Freestone County, Texas
Biographies 



Biography of Joe Abbott
   (Jan. 15, 1840-Feb. 11, 1908, buried Hillsboro City Cemetery in Hillsboro, TX.)
          
Source - Proceedings of the ... annual sessions of the Texas Bar Association
 By Texas Bar Association. 1908.
 
JOE ABBOTT.

Loved and honored by his countrymen. Judge Joe Abbott departed this life on 
February 11, 1908. He was born near Decatur, Alabama, January 15, 1840, and 
was, therefore, 68 years and 26 days of age at the time of his death. He was a
son of William and Mary (McMillian) Abbott, who were natives of Virginia, 
having been born near Petersburg, the father in 1783 and the mother in 1794; 
they were married in 1810, removed to Alabama in 1836 and resided there until 
1853, thence coming to Texas. They settled in Freestone county, where they
remained until the mother's death in 1864; in that year the father went to 
live with a married daughter in Limestone county, and made his home there until
his death, which occurred in 1871. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 
stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. William and Mary (McMillian) Abbott had born 
to them a family of twelve children, two of whom died in infancy, and one at 
the age of twelve years, the others growing to maturity.

Joe Abbott was reared in Freestone county, Texas, and was educated under the 
direction of the eminent scholar, Dr. Frank Yoakum, father of B. F. Yoakum, 
the great railroad magnate of the Frisco-Rock Island system, who then resided 
in Limestone county, and Professor George F. Allison, who taught a classical 
school in Freestone county. He began reading law in 1859 and pursued this 
study until the beginning of the Civil War, at which time he joined the 
Confederate army, enlisting in Company B, Twelfth Texas Cavalry, Parson's 
Brigade; he was commissioned first lieutenant of his company upon its 
organization and served in the Trans-Mississippi Department at Searcy and 
Cotton Plant, Arkansas, and Negro Hill and Yellow Bayou, Louisiana. He was 
wounded at the last mentioned place and disabled for several months, but 
rejoined his command and was with it until the close of the war.

He returned home after the surrender and resumed his legal studies, which had
been for so long abandoned. He entered the" office of Major L. J. Farrar, at 
Springfield, Limestone county, and received instructions from him, and the 
Hon. D. M. Prendergast. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar by Judge Robt. S.
Gould of the Thirteenth Judicial District, who was afterward Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court. He began the practice of law with his old preceptor, Major
Farrar, remaining in Limestone county one year. At that time the courts of
that county were disorganized under reconstruction measures, so he left, going 
to the western counties in search of other employment. He came to Hill county
in 1867 and taught school there for five months, having made a tour of four or
five other counties. The courts of Hill county were disorganized only a short 
time and he was enabled to resume the practice of his profession there in 1868.
He devoted himself to the practice of law in Hillsboro for many years, and 
from the first enjoyed a lucrative practice.

In 1869 he was elected to the Legislature and served during the immortal 
Twelfth during the period of 1870-71 when the Legislature was dominated by 
carpetbaggers and negroes, he being one of the Democratic minority in that 
body. He also served for a number of years as chairman of the County 
Democratic Executive Committee. In February, 1879, he was appointed by Gov. O.
M. Roberts judge of the Twenty-eighth Judicial District, composed of the 
counties of Hill, Johnson and Bosque. He held this office for a term of four 
years. In 1886 he received a unanimous endorsement of the Hill county bar and 
of the bars of a number of other counties in Central and North Texas for a 
position on the Supreme bench, and came near receiving the nomination in the
State Democratic Convention at Galveston as against Judge R. R. Gaines, the 
present Chief Justice of that court. One month later, in September, he received
the nomination for Congress in the convention held at Waxahachie, was elected 
in November and was continuously renominated and re-elected for five terms, 
retiring from Congress in March, 1897.

Since then, up to the time of his death, he lived quietly at home engaging in 
no business, except as pertained to his personal affairs.

On Decemter 15, 1868, Judge Abbott was united in marriage to Miss Rowena 
Sturgis, daughter cf James W. L. and Martha Sturgis, and of the children born 
to them six are living.

To the splendid character of Judge Abbott justice can not be done in the 
ordinary obituary notice. His life was a splendid example of honesty and 
integrity in the ordinary business transactions of life. His was generous
charity in the brotherhood of humanity, and kindness and loyalty in the 
relation of friendship.