Freestone County, Texas
Biographies 



Biography of James David Carroll 
 (Dec 1852-Apr. 11, 1925, buried at Quanah Memorial Park in Quanah, Hardeman 
         Co., TX.)

A History of Texas and Texans, VOLUME 4
By Frank White Johnson, Eugene Campbell Barker, Ernest William Winkler
Published by American Historical Society, 1914


Page 1613

   J. D. CARROLL. One of the pioneer citizens and business men of Quanah is J. D. 
Carroll. Mr. Carroll was at one time a young man dependent upon the labor of his hands 
and his native intelligence to give him his living and his start in the world. Many months 
of his earlier career were spent in work at fifty cents a day. He had a long training both in 
farm work and in clerking in a store. Through this varied experience he has come up until 
for a number of years he has been recognized as one of the most influential and most 
prosperous business men of Quanah.
   J. D. Carroll was born in the State of Georgia, in Henry county, in December, 1852, the 
first of two children born to Elbert and Elizabeth (Harrison) Carroll, both natives of 
Georgia. The father, who was a planter, enlisted and served in the Mexican war of 1846, 
and thus was one of the early residents of Texas, having remained a short time in the 
State about the time of the war. He returned to Georgia, where he died at a comparatively 
early age in 1856. The mother was educated and married in Georgia, and died in 
Corsicana, Texas, May 5, 1910, at the age of seventy-seven.
   As a boy J. D. Carroll attended schools in Georgia, and his first regular employment 
was on a farm. He worked in a store in Mississippi for eighteen months, and then came to 
Texas, and after spending a while in different portions of the State, located in Freestone 
county in 1872. Freestone county at that time was sparsely settled, and he arrived in time 
to take part in its pioneer period. He worked on a farm for one year, and then was 
employed in a store. In 1889 Mr. Carroll moved out to Quanah, about three years after 
the railroad was built through the town, and was thus one of the first business men to 
locate in the little village. He established the first stock of hardware in Quanah, and from 
that original enterprise has developed a large and very important business, with a trade 
throughout this section of Texas. In 1893 the business was incorporated under the name 
of Stittler & Carroll Implement Company. The firm owns the buildings in which the 
business is conducted and eight clerks are employed in attending to the trade. Mr. Carroll 
is also a director in hardware companies in Hardeman and Foard counties, and one of the 
directors in the Texas Hardware and Implement Association. As a citizen Mr. Carroll has 
served as a member of the city council of Quanah and is a loyal Democrat. He is a 
member of the Masonic order. On December 24, 1878, in Navarro county, he married 
Miss Bettie Burleson, a daughter of Edward and Julia Burelson, old residents of Texas, 
and now deceased. The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Carroll are: Mrs. Belle O'Dell, born 
in Freestone county, now a resident of New Mexico, and the mother of two children; 
Homer Carroll, born in Corsicana, Texas, and secretary of the Carroll Company; Jennie 
B. Carroll, born at Quanah; J. D. Carroll, Jr., born at Quanah; Dorris Carroll, born at 
Quanah.