USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 37
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pendence, in Washington County. Some of these slaves still live in and about Independence, Brenham and Bryan.
Allan Carr was a native of North Carolina and was born in 1807.
He led an active life until his death at his home in Burleson County in 1861. He is remembered by old settlers as a man of excellent impulses, strong traits of character, and a good citizen. Ile was a life-long planter and raised cotton and corn with great success.
His early ancestors were Scotch-Irish and his more immediate antecedents were directly traceable to the earliest colonists of old Virginia.
He married Miss Elizabeth Wooton, she being
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also of North Carolina birth. Of their children, three are now living in Texas : Robert W., Jennie, and Allan B.
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Robert W. is a resident of Bryan and for twelve years past treasurer of Brazos County. He was born on Tar River, Greene County, North Carolina, October 2, 1831. When about six years of age his father located with the family at West Point, Miss. In 1850 young Carr went to California and followed mining throughout the then newly developing gold- diggings. He passed through the most exciting period of those lively early days in the " Golden State." He remained in California until the break- ing out of the late war, when he returned to the South, coming via Panama, Aspinwall and New York to St. Louis, from which place he made his way into Arkansas, where he raised an independent company of cavalry and equipped the men with the best Sharp's rifles and six-shooting revolvers. With this company he ranged through that region of country and was with " Jeff." Thompson and his command at the battle of Black River and also later at Pocahontas, Missouri.
At this point, receiving news from home of the dangerous illness of his father, he disbanded his company and returned to Texas. His father died at his Brazos valley farm, as before recited, and Capt. Carr joined Capt. Hargrove's scouting com- pany, which became a part of Hood's Brigade. Capt. Carr soon received a commission to raise a company of cavalry, which he did and was there- upon ordered by Gen. Magruder to fight the " Yan- kees" in the valley of the Rio Grande, which he most cheerfully and effectually did.
The story of Capt. Carr's campaign on the Rio Grande river, properly written, would, in itself. make a fair-sized volume of more than ordinary interest.
Capt. Carr remained in the valley until the close of the war and for a time commanded the post at Brownsville, which was the base of supplies from Mexico for the Confederate States. His company fought and won the last battle of the war at Pal- metto Ranch, about fifteen miles below Browns- ville, which took place some time after Gen. Lee had surrendered and hostilities had ceased. It should be stated, however, that Brownsville was so far distant from the seat of war and the means of communication so impaired that the official news of the cessation of hostilities had not reached them. Upon the receipt of the news, Capt. Carr returned to Texas and commenced merchandising at Milli- can and, also, pursued farming on the Brazos until 1867, when he went to Bryan and entered the cot- ton business, in which he has been engaged since about 1875.
Since the year 1884 he has continuously held the office of treasurer of Brazos County, having been elected from time to time with increased majorities over his opponents.
Capt. Carr married in 1867 Mrs. M. E. Farinholt, whose maiden name was Mary E. Knowles. She was born in Arkansas. .
Mr. and Mrs. Carr have had four daughters, two of whom are living, viz. : Mary E., who serves as his deputy in the treasurer's office, and Lillie E., who is the wife of Mr. John Davis, of Bryan.
Jennie, the second of the family now living, is Mrs. T. C. Westbrook, of Hearnc.
Allan B., the youngest living member of this generation, is a resident of Bryan, where he has lived since about 1873. He was born August 27, 1843, in Lowndes (since Clay) County, Miss., at the town of West Point, where his father was the first settler and erected the first buildings. Here young Carr 'spent his boyhood and youth and was about fifteen years of age when he, with his father, came to Texas. Soon after the settlement of the family on their Brazos bottom-farm, the war broke out and be promptly joined the army, in defense of the Confederate cause, as a member of the Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. (later Brigadier-General) John C. Moore, as a consequence of whose promotion, Col. W. P. Rogers took regi- mental command. Mr. Carr participated with his regiment in the well-known and bloody engagements at Shiloh, Farmington and Iuka, and was in the second battle of Corinth, where Col. Rogers fell in the heat of the struggle. Mr. Carr was at the time serving as Col. Rogers' orderly. Mr. Carr remained with the army until the final break-up and then returned to Burleson County and engaged in farm- ing (his father having died). He also conducted a ferry across the Brazos river at the old San Antonio crossing for about two years, when he removed to Bryan, where he has since resided.
Mr. Carr married in 1866 Miss Fandora Mosely, a daughter of Augustus Mosely (deceased), a pioneer of Burleson County (1857) and an exten- sive Brazos-bottom planter. They have two sons, Charles O'Conor Carr, engaged in the insurance business, and Allan B. Carr, Jr., one of the most prosperous merchants at Bryan.
Mr. Carr for twenty-two years past has, without intermission. held the office of secretary of the city of Bryau.
Ilis long continuance in office is evidence of the esteem in which he is held as a citizen and faithful official. Mr. Carr owns rural and city realty but his time is largely absorbed with his official duties.
Others of the family are deceased. Martha died
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in Mississippi, the wife of Wm. McMullen ; Eliza- beth (or Bettie) married T. P. Mills, was the mother of two daughters and a son, and died in Houston about 1860. Titus came to Texas with his father, married and in 1870 died at Bryan, leaving four children and a widow, who again
married; and William came to Texas with the family, married, and died in the United States mail service at Fort Worth about 1885, leaving one son, Westbrook. William had held a respon- sible position in the United States service for up- wards of twenty years.
ALEXANDER GILMER,
ORANGE.
Was born September 7, 1829, in County Armagh, Ireland. His parents were George and Jane Gilmer, both of whom died in Ireland.
He was educated in his native land, where he remained until seventeen years of age, when he came to America and located in Georgia, where he engaged in getting out shipmasts for the French government, working under his brother, John, who was the contractor. He followed this employment for three years, elearing about $700.00. He then worked under his brother in building a sehooner and steamboat, putting all his earnings in the steamboat, the Swan, which was to ply on the Chattahoochie river. She was sunk during the second season, leaving him but ten eents when she went down, which he gave to a negro who blaeked his boots. He then helped to build a schooner, the Altha Brooks, on the Chattahoochie river in Alabama and eame out to Texas on her, landing at Galves- tou, from which place he went to Orange to repair a schooner. This work completed, he took a con- tract with a inan named Livingston to build a schooner, which they completed, and then helped to build another schooner, the Mary Ellen.
This done, he formed a copartnership with Smith & Merriman and his cousin, George C. Gilmer, and built the Alex Moore, which was run between Orange and Galveston, and was employed in the Texas coast-wise trade.
He and his cousin bought out Smith & Merri- man's interest in the schooner and started a mercantile business at Orange, which they con- tinned about fifteen years, until George C. Gil- mer's death at Orange.
Mr. George C. Gilmer bequeathed half his inter- est in the store, valued at about $10,000.00, to George Gilmer, a son of the subject of this notice. When twenty-seven years of age Mr. Alexander
Gilmer was united in marriage to Miss Etta Read- ing, of Orange. No children by this marriage.
His second marriage was to Miss C. C. Thomas, of Orange, in 1867. Nine children have been born to them, seven of whom are living, viz. : Laura, now Mrs. Dr. F. Hadra, of Orange; Mattie, now Mrs. H. S. Filson, of Orange; Effie, now Mrs. R. M. Williamson, of Waco; Eliza, Cleora, Annie, and Ollie. Two sons died in infancy.
Mr. Gilmer engaged in the saw-mill business in 1865. He sustained a number of severe losses by fire, but in each instanee by good management put his financial affairs on a better basis than they were before.
One of his largest mills was built at Orange in 1894.
Just before his last loss by fire, he established lumber yards at Velaseo; bought one at Beeville (which he elosed in 1895), bought one at Yoakum, one at Cuero, one at Runge, one at Karnes City, one at Vietoris, and established one at Brazoria, which are valued at about $100,000.00. His mill property is valued at about $75,000.00.
Mr. Gilmer's property interests now aggregate about $300,000.00. He had but $500.00 when he reached Texas.
He was on the G. H. Bell, commanded by Charles Fowler, when the Morning Light was cap- tured in the battle of Sabine Pass, during the war between the States.
Later he ran the blockade with a sehooner loaded with cotton, commanded by Capt. Whiting, and made a successful trip to Balize, Honduras; then made an equally successful trip from Columbia to the Rio Grande ; sold one eargo from Galveston at Havana; was captured at Sabine Pass, by the Hat- teras, which was sunk by the Alabama, the day after his boat was taken, and then chartered a brig
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at Jamaica and loaded her with coffee, sugar and lumber, and took the cargo to Laredo, from which place he sent it overland to Houston ; bought cotton in Laredo, for which he was offered forty cents per pound in gold, which he refused ; took the cotton to Matamoros and lost money.
His partner in these ventures was Mr. M. A. Kopperl, of Galveston.
Before and after the war Mr. Gilmer owned five schooners, coasting in the lumber trade. He lost four schooners, with two of which all of the crew perished.
Mr. Gilmer is now, and has been for many years, one of the most influential citizens and leading busi- ness men of the section of the State in which he resides.
WILLIAM HARRISON WESTFALL, M. D.,
BURNET.
While there are few incidents of a sensational or even novel kind in the ordinary lives of professional men, there is yet in cvery successful career points of interest and an undereurrent of character well deserving of careful thought. However much men's lives may resemble one another each must differ from all others and preserve an identity truly its own. The life history of the subject of this article, while it has many phases in common with others of his profession, yet discloses an energy, tact, mental endowments and discipline, and social qualities, which acting together as a motive power have enabled him to reach and successfully main- tain a position of respectability in his profession, and in the world of practical business, seldom attained by members of that profession, dis- tinguished as it is for men of intelligence and general merit.
Dr. Westfall comes of good ancestry, not par- ticularly noted, but respectable, strong, sturdy Virginia stock, of Prussian extraction. He was born in the town of Buchanan, in what is now Upshur County, West Virginia, December 16, 1822. He was reared in his native place, in the local schools of which he received his carly mental training. Opportunities for a collegiate educa- tion were not open to him, but his energy, force of character and persistent industry helped in a great measure to neutralize this disadvan- tage, and, having determined on a professional career, he began preparation for it with sufficient mental equipment. He attended the medical de- partment of the University of New York, in which institution and in the hospitals of that city he spent five years, enjoying the best advantages then open to students. He did not enter immediately on the practice of his profession after completing his edu-
cation, but laid aside his purpose for a while, being induced to this by considerations which exercised a controlling influence on the careers of many others of his age. Those were the years in which the country was swept by the great gold fever which, breaking out in the wilds of California, spread to the remotest parts of this continent, and of civili- zation. Young Westfall was an carly victim and the spring of 1850 found him well on the overland route towards the new El Dorado. He spent several months in the gold fields, leading the desul- tory life of a miner and adventurer. Then in the winter of 1851 he returned to " the States," stop- ping in Missouri. Up to this time his fund of experience was considerably larger than his fund of cash, but he was not satisfied with cither, and shortly afterward determined to try his fortunes in a speculative scheme with a bunch of cattle, which he undertook with some assistance to drive to the diggings in California. That drive, one of the earliest in the history of the country, was an undertaking, the magnitude and hazard of which the average reader of this day can have but little conception. The distance covered was over 2,000 miles and the route lay through an utterly desert and wilderness country infested by savage Indians and subject to the perils of storm, famine and flood. That it was accom- plished without serious mishap is to be wondered at, but so it was, and, what is more, it turned out prof- itably to those who were concerned in it. Dr. Westfall remained in California on this trip till the fall of 1:53 when, in a better financial condition, hic returned to Missouri. Hc now felt that it was time for him to take up his profession and, settling at Clinton in Henry County, that State, he formed a partnership with Dr. G. Y. Salmon, a well-known
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and competent physician, and, entered on his pro- fessional labors. . November 20, 1853, he married Miss Mary A. Bates, of Clinton, whose parents, Asaph W .. and Sarah Bates, originally from Ken- tucky, had settled in Henry County in pioneer days, where Mrs. Westfall had been born and reared.
After four years' residence in Missouri Dr. Westfall concluded to come to Texas, moving in 1857 to Austin, where he resumed the practice of his profession, later purchasing land in Williamson County, in the vicinity of Liberty Hill, which he improved as a ranch. When the war came on he transferred his residence from Austin to his ranch, the returns from which, supplementing the income from his professiou, enabled him to support his family during the period of hostilities. He was exempt from military service by reason of his pro- fession ; but, as a physician and citizen, he rendered the cause of the Confederacy the best service in his power, giving it the weight of his personal influence and attending the families of the soldiers in the field, free of charge.
In 1872, Dr: Westfall was elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature from Williamson County and served as a member of the Thirteenth General Assembly. This was a new field for him but one in which his energy and talents enabled him to acquit himself with credit. It will be remem- bered that the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Legislatures were those which had so much to do with shaping the policy of the State with respect to schools, public funds and railways. Among the general laws passed by the Thirteenth Legislature to which he gave his support were those creating a public school system and setting apart one-half of the public domain for the support and maintenance of the same; the law providing for the better secu- rity of the public funds; the law regulating the assessment and collection of taxes, and the law to protect the agricultural interests of the State by providing adequate punishment for those guilty of destroying gates and fences or committing other trespasses, in which last act there was a hint of the possible conditions which actually arose ten years later and culminated in the celebrated fence-cutting troubles. The special laws passed by the Thirteenth Legislature, in which he took considerable interest, favoring some and opposing others as seemed to him proper at the time, were those incorporating railway, canal and ship channel companies, incor- porating and extending the corporate powers of towns and cities, and those establishing by charter real estate, building, savings and banking concerns, private educational institutions and benevolent
associations, more than 200 acts of this character being passed by that Legislature. The Thirteenth was distinctively the Legislature which gave praeti- cal direction to the re-awakened energies of the people after the war and prepared the way for the era of prosperity which followed.
From the lower house Dr. Westfall went to the upper by election in the fall of 1873, being chosen from the senatorial district composed of Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Lampasas, San Saba, Llano and Blanco. During his term of service in the Four- teenth General Assembly he pursued the same line of conduct previously marked out, entering, if anything, more actively into the work of legislation because by that time he had become better ac- quainted with the necessities and wishes of the people, and more familiar with legislative methods and proceedings. There were some important amendments to the school law passed by that Legis- lature, which as a member of the Committee on Education, he was in a position to materially aid. But during this, as at the previous sitting, the rail- roads came in for most of the time of the law- makers. It was during the second session of the Fourteenth Legislature that the act was passed giving to the International & Great Northern Rail- road Company, in lieu of the $10,000 per mile bonds theretofore granted, twenty sections of land for each mile of road constructed and exempting the lands so donated and all of the property of the original company from taxation for a period of twenty-five years. This was in the nature of a compromise and was regarded by many as a good settlement for the State as well as being just and equitable towards the railroad. At the outset Dr. Westfall opposed it, being in favor of the bond subsidy. But when it became known that such a subsidy would not meet the approval of the then Governor and believing that the best interests of the people demanded a settlement of the question he, as a member of the committee appointed to formulate a bill that would receive the Governor's approval, sup- ported this measure in accordance with his pledge to stand by the action of a majority of the com- mittee.
This Legislature also did itself the honor of voting increased pensions to the surviving veterans of the revolution by which Texas was separated from Mexico, including the Santa Fe and Mier prisoners, the survivors of the company of Capt. Dawson, who was massacred near San Antonio in 1842, the survivors of those who were captured at San Antonio in 1842 and imprisoned at Perote and the survivors of Deaf Smith's Spy Company. And it also made legal holidays of the second of March
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(Texas Independence Day) and the twenty-first of April (San Jacinto Day), both of which patriotic measures received the Doctor's cordial support.
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With the expiration of his term as senator Dr. Westfall gave up public affairs altogether and turned his attention strictly to his professional and business interests, which by that time had assumed very gratifying proportions, gradually placing him in a position where he could find wider fields for active and profitable employment. He had moved from Williamson County to Austin in 1876. From Austin he moved to Burnet in 1879, having made investments in the latter place which necessitated this step. For a year or so after going to Burnet he was interested in the mercantile and exchange business there ; but, disposing of his mercantile in- terest later, he engaged in the banking business, associating with himself for this purpose his son- in-law, W. H. Hotchkiss, the bank, a private insti- tution, being opened under the firm name of W. H. Westfall & Co. In 1883 it was converted into a national bank and conducted as such for ten years, at the end of which time it was denationalized and again became a private institution, and so continues under the old firm name. The denationalization was resolved on and effected purely as a matter of expedience and from a conviction that the old sys- tem was the better adapted to existing conditions, both systems having been given a fair trial. The career of the bank under the national system had been reasonably satisfactory to the stockholders and eminently so to the Federal authorities, the latter fact being evidenced both by repeated expres- sions from the department and by the fact, of seldom occurrence, that the Comptroller of the Cur- rency accepted the statements of the officers of the bank as to its condition and granted the stock- holders a release without the formality of an inves- tigation. This bank with the changes bere indi- cated is the only one the town of Burnet has ever had and it has been an important factor in the town's and county's financial and business affairs. Its treatment of its patrons bas always been fair and reasonable and its liberality in this respect together with its well-known conservative course in all things has served to entrench it in the confidence and good will of the people generally. It is worthy of note that the bank voluntarily reduced its rate of interest before the Legislature took action on that question.
Dr. Westfall has invested more or less in outside enterprises and has made considerable money by his investments. He is largely interested in the South Heights addition to San Antonio and in real estate in Utah, owning fourteen houses and lots in
Salt Lake City and some irrigated properties in near-by counties. It may be added that his in- vestments have been made entirely out of his indi- vidual means, and only when he has had means which he felt he could safely use for such purposes, his unalterable habit having been never to touch a dollar of other people's money intrusted to him. .
An active man of business, with a keen percep- tion of the commercial value of things, Dr. West- fall was among the first to direct attention to the great wealth locked up in the stone measures of Burnet County and he was a staunch advocate of the claims of that stone for building purposes long before experts had passed favorably upon it or its usefulness had been demonstrated by actual trial. When the commissioners were hunting over the State for material for the new capitol he put him- self in communication with them, invited them to Burnet County to inspect its resources, and person- ally accompanied them in their travels, assisting them in their investigations, confident that such investigations, if fully and fairly made, would result in the adoption of Burnet County stone for the great work in hand. As is known, however, the matter of selecting material for the building was held in abeyance for some time and it was not until the value of the product of Granite Mountain had been thoroughly demonstrated and Dr. West- fall and his associates, Col. N. L. Norton and Mr. George W. Lacy, had offered to give to the State all the stone needed, that it was decided to con- struct the building of this material. The capitol as a building speaks for itself. It also in some measure may be considered a monument to the wisdom, liberality and public spirit of those who furnished free of cost the handsome and enduring material out of which it is constructed.
After having developed the quarries of Granite Mountain and shipped large quantities of the stone throughout the State, notably for the jetties at Galveston and the dam at Austin, the moun- tain was sold by its owners at a fair profit, but not until they had seen it through its entire period of probation and fixed it firmly in pub- lic favor. With the development of this enterprise began Dr. Westfall's connection with the Austin & Northwestern Railroad, the latter being in reality an outgrowth of the former. He was one of the charter members of the road and for some time its vice-president. He is still its chief surgeon. All public enterprises - whatever will stimulate industry or in any way result in good to the com- munity - mcet his cordial approbation and receive his prompt advocacy and assistance.
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While Dr. Westfall has thus traveled far out of the beaten path of bis profession he has never lost sight of its claims upon him nor ceased to feel an abiding interest in it. Confining his attention mainly to surgery, for which branch he has special inclination, he responds promptly to all calls for his services and follows up his duties in this connection with zeal and efficiency. He has served as pres- ident of the examining boards of the three judicial districts in which he has lived, and not only with the laity but with his medical brethren he stands among the first.
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