Texarkana, Then and Now (Who and When), Bowie County, Texas *********************************************************** Submitted by: V Richardson Date: Apr 2000 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/bowie/bowitoc.htm *********************************************************** Watlington Manuscript Forty Six years ago, -- in June, 1874, Texarkana, Texas, was incorporated as a town under the General laws of the state. And as provided by stature, became a city in January 1877. The first Mayor of Texarkana was Captain O. T. Lyon, who some year of more previous, came to Bowie County with many teams and road-hands, mostly Negroes, and under contract, re-graded the old T. C. Railroad bed from Nash to Clarksville, via New Boston. He was the father of Cecil and Dupont, the former especially, being prominent for many years in Republican politics, and at the time of his death a few years ago, was Chairman of the Republic State Executive Committee. Pete Ramseur, J.C. Whitener, and Dora Motz, and some other white men came to Texas with Captain Lyon, and continued in his employ until the railroad work was completed. After his term of office expired, Captain Lyon removed to Sherman, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail lumber business. The first merchants of the new town of Texarkana, all still pleasantly remembered by the writer, -- were Dr. I. W. Taylor of Jefferson, Texas; M.V. Flippin, formerly of Rondo, Ark., Hales and Coffin, Frank Story, who subsequently removed to Morris County, Joe Kosminski, and J. D. Latimore. There were perhaps a few others at this time, engaged in smaller trades, but memory does not now recall them. Ghio's place of business, well and popularly known in 1874, was on the corner now occupied by Higgenbotham Bros., then an unpretentious wooden building, where he handled family groceries in one part of the house, and had a bar in the other. Col. R. W. Rodgers, father of our Rollin, Jr., succeeded Mayor O. T. Lyon, being elected to that office in 1878. Mayor Rodgers was a native of Tennessee, born in Maury County, on January 19, 1820. He went to Missouri with his parents in 1837, and settled in the southwestern part of the state. At the outbreak of the war, he was engaged in the lumber trade, having two large sawmills on the Gasconade River. In June, 1861, he was commissioned Leut. Colonel of the Missouri State Guard by Governor Jackson, and when the State Guard was merged with the Confederate Army, he was appointed Colonel of an Infantry Regiment. He was engaged in the battle of Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, MO., in August, 1861, and also Pea Ridge and Bymeter Bridge, Arkansas, in 1862. These troops were afterwards mobilized at Memphis, Tennessee, under command of General Earl Van Dorn. After the Fall of Vicksburg, the Trans-Mississippi Department was without salt, or means to get it, and Col. Rodgers was detailed and ordered to Jordan's Saline Van Zandt County, Texas, and reopened those salt works for the Confederacy. He successfully operated these works until the close of the war. In 1866, Col. Rodgers removed to Jefferson, Texas, and resumed the sawmill business, When Texarkana was founded in 1873, he removed here from Jefferson, and was engaged in the lumber trade until his death on April 14, 1884, at the age of 64. He was the second mayor of Texarkana, Texas, 1875-76, and on September 28, 1878, was appointed County Commissioner for Precinct No. One, Bowie County, by County Judge James Hubbard. The administrative policies of Mayor Rodgers were popular and highly approved, and hid regime distinctly marked the beginning of the wonderful and rapid growth of the town, and by his liberal, far-seeing, broadminded views, with his fine executive abilities, an impetus was manifested and a sure foundation laid for the magnificent "Gate City" of today. I point of its many splendid buildings, both business and residential, its numerous church edifices, its various and costly manufacturing enterprises, its number of Railways, and withal, its resplendent citizenship; Places the Gate City on a very high plane, rivaling any city of equal size in Texas. The legal profession, too, is ably represented, the Texarkana bar beyond any doubt, ranking the highest legal talent in the state. Of those pioneer lawyers, Col. Frank Henry, long since dead, Charles Todd, yet living, and in active practice, and others of the olden time, nearly all of who have passed away. Much could be written. Charlie Todd and Col. Henry were both able lawyers -perhaps the ablest Civil Court Attorneys in this Part of the state, and were, naturally, often pitted against each other in the trial of very intricate and long drawn out suits. Many, many times and from Court to court, while Deputy District Court Clerk, the writer, was compelled perforce, to sit and listen, without in the least knowing or caring what the learned gentlemen were trying to prove. All he knew, was a law suit pending, wherein the Summerhill Estate was involved, but whatever became of it, intricate, the good God, Charlie Todd, and Col. Henry only know. Of the few others then practicing law, and now grown old and prominent in the profession, and some alas! Dead and gone, and many younger, through likewise eminent and able attorneys, the following are worthy of note: John J. King, J. Q. Mahaffey, W. L. Estes, (now a federal judge) Hiram Glass, (now deceased), P. A. Turner, (present Judge Bowie County Criminal District Court), C. A. Wheeler (now District Attorney), R. R. Dorough, Sid Crumpton, Thos. N. Graham, B. D. Hart. J. W. Wheeler, Frank M. Brooks, and W. T. Hudgins, deceased. W. B. (Bill) Russell was Texarkana's third Mayor, but soon after his election he was burned to death with more than twenty others during a severe storm in Texarkana.