. Mr. Witten is a member of the I. O. O. F.
The foregoing is but a brief outline of a long and checkered career, which, if given more at length, would be still more impres- sive of important practical truths concern- ing mental capacity, perseverance, courage, integrity, and other virtues which have so signally characterized the subject of this sketch.
EONARD H. ATWELL, dealer in galvanized iron and tin on North Rusk and Weatherford streets, Fort Worth, came to this city in July, 1881, from Maury county, Tennessee.
He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 23, 1840. His father, Samuel At- well, was an architect and builder in Ken- tucky's metropolis, and the son placed him- self with James Bridgford & Company, manu- facturers, to learn his trade, on the comple- tion of which he would be well equipped for life's battles; but, instead of establishing himself at once in some good location, his sympathy for the South led him into the Confederate service. He joined the Ninth Kentucky Infantry, commanded by Colonel Thomas H. Hunt, and was mustered in at Memphis. His regiment was attached to
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Breckenridge's Brigade, Army of the Ten- nessee, commanded by Albert Sidney Johns- ton. He participated in the historic battle of Shiloh and many other fierce engage- ments, -in short, in all the battles partici- pated in by the Army of Tennessee except- ing the Kentucky campaign, at which titne his regiment was in Louisiana, where it took part in the battle of Baton Rouge, in which Mr. Atwell was wounded. He was carried to the house of a planter, where he was well kept and treated until able to re- join his command, which was then at Jack- son, Mississippi. The regiment proceeded to Knoxville, Tennessee, and was ordered to join Bragg, but within two days it was re- called and sent to Murfreesboro, from which point it made a raid on Hartsville, Tennes- see, in conjunction with Morgan's men, captured some Federals, returned and re- mained in Murfreesboro until after the bat- tle of Murfreesboro when it was compelled to evacuate the city. The army then fell back to Manchester and went into winter quarters. In the spring of 1863 it was ordered to Vicksburg to reinforce General Johnston. It fought in the battle of Jack- son, and when Grant captured Pemberton it returned to Tennessee and participated in the famous engagements of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta cam- paign. He with a portion of the regiment was captured at Jonesboro, Georgia, by Sherman's army, taken to Nashville and placed in prison for two hours, then taken to Rough and Ready station, Georgia, and
exchanged. Following his exchange he participated in the campaigns of Sherman's march to the sea, and was in South Carolina at the time of Lee's surrender; with his regiment he was surrendered and paroled at Washington.
Mr. Atwell walked from Atlanta to Dalton, whence he had transportation to Louisville, where he. resumed his trade. In 1867 he went to Columbia, Tennessee, where he was engaged in business for fifteen years, when he came to Fort Worth.
Samuel Atwell, his father, was born in Virginia, and was killed in the Mexican war. He married Harriet Adams, whose father, Leonard Adams, was a clerk for years in the Patent Office at Washington. L. H. is the youngest of six children, only one other of whom is living, namely, Mrs. R. E. Millet, of Hickman, Kentucky. The others were John E .; Julia A., wife of George A. Scott, of Paducah, Kentucky; and Valeria, wife of William Reese.
Mr. L. A. Atwell was married in Louis- ville, December 18, 1866, to Miss Celia G. Bryant, a daughter of Butler Bryant, and they have eight children, viz .: Edith E., wife of Samuel H. Taylor, of Fort Worth; Florence O., who married O. G. Reily, at- torney at Fort Worth; Ashley W .; S. B .; L. H., Jr .; Mary Selsby; Celia A .; and Bertie J.
Mr. Atwell is a Royal Arch Mason, Knight Templar and a Knight of Honor, and in religion a member of the Cumberland . . Presbyterian Church.
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ILLIAM BRYCE, a leading con- tractor and builder of mason-work in Fort Worth, has indelibly im- pressed his genius as an artisan, and his in- dividuality as a man upon the Queen City during the past ten years, in which time he has erected many of her most beautiful and substantial structures. His first work was the erection of Pendery's store on Main street. Among his other numerous con- tracts are: Cameron & Tatum's mill and elevator; Texas Brewing Company's plant; the Hendricks block; Casey & Swasey's building on Jones street; Gazette office; the Maddox building; Richelieu Hotel; Fort Worth Light and Power Company's works; the G. Y. Smith building for E. E. Powell and Hyde Jennings; Huffman's three-story building at the corner of Main and Sixth streets; Waples-Platter Grocery Company's store, and brick work on the residences of Winfield Scott and Mr. Moore. He has also erected numerous residences on Arling- ton Heights.
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