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 62

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 62
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 62

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In 1860, at Marlin, he married Miss Rachel Barry, daughter of Bryan Barry, and a member of one of Texas' old and prominent families. Of this union one son survives, John S., junior member of the law firmn of Stewart & Stewart, and present City At- torney of Houston.

HE BLAKE FAMILY .- James H. and T. Walter Blake, of Houston, are the sons of Edinund H. Blake and Martha M., née Harris; and Edmund H. was the son of William Blake and Anges, née O'Neal.

William Blake was a native of England, of unmixed English blood, while his wife was certainly of Irish ancestry, and probably . was a native of Erin's green isle. They always lived upon a farm, for some years in Virginia and later in Alabama, being early settlers in the vicinity of Athens, where they died. They were plain and unassuming in manner and disposition, and reasonably prosperous in their calling. They had four daughters and two sons.

Edmund H., one of the above number, was born in Virginia, in March, 1809. . Reared mainly in Alabama, he received but a limited literary education. He read med- icine at a home office and attended lectures in the New Orleans Medical College, then presided over by the distinguished Dr. Stone. He married Miss Martha M. Harris, of Clinton, Hinds county, Mississippi, Febru- ary 24, 1834, practiced medicine some years in Mississippi and Alabama, and in 1846 came to Texas, settling in Brenham, Wash- ington county. He began practice as a member of the old school, "allopathic," but as he progressed he changed his views, and about 1857 or 1858 attended a Homeopathic

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medical college, graduating, and ever after- ward practiced as a homeopathist. From 1846 to 1856 he practiced at Brenham, and then moved to Houston, and followed his profession here until his death, July 2, 1876. He was a popular and successful physician, and is remembered now by many old citi- zens of this place with feelings akin to affection.

Mrs. Martha M. Blake was born in Abbe- ville district, South Carolina, February II, 1819, a daughter of James and Frances (Wooldridge) Harris, her father and only brother, Robert W., being prominent in early Texas times. Her father served in. the war of 1835-6, by which Texas won her independence from Mexico, and died at Goliad about 1837, from the effects of wounds received from Mexican bandits, while engaged in the service of the Repub- lic, near Goliad. He was a brave soldier and adventurous pioneer. Robert W. Har- ris, the brother referred to, was in the ill- starred Somervell expedition, became a Mier prisoner, and was one of the unfortunate number who drew black beans, in the cast- ing of lots,-which meant death, -and this fell a victim to Mexican barbarity and cru- elty. Frances Harris died at Matagorda in 1836, from the effects of exposure caused by the unsettled condition of the country. The entire family, -father, mother, one son and two daughters, -who came to Texas just previous to the troublous times of 1835-6, suffered untold hardships.

Dr. Edmund H. Blake and wife had seven children, as follows: Mary F., who married R. C. Steuart, of Washington county, Texas, and is now deceased; Ed- mund H., who died in 1852, at the age of nineteen years, of yellow-fever; James H., further mention of whom will be made;

Mattie B., now Mrs. S. M. Williams, of Houston; John W. K., who is a resident of San Antonio, this State; Cordelia, wife of C. H. Sprong, of Houston; and T. Wal- ter Blake, of this city. The mother of these children, now in her seventy-fifth year, is still vigorous in mind and body, and a most entertaining and amiable lady. She makes her home with her son, James H., from whom she receives every mark of at- tention due her age, and she is a source of many pleasures of companionship.

James H. Blake was born in Brenham, Washington county, Texas, October 28, 1846, and reared in that city until ten years of age, when his parents moved to Hous- ton, where he was mainly educated. In 1863, when he was but seventeen years old, he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Company E, Terry's Cavalry, and served during the remainder of the war entirely in Texas, along the gulf coast and in Ar- kansas, in defense of the northern border of the State of Texas. After the war he spent some years in his father's drug store, in Houston, and, through the training thus received and an inherited taste for the study of physiology and pharmacy, and withal an admiration for the medical pro- fession generally, he decided to become a physician. His first systematic study of medicine was pursued under the direction of his father, and he finally graduated at the Hahnemann Medical College, of Philadel- phia, in 1870, and also in 1873, at the Uni- versity of Maryland, at Baltimore. He began the practice of his profession in Houston in 1870, and has followed it here earnestly and successfully since. Dr. Blake is recognized as standing at the head of his school in this city. He is a member of the Homeopathic State Medical Society of

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Texas, and is a polished, cultured gentle- man. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

March 13, 1873, in Baltimore, Maryland, the Doctor married Miss Jennie L. Harris, daughter of William H. Harris, who was for many years a prominent politician of that city. Mrs. Blake was born in Baltimore and died in Houston, March 12, 1892, leav- ing one son, Allen B.

T. Walter Blake, youngest son of Ed- mund H. and Martha M, Blake, was born in Houston, Texas, May 20, 1858, and was educated in the schools of this city. On May 7, 1891, he married Miss Clara A. Avery, of Galveston, and has one child, Clara Elsie.

May 18, 1891, he began the mercantile business in Houston, opening a family gro- cery-store on the corner of Sinith street and Mckinney avenue, which he conducted at that. place till June 17, 1892, when he moved to his present quarters on the corner of Main street and Mckinney avenue. He is one of the rising young business inen of this city, doing a prosperous business and is a popular gentleman. He and his wife are both mem- bers of the First Presbyterian Churchi, of Houston.

J OHN R. HARRIS .-- The true heroes of America are those who from time to time have left the comforts of civilized life and have planted the seeds of new States deep in the wilder- ness. Of this number was John R. Harris, an early settler of South Texas, and the one for whom the once important town of Harris- burg, and the present county of Harris were named.

John R. Harris was a native of New

York, but liis ancestry is traced to Pennsyl- vania, where the line ascending on his father's side finds its source in John Harris, a native of England, who emigrated to America in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and, settling in the Quaker colony, founded the town of Harrisburg. On ac- count of the prominence of the family, both in Pennsylvania and in the newer States of the West, the chief facts of the family's his- tory (having been interwoven with the general history of the country), have been more than ordinarily well preserved, and this memoir of one of Texas' earliest friends can therefore be relied on, and possesses a value on this account, which it otherwise would not have.

The original John Harris, founder of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, married Esther Say, and had seven children, the sixth of whom, named Samuel, was born at Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, May 4, 1740, and mar- ried Elizabeth Bonner, of that place in 1758. He took an active part in the scenes of the old French war, being present at "Brad- dock's Defeat," where he served with the Colonial troops. He also sympathized strongly with the Colonists in their struggle for independence from the mother country, and served as Captain of cavalry in the war by which that independence was finally won. He emigrated, and settled on the banks of Cayuga lake, New York, in 1795, and lived in that vicinity the remainder of his life, being buried at Bridgeport. He and his good wife had four children, the eldest of whom, named John, was born at Harrisburg, September 26, 1760. He emi- grated, and settled at Cayuga, New York, in 1788. There he married Mary Richardson, a daughter of John Richardson, and, a na- tive of Frederick City, Maryland. He made

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the first settlement on Cayuga lake (1788), established the first ferry across lake Cayuga, the first store at that place (1789), aud the first hotel (1790), and was one of the incorporators of the Cayuga Bridge Company, which built the first bridge across the lake (1800), this being an important link between the States on the east, and the settlements then rapidly forming in the great West. In 1794 he was appointed Sheriff of Onondaga county, and the same year purchased two reservation lots of the East Cayuga Indian reservation, near Cayuga, 500 acres of which became his homestead, and remained such until 1815, when it was sold. He was elected to Con- gress in 1806 from the Seventeenth New York district, and was long connected with the local military organizations, receiving the appointment of Colonel in the militia in 1806, and commanding his regiment in the ' war with Great Britain in 1812-14. In 1815 he removed to Bridgeport, where he was living at the time of his death, which oc- curred November 2, 1824. John and Mary Richardson Harris had ten children, the eldest of whom, John Richardson Harris, is the subject of this memoir.

He was born at East Cayuga, New York, October 22, 1790, and was there reared. He married Jane Birdsall, a daughter of Lewis Birdsall and Patience Lee, and a native of Hillsdale, Columbia county, New York, and settled at Cayuga, where he was living when the second war with Great Britain (1812-14) came on. He was a volunteer in that war, and commanded a company in his father's regiment. Both are honorably mentioned by General Winfield Scott, in his memoirs of the campaign. John R. Harris and wife emigrated West, about 1818, and settled at St. Genevieve, Missouri. Here

Mr. Harris formed the acquaintance of Moses Austin, and became interested in that gentleman's scheme of colonization in Texas. Preparatory to transferring his residence and interests to the Southwest he sent his family, consisting of wife and three children, back to Cayuga, New York, in the summer of 1820, accompanying them as far as Vincennes, In- diana, and then returned to Vandalia, Illinois, where he stopped to complete a contract he had to erect a State building at that point, and then came on to Texas, probably in 1822 or '23. The exact date of his first visit to Texas is not certainly known, but the records show that in 1824 he received a grant of land-4, 428 acres-from the Mex- ican government, and it is probable he made one or two trips to the country before he finally took out his papers in accordance with the custom of the times and the re- quirements of the Mexican laws. He lo- cated his claim at the junction of Buffalo and Bray's bayous, at a point some twenty miles from Galveston bay, in what was then the wilderness of south Texas. In 1826 he laid out a town at this point and called it Harrisburg, and a year or so later brought out machinery for a steam saw and grist- mill, blacksmith and carpenter shops, and put up a store, thus establishing the nucleus of a considerable settlement. He was also interested in one of the earliest boats that plied along the shores of these bayous, the schooner Rights of Man, which, under com- mand of one of his brothers, was the chief means of traffic and transportation for some time between Harrisburg, New Orleans and the Mexican ports along the gulf. He also held the post of Alcalde, under the Mexican government, and, it is said, was accustomed to hear causes under a large magnolia tree on a picturesque point of land separating

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the two bayous. Being called to New Or- leans in the summer of 1829 on business, he was taken with the yellow-fever, and there died, August 21 of that year. His family was still in New York, the country not being deemed sufficiently well settled to permit of their coming out; but, in 1833, his widow and eldest son, De Witt C., carne on and took up their residence at Harrisburg, where they participated not only in the hardships of colonial life, but also shared the dangers of the struggle for independence from Mexico.

From March 19 to April 15, 1836, the home of Mrs. Harris was the headquarters of the ad-interim government of Texas. On. the approach of Santa Anna's army, she went with fier household on board the schooner which carried President Burnet and Vice-President Zavala and others to Galveston, and herself and other refugees to Anahuac. The next day the refugees were carried to Galveston island, and were en- camped there when they heard of the glori- ous news of the defeat of Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto. About May 1, Mrs. Harris and her two sons (Lewis B. having arrived at Galveston, April 21, to enter the Texas army) returned to Harrisburg to find that every house in the place had been burned. to the ground by Santa Anna's army. Her house was rebuilt of hewn logs by Mexican prisoners, and, with various addi- tions and improvements, stood until Octo- ber 11, 1888, when it was destroyed by fire. Mrs. Harris could never be induced to leave her homestead, but lived there until her death, August 16, 1869.

John R. and Jane Harris had four chil- dren, all of whom became grown and were, in an earlier day, residents of Texas. These were: De Witt Clinton, born July 17,

1814, near Waterloo, Seneca county, New York; Lewis Birdsall, born July 1, 1816, at the same place; Mary Jane, born August 17, 1819, at St. Genevieve, Missouri, and John Birdsall, born January 14, 1821, near Waterloo, Seneca county, New York. De Witt C. Harris was for many years a con- spicuous figure in the history of this portion of Texas. Lewis B. lived here for a number of years, and then moved, about 1849, to Cali- fornia, where he took an important part in the settling of that State. John B., after spending a considerable part of his life in the mercantile business at Anderson, Grimes county, died at Harrisburg, Harris county, Texas, in 1867. Mary J. was married to Judge Andrew Briscoe, and is still living in Houston, being now one of the oldest resi- dents of this city.

Besides the members of his own family, three brothers of John R. Harris, William P., David and Samuel, and his aged mother came to Texas and settled in Harris county. William P. arrived in the country in 1829, having for some years previous to that been engaged in steaniboating on the Mississippi river. He brought with him a small steam- boat called the "Cayuga," and establishing his domicile at Harrisburg, continued oper- ations between that place, New Orleans and the Mexican towns along the gulf. He rep- resented the municipality of Harrisburg in the consultation which mnet at San Felipe in October, 1835, and was also a member of the General Council of the Provisional Gov- ernment formed November following. After the conclusion of peace he married Caroline Morgan, of Cayuga, New York, (1840), and settled at Red Bluff on Galveston bay, where he and his wife died and were buried.

The Harris family, from its sturdy, inde- pendent, sagacious founder down the entire

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line, has been productive of men of marked characteristics. They have, in the main, been men of courage and enterprise, lovers of their country and of their homes, with a certain rough and vigorous way of handling successfully the blending problems of war and peace as they are presented for solution to the people of a frontier district. The name, through the energy and activity of John R. Harris, will always live in the his- tory of Texas, having been bestowed on one of the first political divisions of the country, the municipality. of Harrisburg, and later on one of the most important counties of the State, that of Harris. To such a nominal recognition of his services to the cause of civilization, the present sketch will be in the nature of a necessary and well merited am- plification.

HOMAS E. ELSBURY. - The sketch here given is that of a foriner citizen and resident of the city of Houston, and is a brief tribute to the memory of a man, who, though of plain ways and unassuming char- acter, possessed many virtues, and sought to leave to his posterity the example of an honorable life.

Mr. Elsbury was a native of England, having been born in Somersetshire, in the year 1830. At the age of sixteen he came to the United States (1846), . and three years later, during the great gold excitement in California, he crossed the plains and for four years was engaged very successfully in mining on the Pacific coast. He passed through much of that period of the country's history, since made famous in fiction and the narratives of the early "Forty-niners," and met with many interesting experiences of a personal nature, but he never forgot the

object of his visit to that far-off region, and, when he left there, in 1853, he returned to the States with a considerable amount of money earned in the "diggin's."

On the 10th of March, 1853, Mr. Els- bury married Miss Mary Ann Knight, a native of England, and a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (House) Knight, and, somewhere near the same date, settled in Houston, in which place he spent the re- mainder of his life. He was engaged in the hide and leather businesss in this city, for many years, at which he met with good success, -his industry, straightforward busi- ness methods, and kind disposition, aided .by fortunate circumstances, helping to place him in the front rank of Houston's men of practical affairs. At his death he left a considerable estate, and, what was better, the record of a life well spent. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Holland Lodge, No. I, of Houston, and a short time before his death he united with the Baptist Church, to the support of which he had been a con- tributor for many years. He died Septem- ber 8, 1888. Surviving him he left a widow and five children. His surviving children are: Charles N., Bessie (now Mrs. W. Y. Fuqua), John W., George W. and Thomas W. One daughter, Mary E., was married to John Cross, and is now deceased, and two daughters, Ann M. and Cora, and a son, Edward, died before reaching ma- turity.

APTAIN LEON F. ALLIEN. - Enterprise and fair dealing fre- quently lead to more flattering're- sults than the practice of sharp and unscrupulous business methods, and al-

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though the reward may sometimes seem slow in coming, it is none the less sure. The career of Captain Leon F. Allien has been one of the utinost honor, and is in direct refutation of the popular old saw, "A roll- ing stone gathers no moss," for, although his career has been a checkered one, and he has been engaged in various lines of busi- ness, he has succeeded in accumulating con- siderable means. He was born in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, August 16, 1849. His parents were Frank and Kate (Gibenrath) Allien, the father being one of the early emigrants to California, whither he went in 1849, and there died. His widow is still living, now in her sixty- · fourth year. She is a daughter of Fred- erick Gibenrath, who came to Texas, previous to the troubles of 1835-6, and perished with Fannin and his noble three hundred.

In 1865 Captain Leon F. Allien came from New Orleans to Houston with a cargo of fruit, comprising fifty barrels of apples, and fifty barrels of oranges, which he dis- posed of to good advanage, after which he returned to New Orleans, where he remained until 1867. At this time the schooner "Swift " was loaded with cypress lumber for the construction of the International & Great Northern Railroad, and on this schooner Captain Allien arrived once more in Texas. Going to Millican, he became foreman of a gang of mnen grading and work- ing the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, and not long afterward began taking sub- contracts for a small distance under the regular contractor, and in this way helped to grade the road fromn Millican to Bryan. He later sub-contracted under Salter, Scruggs & Company, helped build the road from Bryan to Calvert, and later took a two-

inile contract from Theo. Kosse, who was the chief engineer of the road, and helped on with the work as far as Groesbeck. In 1871 he bouglit an interest in a tow-boat called the "Alert," and ran her for a short time, be- tween Morgan's Point and Houston. In 1872 he embarked in business for himself, but at the end of six months he had lost all he had previously saved, and he returned to Houston, withi scarcely a cent to begin anew the battle of life. Going down on the bayou, he purchased, of W. B. Noisworthy, the iron of an old sawmill that had burned, for a consideration of $5. This he brought to Houston and sold for $112, which gave him a little capital to make another start on. He at once rented a flatboat and began carrying wood from Green's bayou to Hous- ton, the boat being propelled by the means of long poles, and to this business liis atten- tion was given for about a year. At that time Charles Morgan began digging his ship cliannel, which subsequently became the property of the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company, with Captain J. J. Atkinson as superintendent, and Mr. Allien supplied this company with wood up to 1876, clearing thereby about $4,000. He then pur- chased a schooner, called "Ellen Welch," that could carry 35,000 feet of lumber, and began carrying lumber to Galves- ton, and shingles from Sabine to Houston and Galveston .. He also hauled wood to Galveston from Greene's bayou, and by this means earned a considerable sum of money.

In 1879 he purchased the tug boat "Sarah V. Stowe," and in 1880 bought the hull of the little steamer that was being constructed in Galveston, took the machin- ery out of his tug, "Sarah V. Stowe," and put it in the new steamer, "Justine," which

Kendall.

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he ran as a passenger boat, from Houston to Lynchburg and Morgan's Point, from 1880 to 1889. In 1884 he secured the contract to carry the mail between Houston and Lynchburg, and has ever since held this

contract. In 1889 he built the vessel "Eugene," which has since been a passen- ger boat between Houston and Morgan's Point. He is the owner of the steamer "Charlotte M. Allen," which is now being built and is intended to run between Houston and Galveston. He also owns the tow-boat "Mollie Mohr," and six barges: "George," "Fayle," "Donnie," "Katinka' "Coyle," and "Freddie." He is also the owner of a sand-dredge in the San Jacinto river, and supplies Houston and Galveston with sand for building purposes. In 1883 he pur- chased 200 acres of land at Morgan's Point, and in 1888 laid out the town of Bayview, but sold a one-half interest in the same to a syndicate, since which time the place has been very rapidly improving. There are two fine artesian wells in the place and it has other advantages which makes it a de- sirable location. Captain Allien is presi- dent of the Morgan Point Land & Loan Company, which has built a number of cot- tages and has many lots for sale, and he has ever been a public-spirited citizen and keenly alive to the interests of his section, as well as to his own interests. He is a typi- cal Southerner, courteous, easy and kindly, is popular with all classes, and his friends are legion. He was married, on the 24th of August, 1871, to Miss Sarah Eugene Dunn, who was born in Houston, Texas, Septem- ber 15, 1855, a daughter of George D. and Sarah O. Dunn. Mr. and Mrs. Allien have had seven children: George, McDonald and Leon F., Jr., living; and Rose, Justine, Johanna and Eugene, deceased. 30

J UDGE WILLIAM ESCRAGE KEN- DALL .- William Escrage Kendall, son of Francis Washington Kendall and Margaret .Fleming, his wife, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, October 27, 1823, and is a lineal descendant of Henry Kendall, one of the English colonists who settled Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and was the founder of the family in America. Henry Kendall's descendants set- tled in King George county, Virginia, and intermarried with the Marshalls, Chief Justice Marshall being second cousin to Judge Kendall's father. A branch of the Marshall family moved to Fauquier county, where the Chief Justice was born September 24, 1755.

While visiting his relatives, the Mar- shalls of Fauquier county, Judge Kendall's father met Miss Margaret Ellen Fleming. Acquaintance ripened into love, and resulted in the marriage of Francis Washington Ken- dall and Margaret Ellen Fleming, June 18, 1815, the day on which Napoleon was de- feated at Waterloo.

Mrs. Kendall lineally descended from William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and son of Admiral Sir William Penn of the British Navy. A branch of the Penn family moved from Bedford, Pennsylvania, to Lou- doun county, Virginia, where Margaret Ellen was born, May 10, 1792.

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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