Benjamin Hogan Baggett

The funeral for Mr. Benjamin Hogan Baggett was held here Tuesday afternoon and remains tenderly laid to rest in Palacios Cemetery. Services were conducted by Dr. T. F. Driskill and two beautiful songs by Mrs. R. J. Sisson and Mrs. E. E. Burton.

Mr. Baggett was born in Wilcox County, Alabama, June 22^nd, 1847, and died in Matagorda County, Texas, March 11^th, 1929.

He moved from East Texas a few months ago and located near Palacios and was planning for a large crop this year. Mr. Baggett was a trustworthy citizen, a good neighbor and a kind friend. Sincere sympathy is extended to the sorrowing ones who are left to mourn for him.

Palacios Beacon, March 14, 1929
 

Taps Sounds for Old Confederate In Austin Hospital

Edgar Silas Billings was born at Mt. Jackson, Shenandoah County, Virginia, September 3, 1846. Died in the Confederate Hospital at Austin, Texas, at 9 p. m. November 21, 1926.

He was converted and joined the church in his boyhood days.

At the age of 15 years, he entered the Civil War on the side of the South, serving as a member of the 11th Regiment, Rosser's Brigade, Stewart's Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia.

He came to Texas about 1870 where he was active in organizing schools, Sunday Schools and other pioneer works. He was a charter member of the Methodist Church at Mary's Creek, near Ft. Worth.

On December 23, 1874, he was married to Sarah Harding Brown, near Ft. Worth, Texas.

This union 13 children were born--5 boys and 8 girls, 5 of whom died in infancy.

Those surviving are: Mrs. E. S. Billings and his 8 children, Mrs. S. J. Hailey, of Lindale, Texas; O. F. Billings, of Whittenburg, Texas; Mrs. Jack Phillips and Mrs. W. O. Goodnight of Quanah, Texas; Mrs. J. Rex Golston, of Weatherford, Texas; Mrs. C. L. Haynes of Palacios, Texas; Louise Billings of Houston, Texas; Mrs. L. G. Kimbrough, of Birmingham, Alabama; and his brother M. C. Billings, of Palacios.

He came to Palacios in 1915 where he has made his home until he was carried to the Hospital a short time ago.

His funeral from the First Methodist Church, which he had loved and served, was ably conducted by Rev. Coleman, assisted by Dr. Driskill.

The Palacios Beacon, Thursday, November 25, 1926, page 1

In Memory of A. P. Clark

Mr. A. P. Clark, formerly of Palacios, died at 2:20 p. m. Wednesday, Dec. 26, 1928, at the home of his son, Joe W. Clark, in Melrose, New Mexico at the age of 88 years, 11 months and 8 days. He was born in Georgia but when a small child his parents moved to Jacksonville, Calhoun County, Alabama, where he grew to young manhood. He was educated in the schools of the county.

When the war waged between the States he cast his fortune with his beloved Southland, and at the age of 19, he was mustered into the State service in Feb. 1861. He went with the State troops to Mobile, and took possession of Ft. Morgan on Mobile Bay, remaining there until the Confederate Government was organized. The State troops were then discharged, and he returned home where he found the country actively preparing for war. Ft. Sumpter [Sumter] had been captured and the war dogs turned loose. He at once enlisted in Company D, 10^th Ala. Regt. C. S. A., under Capt. F. Woodruff and Col. John H. Farney. The regiment was at once ordered to Richmond, and from that time on private Clark was in every engagement of the army of northern Virginia up to the battle of Gettysburg.

Private Clark was in Gen. R. H. Anderson’s Division, Gen. C. M. Wilcox’s Brigade, whose position was on the right of Pickett’s Division in the attack of Cemetery Ridge, July 3, ’65 [63]. In this bloody charge up “Little Round Top” private Clark was captured—he being among the boys who did not know the extent of the repulse, remained too long after the retreat of the Confederates, and could not escape as the enemy’s line had been formed in the rear.

He, with other prisoners, was taken to Baltimore, thence to the northern prison at Ft. Delaware, N. J. Here he and his friend, C. C. Cook, of the 51^st Ala. planned to escape. The prisoners were granted the privilege of bathing in the Bay within marked limits. If any prisoner passed these limits he was at once fired upon by the guards, and many who made the venture were killed and left for the fish.

After about three weeks of earnest daily practice at swimming they made the attempt on the night of August 12, ’63. They passed through a closet which extended over the water with a sentinel at each end. But they were not seen and entered the water and swam away with the lights of Delaware City as their objective point. But the tide was against them and drifted them out into the channel.

After hours of hard swimming the direction of the tide was drifting them, they saw a light on the shore, and they swam for the newly discovered light. In a short time they reached the shore. The place proved to be New Castle, Del.

The fast approaching dawn warned them that something must be done, and that quickly. Bare-footed and bare-headed and insufficiently clad, they agreed to enter the first house and steal some clothing. They had walked only a short distance when they came to a good looking house with the doors standing wide open. Cook passed and waited a short distance from the house, with the understanding if Clark was captured he would make his escape. Clark ventured into the yard. With light steps his bare feet approached the gallery. He stopped to listen. All was quiet. He cautiously assends [ascends] the steps and stops again. He goes to the door and listens. All is quiet except for the heavy breathing of sleepers. He enters the room and feels cautiously around for men’s wearing apparel and finds a pair of pants and a coat hanging on the wall. With these trophies he quietly leaves the sleepers to enjoy their morning nap. After joining his companion one put on the coat the other the pants; then one was dressed in a coat and a pair of drawers, the other in a shirt and a pair of pants. By this time the light of the new day was spreading over the earth and they hurried out of the city into the woods.

Although they were far from home, in an enemy’s country, tired and hungry, yet these unpleasant feelings were subdued by the prospects of a speedy return to Dixie.

They traveled by the stars at night for the south and hid in secluded places in the day. They raided orchards and spring houses for sustenance, and when almost back to friends and Dixie they were re-captured and sent back to the prison at Ft. Delaware and locked in a dungeon as punishment for leaving the Fort without permission. Cook died in prison; but after a few months private Clark was transferred to Point Lookout Maryland, where he remained until the next winter, when he was exchanged at Savannah, Ga. and furloughed for twenty days. Over half of his time having expired before he could reach home. At its expiration he reported to Brig. Gen. Ben Hill and was assigned to the quartermaster’s department. He laid down his arms when Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and he returned to his home in Ala. to find the country completely devastated and under military rule.

His home a wreck, and one brother dead. But he was not a man to give up. He knew he must live on, hope on and help rebuild the country he loved so well. This was no time for lagging.

He took the oath of allegiance to the U. S. Government and began to do his part to rebuild his home, his country and his state. Just after the stormy days of this cruel war, he was married Aug. 16, 1865, to Miss Katherine Helen Alexander, the girl he had always loved. To this union eight children were born. Three of whom are dead.

Mr. Clark came to Texas in 1873, and settled in Jacksonville, where he went into the grocery business with J. L. Wright. The two men remained partners over 30 years, in different businesses in other parts of the state. Mr. Clark left Jacksonville and spent several years in railroad construction in the central part of the state.

In 1883 he and his youngest brother, and his old partner J. L. Wright, bought land in Williamson County, and engaged in farming and ranching, stocking their ranch with red poll cattle. He moved his family to the new town of Bartlett, that was laid out on the M. K. & T. R. R., 2 ½ miles from his farm and ranch.

As the town grew a bank was organized and later nationalized. Mr. Bartlett being elected President, and Mr. Clark Vice-President. He continued in the banking business for a number of years at Bartlett and later at Quanah and McLeon, Tex. When the gold craze of Alaska was exciting the people of the U. S. in 1898, Mr. Clark and his oldest son, R. E. Clark, decided to prospect in the Klondike Vale. They spent a year in that desolate, frozen, country with many weird and thrilling experiences. They scaled the summit of Chillcoot [Chilkoot] Pass, but escaped the many snow slides of immense magnitude. They helped dig out the dead in one of these snow slides—about forty people. It took several months to get a letter to them and Mr. Clark walked forty miles to mail a letter to his wife.

Mr. Clark has traveled through nearly every state in the Union but always lived in the South. He took an active part in politics and numbered his personal friends among such men as Rodger Q. Mills, Charles A. Culberson, James S. Hogg and Tom Campbell.

He was a man of highest integrity, a good neighbor and a friend on whom one could depend. His motto to his children was “always make your word as good as a bond.”

He joined the Christian Church in middle life and became a devout and earnest Bible student. He read and studied continuously. It has been said of him that he possessed the best biblical library in the county. He was the proud possessor of a Wycliff translation of the Bible which was over a hundred years old.

Two years ago he became convinced that the Advent Church was teaching the right doctrine and he united with the Seventh Day Advent Church and was baptized by Brother Stewart.

He came to South Texas in 1900 and had lived at Palacios and Bay City until two years ago he bought land in New Mexico, where he moved and lived one year, coming back to Palacios in the winter. Last July he went to Melrose, New Mexico, to visit his son, where he was stricken a few weeks ago, and died of influenza. His remains were brought back to Palacios on Dec. 29, 1928, and laid to rest beside his wife, who had preceded him to the great beyond in 1925.

He is survived by three sons, two daughters and five grand-children. His children are R. E. Clark, of Rochelle, Tex.; Joe W. Clark, of Melrose, New Mexico; R. N. Clark, and Mrs. W. P. Stokes, of Dallas, Tex.; and Mrs. H. B. Douglas, of Palacios.

Palacios Beacon, January 10, 1929
 

Robert Clement Family

By Audrey Powell

Robert Fredrick Clement, Jr., was born on June 24, 1838, at Perry’s Landing at the mouth of the Brazos River, Republic of Texas. His father, Robert Fredrick Clement, Sr., born in Bath, England, in 1816, came to Texas about 1836. He liked what he saw and returned to England to get a wife, household goods, merchandise, cattle and sheep. He married Mary Christiana Wallace, born in 1829, in Glasgow, Scotland, and settled at Perry’s Landing where he opened a store. Robert, Jr., grew up in this area. Details of his education were unknown, but evidence shows that it was thorough. On December 11, 1859, at Velasco, Texas, he married Mary Minerva Wilcox, who was born in December, 1838, in Albany, New York, and brought to Texas as a young child. Robert, Jr., and Mary had seven children that lived to maturity, and lost three in infancy.

He served in the Confederate Army from 1861-1864, in Co. B, Regiment 13, at Camp Velasco. His regiment manned the heavy artillery at the mouth of the Brazos River where they were frequently bombarded by the enemy.

In 1871 he moved his family to Keller’s Bay in Jackson County. He ran a ferry to Indianola, freighted cargo up and down the Lavaca River, and always had a herd of cows and sheep to tend. In 1880 he bought a large tract of land north of Lolita for his father and managed it for him. In 1906 or early 1907, he moved from Port Lavaca to the new town of Palacios, bringing his wife and three daughters, Edith, Mattie, and Rowena. He purchased several lots in town and some acreage in the vicinity.

For a time he had a meat market at the corner of First and Main. Deliveries were made to householders early each morning from a two-wheeled, horse-drawn cart. He opened a hardware store in 1907 in partnership with his son, William, and called it “R. F. Clement & Son.” The business was located near the corner of Commerce and Sixth Streets, near the 1984 location of the Post Office. That business was in operation until 1912 or 1913. After that he confined his interests to managing his ranch interests in Jackson County, and looking out over the bay through his “spy glasses” from the front porch of his home on East Bay.

He was instrumental in organizing the First Presbyterian Church in 1907, and he and his family were charter members. Mattie and Edith taught the beginners class in Sunday School for several years and taught at the Mexican Mission for a few more. Rowena taught at Tex-Mex School for Boys in Kingsville in its early days. Their newsletter, the “Tex-Mex Reflector,” was an outgrowth of her English class. She also taught Spanish at Palacios High School in 1922.

Mr. Clement was always ready to try something new, so when automobiles came out, he bought one. However the dealer, Mr. John T. Price, told him he had better not drive it because Mr. Clements kept taking his hands off the steering wheel to gesticulate while talking—he was probably thinking the car had “horse sense!” So Miss Mattie became his chauffeur.

Mary Minerva Clement died in 1916 and Robert F. Clement died in 1922. Both were buried in the Palacios Cemetery as were four of his daughters and his son, William. After their father’s death, the three sisters moved to their portion of the Jackson County ranch and engaged in raising cattle until their deaths.

Historic Matagorda County, Volume II, pages 91-92
 

Nathaniel Estes

Mr. N. Estes, who lived north-west of town was called to his reward early Monday morning, after several weeks of intense suffering. Mr. Estes was sixty-nine years of age and had suffered with stomach trouble for years. But through all his suffering he has been a firm believer in his God, and especially for the past several weeks has had a very vital experience. Mr. Estes was married to Miss Lydia Cantrell more than forty-eight years ago. To this union nine children were born, six of whom are living—three, and the loving wife being with him when the end came, to whom the sympathy of the entire community is extended.

Funeral services were held at the house, conducted by Rev. Myers of the M. E. church, and interment made at the Palacios Cemetery late Monday afternoon.

The Palacios Beacon, September 15, 1916, page 2

Photos courtesy of Kenneth L. Thames

Death of J. S. Magee

Dr. J. S. Magee died at the family home on south bay shore, Tuesday, the 26^th inst., at the age of 68 years, after a protracted illness.

Funeral services were held at the Methodist church Wednesday at four o’clock p. m., conducted by Rev. Carter, pastor of the Bay City Methodist church, in the absence of the resident pastor, who was attending the annual conference at San Angelo, followed by interment at the city cemetery.

The deceased had been a constant member of the Methodist church for the past forty years. The obsequies were largely attended by friends and neighbors of the family.

Deceased leaves a sorrowing wife to mourn his loss. He was the oldest of a family of fourteen children, of whom seven brothers and one sister survive him.

Mr. and Mrs. Magee have been residents of Palacios for about three years, and of Texas since 1872, removing to this state from Alabama. Since locating here Dr. and Mrs. Magee made many good friends whose sympathy goes out to the widow in her great bereavement.

The Palacios Beacon, October 19, 1915, page 2
 

Beloved Palacios Citizen Called Home – Cynthia Ann Parks

Mrs. John S. Parks, whose serious illness was mentioned in our last issue, passed on to her eternal home Monday night. Funeral services were conducted at the M. E. Church Tuesday afternoon in the presence of many sympathizing friends. After a beautiful song service and words of comfort and consolation were said by the pastor, A. G. Coleman, the remains were conveyed to the cemetery and laid to rest. The floral offerings were numerous and beautiful, attesting the love and esteem of all who knew her.

Mrs. Cynthia Ann Parks (nee Spillers) was born in Huntsville, Texas, Dec. 27, 1846, and died in Palacios, Texas, March 14, 1927, aged 80 years, 2 months, 17 days.

Fifty-eight years ago the 17^th of last February she was married to John S. Parks. To this union were born four children, three of whom survive, the eldest dying in infancy.

Mrs. Parks was converted to the M. E. Church, South, in 1869, and was ever a consistent member. She was a devoted wife and mother. She was a devoted wife and mother, kind and loving friend and neighbor. The bereaved husband, son, Clyde Parks, and daughters, Mrs. T. W. Jones and Mrs. W. A. Wells, have the heartfelt sympathy of all.—Palacios Beacon.

The subject of the foregoing sketch was the mother of Mr. Clyde Parks, former of Bay City, but now of Houston.

Matagorda County Tribune, March 19, 1927