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 73

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 73
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 73

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possessions, the planing mill and lumber alone being saved on this occasion. This loss reached the $18,000 mark, but Mr. Angle was not one of the kind to give way to despair, for on a still more elaborate.scale he rebuilt the mill; but, owing to the nu- merons heavy losses which he had sustained, it went into the hands of a receiver in 1892. However, for one year thereafter he man- aged the business for J. W. Roberts, the receiver, and then the plant was disposed of. Soon after this Mr. Angle organized the Crystal Springs Lumber Company, of which J. W. Roberts was made superintend- ent and Mr. Angle general manager, and a business of large proportions has since been done, both the sawmill and planing-mill averaging 75,000 feet daily. Mr. Angle deserves much credit for the manly and courageous way in which he met and sur- mounted the numerous financial difficulties which have strewn his pathway, and his career should be emulated by those who are but too ready to succumb when reverses overtake them. He is a prominent and successful millman, and one whose.business ability is recognized throughout the State.

While he has been wholly devoted to business pursuits and chiefly to those of a private nature, he has nevertheless found time to take some interest in local enter- prises of a general nature. and has always stood ready to give his support to any move- ment looking to the advancement of the wel- fare of the community in which he has resided. He, associated with others, organ- ized the Houston Printing Company, for some time publishers of the Daily Tribune, and he was also the chief promoter of the Texas Building and Manufacturing Com- pany, of Houston, the object of which was the manufacture of portable houses, this en-

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terprise, however, never having been fully carried out on account of the heavy losses sustained by Mr. Angle by fire about the time it was set on foot.

On the 19th of April, 1869, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Lommasson, daughter of Lawrence Lommasson, of New Jersey, to which union four children have been given: W. Verner, George B., Mala, and Marshall. Mr. and Mrs. Angle are members of the Presbnterian Church, and are highly regarded in the social circles of Houston.

UGENE JOSEPH CHIMENE, de- ceased. - The sketch which is given 1 : below is that of a gentleman who, though passed to his final reward, still lives in the wholesome and kindly in- fluence that emanated from him while on earth. We find no one more worthy of mention, or whose life of usefulness is more worthy to be chronicled, than this gentle- man, whose honesty and integrity as a man of business were proverbial in the cominun- ity. All his characteristics were worthy, and his accumulations were the result of many years of hard labor.

Ile was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1820, and when a young man came with his brother to the United States, and landed at New Orleans, from which place he started out as peddler of notions, and soon found his way to Houston, Texas, wliere he made his headquarters for some time. At this calling he made considerable money while traveling throughout the State. In 1847 he returned to his old home in France, and there married a third cousin, Miss Matilda Chimene, who was also born in Bordeaux, being but sixteen years of age at the time of

her marriage. Her parents were Abraham and Sarafine (Mindes) Chimene, while her husband's parents were Eugene Joseph and and Sarah (Rophes) Chimene.

In 1850 Mr. Chimene returned to the United States with his young bride and for some time after their arrival in Houston they kept a dairy, but later this gave place to a fruit store, and still later to a restaurant, in which business he was building up a reputa- tion and doing remarkably well financially, when the great war cloud, which had so long hovered over the country, burst with all its destructive force, and the hard-earned pos- sessions of Mr. Chimene were swept away. When the war closed he once more turned his attention to the pursuits of civil life and began working at the upholstering business, which soon began to net him a comfortable income, and in a short time he added a stock of furniture to his establishment, and was successfully engaged in that line of bus- iness up to the time of his death, which oc- curred October 4, 1875, since which time the business has been ably carried on by his widow, who has shown that she is possessed of excellent judgment and a discriminating knowledge of the business affairs of life. While attending to these duties she has never neglected her duties as a mother, and has wisely reared her children to honorable manhood and womanhood. They are named as follows: Alfred, Aleda, Alphonse, Car- oline, Ferdinand, Leah, Albert, Caliste, and Armand.

EVI BOSTICK was born in North Carolina ; Martha Hill was born in South Carolina ; they were married in the foriner State and lived there some years, when they emigrated to Ala-

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bama and settled at Montgomery. After several years' residence in that place they came to Texas, in 1829, locating on Mill Creek, in Austin county. From this place they moved, in 1831, to the Colorado, and there the following year Mr. Bostick died. His widow survived about ten years, dying at the same place in 1840. They were the parents of nine children, six of whom ac- companied them to Texas, the two eldest daughters having married and settled in Alabama before the family's removal from that place, and a third daughter, who also had married, moving to Texas at a later date. It need not be added that this is one of the pioneer families of Texas: the dates given show that fact. Whatever measure of honor the public is prepared to accord to the memory of those brave men and women who left the comforts of civilized life and came to this wilderness country to plant the seeds of civilization, Levi Bostick and his faithful wife are entitled to, for they were among the first, and helped to bear the bur- dens incident to the opening of this fair do- main to settlement by the white race. They were not permitted to live long enoughi to gather any benefits from their toils and hard- ships, but they died with the consciousness of having been, in their humble and unpre- tentious way, instrumental in blazing the road to a better state of things for their posterity than was open to themselves on the threshold of life, and it is to their credit also that their descendants properly appre- ciate the gifts so secured to them, these hav- ing received along with the greatest material blessings the yet greater blessing of intelli- gence, coupled with honest pride and patri- otic sentiment.

Of the nine children born to Levi and Martha Bostick, those who accompanied

them to Texas were: Comfort, who was subsequently married to Washington H. Secrest; James H .; Amanda, who was mar- ried first to William Eaton, the celebrated William B. Travis being their groomsinan, and after the death of Mr. Eaton, in 1836, she was married. to Frederick Scranton; Levi T .; Sion R .; and Martha Ann, the last named married to Felix Secrest. Three daughters, being the eldest of the family, Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary, were married in Montgomery before the parents moved to Texas. Sarah was married to Alexander Shaw and died in Alabama; Elizabeth, who was married to David Pogue, still lives, at the advanced age of ninety years; Mary was married to Daniel T. Fitchett, and subse- quently (1833) came to Texas. The three sons were in the service of the Colonists during the troubles with Mexico, in 1835-6, all of them belonging to Houston's army, the two eldest being on detached duty, and the youngest, Sion R., being present at and taking part in the battle of San Jacinto. Levi T. Bostick was also a volunteer in the Confederate army and died during the war, _ in North Carolina. James H. Bostick died at his home in Austin county, this State, in 1839. The youngest, Sion R., is still liv- ing, being a resident of San Saba, Texas, and is now (1894) the only survivor of the three men who captured General Santa Anna the day after the battle, about eight miles from the camp. All the daughters but one, Mrs. Amanda Scranton, of Hous- ton, are deceased. But there are many grandchildren, the descendants of Levi Bos- tick and wife now numbering between eighty and ninety souls.

Daniel T. Fitchett, who married Mary Bostick, and was a resident of the city of Houston during the later years of his life,

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was a native of Accomac county, Virginia, where he was reared until he was a lad well up in his 'teens. He was educated in Bal- timore, Maryland, and in that city began his career as a clerk in the mercantile busi- ness. He went to Alabama when a young man, and at Montgomery met and married Mary Bostick. He resided in Montgomery several years after his marriage, coming thence to Texas in 1833. He was thus also an early settler of this State, and shared, to . some extent, the privations of the pioneer band. He settled at first on the Colorado, near where his father-in-law had settled, but moved in a year or so to Brazoria. While residing here he took part in the or- ganization of the first Masonic lodge ever organized in Texas, this being the one after- ward revived as Holland Lodge, No. I, of ' Houston. From Brazoria he moved to Columbia, and finally to Houston, in 1842, where he died with the yellow fever two years later. His widow lived to the age of eighty-four, dying at the residence of her granddaughter, Mrs. William An- derson, in Kerr county, in 1892. They were the parents of five children, four of whoin, Mary Ann, William Henry, Martha Jane, and Virginia E., were born in Mont- gomery, Alabama, one Daniel T., being born soon after the family's arrival in Texas. All of these became grown, were married and had large families. The eldest, now Mrs. Mary A. Bryan, widow of Dr. John L. Bryan, is a resident of Houston, being, in point of actual residence in the State, one of the oldest Texans in the city. Mrs. Bryan has a fund of recollections of Texas in early days, and oftentimes delights her friends and visitors with her reminiscences. The following report of a half hour's con- versation with her, is given almost in the lan-

guage in which she spoke, and is reproduced here as an appropriate close to this brief family sketch:

Asked if she remembered the trip to Texas in 1833, Mrs. Bryan answered: "Very well, indeed. I was then a girl of ten; saw and heard nearly everything that was going on and recall the most that I saw and heard very distinctly. Our family, consisting of father, mnother, and four children, left Mont- gomery, Alabama, for Texas in the latter part of August, 1833. We came by steamer across Lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans and thence up the Mississippi to Red river, and up that stream to Natchitoches, Louisi- ana. After a week's rest at that place my father bought an ambulance and team of horses, packed the vehicle with supplies suitable for an overland journey of 400 or 500 miles, loaded us in, and started for my Grandfather Bostick's place on the Colorado, nine miles above where the town of Column- bus now stands. I remember that I looked forward to this part of the trip with a good deal of interest, for I had lived all my life in town, and, girl-like, I had enough of the ro- mantic in my nature, even at that age, to rel- - ish the idea of an overland journey through the wilderness country of Texas. I was not disappointed in my anticipations; for the first day out I was charmed with the novelty of the sensations I experienced, and each suc- ceeding day brought a wealth of entertain- nient for my youthful mind. From Natchi- toches, Louisiana, we took the usual route of travel to Nacogdoches, Texas, which lat- ter place I remember now as an exceedingly shabby-looking old town, part Mexican and part American, the plaza, as they called the business portion of it, being crowded with wagons drawn by oxen and horses, and a large number of very rough-looking men on

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horseback, thrown in, as it seemed to me, for good incasure. The men all wore big hats, and I recollect that I was especially impressed with the immense quantity of rope which those on horseback had about their saddles, as well as with the general elaboration of their equipments, including a liberal display of firearms.

"As far as I can now remember our journey to the Sabine was accomplished without incident. We crossed that stream on the ist of September and camped near the house of a settler, who had planted his roof-tree thus far in the wilderness and was enjoying life in the primeval forest, while at the same time he had surrounded himself with most of the material comforts of civili- zation. I remember this old settler with especial gratitude, for a little boy being added to our family the night we pitched our tent near his place, and I but ten and the eldest of four children, we needed some friendly assistance, which was extended to us in the spirit of the good Samaritan by the ladies of the old settler's household, and con- tinued as long as there was need for it. We remained at this place for something like a month, when we resumed our journey, my mother being sufficiently strong at the end of that time to warrant the undertaking.

"We followed the old Nacogdoches and San Antonio road, then called the . King's Highway,' and crossed the Trinity and Brazos by means of ferries, though at what points I have forgotten, if indeed I ever knew; but I remember the Trinity bottoms. For six miles, or further, we pulled through this densely-timbered stretch of country, and I recollect distinctly seeing the driftwood up in the trees, thirty to forty feet high, my father said, though it seemed to me much higher. We were told that the Trinity had

been unusually high that spring and sum- mer, and that this debris had been deposited by it while it was up.

"I have since becoming grown, heard old hunters talk feelingly and with fire in their eyes of the pleasures of the chase in Texas in early days, and while I, being a woman, could never, of course, enter with spirit and understanding into their conver- sations on this subject, I think I can under- stand something of the feeling, from what I saw of the hunter's paradise which this country offered before it was settled. Not a day passed, hardly an hour in the day, on our trip that we did not see herds of buffalo, antelope, deer, and flocks of wild turkey, not to mention bands of mustangs and Mex- ican wild cattle and other animals, offering in fact opportunities for any sort of sport, as well as the means of subsistence. There was but little underbrush then, the fires put out by the Indians every year keeping this burnt down, and one could see even in the thickest timber for half a mile. The prairie as well as the woodlands were covered with grass as high as a man's head, and this great ocean of billowy verdure was painted with flowers of a thousand hues, making a scene of bewildering beauty and grandeur, and one that I never recall without feelings of the keenest delight. It was nature just as it came from the hand divine, and out- rivaled, as, in my judgment, nature always does, the works of art.

"We reached Grandfather Bostick's place early in October, and found there Grandmother Bostick and her three sons and three daughters, Grandfather Bostick having died the year before. The meeting was a joyful one; for while our trip had not been very unpleasant, all things considered, still we were glad to be once more among our

Pela Single.

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people and have the comforts of home. My father settled on a farm where the town of Columbus now stands, but after a residence here of a little over a year he moved to Brazoria, in order to send us children to school, and at this place and at Columbia, to which he subsequently moved, he spent the most of his life in Texas. My father rented the first house of any size in Bra- zoria, and for some years kept a place of public entertainment. I remember that Stephen F. Austin was his guest once after his return from Mexico, and while on his way to old San Felipe he was given a ban- quet, which was attended by all the im- portant people of the place. While residing in Brazoria one of our neighbors was Dr. Anson Jones, afterward President of the Re- public, then, however, only a practicing · physician, but the leading one in that sec- tion of the country and a most estimable gentleman.

"I was old enough to understand to some extent the significance of the political and military moveinents that took place in rapid succession during the year of 1835, and when hostilities actually began between the settlers and Mexico and the news came fly- ing across the country that the dictator, Santa Anna, had invaded Texas with a large army, the incidents of the Run-away Scrape became firmly impressed on my mind; but these things have passed into the general history of those times, with which I do not doubt you are quite familar, so that what I might say would neither add to your knowl- edge nor afford yon much entertainment. I always feel interested in these matters, how- ever, and, having lived so long in Texas and become so much attached to the State and its people, I earnestly hope that sufficient interest will be awakened in those olden 35

time, and the brave and generous men and women who figured in them that enough of their lives,, characters and services to man- kind will be preserved to do their memories justice in years to come. The early Texans had a thrilling history. They were a unique people, and there is, as it seems to me, ma- terial for all sorts of literature to be found in a study of their lives, experiences and ad- ventures. The reader of the history of those times may miss much of the real flavor of the lives of those old pioneers, -will proba- bly never see in the flesh such men and women as the first Texans were,-but he can gain an approximate idea of them and the conditions amidst which they lived; and I am sure that no more interesting or in- structive line of investigation can be taken up than that of early Texas history and the ways and customs of early Texas people."

ETER GENGLER. -- From the first Germany has been a heavy contributor to the population of the United States. From her overcrowded cities and thickly-settled rural districts large numbers of her thrifty people have come to help fill the ranks of the dif- ferent trades and professions, and to reduce to cultivated and arable fields the forest and prairie wilderness of the great West. Spe- cial effort was made in the early days of Texas to secure as large a'number of Ger- man settlers for the new Republic as possi- ble, and, as a result, beginning around the early'40's, German immigration poured into the coast country of this State very rapidly. Galveston, as the entrepot for nearly all of Texas at that time, received and retained a large proportion of this immigration.

The subject of this brief sketch was one

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of the early immigrants of German nativity to Texas. He was born in the village of Dollendorf, Prussia, November 5, 1831, being a son of Nicholas and Catherine Gengler, who were also natives of Prussia. The elder Mr. Gengler landed with his family at Galveston in December, 1846. Peter at that time was in his sixteenth year. He had had but slender educational advan- tages, but such as they were they had to suffice, for immediately on landing here he turned his attention to business. In con- nection with his brother, John, he became a dealer in family supplies, beginning in a small way, but extending his operations and establishing, for this purpose, a line of wagons, which were run successfully for several years throughout the city and on the adjacent mainland into a number of the counties in the vicinity.

In time they laid by what, for that method of doing business, was a consider- able sum of money. With his share of it Peter embarked in the grocery and bakery business, in 1854 opening a small store on Twentieth street, between Market and Mechanic. Somne four years later he pur- chased the lot on Market street, where the Gengler building now stands, to which he moved; and, having discontinued the bak- ery branch of his business, he extended the grocery branch, and there carried on a large and successful trade for a period of nearly thirty years, until his death.

Mr. Gengler was, in the strictest sense of the word, a man of business. He never held any public office, not even that of Al- derman, and he took but little more than a passing interest in political matters. His attention was always concentrated on his business, although he was not unmindful of his duties as a citizen. As the result of his

patient, plodding industry, strict devotion to his personal affairs, and fair dealing he accumulated a considerable amount of prop- erty, and left, at his death, one of the most flourishing retail mercantile houses in the city of Galveston. While disposed to encourage all public enterprises, as far as his means would allow, it was his policy to keep his funds invested where they would be under his own supervision, and what he didnot use in trade he invested in real estate in the city.

In 1856 Mr. Gengler married Miss Agnes Fink, of Galveston, she being a native of Erbach, Gerinany, and having accompanied her parents to Galveston when she was young. The issue of this union was six sons, Peter, John, Henry, Matthew, Charles, and Joseph. Mr. Gengler died in October, 1887, and was followed two months later by his wife, who died in December. Their sons John and Henry died in boyhood; Peter died in March, 1890, leaving, of the family, only the three youngest. Of the three brothers and four sisters who accompanied Mr. Gengler to Galveston as members of his father's family but one, John, is now (1894) living. Most of them died in this city, as did also the parents. The relig- ious connection of the family was with the Catholic Church, to the support of which the subject of this memoir was a constant and valued contributor.

The accompanying portrait of Mr. Geng- ler was made from a photograph taken when he was about forty years old.

ON. R. L. FULTON .- In review- ing the record of the lives of suc- cessful men of the day and gener- ation in which we live, it is inter- esting to note from how many standpoints

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we must consider what may and what may not be regarded as a successful career, and what is most worthy in such records of preservation, in order that we may present a true photograph of the character and achievements of the subjects of such sketches.

This is particularly the case in under- taking the task of inditing, with any con- sideration for brevity, the political and official life of the subject of this sketch, the Hon. R. L. Fulton, of Galveston, Texas.

From the volumes of matter, in the way of newspaper clippings, carefully pasted in well-bound scrap-books, it would be an easy matter to compile a voluminons history of interesting events of more than a quarter of a century with which he has been a prominent actor; but to condense such a volume into a short biographical sketch, and at the same time preserve every feature of the strong characteristics of his life, is next to impossible.

Roger Lawson Fulton was born in Randolph county, Georgia, in 1839. His father, James H. Fulton, who died when the subject of this sketchi was only four years old, was an educator of note in Georgia. The death of his father left the responsibility of rearing and educating nine children upon his mother, Mary E. Fulton, with only limited means, but she was a woman of extraordinary energy and strong common sense, and she so wisely managed her small means as to give to each of her children a fair education and- send them forth fairly equipped for the battle of life. Her high character and indomitable purpose seemed to have been impressed upon her offspring, and her influence over them was irresistible up to the time of her death, which did not occur until she was past four score years of age. Slie died respected and

beloved not only by her offspring, but by all who knew her.

The eldest brother of the family, Thomas H. Fulton, removed to Texas in 1852, and settled at Lockliart, Caldwell county, and engaged extensively in mercantile pursuits. Six years later (1858), R. L. Fulton the subject of this sketch, then only nineteen years of age, by his elder brother's request, joined hin in Texas and assisted him in busi- ness.

Being, however, in delicate health, and finding sedentary pursuits incompatible with a preconceived spirit of adventure (which manifested itself before liis leaving Georgia in his attaching himself to an expedition that had for its object the dislodging of the Indian chief, Billy Bowlegs, from his jungle, in the Florida-Indian war), he concluded that, inasmuch as the Mexican bandit, Cor- tina, with a large force of Mexicans, was in- vading Texas, near Brownsville, he would join Colonel (" Old Rip") Ford, who was raising a force to drive tliem from Texas soil.

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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