USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 47
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
conducted a literary and musie sehool until 1840 when he emigrated to the republic of Texas, and settled in Gonzales County, where he engaged in merchandising with Dr. Caleb S. Brown, who was also from Mississippi. This copartnership eon- tinued for twelve or thirteen months. A man of rare personal magnetism, fine address and brilliant talents, Mr. Braches soon took rank as one of the . ablest and most influential eitizens of the commu- nity and in scarcely more than a year (1842), was elected to represent the district in the Texas con- gress. While going to and returning from the seat of government he first met his future wife and shortly after the elosc of the session they were united in the bonds of wedlock. He was a participant in the battles of the Hondo, Pium Creek and the Medina, and numerous Indian expeditions in which he behaved himself with conspicuous gallantry. Both Mr. and Mrs. Braches were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for many years and were liberal contributors to schools and churches. During his lifetime Mr. Braches de- voted many thousands of dollars to these purposes. He died July 7th, 1889, at his home in Gonzales County, admired and respected by a wide circle of friends extending throughout Texas.
When Bowie started upon his San Saba expedi- tion Mrs. Braches had beeves killed and dressed, food cooked and a general supply of provisions prepared for the use of his men on their mareh. Hewrote out and tendercd her vouchers against the Republic to cover the expense that she had ineurred, but these she refused to receive, saying that she considered it a pleasure as well as a duty to aid in a movement designed for the protection of the homes of the settlers to the full extent of her power and that she could not think of receiving pay for such a service. Sentiments equally unselfish and praise- worthy inspired all her actions. A distinguished Texian says of Mr. and Mrs. Braches : " After Mrs. Braches' parents died she became a mother to her younger brothers and sisters, viz., Mary, who mar- ried John Smothers; Isabella, who married in her house in 1840, Gen. Henry E. McCulloch ; Fannie, who married in her house Mr. Gelhorn ; Euphemia, who married Wmn. G. King, of Seguin ; William, who died young, and Travis H. Ashby, who
died after being a Captain in the Confederate army.
" A braver or grander-hearted woman never trod the soil of Texas, and all of the survivors of those early days, from San Antonio to the Colorado and from Texana and Victoria to the foot of the moun- tains, will attest the truth of this statement. Knowing her from boyhood and not having seen her for a little over twenty years I willingly and eon- scientiously pay this tribute to her. Mr. Braehes, for forty-six years, proved himself to be worthy to be the husband of such a woman. It is needless for me to speak of his character to those among whom he so long lived. That he was a polished and refined gentleman, of kindly heart, all will ad- mit. He was to have been my guest at the State Fair last fall, but sickness prevented his coming. My little grandchildren, inspired by the eulogies of their grandparents, were sorely disappointed at his not coming. In conclusion, I can only say that I believe Charles Braches to have been incapable of a mean or dishonorable act. He was, in the high- est sense, an honorable and benevolent man and good citizen."
Mrs. Mary Jones, wife of Mr. H. K. Jones, of Dilworth in Gonzales County, a station near the old family homestead, is the only surviving ehild born of this union. Mrs. Braches was the soul of pat- riotism --- a lady of rare refinement and intelligence, and ber deeds of kindness and charities were innu- merable. Her grave will be watered by the tears of the widow and orphan. Her life is a part of, and interwoven with the most stirring period of Texas history. To her belongs the glory of a Roman matron and the halo of a tender Christian mother.
She was one of the best known, best beloved and noblest of the noble Texian matrons who inspired the men of earlier days to resistance to tyranny and deeds of heroism and kept the fires of patriotism brightly aglow upon the hearthstones of the coun- try. At her home, to the time of her death, she maintained that free and elegant hospitality that made the South famous in olden time. Her name deserves to be wreathed with imperishable immor- telles and to be inscribed upon one of the brightest pages of the State's history. Peace to her ashes and lasting honor to her memory.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ALEXANDER BEATON.
GEM HILL. (Near Corsicana, Texas.)
Maj. Alexander Beaton was born at Inverness, Inverness-shire, the most beautiful and romantic part of the Highlands of Scotland, February 19, 1820. His parents, Donald and Margaret ( Beaton ) Beaton, died when he was in his thirteenth year. He received an academic education in his native town, and in his seventeenth year was sent to the city of London, England, where he entered the office of an accountant, where lie remained for six years. Shortly after his first arrival in London, he wit- nessed the grandest sight and pageant of his life, the coronation of Queen Victoria. He came to the United States in 1843, in November of that year landing at New Orleans where, until 1844, he filled a position secured by him before he left London. He left New Orleans at the beginning of the yellow fever epidemic in 1844, the local physicians and newspapers advising all unacclimated persons to pursue that course. He went from New Orleans to St. Louis and from the latter city to Bolivar, Polk County, Mo., where he taught school and read law until 1847 in the office of Col. Thomas Ruffin, who was then known as one among the leading members of the bar in Southwest Missouri. In the summer of that year a call was made on the State of Missouri to raise her Third Regiment of Mounted Volunteers for service in Mexico, and Maj. Beaton volunteered for service during the war and became a member of Company K. of said regiment. Col. Ralls, of Ralls County, Mo., was afterwards elected Colonel of the regiment, which, after being duly equipped and made ready for service at Fort Leavenworth, now in the State of Kansas, started on its march across the plains in July, 1817, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it took the place of Gen. Price's command, whose term of service had expired. Maj. Beaton went to Taos, New Mexico, with three companies of the regiment and remained there, doing duty as acting adjutant of the battalion, until the end of the war, when he returned to Independence, Mo., with the entire regimental command, where with his fellow-soldiers he was, in the fall of 1848, honorably discharged from the service. He now draws .a pension of $8.00 per month as a Mex- iean war veteran from the United States govern- ment.
Shortly after his discharge from the army, he
and Col. Ruffin came to Texas, stopped at Houston for a brief period and then took a look at the town of Washington, on the Brazos, which was much spoken of at the time and believed by many to be destined for the dignity of a city of importance at some time. They afterwards visited and resided, for varying periods, at Brenham, Chappel Hill, and Richmond, Col. Ruffin locating at the latter place. Maj. Beaton during his sojourn at Chappel Hill taught school for a few months.
He arrived at Corsicana on the 16th of March, 1850, then a small frontier village of about one hundred inhabitants, and has since resided in and near that place. In a short time after his arrival he was employed in the county clerk's office and was later appointed to fill the unexpired term of a former incumbent of the office of county assessor and collector of taxes and, while so engaged, in- dustriously applied himself to the study of law. Ile was admitted to the bar in 1851, license being granted by Hon. O. M. Roberts, the presiding judge, afterwards Chief Justice of the State Su- preme Court, Governor of Texas and, later, senior law professor in the Texas University. Maj. Bea- ton afterwards, for a period of over thirty years, engaged in the practice of the profession, before and after the war for some years as a copartner of the now distinguished statesman, Hon. R. Q. Mills, and since that time, until about ten years ago, when he retired from active pursuits to his ' Gem Hill" home, near the city of Corsicana.
Ile has borne a conspicuous and helpful part in the upbuilding of Corsicana. The start in the making of Corsieana as a city was his successful effort in getting a depot of the Houston and Texas Central Railway located at the town in 1871. In the attainment of this object he was ably assisted by Mr. James Kerr, Sr., and Col. William Croft. In honor of his services and liberality, without any desire or asking for it on his part, the people named the principal street in the city, Beaton street, in his honor. He has been a life-long Democrat and has done good service for the party and for the cause of honest and accountable government. His fore- fathers for many generations were members of the Presbyterian Church, with whose Calvinism and authoritative teaching he could not agree. He now worships with his wife in the Methodist Church,
JAMES G. DUDLEY.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS ..
whose tenets and beliefs are more in accord with bis own.
As previously stated, Maj. Beaton retired from active business and professional pursuits more than ten years ago and moved to his residence, " Gem Hill," which overlooks the city of Corsicana and is one of the most exquisitely beautiful and well appointed country-seats in the South.
July 11, 1852, he married Elizabeth J. McKin- ney, daughter of Rev. Hampton Mckinney, a famous pioneer and Methodist Episcopal preacher of Navarro County, who moved to this State from Illinois. Maj. and Mrs. Beaton have three chil- dren, two sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, Ralph, is a member of the firm of Damon, Beaton & Company, of Corsicana. Their only daughter, Mary Kate, is the wife of Dr. S. W. Johnson, of that city. Maj. Beaton was made a Master Mason in 1850 by Gen. E. H. Tarrant, joining the first lodge organized in Corsicana. Maj. Beaton has won considerable distinction as an amateur geolo- gist and investigator of the natural sciences, for which he has always possessed a passionate fond- ness and followed with a quiet and never flagging zeal. He has contributed many valuable articles (that have been widely copied) to magazines. The following telegram of April 29, 1895, from Austin, Texas, to the Dallas-Galveston News fitly illustrates the interest he feels in the cause of
scientific progress : " It may not be generally known that a few weeks since the University of Texas came into the possession of the valuable and unique cabinet of minerals collected by Hon. Alexander Beaton, of Corsicana, on his home place, known as ' Gem Hill ' situated about a mile south of the town.
"Maj. Beaton has long been a student of nature and, being impressed with the remarkable beauty and purity of the drift-minerals found in the fields near the house, he took the pains to have many of the best, several hundreds, in fact, dressed by the lapidaries of Colorado Springs, Colo. The results are truly wonderful, bringing out in a marked degree the hidden beauties which less acute observers have for years passed by. Many of these stones are suitable for various set- tings and, doubtless, under the fostering care of a competent expert, quite an industry could be built up along this line in Texas.
"Mr. Beaton is strongly imbued with this idea. The collection will soon be ready for display at the University and visitors should bear it in mind in making their rounds. Maj. Beaton deserves the hearty thanks of all students of science for his generosity in this matter. May others be moved to follow his example. The University is the proper custodian for all collections which will promote the intellectual and scientific welfare of the State."
JAMES G. DUDLEY,
PARIS.
The subject of this sketch was born in Hannibal, Marion County, Mo., on the Sth day of April, 1818, of Virginia parentage, his father being from Lynchburg and his mother, who is still living, from Kanawah County, Va., and was the fourth child of a family of six children.
His great-grandfathers on both sides were sol- diers in the Revolutionary war for Independence and his grandfathers were soldiers in the war of IS12. His grandfather on his father's side lost his life at Norfolk, Va., when the father of the subject of this sketch was about three years old. His father was a carpenter by trade, and, when James G. Dudley was . about four years of age, moved to the city of St. Louis, where he engaged in contracting and building. Young Dudley at-
tended the public schools of St. Louis, known as the Mound street and Webster schools, and there laid the foundation for the liberal education he afterwards acquired by private study. A few years before the commencement of the war between the States, his father moved to Henry County, Mo., where he engaged in farming, young James G. and his only brother, W. W. Dudley, working on the farm. In 1862, the second year of the war, the subject of this sketch, although only fourteen years of age, found it unsafe to stay at home on account of his bold and openly pronounced views in favor of the Southern Confederacy and made his way to the command of the gallant Sidney Jackman and proceeded south with him to Gen. Price's army, in Northern Arkansas, and joined the celebrated
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INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Sixteenth Missouri Infantry, then commanded by Col. L. M. Lewis (who afterwards became a Gen- eral) and participated in nearly all the great bat- tles fought in the Trans-Mississippi department. After the close of the war he returned to Missouri, and engaged in farming and running an engine in a flonring mill until he became able to undertake the study of law and then entered the law office of Judge F. E. Savage, of Kentucky, then residing at Clinton, Mo. Having been admitted to the bar in April, 1872, he came to Texas the following November and settled at Paris, Texas, where he bas since resided and risen to distinction in bis profession.
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At the Paris bar he found it necessary to meet such eminent lawyers as J. W. Throckmorton, T. J. Brown, M. L. Sims, R. R. Gaines, W. H. Johuson, R. H. Taylor, W. B. Wright and S. B. Maxey, men who not only enjoyed State-wide but national reputations, and not only held his own but soon rose to be a recognized equal of theirs. No lawyer in Texas has had a more varied practice, or been more successful. He has been of counsel in some of the most celebrated civil and criminal cases tried in the State during the last twenty years. He and Chief Justice Gaines were copartners when the latter was elected to the Supreme Bench.
In 1877 he married Miss Jennie E. Blair, who is a descendant on her mother's side from the family of which the heroic Travis was a scion. They have five children living, three sons and two daughters.
He was elected chairman of the Democratic Ex- ecutive Committee of Texas at the Dallas conven- tion in 1894.
The year in which this book is being prepared for publication and will issue from the press ( 1896) is one of political storm. A crisis is upon the country that must be patriotically met and over- come, if a long train of cvils that threaten it are to be avoided. For many years past, in fact since the days of reconstruction, the Democratic party has embraced within its ranks a heterogeneous mass of individuals, many of whom were attracted to its standard in the dark days that followed the war between the States by reason of the fact that it stood for honest, responsible government and had undertaken the task of restoring the reins of gov- ernment to the hands of the people, but are now,
when that object has been long since attained, no longer Democrats in anything except the name. Quite a number of this class have drifted into the Populist and into other parties. Another and more dangerous element in the party has been one whose motto has been " rule or ruin," led by dis- gruntled individuals whose political ambitions have been disappointed, and who, actuated by malice and a spirit of revenge, because the rank and file of the party would not submit to their dictation, first became bolters and have since drifted into the condi- tion of political brigands, and followers of Mckinley. In the early part of this year they and their leaders loudly proclaimed that they were the only true Democrats and that they intended to see that their declarations and principles were engrafted in the State platforms to be promulgated by the party in the approaching campaign. The prospect at that time was that they would remain within the organ- ization, confuse and darken its counsels and lead to its defeat in November ; but, the Democratic party, it almost seems providentially, had for its chair- man of the State Executive Committee, a man of high ability, unflinching courage, inflexibility of purpose and that capacity for generalship that iu all ages has characterized those commanders who have led bodies of men in hours of supreme peril (when disaster threatened from every quarter) to victory. Owing to the prompt and decided action taken by him and his fellow-members of the com- mittee (named by some " the Dudley committee ") the people were given a chance to express them- selves through their ballots at a primary election, and the result was true Democracy triumphed.
Mr. Dudley delivered the oration for Texas ou Texas day at the Atlanta Exposition, which was pronounced by the Atlanta Constitution "a gem of oratory." At the Austin convention of this year, 1896, the acts of Mr. Dudley as chairman of the Democratic State Executive Committee were by resolution endorsed, in the most flattering way. No man in Texas has ever been more complimented by a convention. The whole convention, including a vast concourse of spectators, rose to their feet.
Mr. Dudley is now one of the most conspicuous figures in public life in this State and has won the admiration of all the leaders of the party through- out the country. He has been chosen a member of the National Democratic Executive Committee.
GEO. HANCOCK.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GEORGE HANCOCK,
AUSTIN.
George Hancock, the subject of this sketch, was truly one of the sturdy pioneers of Texas, having immigrated to Texas in 1835. He is a lineal de- scendant of the Virginia family of Haneoek, which is of English extraction, and had the same aneestry as the Massachusetts family. Their family eame to this country from England at a very early period.
In 1632, George Hancock settled in what is now Campbell County, Va. At this time the sagacious and humane Sir Francis Wyatt was Governor of the colony, and assisted by a eouneil and representative assembly chosen by the people. A written constitution bad been granted, eourts of law established, and the germ of eivil and religious liberty firmly planted; for, although intolerance and civil commotion at times disturbed the equan- imity of the Virginia colonists, they had neverthe- less conceived the true theory of government, and were anxious to found it upon the basis of a true colonization. The social status of the colony was most excellent, and its chivalry was unquestionably of the purest type. Politieal spirit of republican freedom was ever present and, if at times there was Berkley to oppress with arbitrary and tyrannieal rule, there was always a Nathaniel Baeon to sustain with all the powers of the sword, if need be, the inalienable rights of man.
Under such favorable auspices as these, the Han- coeks started, and their progeny have been true to the faith of their fathers.
The subject of this biography was a native of Tennessee, where he was born on the 11th of April, 1809. He was reared in Alabama, and is a son of John Allen Hancock, who was a native of Franklin County, Va., where he was a wealthy planter, and emigrated to Alabama about the year 1819, and died there in January, 1856.
John Allen Hancock was not a publie man, his mcst distinguishing characteristie being a decided aversion to holding public office, but the private virtues and excellencies of life he possessed in a remarkable degree. Man is not what he does, but what he is, and judged by this standard John Allen Hancock was a model.
Sarah Ryan, the mother of the subject of this skitch, was a native of Bedford County, Va., daughter of William Ryan, a planter, and for a Jong time high sheriff of that eounty. His
ancestors came from North Ireland, and were Presbyterians in religion. The precise date of the emigration to America is not known, but it was some time during the days of colonization. After emigrating to Texas in 1835, Mr. Haneock actively participated in the war for Independenee against Mexico, and was especially noticeable in the battle of San Jacinto, being one of the five men who were with Deaf Smith in eutting Vinee's bridge, which resulted in the capture of Santa Anna. He was also in the prominent campaigns of the frontier, during the Woll and Mier eam- paigns. Subsequently he passed a number of years in locating and surveying lands, and in fight- ing Mexicans and Indians, performing hard duties in both civil and military service. In 1843 he engaged in commerce, opening a mercantile house at LaGrange, Fayette County; subsequently in Bastrop, and in 1845 in Austin, where he extended his business untill it became one of the most exten- sive in the interior of Texas. He was for several years a member of the Texas Legislature. He as- sisted in organizing the Texas Veterans' Association in 1873, and was prominent in its couneils, being on its executive committee for a number of years, and a Veteran of the first elass in that association. He was for many years preceding his death a vestryman of St. David's Episcopal church in Austin. He was married in 1855 to Louisa, daughter of Col. Ira Randolph Lewis, a sketeh of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Haneoek was a man of great foree of ehar- acter, of unyielding and courageous honesty, and was ready at all times to sacrifice his private inter- ests to his principles. During the dissensions between the States previous to 1860, he was a strong opponent of seeession, believing it to be impossible of accomplishment and disastrous to the South and to the whole country. When the war broke out he retained and continued to publiely express his convietions, preferring to risk all rather than yield what he thought right and patriotic. But his hand and heart were always open to his neighbors in distress and many a soldier, fighting the battles of the Confederacy in the front, felt easier from knowing that his family at home would not suffer while George Hancock was there to lend a helping hand.
George Hancock and his brother, Judge John
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Hancock, recently deceased, were for many years potential forces in the business and political affairs of Texas. George Hancock died on the 6th of
January, 1879, in the city of Austin, leaving sur- viving his wife, Louisa, and one son, Lewis, the present, Mayor of Austin.
WILLIAM LEWIS CABELL,
DALLAS.
Gen. W. L. Cabell was born in Danville, Va., January 1, 1827, and was one of a family of seven sons and four daughters.
His grandfather was Joseph Cabell, of Bucking- ham County, who married a Miss Bolling, of the same county. His father was Gen. Benjamin W. S. Cabell, born in Buckingham, and his mother, Sarah E. Doswell, a native of Nottoway County, where his parents were married. Joseph Cabell, his grandfather, moved to Kentucky while his father, Benjamin W. S., was young. Gen. Ben- jamin W. S. Cabell, however, remained in Virginia all his life and died there April 13, 1862. His widow died in 1874. Gen. W. L. Cabell grew up on his father's farm and attended schools in the vicinity until 1846, when he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1850 and was assigned to the United States Army as Brevet Second Lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry. In 1855, having attained the rank of First Lieutenant, he was appointed regi- mental Quartermaster and so remained until 1858, when he was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Quartermaster's department and was assigned to duty on the staff of Gen. Persifer F. Smith, then in command of the Utah expedition. Gen. Smith died and was succeeded by Gen. Wm. S. Harney, with whom Capt. Cabell continued until the close of the expedition, when, in the same year, he was ordered to Fort Kearney to rebuild that fortification. In the spring of 1859 he was ordered to Fort Arbuckle, in the Chickasaw Nation, and in the fall of the same year, to build a new post at Fort Cobb, about a hundred miles west of Arbuckle and high up on the Washita river, in the Indian Territory, west of the ninety- eighth meridian. This post, since the war, has been superseded by Fort Sill. Capt. Cabell re- mained on duty at Fort Cobb, frequently engaged in scouting against the wild Indians, until the spring of 1861, when it became apparent that the war between the States was inevitable.
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