Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas, Part 99

Author: Lewis publishing company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1128

USA > Texas > Dallas County > Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas > Part 99

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

John T. Corcoran received only a limited education, never going to school after he was ten years old. His father dying when he was quite young, John was bound out at the age of twelve to a Mr. Draper to learn the tailor's trade. He worked at that trade for many years in various portions of the Western States. In 1851 he came from Kentucky to Dallas county and settled in the neighborhood of where Garland is now located. After rent- ing land three years he pre-empted 160 acres of fine black land-the place on which he still resides. This he obtained at a cost of fifty- two cents per acre. There were no fences in this part of the country and the settlers were few. He made the trip here from Kentucky with horse teams, and was only six weeks on the way, that being the shortest time in which the journey could be made in those days by wagon. In guarding against the Indians and in developing his frontier farm, Mr. Corcoran experienced many difficulties. Ilis only pos- sessions when he arrived here were his team, wife and four babies. At the time the war broke out he had forty acres nnder cultivation and a comfortable log house. In 1862 he joined the Southern army, and during his service participated in many important en- gagements; was home on a furlough at the time of the surrender. When he left home he had 380 head of eattle and a number of horses, and when he returned he could find only thirty cattle and horses. For some years after the war times were hard; but he went to work with renewed energy, and his present prosperous condition is the result.

Mr. Corcoran was first married in 1843, to Elizabeth Daniel, daughter of John and Mary Daniel, of Monroe county, Kentucky, and by her had five children, namely: Mary K., deceased; Manerva W., wife of Amos Nanney, of Johnson county, Texas; Thomas

E., deceased; Malinda C., wife of Joseph Key, of Rockwall county, Texas; Margaret A., wife of James Irby, of Johnson county, Texas. The mother of these children died in 1853, the second year after coming to Texas.

In 1857 Mr. Corcoran was united in mar- riage with Virginia Cherry, daughter of Lemuel and Malinda (Marshall) Cherry, na- tives of Tennessee. IIer father died when she was quite young. To Mr. Corcoran and his present companion seven children have been born: William E., a resident of John- son county, this State; John II. deceased; Eliza, wife of Robert Baird, of the Nation; Robert L .; Lucy B., deceased; Mary B. and Thomas J.

Previous to the war Mr. Corcoran served as Constable four years. He is a member of the Grange, and holds the office of Master. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some of his children belong to this church and others to the Baptist and Christian Churches.

R. ALVA W. CARNES, one of the most successful physicians of Dallas county, Texas, and a self-made man in every sense of that mueh abused term, was born in Tennessee in 1856, to the marriage of Alexander C. and N. F. (Word) Carnes, natives also of that State, the father born in 1829, and the mother in 1835. Alexander C. Carnes moved to Weston, Collin county, Texas, in 1853, and thence to Lancaster, Dal- las county, where he was engaged in teach- ing for thirty-five years. He graduated from the East Tennessee University in 1847, and began teaching, continning this until 1888, with the exception of two years, when he was

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

editor and proprietor of the Smithville Jour. nal. While engaged in teaching he held positions in the following institutions: East Tennessee University and Burritt and Man- chester Colleges. In 1852 he married Miss Word, who was attending Burritt College, in which Mr. Carnes was professor of mathe- matics at the time of their marriage. Her death occurred in 1868. She was an estima- ble woman, had many friends, and was a con- sistent member of the Christian Church. This union was blessed by the following children: William D., born in 1854, is a resident of Dallas county, and engaged in the real-estate and life-insurance business; Alva W .; Lillie C., located at Weston, Collin county, Texas, is the wife of U. S. Wade, M. D .; Maggie C. and Laura. The last named was born January, 1862, and died November, 1890. She was the wife of J. R. Best, a resident of Ardmon, Indian Terri- tory, where he is engaged in farming and stock-raising. The paternal grandfather of these children, William D. Carnes, was a native of North Carolina, but moved from there to Tennessee, where he died. He was one of the foremost educators of the State, notwithstanding the fact that he did not commence his education until after marriage, his eldest children attending school with him. He subsequently became president of the East Tennessee University, and was also the founder of Burritt and Manchester Col- leges. The paternal grandmother, Elizabeth (Billingsly) Carnes, was a native of Tennes- see, and died in 1860. The maternal grand- father, Dr. David F. Wood, was a native of North Carolina, and died in 1885; and the maternal grandmother, Mary P. (Yest) Wood, was born in Tennessee and was of Irish de- seent. Dr. Alva W. Carnes remained with his parents until nineteen years of age, but

prior to this time he completed, within two sessions, the course of the East Tennessee University, and taught one year. From 1876 to 1879 he was proprietor and editor of the Sparta Index, but in the last named year he came to Texas, where he began the study of medicine under his brother-in-law, Dr. Wade, at Weston. Ile remained with him until 1881, when he attended Vanderbilt Univer- sity at Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from that institution in 1883. He then be- gan practicing at Weston, remained there until 1886, when he went to Hutchins, where he has had an active and lucrative practice since. He has been County Physician for five or six years. In 1883 he was married to Miss Minnie L. Simpson, a native of Sparta, Tennessee, born in 1861, and the daughter of William and Lec (Metcalf) Simpson. Her grandfather was General Simpson. To Dr. and Mrs. Carnes has been born one interesting child,-Campbell, whose birth occurred in 1884. Dr. Carnes is very popular in Dallas county, both profession- ally and socially, and has a happy faculty of making many warm friends.

LEXANDER WATSON is one of the substantial and enterprising citizens of Dallas. He has been identified with the interests of this city since his arrival here in the fall of 1885. As a contractor and builder he has established a reputation sec- ond to none. This fact is amply demon- strated by the many buildings that have sprung into existence under his efficient hand.

Mr. Watson was born in the North of Ire- land, county Antrim, May 22, 1862, the second-born in a family of seven children

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

of David and Jane (Mitchell) Watson. The mother died in 1874, in her forty-fifth year. Four of the children are still living.

When he was quite young, Alexander Watson apprenticed himself to the carpenter department of the firm of T. M. Barkliea Linen Company, in county Antrim, with whom he remained for seven years, at the end of which time he found himself master of the carpenter trade. He was afterward employed in the great ship yards of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1882 he sailed for America, landing at New York. After remaining there one year he went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and six months later to St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived for eighteen months, working at his trade all the while. From St. Louis he started for California, but upon his arrival at Dallas, he decided to stop here a day or two. Being impressed with the natural advantages of the future great city of the South, he concluded to make it his home. Accordingly he obtained employment, and at the end of two years went into business for himself under the firm name of Watson & Beggs. In this he has met with eminent success. Among the many buildings they have erected are the First Baptist Church; the residence of Mr. J. S. Armstrong; his own beautiful and commodious home, besides many other structures of like magnitude. The firm of Watson & Beggs dissolved partnership in June. 1891. Since that time Mr. Watson has been carrying on business for himself, office at No. 315 Pacific avenne; hours, 6 to 8 A. M., 12 to 1:30 p. M., and 6 to 7 p. M.

In 1887, Mr. Watson made a visit to Brooklyn, New York, where he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Smith, daugh- ter of G. W. Smith, of Brooklyn, New York. After their marriage he brought his bride to their Southern home, and here they have

since resided. Their union has been blest with two children: Georgia and Jeanie. Mr. Watson is a member of the First Congre- gational Church of this city.

Q. RICHARDSON, of Dallas county, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 0 1528, the youngest of six children born to S. Q. and Mary H. (Harrison) Rich- ardson, natives of Virginia. Abont the year 1790 they moved to Fayette county, Ken- tucky, where the father was an attorney at law. He later removed to Covington, same State, where he was killed in 1834; the mother died in June, 1833. S. Q., our sub- ject, was reared in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and at the age of seventeen years he left home, going to Van Buren county, Iowa, where he followed farming. In 1848 he came to Texas, settling in the northwest part of Rush county, where he started a mill, but which was never completed. He served as Depnty Sheriff of Rush county, and in 1851-'52 was engaged in freighting in eastern Texas. Mr. Richardson then went to Shreveport, Louisi- ana, where he engaged as clerk; in 1853 he erected a mill at Henderson, Texas; in 1856 he removed to Tyler and erected a steam saw- mill; in Feburary, 1859, he went to Grand Saline, Van Zandt county, Texas, and bought 4,000 acres of land including the Saline; and in 1878 he came to Dallas county and en- gaged in making ice. Here he bought fifteen and a half acres of land at $100 per acre, and has since made Richardson's addition to the city, and still has about one-half of his origi- nal purchase left. Richardson avenue in Dallas is named after him. Mr. Richardson enlisted in Van Zandt county, Texas, in Com- pany I, Twenty-second Infantry, for one year

Mal. P. Martin

J. Martin

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

and served mostly in Louisiana and Texas.

He was married in Van Zandt county, in March, 1860, to Mrs. Mary J. Casen, widow of Green Casen, and daughter of Edmond and Nancy (Blon) Williams, natives of Geor- gia. The mother died in her native State, and the father afterward came to Van Zandt county, in 1859, where he made his home with our subject until his death, in 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have had four ehil- dren: Mary, now Mrs. Samuel Long, an at- torney of Dallas; Sarah, now Mrs. Fielder, of Grand Saline; Fannie and Dora, at home. Mr. Richardson is independent in politics. Both Mr. and Mrs. Richardson are members of church, the former of the Christian Church, the wife and children of the Baptist faith.

P. MARTIN, deceased, was born at Campbell station, Knox county, Tennessee, in 1823, the second son and fifth child of Samuel and Julia (Reese) Martin, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Tennessee. The father and his brother, IIugh, came from the northi part of Ireland, and settled in Tennessee, where they engaged in the mercantile business at Kings- ton. The brothers afterward separated, and Mr. Martin then removed to Campbell Station, where he died about 1856; his wife died at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1854.

The subject of this sketch was reared in his native place, and educated at Washington College, Tennessee. After completing his education he went to Columbus, Georgia, in company with a few lawyers, and in 1845 went into the Mexican army, and served until the close of the war. He participated in several battles, and after the close of the war returned to Tennessee, where he followed

farming, and also the mercantile business. In 1859 Mr. Martin came to Dallas county, where he bought a prairie tract of 400 acres, a small part of which was broken, and on which was a small cabin, of the native timber. During the war he was in the commissary department, and bought and furnished cattle for the Confederate army. He enlisted in 1863, in General R. M. Gano's regiment, Captain Welsh's company. His death oc eurred near Lanesport in Bowie county, Texas, at Dr. Ware's residence, in 1865, and his remains were sent to Dallas, Texas, for inter- ment.

W. P. Martin was married in 1856, to Eliza Jane Brown, a native of Tennessee, and daughter of General John and Naney (Cox) Brown, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Tennessee. John Brown was a Colonel in the war of 1812. General Houston, who was a clerk at that time in the store of McEwens, volunteered and was cap- tain of a company in Mr. Brown's regiment. When General Jackson was in command he was scarce of troops. At this juncture Gen- eral John Brown, above referred to, raised and equipped a company for the service at his own expense. The company did valiant service at the battle of Horse-shoe.

When General Jackson was President he recommended that General Brown be reim- bursed for his gallant services in furnishing the company with much needed troops, and his request was granted. At what is now the town of Rockwood, Tennessee, the coal and iron mines were awarded to General Brown for his liberality and gallant services in the war of 1812. Colonel Brown died about 1846, at the home of his brother, Major Tom. Brown, near Kingston, Tennessee. His wife died at her farm near Kingston, September 9, 1854; her age was fifty-four years. This

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

Brown family were of English origin, and Colonel Brown's father, John Brown, was a Revolutionary soldier. He was killed at his own home by a Tory soldier, who shot him, the ball passing through the window into his body.

Children: Lida, F. Zollieoffer and William P. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have been identified with the county for many years, and they both were in Dallas the day it was burned. Her brother, George B. Brown, came to this county when a boy, and during the war served as captain in the Ross brigade. He was in all the leading battles under General Ross, and was badly wounded at Corinth, Missis- sippi. He now resides at Crystal Falls, Texas, and on account of the exposures in the army, he is now in delieate health.

Mrs. W. P. Martin, the wife of our subject and an honored and most highly respected citizen of Dallas county, resides at the home farm near Dallas. Her mother was a sister of Judge William B. Reese, the Supreme Judge of Tennessee; and William B.'s father was also a Judge of the court. He was from England, where he received his education. Judge William B.'s son, William B., Jr., is a professor of law in the Vanderbilt Univer- sity at the present writing.

K. HARRY, a manufacturer of roof- ing and feneing material, was born in Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia, April 12, 1852, the fifth in a family of eleven children born to Dewitt Clinton and Matilda (Chastine) Harry, also natives of Virginia. The Harry family are early settlers of that State, and one member of the family was connected with Benjamin Franklin in the printing business. The father of our sub-

jeet, a mechanie by trade, came to Dallas in 1873, and his death occurred in this eity in 1877; the mother died in 1888. Of their eleven children, ten are identified with the eity of Dallas: Ed B., who is connected with his brother, O. K., in the iron business; D. C., of the firm of J. M. Harry & Co., mann- facturers of brick; J. M., a member of the above firm; O. K., our subjeet; John D., who died in this eity in 1888; T. C., a mem- ber of the firm of Harry Bros., engaged in the hardware business; H. W., also of the firm of Harry Bros .; W. A., who died in the eity of Dallas in 1877; George Y., engaged in the plumbing business on Ervay street; Jeff D .; Elizabeth, wife of M. P. Dazey, engaged in the feed business on Mckinney avenue.

The subject of this sketch was reared mainly in Virginia, and in 1854 he removed to Rogersville, Tennessee, with his parents, where he received his education and learned the carpenter's trade. In 1870, he went to St. Louis, and two years later he came to Dallas, where he worked at his trade until 1876. In that year he established a hardware business in connection with his brother, under the firm name of Harry Bros. In 1879, Mr. Harry retired from the business, and engaged as traveling salesman for a large iron firm, and five years afterward, in 1884, he em- barked in the general manufacture of roofing and feneing, in which he has since continued. The works are located in a new briek building, on the corner of Indiana and Crowdus streets, and gives employment to about twenty-five men.

Mr. Harry was married in this city, Octo- ber 31, 1877, to Miss Ida Hart, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of J. B. and Eliza- beth (Miller) Hart, natives of Indiana. At an early day the parents removed to Illinois,

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

later to Dennison, same State, and in 1875 to Dallas, where the father engaged in the implement business. They both still reside in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Harry have had five children, viz .: O. K., who died at the age of four months; Clinton, also deceased at the age of four months; Lewis, who died in in- fancy; Lillie Bell, at home. Mr. Harry has taken an active interest in politics, voting with the Democratic party, and has repre- sented the Eleventh Ward two terms in the City Council, and is now serving as Mayor. Mrs. Harry is a member of the Christian Church, and Mr. Harry was reared as an Episeopalian.

OIIN W. SMITH, one of the two oldest settlers of Dallas, better known in these later years to all his friends-and they were legion-as Uncle Jack, was born in Richmond county, North Carolina, Novem- ber 24, 1805. In 1807 his family moved to - Warren county, Kentucky, in which State he grew up to manhood, married and lived until middle age.

He married Miss Lucinda Blackburn of Allen county, Kentucky, and in 1844 moved to Cass county, Missouri, then comparatively a wilderness. He had heard bright stories of the fair land of Texas and he had heard also of California, and the desire to go to one of these countries took strong possession of him. Neither one belonged at that time to the United States, and the flag of his native land was foreign in both, but they were painted as bright utopias where plenty and prosper- ity awaited all who would seek them on their shores. California had not been developed into the golden region it later on proved to be, and save the little that Fremont, the great pathfinder, had made known concerning it,

was but little more than terra incognita; but that daring and enterprising son of Missouri, Stephen F. Austin, had colonized Texas with some hundred of brave and hardy Ainerieans who had wrested the wilderness in a measure from its primeval state, had driven back the savage hordes of its woodlands and prairies, had fought for and won freedom from Mex- ico, had set up an independent government, were building not only homes but churches, schoolhouses and cities, and with brain and brawn and prowess were achieving a proud destiny for a young nation.

Mr. Smith had heard these things, and in April, 1845, he came ont to Texas and took a look at the lay of the land. Returning home in November of the same year, he and Judge J. M. Patterson of this city started together for Texas or California, they had not fully determined which. At Cairo, Illinois, they separated, Judge Patterson to go on to New Orleans, and Mr. Smith on through Missis- sippi with a drove of horses, which he in- tended to sell in that State, and they were to meet in New Orleans. Judge Patterson reached New Orleans in February, 1846, but failing to meet Mr. Smith came on to Texas, stopping in Dallas. Ten days later Mr. Smith arrived in Dallas.

They concluded to stop in Texas and cast their fortunes with Dallas. Forming a co- partnership Mr. Smith and Judge Patterson entered into the mercantile business, the first store ever opened in Dallas. The town then had four or five little cabins, was but the merest hamlet, surrounded in every direction by a wilderness. Settlers were few, homesteads were scarce, and about all of which the town and the surrounding country could boast was its future.

Indians roamed at will on all sides of them ; buffalo, deer, antelope, bear and all the wild

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animals native to the country quenched their their thirst in the Trinity river where the county bridge now spans it or in the Dallas branch at any point where it now flows through the city, and fed upon the luxuriant mesquite and buffalo grasses indigenous to the soil where the post office now stands and at other points of equal note now in the heart of the present great city.

Mr. Smith continned in the mercantile business in eopartnership with Judge Patter- son until in 1854, when the firm dissolved, J. N. Smith, a brother of Mr. Smith, who had become a partner in 1852, and Judge Patter- son retiring. Mr. Smith continned the busi- ness alone until some time during the war, when there was no point from which to re- plenish his depleted stock and refill his shelves, and he closed up business.

After the war he began business again in partnership with his son-in-law, the late Ma- jor Wallace Peak, and continued it for sev- eral years, finally retiring to enjoy the rest of a quiet old age with his family nbout him.

There were five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Mary Frances, Ellen, Lloyd (killed November 2, 1870), Elden W., and Lula C.

In 1848 he was elected County Clerk, but turned the affairs and management of the of- fice over to the late Captain Alex. Harwood who for so many years tilled the office. This was the only time he ever aspired to office of any kind.

In 1860, when a series of incendiary fires, or at least so believed to be, convulsed Texas, Mr. Smith's mercantile establishment was burned out, but, while it was a great draw- back to him, it served only to spur his energy and enterprise and he at once renewed busi- ness. That was a memorable year all over the country. It was the year of the great cam-

paign betwoen Breckenridge, Donglas, Bell and Lincoln for the presidency. Mad pas- sion held sway in all sections of the country. In Texas the towns of Henderson and Dallas weredestroyed almost entirely by fire, the work, it was then believed, of abolition incendiaries, and it was in that fire in Dallas that Mr .. Smith lost his mercantile establishment.

A mereantile establishment in Dallas, a hamlet of four or tive cabins forty four years ago, was not a very extensive alfair. It took no brigade of elerks, gentlemen and ladies, nor a battalion of cash boys to conduct the busi- ness as now; but, as the hamlet grew into a village and from a mere village at a crossing of the Trinity river to a county site, Mr. Smith's business kept pace with it, and, all along with the city from its infancy to the day of his death, he kept abreast of the times and he had no greater pride nor joy than to seo the city grow and develop and thrive and become strong and great.

He helped to organize Dallas county, to se- leet Dallas as its county sito. He saw the great city of to-day in its swaddling clothes forty. four years ago as its four or five little cabins nestled demurely on the east bank of the Trinity river. He saw it grow a little and a little year by year up to the beginning of the great Civil war, when, as a county site in the midst of a country settling up, it had reached a population of 600 or 700. He saw it stand still through the four years of the Civil war. He saw the young town, poverty- stricken when the war was over, take up again the battle of life where it had laid it down four years before and begin again, with noth- ing to begin on save hope and fortitude. Hle saw it advancing little by little as the years went by, with prosperity smiling brighter all the time, until, finally, in 1872, the village of 800 people heard the whistle of

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the locomotive and the rumble of incoming trains. Then a new era dawned. He saw the village grow into a goodly-sized town. He saw other railroads come. He saw the town expand into a growing city and in eight years' time it was his pleasure to behold the village of 800 people grow into a city of more than 10,000 population.

Another ten years rolled by when he was gathered to his fathers, but in that ten years he saw the prairies taken into the corporate limits of the city; he saw the 10,000 inhabi- tants increased to 50,000; he saw inany rail- roads built, street-car lines constructed with steam and electric motors; he saw the city lighted by electricity; he saw four, five, six and eight-story stone and brick buildings erected; he lived to see the hamlet of forty- four years ago grow into the great com- mercial center and metropolis of the great State of Texas.

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Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas, Part 99

Author: Lewis publishing company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1128

Author: Lewis publishing company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1128