USA > Texas > Dallas County > Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas > Part 28
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pleading eyes through the darkness this poor soldier watched, unable to turn or to speak, as the lanterus drew near. At last the light flashed in his face, the surgeon with kindly intent bent over him, hesitated a moment, shook his head and was gone, leaving the poor fellow alone with death. He watched in patient agony as they went on from one part of the field to the other. As they came baek the surgeon bended over him again. "I believe if this poor fellow lives till sundown to-morrow he will get well." And off again, leaving him, not to death, but with hope. For all night long these words fell into his heart as the dews fell from the stars on his his lips. " If he but lives till sundown he will get well!" He turned his weary head to the East and watched for the coming sun.
At last the stars went out, the East trem- bled with radiance and the sun slowly lifting above the horizon, tinged his pallid face with flame. Ile watched it inch by ineli, as it climbed slowly up the heavens. He thought of life, its hopes and ambitions and its sweet- ness and its raptures; and he fortified his soul against despair until the sun had reached high noon. It sloped down its slow descent and his life was ebbing away and his heart was faltering and he needed stronger stimu- lus to make him stand the struggle until the end of the day had come. He thought of his far-off home, the blessed house resting in tranquil peace with the roses climbing its door and the trees whispering to its windows and dozing in the sunshine, the orchard and the little brook running like a silver thread through the forest. " If I live till sundown I will see it again; I will walk down the shady lane; I will open the battered gate and the mocking-bird shall call to me from the orchard, and I will drink again from the okl mossy spring." And he thought of the wifo
19
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
who had come from the neighboring farm- house and put her hand shyly in his and brought sweetness to his life and light to his home. " If I live till sundown I shall look onec more into her deep and loving eyes, and press her brown head once more to iny ach- ing breast."
And he thought of the old father, patient in prayer, bending lower and lower every day under his load of sorrow and of age. " If I but live till sundown I shall see him again, and wind my strong arm about his feeble body, and his hands shall rest upon my head, while the unspeakable healing of his blessing falls into my heart!" And he thought of the little children that elambered on his knees and tangled their little hands in his heartstrings, waking to them such music as carth shall not equal or heaven surpass. " If I live till sundown they shall find my parched lips with their warm mouths, and their little fingers shall run once more over my face."
And he thought of his old mother, who gathered these children about her and bathcd her old heart afresh in their brightness and attuned her old lips anew to their prattle, that she might live till her big boy came home. " If I live till sundown, I will see her again, and I will rest my head at my old place on her knees and weep away all, all the memory of this desolate night."
And the son of God, who had died for men bending from the skies, put the hand that had been nailed to the cross on the ebbing life and held it stanch until the sun went down and the stars came out and shone down into the brave man's heart and were blurred in his glistening eyes. And the lanterns of the surgeons came and he was led from death unto life. The world is a battle field strewn with the wrecks of governments and institu-
tions; of theories and of faiths that have gone down in the ravage of years. On this field lies the South smitten with her problems. Above the field swing the lanterus of God. Amid the carnage walks the great physician. Over the South he bends-" If ye but live till to-morrow's sundown ye shall endure."
My countrymen, let us for her sake turn our faces to the east and watch as the soldier watched for the coming snn. Let us stanch her wounds and hold her steadfast, as the sun mounts the skies. As it descends let 118 minister to her and stand constant at her side for the sake of our children, and of gen- erations unboru that shall suffer if she fails. And when the sun has gone down, and the day of her probation has ended, and the stars have filled her heart, the lanterns shall be swung over the field again and the Great Physician shall lead her up from trouble into content-from suffering into peace-from death unto life !
Let every man here pledge himself in this high and ardent hour, as I pledge myself and the boy that shall follow me-every man him- self and his son-here hand to hand and heart to heart-that in deep and earnest loyalty, in patient painstaking and care, he shall watch her interest, advance her fortune, defend her fame, and guard her honor as long as life shall last.
If every man in the sound of my voice under the deep consecration he owes to the Union will consecrate himself to the Sonth; have no ambition, but to be first at her feet and last in her service; no hope but after a long life of devotion to sink to sleep in her bosom, even as a little child sleeps at its mother's breast, and rest untroubled in the light of her smile,-with such consecrated service, what could we not accomplish? What riches we should gather for her! what glory
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
and prosperity we should render to the Union ! what blessings we should garner into the universal harvest of humanity!
As I think of it a vision of surprising beanty unfolds to my eyes. (Applanse.) I see a Sonth, the home of fitty millions of people, who rise up every day to call her blessed. HIer eities vast hives of industry and of thrift, her country hides the treasures from which their sources are drawn; her streams voeal with whirring spindles; her valleys tranquil in the white and gold of harvest; her moun- tains showering down the music of bells, as her slow-moving floeks and herds go forth from their folds; her rulers honest and her people loving; her homes happy and their hearthstones bright; her waters still and her pastures green ; her conscience elear and her suffrage pure; her prisons and poorhouses empty; her churches earnest and all creeds lost in the gospel; peace and sobriety walk hand in hand through her borders, honor in her homes, uprightness in her hearts, plenty in her fields, straight and simple faith in the hearts of her sons and daughters, her two races walking together in peace and content- ment; sunshine everywhere and all the time, and night falling on her gently, as from the wings of the unseen dove.
All this, my countrymen, and more ean we do; for as I look the vision grows, the splen- dor deepens, the horizon falls back, the skies open their everlasting gates and the glory of the Almighty God streams through as he looks down on this people who have given themselves unto him and lead them from one triumph to another until they have reached a glory unspeakable, and the whirling stars in their courses, though from Arcturus they run to the milky way, shall not look down on a better people or a happier land.
COUNTY SCHOOLS.
The schools of Dallas county will compare most favorably with those of any county in the oldest of the States.
The following are the statisties forwarded this year by Prof. J. K. Palmer, super- intendent of public schools of Dallas county, to the State Department of Education at Austin:
Number of white children eight and under sixteen years of age in Dallas county -- males 2,982, females 2,900; total number 5,882. Number of colored children in Dallas county -- males 500, females 559; total 1,059.
Total number of children in Dallas connty eight and under sixteen years of age, 6,941, exelusive of the city of Dallas, which has the management of its own schools.
Number of white children eight and under sixteen years of age unable to read, 52 males and 48 females; total 100. Number of colored children eight and under sixteen years of age unable to read, 40 males and 39 females; total 79.
Number of children within the scholastic age attending publie school, 5,000 white and 404 colored.
Number of children within the scholastic age attending no school, 1,120 white and 243 eolored.
POST OFFICES IN THE COUNTY.
Calhoun, Letot,
Carrollton, Lisbon,
Cedar Hill, Mesquite,
272
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
Dallas,
New Hope,
Desoto,
Oak Cliff,
Duncanville,
Orphans Home,
Eagle Ford,
Pleasant Valley,
Elam Station,
Rawlins,
Estelle,
Reinhardt,
Farmers' Branch,
Richardson,
Garland,
Rowlett,
Gibbs,
Rylie,
Gorbet,
Saxie,
Grand Prairie,
Scyene,
Haught's Store,
Seagoville,
Housley,
Simonds,
Hutchins,
Sowers,
Ka,
Trinity Mills,
Kleburg,
Wheatland,
Lancaster,
Wilmer,
DALLAS.
The history of Dallas is not wrapt in ob- senrity like that of the ancient Britons. It is too modern to have evolved any questions or doubts about its beginning. It com- menced in 1841, when John Neely Bryan, a Tennessean by birth, had pitched his tent not far from the spot now occupied by the palatial stone courthouse, in a wilderness. With no companion, no friend, but all alone, he communed with nature and nature's God, surrounded as he was with sceneries and land- scapes which were a panorama of beanty in themselves. Added to these surroundings was that inexpressible loneliness that even gave the dying sunset an intenser glow.
In 1842 the families of John Beeman and Captain Gilbert broke this reign of terrible
loneliness which Mr. Bryan had endured for several months, and shed simshine on his weary and lonesome life. This young Bryan received these new comers with open arms of hospitality and gave them of all he had to eat, chiefly bear-meat and honey.
Shortly after the arrival of these families occurred the first society event in the history of Dallas county. This brave young Tennes- sean, John Neely Bryan, led Margaret, the daughter of John Beeman, to the mnatri- monial altar. Abandoning his bachelor quarters in his crude tent, he built himself a house. These three families, each in their crnde little homes, built here in this wilder- ness, first began the great city of Dallas, which might be appropriately said to have been founded in " hospitality and matri- mony." This little village grew steadily by the arrival of new comers from the old States, noble, true-hearted people, who had come to seek their own homes, and of course cher- ished the fondest and kindest feelings toward each other, and with whom mutual action and mutual aid became their order of progression.
Among the first families that came and joined the three mentioned, and aided in es- tablishing this town of Dallas, were those of McComas, Rawlins, Cochran, Bledsoe, Hord, Crockett, Haught, Parker, Bnrford, Thomas, Collins, Carter, Hall, Taylor, Sloan, Hart, Horton, Cole, Weatherford, Cockrell, Jenkins, Cameron, Witt, Perry, Marsh, Coombe, Griffin, Mountz, Crutchfield, Har- wood, Brander, Smith, Traughber, Brntow
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
Bennett, Webb, Byrd, Armstrong, West, Cox, Lee, Atterbury, Brandenburg, Brother- ton, Moss, Keenan, Vale, Chenowith, Meyers, Coates, Cooke, Leake, Vance, Willburn, Stout, Mooneyham, Merrill, Leonard, Keen, Lanier, Miller, Wright, McCracken, Nix, Newton, Howell, Narboe, Bopplewell, Pnl- lion, Prigam, Jackson, Prewett, Phillip, Sha- han, Snow, Valentine, Patterson, Walker and Eakins, and John M. Crockett, who was Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1861.
It has been the pleasure of a few of these pioneers to behold their little village nestling on the east banks of the Trinity transformed into a most magnificient city, and they are beloved, respected and honored for their pub- lie and private fame as well as for being the founders of the metropolis of the Southwest. While with these first settlers the conditions of existence were rudimentary and very crude, they were favorable for the future, and with strong hopes for better conditions they en- dured privation and struggles with much patience.
The nearest shipping point was Jefferson, 150 miles east, to which place steamboats brought all domestic commodities, such as sugar, coffee, molasses, flour, and so forth, and all kinds of farming implements. A trip from Dallas to this market was one of the greatest undertakings.
Dallas was named in honor of Vice-Presi- dent George M. Dallas, who was Vice-Presi- dent of the United States when James K. Polk was President, 1845-1849. The town was incorporated on the 22d of February,
1856, the charter having been drawn by Nat. M. Burford, who is still living in Dallas, and has always been regarded as an able and su- perior man, and as one of the best known judges in the State, and who was colonel of a Confederate cavalry regiment and speaker of the House of Representatives in the Eleventh Legislature.
CLIMATE.
In addition to the advantages of location, Dallas can boast of possessing one of the most delightful climates anywhere to be found. The city has never been visited by an epidemie. People have been known to resort here afflicted with the most dangerous diseases from epidemic regions, even the yel- low fever, and have died within her limits, but without spreading the disease. In fact, the climate in Dallas is nnexcelled. The mercury scarcely ever falls below freezing point and seldom remains in the nineties during the summer seasons. The citizens are seldom kept from their business by extreme weather of any kind, but are per- mitted to work almost every day of the year.
DALLAS' PECULIAR ADVANTAGES.
Colonel John F. Elliott, one of the sub- stantial and influential citizens of the city, and one of the most fluent writers in the State, not long since, in writing of Dallas and her many superior advantages, said :
" The investments of Northern capitalists and the accumulated earnings of its own citi- zens, have made Dallas the State's financial
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
center. Eight national and four private banks are located here, with a capital and surplus of $3,600,000 and with an average deposit line of $5,500,000. Besides these, five home and over twenty European and American investment companies make it the headquarters for their branches, which loan on farm, ranch and city properties over $10,- 000,000, annually. There are also eight local building societies and four strong national associations, with an authorized capital of $500,000,000. The clearing house shows clearings for six months in 1890, $62,602,917; 1889, 857,828,000,-against $43,967,000 for 1888, and $13,161,000 for 1887. The banks of Dallas are as solid as the soils that support them.
"The wholesale and jobbing trade of Dal- las has assumed proportions in its steady and healthy growth far exceeding the most san guine hopes of even those citizens who fully recognized the supremacy of Dallas, long since established as a railway and financial center, and every day diseloses that she will soon be the peer of New Orleans and St. Louis.
"These facts, combined with the financial, the railway and other facilities for the trans- action of all manner of business, have for several years past stamped Dallas as the great eentropolis, the very gateway of its surround- ing empire of wealth and power. No longer seeking, she is sought. Wheat, corn, cotton and cattle and the other products of the prai- ries and pineries thus naturally drift to Dallas for storage, sale or distribution, as its location makes it the intermediate depot for them all.
The trade of the eity in 1889 amounted to nearly $31,000,000.
" Most advantageously located as to the raw material supply, cheap fuel, climatic conditions and cheap homes for employés, while fully equipped with all the facilities of capital, transportation, ete., for distributing purposes, Dallas has now earnestly and en- thusiastically entered upon the manufactur- ing era, and diversified industries, large and small, are springing into existence under the incentives and inducements offered to capital and labor by the enterprise and liberality of these citizens. The city now counts 125 factories, with $4,000,000 invested, employ- ing 3,000 hands, with a yearly product of $8,200,000. The Dallas Cotton and Woolen Mills have a capacity of some 14,000 yards daily production, its capital stock $250,000; a 1,000,000-bushel elevator costing $175,000; flouring mills, four in number, with a capital of nearly $350,000, will turn out some 2,000 barrels daily. Besides these, there are a elothing mannfactory, capitalized at $500,- 000, several implement, machine and hard- ware companies, with $500,000 capital stock, also a number of lumber and planing mills, brick, ice, soap, drugs, tinware, eanning, jel- lies, preserves, pickles, vehicle, patent medi- eine, ete., office fixtures, sash and door and other factories. A packery has been recently organized with a capital stoek of $250,000. Located in the heart of the corn-growing re- gion, the future of the beef and pork packery business is practically limitless, and yet there are scores of other industries, such as fur-
275
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
niture, paper and rope factories, etc., that would thrive here and yield fine returns. The institutions already under way have come like Chicago's in proportion to collat- eral, enterprise and commercial transactions, and must gradually expand into more mam- mnoth proportions. Not simply as a distrib- utor has Dallas this great empire to supply with all manner of products and material, but the Territories and States to the north and northwest of ns, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Indian Territory, etc., and the im- perial domain of Mexico will look to this point for raw materials and manufactured products as well, thus making it a veritable New York for all this portion of the conti- nent."
THE FUTURE FOR DALLAS
as a great eity in the Southwest first dawned upon the citizens when the two great railroad lines, the Missouri Pacific and the Houston & Texas Central arrived and intersected each other in the then small town of Dallas, in 1872. This was the beginning of that most marvelous growth which led this small town up from 800 population in 1870, to 8,000 in 1875, to 10,000 in 1880, 31,000 in 1885, and, including all the suburbs, 61,855 in 1889, and 71,225 in 1892. These figures were taken from the city directory, compiled by Morrison & Fourmy, of Galveston, most careful and experienced compilers of city directories. The United States census gives the population of Dallas in 1890 as being 38,140, but this does not include the various thiekly populated suburbs which the direc-
tories included. In giving the population of the city we think it would be fairer to go by the city directory, as it gives all the sub- urbs-the names of all who make their living in the city. The following table will show the increase of population of this thriving business city of the Southwest since 1878-'79, issuance of the first eity directory. We quote from the compilers of the directory of Dallas, year 1891-'92, in which they say, regarding the population of the city, that, "As we have done in the past, we give the population upon a basis of three and one-lialf times the num- ber of names appearing in the directory, finding this calculation to be as nearly cor- rect as it is possible to get at without an actual count, all firm names, corporations, institutions, etc., having been deducted from the total number of names:"
Years. Names. Population.
Increase of names.
Increase of population.
1878-'79 4,112.
14,382
1880-'81
5,194 18,179
1,082 3,787
1882-'83 5,984 20,954
790.
2,765
1884-'85.
7,908. .27,678
1,924 6,734
1886-'87
9,950 34,856. .2,051 7,178
1888-'89
13,343 46,70
3,393 12,875
1889.'90
17,673.
.61,855
·1,330
15,155
1891-'92 20,350 71,225
2,677 9,369
The situation of Dallas has been a great advantage to its rapid development, viewed from a commercial standpoint, being 315 miles from Galveston, 492 miles from Kan- sas City, 682 miles from St. Louis and 515 miles from New Orleans. Being centrally situated as it is, without any strong commer- cial competitors near by, and in one of the most fertile sections of the country in Amer- ica, and being the commercial, manufacturing and distributing eenter of Texas,-and Texas,
276
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
be it remembered, is larger than England, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark and half of Italy com. bined, it is but natural for it to attraet atten- tion, especially from the commercial world and from capitalists. It seems to have been a custom with all who have compiled a sketch of Dallas, to quote the saying of Jay Gould, regarding the future of Dallas; and I suppose it would be unpardonable were the writer of these paragraphs to leave it out. Mr. Gould said some years ago, " I expect to see Dallas a city of 250,000 people. It has behind it all the products to which Kansas City owes its prosperity, and it has cotton, which Kansas City has not." The observation of this great railroad magnate has been so extensive in regard to the future development of different thriving western cities, especially along his various lines of railroads, is why we suppose his prophecy has become rather famous with the citizens of Dallas.
The advantages in the situation of this city are so strikingly.superior that the United States Bureau of Statistics says concerning the same, that a circle drawn around Dallas, using a radius of 100 miles, discloses that there are thirty-four counties within sueli limits. By reference to the footings of the columns it will be seen that nearly half the cotton in Texas is raised within that radius, that more than half the oats and wheat is raised within it, and nearly half of the corn. So the reader can well see that the prophecy of Mr. Gould may be fulfilled even without his living to a very old age.
THE DALLAS POST OFFICE.
The following is an official statement, which was furnished the News by Postmaster Wit- wer, of the business transacted at the Dallas postoffice for the year ending on the 30th of last June:
Postal business: Receipts-Sales at the stamp window $89,436.36, special request en- velopes sold $11,250.90, second-class matter, 732,488 pounds, $7,324.88; box rents $2,230- .55, waste paper, etc., $21.74. Total $110,- 264.43.
Disbursements -- Postmaster's salary $3,300, clerk hire $17,802.22, carriers' salaries $14,- 965.76, free delivery expenses $2,049.89, spe- cial delivery service $289.76, miscellaneous $28.15, railway postal clerks $2,892.33, re- mitted United States Assistant Treasurer, New Orleans, $68,936.32. Total $110,264 .43.
Money order business: Receipts-Balance July 1, 1891, $870.75; 16,075 domestic or- ders issned $164,475.20, 9,541 postal notes issued $15,351.35, fees on above issues $1,- 661.36, 69 Canadian orders issued $788.96, 279 British orders issued $3,189.14, 312 Ger- man orders issued $5,315.90, 71 Swiss orders issued $1,486.87, 116 Italian orders issued $2,632.86, 41 French orders issued $484.43, 26 Swedish orders issued $337.16, 8 Belgian orders issued $119.62, 8 Danish orders issued $100.17, 8 Norwegian orders issued $156.41, 7 Austrian orders issued $49, 4 Hungarian orders issued $30, fees on above (interna- tional issues) $182.50, auditor's circulars $4, 16,338 deposits from postmasters from 197
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
postoffices in the State $1,619,880.94, total $1,817,116.62.
Disbursements-48,673 domestie orders paid $588,520.26, 21,918 postal notes paid $35,946.10, 12 Canadian orders paid $220.79, 43 British orders paid $992.21, 41 German orders paid $1,380.44, 22 Swiss orders paid $915.71, 5 Italian orders paid $185.07, 4 French orders paid $119.14, 9 Belgian orders pard $799.99, 1 Japanese order paid $15.65, 1 Swedish order paid $71.10, 1 Victoria order paid $24.35, 1 Hawaii order paid $7, 1 Aus- trian order paid $16.06, 172 domestie orders repaid $1,525.72, 2 international orders re- paid $12.67, postmaster Lebo, Kansas, $8.62, auditor's cirenlars 29 cents, 307 deposits to the credit United States Treasurer, New York, $1,185,500, balance cash June 30, $855.45, total $1,817,116.62.
Grand total receipts: Money order busi- ness $1,817,116.62, postal business $110,264 .43, total $1,927,381.05.
Registry division: Letters registered 7,- 402, parcels registered 1,687, letters received for delivery 34,292, parcels received for delivery 1,793, received for distribution 623, packages received 35,107, packages in tran- sit 25,336, packages made up and dispatched 9,549, throughi registered pouches and inner sacks received 1,869, through registered pouches and inner sacks dispatched 1,869, official free 410, total pieces handled 119,937. Registered letters delivered by carriers 13,100.
Mailing division: Number of pounds of second-class inatter (newspapers from pub- lishers) free in the county 11,482, umuber of
pounds of second-class matter sent outside the county, postage paid on same, 732,488, number of pouches dispatched daily 53, num- ber of sacks dispatched daily 203, number of pouches received daily 53, number of sacks received daily 113, number of mails received daily 29, number of mails dispatched daily 29, number of closed pouches dispatched daily 32, number of pouches for railroad postoffice dispatched 25, number of star routes 3.
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