History of Texas, together with a biographical history of the cities of Houston and Galveston; containing a concise history of the state, with protraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named cities, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families, Part 43

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing co., 1895
Number of Pages: 1532

USA > Texas > Harris County > Houston > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of the cities of Houston and Galveston; containing a concise history of the state, with protraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named cities, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 43
USA > Texas > Galveston County > Galveston > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of the cities of Houston and Galveston; containing a concise history of the state, with protraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named cities, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 43

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Ellen M. Gibbs, of Galveston, for many years a resident of Texas, and a sister of Mrs. Thomas F. Mckinney, a pioneer mer- chant of Galveston. The issue of this union, one daughter, Carrie, died at the age of seven.

p ETER H. MOSER .- This pioneer - Texan was born at Manheim, Ger- many, April 23, 1817, being a son of John and Elizabeth Moser, of German nativity, born at Mains-on-the- Rhine. He came of a family distinguished for scholarship, his paternal uncle being a tutor to the great Schiller. Peter H. was the youngest of a large family of children and left home at the age of eighteen, com- ing in 1835 to America. He settled at Na- cogdoches, Texas, about 1836, where he worked at the carpenter's trade, building houses for the afterward well-known fırın of P. J. Willis & Brother until 1839, when he came to Galveston. Here he was for some years in the employ of William Aylott in the sash and blind business. He was not reg- ularly enlisted in the army during the late war, but performed guard duty in and around Galveston when the city was threat- ened by Federals, and lent his support to the Confederate cause all during the period of hostilities. After the war he embarked in real-estate operations, at which he made some money, and was so engaged up to the time of his death, August 25, 1883.

Mr. Moser was a volunteer in two or three Indian expeditions in Texas during the days of the Republic, and tendered his serv- ices for the defense of Galveston island when it was threatened by the Mexicans from 1846 to 1848. He was a charter mein- ber of the German Benevolent Association,

310

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

Justice of the Peace of Galveston county, and a member of the Board of Aldermen of the city of Galveston.

March 17, 1846, he married Elizabeth Showmacher, a daughter of Henry and Do- rathea Showmacher, who emigrated to Gal- veston June 19, 1845, from Mecklenburg, Germany, where Mrs. Moser was born. The issue of this marriage was twelve children, six of whom are living: Johanna H., John H., Elizabeth (Mrs. T. J. Kirk), Paula, Agnes (Mrs. J. B. Roemer) and Anna (Mrs. Fred Wimhurst), -all of whom reside in Galveston, as does also the widow, who is still living.

USTAV YOUNG .- The present year, 1894, marks the fiftieth an- niversary of the date of the arrival of the subject of this sketch on Galveston island. Could a faithful record of his observations and experiences during that time be written out, it would comprise a vast deal relating to the history of this section of the State, and particularly to the "Island City " and its local affairs. Mr. Young belongs to a generation now gone, very few of those with whom he began the race of life remaining. He, however, is still vigorous, both in mind and body, and it was a pleasant half hour which the writer of this article passed in his company, listen- ing to his recital of events during his long residence in Texas.

Mr. Young is a native of Germany, born in Nassau on the 6th of September, 1826. His parents were people in moderate cir- cumstances, and he early learned to depend on his own resources for a livelihood. He came to America at the age of eighteen, sailing direct from the port of Antwerp for

the port of Galveston, Republic of Texas, arriving here on December 30, 1844. He took up the butcher business soon after reaching Galveston, and followed it first as a helper and later on his own account, until the opening of the war. With the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South, he offered his services to the Confederate government, and was detailed to go into the cattle districts of the State and procure beef cattle to be forwarded to the troops at the front. Mr. Young's instructions not only authorized him to accept such contri- butions as generous sympathizers might see fit to make, but he had special instructions to "press good beef cattle" wherever neces- sary, giving in return properly executed papers, pledging the credit of the govern- ment to indemnify the owners against loss. Armed with such credentials and upon this mission he scoured all the coast country ad- jacent to Galveston, and helped to gather the means by which the troops of Texas were kept in the field. His experiences while engaged in this service were often- times of a very unpleasant nature, and he relates numerous incidents that befell him which show how much men sometimes over- estimate their patriotic impulses in the ab- sence of any actual pledge of good faith.

After the war Mr. Young resumed busi- ness as a butcher, and continued as such up to 1875, when he retired. Like many of his associates of former years, he never profited very much in a financial way by his long residence in Texas, but he has always managed to win an honest livelihood, and he has discharged in a creditable manner the various duties imposed upon him since he has been a resident of this community. In 1849 Mr. Young married Miss Fran- ces Schneider, a native of Germany, and

311

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

by this union has had six children still living: Caroline, now Mrs. John Dixon; Louise, now Mrs. William Ducie; Henrietta, now Mrs. Oliver; Lorenzo; Frank; Katie, now Mrs. George Kuntz; and Gustav.

ENJAMIN BLAGGE .- A full list of the early merchants of Galves- ton would properly include the name of Benjamin Blagge, who, though a resident of this city for only a few years, was one of the first to engage in busi- ness here. Mr. Blagge was born in England, June 1, 1816, during the temporary stay of his parents in that country. He camne of old New England ancestry, his father, Ben- jamin Blagge, and his paternal grandfather, Samuel Blagge, as well as his mother's peo- ple, having been born on this side of the Atlantic, most of them in Massachusetts. His ancestors on his father's side settled at Boston in 1630, coming originally from Cornwall, England. Samuel Blagge, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, moved to New York city and was a prosper- ous merchant in that place for a number of years, serving also as Alderman of the city and was at one time the Swedish Consul at that port. Benjamin Blagge, of this article, was chiefly reared in Boston, but went, when a young man, to New York and there married Miss Fannie B. Keown, a native of that city. In 1840 he came to Texas, land- ing at Galveston in November, of that year. He had been induced to come to the country through favorable reports received of it by a friend, Edwin B. Settle, who had come out some time before, and was then engaged in the mercantile business at Quintana, the old town at the mouth of the Brazos. Mr. Blagge came out for the purpose of embark-

ing in mercantile pursuits, and brought with him what for those years was a considerable amount of capital. He invested this in real estate in Galveston and in business here, and entered on a promising business career. But misfortune overtook him, and after losing most of what he had he gave up his residence in Galveston, and in 1843 return- ed to New York. Being a man of energetic nature. he was not disposed to accept the re- sults of his first venture, but again engaged in business, in a small way, in New York, and having accumulated some means launch- ed an enterprise of large proportions, this being the establishment of an extensive trade between South America and the United States.

After getting this enterprise on foot Mr. Blagge turned his attention to the matter of shortening the water route to the Pacific ocean, and secured from the government of New Grenada the first grant ever obtained by an American from that government for a canal across that country. Before, how- ever, doing much with this, and even before he had reaped any substantial fruits from the trade established by him, he died, his death occurring at Savanilla, New Grenada, September 28, 1855, while he was there in the prosecution of his plans. Mr. Blagge. was only thirty-nine years old when he died, but he had had a varied career for one of his age. He was an adventurous spirit, and of a speculative disposition. Having been educated for a civil engineer he had been a great deal on the frontier, and was full of the energy and nervy faith that prevails in new countries. He surveyed the pioneer railway of Florida, the "Florida Western." Like most enthusiasts, lie possessed a genial temperament and social ways. He was a high Mason.

312

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

Surviving him Mr. Blagge left a widow and four children. His sons, Hamilton and Harry W., are and have been for many years residents of Galveston. The daugh- ters, Mrs. Josephine Montgomery and Miss Ida Blagge, together with the widowed mother, make their home in New York.

ENRY A. BALDINGER, son of Andrew and Anna Catherine Bald- inger, was born in Galveston, January 15, 1841. He was reared in this city, in the schools of which he re- ceived his education. He was engaged in clerical pursuits until the opening of the war, when he entered the Confederate army and was in the army more or less until the close of hostilities, doing service along the Gulf coast and on the Rio Grande. Mr. Baldinger has been engaged in business pur- suits in Galveston all his mature years, most of the time in the mercantile business.

In 1866 he married Catherine Simmler, of Houston, a daughter of E. Simmler, who settled in Houston in 1838, where Mrs. Baldinger was born and reared. The issue of this union has been four children, now living, - Catherine, Emelie, Alfred and Susanna.

HEODORE KLEINECKE. - This well-known pioneer citizen of the city of Galveston is a native of Hanover, Germany, born January 18, 1823, and is a son of Charles Augustus Kleinecke and Johanna Wolfe, the former of whom was born in Schwartzburg and the latter in Braunschweig, Germany, and were married in Hanover, where they lived for a number of years, emigrating thence in 1846

to Texas, and settling in Galveston. Here they both died, surrounded by their large family of children, all of whom, twelve in number, they lived to see become men and women, the mother dying in 1865, the father in 1870. The elder Mr. Kleinecke was a butcher and followed his trade for twenty years or inore in Galveston before retiring from business pursuits on account of age.

Theodore Kleinecke, of this sketch, was the eldest of his parents' children, and was the first of the family who came to Texas. He arrived in Galveston in 1846, aboard the sailing vessel, Flavius, after a voyage of eleven weeks out from Bremen, Germany. He was one of 118 German passengers who caine to Texas at that time under the aus- pices of the German Colonization Society, for the purpose of settling in the new Re- public. After arriving at Galveston Mr. Kleinecke, then a raw youth with no means or knowledge of the English language, turned his hand to the first thing he could find to do, which was a job of driving a dray, and followed this until the opening of hostilities with Mexico, when he hired as a teamster to take an outfit to Mexico, where he remained some six or eight months. Returning to Galveston, at the end of that time, he se- cured employment at the butcher's business in this city with F. W. Schmidt, for whom he worked for four years, when he was en- abled to engage in the business for himself, opening a stall in the city market, where he was successfully engaged in this business for a period of twenty-two years. Later he embarked in mercantile pursuits,-retail groceries, -which he followed until his re- tirement in 1884.

In 1853 Mr. Kleinecke married Caroline Meier, then of Galveston, but a native of

+.ع

میسیھ

313

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

Braunschweig, Germany, where she was born September 17, 1824, having emigrated to Galveston with relatives in 1846. The issue of this union was three children, now living: Mrs. Johanna Pichard, widow of A. V. Pichard; August and Dorathea, -all re- siding in Galveston.

Mr. Kleinecke has for many years been a member of Herman Lodge, No. 5, I. O. O. F., of Galveston, and of the German Lutheran Church of this city, and of the German Friendship Society. The ship in which Mrs. Kleinecke came to Galveston was the Babylon, Captain Mencke; time, seven weeks. In 1868 Mr. and Mrs. Kleinecke took their family and spent six months visiting their old home in Germany.

HOMAS WILLIAM HOUSE .- Most men are born in a field of action which they accept as suffi- cient for them. The world of human life, however, has been advanced from its old places to its new by men who have not been content with their surround- ings, but who have gone forth and found or made something new or different from the narrowness in which they began. Of both classes it is true that the success attained by each individual is very nearly measured by his perception of the requirements of his surroundings. This perception is not the result of education, but belongs to those faculties which we designate as native or intuitive. When it is possessed by any one in that degree that it leads him unerringly to great success through the mazes of com- mercial or professional life, it rises to the dignity of genius, and should be so classed. It is as much the indespensible requisite of the successful merchant as the successful 21

statesman, lawyer or artist, and a review of the life of any successful man of business will show at every turn in his career that he possessed this faculty.

No better example of the correctness of the foregoing observations could be asked for than that found in the life of the late Thomas William House. He was born in Stockest Gregory, Somersetshire, England, on the 4th day of March, 1814. He came of respectable parentage and good old Eng- lish stock, though there never was an effort on the part of his people to connect them- selves with the nobility in any manner nor to trace their origin to a royal source. His family concerned itself but little with any- thing beyond the problems of daily life, loyalty to the government under which they were born and lived, and with the usual attachments of home and fireside.

It is questionable if one should say that Thomas W. House had not the advantages of a good education. That he did not re- ceive any school training to speak of in his youth is certain, but whether if he had re- ceived any such training he would have been any the better qualified for the labor which afterwards fell to his hands is doubtful. To one of his vigorous understanding and prac- tical perception the world really offered the best school, and the time which he might have spent conning over books and mastering rules and formulas and tenses was perhaps better spent in grappling with the actual solution of those problems which, after all, as many a college graduate has learned, fail to yield to the methods laid down in the books. He seems to have been somewhat variously employed in his boyhood and youth, but, tiring of the restrictions and limitations under which he was born, and with which he felt himself so closely hedged

314

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

about, he did as many another of his coun- trymen has done, turned his eyes toward the more promising fields of activity on this side of the Atlantic. He came to America in 1835, soon after attaining his majority, landing at New York city, then, as now, the gateway of the continent and the place where the emigrant spends the first few months of his life in the new world. In that city young House soon found employ- ment at the baker's trade, which trade he learned there and followed in that city over a year. In the meantime he met a Mr. McDonnell, proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, and was induced by that gentleman to come South and take charge of the bakery department of that famous hostelry. He resided in New Or- leans, working for Mr. McDonnell, until the latter part of 1837 or the early part of 1838, when he came to Texas and located at Hous- ton. Houston had but a short time before been made the temporary seat of govern- ment for the new Republic; and hither had flocked from all quarters. of the globe a miscellaneous population bent on various enterprises and schemes, but all agreeing in at least one particular, namely, that they must be fed. Mr. House had saved the wages which he had earned in New York and New Orleans, and he invested them in a bakery and confectionery establishment immediately after locating here, forming a partnership with a man named Loveridge. Their place of business, like all of the early business houses, was near the bayou, being situated about midway of the block on Main street between Franklin and Commerce. The following year Mr. House became asso- ciated with Charles Shearn, with whom he was in partnership about two years, cement- ing the friendship which sprung up between

him and this good man by marrying the lat- ter's daughter. After the withdrawal of Mr. Shearn from the business Mr. House was alone for nearly ten years. His busi- ness grew rapidly, and the lines were ex- tended so as to embrace a general assort- ment of merchandise. He did a consider- able wholesale business in confectioneries with smaller dealers in interior Texas; but finding that to develop any one branch to its utmost possibilities would necessitate the neglect of the others, he began to gradually discontinue the candy and confectionery de- partment, and give his attention more es- pecially to dry goods.

In 1853 he purchased the large and flourishing jobbing establishment of James H. Stevens & Company, who dealt heavily in dry goods and groceries; and, along with the stock, bought the ground and stores, the site being the same as that now occupied by the bank on Main street, between Franklin and Congress avenues. For all this he paid the sum of $40,000, this being the largest single transaction of the kind that had ever been consummated up to that time in the city of Houston. During the same year Mr. House took into partner- ship E. Mather, who had been with him as an employe since 1841, and the firm of T. W. House & Company soon came to do the largest wholesale dry goods and grocery business in the State. The money transactions of this establishment were considered as extraordinary for the time, and its reputation spread to the re- motest parts of the State.

From the first Mr. House received cot- ton in exchange for goods. Gradually, as the cultivation of this staple increased and the handling became more an object of com- mercial importance, he entered the market

315

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

as a buyer. The growth of this branch of his business kept pace with that of the others, and when it reached such proportions as to demand a separate department; this was added, the date being 1853.

Mr. Mather retired from the firm in 1862 and Mr. House again became sole owner. While the unsettled condition of things brought on by the war interfered very ma- terially with his trade, there was never any suspension, but he continued, all through the troublous times of 1861-65, to do a reasonably large and prosperous business. At times he did a very heavy business in the way of handling cotton, buying and shipping to English markets, to reach which he had to run the blockade established by the Federal Government. He owned several vessels which were engaged at different times in this business. He also shipped thousands of bales through Mexico, freight- ing them from this point to Mexican ports by wagons. After the war Mr. House's business was in prime condition for the era of prosperity which followed, and it made rapid strides in the widening sphere of com- mercial activity.

There were but few banks in Texas in an early day, the banking business being done by the larger inerchants. Mr. House be- gan to receive deposits as early as 1840. Later he began issuing exchange, and in this way the foundation of his banking busi- ness was laid. This business was of steady growth, and came by imperceptible degrees to claim more and more attention. Soon after the war a separate department was created for the transaction of this branch of the business, and for a period of about fif- teen years the several lines, -wholesale dry- goods and groceries, cotton dealing and banking, -were carried along and developed,

each in accordance with the demands of the times. Mr. House also had large real- estate interests, owning immense quantities of land, improved and unimproved, and lots and business houses in other towns in the State. Among his larger real-estate hold- ings was the "Arcola Sugar Plantation," purchased in 1871, which he greatly im- proved, and which still belongs to his estate. The sugar product from this plantation took the premium at the New Orleans Ex- position in 1884, in a contest where the chief sugar-raising countries of the world were competitors. A stock ranch of 70,000 acres in La Salle county was one of the im- portant holdings of this nature which Mr. House developed.

While immersed in these various enter- prises and pursuits Mr. House yet found time to assist in carrying on the municipal government which protected his property, to help develop enterprise of a public nature, and to perform, in general, the duties of a citizen of the community in which he lived. On the organization of Protection Fire Company, in 1848, he became a member and remained one as long as he lived. In 1857, and again in 1861, he was chosen a member of the Board of Alderinen of the city, and served two terms of two years each. In 1862 he was elected Mayor and held this office one term. He was a charter member of the Ship Channel Company, and was always a stanch friend of that enterprise. He was one of the originators of the Hous- ton Gas Company, and was for a number of years its president, and probably its largest stockholder. He was at one time a director of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, and lent that enterprise substantial aid when aid was needed. He was also a stock- holder in the Houston & Great Northern,

316

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

and the International, before their consolida- tion, and in the Houston Tap & Brazoria Railroad. In 1874 he was elected presi- dent of the Texas Western Narrow Gauge, and built that line to San Felipe. In the Houston Direct Navigation Company, the Houston City Street Railway Company, and the first two compress companies, -the Houston City and the People's, -he was a large investor. In fact it may be said without any exaggeration that he contributed liberally of his means to all public enter- prises, and, whenever occasion demanded, lent his personal influence and active effort for the success of any movement which he believed to be for the welfare of the com- munity in which he lived.

A career so exceptionally successful in a financial way as that of Mr. House's would, one must think, be signally lacking in com- pleteness if it were not rounded out by a happy domestic life, and if it did not show scattered by the wayside those many evi- dences of a broad and generous nature which we naturally expect to find in a man of such superior makeup. He married Miss Mary Shearn, daughter of Judge Charles Shearn, another of Houston's honored old citizens, a biography of whom will be found under an appropriate title in this volume. "A better and a truer woman than Mary Shearn House," says an old citizen, "never lived." So, too, thought her husband, and he paid her at all times the honest, manly devotion of a truly chivalrous and noble nature. The result of this union was eight children, one of whom died in infancy, one in youth and six of whom became grown, one dying about the age of maturity. The eldest of the six was a daughter, Mary, who was married to R. M. Caldwell, both herself and husband being now deceased. The four sons now

living are: Thomas William, Jr., John H. B., Charles S. and Edward M. Mrs. House died on the 28th day of January, 1870, and was followed ten years later by her husband, who passed away on the 17th day of Janu- ary, 1880.

The death of Mr. House was one of the most serious losses of the kind that this city ever sustained. He was one of its oldest citi- zens and had been foremost in almost every- thing pertaining to its history. The insti- tutions with which he was connected were its chiefest pride, and his name was a- tower of strength in all transactions with which he had to do. His funeral was attended in great numbers by all classes and condi- tions of people, who testified in every appro- priate way to the esteem in which he was held by them. The Cotton Exchange, of which he was a member, passed suitable resolutions; and expressions of regret on ac- count of his loss, and of sympathy and con- dolence for his family were general not only in this city but throughout the State.

It is an interesting and profitable study to trace the career of a man like Thomas W. House, -one who without aid of any kind from without, rose by force of his own genius from a position of poverty and obscur- ity to one of affluence and honored distinc- tion. That his rise was not without great labor and many trials of his strength it is needless to say; but that he was equal to every test, and, what is more, never through- out his long career, yielded one jot or tittle of his character as a high-minded and hon- orable gentleman, is perhaps the most cred- itable thing that can be said of him. The fortune that he left at his death, estimated at some two and a half millions of dollars, was an immense estate for one man, begin- ning with nothing, to accumulate in little

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Author: Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing co., 1895 Number of Pages: 1532

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing co., 1895
Number of Pages: 1532