USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 6
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He is now considered one of the wealthiest men in Corpus Christi. The measure of snecess that he has achieved has been due to the possession of business talents of an unusually high order, personal integrity, industry and economy.
SIMON H. LUMPKIN,
MERIDIAN.
Simon Il. Lumpkin, one of the leading citizens of Bosque County and a prominent lawyer of Cen- tral Texas, was born in June. 1>50, in Fairfield District, S. C. He was the ninth in a family of twelve children born to Abram F. and Patience Partridge (Pickett ) Lumpkin. natives of Sonth Carolina and descendants of old colonial families.
On the paternal side two brothers, William and Joseph, were soldiers in England and came to America in 1765 with Gen. Braddock, marched with his army over the Allegheny Mountains and fell with him into the disastrous amboscade on the Monongahela river, where Joseph was killed and
William badly wounded. Ou account of his wound William Lumpkin was discharged from the army and settled on the James river, where he married and became a planter and the father of a family of four sons: Joseph, Thomas, Robert and Squir- relskin, who became the progenitors of all the Lumpkins now in the United States. Joseph and Squirrelskin moved to Georgia, where they married and reared families whose descendants have held the highest offices in the gift of the people of that State - one becoming governor and another chief justice of the Supreme Court, both well remem- bered throughout the land. Robert remained in
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Frank Hardie
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Virginia and of his family little is known to the writer. Thomas moved to South Carolina, where he married Miriam Ferguson, a daughter of the noted Tory Ferguson, who was captured at the battle of the Cowpens by Gen. Marion. This couple were the grandparents of the subject of this memoir and of Dr. J. J. Lumpkin, of Meridian, Texas. To Thomas and Miriam Lumpkin two sons were born, Bradshaw and Abram Ferguson Lumpkin, the latter the father of Simon H. and Dr. J. J. Lumpkin.
Bradshaw Lumpkin is still living in South Carolina and is now nearly one hundred years old. He participated in many battles with the Indians in Florida, took part in the Texas revolu- tion and war between the United States and Mexico. His brother, Abram F. (a farmer), when the war between the States began, entered the Con- federate army and served until its close. Six of his sons (three of whom yielded up their lives on the battle-field) also entered the army. Those who fell in the defense of the South were: William, killed February 4, 1865, while on detailed scouting duty near Richmond, Va. ; Philip P., killed in the battle of Cold Harbor, May 31, 1864, and Abram Joseph, killed in the battle of Seven Pines, May 31, 1862. The other sous are still living. Mr. Abram F. Lumpkin died Feb- ruary 25, 1875, and his wife January 13, 1892. Simon HI. Lumpkin, the subject of this notice, completed his literary education at Wafford Col- lege, S. C., and Transylvania University, Lexing- ton, Ky. ; taught language in a private school at Lexington for a time; taught school for about a year at Centerville, Ga .; in October, 1873, moved to Texas, and became principal of the La Grange College; remained at the head of that institution for about a year, and in November,
18744, was admitted to the bar, having assiduously studied law at leisure moments during the pre- cedling four years. Soon thereafter he moved to Bosque County and entered upon the practice of his profession. He was very successful from the start. At first he took criminal as well as civil cases, but for years past he has confined himself strictly to civil business. He practices in all the State courts and in the United States Supreme Court, and is considered one of the ablest lawyers at the bar of Central Texas. He has been active in polities as a Democratic leader, has attended the various conventions, served as a member of State and county executive committees, and has done yeoman service upon every occasion when a battle was on for party supremacy. He was married April 4, 1876, to Miss Laura Alexander, the third white child born in Waco, and daughter of Capt. T. C. Alexander. She is also a grand- niece of the noted Rev. Bob Alexander, the pioneer Methodist preacher of Texas. She graduated at the University of Waco in 1872. Of this union three children have been born : Jimmie (a dangh- ter), Abram and Ora. The family are all members of the M. E. Cburch South. Mr. Lumpkin is a member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. frater- nities. He has an elegant residence in Meridian, and the grounds are tastefully adorned, and he has a fish lake on the place. He also owns among other realty nine farms in the county, aggregating three thousand acres, which he is constantly im- proving. In 1887 he bought out the lumber yard in Meridian, and in 1891 also bought the lumber interests at Walnut Springs, and is doing a thriv- ing business at both places. His success in life has been due to the possession not only of natural abilities of a high order, but constant study, firm- ness of purpose and unbending integrity.
THE HARDINS, OF LIBERTY.
The Hardin family are known to be descendants of a widow lady who emigrated from France to America, landing in Philadelphia with four sons, John, Henry, Mark and Martin Hardin. Her hus- band, in some of the internal commotions in France, Lad to flee for his life. Whether he was pursued and killed, or died by other casually, is unknown. fte was never heard of by his wife after bidding her
adieu and riding away. From the best information that can be obtained, she was one of the Hugue- nots who came to America to escape persecution by Louis XIV., in the year 1685. William Hardin, the grandfather of Frank Hardin, subject of this memoir, is supposed to have been a grandson of this widowed lady.
Frank Hardin was born on the 25th day of
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January, 1803, in Franklin County, Ga., and was the fourth son of Swan and Jerusha ( Blackburn) Hardin. His father moved to Maury County, Tenu., with his family, when Frank was three or four years of age, and resided there until about 1825. In that year Frank Hardin came to Texas, and about the same time four brothers, Augustine B., William, Benjamin W., and Milton A., and his father came to the then Mexican province, and they all settled in what is now Liberty County, on the east side of the Trinity river. His first employment after be- coming settled in his new home was to split rails, in company with his brother A. B. Hardin, for an old man living on the Trinity river, and the same year they made a crop of corn without plow or hoe, cul- tivating it with " hand-spikes." The first official position that Frank Hardin is known to have held was that of municipal surveyor, in the year 1834. Ile was afterward appointed surveyor by Commis- sioner Jorge Antonio Nixon, under which appoint- ment he located and surveyed in 1835 many of the old leagues granted by the Mexican Government to colonists introduced into Liberty and adjacent counties, under Vehlin's empresario contract. On the 6th of March, 1836, he enlisted in Capt. Wm. M. Logan's company of volunteers, of which com- pany he was elecied First Lieutenant. This com- pany was raised from Liberty and vicinity, and joined Gen. Sam. Houston's army at once, and was a part of Sherman's regiment of infantry, which performed such gallant service in the battle of San Jacinto. After participating in that memorable and glorious engagement, which deserves a place among the important and decisive battles of the world's history, he remained with the army for three months -- until his term of enlist- ment expired. He then returned home and very soon afterwards raised and organized a company, of which he was made captain, and joined an ex- pedition against the Indians, and went up the Brazos river as far as the Waco village. He was several months in this service. Under the act passed by the Congress of the Republic providing for the national defense, he was, on the 9th day of Janu- ary, 1837, appointed by the President, a Captain, for the purpose of organizing the militia of liberty. December 19th of that year he was also appointed by President Houston surveyor for the county of Liberty. At an election held in the county Septem- ber 6th, 1841, under an act of Congress, approved January 24th, 1839, he was elected Colonel of the second regiment, of the second brigade, of the militia of the Republic of Texas, E. Morehouse, Brigadier General, with headquarters at Houston, which position he held for several years. In 1842
he was again elected surveyor of Liberty County and in 1857. elected as representative from that county and served as a member of the Seventh Legislature of the State of Texas. He was not fond of public life and never accepted official posi- tion, after the independence of Texas was secured, except at the urgent solicitation of the people. He resided in the county for over fifty years, and died at his residence in the town of Liberty on the 20th of April, 1878, and was buried on the anni- versary of the battle of San Jacinto.
Benjamin Watson Hardin, the oldest of the five brothers who came to Texas, was for many years Sheriff of Liberty County, and died at his home- stead near the town of Liberty, January 2d, 1850.
Augustine Blackbarn Hardin, the next in age, was a member of the General Council of Texas held in 1835; and also of the Consultation at San Felipe de Austin, the same year, representing the municipality of Liberty, and showed himself in those bodies to be a stanch patriot, a determined advocate of resistance to Mexican tyranny, and a firm supporter of the views of those who favored a declaration of Texian independence. He died in Liberty County, Jaly 22, 1871.
William Hardin, the third brother, was one of the ten original proprietors of what is now the city of Galveston. Under the Mexican govern- ment, previous to the revolution, he was Primary Judge of the Jurisdiction of Liberty, Department of Nacogdoches. He took an active and leading part in the revolution which separated Texas from Mexico, was a man widely influential, and was highly respected by all who knew him. He died at Galveston, in July, 1839.
Milton Ashley Hardin, the youngest of the five brothers, was also in the service of Texas during the revolution. He died at Cleburne, Texas, in 1894.
Hardin County, Texas, was named after the " Hardins of Liberty," a deserved honor to a family whose name is linked by so many sacred memories, and by such valiant and self-sacrificing service, to the history and imperishable glory of the Republic and State of Texas.
Mrs. Cynthia A. Hardin, wife of Frank Hardin, was born October 29, 1812, in St. Mary Parish, La., and was the second daughter of Christie O'Brien and Ann Dawson Berwick, his wife, who resided many years and both died at Berwick's Bay, in St. Mary Parish, La. She came to Texas, a few years before her marriage, to reside in the town of Liberty with her sister, Mrs. Catherine Farley. She was married to Capt. Frank Hardin, August 15th, 1839, at the residence of Mrs. Far-
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ley. Capt. Hardin resided in the town of Liberty with his family, until the latter part of the year of 1843, when they removed to the country, about nine miles northward from the town. They were there engaged in farming and stock-raising, until about the year 1857, when they removed again to Liberty. Mrs. Hardin died November 1st, 1889, at Dallas, Texas, while on a visit to her daughter, Mrs. George W. Davis, and was removed to Liberty for burial.
daughters, Camilla Gertrude, wife of Judge George W. Davis, of Dallas; Cynthia A., wife of Capt. John F. Skinner, of Lampasas, Texas ; and Helen Berwick Hardin, the youngest child, who resides with her brother, Wm. F. Hardin, at the old family homestead in the town of Liberty.
The independence of Texas having been secured, and there being no fear of Indian depredations, the neighboring tribes all being friendly, the life of Mrs. Hardin after her marriage was a quiet one,
MRS. C. A. HARDIN.
Their eldest child, a daughter, was named Kaleta, for the old Indian, Chief of the Coshattee tribe of friendly Indians --- the old chief being especially known and designated as the "Friend of the White Man." This daughter died October 7th, 1884, at the family homestead, in the town of Liberty. She was never married. The other chil- dren were two sons, William Frank and Christie O'Brien (the latter of whom died January 13th, 1x67, of a gunshot wound received by accident while hunting in the Trinity bottom), and three
and without incident of special note. It was spent in the discharge of the daily routine of household duties, visiting neighbors (of whom, when living in the country, there were but three or four families ) and entertaining friends and strangers, as well, for the door of the log-house in which they lived was open without charge to every belated traveler who passed that way.
William Frank Hardin, first son of Frank and Cynthia A. Hardin, was born in the town of Liberty, May 2, 1841, and resides with his young-
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est sister at the old homestead in the same town. ITe was four years in the Confederate serviee dur- ing the war between the States. He first enlisted in Col. E. B. Nichol's regiment for six monthis service in Galveston. At the expiration of this terin he joined the Second Battalion of Waul's Texas Legion, enlisting for the war, which com- maud was a part of Gen. Sterling Price's division in the Mississippi campaign, which ended with the siege and fall of Vicksburg. After the surrender and parole of Gen. Pemberton's army, he returned
home, where he remained until exchanged, when he again joined his command. The two battalions were afterward consolidated into a regiment, desig- nated as " Timmon's Regiment," Col. B. Timmons being in command after the promotion of Gen. Waul. He remained with the army until the final surrender, and then returned to his old home, where he has since been engaged mainly in the mercantile business and stock-raising. He was ' once elected County Judge of Liberty County, and has since refused to accept official position.
H. SCHUMACHER,
NAVASOTA.
This gentleman, one of the leading citizens of Navasota, president of the First National Bank of that place, proprietor of the Navasota Cotton-Seed Oil Mill, and a resident of Grimes County for forty years, is a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Ger- many, where he was born in 1832. At the age of fifteen he came to Texas, his father having died and his mother having come out the year previous to find a home for herself and four children. Mr. Schumacher reached Galveston, November 25, 1847, where his mother had established herself, and there he at once went industriously to work to earn his own support. He learned the carpenter's trade and followed it as a journeyman until 1853. He joined the lloward Association and devoted his attention to nursing the sick during the visitations of the yellow fever in 1853 and 1854. In 1855 he moved to Anderson, Grimes County, being led to this step by the condition of his wife's health, she having been a sufferer from the fever and finally dying at Anderson from the effects of the disease several months after their removal at that place.
At, Anderson Mr. Schumacher established a sashi, door and blind factory on a small seale, which he conducted with fair success until the War put an end to all operations of this sort. He entered the Confederate army in 1861 as a member of the Eighth Texas Infantry, Walker's Division, with which he went to the front early in 1862. Before his command was called on to do much active serviee he was taken sick and was transferred to the ordnance department at Anderson, where the most of his services in behalf of the Confederacy were rendered in the line of his trade as a wood-work-
man. In December, 1865, he moved to Navasota, which at that time was practically the terminus of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, and at once began to make preparations to start a sash, door and blind factory. He camped under a post- oak tree, and got out the necessary timbers and erected his dwelling and shop. The rapid development of the up-country then tributary to this point afforded him a good market for his product. He added a grist mill, then a gin and planing mill to his plant and ran them all success- fully until 1873. At that time he turned his atten- tion to the cotton-seed oil business, erecting a mill for the mannfacture of the various products of the cotton seed, bis mill being the second erected in the State. It soon engaged his attention to the exelu- sion of all his other manufacturing interests, and he disposed of them. Mr. Schumacher's life has been given to business pursuits and he has achieved notable success. At present his time is devoted to his mill business and to his duties in connection with the First National Bank, of which he has for two years past been president. He was one of the organizers of that institution and its vice-president until elected president. He manifests a proper interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the community, and is a man in whose judgment the people in the country where he resides have great confidence and for whose character they have great respect.
Mr. Schumacher has been three times married and has raised to maturity a family of ten chil- dren. Ilis first marriage occurred in Galveston in 18544 and was to Miss Louisa Koch, a native of
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Germany, whose parents settled in Galveston about the time Mr. Schumacher settled there. This lady died at Anderson, Grimes County, in 1856. He subsequently married Miss Berryman, a daughter of William Berryman, who settled in Grimes County in 1834 and a grand-daughter of Francis Holland, who was the first settler in the country, taking up
his residence here in 1824. This lady lived but a few years after marriage.
For his third wife Mr. Schumacher married Miss Emma Horlock, a native of Pennsylvania, of Ger- man descent.
Mr. Schumacher is a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church.
H. B. EASTERWOOD,
HEARNE.
Young blood counts for a great deal in the affairs of this world, and nowhere for more than in a new and rapidly developing State like Texas. There is healthy stimulus to activity in a growing community, and fortunate, indeed, is the young man, who, brought up in such a community, has, coupled with the advantage of years, the mental grasp and force of character to enable him to understand and make the best possible use of his surroundings. Ycuth, energy, brains and ambi- tion are qualities that win, and the degree of suc- cess attained is, as a rule, directly proportioned to the degree in which these qualities are possessed.
Henry Bascom Easterwood, son of William C. and Martha G. Easterwood, was born in Lowndes County, Miss., in 1856. Two years later his parents came to Texas and, after a brief residence in Bell County, settled on a farm near Port Sul- livan, in Milan County, where the subject of this notice was chiefly reared. His educational advan- tages were restricted to local schools. At about the age of eighteen he began clerking for his elder brother, William E. Easterwood, in a store at Port Sullivan, and later opened two stores for his brother at different points in Milan County. He continued clerking until 1880, when in March of that year he went to Hearne, where, on a borrowed capital of $2,200, he engaged in a grocery business on his own account. He soon secured a good trade, and with the growing prosperity of that place has, from time to time, extended his line of operation until at this writing he conducts the largest general mercantile establishment in Hearne, and one of the largest on the Houston & Texas Central Railway between Dallas and Houston. His two-story, double-front, brick business block, situated on one of the principal thoroughfares of the town gives ample evidence of the amount of
business done both by the quantity of goods on display and in the activity about the premises.
While giving his attention mainly to his mercan- tile business Mr. Easterwood has found time to interest himself in other enterprises, and has ac- quired considerable outside interests. He owns and conducts three good-sized farms in the vicinity of Hearne ; has purchased and improved a number of lots in that place, owns and runs a gin there ; is vice-president of the Hearne Building & Loan Asso- ciation, helped to organize a local compress com- pany, and was its president until its removal to another point; is president of the Brazos Valley Lumber Company ; subscribed stock to and is sec- retary and treasurer of the Hearne & Brazos Valley Railway; helped to organize and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hearne National Bank, and, in fact, has had some sort of interest in every public enterprise that has been started in the community where he lives during his fifteen years residence there. He is open-handed and liberal-minded, assisting with his means and per- sonal effort whatever is calculated to stimulate industry, or in any way add to the prosperity of the community. He has never been in public life and wisely keeps aloof from the entanglements of politics. He has served as a member of the Board of Aldermen of his town, and stands ready at all times to honor sight drafts on his time and services in behalf of good government, the building up of local schools, and the promotion of all those things that tend to elevate, adorn or improve the society in which he moves.
Reminded of the fact that he had met with more than ordinary success, and asked to what he attrib- uted it. Mr. Easterwood said he supposed to his strict attention to business. He has made it a rule to give his business close and undivided attention :
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never to postpone till to-morrow what can be done to-day ; to attend to business first, pleasure after- wards; to employ strict integrity and an unfailing compliance with every obligation, verbal or writ- ten, and, as near as possible, to do unto others as he would have them do unto him. Whether his Mr. Easterwood has been as fortunate in his domestie relations as he has been prosperous in business, and, indeed, it is no doubt true that the one is largely attributable to the other. In 1879 be married Miss Lillie Golilman, a daughter of S. L. Gohlman, an old and respected citizen, of income has been great or small he has always lived. Houston, Mrs. Easterwood being a native of that place, in the society of which she was, previous to her marriage, a leader. The issue of this union has been four sons and two daughters.
within it; has avoided litigation; and in the dis- charge of every duty has won the confidenee and respect of all with whom he has had business inter- course. The cast of his mind is practical, and he is well-built and strong, having a physical eon- stitution that insures prolonged vitality, and that patient perseverance which moves steadily forward in the path marked out; is earnest and active, never hesitating to do his share of the work about him.
His home eircle is charming and pleasant, and it is under his own roof and around his own fire- side that he realizes the best phases and the truest enjoyments of life, as does every man who is blessed with a good wife, an interesting family of children, and the means to properly eare for them.
C. H. NIMITZ, SR.,
FREDERICKSBURG.
Hon. Charles HI. Nimitz, Sr., was born in Bremen, Germany, November 9th, 1826, and was educated in the schools of that eity. He was named for his father. His mother's maiden name was Miss Meta Merriotte. His parents eame to the United States in 1813 and located in Charleston, S. C. The following year he left the Fatherland, tarried for a time in Charleston with his father and mother, and then pushed westward, arriving at Fredericks- burg, Texas, May 8, 1816, where he has since re- sided and by thrift and industry accumulated a comfortable fortune.
April 8, 1848, he married Miss Sophia Miller. They have eight living children, viz. : Ernest A., now a resident of San Angelo, Tom Green County ; Bertha, now Mrs. Nanwald, of Burnet ; Charles H., Jr., who lives at Kerrville; Sophic, wife of Otto Wahrmound, of San Antonio ; Augusta, who mar- ried a Mr. Schwerin and is now a widow residing at Kerrville; Lina, wife of E. O. Meusbach, of Waring; William, who resides at Kerrville ; and Meta, who is married to Henry Wahrmound, of Fredericksburg.
Chester B. Nimitz, who was in business with his
father, died in 1885, when twenty-seven years of age. He was a bright and promising young man. His death was a sad bereavement to his parents and devoted wife. A son was born to his widow six months after his death. Mr. and Mrs. Nimitz lost several other children, but they died when quite young.
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