USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 45
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"The campaign for United States Senator, in which Governor Ireland is supposed to have an in- terest, and for which position the solid thinkers of the State are urging him to offer, fails utterly to dis-
tract his attention from the legitimate routine of his official business. While others are sending out printed speeches, essays, and so forth, as an carnest of their ability for the transaction of Senatorial work, and are making speeches for the same pur- pose, all more or less imbued with the idea of their importance to the State, Governor Ireland remains passive and unmoved amid it all, and continues to ply his pen in its regular channel."
Governor Ireland never was a candidate for any office from an announcement of the fact by himself. Official honors came to him unsolicited.
Governor Ireland died at San Antonio, Texas, at 11:55 a. m., March 15, 1896, of neuralgia of the heart, after a brief illness. Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Carpenter, of Seguin, and Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Graves, of Houston, his sons-in-law and daughters, were at his bedside during his last moments. Mrs. Ireland was prevented by sickness from being pres- ent. The remains were subsequently brought to Austin, and after lying in State at the Capitol were interred in the State cemetery, where sleep Texas' most distinguished dead. The services were of the most impressive character. The Bar Association of Austin met and passed resolutions of respect. The funeral cortege was one of the largest ever known in the history of Austin. No mark of honor to the memory of the dead that his eminent and patriotic services deserved or that a grateful peo- ple could pay was omitted.
The following editorial from the pen of his friend, Col. Joel H. B. Miller, editor of the Austin Daily Statesman, published in the issue of that paper of March 18, 1896, is a just tribute to the worth of the deceased, and is inserted here as & part of this biographical notice :--
"THE LATE JOHN IRELAND,
"Ex-Governor John Ireland, or all that remains of bim, was buried in the State Cemetery in this city yesterday. While Governor Treland was respected for his ability wherever he was known, he was person- ally very popular in this city, where he has resided officially off and on for a number of years. The citizens of Austin not only had a full appreciation for his sound sense and large acquirements, but. for his gentleness and suavity of manner to all he came in contact with. Hle was by no means a demon- strative or ostentatious man. Quite the contrary, he was reserved, even with his most intimate asso- ciates, and modest to timidity in the presence of strangers and public crowds.
" Ile was a man of many sturdy qualities of head and heart. According to our conception of his general character, his highest capacity consisted in
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sound common sense, well cultivated by mingling in the current of private and public life and strengthened by a judicious course of reading. He was an eminently just man. No self-interests or political policy could swerve him from fair treat- ment and the use of just means, even with his com- petitors. While he was always apparently calm and unexcited, he had great force of character, but he was a man who had such control of himself that his determination or will could only be dis- covered by a manifest persistency that at last made itself fell whenever that force of character was needed, but he did not permit himself to be disturbed by small things, over which he never worried.
"Endowed with a strong mind, with no violent passions to throw him off of his course and nothing more attractive than duty, he built himself up by unceasing application, and with his eye fixed on the goal of success, he never permitted himself to be jostled out of his course. He dug and dug hard and deep for every mental accomplishment and when he found it he held on to it, What he knew he knew thoroughly and he could use all he acquired to the very best advantage. He gave one the im- pression of possessing a mental method by which he labelled useful knowledge and laid it away on a shelf convenient to be taken down and used at any emergency.
"John Ireland was a representative American citizen, illustrating the advantages that a free and equal form of government affords to every boy child born under its protecting flag. The public school system had not been organized in Kentucky when John Ireland wrung his education out of ad- verse circumstances. His parents were not able to educate him and he worked with his hands by day and studied unaided by teacher or professor by night to accomplish himself for the profession to which his ambition directed him. He metaphoric- ally dug into the ground with his nails and fingers for all the learning he obtained in his youth, and he never for a moment flinched from his task. Bright young men and women swept past him on gala days and holidays, but he crushed back the social impulses of his nature and grasped the fleet- ing hours to weave into the woof of his life some- thing nobler and better than the passing smiles of beauty and he passed on and on until he won honors, representative in the Legislature of his adopted State, judge of the courts, and Governor, then it was that beauty and talent came to do him reverence. He had won the goal, but it was with scarred feet he stood upon the pedestal of fame. He got there over rough roads, but he got there.
Any young man of such earnest purpose as he had, can get there.
"Go to, thou sluggard, drop a flower on his grave and turn away determined to be a man and not a mere butterfly of fashion, an honorable and useful man, a man whom the country in which he lives would delight to honor and shed a tear on his grave as this community did yesterday on the grave of John Ireland."
He died an honored ex-Governor of Texas, an eminent statesman and a distinguished jurist, whose name is intimately associated with the judicial and political history of Texas. He came to this State in 1853, being then twenty-six years of age. His arrival was opportune, as the then newly constituted State was in need of men of bis quality -young men of sterling character, stout hearts, intellectual endowments and practical zeal. He was a native.of Kentucky, and was born at Millerstown, on the banks of the Nolyn river, in Hart County, January 1, 1827. His father, Patrick Ireland, was a well-to-do farmer, native of Ken- tucky. ITis mother, whose maiden name was Rachel Newton, was born and reared in the same State.
Governor Ireland's boyhood and early youth were spent at home on the farm, where he received such schooling as his home county afforded in those days. Wben about eighteen years old, through the agency of the business men of Munfordsville, Ky., he was declared of age by special act of the State Legislature to enable him to qualify as Constable, which office he filled for several years. He also held the office of Deputy Sheriff of Hart County. He was carly possessed of an ambition which had developed into a fixed purpose to achieve an honor- able place among men. In the performance of his official duties he acquired a practical knowledge of process and legal methods which turned his atten- tion to the lay. In 1851 he entered the law offices of Murray & Wood, of Munfordsville. By studious application and patient industry he had, in the space of one year, so thoroughly mastered the principles of common law, that he was admitted to practice. The opportunities there offered for future advancement did not, however, seem to him promising, and, in casting about for broader fields, his attention was directed to the Lone Star State, and he located at Seguin in 1858, as before men- tioned, and thereafter made that place his unofficial home. There he entered upon the practice of the profession in which he afterwards so greatly dis- tinguished himself. He brought with him to Seguin naught but a clear head, a well-stored intellect, honesty and tennelly of purpose, and an irrepressible
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determination to succeed. He drew around him a large circle of friends and soon built up a lucrative practice.
Governor Ireland was twice married. His first wife was Mrs. Faircloth, whose maiden name was Matilda Wicks. She was a sister of John Wicks, an extensive planter in Guadalupe County, and of Col. Moses Wicks, formerly a banker of Memphis, Tenn. She died in 1856, leaving one daughter, Matilda, born in Seguin, August 6, 1855, who was educated at Staunton, Va., and married E. S.
Carpenter, a prosperous planter and business man of Seguin, further mention of whom is made else- where in this volume. Governor Ireland's second marriage occurred in Fayette County, Texas, and was to Miss Anna M. Penn. Four children were born of this union, viz. : Mary F., born in Fayette County, educated at San Marcos, taking the first prize for scholarship; she married J. W. Graves, a druggist of Seguin, Texas ; Katie Penn, Rosalie and Alva - all born in Seguin, none of whom survive their father.
EVAN SHELBY CARPENTER,
SEGUIN,
Is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Lincoln County, of that State, April 27th, 1843. His father, William Carpenter, moved from Kentucky to Guadalupe County, Texas, in 1852, and lived near Seguin until the close of the war between the States, and then returned with his family to the old Kentucky home, Carpenter Station, an historic land- mark of Lincoln County. In 1874 they returned to Texas, the father dying in Bandera County, at seventy-five years of age. . Evan Shelby Carpen- ter's mother was Miss Judith Shelby, a grand- daughter of Gen. Isaac Shelby, of Revolutionary fame, and the first Governor of Kentucky, an old hero whose patriotic public career and romantic life have furnished subjects for some of the most thrilling stories of early Kentucky life.
Mr. Carpenter was about nine years of age when his parents located at Seguin, where he spent his carly youth. Eight years later the great war he- tween the States burst upon the country and he joined the Confederate army as a private in Com- pany B., Carter's Regiment, Twenty-first Texas Cavalry, and remained continuously in active service until the close of the conflict. In 1865 he made a business trip into Mexico, thebee to Mis- souri, Kentucky and Michigan; but, his health
requiring such a balmy climate as that of Texas, he located at Seguin in 1870, and has since resided there.
In October, 1876, Mr. Carpenter married Miss Matilda, oldest daughter of Governer John and Mrs. Matilda Wicks Ireland, of Seguin. Mr. Car- penter is well known as a successful business man. During Governor Ireland's incumbency of the gubernatorial office Mr. Carpenter served as his Private Secretary, and as such made many warto personal friends. Mis. Carpenter was also called upon to assist in the honors of the Governor's houscholl, for which duties ber personal graces and social accomplishments eminently qualified her. Mr. Carpenter returned to Seguin at the close of Governor Ireland's administration, and with Mr. J. W. Graves, a brother-in-law, entered the drug business. Since the dissolution of this .frm, in 1894, Mr. Carpenter has occupied his time in at- tending to his own and Governor Ireland's large farming and landed interests. Mr. and Mrs. Car- peuter have three children : Patrick, born February 19th, 1880, who, having been adopted by his grand- father, Governor Ireland, has bad his name trans- posed to Patrick Carpenter Ireland; Emma Lee, and George Jarvis.
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Matilda Inland Carpenter,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
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J. W. GRAVES,
SEGUIN,
A prominent druggist of Texas, is the son of the Rev. H. A. Graves, one of the pioneer ministers of the Lone Star State.
Mr. Graves was born in Nashville, Tenn., in 1857; came in carly infancy to Texas, and grew to manhood here and has become folly identified with Texas interests.
When the war between the States ended it left Mr. Graves' father, like all Southern men, to face the reverses of fortune. J. W. Graves was an ambitious boy. By his own efforts he soon acquired such a common school education as the State afforded at that time; not long thereafter graduated in pharmacy, acquired the confidence of the people by his studious habits and business
qualifications, and established himself successfully in the drug business in Seguin.
In 1881 he married Miss Mollie, second daugliter of Hon. John Ireland, who died in 1891. After his wife's death Mr. Graves sold his interests in Seguin and identified himself with a large business house in New Orleans, for which he traveled through Texas.
Later he became a stockholder and worker for the Houston Drug Company, which place he retained until the death of Governor Ireland, of whose large estate he was made one of the execu- tors, and in the interest of which he now spends most of his time in San Antonio.
Mr. Graves has one child, a bright boy of cleven years, whose name is Ireland Graves.
JOHN O. DEWEES,
SAN ANTONIO.
Jobn O. Dewees, for many years ideutitied with the history of Southwestern Texas, and a leading citizen and stockman of that part of the State, was born in Putnam County, Ill., where the town of Greencastle now stands, on the 30th day of De- cember, 1828. His parents were Thomas and America Dewees, natives of Kentucky, respectively of Welsh and English and German and English descent.
His father was a farmer and stock-raiser, and died on his farm, near Hallettsville, in Lavaca County, Texas, in 1864. His mother died at San Mareos, Hays County, Texas, May 5th, 1889. Mr. Dewees came to Texas with his parents in 1849. During the war between the States he joined Company B., Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, and as a soldier in the Confederate army participated in the fight at Blair's Landing and the twenty-five or
thirty severe skirmishes, including the battle of Yellow Bayou, that marked the retreat of Banks army to Lower Louisiana. He has resided in San Antonio for a number of years past. He has been engaged in the cattle business from carly youth, and from a small beginning has built up an estate valued, at a low estimate, from $140,000 to $200,- 000. He is regarded as one of the leading stock- raisers and financiers in the section of the State in which he resides.
February 12th, 1873. he was married to Miss Anna Irvin at the home of her mother in Guadalape County. They have one child, a daughter. Miss Alice A. Dewees. Mr. Dewees is a fit represents- tive of the men who have done so much toward the development of the varied resources of South- western Texas, one of the fairest portions of the State.
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JOSEPH BLAND,
ORANGE,
Was born in Vermillion Parish, La., June 8, 1832, and came to Texas in 1835 with his parents, who settled in what is now Orange County. His father. was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation, which he continued until his death.
His mother is still living, and resides in Orange County, twelve miles west of the town of Orange. Mr. Joseph Bland went into business for himself at nineteen years of age, and two years later he e married Miss Martha Ann Thomas, daughter of L. R. and Annie Thomas, of Orange County.
He is County Surveyor of Orange, and is also engaged in farming. During the war he served as Sheriff of the county by election of the people, and
after the war was appointed Sheriff by Governor E. J. Davis, notwithstanding the fact that he was a well- known Democrat. He has seven living children, viz. : Henry W., Constable of Orange; Clara, wife of D. W. Stakes, of Orange; Flavia, wife of A. Prajan, of Orange; J. D., Sheriff of Orange ; Malony, wife of E. C. Hall, of Orange County ; Margaret, wife of G. S. Rassell, of Orange, and George W., who lives at Johnson's Bayou, La.
His mother now has eighty-five descendants -- children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He is a Mason of forty-two years standing, and bas held the Royal Arch degree since 1863.
WILLIAM R. HAYES,
BEEVILLE.
From the time of the establishment of the first white settlements in America until the evolution of conditions that approximate those that have so long prevailed in Europe, the history of this country pre- sents an almost uubroken record of romantic inci- dents, the like of which can never occur in this prosaic age. The race has not reached, however, in its destiny a region of cloudless days. There is many a storm for it yet to weather, but the strug- gles of the future are to be those of a lighly devel- oped industrial and commercial civilization. The man who has lived through the past half century and honorably met the responsibilities that dis- linguish it from all the other half centuries known to human history, has had s schooling that no other man can ever have again, and has a store of mem- ories that no later soul that shall ever come from ont the infinite can possess though it should abide upon this ancient earth a thousand years. Thesub- jeet of this memoir, Judge William R. Dayes, was born in 1835 ( the 30th day of December), in Hick- ory County, Mo., and like most young men of tal- ent, courage, and possessed of a taste for adventure who grew up in the West sixty years ago, was an active participant in many stirring events. Ilis
forefathers, on his father's side, came from England to Virginia about the time of the establishment of the settlement at Jamestown, and afterwards moved to and lived in the Carolinas. His great-grand- mother on his mother's side, named Young, came from Ireland. In 1846 his father, Joseph Hayes, sold his farm in Missouri and started for Texas, but stopped in Sevier County, Ark., until 1854, when he moved to Medina County, Texas.
The subject of this sketch, desiring to try his fortunes in the West, in March, 1854, shipped with Jim Sparks as conductor of a prairie schooner from Fort Smith to California.
Reaching Salt Lake City late in August, too late to cross the Sierras, the train went into winter quar- ters there, and in the spring of 1855 he went with a portion of Col. Steptoe's government train, via Fremont's route, to California, and engaged in mining there until December, 1858. Having made a trip to Frazier river, in the British possessions, he then came to San Antonio, via Tehuantepee and New Orleans. He went to Bee County in April, 1959, bought land, and is living on the same place now, engaged in farming and stock-raising.
Ile was married, in 1861, to Miss Amanda Fuller.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Hle served during the war between the States for three years, in Col. Hobby's regiment, and then transferred to Edward's company, Pyron's cav- alry, just before the close of the war. He was appointed Treasurer of Bee County, in 1870, and continued to fill that office, being re-elected, until April, 1876, when he was elected County Judge, which office he filled for eight terms until November, 1892.
At the age of eighteen, as previously stated, Mr. Hayes made a trip to California, and for many years "roughed it," as he expressed it, in his younger days chasing buffaloes on the plains, skir- mishing with the Indians often, and hunting elk in the mountains near Salt Lake City. He also worked in the mines in California. During all of this time he was blessed with remarkable health, and in these extensive travels on mountain and plain never missed a guard duty. The same may be said of his service during the war ; in the three years he was never on the sick list nor reported absent without leave. During the eighteen years and six months he served as County Judge be held one hundred and sixty-three terios of the Commis- sioners' Court, and was never absent a day. Of terms of the County Court during that time there were one hundred and cighty-five, and he was absent only one day.
He is a believer in the Christian, or Campbellite Church.
Mr. Hayes has managed to accumulate a com- petency, and owns a pleasant home in one of the fairest parts of the State. He is engaged exten- sively in raising improved stock, horses and cattle, and in farming.
He has eight children, to wit: Fannie, Mary, Horace, Lucy, Homer, Annie, Travis, and Vivian.
Judge Hayes takes an active interest in public affairs, and has been & conspicuous worker in every enterprise which has been inaugurated for the benefit of the section of the State in which he resides. With J. W. Flournoy he was on a com- mittee to negotiate for the extension of the Aran- sas Pass Railroad to Beeville, and closed the trade with President Lott thai resulted in the building of the road to that point. He contributed $500.00 of the bonus given to that road, and to the Southern Pacific $100.00 to build to Beeville. He has been
instrumental also in causing the erection of numer- ous churches in his county during the past twenty years, contributing liberally of his means to that end. Indeed, we may say that his liberality to schools, churches, and all charitable purposes has been one of his distinguishing characteristics.
While serving as County Judge and ex-officio Superintendent of Schools of bis county, he took an active interest in his duties, and each year met the teachers of the State at the annual meetings of the State Teachers Association.
When the County Judges' Association was or- ganized, he was elected Treasurer and served as such and met with them each year until he retired from office, having then served longer than any other County Juflge in the State.
He is universally respected by all who know him, as an honest man, upright and impartial judge, public-spirited citizen, and Christian gentleman ; moreover, he is a man of fine, decidedly martial, appearance, being six feet in height and as straight as an arrow, and, though somewhat advanced in years, he moves with a soldierly step and bearing. He weighs 175 pounds, has a fair complexion and has blue eyes. Affable and genial, easily ap- proached by those even of the most humble station, he has many devoted admirers and friends.
Judge Hayes has an excellent library and spends many hours in the society of his books. He has not, however, lost interest in the events that are transpiring about him. On the contrary, he is as deeply attached to the cause of good government as at any former period of his life, and is active with voice and pen in every campaign in which im- portant issues are submitted to the hazard of the ballot. His greatest pleasures are found, however, within the limits of his delightful home circle and in the companionship of his numerous friends.
Still in the full vigor of mental and physical strength, and thoroughly interested in the drama of life, through so many scenes of which he has al- ready passed, he is still an active and progressive worker, and has many plans that he hopes to ac- complish before the coming of Nature's bed-time. Strong, vigorous and manly ; patriotic and unselfish, he is a fine representative of the men who have made our present civilization possible, and it is to be hoped that many years of uscfulness yet await him.
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GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER,
PALO PINTO COUNTY,
Was a native of Lawrence County, Miss., his birth occurring May 10, 1811. William Slaughter, his father, was a Virginian, born in 1781, his death occurring in Sabine County, Texas, in 1851. The elder Mr. Slaughter was a farmer and had seen service in the war of 1812, fighting under Jackson at New Orleans. Ile married Miss Nancy Moore, of South Carolina, and was the father of eight children, four of them boys. In 1821 the family moved to Copiah County, Miss., and four years later started to Texas, but stopped for a time in
with headquarters at Nacogdoches. He was a man of narrow and decided views and but poorly qual- ified to exercise authority over a people reared in the enjoyment of American liberty. There was no tolerance of religious belief beyond a blind adher- ence to the Catholic Church, and the arrest by Col. Piedras of several Protestant clergymen, who had attempted to hold services in the colony, precipi- tated one of the first conflicts between the colonists and the Mexican government. G. W. Slaughter, then a boy of nineteen or twenty, took an active
MRS. GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER.
Louisiana, and it was while living in the latter State that George Webb Slaughter received the only schooling ( three weeks in all) which he ever had an opportunity to obtain. In 1830 the Slaughter family crossed the Sabine river and settled in what was then the Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas. At that time the country cast of Austin was divided." into municipalities governed principally by military laws. Petty officers were in charge at the different points and alcaldes, or magistrates, were appointed by them, while all matters of importance were re- ferred to the District Commandant. Col. Piedras was in charge of the country along the Sabine,
part in the armed resistance to this act of tyranny, and his relation of the events which followed is vivid and interesting. A commissioner, sent to Col. Piedras to intercede for the prisoners' release, was treated with contempt, and Col. Bean Andrews, who repaired to the city of Mexico on the same errand, was thrown into prison. Despairing of obtaining recognition and relief through pacific methoils, the colonists held a mass meeting at San Augustine about June 1, 1832, and resolved to take matters into their own hands and release the pris- oners, if need be, through force of arms. Prep- arations for this decisive step went quietly on, and
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