USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 50
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Being still in feeble health, on the recommenda- tion of his physician he moved to Kerr County in 1872 and settled on a tract of land (on which Kerr- ville now stands) which he had located while sur- veying in that section in the " forties." In 1873 he was elected to the Legislature. From 1874 to 1888 he engaged in farming. On the establishment of Kerrville in 1888 he was made the first mayor of the place. As soon as the town was incorporated he donated to it sixteen acres of land for a school building and grounds and later donated other lots (in all more than one hundred acres ) for the erection of buildings and for other improvements. He watched the growth of the town from its inception and always manifested a liberal spirit in promoting its interests.
He married late in life, his wife being Mrs. Ella Losee, widow of Dr. Henry Losee, a United States army surgeon who died at Kerrville. She died three or four years before Capt. Tivy. His death occurred July 5th, 1892.
For some time he had been actively engaged in overseeing the work of boring for artesian water on his place. Owing to his advanced age and phy- sical condition, this undue activity and exposure brought on stomach complications which proved to be the immediate cause of his demise. Ile was a member of the Masonic fraternity. Religious ser- vices were conducted at the church and services at the grave by Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A. F. and A. M., and Burleson Chapter Royal Arch Masons of San Antonio. A large delegation from Rising Star Lodge were also present from Center Point. The funeral cortege consisted of more than oue hundred carriages and was the largest ever seen in the town.
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He was laid to rest on the summit of the mountain beside his beloved wife. He was greatly beloved by the entire community and the people omitted no mark of respect to his memory that friendship for him and admiration for his character could prompt. He was associated as a brave companion with men whose deeds have made Texas famous. He main- tained throughout a life marked with many hard- ships, vicissitudes and perils a character unsullied
by a single stain. He was modest, truthful, gener- ous and kind and devoted to his God, his country, his family and his friends. He accumulated a handsome fortune. By his last will and testament he constituted his sister, Miss Susan Tivy, his sole legatee and she and Judge A. McFarland were made executors without bond. Mr. Tivy was one of the noblest representatives of the noblest race of pioneers that the world has ever known.
GEO, W. O'BRIEN,
BEAUMONT.
Capt. George W. O'Brien, one of the most widely known and highly esteemed citizens of Southern Texas, was born about five miles below the present town of Abbeville, Vermillion Parish, Louisiana, May 28th, 1833; and in his seventeenth year (November, 1848) came to Texas and located at Galveston, where he made his home, until his re- moval in the latter part of 1852, to Beaumont, where he has ever since resided. At Beaumont, July 21st, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Rowley, member of another Louisiana family that had settled in that part of Texas. Of this union were born seven children, five of whom are now living, viz. : Mrs. Minnie G. Stark (for- merly Wilson) ; Mrs. Lillie E. Townsend, wife of Mr. T. L. Townsend, and Mrs. Emma E. Smith, forinerly wife of A. S. John, Esq., deceased, but now the wife of Mr. Harvey B. Smith, all now resi- dents of Dallas, Texas; George C. O'Brien, Esq., of Beaumont, recently district attorney of his district and later a member of the House of Representatives of the Texas Legislature, and Mrs. Kaleta B. James, wife of Mr. William James, of Cleburne, Texas.
Capt. O'Brien won the military prefix to his name by faithful and gallant service under the Confed- erate flag, whose waning fortunes he followed until it was furted forever.
From September 4th to December 10th, 1861, he served as a privatein Company F. (Capt. K. Bryans), Fifth Texas Regiment, and afterwards, until the end of the war, as Captain of a company in what was first Liken's Battalion, afterwards Speights' Battal- ion, and later Speights' Texas Regiment - a mixed regiment. While not a seeker after political dis- tinction or preferment, he has - been frequently honored by his fellow-Democrats with important
offices ; has served as a member of many district and State conventions and has ever been a well- known and trusted member of the organized Democ- raey, to which he has preserved an unshaken allegiance, and in whose interests he has helped plan and fight many successful political bat- tles. He was a member of the National Demo- cratic Convention that met at Baltimore in 1872. In the presidential campaign of that year he favored the nomination of a sound conservative Northern Democrat, foretelling that Mr. Grecly would not be accepted as a Democrat North or South, and that his nomination would result in an overwhelming defeat. Indeed, in this instance, as in many others, his cool and dispassionate judg- inent was demonstrated by pointing out the true course to be pursued, and relieved him of personal responsibility for party failures. For instance, althongh always entertaining a great admiration for Gen. Sam Houston, he did not permit that majestic leader to draw him into the folly of connecting himself with the secret oath-bound political organi- zation that styled itself the American party, but which is better known to history as the Know-Noth- ing party, giving as one of his reasons for refusing to follow Houston, his belief that the Know-Noth- ing party in seeking to proseribe a denomination of religion, was committed to a policy obnoxious to the fundamental principles that form the foundation of our government, and all constitutional freedom as well. When this party was in its heyday, and sweeping the country, he predicted its speedy dis- integration, claiming that no organization seeking to ostracise any class of citizens because of their peculiar religious faith, could long find favor with the American people.
,
GEO. W. O'BRIEN.
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Again in the year 1860, after the election of President Lincoln, and the adoption by South Car- china of her celebrated resolutions announcing the fact that that State had scceded from the Ameri- can Union, he furnished another evidence of the soundness and reliability of his judgment. As & member of a committee on resolutions at a seces- sion meeting held at Beaumont he refused to sub- scribe to and vote for the adoption of a copy of the South Carolina resolutions, taking the position, first, that Mr. Lincoln, being an honest states- man, would under his oath of office maintain and enforce all existing laws enacted in accord- dance with constitutional provisions for the pro- tection of the rights of the South, more efficiently than his Democratic predecessors had succeeded in doing, antagonized as they were by the people of the North; aud, second, that a resort to seces- sion, as a cure of the ills that existed, was then premature, inasmuch as the abolition forces had secured possession alone of the executive depart- ment of the national government, and coutrol of both branches of Congress, and the Supreme Court of the United States remained in the hands of the Democrats, rendering it impossible that existing laws would be changed, the constitution amended, or constitutional guarantees further invaded, dur- ing the Lincoln administration, while it was alto- gether probable that the fanatical disregard of the organic laws and the rights of the people of the Southern States thereunder, would be allayed and finally subside, if cooling time were allowed, and then the rights of the South would be accorded for the future, or the slavery questio'n would be compromised, by the adoption of a just aud peace- able system of gradual emancipation.
Ilis opposition proved of no avail. A large majority of his fellow-citizens dissented from his views. When threatened and condemned at this inceting for the position he had taken, he, without subscribing to the resolutions, gave the extreme politicians present to unequivocally understand that if they and others precipitated upou our State, secession and consequent civil war, as he believed prematurely, he would stand by his people aud be
one of the first to shoulder a musket, and, from the beginning to the end of the struggle, would seek to do his full duty in the ranks of the sol- diery of Texas, as there existed no difference of opinion between him and other members of the meeting as to the fact that the Southern States had suffered outrages at the hands of the abolition party that furnished ample justification for such a . course. Hc maintained, however, to the end of the discussion, the unwisdom of secession at the time.
Capt. O'Brien lost his first wife in 1873, and was married again in 1874 to Miss Ellen P. Chenault, then a resident of Orange, Texas. She is a sister of Hon. Stephen Chenault, then a citizen of that place, now of Goliad, and a daughter of Felix Chenault, Esq., a resident and for nearly thirty years county clerk of Gonzales County. She was born in De Witt County, where her father and mother (nee Miss.Anna Trigg ) formerly resided. By this marriage two children have been born to them : Chenault O'Brien and Robert O'Brien.
The population as shown by the census of 1850, was about 212,000. There were no railway or telegraph lines between the borders of the State, and by far the greater part of her domain was a primeval waste. While of a modest and retiring disposition, in the period that has supervened, no man, accord- ing to his opportunities and abilities, has been more zealous, or labored more effectively, in the noble work of developing the resources of the State, and none feel a deeper pride in her present and future greatness.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Masonic and Knights of Honor fraternities.
He has aided every worthy enterprise established in his section, and has championed every worthy cause.
Of spotless fame, cultured and refined in manuer, kindly and generous, and a worthy type of the true gentleman, he enjoys the uufeigned friendship and esteem of not only his immediate neighbors, but a wide circle of personal and political friends, extend- ing throughout the State.
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J. J. JARVIS,
FORT WORTH.
James Jones Jarvis was born in Surry County, N. C., April 30th, 1831, and received his educa- tion in that State, Tennessee and Illinois, his parents, Daniel and Lydia Jarvis, having moved to Illinois when he was about twenty years of age. . He read law with Hon. W. B. Somers, of Arbana, Ill., wrote in the clerk's office at the same time to acquaint himself with the machine work of practice ; was granted license by the Supreme Court of Illinois, in 1856 ; then started South and reached Shreveport, La., and in the winter of that year determined to go to Texas. He at first thought that he would buy a horse to travel on; but, only having $100, realized that such a purchase would too greatly diminish his scanty supply of cash, and started out afoot; walked from Shreveport to the east fork of the Trinity river in Collin County, and then, doubling back on his course, went to Quitman, in Wood County, located there and began the practice of his profession. When he reached the town he had sixty dollars and, loaning fifty-five dollars to a friend, commenced his career with only five dollars in his pocket. He soon won an enviable standing at the bar, served for two years as county judge and two years as district attorney of the Sixth Judicial Dis- triet; returned to the practice of law and in 1872 went to Fort Worth, where he has since resided. Having saved a few thousand dollars, he invested
all be had in real estate and is now one of the largest tax-payers in Tarrant County. ITe owns one of the finest business blocks in the city, 840,- 000 stock in the Fort Worth National Bank, of which he is vice-president, five thousand aeres of land ten miles north of the city, other valuable country property and oue hundred acres adjoining the city, on which he has an elegant residence. He has quite a passion for stock-raising and is engaged in raising fine cattle and horses on his ranch near town.
In 1861 Mr. Jarvis entered the Confederate army as a volunteer in Company A., Tenth Regiment of Texas cavalry, Ector's brigade, Van Dorn's corps, Beauregard's Army of Tennessee, and served as Adjutant and Major of his regiment. After the battle of Corinth the troops with which he was con- nected were transferred to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and Mr. Jarvis served with that army and took part in its battles through the whole of Gen. Smith's cam- paign in Kentucky, participating in the battles
around Richmond, Ky., and other engagements. On the evacuation of Kentucky and after joining Gen. Bragg, he was also in the battles of Murfrees- boro and Jackson, Miss. In the former battle he was slightly wounded, but did not leave the field. Hc came home just before the close of hos- tilities on furlough, and was at home when the Confederate armies surrendered.
Mr. Jarvis was married in 1866 to Miss Ida Van Zandt, daughter of Isaac Van Zandt, onee Minister from Texas to the United States and who was ap- pointed by Gen. Sam Houston to negotiate the treaty under which Texas became a member of the American Union of States. They have three living children: Van Zandt, Daniel Bell and Lennie Flynn.
Mr. Jarvis has always been an active and earnest Democrat, believing that upon the triumph and suc- cessful application of the principles of that organi- zation depends the perpetuity of free institutions in this country. Although never in any sense an office-seeker, lie has not hesitated to serve his peo- ple when it was thought that his experienec and abilities could be employed in the promo- tion of the general good. He was nominated in 1886 by the Democracy of the twentieth sena- torial distriets composed of the counties of Tar- rant, Parker, Wise and Jack, and was elected by a majority of twelve hundred votes. In the regular and extra sessions of the Twentieth Legisla- ture and in the Twenty-first Legislature, he was Chairman of the Committee on Finance (perhaps the most important of all the standing commitees), second on Judiciary Committee No. 1 (the next most important ), and a member of the committees on Internal Improvements, Education, Public Debt, Frontier Protection, Retrenchment and Reform and Engrossed Bills, committees that with those already enumerated transact nine-tenths of
the business that comes before the Senate. He was the author of a number of salutary laws during these sessions, among others one enacted by the Twentieth Legislature requiring assessors and collectors to report monthly their collections under oath and requiring them to send all money collected directly to the treasurer of the State instead of to the comptroller, as formerly. The effect of this bill was the speedy collection of a surplus in a previously depleted treasury. Although he had
J. J. JARVIS.
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retired from the practice of his profession a number of years prior to his entrance into the Legislature, his exceptional learning and abilities as a lawyer were well known to and recognized by his colleagues and this fact, combined with his reputation as a financier, sound Democrat and man of sturdy and unbending patriotic purpose, caused them to accord him the position of a leader in their deliberations and won for him their sincerc esteem and friend- ship.
Mr. Jarvis has been a liberal giver to public and private charities and has been an active spirit in
the promotion of every worthy movement inaugu- rated in Fort Worth during his long residence there, designed for the upbuilding of the city. He is, and has been for many years, a member of the Christian Church and is now president of the Board of Trustees of Add Ran (Christian) University (located at Thorp Springs, in Hood County, Texas), to which institution he has donated $10,000 during the past five years.
Kind, genial, active in every good work, few men in Forth Worth exercise so wide an influence or are so generally liked.
THE REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF CICERO R. PERRY AND KIT ACKLIN, IN 1844.
In the summer of 1844 Capt. John C. Hays, of San Antonio, commanded a company of Texas rangers, doing duty on both the Indian and Mexican line of frontier north and west of that town. That region, throughout the American settlement of Texas, down to the close of the Civil War in 1865, abounds in incidents of blood, daring and personal heroism. At present it is proposed to narrate the facts connected with one of them.
From his camp at San Antonio Hays dispatched four men on a scout towards the Rio Grande, whose mission was to ascertain if the Mexicans were again menacing the country. The party con- sisted of Christopher H. Acklin (commonly called Kit Acklin), Cicero Rufus Perry (almost univer- sally known as Rufe Perry), John Carlton and James Dunn. After a week in the wilderness they balted at noon about a hundred yards east of the Nueces river, and about fifteen miles above the "Gen. Woll" crossing of that stream. After dinner Carlton and Dunn, without saddles, rode to the river, stripped and were taking a bath, when Perry and Acklin were suddenly and furiously attacked by about thirty Indians, yelling as they charged upon the surprised couple. But though surprised, they were both men of iron nerve, cxpc- rienced and at home in the perils of their occupa- tion. Seizing their arms, they fought and slowly retreated towards Carlton and Dunn at the river. Perry was shot three times with arrows, one rutering his temple, one in the shoulder and one passing through his body from the right to the left side. From excruciating pain he fainted, and was
evidently considered dead by the Indians, but quickly revived, and seeing the enemy busy in plundering the camp, he arose and reached the river bank, when one of the naked bathers, on bareback, rode across to him and endeavored to take him up behind; but being too weak to mount, Perry seized the horse by the tail, crossed the river, and ascended the west bank, when he again fainted. Believing him to be dead, his wounded companion took charge of his gun and pistols. While this was transpiring, Acklin, partly shielded by a tree, was wounded in six or eight places, the most serious being an arrow in his check, which he was unable to extract. A moment, probably, after Dunn and Carlton, both naked and bare- back, left, consciousness again returned to Perry, and he staggered into a dense thicket, from which, at the same time, he saw Acklin pass, and sup- posed he would seek the same refuge - but he saw him no morc.
It was 110 miles through the wilderness to San Antonio, the nearest habitation. On the third day Dunn and Carlton, their flesh almost roasted and their skins peeling from their bodies, reached that place, and reported Perry and Acklin as unquestion- ably dead. Good nursing soon restored them to soundness.
While in the thicket, Perry drew the arrows from his temple and body, but could not withdraw the one embedded in his shoulder. Finding his life blood flowing, he staunched the wounds with powdered leaves and dust. Crawling to the river, driven by thirst, he filled his shoes with water, and
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again sought a hiding-place. At dawn next morn- ing he again went to the river and lay by the water all day, bathing his wounds with mud. When the second night came, though scarcely able to stand, desperation impelled him onward, and he began his long and apparently hopeless journey, suffering tortures from the arrow in his shoulder, weakened by the loss of blood, and harrowed by the dread of insanity from the sun beaming on his wounded head. Gentle whispers urged him onward - whispers of mother, sister, friends - whispers of trust in God. Often sinking prostrate under the alluring shade of trees, he would sleep sometimes for hours, at others only through fitful moments, with the one dread of inflamed and disordered brain, and therefore inevitable death, ever present. Thus he toilcd, suffered, agonized for six days, his only nourishment being three prickly pears, till, on the seventh day, a living skeleton, he staggered into San Antonio, as one risen from the dead - to be joyfully embraced by valiant comrades and those blessed ladies, who at that day, won the love and the homage of all true soldiers who from time to time held quarters in and around San Antonio - of whom Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Jaques and Mrs. Mav- erick were conspicuous examples.
Kit Acklin was yet considered among the dead. But not so.
On the eighth day, in much the same condition as Perry, Acklin gave renewed joy to all by appear- ing among them. His trials had been similar to those of his comrade. The arrow was still tenac- iously fixed in his cheek.
Both received needful medical treatment and gentle nursing. The arrow was extracted from each, and in a few weeks each was restored to fair . health ; but Perry never entirely recovered from the wound in his temple, bearing to this day the ex- ternal evidence of its severity.
Of these four gallant men, Jobn Carlton died long since in San Antonio; James Dunn was killed in 1864, in a fight between Texas and Union soldiers at Las Rucias, on the Lower Rio Grande ; Christopher H. Acklin was a Captain in Hays' regiment in the Mexican war, afterwards went to California, and died there; Cicero R. Perry, who was born August, 23, 1822 (I think in Alabama), came to Texas in 1833, was in Col. Moore's Indian fight and defeat, on the San Saba, February 12, 1839, in the skirmish of Casa Blanca, August 9, 1840, and in many contests with the Indians. When Gen. Lee surrendered in 1865, Capt. Perry commanded the advance guard of 183 men, under my command, in an expedition against the Indians into the Concho country. Then, as now, he lived in Hays County, honored as a good citizen and high-toned gentleman. It was a genuine pleasure to again grasp his hand at the late semi-centennial of San Jacinto as one of the Texas Veteran's re- union in Dallas. Our friendship began in accident- ally meeting alone in an exposed wilderness west of the Colorado, on a gloomy day in October, 1840. We traveled alone all day and slept together that stormy night. That friendship has been unbroken and steadfast, changed only by increased endear- ment with the flight of time.
JOSEPH LANDA,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Joseph Landa, who for so long a period has figured as the chief factor in the development of the pretty city of New Braunfels, and who is widely known and esteemed as one of Texas' most promi- nent and worthy pioneers, was born in Prussia, Germany. He came to San Antonio in 1846, as a general merchant and real estate dealer, both in San Antonio and New Braunfels. In 1859 he pur- chased of Mr. Merriweather his entire water power and milling interests at New Braunfels ; took posses- sion of the same and commenced developments in
1860, since which time he has given to them his best thought and energies.
The plants now being operated are a flour mill of 500 barrels capacity, a large electric light plant and an 80-ton cottonseed oil mill.
At the present time Mr. Landa is busy increasing the capacity of his oil mill to 100 tons per day and putting in a late improved water wheel of 260 horse- power, to operate the oil mill. The company has also contracted for the erection of a new electric light station, and, in addition to the new wheel, will
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put in another one to operate several new dynamos for light and the transmission of power, all of which will materialize this (1896) spring.
The firm as it now stands, is doing the most ex- tensive business of any institution in Western Texas. It handled last year 3000 car loads of prod- uct, which, with their enlarged facilities, will be greatly increased this year. They are only await- ing the advent of another railroad to build the largest oil mill and flour mill 'in the State of Texas.
The entire business is managed by his son, Mr. Harry Landa, with an efficient force of about seventy-five employees.
In 1851, Mr. Joseph Landa, subjeet of this notiec, was united in marriage to Miss Helen Friedlander, daughter of Mr. Solomon Friedlander, of Albany, N. Y.
Seven surviving children were born to this union, three sons and four daughters.
Mr. Landa's home, facing the plaza in New Braunfels, is one of the finest family mansions, in point of architectural grace and completeness, in interior arrangement, finish and furnishings, in Southwestern Texas; and here be and his wife with their son live in quiet retirement, surrounded by a wide cirele of friends to make serene and happy the remaining years of life.
E. L. R. WHEELOCK,
ROBERTSON COUNTY.
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