USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 57
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
The life of the gentleman whose biography is here briefly sketched demonstrates the value of perseverance and determination to succeed in the face of what seem to be insurmountable obstacles. Deprived of school in early life, learning from books only what a mother could teach amid a mul- tiplicity of household cares incident to the rearing of a large family, and starting without any capital, but having ambition and energy, he has not only earned a high position professionally, and an honor- able name among men, but also a considerable for- tune. He is now reckoned among the wealthy men of Houston. In 1879 when the Court of Com- missioners of Appeals was established, twenty-six out of the thirty State Senators, the Lieutenant- Governor and a large number of Represcutatives signed a recommendation, or request, to the Gov- ernor to appoint him one of the judges of that court. This paper was sent to Judge Masterson with the
expectation and desire that he would present it to the Governor, who would hardly have hesitated to comply with the wish of the petitioners and place him on the bench. The recommendation was never delivered to the Governor, however, as Judge Mas- terson did not want the place, although, in point of dignity, it is equivalent to a seat on the supreme bench. As a further evidence of the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow-countrymen of all parties, it may be stated that at the Democratic district convention held at Houston, July 30, 1880, he was unanimously renominated for Judge of the Twenty-first District, and the Independent conven- tion indorsed him with equal unanimity, and he was re-elected, beating his Republican opponent over three thousand votes, out of a total of seven thousand, and leading the Democratic State ticket twenty-five hundred votes. On the bench he knows neither Democrat nor Republican. His undoubted integrity of character, his knowledge of law, his quick perceptions, his decided convictions, the urbanity of his manners and the care with which he studiously avoids wounding the feelings of others, are traits that account for his great popularity. He is a shrewd business man, commanding the respect and receiving the confidence of the community in his financial transactions.
His life will bear microscopic inspection, whether as an officer or a citizen. He is a close observer of men and things and a hard student in his profes- sion, a man worthy of the trust reposed in him in all his relations of citizens, Christian, lawyer and judge.
He is a man of spare build, being only five feet seven inches in height, and weighing only one hun- dred and forty-six pounds. His complexion is fair, his eyes greyish-blue, and forehead high and intellectual. He is quick spoken, and his manner is frank and affable.
In January, 1893, Judge Masterson resumed the general practice of his profession.
SAMUEL E. HOLLAND,
BURNET.
Samuel Eli Holland was born in Merriweather County, Ga., December 6th, 1826, and came to Texas in 1846, having been preceded by his parents, John R. and Elizabeth Holland, who came
in 1841. In April, 1847, he went to Austin and entered the United States army as a soldier in Samuel Highsmith's Company, Sixth Texas Cavalry (Jack Hay's Regiment), and with that command
305
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
joined the army of Gen. Taylor, then in Mexico. He was engaged with Hays' Regiment in guerrilla war- fare until discharged in May, 1848, wlien he returned to Texas.
During September of that year he settled in Bur- net County, then unorganized, where he purchased land on lfamilton creek, three miles below the present town of Burnet, twenty-five miles from his nearest neiglibor, and there commenced farming. He invested eight or nine hundred dollars, the amount he had saved out of his pay for services in the army. Capt. Holland has been married three times. He first married Mary Scott in 1852, by whom one son, George, who now lives in Mason County, was born to him. She died in March, 1855. December 6, 1855, he married Miss Clara Thomas. Nine children were born of this union, four sons and five daughters, viz. : David B., John H., Sam W., Porter D., Mary R., who married George Lester, of Llano County ; Martha M., who married Henry Hester; Louisa, Catherine and Elizabeth. Mrs. Holland died January 8, 1887. September 22, 1887, Mr. Holland married Mrs. Susan A. McCarty, by whom he has had three children, Charles Hamilton, Thomas A., and Will- iam A.
Capt. Holland has been a successful business man. Ile was a member of the Texas Mining and Improvement Company, which built the North- western Railroad from Burnet to Marble Falls. He is largely engaged in farming and stock-raising and
owns fine lands on Hamilton creek, in Burnet County. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a leading man in the Grange. He has always espoused the cause of law and order, given a ready and active support to the constituted authorities and been looked to and relied upon in time of public danger. Burnet was, for a long time after he settled there, a border county and subjected to Indian raids. He responded to every call of his neighbors to repel the Indians and protect the settlers and their prop- erty and was engaged in numerous Indian fights. At one time there was a band of counterfeiters on the Colorado river. Some of them were arrested and brought to trial, but none but negro evidence could be obtained, and they were acquitted. But they were notified by Capt. Holland and others to leave the county, which they promptly did.
After the war a number of parties commenced rounding up the yearlings, branding them, and driving off the beef cattle. A number of these men were indicted, but Judge Turner refused to hold court unless he was protected. Capt. Holland, at the request of a number of respectable citizens, organized a small police force and Judge Turner, knowing of what kind of stuff the men were made, said to him: " Holland, I look to you to protect this court, else I can't hold it;" and he did protect the court, notwithstanding the threats and show of armed resistance that were made.
Capt. Holland, although past middle age, is yet vigorous and active.
PHILIP SANGER,
DALLAS.
We have selected for the subject of this memoir the head of the Dallas branch of a great mercantile establishment that, start- ing from a very small beginning a number of years since, has grown to be the pride of the State of Texas. We refer to Mr. Philip Sanger and to Sanger Bros., who own mammoth emporiums at Waco and Dallas. This house is considered the largest wholesale and retail establishment in the Southern States. Its working capital is several tilhon dollars. It has three hundred and fifty employees at Dallas, and one hundred and fifty at Waco. It is conspicuous, not alone for its wealth sad the magnitude of its yearly transactions, but
for the high personal character and the important services, both in time of peace and war, rendered to the country by the gentlemen who compose the firm. Men who follow any occupation or pursue any profession are apt to consider theirs as superior to all others. The soldier prides himself upon being a member of the profession of arms. He looks about him and says: " That man is actuated by the greed of gain ; that man humbles himself to secure votes to put himself into some petty. civil office : that man is spending his days in represent- ing in court clients who have defrauded their neigh- bors or committed crimes for which they ought to be placed in the penitentiary or hanged, while we
20
30G
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
.
.
soldiers are relieved from all necessity for taking stock in the sordid affairs of life and, like gentle- men, stand ready, with clean hands and brave hearts and willing swords, to respond to the call of danger and defend our country if need be with our lives. Our profession elevates and ennobles and this can scarcely be said of any other."
The physician says : " The soldier is only necded in time of war, and is an expense instead of an . advantage in time of peace, and his presence is justified solely by the fact that it is necessary for the rest of the community to support him in order to avoid the danger of foreign aggression. The profession of medicine is the greatest of all profes- sions. Men may get along without any thing else, but they are obliged to have doctors." So with the lawyer, so with the merchant and so with the members of nearly every other avocation ; but, the truth of the matter is, that each and all are needed to develop and sus- tain our complex and many-sided civilization. It is difficult to institute comparisons and deter- mine the relative value of any calling or pur- suit. There is nothing more certain, however, than that the commercial importance of a country depends upon the ability and enterprise displayed by its merchants and that no nation can amount to much or take high rank without possessing such merchants. Ancient Tyre and Sidon owed their opulence and power to them and not to their fleets and armics. The same may be said of Carthage, of Venice, and of modern England, and, in a large measure, of our own country. It requires more capacity and more labor to successfully manage a large establishment like that of Sanger Bros., at Dallas, than to be Governor of Texas. The com- mercial world is a free Republic in which no man can expect special favors and in which every man must rise or fall according to his merits. Hc who enters it is compelled to meet the most skillful opponents, and contend against men of wonderful nerve, energy and brain. Ile must be constantly upon the qui vive. He must possess not only exec- utive ability of a high order, but capacity for the minutest details and the hardest work. The subject of this notice stands pre-eminent in Texas as a financier and merchant. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, September 11, 1811. His parents were Elias and Babetta Sanger, who came to America and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, from which place they moved to New York City, where they spent their remaining years. His father died in 1877, his mother in 1886. Both are buried in New York. They had ten children, seven sons and three daughters, of whom Isaac, senior partner of the
firm of Sanger Bros., resides in New York ; Leh- man resides in Waco, engaged in the real estate business ; Philip and Alexander are heads of the Dallas branch of Sanger Bros. business ; Samuel is a member of the firm of Sanger Bros. and lives at Waco; Sophia, resides at Waco, her husband, L. Emanuel, in the employ of Sanger Bros. ; Eda, wife of Jacob Newburger, resides in New York ( Mr. Newburger is one of the Eastern buy- ers for the firm of Sanger Bros.); Bertha, widow of Joseph Leliman, resides in New York ; and Jacob and David died of yellow fever at Bryan, Texas, in 1867, aged, respectively, twenty and seventeen years. After his arrival from Germany Mr. Philip Sanger remained in New York City for eighteen months, during which time he clerked for board and washing and $2.50 per month. He left New York in 1858 and went to Savannah, Ga., where he obtained employment in a clothing store where he received $10.00 per month for his services. At the end of a year he was sent to the interior, where he clerked for his employer and made collections until the beginning of the war between the States, Mr. Heller having gone North and left him to settle up that part of the business. Mr. San- ger's sympathies were with the Southern States and he responded to the call to arms by entering the Confederate army as a soldier in Company G., Thirty-second Georgia, commanded by Col. George P. Harrison, Jr. A few years since the writer met a friend of Mr. Sanger's at Weather- ford, Texas, who said: "I served in the army with Philip Sanger and I never knew a braver or better soldier." Besides other engagements, Mr. Sanger participated in that incident to the bom- bardment of Morris' Island, S. C., and the battles of Ocean Pond, Fla., and Bentonville, . N. C., his term of service extended over three years and eight months. He was slightly wounded at Ocean Pond. Coming out of the war utterly penniless and the South being prostrated by the re- sults of the conflict, he went to Cincinnati, where he clerked in a notion store for eight months. He then joined his brothers, Isaac and Lehman, who had established themselves in business at Millican, Texas, where they remained until 1867, then moved to Bryan, then the terminus of the Texas Central Railway. In 1869 the firm followed the terminus to Calvert and did business there a year, after which they moved to Kosse; stayed there six months; moved to Grosbeck in the spring of 1871 ; in the fall of that year changed their basc of operations to Corsicana, and in 1872 established themselves in Dallas, doing the leading business in all of the towns mentioned and at Dallas laying broad
307
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and deep the foundation for the immense business which they have since built up. Mr. Sanger was married August 26, 1869, to Miss Cornelia Mandel- baum, of New Haven, Connecticut. They have three children, one son and two daughters, all of whom are now living. Mr. Sanger has lost five children. He is a member of the I. O. B. B. He is modest and unpretentious in manner and an indefatigable worker. At the same time he is genial in manner, a most polished and elegant gentleman, and knows how to entertain royally at his palatial home. He has assisted with his personal influence in securing for Dallas many of the leading enterprises that now add to the
prosperity of the place and has given largely in the way of donations to railroads. He has been an active promoter of every worthy public and private movement for which bis aid has been solicited. Ilis charities have been many and unostentatious. He is recognized far and wide as a man of com- manding talents in the field which he has selected for his life work. He has done as much, perhaps, of a practical nature, as any other man in the State to build up the material prosperity of Texas and deserves a place in this work beside those men who have proved themselves to be potent factors in our civilization.
SAMUEL SANGER,
WACO.
Samuel Sanger, a leading merchant of Waco and one of the best known and most thoroughly repre- sentative business men and financiers in Texas, was born in Bavaria, South Germany, September 11th, 1843, and educated in Wurzburg, Bavaria, and Berlin, Prussia, where he studied for and was ad- mitted to the Jewish ministry. He came to the United States in 1866 and from 1867 to March, 1873, was the rabbi in charge of the synagogue at Philadelphia, Pa. In 1873, he came to Waco, Texas, and there engaged in business as a member of the famous mercantile house of Sanger Bros. of Dallas, who, in that year, established a branch house at Waco. Since that the he has had entire charge of the Waco store and has built up an im- mense trade for it.
He was united in marriage at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1867, to Miss Hannah Heller, daughter of K. L. Heller, of that city. They have four sons and one
daughter, viz., Charles L., a cotton broker at Waco; Ike S., connected with the New York office of Sanger Bros. ; A. S., employed in the wholesale notion department of the firm's establishment at Waco; Alex, now attending school in New York ; and Miss Carrie Sanger, who is living at home with her parents. Sanger Bros. is the largest dry goods house south of St. Louis and operates on a capital of millions of dollars. Mr. Sam. Sanger is a mem- ber of the Knights of Honor, is a member of K. S. B. and is also a member and Past-President of I. O. B. B. A business man of pre-eminent energy, enterprise and ability, he is a ripe scholar and polished gentleman as well, and is universally esteemed in commercial and social circles. He is a man thoroughly representative of the best thought and purpose of the sphere of action in which he has for so many years been a notable and commanding figure.
308
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
WILLIAM KINCHIN DAVIS,
RICHMOND.
It is difficult for men and women of this later generation, familiar with life upon peaceful farms and in towns and cities, to form a mental picture. of the physical aspect of Texas sixty years ago, or to conceive of the hardships, privations and dangers, incident to colonial life at that remote period. Here and there, only, the smoke from a settler's cabin chimney eurled upward on lonely prairie or in primeval river bottom and forest.
Weak and timid souls kept aloof from such & land. Brave, adventurous, hardy spirits poured
after the disbanding of Somervell's army on the Rio Grande, marched into Mexico with other Texian troops and in December, 1842, participated in the remarkable and brilliant battle of Mier, in which he was severely wounded and which resulted in the surrender of the Texians under stipulations that were afterwards violated with customary Mexi- ean perfidy. The men were marehed afoot, guarded by Mexican cavalry, toward the city of Mexico. He was one of those who made their escape at the hacienda of Salado and were recaptured, after suf-
WM. K. DAVIS.
into its confines - a raee to which a San Jacinto was possible and that laid the foundation for the institutions we enjoy. We have selected one of these men, the late William Kinchen Davis, for the subject of this memoir.
He was born in the State of Alabama on the 11th day of November, 1822; came to Texas during the month of February, 1830; when fourteen years of age (in 1836), helped build a fort at the mouth of the Brazos river and in 1839 served in a campaign against the Indians around the head of the Brazos.
Capt. Davis took part in the Somervell expedi- tion in 1842, as a member of Boski's command and
fering untold horrors from thirst, hunger and exposure while wandering about lost in the moun- tains. After their recapture, Santa Anna sent an order for every tenth man to be shot, the victims to be selected by lot. As many beans as there were prisoners were placed in a jar - black beans to a number corresponding to the number of men that were to be killed and white beans for the rest. The jar was well shaken and the gaunt, and miser- able, yet still dauntless veterans were ordered to advance one by one and take a bean from the jar. As soon as this grim lottery of death was at an end, the unlucky holders of black beans were foully
MRS. WM. K. DAVIS.
ยท
WM. RYON.
309
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
murdered in cold blood and the line of march resumed. Capt. Davis drew a white bean and in due time staggered into the city of Mexico with his surviving companions, where they were put to hard labor. They were afterwards imprisoned at Perote, where they received similar treatment. Septem- ber 16th, 1844, they were released by Santa Anna and each man given one dollar with which to make the journey of fifteen hundred miles back to the settlements in Texas.
Capt. Davis returned to Richmond, Fort Bend County, where he ever after made his home. He was married to Miss Jane Pickens in 1845. She was a daughter of John H. and Eleanor ( Cooper) Pickens and came to Texas with her parents at three years of age.
Her father had made all preparations for her to marry another gentleman, but she eloped with Capt. Davis. They left her home on horseback and pro- ceeded to a neighbor's house, where they were married. They had five children: Fannie (died wben three years of age), J. H. P. (living in Rich- mond), Eleanora (wife of B. A. Hinson, in busi- ness at Richmond), William Kinchen, Jr. (killed
by cars at Richmond, August 14, 1888), and Archietto ( widow of W. L. Jones, of Richmond). Mrs. Hinson has two children, Mrs. Jones seven children, and William Kinchen Davis left surviving him a widow and four boys, who now reside in Houston.
Mrs. Davis died in 1860, and is buried on the old homestead in Fort Bend County. Capt. Davis commanded a company for about six months during the war between the States but was not in action. He married again, March 5th, 1865, his second wife being Mrs. Jane Green, of Richmond. They had no children. She died in March, 1895, and is buried in the cemetery at Richmond. Capt. Davis died August 2d, 1891, and is interred beside her. He was for many years prior to his death a member of the M. E. Church South and I. O. O. F. fra- ternity. While his educational advantages in carly life (reared as he was in a pioneer settlement) were meager, yet he became a very successful busi- ness man and one of the leading men of his county.
As peaceful and law-abiding in civil life as he was gallant in time of public danger and war, he came up to the full stature of good citizenship.
WILLIAM RYON,
RICHMOND.
The late Wm. Ryon, of Richmond, Fort Bend County, one of the most gallant of the heroes known to Texas history, was born in Winchester, Ky., resided for several years in Alabama; came to Texas in 1837, landing at the mouth of the Brazos, where he clerked, kept hotel and followed various occupations for a time; in 1839 was a member of the surveying party that laid off the town of Austin, the newly selected site for the seat of government of the Republic, and later went to Fort Bend County, where he organized a company in 1842 and joined the army of Gen. Somervell for the invasion of Mexico. He was one of the three hundred men who did not return home after the formal disbanding of Somer- vell's army. They completed a regimental organ- ization December 19th, 1842, composed of com- panies commanded by Captains Ewin Cameron, W'm. Ryon, Wm. M. Eastland, J. G. W. Pierson, Claudius Buster, John R. Baker and C. K. Reese, 3!J selecting Win. S. Fisher for Colonel and Thomas A. Murray for Adjutant, marched across into
Mexico, where they captured the town of Mier, for more than eighteen hours held at bay over two thou- sand Mexican soldiers under Ampudia (killing over seven hundred of the enemy), and finally surren- dered under promises that they would be treated as prisoners of war and kept on the' frontier until exchanged. The pledges of Ampudia, reduced to writing after the surrender, were redeemed by tying the men in pairs and marching them on foot to Matamoros where they arrived on the 9th day of January, 1843, and were marched in triumph through the streets, with bells ringing, music play- ing and banners flying. Some of the citizens, how- ever, moved to pity, afterwards contributed clothing and money to supply their most pressing needs. The main body of the prisoners left Matamoros on the 14th, marched eighteen or twenty miles a day, were corralled at night like cattle and reached Monterey on the 28th of January. Here they were made more comfortable and rested until the 2d of February. Arriving at Saltillo they were
310
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
joined by five of the prisoners taken from San Antonio by Gen. Woll in the previous September. They left for San Luis Potosi under command of Col. Barragan and reached the hacienda of Salado, on the way, February 10, 1843. At a precon- certed signal on the morning of the 11th the prison- ers, led by Capts. Ewin Cameron and William Ryon, rushed upon their guard, then eating break- fast, disarmed them and made their way into the court-yard, where they overcame one hundred and fifty infantry. Here they armed themselves and made a dash for the gate, overcame the guard stationed there and scattered the cavalry on the outside, capturing their horses. They had four
any of the stragglers found water. They hurried with mad joy to the spot, to find themselves in the midst of a body of Mexican cavalry, under com- mand of Gen. Mexia. Nearly all, through exhaus- tion, had thrown away their arms, and none were in condition to offer resistance. They accordingly surrendered. During the day other stragglers came to the camp or were found and brought in by the soldiers. On the 19th, Capt. Cameron came in with quite a number and surrendered. The men were marched back to the hacienda of Salado, where they learned that Santa Anna had ordered all of them to be shot, but, yielding to remonstrances from Gen. Mexia and some of his officers, had commuted
1
MRS. WM. RYON.
men killed, three of whom were to have been their guides through the mountains on their homeward march. They secured one hundred and seventy stand of arms and one hundred horses. At 10 o'clock a. m. they left. They traveled sixty-four miles the first twenty-four hours on the Saltillo road. They next abandoned the road and sought escape through the mountains. On the night of the 13th, in the darkness they became separated; and, dur- ing the five succeeding days, suffering from hunger, thirst and the cold air from the mountains, they wandered about searching for water. Several be- came demented and a number became separated from their companions and were never heard of more. About noon on the 18th, those in the main body discovered a smoke, the signal to be given if
the order and ordered that one in ten be put to death. Gen. Mexia, who upon capturing the pris- oners had treated them with great humanity, now tendered his resignation, refusing to officiate at so " cruel and unmartial " a ceremony. Seventeen Texians, selected from among their companions by drawing black beans, were marehed out and shot, Col. Juan de Dios Ortiz executing the order. The prisoners, tied in pairs, were then marched to the city of Mexico, which they reached on the 25th of April. They remained in the city until March 12th, 1844, when they were taken to Perote, where was situated the strongly built and fortified castle of San Carlos. In September following, the prisoners were released by Santa Anna and permitted to return home. Capt. Ryon received three severe wounds
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.