| Robert Columbus Harlan was
born September 19, 1876 to Charles Henry Harlan and Katherine
Polk. Robert married Alice C Pittman, she was the
daughter of William Joseph Pittman and Hannah Dixon. R C Harlan
was the first county clerk of Upland, and Rankin. He
built the Harlan hotel, |
| Dr. J. W. George, a
graduate of Kentucky University, 1869. died from a stroke of
paralysis on March 17. 1907, at the home of his daughter. Mrs.
Harry Rankin. Milford, Texas. He was born December 6, 1835, near
Clinton, Alabama. Moved to 'Mississippi when a young man and at
the beginning of the Civil War joined the First Mississippi
Cavalry, C. S. A., and served until the war closed. He was then
married to Miss Jenny Collins, of Mississippi. Dr. George
located at Chester. Mississippi. He was County Health Officer of
Choctaw county, Mississippi, and was also Assistant State Health
Officer for Mississippi. He practiced for some years at Fort
Smith, Arkansas, and moved to Texas twenty years ago. settling
at Italy, Texas. Afterwards he located at Rankin. Texas, where
he practiced for several years. Dr. George had a stroke of
paralysis about one year ago, from which he never fully
recovered. He was a fine man, a good citizen and physician, a
member of his county and State Associations. He was buried at
Italy, Texas. He leaves a wife and three children. |
| Miss Nancy Ethie Eagleton,
83, long time history teacher and McCamey resident and local
historian, passed away at 4:00 a.m. Thursday Dec 6, in her home.
Services were held at 10:a.m. Friday morning, December 7, in the
First Presbyterian Church of McCamey and at 10:00 a.m. Saturday
Morning, December 8, in Ladonia Odd fellows Cemetery under
direction of Sheppard Funeral Home.
Miss Eagleton was born July 27, 1890 in
Ladonia, Texas. She was the first born of 11 children (four of
whom are still living) to Emma Abernathy and Exile Campbell
Eagleton. Following high school graduation in 1908, Ethie, as
she was called by her parents and friends launched into a
teaching career achieved by so few. That fall her first
position was in a multi grade country school at Covey in Fannin
County. Later she taught at Whitewright, Commerce, Boyd, Tioga,
I.O.O.F Home in Corsicana, Nacogdoches, North Texas A & m at
Arlington, and McCamey 1941- 1961 for a total of 51 years of
teaching. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Texas at Austin in 1923 and her Masters of Art
Degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1935.
In 1941, Misses Eagleton settled in
McCamey as a grade school teacher at first, but later
transferring to high school where she taught history and
government. Miss Eagleton was author of "On the Last
Frontier - A History of Upton County." She was named
District Texas Federation of Women's Clubs "Teacher of the
Year in 1959. She organized a Junior Historians Chapter in 1947.
It became an outstanding club in that several of her students
won acclaim and acknowledgment for their articles and essays
published in state magazines and newspapers. She influential in
founding Mendoza Trail Museum in McCamey. She maintained
membership in Delta Kappa Gamma for many years and
sponsored the "Texas Shelf" in the McCamey High School
Library.
She served in the Upton County
Historical Society board and as its chairman continuously since
she created it in 1943 until 1968. During her tenure on the
state historical committee, Miss Eagleton was allotted 20
historical markers. She was honored by the Civitans twice, as an
award winner in 1957 and for distinguished service in 1964. In
May 1973 she was elected as one of the first fellows of the
Permian Historical Society for her contribution to the
preservation of area history. Her portrait was placed in the
society's "Hall of Honor" at the University of Texas
of the Permian Basin Library and Archives building. In 1971
"Miss N Ethie Eagleton Week" was proclaimed in McCamey
to pay tribute and honor to her on the occasion of the
publication of her book. Full of vision and foresight Miss
Eagleton began to dabble in real estate in the middle forties
when she invested in a sizeable plot of ground. The property was
divided into lots and later sold and is now one of the most
attractive subdivisions in the city. Miss Eagleton has also
worked with both colored and white girl scouts. She assisted Boy
Scouts and took exciting trips with them. She was the instigator
of Castle Gap Park, located between McCamey and Crane. After
retiring from teaching she remained active in many of the
projects and organizations already mentioned. She was always
willing to and anxious to help in any project that was for the
betterment of the town and worked tirelessly at any project she
undertook.
Survivors include three sisters, Mrs.
Charles C Green of Houston, Mrs. E C Reid of Commerce, and Miss
Mary R Eagleton of Longview. a brother, F W Eagleton of
Longview, and a nephew and a niece.
|
| UPTON, JOHN CUNNINGHAM
(1828-1862). John Cunningham Upton, settler and soldier, was
born on a farm near Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee, on
January 22, 1828. He went to California in 1850 and in 1859
moved to Fayette County, Texas, where he took charge of his
mother's plantation. In 1861 he raised a company that was
attached to Hood's Texas Brigade. Upton rose to the rank of
lieutenant colonel; he was killed in the second battle of
Manassas on August 30, 1862. A West Texas county, established in
1887, was named in honor of Upton and his brother, William
Felton Upton. |
| UPTON, WILLIAM FELTON
(1832-1887). William Felton Upton, early Schulenburg settler and
legislator, was born on August 31, 1832, near Winchester,
Franklin County, Tennessee. In 1853 he moved to Texas with his
mother and became a farmer and store owner in the Blum Hill
community, west of Foerster's Creek in southern Fayette County.
In 1859 he was joined by his older brother, John Cunningham
Upton, who took charge of the farming operations while William
concentrated on the mercantile business in the community, which
by 1858 was called High Hill. During the Civil War both brothers
rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and served with
distinction. John was killed during the second battle of
Manassas, and William served with Texas state troops along the
Texas coast and frontier. On October 20, 1873, the new town of
Schulenburg was platted on the route of the Galveston,
Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway four miles southeast of High
Hill. Upton Avenue in the new town was named jointly for the two
brothers. In 1875 Upton moved his business to the growing city,
where he was elected alderman and his father-in-law, Alfred
Henderson, was the newly elected mayor. Upton served Fayette
County in the Texas legislature in 1866 and again from 1879 to
1885. He died in Schulenburg on February 7, 1887, and is buried
beside his wife, Mary Ann (Henderson), who died in 1911, and her
parents in the Wolters Cemetery. Upton County, established in
1887 and organized in 1910, was named jointly for the two
brothers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jane Knapik, Schulenberg:
100 Years on the Road, 1873-1973 (Yoakum, Texas: Nortex, 1973).
Handbook of Texas |
| HALFF, HENRY MAYER
(1874-1934). In Rankin, Texas there is a street named Halff. It
is named after Henry Mayer Halff, rancher and farmer, the son of
Rachel (Hart) and Mayer Halff. He was born in San Antonio,
Texas, on August 17, 1874. He attended Staunton Military
Academy, Virginia, and Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie,
New York. He married Rosa Wechsler on January 1, 1905, and they
became the parents of two sons and two daughters. Soon after
their marriage they moved to Midland, where Halff engaged in the
operation of ninety sections of rough semiarid land on which he
ran cattle bearing the brands Circle Dot, Quien Sabe, and JM.
The range lay east of the Pecos River in Crane, Crockett,
Midland, and Upton counties. Halff moved the headquarters for
his cattle business to the old George W. Elliott rock house in
Upton County. He advocated improvement in cattle breeding, and
on the Quien Sabe Ranch alone he had 3,000 top Herefords. Bulls
from this herd were widely sought and sold throughout the
Southwest.
Halff also imported Belgian stallions to
improve his draft horses and bought thoroughbred stallions from
racing stables to breed with local mares, producing wiry horses
used as polo ponies. His polo teams competed at Fort Bliss,
Texas, at Aiken, South Carolina, at Newport, Rhode Island, and
at Dedham, Massachusetts, where he won an international
championship. The ponies were trained on the H. M. Halff Polo
Farm in Midland and shipped from there to other parts of the
United States, Canada, and England.
A pioneer in irrigation on the plains,
Halff drilled his first irrigation well on his Cloverdale Farm,
five miles southeast of Midland. The wells drilled there became
a source of Midland's water supply and yielded sufficient water
to enable him to produce an excellent quality of grapes, melons,
grain, and cotton. As early as 1908 water was hauled by ox team
from his farm to use in drilling wells at East Upland, a part of
his ranch in Upton County. Because of poor health, Halff moved
to Mineral Wells in 1923. He died in Richardson on March 20,
1934, and was buried in Emanuell Cemetery in Dallas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grace Miller White,
"The Activities of M. Halff & Brother," Frontier
Times, January 1942.
N. Ethie Eagleton
Handbook of Texas
|
HOME
All data on this website is © Copyright 2008 by Genealogy Trails with
full rights reserved for original submitters.
|