Hopkins Co. TX - James M. Tapp

Submitted by: June E. Tuck  <1224be@neto.com>

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From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or
dispute any historical facts in the article.

Past History and Present Stage of Development of Texas

Published by The Forrister History Company

Regan Printing House, Chicago, Ill.

I. G. Forrister, Publisher

(No date given. 1912??)

 

JAMES M. TAPP was born in Florence, Lauderdale County, Alabama, in the
year 1833. It was in 1857, at the age of twenty-four, that he came to
Texas and settled at Cedar Grove, in Kaufman County, where he acquired
considerable business interests and later some commercial reverses as a
merchant, cotton dealer and land owner. Here he was married to Miss Ida
Hill, of Panola County, Texas, in 1873; four sons and two daughters being
born to them, and all of whom are living except the eldest daughter,
Lizzie, who died at the age of seventeen in 1891. In rank of age the
children are as follows: Henry W., furniture dealer in Sulphur Springs;
Cowan J., station agent for the "Katy" at Taylor, Texas; James M.,
druggist in Sulphur Springs; Mrs. Fannie Mae Pangborn, Ft. Worth; Samuel
H., bookkeeper for the Armour Packing Company, Ft. Worth. In 1877 the
family moved to Sulphur Springs, where Mr. Tapp engaged in the dry goods
business until his death which occurred in1892. Mr. Tapp was a devout
Methodist, a ranking Mason, and an ardent Prohibitionist when it was
unpopular and expensive to be so. His death suddenly shifted a heavy
responsibility on the mother, the family competence having dwindled to
small proportions and oldest, Henry W., of six children, being but
seventeen years of age. Mrs. Tapp^Òs parents were land owners and
extensive slave holders up to the closing of the Civil war, and the fact
that she has by her wonderful industry and foresight reared, educated and
developed her children to uniformly successful pursuits in life is to
immense credit and cause for congratulation on her part. It was under her
personal management that in 1909 she purchased a farm six miles from
Sulphur Springs and moved to the same for the purpose of restoring health
to two of her sons. It was their first experience at farming, but their
products, exhibited took first prize at the Hopkins County Fair, and
second prize at the State Fair in Dallas in 1909. The year following they
took first prize at the State Fair in Dallas, as the best individual
exhibit from over the state, having a variety of 123 products. It is to
the credit and honor of the Tapp family that the price of land in Hopkins
county has been raised to a higher level - one evidence of which is found
in the fact that their own farm has since been sold for $30. per acre.

Mr. Henry Tapp, eldest son, was married to Miss Zerva Pate, daughter of
Mr. O. M. Pate, a wealthy hardware merchant in Sulphur Springs, and they
have two sons and one daughter. Mr. Tapp^Òs furniture and undertaking
business is one of the largest in this city, and commercial and social
standing is of the highest order. He belongs to the K. of P., W. O. W.,
Odd Fellows, and is Steward in the M. E. church, in which denomination
the mother has reared her children.

Mr. James Tapp, whose name heads this article, is an enterprising young
business man of Sulphur Springs, who has made his own way in the world
since he was a small boy of fourteen. He finished his education at
Eastman College, clerked in this father^Òs store, followed the railway
mail service for a few months, was with the Pullman service for two and
Sulphur Springs. He belongs to the Elks and U. B. A.