USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 2
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proceeds applied to the buying of arms and sup- plies. Part of them had been sold and proceeds partly used when the fall of the Confederacy eame. The bonds and money not used were deposited with bankers. Payment of interest being refused by the United States on the bonds that had been sold, the holder of the bonds attached the unsold bonds and enjoined the bankers against paying the money on deposit to the State of Texas.
Several lawyers had been engaged to recover this property, but their efforts were fruitless. Governor Coke during his first term as Governor, appointed J. D. and D. C. Giddings as agents in the matter for the State. They took the case, and after mueh work and a trip to Europe, Col. Giddings brought baek and turned over to the State the sum of $339, - 000. As a banker and business man he has evinced sagacity, liberality and public spirit, conducting his financial ventures to a successful issue and aiding, with expenditure of time, influence and money, all worthy enterprises inaugurated for the benefit of the community and section in which he lived. Col. Giddings is still mentally and physically vigorous. Ripe in experience, full of years and honors. be is pursning the quiet tenor of his useful life surrounded by loving friends and enjoying the respect and confidence of a people whom he has served faithfully and well in time of peace and war.
GEORGE W. BURKITT,
PALESTINE.
Parton, who was America's most celebrated bio- graphical writer. once said, " Give me the facts con- corning the lives of the active and useful men of a commonwealth and I will produce from them its entire history," thus emphasizing the fact that the busy, setive men, are the history-makers. To this number belongs the subject of this notice.
He was born in County Derry, Ireland, Novem- ber 12, 1847; came to America early during the war between the States; worked on a farm at Morris, IB., and then sought and found employ- ment with a contracting firm who were engaged in grading on the road-bed of the Union Pacific Rail- way ; drove a team for them for about two months, when he was put in charge, as foreman, of a gang of men and continued in that capacity for about
five months ; then resigned that position, purchased a team and worked on the grade cast and west of Salt Lake, in the Green river valley, thereby in- ereasing his ineome to five dollars per day; re- mained on the work until the grade was completed in 1869 ; then sold his team and went to Junction City, Kan., and'engaged in subcontracting on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway grade, which he continued until 1872; then came to Texas and continued in the same line of business at Longview on the Texas & Pacific Railway and later graded portions of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Short Line, now a portion of the Southern Pacific system; next was a subcontractor on the International & Great Northern Railway and not long thereafter took a general contract of construc-
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tion for the same company on their line from Rock- dale to Austin; then built, complete for rolling stock, the Trinity & Sabine Railway from Trinity to Colmesneil, a distance of sixty-six miles ; next job was the construction of the line from Gaines- ville to Henrietta, a distance of seventy-two miles ; also built the Santa Fe line from Montgomery to Conroe, fourteen miles, and later the Taylor, Bastrop & Houston, from Bastrop to Boggy-Tank, fifty-four miles, and in 1893 he continued the road from Boggy-Tank to Houston, both sections com- prising one hundred and fifteen miles, and from Smithville to Lockhart on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas the same year, and also built extensions from Wichita Falls to Henrietta, sixteen miles, and the Velasco Terminal, twenty-two miles ; associated at various times with Mr. D. Murphy, when the busi- ness operated under the firm name of Burkitt, Murphy and Burns, when the business was run under the firm name of Burkitt & Murphy, after- wards Burkitt, Burns & Co.
This is a history of railroad building that is as yet unapproached by any man in the State of Texas, the total mileage figuring up to many miles of completed road.
Mr. Burkitt is a promoter of and president of the Palestine & Dallas Railroad, which is soon to be built between the two cities. As opportunity
afforded, he acquired large tracts of land and his holdings now amount to about 35,000 acres and has sold about $250,000 worth of land, principally to Germans on eight and ten days' time, who are paying promptly according to contract. These lands are both improved and unimproved and lie in seventeen counties in the State.
Mr. Burkitt has by contract supplied railroad ties in large quantities to various roads for some ten years past, the timber being cut, in many instances, from his own land.
He is closely identified with the banking interests of Texas. In 1887 he was active in the organiza- tion of the First National Bank of Palestine and is now one of its directors and its vice-president. This was the first national banking house in the city. He is a director of the Taylor National Bank, of Taylor, Texas, organized in 1868. He owns stock in the First National Bank of Stephenville, organized in 1889, and is likewise a stockholder in the First National Bank of Orange, established in the same year. He is president of the Taylor Water Works and Ice Company and a stockholder in the Palestine Cotton Seed Oil Co., of Palestine.
Mr. Burkitt married at Houston, in 1880, Miss Mary Hartley, a daughter of William Hartley, a business man and mill owner of that city. They have one son, George, and a daughter, Bessie.
WILLIAM VON ROSENBERG,
HALLETTSVILLE.
Win. Vou Rosenberg, a leading citizen and finan- cier of Southwest Texas, was born in Washington County, Texas, Angust 9, 1863, and moved with his parents to Round Top, in Fayette County, in 1867; acquired the rudiments of a good English education in the public schools of that place, and in 1876 entered the college at New Braunfels, Texas, where, during the following two years, he completed his education. In 1878 he accepted employment at Bellville, Austin County, Texas, where he learned the mercantile business in the large retail establishment of C. F. Hellmuth. He remained with this firm for ten years, working him- self up from the lowest to the highest position in the house in three years. In June, ISSS, he em- barked iu the general mercantile business on his own account, at Hallettsville, Texas, taking his younger brother, Otto Von Rosenberg, into part-
nership with him, and establishing the firm of Rosen- berg Bros. By fair, liberal and honest business methods this firm has become one of the largest and is known as one of the most reliable and suc- cessful business houses in Southwest Texas. It does an annual retail business of from $75,000.00 to $100,000.00 and handles everything in the way of general merchandise, agricultural implements. etc., needed to supply the trade of that section. The Messrs. Von Rosenberg are also large cotton buyers, the principal product raised in that part of Texas. They handle annually from 7,000 to 10,000 bales, buying principally for correspondents in Eastern States, but also largely for export to Liverpool and other European points. They have acquired large landed interests in Lavaca, Jackson and Wharton counties.
In 1891, finding their business constantly inereas-
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ing, they erected commodious brick buildings in Hallettsville, and added to their business a banking department, which from its inception has met with a liberal patronage from the business community.
Mr. Win. Von Rosenberg was married at Belle- ville, Texas, May 9, 1889, to Miss Metta Bross- mann, daughter of Mr. C. H. Brossmann, County Treasurer of Austin County.
FRANCISCO DE PAUL GONZALES,
GALVESTON.
The subject of this sketch, Francisco De Paul Gonzales, was born at Guanajuata, Mexico, on the 9th day of April, 1826. His grandfather and father were both officers in the Spanish army, . having gone to Mexico, from Spain, with the Span- ish troops, at the time of the expedition of Barra- das, and subsequently settled here.
Mr. Gonzales, with his younger brother Thomas, received his elementary English instruction in the State of Illinois, but while still quite young, he was sent to Spain, to complete his education in the Monastic College of his ancestral home, at Valla- dolid. Here he was received with the demonstra- tive hospitality, the pomp and ceremony usually accorded to the sons of the old Spanish Grandees.
Returning from Spain, Mr. Gonzales made his home in New Orleans, where his mother was already living. His rare grace and charm of manner. his fine conversational powers, and the dignity of his distinguished presence, soon won for him the esteem and admiration of the fastidious citizens of that metropolis of the South.
After a period, fired by the spirit of adventure and enterprise which at that time stirred the hearts of so many young men, Mr. Gonzales resolved to seek his fortune in the new State of Texas. Ac- eordingly he located at Brownsville, and for many years carried on an extensive and lucrative trade with the interior of Mexico.
It was during this time of commercial prosperity and happiness, that he married the acknowledged
belle and beauty of the Lone Star State, Miss Martha Anne Rhea, the granddaughter of Governor Sevier, and the daughter of the late Judge Rhea, who, at that time, was Collector of Customs at Point Isabel. In 1856, Mr. Gonzales, with his family, moved to Galveston, and for years was a prominent cotton factor. After the death of his wife, in 1874, he retired from active business and devoted his time exclusively to his children and his consular office - as during the entire time of his residence in Galveston, he was Consul for Mexico.
He had five children, two sons - Francis Edward, who died August 9, 1885, and Joseph Maurice, who died March 28, 1893 -- and three daughters, Marie Therese, Helen, and Martha, still living. Helen, married to Theodore Demetrius Murcou- lides, has two children, Theodore Demetrius, Jr., and Marie Stella Murcoulides. Mr. Murcoulides, who was born and educated in classic Athens, but now a citizen of Smyrna, a city in Asiatic Turkey, is in Galveston, managing the business of the world-renowned Ralls House.
Mr. Gonzales was by faith and practice a Roman Catholic. With an inflexible belief in the dogmas of his Church in the broadest sense he obeyed its commandments.
With strict principles and exclusive tastes, he devoted himself to his children and his friends with an ardor second only to that which he bore to the divine symbol of his faith. Francisco de Paul Gonzales died January 16, 1890.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN C. WARD,
BEAUMONT,
President of the Beaumont Ice and Electric Light Company, was born at Titns County, Texas, in 1851. His parents were Andrew J. and Nancy Ward. He was educated at Beaumont where his parents moved when he was a boy. He resided at Corpus Christi and San Antonio for four years and then returned to Beanmont. His first business ex- perience was acquired when sixteen years of age as shipping elerk in a saw mill. Hle remained in the lumber business for about twenty years, beginning work at fifteen dollars per month and at the close of the time specified owned a business which he sold for $56,000. After the sale of his mill interests he embarked in the business in which he is now engaged. His financial suecess is attributed to perseverance, patience and judicious speculation. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
He has been twice married, first to Miss Pickie Kyle, of Jasper, Jasper County, Texas, in 1877, and second in 1885 to Miss Belle Carroll, of Beau - mont. Four children were born of each union, viz. Westley Kyle Ward, aged seventeen ; James Dalton Ward, aged fifteen ; John Keith Ward, aged thirteen years; Andrew Jackson Ward, living at Jasper County, Texas, with his aunt, aged eleven ; Mena Belle Ward, aged eight; Henry Levy Ward, aged seven; Carrol Ward, aged four, and Seawillow Ward, aged two years. All of the chil- dren, except Andrew J., are living at home.
Mr. Ward has had strong competition to contend against. Ilis success has been due to tireless energy and superior capacity. He has moved steadily to and now occupies a leading position at the front among the brainy financiers of Texas.
JEFFERSON JOHNSON,
AUSTIN.
There is no man better known or better liked in Travis County than Mr. Jeff. Johnson, the subject of this notice. He is identified with the agrienl- tural interests of the county, owning a well im- proved farm of 456 acres at Dell Valley, but resides in the city of Austin, where he has been for many years engaged in business. He bas for some years past represented the Union Central Life Insurance Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the leading institutions of the kind in the country.
Mr. Johnson was born January 8th, 1845, in Clermont County, Ohio, and completed his educa- tion at the Ohio Wesleyan University. His parents were Benjamin and Asenath (Tribble ) Johnson. the former a native of New Jersey, and the latter a native of the State of Ohio.
Mr. Johnson came to Texas in 1879 and settled in Travis County, where he engaged in farming, and has since resided. February 5th, 1879, he was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Houston, daught- ter of David Houston, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and
now (1896) has five children, viz., Benjamin, Augusta, Adele, ITelen, and Cornelia.
He is a member of the order of Knights Templar in the Masonic fraternity, and is also a member of the Tenthi Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the city of his residence.
Ile was appointed one of the trustees of the State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb at Austin, by Governor L. S. Ross, still retains that position, and has served through the administrations of Governors Ross, Hlogg and Culberson, the greater part of the time as the President of the Board of Trustees, and at present occupies that responsible position.
He is a member of the Free School Board of Travis County, and is Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of the county.
In 1891 he was, prior to the assembling of the Democratic State Convention, chairman of Hon. Jolin HI. Reagan's campaign committee.
Ile is a Democrat, true and tried, a man of exceptionally fine judgment, has the rare faculty of
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always espousing the right side of an issue, is a thorough master of the tactics of political warfare, has done yeoman service for the cause of Democ- racy in every campaign that has been fought before the people since coming to Texas, has in every respect come up to the full measure of enlightened, progressive and patriotic citizenship ;
is kind, affable, and foremost in every good work that has in view the betterment of social conditions and the prosperity of his adopted city and State, and, consequently, is esteemed and respected by all, and has many sincere and devoted friends, not only in Austin and Texas, but wherever he is known.
J. C. HODGES,
PARIS,
Hon. Jacob Calvin Hodges was born near Boone, N. C, on the 25th day of December, 1849, and grew to manhood on the farm. In consequence of the war between the States, in which his father and elder brother participated, bis opportunities for obtaining an education were meager.
In 1870 he obtained license to practice law and soon after came to Texas, stopping a short time at Jefferson, from whence he went to Pittsburg, Texas, where he engaged in the practice of his profes- sion.
In the spring of 1875 he went to Paris, Texas, where he has since resided and been actively cn- gaged in the practice of law and has won a distin-
guished position at the bar. Learned in the law, and a powerful and persuasive speaker, he has been unusually successful as an advocate.
In politics he has always been a Democrat and has been outspoken upon every political question, State and national, that has come before the people, and has taken an active and aggressive part in every campaign waged by his party since he came to the State. Ile was elected County Attorney of Lamar County in 1878 and re-elected in 1880 and was an elector at large on the Cleveland ticket in 1892.
He is justly regarded as a tower of Democratic strength in North Texas and few men in the State have labored more zealously and effectively in the cause of good government.
JOHN RABB,
AUSTIN.
This veteran Texian was born in Fayette County, Penn., in 1798, was reared in his native State to about the age of ten, when he went to Arkansas, where he met and, at about the age of twenty- two married Miss Mary Crownover, daughter of John Crownover, in company with whom and a brother, Andrew Rabb, he came to Texas in 1822, as a member of Austin's colony, but later moved on to the Colorado, into what is now Fayette County, taking up his abode on the prairie, which bears his name, and there built on the banks of the Colorado one of the first grist mills ever erected in Texas,
known as " Rabb's Mill." He received from the government a grant of a league of land as a bonus for this enterprise and by means of it became. in a very substantial manner, one of the first benefactors of the settlers of that section. He subsequently built aud owned a number of mills in that locality, the last of which was a saw and grist mill combined, the product of which went all over Central and Southwest Texas. He was a resident, at different times, of Fayette, Fort Bend and Hill counties and finally, in 1860, moved to Travis County, settling at Barton Springs, near the city of Austin. where
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he died June 5th the following year. Mr. Rabb volunteered in the patriot army in 1836 and was at the battle of San Jacinto. He was also in the frontier service and helped as often as occasion de- manded to repel the attacks of Indians, and pur- sued them and reeaptured booty they had taken during their raids. He was very little, if any, in publie life, though a publie-spirited, patriotic eiti- zen. He was liberal, active and earnest, a man of a strong meehanical turn of mind, and always mani- fested interest in industrial pursuits of some sort. He was a zealous member of the Methodist Church and a liberal contributor to his church. He gave the lumber to build the first Methodist church ever erected in San Antonio, the lumber being hauled from his mill in Fayette County to San Antonio by Mexicans on ox-carts.
Mr. Rabb's widow survived him a little over twenty years, dying in 1882, in the seventy-seventh year of her age. She was justly entitled to be ealled one of the mothers of Texas, having come to the country when it was a Mexican province, and lived through all the changing vicissitudes of its fortunes for sixty years. She was living in the country when Texas threw off the yoke of Mexican despotism and established an independent republic ; she was here when the young but vigorous Republic asked for admission into the American Union; she
saw Texas withdraw from the Union and again enter the sisterhood of States, thus living under five gov- ernments. She was well known to, and knew many old Texians, and possessed a large fund of reminis- eenees concerning Texas people.
Mr. and Mrs. Rabb were the parents of nine children, one of whom died in infancy, one at about the age of nine, the other seven living to maturity.
They had three sons in the Confederate army, viz. : Zebulon M. P., John W., and Virgil S. Of the seven children referred to, but three are now living, viz. : Virgil S., Mrs. Bettie Croft, and Gail T. Rabb.
Gail T. Rabb, the youngest of this pioneer family, was born at Rutersville, Fayette County, Texas, in 1847, and was reared there until he was thirteen, at which time, in 1860, his parents moved to Travis County, where he has since resided. He has been engaged in farming, stock-raising and milling, hav- ing erected two grist mills. He is an enterprising, well-to-do and highly respected citizen.
Mr. Gill L. Rabb married Miss Isabella Tharp, of Robertson County, Texas, a daughter of Eli W. and Susanna Tharp, and a native of Ohio. She was reared, however, in Texas, her parents coming to this State when she was about five years old. The issue of this marriage has been four children : Derance, Walter Tharp, Mamie, and Tom Miller.
STERLING C. ROBERTSON,
EMPRESARIO OF ROBERTSON'S COLONY.
Sterling C. Robertson was born in Nashville, Tenn., about the year 1785. He served as Major of Tennessee troops in the War of 1812 and 1814 and was honorably discharged. He received a liberal education and was reared in the occupation of planting. He engaged in agriculture in Giles County, Tenn .. but in a few years moved to Nash- ville. Enterprising and adventurous, and being possessed of large means, in the year 1823 he formed a company in Nashville to explore the wild province of Texas. He penetrated as far as Brazos and formed a permanent camp at the mouth of Little river. All the party returned to Tennessee, however, except Col. Robertson. He visited the settlements that had been made and, while there, conceived the idea of planting a colony in Texas. Filled with enthusiasm over this plan, he
went to his home in Tennessee ; there le purchased a contract that had been made by the Mexican government with Robert Leftwich for the settle- ment of 800 families. The colonial grant embraced a tract of land, and by the terms of the contract Col. Robertson was given six years in which to introduce the 800 families ; he was to receive forty leagues and forty labors of land for his services. In 1829, at his own expense, he introduced 100 families, who were driven out by the military in consequence of false representations made to the government in regard to Col. Robertson and his colonists. The matter was finally adjusted and in the spring of 1834 the colony was restored, and in the summer of the same year he laid out the town of Sarahville D'Viesca. A land office was opened about October 1, of the same year, and the settle-
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INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ments were rapidly made. In the summer of 1835 he visited Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky, making known the inducements to emi- gration. He had been authorized by the Mexican government to offer to settlers who were heads of families one league and one labor of land, one- fourth of a league to single men, and to foreigners marrying native Americans, one league and a quar- ter of land.
border he was subject to all the trials and hardships inseparable from contact with the wild and savage Indians. Enterprising and patriotic, he had many opportunities for an exhibition of those traits.
From the campaigns of 1812 and 1814, down to 18 42, the year of his death, he was an active partici- pant in every struggle of his countrymen. Before the revolution of 1835-6 he introduced more than 600 families into the colonies, fully one-half of the
STERLING C. ROBERTSON.
Col. Robertson was a delegate to the General Convention of 1836, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Consti- tution of the Republic of Texas. He commanded a military company in the spring of 1836 and re- ceived therefor a donation of 640 acres of land, having participated in the battle of San Jacinto. He was a member of the First Senate of the Con- gress of the Republic of Tesas.
He died in Robertson County, Texas, March 4, 1812, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. No man ever led a more eventful or trying life. On the
whole number having come at his expense. It would require a volume to recount in detail all his experiences, the adventures, trials and escapes through which he passed from the time of his com- ing to the frontier until his decease.
He was a gentleman of rare culture and was es- teemed, not only for the nobility of his nature, but for his commanding intellectuality and unselfish devotion to his country and the cause of constitu- tional freedom. He was a leader among that band of heroes and statesmen who laid the foundation for the Texas of to-day.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GEORGE BERNHARD ZIMPELMAN,
AUSTIN.
The pioncers of Texas whose coming antedates the year 1846, are, as years pass, rapidly joining the "great majority," and those who remain are representatives of an historic past, whose experi- ences, with the passage of time, become more and more interesting.
George B. Zimpelman left his native home in Germany in 1815, and came to America to seek his fortunc. He was born in the then Kingdom of Bavaria, July 24th, 1832. His father, John J. Zimpelman, was a life-long and influential citizen, and by occupation a prosperous farmer. He was also born in Bavaria, was there reared, and married a daughter of Valentine Hochidoerffer, who was likewise a well-to-do farmer in Bavaria.
Much had been published and circulated in Ger- many and other foreign countries about this time concerning the new Republic of Texas, and young Zimpelman, having caught the spirit of the hour, decided to make his way hither. He decided on New Orleans as his first American point of des- tination, landing there in January, 1845. He re- mained there about one year, and served as a salesman in a dry goods house, and in December of the same year proceeded to Texas and to Austin, the recently established scat of govern- ment. Austin was then on the extreme Western frontier. Settlers had, however, taken np farms along the Colorado and in the vicinity of the capital city. Building operations were quite lively, and, in lieu of something better, young Zimpelman adapted himself to the situation, and took up car- pentering as an apprentice, and in due time be- came a master carpenter. He continued in this business until 1851. He then became interested in and followed gunsmithing for two years. In 1856 he located on a stock farm near Austin and pur- sued stockraising and agriculture until the breaking out of the great Civil War. Upon the first call to arms in 1861 he promptly volunteered to defend the cause of his adopted country, and became a member of Terry's Texas Rangers, the Eighth Texas Cavalry, as a private, and followed his regiment through all of the vicissitudes of that sanguinary conflict, sharing in all of its victories and defeats, and declining all offers of advance- ments from the ranks, preferring to stand in line of battle with his comrades. The heroic services of Terry's Texas Rangers as an organization is
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