USA > Texas > Dallas County > Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas > Part 93
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He immediately returned to St. Helena parish and engaged in the practice of law, In 1868 he was elected to the State Senate under the reconstruction acts of Congress, represented five parislies and served four years. In 1874 he moved to Texas, located in San Antonio, and practiced his profession until elected to the Legislature from Bexar county. He was re-elected and at the ex- piration of his term was appointed by Presi- dent Cleveland special inspector of customs. He located on the lower Rio Grande, served twelve months, and was then transferred to El Paso, Texas, his district extending over New Mexico and Arizona. He was sent with two special agents of the Treasury Depart- ment to the principal mining district of Old Mexico to investigate the Mexican ore ques- tion. Being relieved from the Federal ser- vice, he located in Dallas, Texas, and resumed the practice of law. There he has resided ever since.
Mr. Thompson was married in St. Helena parish, Louisiania, to Miss Neanie Andrews, August 15, 1865, a native of East Feliciana parish, Louisiana, and the daughter of Elisha and Eliza (Jackson) Andrews, the father a native of South Carolina, and the mother of Tennessee. Her grandfather, Thomas Jack- son, was in the Revolutionary war with Marion. Mr. Andrews moved from South
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Carolina to Louisiana at an early day and be- Came a very wealthy planter. He died in the latter State in 1863 and his wife survived him until 1873. Mr. Thompson lost his wife in San Antonio, Texas, in 1883. To them were born four children: J. Wheat, married, and resides at San Antonio, Texas, is now clerk in the United States army; Batie, now Mrs. Charles J. Grant of Dallas, Texas; Lettie E., wife of D. P. Wheat, an attorney of Beaumont, Texas, and Herbert Andrews, who is now fourteen years of age. Socially, Mr. Thompson is a Royal Arch Mason, is a life member of St. Helena Lodge, No. 96, St. Helena parish, Louisiana, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He is an Adjutant of Sterling Price Camp, Confederate Veterans of Dallas, Texas, and is also Adjutant General of the United Confederate Veterans and Chief of Staff of Lieutenant General W. L. Cabell of the Trans-Mississippi Department, United Con- federate Veterans.
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UDLEY G. WOOTEN, attorney at law, Dallas, the senior member of the law firm of Wooten & Kimbrough, was born in Missouri, in June, 1858, a son of Thomas D. and Henrietta (Goodall) Wooten, natives of Kentucky. As a surgeon, his father stands at the head of the profession in the State. Having acquired considerable fame as such previous to the war, he was placed on the staff of Generals Price and Bragg, as medical director in the army of the Confederate States of America. At the close of the war, in 1865, lie came to Texas and practiced in Paris until 1876, when he went to Austin, where he is still in active practice. At the opening of the State University, in 1883, he was
chosen president of the Board of Regents, and he has placed that richly endowed insti- tution in a position of prominence. Texas is proud of the services of such a man, in such a capacity.
The Doctor was born March 6, 1830. His wife was born in 1834. They are well and favorably known as worthy, good people, and life-long members of the Baptist Church.
Mr. D. G. Wooten, whose name heads this sketch, one of the seven living children of the above mentioned eminent physician, re- ceived a thorough classical education and graduated at Princeton, New Jersey, College, in 1875, with the degree of A. M., with high honors, although the youngest in his class. Afterward, for a year, he was a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University, at Baltimore, and then took the law course at the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, and gradnated with the class of 1878, with the degree of LL. B. as well as taking the two highest honors of the university. He began the practice of law at Austin, where he was prosecuting attorney four years. He came to Dallas in 1888, and at once took rank as one of the leading members of the bar. While his reputation has been made as a criminal lawyer his native acumen is best shown in the more subtle questions of civil law. A citizen who is amply competent to testify on the matter says, with reference to Mr. Wooten: " He is a ripe scholar, an eloquent advocate, and a profound lawyer. Without being an aspirant for public honors, he has taken a deep interest in public affairs, and has done valiant service on the great issues of the day."
Mr. D. G. Wooten is a member of the Knights of Pythias and in politics a Demo- crat. He is one of the rising young men of the South, and a genial, cultured gentleman.
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Our subject is the oldest of a family of seven children: Etta, the second, is the wife of Hon. Il. W. Lightfoot, residing at Paris, Texas; Stella is wife of W. J. Bailey, Esq., of Fort Worth, Texas; Maude is the wife of Judge Robert H. Johnson, County Judge, residing at Fort Worth; Tommie, the young- est daughter, is a graduate of the University of Texas, class of 1890. She is quite lit- erary in taste, much of a lady, and still of the home circle; Goodall H. and Joseph, the two youngest of the family, are both gradu- ates of the University of Texas, classes of 1891-'92 respectively. The former is assist- ant State Chemist, and is a young man of much promise. The two sons are preparing for the profession of medicine.
Mr. Wooten married Miss Carter, a daugh- ter of Colonel Carter, who was one of the immortal band who made the historic Pick- ett's charge at the battle of Gettysburg, the turning battle of the great Civil war, and he went down in that action. Mr. and Mrs. Wooten had two children, both of whom are deceased; and Mrs. Wooten died in 1887. He was remarried, to Mrs. M. A. Sellers, at Dallas, December 2, 1891. She is from an old Mississippi family, from Kemper county, who are well and favorably known throughout the State ..
In the great political campaign between Judge George Clark and Governor J. S. Hogg, 1892, Mr. Wooten, prior to the nomi- nating convention at Houston, in August, 1892, took a very prominent part " stumping" the State for Clark. Ile established a repu- tation on all sides as the foremost orator in the State, and his speeches throughout the State were accepted as models of argument, rhetoric, and impassioned eloquence. His paraphrase of Phillips' " Napoleon " applied to Governor Hogg, is one of the triumphs of
campaign oratory, and perhaps has never been equaled in the political literature of the country. When in the Houston Convention he refused to join the " bolt " organized by the Clark men, but remained in the regular convention, acting as a member of the com- mittee on platform. In that capacity he presented and eloquently advocated a minority report, intended to prevent the repudiation of the National Democratic platform. Failing in this, he filed a written protest absolving himself from obligation to support the nomi- nees, and withdrew from the convention. At the Lampasas Convention, June, 1892, he was unanimously elected Presidential Elector for the State at large on the Cleveland ticket and canvassed the State.
A. . ERWIN, retired attorney of Oak Cliff, has a pleasant and comfortable
o home at the corner of Tenth and Craw- ford streets. He has been a resident of the Lone Star State since 1848, his first residence within its borders being in Cherokee county. He was born in Bedford, now Marshall county, Tennessee, in 1820, the youngest of eleven children born to John R. and Hannah B. (Bishop) Erwin, natives of North Carolina, in which State they were married, emigrat- ing soon after to Bedford county, Tennessee, where they settled on a farm. The father was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, although very young, and was under the care of his father, who was an active participant in that struggle. Grandfather Bishop also was a Revolutionary soldier and was killed while in the service. J. R. Erwin remained in Bed- ford county, Tennessee, and there died on the farm on which he first settled on coming to the State December 23, 1859, at the age
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of eighty-six years. His wife was born in 1777 and died in Bedford county, Tennessee, in 1851, on the old home farm in Tennessee.
S. A. Erwin was brought up on the farm. At the age of seventeen years he left home to enter college at Jackson, Manry county, Ten- nessee, where he remained three years. After leaving college he commenced reading law in Murfreesboro, and in 1843 was admitted to the bar, after which he established himself at Lebanon, Tennessee. In 1846 he enlisted under Captain Milton A. Haines at Nash- ville, for the Mexican war, and his company became a part of the regiment commanded by Colonel Jonas E. Thomas. After one year's service his health failed, and after a short time spent in Mattamoras he returned to Tennessee, in 1847. He at once resumed the practice of law, but decided to make a change of location, and accordingly came to Rusk, Cherokee county, Texas, of which he was one of the pioneers. He was married here, April 27, 1848, to Elizabeth J. McKee, a native of Maury county, Tennessee, and a danghter of Thomas and Frances (Stone) McKee, the for- mer a native of South Carolina and the latter of Virginia. Mr. McKee was taken to Ten- nessee in early boyhood, there grew up and married and followed the occupation of farm- ing until his removal to Texas in 1846. Here he resided ou a farm until his death, which oc. curred in the fall of 1865, his widow having died in 1863. After his marriage Mr. Erwin settled in Rnsk, Texas, and there practiced law until 1856, when he abandoned his pro- fession to engage in farming and stock-rais- ing, dealing in fine stock, in Cherokee county. He in time became the owner of a large plantation and cultivated some 300 acres. In 1876 he moved to Limestone county, Tehuacana Hills, where Trinity University is located, for the purpose of educating his chil- 1
dren, and while there three of his sons gradu- ated from that institution, of which he was for some time a trustee.
His children are as follows: William Scott is married and a farmer of Tehuacana Hills, Limestone county; Sarimella C. is the widow of F. W. Beaty and resides at Tehnacana Hills; Fannie also resides there and is the wife of John H. Forrest; Floretta E. resides at Oak Cliff, Dallas county, Texas, and is the wife of Dr. E. J. HIallum; Cornie E. is the wife of John M. Hallum, a farmer of Ander- son county, Texas; John T. resides at Telin- acana Hills, farming; Robert L. is married and resides in Dallas, being bookkeeper for the Dallas City National Exchange Bank; and James P., who is special agent for the Dallas Mortgage Company.
Although formerly a Whig in politics Mr. Erwin is now an independent, refusing to wear the collar of the dominant party of his State. He isa member of the A. F. & A. M., the I. O. O. F. and he and his wife are mem- bers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and have been active in church work. Dur- ing over forty years' residence in Texas they have seen many changes, and Mr. Erwin has aided largely in its progress and develop- ment.
APTAIN WILLIAM HUGHES LEM- MON, of the real-estate firin of Bowser & Lemmon, Dallas, Texas, was born February 25, 1840, in Polk connty, Mis- souri, near the present town of Morrisville. His parents, William H., Sr., and Nancy Amanda (Hnghes) Lemmon, natives respect- ively of Green county, Kentucky, and Will- iamson connty, Tennessee, were married near Paris, in the latter State, Angust 17, 1837. In the autumn of 1839 they emigrated to
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Missouri, the eldest child, A. C. Lemmon, being then about eighteen months of age, and settled on Sac river in Polk county, where he improved a valuable farm, which was occu- pied as the family homestead until 1872. The father was a practical farmer and stock- grower, and somewhat prominent in local politics, and served as County Judge of his county from 1856 to 1860, elected by the Democracy. of which party he was always a strong adherent. He died at Springfield, Missouri, August 31, 1862, the result of ex- posure while confined as a citizen prisoner for sympathy with the South. The mother still survives and resides with her son, Cap- tain Lemmon; she is now in her seventy-fifth year. The subject of this sketch was reared to farm life, and educated in the schools of Polk county and Carleton's College at Springfield, Missouri, of which the Rev. Charles Carleton, now president of Carleton's College at Bonham, Texas, was president.
Captain Lemmon commenced life as a teacher in the public schools of southwest Missouri in 1858. In the spring of 1861 he assisted in organizing the first company organized in his county for the Southern army, and was elected its First Lieutenant, Captain Frank Mitchell being in command. The late Colonel Charles H. Nichols, of Dal- las, was subsequently Captain of said com- pany. It was known as Company C, of Colonel J. J. Clarkson's Fifth Regiment Missouri State Guards, of which the Cap- tain's brother, A. C. Lemmon, was Major; Colonel M. W. Buster, of Weatherford, Texas, was Adjutant; the late Colonel John M. Stemmons, of Dallas, Commissary of Subsistence; and their fellow-townsman, Col- onel W. L. Williams, was a Lieutenant. In the winter of 1861-'62 he was elected First Lientenant of Captain A. C. Lemmon's
company, D, Fifth Missouri Confederate In- fantry. Ile was with General Price at the battles of Wilson's Creek, Dry Wood, Lex- ington, Elkhorn and Farmington, and the evacuation of Corinth, Mississippi; and later on he organized and was elected Captain of Company A, Jackman's cavalry regiment, and was with it in all of its many engage- ments till the close of the war, when he located in Dallas county, Texas, and again engaged in teaching, chiefly iu Dallas and Tarrant counties.
He traveled for the agricultural implement house of D. M. Osborne & Co. for several years, until in 1876, when he formed a co- partnership with O. P. Bowser in the hard- ware and agricultural implement business in the city of Dallas, which business they con- tinned until 1887. In that year they in- vested largely in Dallas city and farmi prop- erty, giving special attention to Bowser & Lemmon's North Dallas and Oak Lawn ad- dition to the city of Dallas, which at present constitutes a large portion of the present limits of the Eighth Ward of the city. Cap- tain Lemmon's beautiful suburban home, " Elmwood," located on the line of the North Dallas Electric Railway, at the corner of Cole and Lemmon avenues, on which he lias devoted much labor and expense to add to its comfort and attraction, is one of the finest in the city. He is largely interested in the North Dallas Improvement Company and the Dallas Guarantee and Investment Com- pany property, of 1,500 acres, adjoining the city. Captain Lemmon has for years been one of the leading, enterprising men of Dal- las, and has always been promptly at the front to assist every laudable improvement or enterprise for the advancement of Dallas. He has an abiding faith in her future, and believes that she will yet be a great com-
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mercial center, and eventually the chief city of the great Southwest; hence he has always contributed liberally of his time and money to advanee her interests.
Captain Lemmon was married on the 27th day of February, 1867, in Dallas county. to Miss Mattie A. Knight, seeond daughter of O. W. and Serena (Hughes) Knight, both natives of Tennessee, where the parents were married, removing to Texas in 1844, and settled on what has ever since been known as the Knight farm, near Cedar Springs, and but a few miles from Dallas. The father re- sided there until his death, which occurred in 1868. He was an honorable Christian gentleman, and highly respected and beloved for his many noble and generous traits of character. Hon. G. M., Epps G., Robert E. L. and A. J. Knight, of Dallas, and William H. Knight, of Hillsboro, Texas, are brothers of Mrs. Lemmon; while Judge Burford, Dr. A. M. Cochran, John Field, of Dallas, Ben Cannon, of Arlington, Texas, and Captain J. J. Mallard, of Rusk, each married sisters of hers. Her mother, Mrs. Knight, lives with the family of Captain Lemmon. In 1882 the subject of this notice was called upon to mourn the death of his beloved wife, after quite a short illness, Six children, the fruit of this union, are living: Nannie Laura (Mrs. Williamson), Rena Amanda, Mary Kate, Willianı C., Jr., Mittie Lee and Eppie Knight, and grandchild Mattie Lemmon, with his mother and mother-in-law William- son, constitute his family. His only sister, Nancy Jane Lemmon, died in Missouri of typhoid fever, July, 1860. Captain Lemmon is an Elder and an active worker of the First Christian Church of Dallas, with which con- gregation he has for years been connected. Politically he has always been actively iden- tified with the Democratic party, having fre-
quently attended as a delegate its State, dis- trict, county and eity conventions, and has served as chairman of the Democratic execn- tive committee of the city of Dallas through some exciting campaigns. He is a member of James A. Smith Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and also a member of the Knights of Honor. Captain Lemmon is one of the enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Dallas, and is keenly alive to her best interests. He is a worthy and intelligent citizen, such as gives character to a community.
M. STEERE, assistant general freigh agent of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa
0 Fe Railroad, was born in Providence connty, Rhode Island, November 8, 1844. His parents were Arnold and Amey D. (Hutchinson) Steere, also natives of Rhode Island. Arnold's father, John Steere, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The family trace their ancestry back to those of that name who came over in the May Flower, and both the Steere and Hutchinson families are of New England stock, and related to a good race on both sides. Our subject's father died in Sep- tember, 1844. He was a farmer by occupa- tion, was extensively known, was highly re- spected, and was a man of strict integrity. His wife is still living, at the age of four score years and five. Her home is in Provi- dence, Rhode Island. She has been a men- ber of the Methodist Church since her early girlhood days, is an excellent woman, and her friends are as numerous as her acquaintances. Besides being a member of an unnsnally esteemed family, she has endeared herself by noble traits of person and character to a host of friends. She has marked abilities and ennobling traits of character in her line, and
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her Christian profession is the spiritual pro- gram of a refined yet simple and natural life. These qualities, vitalized by ambition, have drawn about her a wealth of rare love and hope, the rounding out of a devont Christian character. She lives like one who goes on a journey, expecting to renew the joys of a well spent life in a better country. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Steere were the parents of seven chil- dren, as follows: Adaline E., wife of Ellery C. Arnold of Laramore, North Dakota: her son, Horace F., is a member of the North Dakota Assembly, and editor of a Republican paper at Laramore; Addie C. and Emma are her other children, and the former is a graduate of Grand Forks Seminary, Dakota; Charles W., a resident of Oakland, California, was married to Rebecca Mowry, and they have one child, Eva; Albert A., resides in Northi Dakota; Franees E., wife of George E. Mc Kenzie; Nellis L. married Maria Albee, and they have one child, Earle; Rose A., at home; and J. M., our subjeet. In this immediate family there was not a death in forty years, ending in 1890!
J. M. Steere enlisted February 14, 1862, in the First Rhode Island Cavalry, which served in the Army of the Potomac. He par- tieipated in the engagements of Cedar Mount- ain, Kelly's Ford, second battle of Bull Run and Chantilly. Before the battle of Antietamn he was taken sick with typhoid fever, was taken to Alexandria Hospital and was dis- charged at Fort Sehnyler, New York. In company with his brothers, Charles W. and Nellis L., he returned home, but in 1864 again enlisted in the Third Rhode Island Cavalry, and served in the Department of the Gulf until the close of the war. Mr. Steere was in no battles during his last ser- vice, and was Regimental Commissary Ser- geant of his regiment .. In the fall of 1865
he engaged as secretary of the Missonri Iron Works for one year, was next engaged in traveling for a commission firin, and in 1876 was appointed agent for the Canada Sonthern Fast Freight Line, stationed at St. Louis. In 1885 he was appointed general agent for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe road. Mr. Steere entered the railroad service as contracting freight agent on the Canada Sonthern Fast Freight Line, from December 1, 1876, to No- veinber 16, 1884, was agent of the same line; from December 1, 1876, to 1880, was also foreign freight agent of the Merchants' Dis- patch Transportation Company; November 25, 1884, to January 1, 1886, was general agent of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, with residence at Dallas; and since January 1, 1886, assistant general freight agent of the same road. He has been in the service for sixteen years, with only the two companies.
Mr. Steere was married Christmas day, 1866, at St. Louis, to Miss Fannie M. Baker, a daughter of Captain W. C. and Mary C. W. Baker. The father died in 1882, and the mother now resides in Wichita, Kansas, aged sixty-eight years. The parents had four chil- dren: Fanny M., now Mrs. Steere; Hattie M., wife of W. H. Mears of Peoria, Illinois; Ed- na. wife of W. H. Maxwell of Wichita, Kan- sas; and Jackson B. Mr. and Mrs. Steere have three children: Rosie, Mamie C. and Charles W. The latter is employed as clerk for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Company. Mrs. Steere was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and her death occurred at Fort Worth, March 24, 1886, aged thirty-nine years. She was a de- vont Christian woman, and her life was devoted in making people happy, in which she had few equals. Her memory will long be cherished for many Christian virtues and excellent traits of character.
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Mr. Steere was again married, to Mrs. Mary C. Reynolds, daughter of Dr. Emory A. Allen, at her home in Randolph, Massachu- setts, June 20, 1892. She is a most estimable and winsome lady of culture and refinement. She is a native of Massachusetts.
Mr. Steere has held the office of Exalted Butler of the Elks of Dallas, is also Post Commander of George H. Thomas Post, No. 6, Grand Army of the Republic, is a member of Kirkwood, Missouri, Lodge, No. 484, of the F. & A. M., and of the Royal Arcanum. He is a public-spirited eitizen, such as gives character to a community.
LEXANDER COCKRELL, deceased, was born in Kentucky, June 8, 1820, a son of Joseph Cockrell, a native of Rus- sell county, Virginia. When a young man the father moved to Kentneky, and when our subject was four years old, he moved to Johnson county, Missouri, where Alexander was reared and where his mother died when he was yet a child. His father died in the same county, in 1838, after which he went to the Indian Nation and engaged in the stock business for a contractor of that country. Ile remained there until entering the Mexi- ean war, under Colonel MeCullongh, and served until its close. Mr. Cockrell was at Monterey with dispatches during that battle, where he was kept for three weeks, after which he came to Dallas and engaged in the stock business. After his marriage he took a elaim of 640 acres of the Peters Colony, situated ten miles west of Dallas, where he engaged extensively in the stoek business, and also freighted from Houston, Jefferson, Shreveport and other points with ox teams. He followed this from the spring of 1848 to
the winter of 1852, and in the latter year he sold his stock and purchased John Neely Bryan's headright of the city of Dallas, and in 1853 moved to this city and engaged in the briek business and various other oe- cupations. Mr. Cockrell gave employment to all the young men who came to the coun- try at that time, was a benevolent and enter- prising man, and respected by all who knew him. He also built the first bridge across the Trinity river, and in an early day ran a ferry boat.
Ile was married September 9, 1847, to Miss Sarah Horton, and they had five children : Morgan, who died an infant; Aurelia E., the wife of Mitehell Gray, who died February 28, 1872; Robert B., who died May 21, 1886; Frank M. and Alexander. Mr. Cockrell de- parted this life April 3, 1858, and his widow April 26, 1892. He left a large estate, which was managed and successfully handled by his widow. At her death she was seventy-three years of age and has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since her childhood.
AMES W. McMANUS, manager for B. F. Avery & Sons, is a native of Toronto, Canada, where he was born in 1854. At the age of fourteen he began learning the trade of carriage building in Wellington Square, Canada.
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