Sabine Parish Biographies

The American Genealogical Record Vol 1 – The Stephens Family with Collateral Branches – by Edward Stephens Clark, MD. Winterborn Company Book and Job Printers, 1892. Submitted by Veneta McKinney

EMELINE STEPHENS.

(Residence, Pleasant Hill, Sabine Parish, Louisiana.)

Daughter of William D. Stephens and Mary S. DeFreese . Born in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, 13 June, 1837. Married William H. Armstrong, 7 September, 1854, since which time has lived principally in Sabine Parish, Louisiana. Her husband died 14 February, 1850, from which date she has remained a widow. She has one child, Thomas C. Armstrong , with whom she now lives.

DR. J. CRIT ARMSTRONG.

(Residence, Many, Sabine Parish, Louisiana.)

Son of James H. Armstrong and Mary McGough. Born in Dallas County, Alabama, 1830 (?). Married Mary-E. Stephens , 3 July, 1851, and has resided in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, ever since.

CHILDREN.

Date of Birth.

Emmett H - May 1854

Mary DeFreese - 26 Jan.1859

Effie Jane 30 Aug. 1861

William H - Sept. 186?

Annie V 25 June, 1869

WILLIAM H. ARMSTRONG.

Son of James H. Armstrong and Mary McGough. Born in Dallas County, Alabama, 19 June, 1832. Married Emeline Stephens, 7 September, 1851. They resided in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, until his death, 14 February, 1859.

CHILDREN.

Thomas C - 18 Oct. 1857

THOMAS C. ARMSTRONG.

(Residence, Pleasant Hill, Sabine Parish, Louisiana.)

Son of William H. Armstrong and Emeline Stephens. Born in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, 18 October, 1857, and is now a prominent member of the legal fraternity at that place.

EMMETT H. ARMSTRONG.

Son of Dr. J.Crit Armstrong and Mary E. Stephens. Born in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, May, 1854.

A HISTORY OF TEXAS AND TEXANS, Vol 3 - By Francis White Johnson, Published by The American Historical Society, 1914

Hugh F. Wagley, M. D. Northern Texas has its due quota of able and honored representatives of the medical profession, and a prominent and popular one of this number is Dr. Wagley, who is engaged in the successful practice of his profession in the thriving and attractive little city of Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County. He is enthusiastic in advocating the efficacy of the splendid mineral waters that give the town its name, and believes that they constitute a sovereign remedial agent in the treatment of many of the ills to which humanity is heir. His loyalty to the Lone Star state is fortified also by his appreciation of its manifold advantages and resources as well as by his recognition of its salubrious climate. He controls a large and representative practice in the county in which he resides and his admirable professional attainments combine with his sterling personality to give him inviolable place in popular esteem.

Dr. Wagley was born in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, on the 16th of February, 1865, and is a son of Benjamin F. and E. S. (Armstrong) Wagley, both of whom, now venerable in years, maintain their home at Marthaville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, where they are held in high esteem by all who know them, the father being seventy-six years of age at the time of this writing, in 1913, retaining marked mental and physical vigor. Benjamin F. Wagley was long numbered among the representative planters of Louisiana, where he owned a large landed estate and owned numerous slaves prior to the Civil war. When this great conflict between the states of the north and south was precipitated he showed his distinctive loyalty to the cause of the Confederacy by enlisting as a member of a Louisiana volunteer regiment. With his command he participated in a number of important engagements marking the progress of the war, and in one of those battles he received a saber wound in the face. He continued in active service until the close of the war and he manifests his abiding interest in his old comrades in arms by maintaining affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans' Association.

The third in order of birth in a family of four sons and three daughters, Dr. Hugh F. Wagley was born in the year that marked the close of the Civil war, and his father, like so many other representative men of the south, suffered severe losses through the ravages of the great conflict, though the family fortunes were retrieved by earnest and well-ordered effort. The Doctor gained his rudimentary education in the common schools of his native parish and was favored in the fortuitous influences of a home of distinctive refinement. He applied himself diligently until he had acquired a liberal academic education, and in preparation for his chosen profession he entered Louisville Medical College, a representative institution in the metropolis of Kentucky. In this excellent college he was graduated in February, 1891, and from the same he received his well-earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. His novitiate in the practice of his profession was served at Marthaville, Louisiana, and he continued in active general practice in his native state until May, 1906, when he came to Texas and established his home at Mineral Wells, where he succeeded in building up a substantial and representative practice and where he has gained secure prestige as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Palo Pinto county. He is indefatigable and self-abnegating in fair devotion to his humane calling and his abiding human sympathy transcends mere sentiment to become an actuating motive for helpfulness. At Marthaville, Louisiana, he likewise controlled a large practice, and he served about eleven years as health officer of that place, a position which he resigned at the time of his removal to Texas. He has found his new field of labor altogether satisfactory and is firm in his belief in the still greater progress and prosperity of the Lone Star state, the while he is known and honored as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. He is unwavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party and has given effective service in the promotion of its cause. He is identified with the Texas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and he keeps in close touch with the advances made in both medical and surgical science. Mineral Wells has wide reputation as a health resort, and its fame is constantly expanding, in consonance with the increasing recognition of the great remedial value of the waters of its mineral wells. The town attracts health-seekers from points far distant as well as from all sections of the state, and Dr. Wagley's practice is thus augmented materially from such outside sources. He is one of the alert and progressive citizens of Mineral Wells, where he is a valued member of the Commercial Club, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the B. P. O. E. On the 7th of February, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Wagley to Miss Rena E. Brasher, who likewise was born and reared in Louisiana, her parents, C. P. and W. A. (Berry) Brasher, having been residents of Marthaville, that state, at the time of her marriage and now maintaining their home at Monroe, that state. Mr. Brasher has been a prominent and influential farmer and lumberman and is one of the highly honored citizens of the state in which he has lived and labored to goodly ends. Dr. and Mrs. Wagley have three children—Everett F., Myrtle A., and Rena G., all of whom remain at the parental home. The only son, who will attain to his legal majority in 1914, is studying medicine under the preceptorship of his father and gives to the latter valuable assistance in many parts of his work.
The American Genealogical Record Vol 1 – The Stephens Family with Collateral Branches – by Edward Stephens Clark, MD.  Winterborn Company Book and Job Printers, 1892.  Submitted by Veneta McKinney

ELDER NATHAN H. BRAY - The Apostle of the Sabine" — was born in Peterborough, Eng., April 29th, 1809. In 1840 he emigrated to the United States and landed at New Orleans. Providence directed his steps to Sabine Parish. At this time he made no profession of religion. Not long after, however, he joined the Baptists, and in 1847 he was licensed to preach. Although a man of limited education, he developed rare gifts as a preacher. Laboring under the appointment of the Domestic Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, he became the father of the Sabine Association ; and at a later day of the Calcasieu and Vernon Associations, which have sprung from it. He was Moderator of the Sabine Association from its organization up to 1871. He was an active Mason, and was often elected to important offices in the Grand Lodge of Louisiana. After the war he filled the office of Parish Judge for several years. His labors were incessant, and he traversed that immense region lying between the Calcasieu and Sabine Rivers and extending north as far as Spanish Lake and the southern parts of DeSoto Parish. Few men in the State have exerted a wider influence and left such visible results of their labors. He died at his home, near Leesville, February 18th, 1876.
ELDER ISHAM N. MCALISTER— Was an active minister of the Sabine Association, La. He was born in Mississippi, April 27, 1813; baptized in 1841; began to preach in 1850; ordained in 1853. Soon after, he removed to Louisiana and settled in Sabine Parish. He was employed as a missionary of the State Convention in 1855. He did good service. He labored extensively between Natchitoches and the Sabine River. He died January 27, 1874.
ELDER W. L. SIBLEY. — A pioneer preacher in Louisiana. He was born in Bullock County, Ga., Jan. 31, 1795. He became a Baptist in 1825, about which time he settled in Washington Parish, La. He began to preach in 1841. In 1847 he removed to Sabine Parish, and became a co-laborer with Father Bray, whose confidence and esteem he long enjoyed. He was instrumental in building up many churches, both in Eastern and Western Louisiana. He died October 21, 1861.

DEACON D. R. GAUDY- An eminent Baptist layman, in the Sabine Association, La, He was for many years Sheriff of Sabine Parish, and served one term in the legislature in 1853. He took an active interest in the Baptist cause. He was born in Georgia in 1811, and died in Sabine Parish, May 12, 1867.

ELDER CALVIN HARDIN — Was born in Alabama in 1831. He came to Louisiana about 1859, and settled in Jackson Parish. He was baptized at Shiloh, Union Parish, by Elder W. P. Smith, in 1874. He was ordained in 1875. He afterwards removed to Sabine Parish, where most of his labors were spent. He was an efficient minister. From failing health he went for relief to the Eureka Springs, Arkansas ; but too late, as he died shortly after reaching there, May, 1880,

ELDER MATHIAS SCARBOROUGH— Was born in Lawrence County, Miss., December 5, 1822. He came to Louisiana in 1840, and settled in Jackson Parish. He was baptized at Mt. Zion Church, near Vernon, in 1843, by Elder Peter S. Gaylo, of Memphis, Tenn., who, during a visit to his daughter at Monroe, made many preaching excursions into the country. He began to preach in 1853, and was ordained by request of the church at Mt. Lebanon in 1854, by Elders J. E. Paxton, F. Courtney, H. Lee and J. Q. Prescott. He was educated at Mt. Lebanon University, and during the time supplied several churches in Bienville Parish. In 1859 he settled on Spanish Lake, in Natchitoches Parish, and established an academy near Bethel Church. The academy was afterwards burned, but Mr. Scarborough continued to labor here as a minister until 1867, when he went to Lake Charles, where he gathered a church and aided in the organization of Calcasieu Association. For two years he rode as a missionary of Sabine Association. He was then called to Beaumont, Texas, where he preached for several years. In 1875 he returned to Louisiana and settled near Fort Jesup, in Sabine Parish, where he still resides, preaching successfully to churches in the surrounding country.A History of the Baptists of Louisiana From the Earliest Times to the Present By Rev W, E, Paxton, C. R. Barns Publishing Co., 1888.  Submitted by Veneta McKinney

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