USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 59
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EX-GOV. L. S. ROSS.
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it was afterwards discovered, wore a coat of mail. Capt. Ross dismounted and, with his trusty rifle, calmly waited the oncoming of the Comanche cotil his antagonist was within proper distance and then tired, killing him instantly and driving parts of the coat of mail into his body. This armor was taken from the dead chief and deposited in the museum in the State capitol.
On the death of Robert S. Neighbors, Superin- tendent of Indian Affairs for Texas, Capt. Ross was ordered to San Antonio to settle up the affairs of the Indian Superintendency, this work requiring his presence in San Antonio during the entire winter of 1859-60.
In politics he was ever a staunch Democrat. He opposed Texas joining the Confederaey but favored seeession as a separate State under the " Lone Star." He was not engaged in the military service of the Confederacy. He joined the Masons in 1851 at Waco and remained a member of that fraternity as long as he lived. He departed this life Septem- ber 17, 1889.
He was a man of wide self-culture, a delightful conversationalist and a writer of excellent ability, from whom contributions, relating to old times, and often to issues pending before the people, were eagerly sought by the press of the State.
Nine children were born to Capt. and Mrs. Ross, viz. : Mary Rebecca, Margaret Virginia, Peter F., Lawrence Sullivan, Ann, Merviu, Robert S., Kate and William H. Mervin died at the age of six years. The others grew up, received excellent educational advantages, married, have families and are now occupying useful and honored positions in life.
LAWRENCE SULLIVAN ROSS.
Hon. Lawrence Sullivan Ross, ex-Governor of Texas and now President of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Bryan, a man who retired from political office, enjoying the unlimited confidence, respect and affectionate regard of all the people of Texas, irrespective of party affilia- tions, although he was a pronounced and vigorous champion of Democracy, and who in the position he has now filled for several years as the head of one of the State's most important educational in- stitutions, has still further endeared himself to the trople and given the strongest possible proof of the scope and versatility of his talents, was born at Braton's Post, Iowa, in 1838. In 1856 he attended "Baylor University at Waco and the same year was sent to the Wesleyan University at Florence, Ala. Returning home in 1858 to spend the summer vacation he assembled a company of one hundred
and twenty-five Indian warriors and hurried to the support of Maj. Earl Van Dorn, who was leading the Second United States Cavalry against the Co- manehes; joined forces with that officer aud in October of that year played a conspicuous part in the battle of Wiehita and, by an act of daring bravery, rescued a little white girl eight years of age, who had been with the Indians perhaps from infancy. He named her Lizzie Ross. In after years she married a wealthy Californian and died at her home in Los Angeles in 1886.
The Indians were completely routed in the battle, but both Van Dorn and Ross were badly wounded. When sufficiently recovered the subject of this sketch resumed his studies at Florence, graduated in 1859, hastened back to Texas and in 1860, at the head of Pease river, as Captain of a company of sixty rangers, employed to guard the Western frontier, administered a blow that forever crushed the warlike Comanches. In the battle he killed Peta Nocona, the last of the great Comanche chief- tains, captured all the effects of the savages and restored to civilization Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been captured by the Comanches at Parker's Fort in 1836. Very few of the Indians escaped the fury of the rangers. As a recognition of his serv- iccs, Governor Sam Houston appointed Ross an aide-de-camp with the rank of Colonel. Through the efforts of Capt. L. S. Ross and his men more than 800 horses str en by the Indians were recov- ered and returned to their owners. He gave law and safety to the frontier after all others had failed and when the State had expended more than $350,- 000 with little effect the year previous to his ap- pointment. Gen. Houstou wrote to him in 1860: " Continue to repel, pursue and punish the Indians as you are now doing and the people of Texas will not fail to reward you .- Sam Houston."
The old General's words were prophetic. Ross lived to perform many other valuable services in civil life and in a wider field of military operations, and the people of Texas have since showered honors upon him as they have upon few men who have figured in the history of the State. February, 1861, he tendered his resignation to Gen. Houston ; served for a brief period under Governor Clark on the Indian Embassy and then entered the Confed- erate army as a private in Company G., commanded by his brother, Capt. ( afterwards the distinguished Col.) P. F. Ross ; rose rapidly from the ranks and, September 3d, 1861, was elected Major of his regiment, the Sixth Texas Cavalry.
In May, 1862, he was clected Colonel and was immediately assigned by Maj .- Gen. L. Jones to command of the brigade, but modestly declined
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the honor, and Gen. Phifer was subsequently selected.
Gen. Van Dorn, with about 15,000 men, made a forced march on Corinth, Miss., but not receiving expected re-enforcements, was repulsed after a sharp engagement by Gen. Rosecrans, who, with 30,000 men, was strongly entrenched at that place. The enemy followed up the disorderly retreat of the Confederate troops toward the bridge. on Hatchie river the following day. Here Ross, in command of Phifer's brigade, was stationed to guard the Confederate wagon-trains and rear and, with his 1,000 men, held over 10,000 Union soldiers at bay for over an hour and a half -- long enough to enable Van Dorn to reform his troops and retreat safely and in good order. Gen. Maury was requested by the War Department at Richmond to give the name of the officer who had especially dis- tinguished himself in this action and at once reported that of Col. Ross. Without the knowl- edge or consent of Ross, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston wrote to the Secretary of War, October 3d, 1863, and had him appointed Brigader-General, a posi- tion filled by him until the close of hostilities. Ross served in the Trans-Mississippi department, and also " across the river," under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Gen. Hood, fighting through the famous Georgia campaign. He was elected Sheriff of McLennan County in 1875; served the same year as a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion ; was a member of the State Senate from 1881 to 1883; was nominated by the Democratic party and elected Governor in 1886 ; was re-elected Gov- ernor in 1888 practically without opposition, and on retiring from office early in 1891, was made President of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan, the position he now fills.
The following, taken from a Texas paper and pub- lished during Ross' second campaign before the people for re-election to the office of Governor of Texas, fitly illustrates his character and shows by what means he won the respect and devotion of the men who served under him during the war: "An affecting scene occurred at Morgan the other day, when a prominent attorney of one of our frontier counties sought an introduction to Ross and, with the tears quietly stealing down his cheeks, said : ' I have just received a letter from a favorite brother, now in Mississippi, who was an old soldier under you and who was desperately wounded on the retreat from Nashville and left on the road- side to die. He says, sir, that when you eame by him in charge of the rear guard, and the Yankees were pouring shot and shell into your brave little band that stood between Hood's disorganized col-
umns and the pursuing enemy, he hailed you and bade you a lasting good-bye, whereupon you rode to where he lay and, dismounting, examined his wounds and asked if he could find strength enough to ride behind on your horse. But he told you he was probably mortally wounded and that you could do nothing to aid him. This brother says, sir, that yon then turned your pocket out and found $6, all you had, and gave it to him, and then mounted and rode rapidly away under fire of the enemy, then not more than 200 yards from you. He now writes me to repay you in some measure, in his name, for your devotion to a private soldier.' "
MRS. KATE (ROSS) PADGITT.
Mrs. Kate (Ross) Padgitt, wife of Mr. Tom Padgitt (a wholesale merchant and for many years a leading citizen of Waco and Central Texas) was born at Waco, January 6th, 1852, and was married to Mr. Padgitt, January 3d, 1878. She was the first white child born in the then Indian village. At the time there were not more than four or five white families in the settlement. Miss Ross when quite young entered Baylor University, under the presidency of Dr. Rufus C. Burleson, and in due course of time graduated from that institu- tion with high honors. The first steamboat that ever plied the Brazos river was named the Katie Ross in her honor. The boat was afterwards taken to Galveston and ran between that city and Houston.
Of congenial tastes, Mr. and Mrs. Padgitt's beautiful home in Waco is the seat of that de- lightful and refined hospitality that from time im- memorial has been the boast and glory of the South. Mrs. Padgitt is one of the brightest ornaments of our Texas womanhood. As I write I have before me a letter from Herbert Howe Bancroft to a cor- respondent in this State in which he in grateful terms expresses his appreciation of the very valuable assistance that she rendered him in the collection and preparation of material for his Texas Ilistory. I, too, am indebted to her for many of the facts used in the compilation of the memoir of the life of her father, the lamented Capt. Shapley P. Ross. While she takes great interest in liter- ary and artistic" matters and social functions, she is at the same time thoroughly domestic and de- voted to her husband, children, and household duties. Mr. and Mrs. Padgitt have five living children, viz. : Buena Vista, now wife of Mr. Fos- ter Fort, of Waco; Catherine, Clinton, Lotta, and Ross. One child, Sallie, died at the age of thirteen, and another, Thomas, died at the age of twelve years.
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JAMES GARRITY,
CORSICANA.
Capt. James Garrity, president of the First National Bank of Corsicana, and one of the most highly honored citizens of that thriving little city and section of the State, is a native of Ireland, born in Dublin, April 3d, 1842.
His earlier years were passed in Covington, Ky., and New Orleans, and in the schools of the latter city he received such educational advantages as could be had up to the age of thirteen from which time circumstances compelled his leaving school in order to earn a living. At the first call for volun- teers he entered the Confederate army, enlisting May 4th, 1861, in a local company of cadets, which soon after became part of the Fifth Louisiana Regiment which operated with the Army of Northern Virginia. He entered the company as a private, and through meritorious and gallant service rose to the captaincy, and served with it in that capacity in the various engagements fought by the Army of Northern Virginia from the beginning until the end of the war between the States. He was three times wounded - at Sharpsburg, Malvern Hill and Fishersville - but his injuries were not such as to keep him out of active service for any considerable length of time.
At the close of the war he returned to New Orleans and for a year was employed as a clerk by Sibley, Guion & Co., cotton brokers and part owners and operators of the since well-known Guion Line of Ocean Steamers. '
In the fall of 1866 he came to Texas and for five years was engaged in the mercantile and banking business, first as a clerk and later as partner in interest, at points along the line of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, then being built through the counties of Brazos, Robertson and Limestone. Through good fortune, he says, but it would prob- ably be more correct to say, through industry, good management and sagacity, he met with success while so employed, accumulating between $10,000 and $12,000, which formed the nucleus of the handsome fortune which he has since amassed.
In 1871, having sold his interest in the banking
business of Adams, Leonard & Company, at Cal- vert, he formed a copartnership with Mr. Joseph Huey and started the pioneer banking institution of Navarro County, this being the private banking house of Garrity, Huey & Company, which began business in Corsicana, in September of that year. Capt. Garrity has since given his attention chiefly to the banking business. In 1886 the firm of Garrity & Huey (the "Company " having been dropped from the style of the firm after the first year) was succeeded by the First National Bank, of which Capt. Garrity became president and Mr. Huey vice-president, the bank nationalizing with a capital of $100,000. This was increased a year later to $125,000, which remains the amount of its capital stock. Capt. Garrity is still the chief execu- tive officer. In addition to his banking business he has various outside interests, owning a large amount of valuable real estate in the city of Corsicana, and being connected, as promoter and stockholder, with some of the city's leading industries and en- terprises, among the number, the Corsicana Com- press Company, the Texas Mill and Elevator Company, The Corsicana Manufacturing Company, The Merchants Opera House Company, and the Corsicana Cotton Oil Company. He is a member of the Masonic, I. O. O. F., Knights of Pythias and Elks fraternities, in all of which he takes much interest,-particularly in Masonry, in which he has become Knight Templar and taken the thirty-second degree and is Past Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of the State.
June 15th, 1870, while still residing at Calvert, he married Miss Emma Moore, then a resident of that place, but a native of Alabama and a niece of ex-Governor Moore of that State. Mrs. Garrity departed this life on February 17th, 1893, lamented by every one who knew her, and is still mourned for by a husband to whom she was all the world. Few men in Texas are better known as financiers than Capt. Garrity and no man, certainly, has done more for the upbuilding of the best interests of the section of the State in which he lives.
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ANDREW JACKSON HARRIS,
BELTON.
Judge A. J. Harris, a distinguished member of the Texas bar and for many years a prominent figure in political and professional life in this State, was born in Talbot County, Ga., January 27, 1839, and grew to manhood on his father's farm. His parents were Thomas and Lydia Jones Harris, members of Georgia families for many generations distinguished in the history of the country. Ilis paternal great-grandfather, Richard Harris, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War of 1776 that resulted in the American colonies throwing off the yoke of British tyranny, and the establishment of the United States of America, a monument to the patriotism, valor and wisdom of the people of that day which has no parallel in all the annals of the human race. His maternal grandfather, Judge James L. Burke, took part in the battle of the Horse Shoe and fought through the War of 1812.
His father, Thomas Harris, was born near Milledgeville in Georgia, September 15th, 1812, was a farmer by occupation and died August 26, 1894, aged 82 years, in Comanche County, Texas, where he then resided.
Ilis mother, Mrs. Lydia Harris, was born in Jasper County, Ga., January 28, 1816. Her father moved to Talbot County, Ga., when she was a girl, and there she grew to womanhood, married in 1835 and remained until 1845, when she moved to Scott County, Miss., with her husband, where she died in May, 1861, leaving nine children. Judge A. J. Harris was six years of age when his parents removed to Mississippi. He resided there until after the close of the war. IIe graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1861, with high honors, and on returning home raised a company for service in the Confederate army and was elected Captain. It was mustered into service as Company I, Twenty-seventh Mississippi Regiment of Infantry, and did duty at Pensacola and Mobile, and in Ten- essee and Kentucky. Ile participated with his com- mand in several skirmishes and minor engagements and took part in the great battle of Murfreesboro, in all of (which he bore himself with the coolness and gallantry that became an officer of one of the grandest armies that ever marched forth to battle for the rights and liberties of a people. On account of physical disabilities he resigned his commission in 1863; but subsequently, upon restoration to health, rejoined the army, attaching himself as an
independent volunteer to the Fourth Mississippi Cavalry and remained with it through the fall and winter of 1863-64. From the spring of 1864 until August of that year, he was not connected with the army, but, in August, Gen. Clark, then Gov- ernor of Mississippi, issued a proclamation calling on all who could bear arms even for thirty days to go to North Mississippi and join the army under Gen. Forrest, to meet the invading Northern army of Gen. A. J. Smith. Responding to this call, Judge Harris joined Duff's Regiment and served about three months. He joined the regiment the next day after he reached Forrest and marched with it to Hurricane-creek, north of Oxford, and remained there night and day for several days under a constant downpour of rain. The Confederate troops were tlien driven back south of Oxford and went into camp on Yocony creek. The next day the Feder- als burned Oxford and retreated with the Southern army hanging upon their flank. The Confederates overtook their rear guard at Abbeville and had a slight brush with them which ended the campaign.
Judge Harris came to Waco, Texas, January 1st, 1865, and taught one month in the Waco Univer- sity. He then went to Salado and tanght in the college at that place from February, 1865, until July, 1867, after which he removed to Belton and entered upon the practice of law, but was persuaded by the people to open a school, which he taught for two years. In 1869 he returned to the practice of law ; but, in 1870, a vacaney occurring in the faculty of the school at Salado, the people of that place called upon him to fill it, promising to secure another teacher to take his place, which they failed to do, and he remained there one year, much against his will. This service marked the close of his career as a school-teacher. Returning to Belton, he entered vigorously upon the practice of his profession, in which he lias since continued.
He was elected County Superintendent of public frec schools in 1873, and filled the office until the adoption of the constitution of 1875, which dis- pensed with county superintendents. He was eleeted without opposition and without being a can- didate. In 1880 he was elected to the State Senate and was elected for a second term in 1882, serving with marked distinction in the sessions of the Seven- teenth and Eighteenth Legislatures. In 1877 he formed a copartnership with X. B. Saunders, under
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the firm name of Harris & Saunders. Judge Saunders succeeded Judge Alexander in the firm, Judre Alexander having been appointed to the Dis- triet Judgeship to sueeeed Judge Saunders, who was the incumbent. This firm has occupied a lead- ing position at the bar of Central Texas for many years.
Judge Harris was married July 31st, 1866, to Miss Olivia P. Sugg, daughter of William and Mary Sugg, of Calhoun County, Miss. They have six children living: Mary, wife of S. S. Walker, a merchant of Belton; Martha Elizabeth. wife 'of Pike L. Phelps, a gentleman engaged in the insur- ance business, at Belton ; Olivia Frances, wife of John P. Hammersmith, a Belton merehant; Luey Bell and Annie Jackson, who live at home and are now students at Baylor College, and Andrew Jack- son Harris, Jr. One son, Thomas, dicd July 9th, 1886, of membranous eroup, aged two years and six months.
Judge Harris has been a member of the Baptist
Church sinee 1876 and is one of the trustees of Baylor Female College, at Belton.
He has never sought office and has never been a voluntary candidate; nevertheless, at the State Democratic Convention, held in 1886, his name was submitted by his friends for nomination for one of the judgeships of the Supreme Court of Texas, and they claim that he received a majority of the votes cast by the members of the convention, but on aecount of some irregularities in eounting them, another ballot was taken and Judge R. R. Gaines eleeted as the party's nominee.
Judge Harris occupies a position at the bar of Texas, which he has so long graced with his learn- ing and talents, that should be a matter of pride to him and is eertainly a souree of gratification to his thousands of admirers and many friends who ap- preeiate the dignity and purity of his eharaeter, the value of the public services he has rendered and the luster that he has added to the profession which he has so long adorned.
T. W. HOUSE,
HOUSTON.
T. W. House, veteran, merchant and banker of Ilouston, was one of the notable pioneers of early civilization and eommeree in Texas. Born in Somersetshire, England, in the year 1813, he died at San Antonio, Texas, January 17th, 1880. His forefathers were from Holland, from whenee they emigrated to England in the early dawn of the eighteenth century, and settled in Somersetshire. Up to the time that the subject of this memoir was nineteen years of age, he worked on his father's farm, but his father was poor, and, being the youngest of four children, the future was not bright, so he decided to come to Ameriea. He was seconded in this resolution by a friend who was captain of a merchant vessel plying between Bristol and New York and with whom he set sail for America in the year 1832. He remained in New York for several years, and afterwards went to New Orleans, where he lived for a short time before coin- ing to Texas. It was while living at New Orleans that his attention was first called to Texas and her wonderful resourees, and early in the year 1836 he landed in Galveston, and at onee went to Houston, which was then being laid out. It was at this
place that he was destined to achieve the full meas- ure of his ambition. Soon after his arrival at Houston he volunteered his services in behalf of his adopted country and served as a soldier under Gen. Burleson in the last days of the war of 1835-6, against Mexieo. In 1838 he returned to Houston and there, with the few hundred dollars at his eommand, erected a tent, purchased a supply of goods and began his wonderful eareer as a mer- chant. Ilis fortunes grew with the growth of the town, to whose upbuilding he contributed perhaps more than any other man, until he achieved the rank of a merchant prinee.
In 1840, he married Mary Elizabeth, only daugh- ter of Charles Shearn, afterwards Chief Justice of Harris County. At the beginning of the war be- tween the States in 1861, he had reached such a position in the financial world that his advice and serviees were sought by those in command of the Confederate forces in Texas, and he co-operated effectively with them in the work of obtaining clothes and arms from abroad. Ile owned jointly with the Confederate Government, the Harriet Lane, the celebrated Federal steamer which was
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captured by the Confederates upon the retaking of Galveston by Magruder the night of December 31, 1862, and the day following. Besides his interest in the Harriet Lane he also owned a tleet of vessels which he used as blockade-runners in conveying eotton out from Galveston and bringing return cargoes of elothing and arms. With vast resourees at command, with a eredit at home and abroad excelled by none, with an unimpeachable integrity, T. W. House did more perhaps during the war between the States, than any other man in Texas to maintain her eredit abroad and supply the wants of his fellow-citizens. Ilis services in the directions indicated were invaluable. When the war was over he became actively engaged inducing eapital to invest in Texas and was a promoter of several of the longest railroads in the State. Among others he induced Commodore Morgan to make large investments in Texas, and subsequently to purehase $500,000 of the State's bonds. It was this purchase that marked the beginning of the credit which has given Texas bonds rank in the stock market seeond to no similar class of securities in the world. Charitable, without ostentation, magnetic in manner, democratie in his tastes aud associations, he died beloved by many and honored by all who knew him.
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