USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 50
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Mr. Hudgins returned to Texas in 1879, and studied law in the office of his cousin, Hon. Geo. T. Todd, of Jefferson, Texas. He received his license to practice from Judge R. R. Gaines, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, in 1880. He moved to Texarkana, Texas. in 1881, and there established a law partnership with Hon. Chas. S. Todd, which continued twelve years. In 1882 he was elected County Attorney of Bowie County. In 1886 he was elected a Democratic member of the Texas Legislature from the Seventeenth District, then composed of the counties of Bowie, Cass, Marion, and Morris. He served with distinction in the regular and special sessions of the Twentieth
Legislature, after which he voluntarily retired from politics, and traveled in Europe in 1889. While in the Legislature he was Chairman of the Committee on Enrolled Bills, and a member of the Judiciary Committee, and the Committees on Towns and City Corporations, and Counties and County Boundaries. He was the special champion of the interests of the University of Texas, in the House, and by his elo- quent persistency, against great opposition, secured the appropriations for erecting the main building of that institution.
In 1891 he married Mrs. Sallie Norris Taylor, of Red River County, and has since continued the practice of law in Texarkana and the adjacent country in Texas and Arkansas. He has been identified with the most important cases, both civil and criminal, in that territory. He is now General Attorney and Second Vice-President of the Texar- kana & Fort Smith Railway Company, to accept which position, in 1893, he severed his connection with the well-known law firm of Todd, Hudgins & Rodgers.
He was an alternate delegate from Texas to the National Democratic Convention of 1884, which first nominated President Cleveland. During the political campaign of 1896 he was an ardent sound money, or gold standard, advocate, was a prominent member of the State Convention at Waco, and a delegate from Texas to the Indianap- olis Convention which nominated Generals Palmer and Buckner for President and Vice-President. In the final election he accepted the suggestion of Gen. Palmer, and, for the first time, voted the straight Republican ticket. Though not a candidate for any office, he made strong speeches during the cam- paign opposing free silver, but insisting upon fair elections and a reasonable tariff for protection of domestic products.
Mr. Indgins is one of our broad-minded, pro gressive business men, who are doing great work in advancing the development of Texas.
C. POTTER,
COOKE COUNTY.
Capt. C. Potter, one of the most widely known of the early pioneers who settled in Northwest Texas and reclaimed that section to civilization, moved from the State of Mississippi to Cooke
County, Texas, in 1858, and settled sixteen miles northwest of Gainesville, then the extreme outpost along the frontier of white settlements in that direc- tion.
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He, like many others who pushed into the Far West, expected the country to rapidly fill up with immigrants and the frontier to recede with the in- coming waves of the human tide that has since swept across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, but bis calculation did not take into account the great Civil War of 1861-5. This event brought a sudden stop to the movement of population into Texas and, during that struggle, the few people who re- sided in the frontier settlements were subjected to a continuous Indian warfare that taxed their en-
were killed. The Indians were everywhere com- mitting depredations, and the Confederate govern- ment, finding itself unable to furnish troops to protect the frontier settlements, authorized the State to organize State troops for that purpose, and Capt. Potter was placed in command of five com- panies and served with these until the end of the war, holding the Indians in check, or where that was impossible, pursuing them and inflicting bloody chastisements upon them.
His three sons, C. C. Potter, J. M. Potter and
C. POTTER.
durance and resources to the utmost. During this trying period he proved himself to be a natural leader, rich in resource and dauntless in spirit, and rendered valuable service to the State. In Decem- ber, 1863, the Indians, about two hundred and fifty strong, burned his dwelling-house and all its con- tents. This loss, coming at the time it did, forced his family to endure many privations, but he had no thought of leaving the country, on the contrary he determined to hold his ground and stand by his neighbors and friends until the dawning of happier and more prosperous days. In a battle near bis house, at one time, in which his eldest son was wounded, several Indians and three white settlers
C. L. Potter, live in Gainesville ; of his daughters, Mrs. W. A. Lanier lives at Sulphur Springs, Texas ; Mrs. L. K. Evans, at Nocona, Texas : Mrs. W. C. Weeks, at Arlington, Texas, and Mrs. L. H. Mathis, at Wichata Falls, Texas. His sons occupy honor- able positions in business and professional circles, Hon. C. C. Potter having represented his district in the Legislature a number of times and won a State-wide reputation in that body. His daughters are among the brightest social ornaments of the communities in which they reside. All the de- seendants of this noble old pioneer have proven worthy of their parentage, and have contributed their part toward making the Texas of to-day.
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INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
A. FORCKE,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
For more than fifty years the subject of this memoir has been a citizen of Texas. Coming to this country a man of superior education and attainments, he has been an intelligent observer and eye-witness of the multifarious changes that have transpired since he took up his residence at New Braunfels, and few of the old pioneers of Texas have a mind so well stored with interesting and instructive reminiscences, or are more entertaining conversationalists.
Mr. Forcke was born in Hildesheim, Germany, April 21st, 1814, and was educated in local schools at Hildesheim and Jena, and secured his diploma as an apothecary and followed that avocation in his native town. His parents were J. G. and Mrs. A. M. J. (Grossman) Forcke, both of whom are dead, his father dying in 1862 and his mother in 1868, at Hildesheim. His father was a joiner by trade, and a man much respected in the community in which he spent his long and useful life. The subject of this notice and his family left his home in the Fatherland for Texas in 1845, and in talking with him he gave the writer the following account of his coming to and settlement in this country :-
" After having joined the Fuersten-Verein, we departed for Bremen on the 14th of November, 1845, and arrived at New Braunfels on the 11th of July, 1846, after a voyage lasting eight months. We suffered greatly from adverse weather and were shipwrecked in the channel during a terrific storm, but were happily driven to the month of the River Weser after we had drifted about some four weeks. Here a pilot came to meet us, risking his life, as the weather was stormy, and called out to lower the anchors. Fortunately the pumps were in order and the vessel was kept afloat by them, going day and night. The pilot, who was taken aboard with much difficulty, guided the ship back to Bremer- haven. It was nearly a total wreck and our lug- gage was ruined for the greater part.
" My brother, who was a strong young fellow of twenty-four, was stricken with typhus three days later and died.
" As our ship was utterly useless, we were fur- nished another one, the " Creole," a strong vessel which had just completed a voyage under Capt. Dannemann, a very able seaman. A part of the passengers, however, refused to continue their trip and returned homc.
"Some three weeks later, after everything had been washed and cleaned as well as could be done, we set sail and in time came to Dover, where we dropped anchor. Here we had a singular expe. rience. The ship, which had been secured by cables and chains, keeled over partially when the tide went out, but was kept from entirely capsizing by the cables, which held it. Still, the damage was suffi- eient to spring a leak, and so we were forced to sail for Cowes ( Isle of Wight) to have the vessel calked and its bottom coppered. This delayed us three weeks, after which we again set sail and as we struck the trade winds everybody rejoiced, for the favorable current brought us nearer our destination by a good many miles every day.
"However, we were not so lucky as to retain favorable winds and after a short while we struck a dead calm. In fact, the captain declared that he had never before made a voyage under such untoward circumstances. Several weeks later we encountered a number of whales, there must have been a dozen of them, and several icebergs were passed at a respectful distance.
"Through the carelessness of the first mate we came near colliding with a French frigate and, but for the dexterity of the captain, both vessels might have gone down. We now neared the West Indian Archipelago and encountered daily storms until we landed at Galveston, about the beginning of May. Here we remained for several weeks and were then transferred by schooners to Indianola, where we were received by the physician of the society with the words: ' I am awfully glad you have come, as I will now have some assistance, everybody has the cholera.'
"Of course we helped, and for the three weeks we remained there, the sick were provided with suitable medicine. On account of the very un- favorable weather, cold and dampness, and lack of care and attention, a great number of the patients died, who could have been saved if it had been pos- sible to take them to New Braunfels.
" The only obtainable vehicle for the continua- tion of our journey was an ox-cart and a pair of oxen, by which method two families were finally brought to New Braunfels, where I was engaged by the society as apothecary."
Mr. Forcke prospered in business at New Braun- fels as an apothecary (in which he has since been
COL. A. J. ROSE.
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engaged) and soon came to take an active part in the affairs of the community. of which he has been a leading citizen from the beginning, working always for the promotion of the best interests of the town and for the upbuilding of the section in which it is situated. No man in that part of the State is more generally and justly esteemed for pur- ity of character and services rendered.
He married, in 1848, at New Braunfels, Texas,
Miss Sophia Fricke, an estimable young lady of that place, who has borne him three children: G. H. Forcke, Mrs. Joseph Faust and Charles Foreke, the latter of whom is deceased. Mr. Foreke has served as a member of the Board of Aldermen of the city of New Braunfels and of the Board of School Trustees, in both of which positions he has been an active worker for the best interests of the city of his residenee.
A. J. ROSE,
SALADO.
What Texas is to-day and what she may in the future hope to be is founded upon the broad, liberal and far-sighted wisdom and the stability of her pioneers. The pioneers of Texas, as a rule, were not adventurers as in most countries they usually were, but were men of resolute and well defined purpose who came hither to aid in the building up of a free and independent government and iden- tify themselves with the development of a new and promising commonwealth and to establish homes. They were mostly young people with their lives before them and with a strong determination and willing hands to develop the country. The subject of this brief memoir was one of that class and it is doubtful if there is to-day a pioneer who has been -more closely identified with the material growth of Texas than he, and the author's aim in publishing this work would not be accomplished without making a becoming record of his long and useful eareer.
Mr. Rose is a native of North Carolina and was born in Caswell County, September 3d, 1830. His father, H. S. Rose, was a farmer whose ancestors were among the first settlers of North Carolina. Mr. Rose's mother was Mary Durham, her family likewise being pioneers of North Carolina. In the early days of that State H. S. Rose removed with his family onto the frontier in Missouri, lived in Howard and Randolph counties, and in the year 1836 or 1837 removed to Macon County. Our sub- ject was then a small boy of about six years, still he vividly remembers the skeleton Indian tepes lo- cated on the old homestead that had been but recently abandoned when the family located there- on. The father secured land from the government, developed a pioneer home and there lived until his death in 1846. He was an active and enterprising
man, a typical pioneer and delighted in frontier life and took a prominent part in opening up the Maeon County country. He ereeted the first saw and grist mill in that seetion of the State, which proved a great boon to the settlers of that and adjacent counties. Of his eight children five grew to maturity and our subject was of these the oldest. He spent his youth on his father's farm and in the mill. He was ambitious to make a start for himself in the world and upon the discovery of gold in California in 1849 went overland in company with seven others to the gold diggings with ox teams and wagons, eon- suming 134 days en route. This was a hazardous and difficult undertaking in those days. He re- mained in California until 1853, during which time he engaged in mining and freighting, meeting, on the whole, with fair success. He left Saeramento City on the 23d of May, 1853, for his home in Mis- souri. making the journey on a mule in sixty-six days .. After his return home Maj. Rose purchased a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits in Maeon County until 1857, when he sold bis farm and moved overland to Texas with a mule team, bringing with him his young wife and two children. They located in Travis County and he engaged in raising stoek, chiefly horses. He there remained until 1860, when he removed to San Saba County, where he had purchased a fine location for a home, about fifteen miles west of the town of San Saba, on the San Saba river, irrigating his farm from a bold spring upon it. With his aeeustomed energy he soon opened up a fine farm.
The war came on and every available white man enlisted, but owing to the monthly visits of the red man to steal and kill, all heads of families were re- tained for the protection of the women and children,
-
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as the Indians not only became more troublesome in their depredating expeditions but even more hos- tile and murderous.
Maj. Rose was a duly accredited officer of the Confederate army, served on the Indian frontier first as Lieutenant and later as Major, and took active part in numerous thrilling seenes and inci- dents, doing his country valiant service. He also, in the meantime, pushed his farm operations, and raised quantities of corn and potatoes and farm produce, which he distributed generously and with an open hand to the needy families of soldiers who were at the front. He also erected, at his home, a grist and saw mill. He also erected a schoolhouse on his premises and employeda teacher, receiving the hearty co-operation of his neighbors in this good work of schooling the children. He thus started the nucleus for a thriving community, but owing to the too frequent raids and the deadly hostility of the Indians and lack of proper frontier protection, he finally disposed of his holdings, and in February, 1868, located in Bell County. For two years he lived near Belton, and in 1870 moved to Salado, which is now (1896) his unofficial home.
Maj. Rose was married June 18, 1854, to Miss Sallie A. Austin, of Missouri, daughter of Walker and Eupham MeKinney Austin. The Mckinney family were among the earliest settlers of Texas. Thomas F. MeKinney, uncie of Mrs. Rose, came to Texas in 1834, was one of the old Santa Fe traders, and was instrumental in selecting the site of Austin. Following are the names of the ehil- dren born to Maj. and Mrs. Rose: Alice E., wife of T. R. Russell, of Bell County ; Mary H., wife of A. J. Mackey ; W. S., a farmer of Beli County ; Beatrice, wife of Levi Anderson, of Bell County ; Sallie A., wife of George W. Perry, of Macon County, Mo; Callie M. ; A. Johnson, Jr., and Louselle are at home with their parents.
Maj. Rose joined the Missionary Baptist Church in 1861, in San Saba, and is now deacon and treas- urer of Salado Baptist Church at Salado, Bell County, Texas.
In October, 1861, Maj. Rose was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry in San Saba Lodge No. 225. In December, 1862, he was elected its Senior Warden, and in 1863 its Master, which posi- tion he filled consecutively until he removed to Bell County in 1868. Affiliating with the Belton Lodge No. 166, December, 1868, was elected Mas- ter of this Lodge. In 1863 he received the Royal Areh and appendant degrees in Mt. Horeb Chap- ter, No. 57, in Williamson County. In 1864 he received the Council degrees in the city of Austin, and in 1872 the Knight Templar degrees in Colorado
Commandery No. 4. He was a charter member of San Saba Chapter and served as High Priest for several years. He also served as High Priest of Belton Chapter No. 76. He was a charter mem- ber of Salado Chapter No. 107, organized in 1872, and filled the office of High Priest consecutively for twenty-one years. He served as Master of Salado Lodge No. 296, and was its secretary for four years.
In 1882 he was elected R. W. Grand Junior War- den of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas ; also Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master, and Grand Master of Masons in Texas in 1887.
Being a farmer himself, he very naturally sym- pathizes with any legitimate movement to improve the farmer's condition. Hence we find him figuring conspicuously in the Grange, a farmer's organiza- tion. In 1873 he was admitted a member of the first subordinate Grange organized in Texas. In December, of the same year, he was elected its Master, to which position he was elected annually for six years. In 1875 he was elected Lecturer of the State Grange of Texas, and in 1877 was elected Overseer. In 1881 he became Worthy Master of the State Grange, which position he held consecu- tively for eleven years. He served as secretary for two years, and now, 1896, is chairman of the executive committee.
It will be seen from the foregoing that Maj. Rose has spent about one-half of his life as a pioneer on the frontiers of Missouri, California and Texas. His father dying when our subject was yet a youth in school, his cherished hope of securing a thorough education was necessarily abandoned, and he became practically the head of a large family. Feeling keenly the loss of his father, and greatly disappointed in the disarrangement of his school plans, he bravely buckled on the armor of respon- sibility and courageously met the grave duties and cares of life. His successful career is conelusive proof that he possessed the ambition, the nerve, the fortitude, and the stability to turn to use the misfortunes that would have discouraged and crowded down the young man of common mold.
He has always been aggressive in forwarding the cause of education, and one of the most hearty indorsers and promoters of the general free school system ior which Texas is to-day famous. Having served efficiently for more than twenty years on school and college boards, Salado College, Salado publie school, Baylor Female College, he was appointed by Governor Ross, in 1887, a member of the Board of Directors of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, near Bryan, and was, in 1880, elected president of the Board. This not
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only involved the administration of the affairs of the Agricultural and Mechanical College but also of the Prairie View State Normal School. During President Rose's administration of the affairs of these institutions the Board was liberally supplied with money by the State for their extension and development, and these funds have been most wisely spent in building dormitories, professors' resi- dences, steam laundry, electric light plant, and . other essential buildings. All this has drawn largely upon Maj. Rose's time and energy, and the great value of his services to the State and the cause of education is inestimable. He is still retained in that position to the present time.
In 1825 Mr. Rose was appointed by Governor Culberson Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance,
Statistics and History, a position which involves great responsibility and labor.
Maj. Rose is strictly a thorough-going man of affairs, and has filled the numerous positions of trust that have been thrust upon him with marked fidelity to duty in the broad sense that he has ever interpreted it. While he is a Demoerat, he has never pursued politics as an occupation, never sought office, but has responded to the eall of pub- lic trust from a sense of duty, and has performed these duties of office in every instance with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. His name will live prominently in the history of Texas as that of a public benefactor who filled his mission in life faithfully and with honor to himself and his people. Maj. Rose still continues his farming operations at his home, Salado.
N. L. NORTON,
AUSTIN.
Col. Norton came to Texas when the State was in the throes of reconstruction, and when her whole people were in mourning for their dead on a hun- ยท dred fields. He soon became known as a potent factor in the material development of the common- wealth, and a staunch defender of the natural and constitutional rights of the people and of the cause of honest, accountable government.
N. L. Norton was born near Carlisle, Nicholas County, Ky., April 18th. 1830. His father was Hiram Norton, a successful business man, whose father, John Norton, was the son of a retired Brit- ish naval officer who had settled in Virginia prior to the War for Independence, and at the outbreak of hostilities equipped his five sons for the service of the colonies. One of these sons died on the English prison-ship stationed in Charleston harbor. Another was a sergeant in Washington's body-guard and stood near his chief at the surrender of Corn- wallis at Yorktown. He was afterwards a field officer in the several Indian campaigns of Harmer. St. Clair, Clark and Wayne. His nephew, Capt. James Norton, oldest brother of Hiram, the father of Col. N. L. Norton, was killed at the battle of Tippecanoe, while serving under Gen. Harrison.
Col. Norton's mother was a Miss Spencer, a daughter of a Revolutionary sire, and a grand- daughter of Thomas Spencer, who commanded a
brigade of Scottish rebels at the disastrous battle of Culloden in 1746, in which he was wounded and captured. He barely escaped the block, to which he had been condemned, through the connivanee of British officials. Fleeing to America he settled iu Virginia, and subsequently removed to Bourbon, now Clark, County, Ky.
Col. Norton took the log school house course near the old home and, later, attended Fredonia Academy, in Western New York, and the Military Institute, in Kentucky.
He was married in 1853 to Miss Mary C. Hall, a daughter of John Hall, an honored citizen of the same county. The young couple moved to Missouri, where they encountered many of the inconveniences and trials incident to farm life in that State nearly half a century ago. When the war between the States became inevitable, the young farmer recognized that it was the citizen's duty to maintain his allegiance to the State which guaranteed his civil rights ; and, although strongly opposed to secession, denied even more bitterly the right of coercion and promptly obeyed the call of the legally elected Governor, and organized one of the first companies raised north of the Missouri river for the defense of the State. He served in various capacities and grades of rank, and enjoyed the special confidence of his Commander, Gen.
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Sterling Price. As an evidence of his popularity with the army and people, he was chosen, almost unanimously, over three competitors as Representa- tive in the Confederate Congress in May, 1864. He is the youngest living member of that now his- toric body.
In the field bis duties were mainly those of staff officer, but he was assigned to much special ser- vice, and often of the most perilous nature, in which he had many adventures and not a few very narrow escapes. Gen. Price said of him, "He is infinite in resource." In Congress he was faith- ful and true, giving the best energies of his soul to the support of a government which, like the tower of Ushur, was already tottering to its fall. When the end came, he took up life and business anew. Unwilling to renew the struggle for subsistence in the rigorous climate of Northern Missouri, he came to Southern Texas, securing a home on the Lavaca river. Here he introduced many improved farm implements, blooded stock, and improved methods of agriculture, of incalculable value to that section. Energetic and progressive, he took an active, almost initiative, interest in the formation of agri- cultural societies in several counties, from which beginning some of the most successful annual county fair associations in Texas date their begin- ning. Through his generous sympathies and active efforts in behalf of a war-worn section and people, he soon obtained an extensive acquaintance, and a large circle of friends.
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