BARKER, WILLIAM LOUIS (1852-?)

William Louis Barker, son of William O. and Julia (Crane) Barker, was born in Upshur County, Texas, on July 2, 1852. His father was a native of South Carolina, but came to Texas in 1845, and became one of the best known pioneer physicians in the eastern part of the state. William O. received his early educational training in the country schools near his home, but later he became a student in the Morgan H Looney school at Gilmer, Texas, the principal of which ranked at that time with the foremost educators of the south. His wife was a native of Mississippi, and both she and her husband died in Upshur County, Texas.

William Louis studied medicine in his father's office for two years and then graduated from the medical department of the University of Louisiana on March 17, 1874. That same year he practiced medicine in his native county of Upshur. He married Mollie (Mary) F. Barnes in October 1874 and, in 1879, moved to Longview, where he practiced medicine and ran a drugstore. He moved to Waco in 1882, and was city health officer there in 1885. During a six year stint as health officer, he was influential in having a thorough sanitary system established, which resulted in greatly reducing the death rate, the last being only 8.41 per thousand. During this time he also became division surgeon for the St. Louis and Southwestern (Cottonbelt) Railway. He retired these positions to become the superintendent of the Southwestern Insane Asylum (later the San Antonio State Hospital ) by appointment of Governor James S Hogg on the 14th of October, 1891. This appointment was following a long and intimate association between the two gentlemen, Dr Barker having accompanied the governor on his speech-making tour of the north and east near the close of his administration. After retiring from this position in January, 1895, Dr Barker located in San Antonio in the general practice of medicine, where he was frequently called as an expert witness in insanity cases, as he was generally recognized by the medical profession as an expert in this field. He was also author of a number of papers on sanity and public hygiene. He was elected to the city council of San Antonio in 1898, and served as alderman for six years or three terms, and was a candidate for mayor before the Democratic Primaries in April 1904, where he was defeated by only 97 votes. He was reappointed superintendent of the asylum in 1907 by Governor T M Campbell and served until 1909.

Dr Barker married Miss Mollie F Barnes, of Harrison County, Tx, and their union was blessed by two children, Ida V and William L, Jr.  The Dr was a member of the West Texas Medical Association of the State Medical Association, of which he was chairman of the section on medicine, materia medica and therapeutics, and of the American Medical Association. He was for many years an active and prominent Free Mason, having been past master and D.D.G.M. of the twenty-fifth Masonic district of Texas. Notwithstanding his busy medical career, Dr Barker always took quite an active part in politics and was a delegate to almost every convention since the one which nominated Richard Coke for governor. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated W J Bryan, being a representative from the thirteenth congressional district.

BARRETT, Zelma Vera  (Goodwin) (1904-1985)

Zelma Vera Goodwin Barrett,  b. 17 September 1904 in Upshur County, Texas; d. 4 July 1985 in Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas; daughter of Ella Collier and John Goodwin *36; member First Methodist Church of Garrison; married John Lloyd Pink S. Barrett, son of Pink Nelson and John W. Barrett, on 8 December 1924.  Buried in Bethel Cemetery, Appleby, Nacogdoches Co., TX.

BECKWORTH, Lindley Garrison, Sr., 1913-1984

BECKWORTH, Lindley Garrison, Sr., United States representative, judge, and lawyer, was born on June 30, 1913, in Kaufman County, Texas, to Otis Jefferson and Josie (Slaughter) Beckworth. He attended several common schools in Upshur County and in 1928 enrolled in Gilmer High School, from which he graduated in 1931. Like both of his parents, Beckworth became a teacher. After attending Southern Methodist University in 1931-32, he taught at Shady Grove in Upshur County during 1932-33. He attended Sam Houston State Teachers College (now Sam Houston State University) the first summer term of 1933 and the University of Texas from July 1933 to June 1934. In the spring of 1934 he worked for the Civil Works Corps and took correspondence courses from Abilene Christian College. He taught during the 1934-35 and 1935-36 school years, attended the University of Texas law school during the summer of 1935, and attended Baylor University law school in the summer of 1936.

In January 1936 Beckworth, a Democrat, announced his candidacy for the state legislature. He later defeated five candidates in the first primary, but did not receive a majority of the votes. In the runoff he was nominated by a 3,343-vote margin. After representing the Fourth District in the Texas House of Representatives for one term, he was one of five candidates who ran against incumbent Morgan G. Sanders in 1938 for the Third Congressional District seat. With his father as campaign manager, Beckworth led in the first primary. He defeated Brady Gentry in the second primary and went on to become, at twenty-five, the youngest person elected to the United States House of Representatives in the twentieth century. He served seven terms in the House and in 1952 announced his candidacy for the Senate seat that Thomas T. Connally was vacating. Despite a three-month, 20,000-mile campaign, Beckworth lost to Price Daniel, Sr., by a three-to-one margin. After losing the 1954 election for his old House seat by less than 1,000 votes, he recaptured it in 1956. In the United States House of Representatives Beckworth was an advocate of small farmers and businessmen, servicemen and veterans, and education. His House committee memberships included Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Post Office and Civil Service, and Foreign Affairs. He was the chairman of the Texas congressional delegation in 1952.

The 1965 Reapportionment of Congressional Districts Act eliminated Beckworth's district and placed him in the Fourth Congressional District, represented by Ray Roberts. He lost to Roberts in the 1966 primary. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the United States Customs Court on March 14, 1967, and he served until August 1968. He then practiced law in Longview with the firm of Whitehead and Whitehead. In November 1970 he was elected to the Texas Senate from the Second Senatorial District. As a state senator, he worked for the establishment of the University of Texas at Tyler and the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler. He served one term and returned to his law practice.

Beckworth married Eloise Carter of Tyler on June 27, 1942; they had two daughters and three sons. Two of the sons subsequently practiced law with their father. During and after his congressional career, Beckworth lived in Upshur County. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1937, was a member of the Forum Law Society, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows. He was a Baptist. He died on March 9, 1984, at the University of Texas Health Center in Tyler and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Tyler.

BROWN, HIRAM

Birth: 1805 Place: Kentucky; Moved to Upshur County, Texas between 1844 & 1849, by 1860 moved to Halletsville, Lavaca County, Texas.
Spouse: Elizabeth CROSSLAND; Birth: 1810 Place: Alabama
Children:
1 F: Amanda BROWN; Birth: Jan 2, 1830 Place: Arkansas; Spouse: Earl  Elias DAVIS
2 M: Harrison BROWN; Birth: 1831 Place: Arkansas
3 F: Mary Ann BROWN; Birth: July 16, 1835 Place: Arkansas; Spouse: Lofton Grant, Jr. BARNES
4 M: John Calvin BROWN; Birth: 1841 Place: Arkansas; Spouse: Emily BEST; Marriage: Oct 19, 1862, Halletsville, TX
5 M: Thomas BROWN; Birth: 1844 Place: Arkansas; Spouse: Ella A. HEATH
6 M: Ellis Ranson BROWN; Birth: 1849 Place: Upshur County, Texas

Submitted by:Lloyd Ray Timmons, Sr.  
 

BUCKNER, ROBERT COOKE (1833-1919)

Robert Cooke Buckner, Baptist minister and founder of Buckner Baptist Children's Home, son of Rev. Daniel and Mary (Hampton) Buckner, was born on January 3, 1833, in Madisonville, Tennessee. He attended Somerset Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Georgetown College in Kentucky. He was ordained a Baptist minister at the age of seventeen. He pastored churches in Albany, Owensboro, and Salvisa, Kentucky, before moving to Paris, Texas, in 1859. While in Albany, he married Vienna Long, on June 7, 1854. The couple had seven children.

For fourteen years after his arrival in Texas, Buckner was pastor of the Paris Baptist Church. During his last year in Paris, he began a newspaper, the Religious Messenger, the title of which was later changed to Texas Baptist. He continued to edit the paper until he sold his interest in it in 1883. In 1875 he moved to Dallas, where he began to work toward the establishment of a Baptist orphanage. He secured the approval of the Baptist General Association for Buckner Orphans Home, wrote its original charter, and opened the home in 1879 with three children. He served as president and general manager of the home until his death in 1919, when an estimated 12,000 children had been residents at the home. In 1900 Buckner was part of a group of prominent Baptists, both black and white, who founded the Dickson Colored Orphanage in Gilmer, Upshur County. Buckner served as president of the board of that home from 1900 to 1905 and continued as a member of the board for several years thereafter.

In addition to his activities on behalf of orphans, Buckner was president of the Baptist General Association of Texas for twenty years and helped in founding Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium (now Baylor University Medical Centerqv), which he served from 1904 to 1907 as president of the board. He was a trustee of Baylor University, a member of the National Prison Congress, and frequently a delegate to the national Convention for Charities and Corrections. He was an enthusiastic Mason and a member of Hella Temple of the Shrine. "Father" Buckner, as he was called by thousands young and old, died in Dallas on April 9, 1919, and was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery.

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