EARLY HAMILTONIANS WERE MEN OF NOTE
Among early residents of Hamilton who attained some
degree of fame were the following:
Judge C. K. Bell, attorney
general after the turn of the century [1900]. When a boy in Hamilton he
helped dig the old mill race at Gentry’s Mill. He first went to Congress
from Hamilton, after serving as district judge here. He ran for governor
about 1906, and opened his campaign in Hamilton, riding around the square
in the parade at the May picnic with Miss Eleanor Spurlin.
Judge James A. Eidson became a
distinguished jurist on the court Of civil appeals at Austin.
Colonel G. R. Freeman was one
of the commissioners sent by the governor of Texas in the ‘90's to
settle the Greer County controversy with Oklahoma which Texas lost. Old
Colonel Saxon said that the Colonel tried to claim all of Oklahoma and
lost.
Miss
[sic. Mrs.] Helen Stoddard
[Helen M. (Gerrells) Stoddard] was one of
the founders of W. C. T. U. [Women’s Christian
Temperance Union] and C. I. A. [College of
Industrial Arts] College [Texas Woman’s
University] of Denton, lived in this county. Her old rock home
still stands near Indian Gap.
Simpson Lloyd, old
"Squire" Lloyd, was one of the most noted Indian fighters of
this section, and served as justice of the peace some 25 years. He lived
down Pecan Creek from Hamilton.
S. M. N. Marrs, late state
superintendent, once was head of the Hamilton schools, and was holding
that position at the time the independent school district was created.
"Texas Bob" Snell’s
pioneer rodeo show had its origin at Hamilton, or at lest he was a native.
Tony McGuire, whose father ran
Tony’s Saloon, went to school here. HE became a movie actor and a
principal in Abie’s Irish Rose.
Silliman Evans, formerly
assistant postmaster general went to school here. He was the son of a
Methodist minister.
PAGE THIRTEEN
PIONEER EDITION
HAMILTON COUNTY NEWS, Vol. VIII, No. 7
THE CARLTON CITIZEN, Vol. 30, No. 23
Friday, June 24, 1938
W. F. Billingslea, Publisher, Hamilton
County, TX