USA > Texas > Past history and present stage of development of Texas. Memorial and biographical history matter of the Lone Star state > Part 12
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friends in Henderson county. He is a Democratic-Democrat, a great admirer of William Jennings Bryan, and is opposed to graft and corruption in public office in any shape, form or fashion.
DANIELS, Dr. John Gilbert
Dr. J. G. Daniels, of Gilmer, was born Sept. 21, 1853, on his father's farm in eastern part of Upshur county. His father, Josiah R. Daniels, was born in Amite county, Miss., in 1828, and taught school in that state and Louisiana. He was married at Bienville, La., in 1842 to Miss Mary Buie, and they soon afterwards migrated and settled in eastern part of Upshur county. Mr. Daniels was known as one of the best educated men in the community, and at time of his death, in 1853, was a man of high respectability and influence, having moved to near Gilmer at time of his demise. He took an active interest in Baptist church affairs, and also the Masonic order, of which he was a member. His wife died in 1898, aged sixty four years. Both were buried at old family graveyard in eastern part of Upshur county. Born to them were three sons; one died in infancy; P. H. Daniels, fifteen years a farmer and a merchant in Gilmer at time of his death in 1894, aged forty years, and Dr. J. H. Daniels.
Dr. Daniels was educated in literature in Gilmer public schools and Trinity University, and had for his schoolmates in last named institution ex-Gov. Campbell, Judge W. F. Ramsey and Judge J. O. Terrell, of San Antonio. In 1877 he graduated in Medical Department of University of Louisville (Ky.), and at once settled for practice in Gilmer, where he has since resided. From 1886 to the recent changing of the system by state legislature he was medical examiner for the Seventh Judicial District of the State Board of Health. As a pleasant diver- sion and for profit Dr. Daniels has been interested all his active life in farming and that of raising Jersey cattle. He was married Nov. 8, 1877, to Miss Cumi Hamilton, daughter of Dr. A. R. Hamilton, of Kilgore, and four sons and four daughters have been born to them, and all are living, as follows: Sons, Dr. J. G. Daniels, Jr., Roy Oswald, Hamilton Barnett and Hilton Wynee; daughters, Misses Pearle, Maude Erin, Yandell and Pope. In this connection it is pleasant to say that Doctor and Mrs. Daniels have taken great pride in educating their children in the best institutions of the country, and in this they have been successful. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations, and has from early life been animated by a fervent attachment to the science and practice of his profession. It has been the study of his lifetime to augment and exemplify the resources of surgery and medicine, and by a most assiduous benevolent and successful application of his time and talents to this noble department of the healing art many subjects are indebted to his exertions and the fraternity is familiar with his success. Coming of Scotch-Irish blood, and having been a member of the Baptist church since he was nineteen years old, the fact that he has always lived and practiced among one people-that of Upshur connty-is the best evidence of his sterling citizenship as a man.
DAVIS, William Horton
For many years following the civil war, history of the same written by Northern authors and poisoned with bias, bitter hatred and malicious falsehoods and slanders, were taught in the public schools of the South, by Southern teachers, and to the partially indifferent knowledge of Southern parentage. Why we permitted such an unpardonable outrage upon ourselves, disgraced our ancestry, and smothered our shame and pride, we cannot to this day understand or explain-beyond the fact that we were too completely poverty stricken to finance a history work of our own. With all our past troubles, however, we are fast coming into possession of our own-our position in history, enormous wealth, and the present generation now thoroughly understands the situation. One of those who fought in this, the greatest comparative slaughter of all wars, is Mr. W. H. Davis, City Treasurer of Comanche. Mr. Davis was born July 22, 1846, in Green county, East Texas. His father, Isaac Davis, was a native of South Carolina, and left the old Palmetto State for its twin-sister of North Carolina when a boy. In Madison county of that state he was married to Miss Catherine Cummins, after which they moved to Green
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county, East Tennessee. In 1848 they located in Whitfield county, North Georgia, and in 1859 in Franklin county, Alabama, where the husband died in 1891 and the mother in 1899. Mr. Davis was a farmer, a life-long Democrat and was a strict Baptist in religious faith.
It was in Franklin county, Alabama, that Mr. W. H. Davis arrived at the age of young manhood on the farm and obtained a meager education in line with the crude educational advantages of those days. When the civil war came on he enlisted in Forrest's Cavalry, Company E, Fifth Alabama Regiment, in 1862, in Lauderdale county; Capt. Lang C. Allen and Col. James Warren being his immediate commanding officers. Of the many engagements in which Gen. Forrest's army took part Mr. Davis considers the hardest fought ones to be the battles of Harrisburg, Miss., Dixie Station and Selma, Ala. In the last named battle Mr. Davis and his brother John were the only two men, with their guns and ammunition, known to have escaped capture, they wading through an obseure and treacherous lake of water in order to do so; concealed themselves until nightfall and then escaped. Mr. Davis had his horse shot from under him, and a minnie ball hit the breech of his gun in the battle of Dixie Station. After the surrender he came home and was married in May, 1865, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Creamer, and together they journeyed from their Alabama home to the Brazos river, eighteen miles above Waco, in Texas, in the fall of 1869; lived one year, and came to Comanche county in 1870. Mr. Davis continued to farm until 1896, when he was elected County Treasurer, and served two terms. He was then in the restaurant business for a short time, and in 1908 was chosen to the office of City Treasurer of Comanche, and is now serving his second term in that official capacity. The fact that the people of both the county and city have readily re-elected him to offices having to do with their financial affairs is sufficient expression of his high standing to preclude any comment at our hands, and it also expresses his many friends. He is a true Southern gentleman, genial and pleasant, and belongs to the M. E. church.
DARNELL, James J.
It was the custom in the early days of Texas that when settlers came into what was known as the prairie, and now classed as the Black Land Belt of the state, they would locate only on the creeks and near the timber spots; elaimed and cultivated lands adjacent to same. Their idea was that the prairie land had no strength and could never be brought to life. To what extent they were mistaken is best expressed in the fact that the Black Land Belt of Texas is one of the richest sections of tillable land in the known world, and Hunt county is probably the choicest part of this domain. For several generations its people have been reaping wealth from this black waxy land, with the result that it is one of the largest taxpayers in the state, and its people are, generally, good livers and dwell in comfortable circumstances. Its affairs of state, therefore, are of high importance, and its county administration is directed by enlightened voting suffrage. Directly connected with its court house administrative affairs is Mr. James J. Darnell, tax assessor. Mr. Darnell was born in the Cash neighborhood of Hunt county, April 6, 1869, and there matured to manhood. His father, James Darnell, was born in Tennessee, and came from the Old Volunteer State to Hunt county in early settlement days. He was married to Miss Elizabeth Caudle, of Mt. Vernon, this state, and to them were born five sons and two daughters. The father departed this life in 1869, the year in which the subject whose name heads this article was born, and his mother died in 1898, at age of sixty-five. Mr. Darnell was married Feb. 24, 1889, to Miss Ida Tredway, who was born in Arkansas but whose parents moved to Hunt county years ago. She died Aug. 23, 1907. There were born to them four sons and three daughters, the family home being in Greenville. For several years Mr. Darnell's friends had urged him to become a candidate for the office of Tax Assessor of Hunt county, and it was not until the Democratic primary election held July 23, 1910, that he consented to enter the race. The outcome of the election was that he received 2,192 votes, which were nineteen more votes than the aggregate of votes received by all three of his opponents-a compliment of which he and
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his friends should well feel proud, and which will no doubt make him feel grateful to the good people of Hunt county even to the day of his taking off of this earth. Mr. Darnell is proving himself a popular and efficient official, and as it is the Democratic custom to endorse a first administration with a second, he will no doubt be re-elected this year, especially in view of the fact that he has never before sought or held public office. Mr. Darnell is known as a man loyal and faithful to his friends, and having been born in this state is an intense Texan, bound in heart and memory to the history and tradition, the honor and good repute of the Lone Star Commonwealth, and he hopes that his children, now coming on, will develop to be an honor to it. The family worship with the Baptist church. Mr. Darnell gave it to the writer that the taxable valuation of Hunt county is approximately $24,000,000.
ELGIN, Thomas Ashford
At present the distance be- tween Virginia, the Dominion of colonial days, to Texas, the Do- minion of pioneer days, seems vast, but when we consider what the Old Dominion has given to the New Dominion, distance is eliminated and one realizes the indissoluble bond of kindred ties, for when the one needed the ter- ritory of the other there was a readp response; and on the other hand when Texas needed Vir- ginia's sons and daughters, whether they came by way of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee or' Kentucky, there was the same willing response.
Thomas Ashford Elgin, the subject of this sketch, traces his genealogy back to Virginia and Maryland sires, who came to America for that freedom which breathed forth from every rock and every rill-and to gain it were prepared to battle until death ;- to mothers ready to buckle on the sword with Spartan courage. As early as 1709 we find George Elgin, forbear of
Thomas A. Elgin, receiving land grants in the Colony of Maryland, in that portion now known as Charles county. The wife of George Elgin was Elizabeth Adams, granddaughter of Francis Adams, a man of much prominence in colonial affairs. Frederick, senior, grand- son of George and Elizabeth Adams Elgin, and son of William Elgin and Elizabeth Harrison Elgin, moved from Charles county, Maryland, to Loudoun county, Virginia, after his marriage to Catherine Perry, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Dunnington Perry, of Charles county, Maryland. From Virginia they moved into Kentucky, proving their heritage of the pioneer spirit that had brought their forefathers to the shores of the Eastern World. Frederick, son of Frederick, Sr., and Catherine, his wife, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1800, Frederick was only six years of age when brought into Kentucky. When a lad of sixteen years he heard the call of the unexplored, and sought a home in the new state of Alabama, locating in Huntsville. In 1826 he was married to
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Minerva Ruffin Clifton, daughter of William and Martha Rice Clifton, who had come from North Carolina "into the far western country," as described in wills and land grants now in the possession of their descendants. Frederiek Elgin, a man of jovial disposition, and whose hand-clasp implied a spirit of eomradeship, was indeed fortunate in his choice of a wife, for Minerva Clifton Elgin was a woman of extraordinary strength of character and laudable ambition. To them were born ten children, and they lived to see eight of them take their places as men and women in the drama of life. They both died in North Mississippi at the home of their daughter, Juliette, wife of Thomas Duncan, . Esq. Their son, Thomas Ashford Elgin, was born in Huntsville, Ala., March 8, 1841. After receiving a common school education he learned the printer's trade, and when seventeen years of age he went to Memphis, Tenn., and worked in the office of the Eagle and Enquirer. (By way of parenthesis it can be stated right here that Thomas Elgin's maternal great-uncle, John Rice, entered the tract of land known then as Chickasaw Bluffs and now as the city of Memphis, as a grant from North Carolina, and to which faet may be attributed the immigration of the Rice and Clifton families.) Thomas Elgin left Memphis in 1859 and went to Marshall, Texas, where he has since resided, excepting, of course, the civil war period. He soon became identified with the interests of his city and state, and has ever proved himself to be an honorable and loyal citizen. When the eall came for troops and the dark shadows of war hovered over the whole land, Thomas Elgin was found in the foremost ranks, having enlisted April 19, 1861, in Company F, Second Texas Cavalry, under Capt. S. J. Richardson, and mustered into state serviee at Marshall, Texas. On May 8th he was sworn into the service of the Confederacy at San Antonio, Texas, and ordered to the Rio Grande under Col. Rip Ford, where he served one year. Re-enlisting at San Antonio, from whence he was ordered east; was captured in battle of Arkansas Post in January, 1863; sent a prisoner to Camp Butler, Illinois, and was exchanged at City Point, Va., the same year. He was then sent to Richmond, Va., and later to Bragg's army in Tennessee, where he remained until after the retreat from Tullahoma, Tenn., and in the battle of Chickamauga he was with Col. R. Q. Mills, Deshler's brigade. He was then ordered to his old command in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and later was with Morgan's regiment, Parsons' brigade, until the surrender, and was honorably discharged by Gen. W. H. Parsons on the Little Brazos river on May 20, 1865, when peaee was deelared. Returning to his old home in Marshall, Texas, Thomas Elgin engaged in receiving and forwarding cotton and seed, which business was earried on successfully for many years. On February 7, 1868, he was happily married to Miss Laura F. Ousley, also an Alabamian by birth, and now, as each day finds the shadows a little longer drawn, they are spared to each other for that comfort only found in congenial companionship. To them were born the following children: Hallet, who married E. S. Fry; Minnie, who married, first, Turner Curry, second, William Peete; Maude, who married D. W. Powell; Lollie, who married W. R. Hodge; Valerie, who married W. R. Kennedy, and Clifton, who married Robert Sacra. As a Mason Mr. Elgin is a member of Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, and also belongs to the Odd Fellows, Elks and Independeut Order of Red Men. Beyond the fact of serving a number of terms as city alderman of Marshall he has never sought or held public office. Now, when the period of life has eome when reminiscenciug hangs its joys in thoughts of time well spent, Thomas Ashford Elgiu may eount his present blessings as rewards of his life of earnest effort, of loyalty to his trusts and unswerving patriotism. Steadfast, loyal and sincere in all the relations of life, he has ever stood as a distinguished type of East Texas' noble army of productive and constructive workers. He has given the best of an essentially strong and loyal nature to the promotion of the civil and material interests of the community in which he lives; his life course has been guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor; all who know the man have a high appreciation of his sterling attributes of character, and in the estimation of the writer, this is by far the richest heritage he can bequeath to his children and those to follow him, and which is keeping in line with the splendid genealogy of those that have so conspicuously preceded him. This article would be incomplete without some reference to Mrs. Elgin. She is a woman
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of the most charming personality, and her sincere devotion to her husband, children, relatives and friends has won for her an affection and popularity that is the pride of all who know her. But it is at the hospitable Elgin home, over which she presides, that she shines with all the true luster which a gentle character and a noble womanhood bring upon earth to bless and gladden life with their sunshine.
EMISON, Frank
There is no doubt of the fact that native Kentuckians are more proud and patriotic of their ancestral state than most others of the sisterhood-the Blue Grass State of "Fast horses, beautiful women and 'bad' whiskey." In fact, whether you meet a Kentuckian on his original soil or in a foreign land, there is an indefinable attractive something about him that is inex- plainable in English; something about his nature that tingles the blood and makes the eye sparkle-particularly among the ladies-that contradistinguishes him from the rest of the hu- man family. When a man is notedly from Kentucky he holds a password that admits him to all the lodges of success, and Kentuckians generally "do well" everywhere. One of those that has strayed away from the old homeplace, and whose fortune and sympathies are now linked with the welfare anad affections of the Lone Star State, is Mr. Frank Emison, Tax Collector for Brown county. Mr. Emison was born in the Blue Grass section of the state-Scott county-Sept. 10, 1856. His father, David Emison, was one of the early-day and noted distillers of the state. He was there born Nov. 29, 1820, and came to Texas in 1875. He acquired land, farmed for many years, performed much work as a practical land surveyor, and served two terms as official surveyor of Brown county. He was directly related to the celebrated Marshall family of Virginia and Kentucky, and died in this county, as a Mason, in 1898. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Brown, of Harrison county, Ky., and she died in Brown county, Texas, in 1896, having given birth to five sons and three daughters, as follows: Samuel, Keene, Frank, Julian, David and Mrs. H. D. Fish, Mrs. Frank Wagnon and Mrs. M. H. P. Williams, whose husband was ex-chief of police of Frankfort, capital of Kentucky. Those living are: Frank and Julian, and Mrs. Sallie Lee Fisher and Rev. Mrs. Frank M. Wagnon, of Comanche county.
Having come to Brown county with his parents in 1875, Mr. Frank Emison was a farmer until 1885, when he disposed of his landed interests, moved to Brownwood and indulged in mercantiling. He served some time as deputy sheriff, returned to the farm, and in 1906 was elected sheriff of Brown county and served two terms, or four years. In 1910 he was chosen by the people for tax collector, and is now discharging the duties of that office. Mr. Emison has been twice married, first to Miss Augusta Oberthier, of Comanche, in 1879, who died in 1892, leaving three sons and two daughters, one son, Oscar, being dead. He was a second time married in 1894 to Miss Florence Pierce, whose people had migrated from Louisiana to Texas years ago. By this marriage there are two sons and one daughter. How well the people of Brown county think of Mr. Emison is best expressed in the fact that they have chosen and retained him in public office six years to date, which is another evidence that he has discharged his duties to their entire satisfaction. Mr. Emison belongs to the Odd Fellows and W. O. W. lodges. The taxable valuation of Brown county is about $12,000,000.
ERWIN, Rev. Thomas Douthit
Rev. Thos. D. Erwin was born Jan. 17, 1837, in Transylvania county, Western North Carolina. His father, Samuel Erwin, was also born in this county, in the year 1805, and in which he served for a number of years as sheriff. He was a farmer, an elder in the Presby- terian church, and died in 1844 in the village of Martha's Plains, but what is now the city of Atlanta, Ga. His wife was Miss Louisa Anna Douthit, who was born in Greenville. District, South Carolina, in 1807, and died near Dalton, Ga., in 1883. Born to the couple were two daughters and two sons, of which Rev. Thos. D. Erwin is the only living subject. His brother, L. J. Erwin, was a Confederate soldier; was wounded in the battles of Seven Pines, Gettys- burg, Kingston, N. C., and one other engagement not now remembered, and while on his way home after the surrender died at the Wayside Hospital at Salisbury, N. C. War being
definitely declared, Rev. Thos. D. Erwin enlisted in December, 1861, at Walhalla, S. C., in what was then kuown as "The Irish Company"-Co. D, 22d South Carolina Volunteers, Capt. Jas. O'Conner and Col. Abney. Their first battle was at Secessionville, S. C., after which they were ordered to Richmond, Va., and from that time on to the close of hostilities was in the thickest of the fray with Gen. Robt. E. Lee. He was taken prisoner in front of Peters- burg in 1864, and accepted parole as a choice from remaining a prisouer, and was on the parole list when the war closed, and claims the proud distinction of having never taken the oath of allegiance. Bro. Erwin was married in September, 1860, to Miss Susan J. Van Zandt, of Walhalla, S. C., and she died in Cherokee county, Texas, in 1891. Their two able-bodied sons, W. C. and J. C. Erwin, are yet living, the first named gentleman being known as "the original fruit man of Henderson county," he having shipped the first carload of fruit from this section of the state. Bro. Erwin was principal of the first school taught in Brevard, Transylvania county, N. C., and afterwards was engaged in educational work, collectively, for thirty-six years, his experience being in North and South Carolina, Indiana, Georgia and Texas. Upon coming to Texas in 1884 he settled in Cherokee county, later living for four years in Williamson county, and came to this, Henderson county, in 1898. Being an expert and highly accomplished civil surveyor by profession, Bro. Erwin has served Henderson county four years as county surveyor and deputy county surveyor for eight years, which official position he retains at present writing. He has been a Mason siuce 1862 and an Odd Fellow since 1874, but he is probably best known in this life as a local Methodist minister, having been a member of this church since a boy and a worker in the Master's Cause as a minister since 1859. Bro. Erwin not only commands the universal respect and confidence of a wide acquaintance, but the love of all who know him as a deserving, conscientious, good Christian man. His life has been a success, and though he is hale and hearty at the present age of seventy-five years, we predict the eventide of his last days on earth will be a happy con- science of "Well done, good and faithful servant."
ERWIN, Humphrey Levett
In counectiou with speaking of men in public life, it is inter- esting to quote an East Texas orator: "We live in a land of mountains and high taxes, low wages, big, crooked rivers and crooked statesmen; big lakes and big strikes, big drunks and big pumpkins; big men with pumpkin heads, silver streams that gambol in mountains and pious politicians that gamble in night ; roaring cataracts and roaring orators; big hogs, fast horses aud fast young men; sharp lawyers, sharp financiers and sharp-nosed gossips; noisy children, fertile plains that lie like a sheet of water, and thousands of newspapers that lie like thunder." Our reason for producing the foregoing expressions is merely to con- form to the transparent good nature of County Treasurer H. L. Erwin, of Dallas county, he having confided to the writer in well- rounded terms that he believed in big things on a big scale. Mr. Erwin was born on a farm in Jackson county, Ala., Sept. 23, 1858. His father, H. L. Erwin, was born in Madison county, Ala., March 6, 1831, and wheu eleven years old his parents located in Franklin county, Middle Tennessee, where he now resides on the old home-place at ripe age of eighty years, having lived the life of a farmer and stock-raiser. He fought three and a half years in Confederate army; was captured at. Fort Donelson; lost his stock; had his farm houses, barus and everything burned during civil war, and previously had a brother, Robert. Erwin, to participate in Mexican war. He was married in Jackson county, Ala., to a Miss Levett, who died of spider-bite at Francisco, Ala., July 19, 1908, aged seventy-seven years. Seven sons and two daughters were born of this union, all of whom are living except one daughter that died in infancy. Mr. H. L. Erwin (subject of this sketch) was fourth child born into the family, and matured to young mau- hood on farm in Franklin county, Tenu. In October, 1880, he came to Texas, passing through Dallas when it was a small city, and settled on farm near Arlington, Tarrant county.
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