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 51
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 51
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A. EULESS .- Among the leading representative citizens of Tarrant county few are more widely known or more prominent than E. A. Euless, the popular and efficient Sheriff of this county. Mr. Euless was born in Bedford county,
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Tennessee, on the 26th day of September, 1848; his father, Martin Euless, was also born in that county, in October, 1818; and his grandfather, Adam Euless, was a native of Tennessee. So it will be seen that the Euless family was one of the pioneers of that State. Martin Euless married Cas- ander A. Bobo, a daughter of Elisha Bobo, who was a native of South Carolina and was a Tennessee pioneer.
Sheriff Euless received a moderate school education by attending the schools of his neighborhood. Upon reaching his majority he decided to come to the Southwest, and he was soon thereafter a citizen of Tarrant county, where he has since resided. He first located at Grapevine, but a short time afterward made a permanent location at a point a few miles distant from Grapevine, naming his place "Euless." Here he en- gaged in farming and running a cotton gin, at which he continued uninterruptedly and successfully until 1892.
Politically Mr. Euless has been a Demo- crat ever since his twenty-first birthday, and has held his shoulder to the wheel of De- mocracy from year to year, never faltering, always with enthusiasm and determina- tion. His first vote for President of the United States was cast in 1872 for Hor- ace Greeley. His first public office was that of Constable of Precinct No. 3, of Tar- rant county, to which he was elected in 1876. In 1880 he was an unsuccessful can- didate for the nomination for Sheriff, but his defeat did not dampen his enthusiasm cr
deter him from working for the election of his successful opponent. In 1892 he again became a candidate for the nomination for Sheriff, and this time was successful, de- feating three strong competitors. His elec- tion followed by a handsome majority of 934. So satisfactory was his administration of the affairs of the chief peace office of the county, and so well did he demonstrate his peculiar fitness and ability for the position, that in 1894 he was renominated by his party with practically no opposition, and elected by the majority of 800, after one of the hardest-fought campaigns in the history of the county. In the discharge of his official duties Sheriff Euless has won the respect and esteem of the public in general. His one aim has been to do his duty alike by friend and foe, and in so doing he has . won the friendship and well-wishes of the people of Tarrant county. Sheriff Euless' career in Texas has been both an honorable and successful one, and he has made his way up from the bottom by his own efforts and exertions. When he came to Texas liis possessions amounted to a draft for $200. This he sold for seventy-five cents on the dollar, and with this he began the struggle for life in this new country. How he has succeeded in acquiring a competency and in earning honor at the hands of his fellow- citizens, every one knows.
Mr. Euless is a member of Grapevine Lodge, No. 288, of Fort Worth Chapter and Fort Worth Commandery, No. 19, of the Masonic fraternity, and of Red Cross
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Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and of the A. H. of H.
Mr. Euless was married in Tarrant coun- ty, Texas, on July 6, 1870, to Miss Julia Trigg, the daughter of William Trigg, de- ceased, of Bedford county, Tennessee. Five children have been born to their union, as follows: Martin, Suma, Edgar and Cassie. Mr. and Mrs. Euless are members of the Presbyterian Church.
J BAXTER McLEAN, M. D .- One of the leading physicians of Fort Worth, Texas, was born near Law- renceburg, Tennessee, December 22, 1852, and is the son of Charles and Mary (Duncan) McLean. The father was born in Kentucky, in 1804, and at about the age of fourteen or fifteen emigrated to Tennessee, where he was engaged in farming. He was very prominent in the county of Lawrence, and for forty-two years continuously, except during the civil war, was an office-holder, serving in almost every office in the county, and one term in the Tennessee Legislature. His death occurred in Tennessee, in 1884. Mary Duncan, mother of our subject, was born in Tennessee, in 1809. She is still living, residing on the old homestead near Lawrenceburg, where she has lived for nearly seventy years. There were thirteen chil- dren born to the parents, eight of whom are still living. Dr. McLean was reared in Lawrence county, Tennessee, and attended the Savannah high school, and then spent
two terms in the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, graduating in the medical depart- ment of that institution in 1879. After graduating Dr. McLean located in Law- renceburg, where he practiced his profes- sion until 1885, and then removed to Fort Worth Texas, where he has since resided and practiced medicine, meeting with much success, and taking rank with the leading members of the profession in Tarrant coun- ty. He served as County Physician of Tar- rant county from 1886 to 1893, and as City Physician at Fort Worth during the year 1892.
Dr. McLean was president of the old Fort Worth and Tarrant County Medical and Surgical Association and is at present a mem- ber of the North Texas Medical Asso- ciation, and of the Fort Worth Medical Club. He is a member of the American Legion of Honor.
He was married in 1887, to Miss Hattie McLean, of Marshall county, Tennessee, daughter of Harvey McLean, . deceased. The issue of Dr. McLean and wife is one son, Charles Harry, aged four years.
Mrs. McLean is a member of the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church.
J R. ADAMS, M. D., one of the old- est members of the medical profes- sion of Fort Worth, Texas, was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, May 3, 1822, and was reared principally upon a farm. During a period of his youth he clerked in a
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dry-goods store in Lancaster, his native county. After deciding to become a phy- sician he attended a course of medical lectures at Transylvania University, Lexing- ington, Kentucky, in 1842-3, and continued his medical studies in 1845 in the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, at which school he graduated the following year. He began practicing his profession in June, 1846, at Stamping Ground, Scott county, Kentucky, at which point he remained twelve years. He then located upon a farm in the same county, known as the Blue Spring Farm, where R. M. Johnson taught the Indians for the Government. Here he practiced for ten years, and then located at Georgetown, Kentucky, where he remained until 1872 or 1873, and then went out to California, spending two years in that State, returning thence to Georgetown. He next took a course of lectures in the Louisville (Kentucky) Hospital College (1878-9), and in 1880 came to Texas, locating at Fort Worth, where he has since followed his profession, meeting with success, but he has now about retired from practice. He is a director in the Traders' National Bank of Fort Worth. The Doctor's father, Walter Adams, was a native of Maryland, born in 1780, and was a distant relative of Presi- dent John Q. Adams. His father was Luke Adams, who was also a native of Maryland, married a Miss Herndon and died in Mis- souri. His children were John, Elijah, Walter and a daughter who died in early life. Walter Adams married Judith Adams
(not a relative), who was the daughter of Rev. Fethergail Adams, a Baptist minister. The children of this union were Elizabeth, now the widow of William Lear, and living in Missouri; Fethergail, deceased, who was a farmer and trader of Garrard county, Ken- tucky; Luke, deceased, in Missouri; Walter, a farmer of Shelby county, Kentucky; Nancy, deceased, who married first Hiram Beasley and after his death Hugh Logan; Zerilda, who married Jacob Robinson, of Garrard county, Kentucky; John, deceased, a farmer of Owen county, Kentucky, died in 1893; Dr. Daniel S., of the above county; William, who died in Fort Worth; Mary, deceased, married David H. Arnold, of Jessamine county, Kentucky; and Dr. James R., our subject.
Dr. Adams was married in 1847, in Shelby county, Kentucky, to Elizabeth U., daughter of Frank C. Ford, a farmer and trader. Her death occurred July 4, 1867. The children by this union were Frank F., who is engaged in the stock business in Sedalia, Missouri; William, a resident of Johnson county, Texas; Mrs. Dr. H. F. Bryan, of Georgetown, Kentucky; and Judith Mc, who married "Nat" Lyon. In September, 1868, Dr. Adams married Mrs: Emma J. Stevenson, a cousin of his first wife.
EORGE P. LEVY, Mayor of Weatherford, was born at Nancy, France, December 17, 1850, ac- quired an excellent education, and became
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connected with a large mercantile establish- ment in Brussels, Belgium.
Two years afterward, in 1871, he emi- grated to America to accept a position as European buyer in the establishment of a firm of wholesale dealers in and importers of laces in New York city. He continued in this situation until 1877, when the commis- sion house through which he made purchases in Paris made him a liberal offer to become a member of their firm, and he accepted. After residing in Paris for three years in this relation he fell sick, and for two years was incapacitated for taking part in the manage- inent of the house. He retired from busi- ness until his health was partially restored, when he accepted a position in a large com- mission and banking establishment in New York city; but about a year afterward, in 1882, he came to Weatherford and engaged in the sheep business, which, however, proved a disastrous venture. But reverses with such men as George P. Levy only arouse their energies to recuperate and even excel their former efforts and successes. While in the sheep business he learned something about the grain trade, in which he then embarked and indeed excelled his former record as a successful business man, and he has become financially independent.
In 1889 he was elected president and general manager of the Franco-Texan Land Company, at which time that company owned about 400,000 acres of land in various tracts extending from Parker county to Mitchell county, but was involved, and its affairs were
in a chaotic condition. Out of this chaos Mr. Levy brought cosmos, and placed the company upon its feet; it is now in a fine condition.
From the time he established his home in this community Mr. Levy has been a leader in every movement inaugurated for the benefit of the town and county. Every good work has received his hearty support, and his charities have been unceasing. Even Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield never had a deeper sympathy for the sorrows and mis- fortunes of his fellow-men or sought more ardently to relieve them. Many who have felt the chill blasts of adversity and strug- gled on to the summer land of prosperity have reached it with cold and hardened hearts. Not so with Mr. Levy; his mind and heart are filled with deep tenderness for. humanity, and he is not a man to sit in judginent upon his fellows.
May 4, 1892, he was elected Mayor of Weatherford, and the event was followed by a rousing public demonstration that at- tested the high esteem entertained for him by his fellow citizens and their confidence in his ability; and his administration has amply justified the partiality of his friends in select- ing him for the office. The specialties of his platform as an executive officer of the city were the amelioration of the streets and the annexation of the "South Side," and he has well succeeded in both measures. The city has been remarkably free from crime of all kinds, and its financial condi- tion never better than during Mr. Levy's
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administration. In his official capacity he is for the strict enforcement of the laws of the land. When there is a choice between the maximum and minimum penalties, and leniency can be shown, he believes in ex- tending it to those whose want of education and early surroundings have made it diffi- cult for them to be other than what they are, and not to men who do wrong and rely upon wealth or social position to shield them from punishment.
While a strict, enterprising and inde- fatigable business man, Mr. Levy is a polished and elegant gentleman, and no man in the community has warmer friends.
H. WARD, Councilman from the first ward of Fort Worth, Texas, has spent ten years of his life in this city. He came here in 1884 from Deni- son, this State, where he had resided ten years. He was engaged in railroading, in the employ of the M. K. & T. Company all those years, running a passenger train both north and south from that point. Upon identifying himself with Fort Worth, he turned his attention to the restaurant and retail liquor business, in which he has since. been engaged, doing a prosperous business.
Mr. Ward was born in Galena, Illinois, October 8, 1853. His father, a contractor and builder, was born in county Mayo, Ire- land, and emigrated from his native land to the United States in 1849. He and his wife have children as follows: John L.,
who is in Idaho, superintending the mining interests of his brother W. H .; W. H. and Charles, both of Fort Worth, Texas; and Mrs. C. F. Cloyd, Chicago.
The subject of our sketch received a limited education in his native town, and when sixteen years of age began railroad- ing, first as brakeman of a freight train and later as conductor, running between Dubuque, Iowa, and Amboy, Illinois. He came to Texas in 1874, as before stated, and finished his railroad. career as an em- ploye of the M. K. & T. Company.
In his youth Mr. Ward identified him- self with the Democratic party, with which he has ever since affiliated. His friends in his ward have frequently named him as their representative in the City Council, in which position he has served most efficient- ly. His first election occurred in 1890, the second in 1892, and the third in 1894, he being the only one of the old Council re- turned in 1894. He is Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Alleys, acting Chairman of the Fire Committee, and a member of the Committee on Printing. His deepest interest, however, is in the street department; for, if he has a hobby, it is the improvement of streets, and probably no other councilman has ever done more to ad- vance the interests of the town in this way than has he. And he is also interested in other lines of improvement. He is Chair- man of the Public Building Committee, champions the cause of education at every opportunity, was a member of the commit-
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tee to receive the new City Hall and furnish it, and is now specially interested in secur- ing a sufficient water supply for Fort Worth.
Mr. Ward was married, in New Orleans, to Miss Emina Barrett, a native of New York City, and an orphan. They have no children.
Fraternally, Mr. Ward is a member of the K. of P.
E. TATE, the well-known citizen and popular grocer of Weather- ford, Texas, was born in Monroe county, east Tennessee, on the 24th day of December, 1849, and is the son of John Tate, a native of east Tennessee, born on the 29th day of February, 1796. The father was ordained a Presbyterian minister early in life, and did much ministerial work in both middle and east Tennessee. He re- moved to Texas in the fall of 1858, and in 1860 purchased a farm in the northeast cor- ner of Collin county, where his widow still resides. He continued his ministerial work in Collin, Grayson and adjoining counties until his death, on January 6, 1869. The Tate family are of Scotch-Irish descent. John Tate was thrice married. His first wife was a Miss McDonald, and by her he had three children, as follows: Margaret, Nancy and James, -all of whom are deceased. His second wife was a Miss Weir, and by her he had one son, George W., now deceased. His third marriage was to Miss Cynthia Hamilton, and to this union the following
children were born: Robert H., deceased; Samuel W., deceased; Mary E ; John H., deceased; Martha C., deceased; W. E .; Thomas C., deceased; and David B., -three of the eight children and the widow of the last marriage surviving.
W. E. Tate, our subject, began the grocery and livery business at. Graham, Young county, Texas, in 1878, at which he met with success. In 1880 he began the grocery business in Parker county, Texas, and there continued for two years. The following eighteen months he spent in Min- eral Wells. He was next engaged in the stock business in Mitchell county and Colo- rado City, Texas, until about 1884, when he met with serious business and financial reverses, losing all the' capital he possessed. He was then compelled to begin again, and accordingly secured a position as salesman in the store of A. F. Starr & Company of Weatherford, with which firm he remained for about five years. Following this he spent two years in the same capacity with Dan D Hartnett, grocer of Weatherford. In 1890, having accumulated sufficient capital to again embark in business, Mr. Tate opened a grocery store of his own in Weatherford, at which he has since continued, meeting with most gratifying success. He carries a stock of groceries amounting to about $5, 000, and his annual sales reach into the tens of thousands.
Mr. Tate was married in Kentucky Town, Grayson county, Texas, on Decem- ber 24, 1873, to Miss Cynthia Brown, who
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was born December 11, 1855. Her father, John Brown, came to Texas from Arkansas, and was a farmer by occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Tate have three children, viz. : Mary E., William E. and Annie Lizzie.
Mr. Tate is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Weatherford, and owns good residence property. Mr. Tate is a self-made man. He was given a good edu- cation, but since leaving school has made his own way in the world unaided, and has depended upon his own abilities and indus- try and energy.
LBERT F. STARR, one of the prominent merchants and citizens of Weatherford, Texas, was born in Carroll county, Virginia, on March 2, 1846. He is the son of Lewis and Levenia C. (Salling) Starr, both natives of Virginia, the former of Grayson county and the latter of Rockbridge county.
The grandfather of Mr. Starr was Jerry Starr, and he was the son of a Pennsylvania Quaker who emigrated to Virginia prior to the Revolutionary war. The great-grand- father of Mr. Starr on his mother's side is stated by history to have been the first white man to cross the Blue Ridge moun- tains from Pennsylvania into Virginia and settle on the James river near the Natural Bridge.
Lewis Starr was a farmer in Virginia. In 1858 he removed to Texas, settling in Hunt county, where he engaged in farming
and stock-raising. He was a well known and popular citizen, and represented Hunt county in the Texas Legislature in 1860-61. In 1862 he removed to castern Texas and engaged in the manufacture of leather and boots and shoes, filling large contracts for the Confederate government, though badly crippled financially by the result of the late war. His death occurred on January 3, 1892, in his seventy-first year. His wife died in Decatur, Wise county, Texas, on February 22, 1884, in her sixty-fifth year. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and he and wife were members of the Methodist Church. The children of Louis Starr and wife were as follows: Jeremiah Fielding and Henry Woodward (twins), both of whom were members of Company A, Thirty- second Regiment of Texas Dismounted Cavalry (formerly a part of Crump's battal- ion, of the Confederate army), and both of whom died in the service, the former in 1864 and the latter in the early part of 1861; A. F., our subject; Benjamin Wesley, who was a merchant of Sulphur Spgrins, Texas, and died in 1887; Tillman J., now of Fannin county, Texas; Louis F., of Weatherford; and Wilburn Cook, who died in Weatherford in 1888.
Mr. Starr, our subject, received a limited education by attending school in Virginia and for a brief period after coming to Texas, the late war interfering with his further at- tendance at school. While a boy of seven- teen years of age he enlisted in the Confed- erate army, joining Company A, Thirty-
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second Regiment of Texas Dismounted Cavalry, to which his twin brothers also be- longed, and he saw service in Mississippi and Alabama, where he was in the com- mand of General Joe Johnston, and in Texas in Burnett's battalion of General Maxey's command. He served from 1863 until the final surrender in 1865.
After the war Mr. Starr joined his father, who had become very much involved by the failure of the Confederacy, for which he had manufactured supplies during almost the en- tire struggle, and assisted him in the tanning business, selling leather for him over a large area of the northern portion of Texas. He remained with his father until his marriage in 1868, when, in connection with his father, he embarked in the saddlery business, open- ing a store at Sulphur Springs, Texas. In 1876 he came to Weatherford and engaged in the grocery and saddlery business, and from this he drifted into the wholesale grocery business, in partnership with C. D. Hartnett, under the firm name of A. F. Starr & Company. He continued in this business until the latter part of 1889, build- ing up during that time an extensive trade and meeting with success. In 1886 he be- came largely interested in the First National Bank of Weatherford, and for three years was president of the same, disposing of his stock in that institution in 1889.
In 1889 he engaged in business in Fort Worth, he purchasing the wholesale grocery establishment of that well - known man, Joseph H. Brown, of this city; but, on ac-
count of poor health, and finding that the business would require a far greater tax upon his abilities, both mentally and physic- ally, than he considered prudent to give, he accordingly sold out the same, in 1890, and spent some time recuperating on the Gulf coast. For about nine months he was vice president of the Corpus Christi National Bank, of which he was one of the organ- izers. In 1891 he went to California and spent about a year in San Diego, where he was also engaged in the banking business as a director and member of the executive committee of the San Diego First National Bank. In 1892 he returned to Weather- ford, and in the first part of the following year he bought back an interest in the wholesale grocery business with C. D. Hart- nett & Company, and in 1894 the firm of Starr, Cameron & Company succeeded that of C. D. Hartnett & Company. For sev- eral years Mr. Starr has been president and a director of the Crystal Palace Flouring Mills Company. He is also a director of the First National Bank, and has various other interests in and around Weatherford and elsewhere.
He has always taken an active part in the affairs of the city, and has given his aid to all movements having for their object the development of the community. He was one of the committee having in charge the movement to secure a water and light plant for Weatherford, which movement resulted in the establishment of a plant for that pur- pose, and also for the manufacture of ice.
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He was a member of the School Board when the public-school system was intro- duced into Weatherford, and was a member of the Board during the erection of the best school building in the city.
Mr. Starr was married at Quitman, Texas, on March 4, 1868, to Miss Joycie A. Cook, who was born in Mississippi, the daughter of James A. Cook, deceased, who came to Texas at an early day. To Mr. and Mrs. Starr the following children have been born: J. Lewis, who is the represent- ative on the Pacific Coast and in New Mex- ico, with headquarters at San Francisco, of the A. H. Motley Tobacco Company, of North Carolina; Lillian L., who became the wife of L. E. Penn, and died April 12, 1894, and who was universally loved and mourned; F. W., bookkeeper for the Crys- tal Palace Flouring Mills Company; A. F., and Emma, the . latter being familiarly known as "Dollie."
a D. HARTNETT .- Among the well- known representative citizens of Weatherford, Texas, is Mr. C. D. Hartnett, vice president of the First Na- tional Bank, one of the leading financial houses of that city. He was born in county Limerick, Ireland, on the 13th day of Sep- tember, 1851, and is the son of Daniel T. and Honora (Donoghue) Hartnett, both na- tives of Ireland. Daniel Hartnett, the father, brought his family to the United States in 1863. He remained a few months
in New York city, and then came West to Illinois, where he spent four years, removing from that State to lowa, in which State he began his career as a railroad contractor on the extension of the Rock Island Railroad west from Grinnell. He began in a small way, but increased his operations from year to year until he became one among the larg- est railroad contractors in the country. His son, Tom D., was a partner with him, and succeeded to the business after his death, which occurred in Weatherford on the 15th day of July, 1891, in his sixty-fourth year. Eight children were born to the parents, as follows: Tom D .; Michael, a merchant of Graceville, Minnesota; C. D., our subject; Mrs. Charles Nolan, of Aukeny, Iowa; Sis- ter Augustine, of the Ursuline Convent of Dallas, Texas; Mrs. J. J. Hartnett, of . Weatherford, Texas; Dan, D .; and J. A., a Catholic priest, at present pastor at Ennis, Texas.
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