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 65

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 65
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 65

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A. P. Lufkin.

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HISTORY OF TEXAS.

labored faithfully to provide a home for himself and family, and is now enjoying a competency earned by energetic and well- directed efforts. He has always enjoyed good health, and attributes the fact to his teinperate habits, for he has never smoked nor chewed tobacco, drinks no whisky, and but little beer, and has led an active, out- door life. He and family hold membership in the Catholic Church, and are liberal con- tributors to the same.

APTAIN A. P. LUFKIN .- Perhaps among the many men who in the early days of the history of Galves- ton were working and struggling for the progress of the city and the further- ance of their own ventures at the same time, not one of thein succeeded in more equally distributing his valuable talents than the subject of this sketch.

Abraham P. Lufkin was born at Bucks- port, Maine, October 1, 1816, and was there reared to the age of twelve or fourteen, when he went to sea, shipping as a cabin boy, and gradually attaining promotion un- til the goal of the sailor's ambition was reached, -the command of a ship. Soon after the establishment of the Republic of Texas, glowing reports of the opportunities in the new country found their way to all quarters of the globe, and hither flocked large numbers of enterprising and ambitious young men, among them the subject of this notice, who, abandoning the sea, took up his residence here in 1845. Equipped with a good elementary education, supplemented by the beneficial results of close observation and by contact with the world during his fifteen or sixteen years of life on the sea, he entered on his career as a inan of business. He was 31

not long in the city of his adoption until he made it clear that he was to be more than an ordinary factor in its future.

In 1847 lie built, at the foot of Twenty- fifth street, the wharf which for many years bore his name, and the same year, in part- nership with Charles Einerson, built the first steamboat ever put up in this port, and, at a later date, tlie first steam cotton-press erected in Galveston. The steamer built by Captains Lufkin and Emerson, named the "Thomas F. Mckinney," after one of the leading merchants of that day, was designed for the Trinity river trade, never making but one trip, however, being attempted probably at too early a time; but such was the enter- prise and push of the man. The boat cost about $25,000, her dimensions being: hull 110 feet long; beam, thirty-seven feet; depth, four and one-half feet; drawing one foot of water when unloaded.

For some years after locating in Galves- ton Captain Lufkin gave his attention at dif- ferent times to the mercantile, lumber, ice and shipping interests, but finally took up the handling of cotton, first as a buyer, and then as a press owner, when he erected the press before referred to, on the Twenty- fifth street wharf, and this he conducted with marked success. Later he associated himself with other gentlemen of Galveston and assisted in the erection of other presses, being a large stockholder at different times in the Merchants', the Shippers' and Factors' compresses and the Southern Compress Company, of which last he was a director, and at the time of his death superintendent. The pressure of his business affairs did not prevent Captain Lufkin from taking an ac- tive interest in the municipal welfare of the city. He was a member of the City Coun- cil in 1857-8, and both before and after

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that time was one of the wardens of the port.

He was not in active service during the late war, but his sympathy and moral sup- port went to the Confederacy, and he spent both his time and money in providing for the families of the soldiers in the field, and in guarding public and private property.

Captain Lufkin was a man of fine busi- ness qualifications and keen, practical in- sight. He possessed strong individuality of character, and was watchful and aggressive where his interests were at stake. Though never a candidate for public favors, he was popular with a large class of people, who recognized in him all the elements of a good citizen, being a successful man of business, kind friend and good neighbor, alert, enter- prising and possessing sound intelligence. coupled with strict morality.

Captain Lufkin died, after a brief illness, on April 24, 1887. He left surviving him a widow and two sons,-Theodore D. and Walter E., -and a daughter, Mrs. A. A. Van Alstyne, -all residents of Galveston.

ORACE DICKINSON TAYLOR, deceased .- A glance at the inter- esting genealogy of the Taylor fam- ily shows that Horace Dickinson Taylor comes of people who have become distinguished in the annals of the country, and who have, by their upright, straightfor- ward course through life, kept their names unspotted and honored in the sight of God and man. He was born. at Sunderland, Massachusetts, and traced his ancestry back to the first families of New England. The worthy pair from whom he sprang on the paternal side was Rev. Edward Taylor and Ruth (Wyllys) Taylor. The former was

born in Leicestershire, England, in 1642, and was educated for the ministry among the Dissenters. Owing to the persecution of his people, he abandoned his native coun- try, and in 1668 came to America. He was well connected in England, and on coming to this country brought letters of introduc- tion to a number of prominent people. Fin- ishing his education at Cambridge in 1671, he subsequently became pastor at Westfield, Connecticut, four years before the breaking out of King Philip's war, and from that time on for many years was the spiritual adviser and physician for the large area of country adjacent to that place. In the year 1674 he married Miss Elizabeth Fitch, who died in 1689, leaving eight children. In the year 1692 he married Miss Ruth Wyllys, of Hart- ford, Connecticut. This lady was the daugh- ter of Samuel Wyllys, who was born in the year 1632, and who for over thirty years was a State Senator. Her grandfather, John Haynes, was Governor of Massachu- setts in 1635, but two years later removed to Hartford, Connecticut, where, in 1639, he was elected Governor of that State. Every alternate year he was elected to that posi- tion until about 1654.

He owned in Hartford the property upon which stood the famous Charter Oak. From Rev. Edward and Ruth (Wyllys) Taylor were descended some of the foremost men of New England, among them legislators, jurists, physicians, college presidents and ministers of the gospel. The Taylor family seems especially prolific in ministers. The father of the subject of this notice, Rev. James Taylor, was a minister of the Congre- gational Church, and was a native of Sun- derland, Massachusetts, born in 1787. He was married there to Miss Elizabeth Taylor, a native of that place, who was born in

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1789, and who died in 1832, following her husband, who had passed away in 1831. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom Horace Dickinson Taylor, of this article, was sixthi in order of birth. He was born January 8, 1821, and was not yet eleven years of age when he was left an orphan. After the death of his parents he was sent South to an older brother, James, who was then living in Charleston, South Carolina, and there he made his home for several years (probably five or six), until he came to Texas, in company with an older brother, Edward Wyllys Taylor. The brothers first settled at Independence, in Washington county, Texas, but in 1848 came to Houston, where they engaged in the cotton commission business, in partner- ship, H. D. Taylor subsequently purchas- ing his brother's interest. For a short time after this he was in partnership with Thomas M. Bagby, and later established the house of H. D. Taylor & Sons, of which he was the head until his death, and which still con- tinues under the original firm name. From the first Houston has always been the chief cotton market of Texas, and is now the largest in the world. Mr. Taylor bought and sold immense quantities of this staple, and in this way, and to the extent of his opportunities, helped to establish the repu- tation of the city in this respect. A man of strict integrity and high moral sense, he was always regarded as one of the solid, re- liable men of the city, and gave weight and importance to every enterprise with which he was connected, and to every body in which he held membership. In few ways was he an aspirant for political favor, as the tur- moil and intrigue of the political arena were not at all to his taste. He served, however, as Mayor of the city one term, and also held

the office of Alderman of his ward, filling both positions in a creditable and satisfactory manner.

On the Ist of December, 1852, Mr. Taylor married Miss Emily Baker, then of Houston, but a native of Baldwinsville, New York, and the daughter of Asa and Hannah Baker. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor's married life was blessed by the birth of five children, as follows: Mary, wife of Julian Robertson, of Calvert, Texas; Edward Wyllys, senior member of the firm of H. D. Taylor & Sons, of Houston; Horace Dickinson, also a member of the firm mentioned; William Baker, of the firm; and Emily B. As may be seen, the sons are wide-awake, progres- sive men, and are conducting successfully the business founded by the father. Mr. Taylor was quite domestic in his taste, took a great interest in his family, and made every reasonable provision for them. He left them an ample fortune, but, what was much better, a name honored and respected by all. Descended from an honorable an- cestry, he was endowed by nature with such gifts as characterize true manhood in all that the word implies. For many years he . was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and for twenty years previous to his death was Elder in the same. He was over six feet in height, weighed about 140 pounds, and had dark hair and eyes. He was a very genial and pleasant man to meet. Although his character was positive, and he was a thor- oughly self-reliant man, at the same time he was quiet and unobtrusive, and "pursued the even tenor of his way," without inter- fering with the affairs of others and with no desire for public preferment, Especially did he take a strong interest in religious and temperance movements, and none were al- lowed to fail for want of support on his part.

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HISTORY OF TEXAS.

a OL. JAMES RIVES WATIES, Clerk of the Civil District Court of Harris county, is a native of Charleston, South Carolina, where he was born August 22, 1845. His father, Julius P. Waties was also a native of South Carolina, and was for many years a prominent and successful lawyer of Charleston. His pa- ternal grandfather, Judge Thomas Waties, was a native of Georgetown district, South Caro- lina, and was an important figure in the late Colonial and early Statehood days of South Carolina. He was born in 1760, and while in college was elected Captain of a company of fellow-students, at the head of which he entered the Continental army for service against the British crown. Being subse- quently invited to attend General Gillon to Europe on a mission in behalf of the Colo- nies, he was captured and taken to England, from which country he made his way to France, where he formed the acquaintance of Dr. Franklin, who, taking a friendly in- terest in him, aided him with means and helped him to get back to America. Again on this side of the Atlantic, he joined Gen- eral Marion after the fall of Charleston and served under him with the rank of Captain until he was compelled to retire from the army on account of ill health, this being only a short time before the close of the Revolution. After the establishment of peace he studied law, was admitted to the bar and rose to eminence in his profession. At the early age of twenty-nine he was made Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State and was subsequently elected Judge of the Court of Equity, serving in the two offices for a period of thirty-nine years. Colonel Waties' mother bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Rives, she also being a member of an old South Carolina family.

She died in Virginia during the late war from pneumonia, contracted while nursing sick and wounded Confederate soldiers.

James Rives Waties, of this article, re- ceived his early education in the select schools of Charleston, and had entered the high school of that place with the intention of taking a thorough scholastic course when his studies were interrupted by the. opening of the war. He was among the . first to offer his services to the cause of the Confederacy, enlisting April 18, 1861, a few days after Sumter was fired upon. He was a member of Company C, Second South Carolina Infantry. Serving in the Virginia campaign he participated in the first battle of Manassas, and in the engagements at Savage Station and Malvern Hill, after which he was transferred to a company of light artillery, with which he served during the remainder of the war, surrendering at Greensboro, North Carolina.

For two years following the close of the war Colonel Waties resided in South Caro- lina, after which, in March, 1867, he came to Texas, stopping for a time in Galveston. He subsequently went to Fort Bend county, where for sixteen or eighteen years he was en- gaged in farining pursuits, beginning in a small way, but becoming in time one of the substan- tial planters of that county. In 1872, while residing in Fort Bend county, he married Miss Lalla Tomlinson, and being left a wid- ower with three children, by her death in 1880, he found it necessary to change his resi- dence to a place where he could give his chil- dren better advantages in the matter of edu- cation and home training than he was able to give in an isolated country home; and ac- cordingly, in 1885, he moved to Houston. Here in November, 1890, he was elected Cle k of the Civil District Court of Harris

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county, and was re-elected to the same position in November, 1892. Colonel Waties is a Democrat in politics and has been elected each time to the position he , holds as the nominee of his party. He has filled the office of District Clerk very ac- ceptably, having added greatly to his own popularity and raised the grade of public service since he became an incumbent of this office. He is a member of Morton Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and of Richland Chapter, No. 44, in the same order, as well as of the B. P. O. E. He is also Colonel of the First Cavalry of Texas Volunteer Guards.

Colonel Waties has no relatives, except the members of his own immediate family, in this State. His mother died, as already stated, in Virginia; his father died in South Carolina. 'In the latter State his only brother also died, and there resides his only sister, Mrs. E. P. Waring. He has two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, and one son, John.

R. CHARLES L. GWYN .- In 1642 there caine from Milford, Wales, one Hugh Gwyn, who set- tled in Virginia, where he became the founder of a family which has spread to the remotest parts of this great country, and representatives of which have entered all of the professions and every field of commer- cial activity. The best known of the name probably was the late Duke Gwinn, of Cali- fornia, and General Walter Gwynn, of the Confederate ariny. Arbitrary changes in in the spelling of the name have been made by various branches of the family, as will be noted in this connection.

Charles L. Gwyn, of this article, is de-

scended from the original Hugh Gwyn, gen- tleman, who settled in that portion of York county which is now Mathews county, in 1642, and who was one of the first three members of the Colonial House of Burgesses of Virginia, having been born at Milford- Haven, Wales. Charles L. was born in Norfolk, Virginia, May 2, 1838, being a son of Charles R. Gwyn, who was a native of Gloucester county, Virginia, but who for nearly a half century was a prominent wholesale dry-goods merchant of Baltimore, Maryland, dying there but recently (1893), at the advanced age of eighty-four. Dr. Gwyn's mother bore the maiden name of May Sangston, was a native of Oxford, Mary- land, the daughter of Tamerlane Sangston, and came of old Quaker stock on her mother's side.

While he was yet a child Dr. Gwyn's parents took up their residence in Baltimore, and in that city his boyhood and youth were chiefly passed. He attended the Baltimore public schools until he was fifteen years old, when he entered Dickinson College, at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania, at which he graduated at the age of nineteen. He read medicine under Dr. J. R. W. Dunbar, of Baltimore, and graduated at the University of Balti- more, with the degree of M. D., in the class of 1860. He at once came West, and located on the Big Black river, in Claiborne county, Mississippi, where he began the practice of his profession. At the opening of the war he returned to Virginia, and en- tered the Confederate army, enlisting in Company C, of the Twenty-sixth Virginia Regiment. He was immediately made Or- derly Sergeant of his company, from which position, after a service of six months, he was transferred to the medical department as assistant, and afterward surgeon, and

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served in this department until the close of the war. After the surrender he settled at Gloucester, Virginia, and engaged in the practice of medicine there until 1872, when he again came to Texas, taking up his resi- dence in Grimes county, where he lived for the next ten years. In 1882 he moved to Galveston, which place has since been his home, and wliere, as well as in Grimes county, he has given his attention actively, and with a fair measure of success, to his professional duties. Dr. Gwyn is a mem- ber of the Texas State Medical Association, the Galveston County Medical Society, the Texas Academy of Science and the Ameri- can Medical Association, liaving been presi- dent of the County Medical Society, and held important positions in the State Associ- ation. He belongs to the Masonic frater- nity and to the Episcopal Church, and in politics is a Democrat.

In 1868 Dr. Gwyn married Miss M. B. Taliaferro, a native of Virginia and a daugh- ter of Thomas B. Taliaferro, of an old Vir- ginia family. The issue of this union has been eight children: Mary T., Elizabeth S., Charles T., Carrioline F., Margaret B. (de- ceased), Henry S., Kate (deceased), and James S.

S AMUEL L. GOHLMAN, cotton and 'commission merchant of this city, was born in Bremen, Ger- many, in 1826. In 1847 he came to this country, landing at New York city, where he was engaged in the butcher busi- ness for about one year. He then sailed to Galveston and thence to Houston, arriving here in the fall of 1848. Buying a small stock of dry goods he went to Caldwell, where he began the mercantile business,

which he followed in that place and in Cam- eron until the opening of the late war. At the close of hostilities he returned to Hous- ton and again turned his attention to mer- chandising for five years, his place of busi- ness being on Franklin avenue, opposite the Hutchens House. In 1870 he engaged in the furniture business in partner- ship with F. Illig. The business was con- ducted on Main street in the building now oc- cupied by the J. R. Morris hardware estab- lishment. At this he was successfully en- gaged for three years, but in the meantime began the cotton and commission business, to which he turned his attention after sell- ing out his interest in the furniture house to his partner. During these years he also owned an interest in a hardware business, which he lost by the great fire of 1875. For the past twenty years he has dealt exclu- sively in cotton, with which he has been very successful. He is a stockholder in the Houston Land & Trust Company and in the Planters and Mechanics' National Bank ;. and he is also a member of the Houston Cot- ton Exchange. ^

His rise has been gradual, and the posi- tion he has attained as a man of busi- ness has been by hard and persistent effort and by straightforward business methods. Through all the business depressions and financial crashes of the last twenty-five or thirty years he has passed with credit unim- paired, meeting every obligation and paying 100 cents on the dollar on every debt in- curred.

In 1861 Mr. Gohlman married Miss Sal- lie Streetman, of Cameron, Texas, and has six children living : Lilly, the wife of H. B. Easterwood, merchant of Hearne, Texas; Bettie, wife of J. E. Lester, of Houston; Samuel L., Jr., a member of the mercantile

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firm of Gohlman, Edwards & Company, of Hearne, Texas; William H., a medical stu- dent; Eva and Leon S.

ILLIAM BURNETT .- In com- piling a list of those inen who were early connected with the mercantile interests of the city of Houston, it will be proper to include the naine of William Burnett, who, though not a pioneer nor yet a man of great prominence, was nevertheless one who had mnuch to do with the commercial affairs of the place in one capacity or another for a period of more than twenty years. William Burnett was a native of England, born in the year 1815. He was reared in his native country and there married Annie D. Ash, and with her emi- grated to America in 1851, sailing direct to Texas. He settled in Houston immediately on coming to this State, and this was his home until his death, twenty-three years later (1874). In an earlier day he was a bookkeeper in this city, but later engaged in business on his own account, and liad a very successful mercantile career. He left, at his death, an estate valued approximately at $20,000, mostly represented in real estate in the city of Houston, the greater portion being very desirable property, and now yearly growing in value. Surviving him he also left a widow, who, however, died six years later, and one son and a daughter, both still living. The son, William Burnett, and daughter, Annie (the latter unmarried), reside in Houston. Both were born here and are thus attached to the city by all those ties that fix one's interests and stir his sense of pride. For this reason they have never seriously thought of leaving their native place, but on the contrary have with each

succeeding year become more warmly at- taclied to it, and more interested in every- thing pertaining to its prosperity and well- being. Miss Burnett is the owner of a large amount of real estate in the city, being in fact one of the heaviest taxpayers in the Fifth ward, where she lives, and being a contributor to whatever tends to elevate and improve the community. She has never entered the market as an active real estate dealer, but she buys and sells, and is known as a lady of sound business judgment and prompt and energetic business ways.

S M. McASHAN, the subject of this sketch, traces his ancestry to Scotch and French Huguenot origin, the McAshans, as might be surmised from the name, coming from Scotland; the Agees, from whom he is descended on his mother's side, from France. It was in the early settling of the country that each fam- ily took up its abode on this continent, se- curing a foot-hold in the colony of Virginia, where they became identified with the po- litical, religious and social surroundings, and entered with zeal upon the new life spread out before them. With such experiences as they had had in their native countries, they could hardly be expected to do otherwise than align themselves with the colonists in their struggles with the crown and to con- tend on all proper occasions for an enlarge- ment of their civil and religious liberties. All of the old stock, as family tradition has it, stood with the settlers in their "petition- ing," "remonstrances," and other peaceful measures addressed to the throne before the final rupture; and when war came at last, those able for field service took up arins and fought with Marion, Washington and La

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Fayette, some of them sealing their faith in the cause of freedom with their lives. Those who thus served in the Revolution were John McAshan and John Agee, grandfathers of the subject of this sketch, and John Hall, his great-grandfather, the last named a sur- geon of some repute. After the peaceful order of things had been restored, such of the ancestors of our subject as survived settled down to the pursuits of planters, which they quietly and successfully followed the remainder of their lives.

In Buckingham county, Virginia, which contained the old family seat of the McAshan family, Nehemiah McAshan, father of Sam- uel M., of this article, was born in the year 1783. He grew up in his native county, and at a proper age married Elizabeth Agee, born also in that county, in the year 1789. Some thirty years afterward, in. 1844, Nehemiah and Elizabeth McAshan emni- grated to Texas, and settled near La Grange, in Fayette county, where the former died two years later. The reason for their com- ing to this new country was to secure its many advantages for their large family of growing children, a purpose which the father lived to see only partially carried out, but which the mother was spared many years to assist in fulfilling. She died in 1872, at the advanced age of eighty-three. Both in- herited to a considerable extent the quali- ties which had distinguished their ancestors, being industrious, home-loving, and God- fearing people, a trifle old-fashioned in their ways, but sound in the cardinal virtues of truth, benevolence, and that far-reaching faith that raises the humblest plodders to the dignity of spiritual kings and queens. Their household, like that of many old-time households, was a large one, being made up, from first to last, of sixteen children, -seven

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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