USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 40
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Hle was born in Wilson County, Tenn., Novem- her 11th, 1807, and removed to Texas with bis parents in 1825. They settled on a farm four miles east of the present site of San Augustine, and there he grew to manhood and engaged in farming and merchandising until 1833 or 1834.
In 1835 Col. Isaac Holman. with his family, moved from Lincoln County, Tenn., and settled three miles northwest of San Augustine. Ilis fam- ily consisted of himself, his wife. five sons, and five daughters. During the year Matthew Cartwright became a frequent visitor at the Holman home and on the 18th day of October, 1836, he and Miss Amanda Holman were united in marriage and settled in San Augustine. She was a faithful help- meet and assistant in building up their fortunes and in raising an intelligent family, all of whom (except A. P. Cartwright, who died in 1873) are still living and are useful and respected citizens of Texas.
After his marriage, Mr. Cartwright embarked in merchandising at San Augustine in copartnership with his father. later bought his father's interest and thereafter conducted the business in his own name until about the year 1847, meeting with marked success and accumulating large property. From 1847 to 1800 he was actively engaged in locating and dealing in Texas lands, riding horse- back through the State, looking out good locations, and selling in small tracts to actual settlers on most favorable terms - frequently granting extensions covering a seore of years to enable purchasers to secure their homes, and in many instances of death before completion of payment would make title to widow or children without further consideration. Thus he assisted in building up many happy homes and in settling the country with worthy and pros- perous people, a man's character for industry and integrity having great weight with him in control- ling sales.
In the fall of 1865 he once more engaged in mer-
chandising, taking into the business his sons, A. P. and Leonidas Cartwright, in order to afford them business training. Ilis landed interests in about three years began to demand all of his attention, but the mercantile business was continued by his sons until 1870. April 2d of that year his long and useful career was closed in death. Besides his many friends, he left his wife, four sons and two daughters to mourn his loss.
Mrs. Amanda Cartwright survived her husband twenty-four years, dying at San Augustine in her seventy-seventh year. After the death of her husband she resided at the old family homestead, with her son, Leonidas, who acted as her business inanager until the time of her death. Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright were beloved by all who knew them and numbered among their friends all of the old settlers in San Augustine and adjoining coun- ties. Columbus Cartwright, the eldest son, was born in San Augustine August 23, 1837, and still resides at the old home. He is engaged in the real estate business, is a very worthy and highly respected citizen, and is beloved by those among whom he has so long resided.
A. P. Cartwright, the second son, born March 27, 1840, was a merchant and dealer in real estate and a fine business man, but was cut short in his career by the fatal disease, black jaundice, August 11, 1873, at the age of thirty-three years. He was one of nature's noblemen, honored by all who knew him, and his death cast a gloom over the town in which he lived.
Leonidas, Cartwright, the third son, born No- vember 27, 1842, at San Augustine, was engaged in the mercantile business with his father and brother, A. P. Cartwirght, from 1865 to 1869, but in 1870 devoted himself to farming, his health having become impaired under confinement in the store. After the death of his father, he became business manager for his mother in con- nection with the management of his own real estate interests and resided at San Augustine until 1825. when, in April of that year, be removed to Terrell, Texas, where he has since continued in the real estate business and is interested to some extent in live stock, raising fine horses and cattle.
Columbus, A. P., and Leonidas Cartwright were all in the Confederate army, the former in the Trans-Mississippi Department under Gen. E. Kirby
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MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT.
MRS. MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Smith. A. P. Cartwright served in the Missouri campaign under ?Gens. Ben McCulloch and Ster- ling Price -- in 1861 aad 1862, until after the battle of Elk Horn, when the Third Texas Cavalry was transferred to Mississippi. He was First Lieuten- ant off Company E., in that regiment, but resigned in the spring of 1862 and served during the re- mainder of the war in Louisiana and Texas in Gen. Major's Brigade. Leonidas Cartwright was a member of Company E., Third Texas Cavalry, and served through the war with it, first under Gens. McCulloch and Price in Missouri and afterwards in Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia under the several commanders who succeeded Gen. A. S. Johnson in command of the army of Tennessee, viz. : Beauregard, Bragg, Joseph E. Johnson, and Hood.
Matthew Cartwright, their fourth and youngest son, born August 11, 1855, resides at Terrell, Texas, where he is engaged in the real estate and live stock business, is president of the First National Bank, and is Mayor of the city. He has lived in Terrell since 1875 and is highly respected (in fact is beloved by all who know bim), being of that generous and warm-hearted nature that wins the affections of those who come in contact with him in a social or business way. Ile has been very suc- cessful in business, and for years has worked asfew citizens of that place have worked in the upbuild- ing of the best interests of Terrell.
Mrs. Anna W. Roberts, a daughter of Mr. Matthew and Mrs. Amanda Cartwright, was born April 6th, 1844, and resided at San Augustine until 1888, when she moved to Terrell, Texas, after the death of her late husband, B. T. Roberts, by whom she had seven children, all living and three of them grown to man's estate, active business men and useful citizens of Terrell. She is one of those lovable women who live to do good and to train and teach the members of their families to be ambitious, to excel in the faithful discharge of the duties of citizenship.
Mrs. Mary C. Ingram, the second daughter, wife of Capt. J. M. Ingram, now resides at Sexton, Sabine County, Texas, on Capt. Ingram's father's old homestead, but is building a residence at Ter- rell, intending to make that place their future bome. She was born October 18, 1845, at San Augustine. After her marriage she resided near Opelousas, La., until 1870, when they removed to San Augustine and thence from which place they moved in 1873 to their present home. She will be missed in her old home where, by her noble Chris- tian example, she has won the affections of her neighbors, and will leave many warm friends to regret that she saw fit to leave them. But, too, warm hearts will give her and hers a hearty welcome to Terrell.
W. M. C. HILL,
DALLAS.
W. M. C. Ilil, the efficient postmaster at Dallas ' and also a prosperons and progressive farmer and stock-raiser in Dallas County, was born in Franklin, Simpson County, Ky., April 5th, 1846, the sixth of a family of ten chikiren born to Isaac and Panline ( Carter) Hill, natives of Virginia and Ten- nessee. The father, a mechanic by trade, was married in Tennessee and at an early date located at Franklin, Ky. In 1861 he started for Texas and died en route at Shreveport, La .. in September, and the mother and youngest daughter, Amanda, also died about the same time from fever contracted on the journey. Our subject and his sister, now Mrs. (. G. Gracey, were thus left alone, but were taken care of by their brother-in-law, J. P. Goodnight. In 1862, Mr. Hill enlisted, in Dallas County, in Com-
pany K., Nineteenth Texas Cavalry, for three years, or during the war, and served principally in Arkan- sas and Mississippi. He was also in the Red River campaign in Louisiana and at the close of the war returned to Dallas County and followed freighting for four years. In 1871 he engaged as clerk for Uhlman & Co., with whom he remained for four years. In May, 1875, he engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business. In November, 1882, he was elected County Clerk of Dallas Connty and served until 1888, since which time he has been engaged in breeding fine stock. He has a large stock ranch of 3,000 acres in Dallas County, where he is principally engaged in breeding mules and trotting horses, and raising graded short-horn cattle. Hle has opened up Fairview Addition to
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the city of Dallas, has made many profitable in- vestments in land in Dallas, and is one of the directors of the American National Bank of that city. In August, 1885, Mr. Hill bought a lot and built a fine residence on Gaston avenue, where he now resides. Politically, he votes with the Demo- cratic party and in 1877 was elected an Alderman of the city, which position he resigned after one year. He is a member of Tannehill Lodge, A. F. & A. M .. has passed all the chairs of Dallas Chap- ter No. 47, R. A. M., is a member of Dallas Com- mandery No. 6, and of K. of P. Cœur de Lion Lodge No. 70. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hill are mem- bers of the East Dallas Baptist Church.
Mr. Hill was married in Ellis County, Texas, in - July, 1875, to Lena Bullard, a native of Missouri, and daughter of John Bullard, a native of Ten- nessee. Mrs. Hill's mother, nee Parmelia Hodges,
was born in Tennessee and died about 1858 in Missouri.
The father afterwards emigrated with his slaves to Ellis County, settling first near the Louisiana line in Texas and later near Waxahachie, where he bought land. He died at the home of Mr. Hill in Dallas, in October, 1876. Our subject's father was prominent in politics in Kentucky for many years. lle was a member of the Church and was well and favorably known. His wife was a Church member from her girlhood days and was an excellent and pious woman.
Mr. Hill was appointed Postmaster at Dallas by President Cleveland and has discharged the duties of that position in such a manner as to win the highest encomiums from the department and to give entire satisfaction to the people. Dallas has no worthier or more popular citizen.
SAMUEL D. HARLAN,
AUSTIN.
The subject of this brief memoir, Capt. Harlan, was an early navigator of Galveston Bay, Buffalo Bayou, the Brazos and the Trinity.
Capt. Harlan was about twenty years of age when he embarked at Pittsburg, Pa., on the steam- boat " Washington," for Texas. The " Washington" had been built at Pittsburg for the Texas trade and made her voyage safely. He landed at Galveston and in time became one of the originators and pro- moters of the Houston Direct Navigation Company and one of its most influential stockholders. This company has done more for the advancement and growth of the city of Houston and the develop- ment of its contiguous territory than any other one business enterprise. At the beginning of the late war he promptly identified himself with the South- ern Confederacy and, upon offering his services to the government, was detailed as a purchasing agent. He served as such in Texas during the conflict, devoting the greater part of his time to buying mules and horses for the service. After the
war he returned to Galveston and engaged in the cotton trade. He also acquired business interests. at Leadville, Colo., and Chicago, Ill. From over- work and exposure he contracted disabilities which resulted in a gradual decline in health. He located in Austin in 1887, which was thereafter, to the time of his death, August 14th, 1889, his home. He died at Waukesha, Wis.
Capt. Harlan married at Washington, on the Brazos, Miss Martha, a daughter of B. McGregor, a Texas pioneer of 1841. Capt. Harlan was unob- trusive in manner. He was a man of strict integ- rity, social and affable and of noble and generous impulses.
He left a wide circle of friends and a valuable estate.
Mrs. Harlan and five children survive. The children are: Mrs. Mary E., widow of Sam J. Doggett, of Chicago ; Samuel D. Harlan, of Austin : and Ada, Lillie and Robert.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
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THOMAS J. RUSK,
NACOGDOCHES,
Was born in Pendleton District, S. C., Decem- ber 5th, 1803. He early attracted the atten- tion of John C. Calhoun, under whose counsels he was educated and studied law. He then settled in Georgia, rose rapidly at the bar, married an ac- complished daughter of Gen. Cleveland and moved to Nacogdoches, Texas, in the winter of 1831-35.
In personal appearance he was of tall and com- manding presence, bad a dark, ruddy complexion.
Nacogdoches and his name is affixed to the declara- tion. Thence till his death in 1857, his history formed a large and inseparable part of that of Texas.
By David G. Burnet, the President ad interim from March to October, 1836, he was made Secre- tary of War, and later was sent forward to the army and was a leading actor at the battle of San Jacinto. When Gen. Houston retired early in May
THOMAS J. RUSK.
deep set and benevolent eyes, and kindly and en- gaging features instinct with sensibility and reflect- ing the noble soul within. A single glance won every heart, and the whole people took him on trust. Without desire or effort upon his part, he became the leader of the people of the old munici- pality of Nacogdoches in the first faint stirrings of a bloody revolution.
The convention which declared Texas an inde- pendent Republic met at Washington, on the Brazos, March 1, 1836. Rusk was there as a delegate from
in search of medical treatment in New Orleans Rusk was made Commander-in-Chief of the army. and, at its head, followed the retreating Mexicans to Goliad. There he called a halt, caused the bones of Fannin's four hundred and eighty massacred men to be collected and interred, and over the remains of the martyred dead delivered an address that moistened the cheeks of every man in the motley group of half-naked, half-starved and illy-armed volunteer soldiery, who with him performed these last sad rites. For a few months he remained in
أه الالكتويست فد/ هيثم
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
command of the army ; then returned to his home in Nacogdoches, where he was elected to the first Congress of the Republic. By that body he was elected a Brigadier-General of the Republic and as such in October, 1838, fought and defeated a large body of Indians at the Kickapoo village in East Texas.
In July, 1839, he commanded a portion of the troops in the Cherokee battles of July 16 and' 17. In the same year he was elected by Con- gress, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic, and held the first term at Austin in the winter of 1839-40. Under the Republic the Chief Justice and the District Judges composed the Supreme Court. Hc held the position for a * time. then resigned it and devoted himself to the practice of law, in which he had but a single rival in East Texas, in the person of his friend, Gen. J. Pinckney Henderson. He loved the freedom of retirement and had no taste for office-sceking or office-holding. However, in 1845, when a conven- tion was called to form a constitution for Texas as a proposed State of the Union, he was unanimously elected a delegate from Nacogdoches. When the convention assembled on the fourth of July, he was unanimously elected ils president, and when the Legislature, under its new constitution, assembled on the 16th of February, 1846, he was elected by the unanimous vote, of both the Senate and House, to be one of the two first Senators from the State of Texas to the Congress of the United States; his colleague being Gen. Sam. Houston. In 1843 he had been elected Major-General of the Re- public.
Together, they took their seats in March, 1846 --- together, by the re-election of each, they sat cleven years, till the melancholy death of Rusk in 1857. Together, they represented the sovereignty and defended the rights of Texas - together, they shed luster on their State-together, they sustained President Polk in the prosecution of the Mexican War-together, they, each for himself. declined a proffered Major-Generalship in the army of inva- sion in Mexico --- together, they labored to give Texas the full benefit of her mergence into the Union in regard to mail routes, frontier protection and custom house facilities -- together, they labored in behalf of the compromises of 1850, the adjust- ment of the boundary of Texas and sale (as a peaec offering), of our Northwest Territory to the United States - and together, they sought to encourage the
construction of a transcontinental railway, on the parallel of thirty-two degrees north latitude from the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico, through Texas, to the Pacific Ocean, an achieve- ment that found its final accomplishment Decem- ber 1, 1881, twenty-four years after the death of Rusk.
For several years Gen. Rusk was elected to the honorable position of president pro tem. of the United States Senate and presided with a dignity and impartiality that commanded the respect and csteem of every member of that body.
In 1854, with a select band of friends, he traversed Texas from east to west on the parallel of thirty-two degrecs to sce for himself the prac- ticability of a railway route, and became thor- oughly satisfied of its feasibility and cheap- ness. Ile was a wise man in his day and generation, a just man in all the relations of life, a true patriot, a husband and father tender to weakness, a friend guileless and true, an orator persuasive and convincing, a soldier from a sense of duty, in battle fearless as a tiger, in peace gentle as a dove ; ambitious only for an honorable name, honorably won, and regarded as dross the tinsel, display and pomp of ephemeral splendor. In a word, Thomas J. Rusk was a marked mani- festation of nature's goodness in the creation of one of her noblest handiworks. When he died Texas mourned from hut to palace, for the whole people, even the slaves, wherever known to them, loved him.
Would that I could reproduce a few sentences from the culogy upon him by that peerless son of Texas, the late Thomas M. Jack, before a weeping audience in Galveston. But my copy of it is among the treasures lost in the late war.
Fidelity to truth bids the statement - so painful to a whole commonwealth - that this noble citizen, patriot and statesman, died by his own band, at his own home, in Nacogdoches, in the summer of 1857.
His cherished and adored wife, to whom he was not only attached with rare devotion, but for whou: he had a reverence as remarkable as beautiful, had died a little before. His grief, quiet but unap- peasable, superinduced melancholy. A ravenous carbuncle at the base of the skull racked his brain, and. in a moment of temporary aberration, he took his own life, by shooting himself with a gun, and . his soul went hence to a merciful God.
INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
637
JOHN H. SEARS, M. D.,
WACO.
Dr. Sears is known throughout the State as one of the pioneers of the medical profession in Texas.
Born in what was at the time Prince Edward, but now Appomattox, County, Virginia, October 9th, 1826, he was reared under the stable and staid influence of one of the most bistoric and patriotic communities of the Old Dominion. His father, John Sears, was a thrifty and successful planter who lived near Appomattox Court House, and the history of his antecedents, both paternal and
attended a course of medical lectures. Later he studied medicine at the South Carolina Medical College, at Charleston, gradnating and receiving his diploma therefrom in the year 1852. He had visited Texas in 1848, and shortly after the com- pletion of his medical studies moved to Texas, influenced in so doing, perhaps, by an elder brother who had located and become fairly established as a farmer in Brazoria County. After a brief visit to his brother, Dr. Sears located for a short time at
JOHN H. SEARS, M. D.
maternal, for generations, dates back to the early days of Virginia's history. His father was born in Prince Edward County in 1798 and died in 1890, at ninety-one years of age.
Dr. Sears' boyhood and youth were spent on the old homestead where he, with other members of the family. enjoyed the privileges of good society, good schooling and a careful and judicious home train- ing.
After receiving preliminary instruction at Davis Academy, where he took a special course of study embracing Greek, Latin and mathematics, he entered the University of Virginia, where he
Port Sullivan, where he remained until 1854, and then moved to Waco, which has ever since been bis home. What is now the beautiful, bustling city of Waco was then a frontier trading.post, consisting of one general store and three houses, one of which was a publie stopping-place. Here Dr. Sears " put out his shingle " and entered upon the practice of his profession with that vigor and conscientious devotion to duty that has ever characterized his professional life. Hlis practice extended over a wide scope of country, covering the surrounding counties of Bosque, Hill, Navarro, Limestone, Falls, Bell, Coryell, and adjacent territory.
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INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
There are probably few, if any, physicians in Texas who have seen more of pioneer life and had wider experience as a frontier physician than the subject of this memoir. As the country became settled and Waco developed, Dr. Sears' profes- sional labors were contracted to his home city and its environs.
Dr. Sears married October 12th, 1854., Mrs. Angie Amelia Downs, nee Gurley. She was born in Alabama ; a daughter of Davis Gurley.
Dr. and Mrs. Sears have two daughters and one son, viz. : Sallie, wife of Mr. J. W. Taylor, the present efficient District Attorney of McLennan County: Mary, wife of Jesse N. Gallagher, of Waco and candidate for election to the office of County Judge of MeLennan County this year, 1896, and John Sears, a candidate for District. Clerk of McLennan County.
When the clouds of war lowered over the coun- try, Dr. Sears aligned himself with the cause of the Confederate States and in 1862 joined the
Thirty-second Texas Cavalry and served as its sur- geon during the conflict between the States. Ilis regiment became attached to the army brigade under command of Gen. Gano, and Dr. Sears was promoted to the position of Division Surgeon with the rank of Major.
When the war closed he returned to his home. and resumed his medical practice. Successful in all that he attempts, his life and best energies have been faithfully devoted to his professional labors. He has long counted among his patients many of the leading men and women of Central Texas, and from the time of his arrival in that section has dis- tinguished himself as a physician and surgeon. Lofty-minded strength of purpose and a scrupulous regard for the ethics of the profession are qualities that have marked his career. He is physically and mentally well preserved, although in his seventieth year, and apparently many years of usefulness yet await bim.
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ROBERT CALVERT,
ROBERTSON COUNTY.
The subject of this sketch. Judge Robert Calvert, was born near Wartrace, Tenn., February 9, 1802, and came of pioneer stock, his parents and grand- parents being among the carly settlers of the trans- Alleghany country.
His father was William Calvert and his mother, before marriage, was Lucy Rogers, both reared in Tennessee, and the latter a native of that State. His ancestry on his father's side is traced to Ire- land and on his mother's side to England. His parental grandfather emigrated from Ireland to America towards the close of the last century and settled in Winchester, Va., whence he moved at a Jater date to Tennessee. Ile was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian and was amply endowed with the rugged virtues and strict religious views for which his people were distinguished. Robert was reared to the practice of these virtues and schooled in the same religious faith, never departing from them in after life. He grew up in Tennessee and North Alabama. his parents moving to the latter State during his boyhood. In Bibb County, Ala., on the 28th of August, 1823, he married Miss Mary Keesee and, settling on a farin, resided there until
1838. Ife then moved to Saline County, Ark., whence in 1850 he came to Texas and settled in Robertson County.
In Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, Judge Cal- vert was engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he met with noteworthy success. His plantation in the Brazos Bottoms was not only the first opened in that section of Robertson County, but was for years one of the best equipped and best conducted, and from its fruitful fiells was annually gathered a wealth of cotton and corn, then, as now, the sovereign products of that valley. In a rapidly settling country, such as Texas was during the early years of Judge Calvert's residence here, there was a constant demand for corn and bacon to supply the incoming settlers, and these commodities he always had in abundance and sold at reasonable prices. Ile was engrossed ahnost entirely with his farin- ing operations, but interested himself in a generai way in everything going on around him and was : frin friend to all sorts of public improvemen's. ITe advocated the extension of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, through Robertson County. and, as contractor in connection with Judge William
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