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J.W.
Westbrook Bastrop Advertiser January 16, 1925: J.W.
Westbrook, Pioneer, and Prominent McDade Citizen Passes Away. Your
McDade correspondent of The Courier, Bro. Sam Billingsley, is in bed with the flu.
He asked me to write the obituary of our dear deceased elder, Joe
W. Westbrook, who departed this life January 11, and was laid away in the
McDade Cemetery the same day.
Mr. Westbrook was 83 years old last July.
He was born in Alabama, moved to Mississippi, where he entered the
Confederate Army. He was
wounded in the neck, and again at the Battle of Franklin, and there taken
prisoner and remained in prison until the close of the war.
His funeral was largely attended by friends from Austin, Elgin,
Bastrop and the surrounding country.
He leaves a wife and eight children and sixteen grandchildren.
The surviving children are B. Lee Westbrook, of Cherokee; Mrs. C.O.
Rice, Temple; G.C. Westbrook, McDade; Mrs. F. W. Weatherford, Austin; T.W.
Westbrook, Houston; C. Westbrook, New Braunfels; Mrs. M.B. Dixon, Lawton,
Okla.; Mrs. W.H. Joiner, McDade.
The funeral services were held in the Christian Church at McDade,
conducted by Bro. Luther Norman, who was formerly a teacher in the Elgin
High School. The active pallbearers were Ben F. Holland, C.A. Sanders, W.
T Stagner, J.C. Sanders, L.D. Hillman and A.D. Bailey. Honorary: Dr. T.B. Taylor, S.W. Billingsley,
J.H. Scott, J.W.
Stagner, John Smith, F.S.
Wade, C.W. Howery, J.W. Evans, J.L. Alford, Dr.G.W. Southern, Wm.
McWilliams and W.W.Sanders.
Shortly after the war, the writer and Joe Westbrooks went in the
woods on Mine Creek in Lee county with their young
wives in log cabins and began life.
He was my nearest neighbor. There
I learned to love Joe for his honesty, integrity and manly worth.
I want to say to his children and grandchildren if you will follow
in his footsteps you will be of some use in life, and that you will
receive a crown of glory that the Righteous Judge will give at the
last day……..F.S.Wade. From the same issue … MCDADE NEWS McDade, Jan. 12.—I want to say to my Courier friends that I am
not able to write this week being confined to my bed with a severe cse of
flu.
Captain. Wade, while here yesterday, attending the Westbrook
funeral, promised us that he would write obituary funeral notes of the
death of Captain J.W. Westbrooks.
The store of R.L. Williams was robbed Sunday night, no particulars
as to what was taken.
Mr. M.F. Benson of San Benito was here Thursday and Friday. A BREIF HISTORY OF THE WESTBROOK FAMILY By J.M. Westbrook 1935. Joseph Warren Westbrook born 1841, in Cherokee County, Alabama,.
married (1)Mary Elender Westbrook, the daughter of Bartholemew.Westbrook
born in 1809 and Elizabeth Hill Westbrook, who was also a relative of Mary
Elender.
Joseph was a Captain in the Confederate Army, twice wounded and
lost a leg in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
He married three times. His
first wife was Mary Elender Westbrook.
They were married in Bastrop County, Texas.
Their children, Lee and Walter, are both dead.
His second wife was Elena Philips.
One child, Flores Rice, lives in Austin, Texas.
After the death of his second wife, he married Maggie Stewart, of
Bastrop, Texas. Their
children are Grover, Francis, Warren, Cuthbert, Della and Stella.
Stella is dead.
Joseph Westbrook died Jan, 11, 1925, and is buried near his old
home, McDade, Texas, where he spent his life after moving from Attala
County, Mississippi, in 1866. His
last wife survives him. She
resides in Elgin, Texas.
Bartholemew Westbrook and wife are buried in the Lawhon Springs
Cemetery, Lee County, Texas. by Frank W. White
Johnson. …….pg 1678
Captain Joseph W. Westbrook. Within a short period after the close of the Civil War, Capt. Joseph
Warren Westbrook, a gallant young veteran of the Confederate service in
the great conflict between the states of the North and the South, came
from Mississippi to Texas and courageously initiated his efforts to gain
independence and prosperity through individual effort, though he was
handicapped in having had his left leg amputated, as the result of a wound
which he had received in battle while serving in defense of the
Confederacy. He soon proved
that this and other obstacles were not sufficient to curb his worthy
achievement, and he was for many years one of the representative farmers
and business men of Bastrop County, where he is now living virtually
retired, in the pleasant little Village of McDade. Captain Westbrook was born in Cherokee County, Alabama, on the 9th
of July, 1841, and has been a resident of Texas for nearly half a century.
In 1843, his parents removed from Alabama in Attala County,
Mississippi, where he was reared to adult age on the home farm and where
his entire period of school attendance did not exceed three months, as
educational facilities in the locality and period were very meager,
besides which he early began to assist in the work of the home place, his
father having been a man of integrity and industry but of very limited
financial resources. Captain Westbrook was twenty years of age at the time when he subordinated all other interests to go forth as a soldier in the Confederate service. In May 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Fourth Mississippi Infantry, J.B. Moore being made captain of the company and Judge Drake becoming colonel of the regiment. The command first saw active service at Fort Henry, and in connection with the battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, on February 16, 1862, the entire Fourth Mississippi Infantry was captured by the enemy. Thereafter, with other members of his regiment, Captain Westbrook was confined first in the Federal prison at Camp Chase, Ohio, and later in that maintained on Johnson’s Island, in Lake Erie. He held the rank of Lieutenant of his company during the entire period of the war and refused to accept election to the office of captain, though his service entitled him to that rank, as he was at various times in full command of his company, the members of which first applied to him the title of captain, by which he has continued to be known to the present time. At Vicksburg, Mississippi, Captain Westbrook regained his liberty, being one of the men thus favored when an exchange of prisoners was made by the Confederate and Federal governments. He forthwith re-entered active service in the field and became identified with the Confederate forces operating in the region about Vicksburg. He was with the command of General Pemberton when that officer was opposing the forces under General Grant, and was one of the inside defenders in the memorable siege of Vicksburg, upon the capitulation of which he was again taken prisoner, though he was soon afterward granted a parole. He then returned home and after there remaining about two months his exchange was effected and he again became eligible for service in the field. He rejoined his regiment and with it entered vigorously into the Georgia campaign. Beginning with the engagement at Dalton, that state, he took part in the various conflicts that took place between that point and the City of Atlanta, and while in front of that city as a defender he was wounded by a bullet, that passed through the flesh of his neck and grazed his windpipe, so that he was therafter incapacitated for some little time. He was finally able to return to the ranks and soon afterward, in the battle of Franklin, a minnie ball struck him in the left knee and caused so severe a wound that his leg was amputated the same night. After being confined for some time in a Federal hospital he was again taken to Camp Chase, Ohio and in March, 1865, his exchange was again effected, at Richmond, Virginia. Then, precariously walking on crutches, he made his way to his home in Attala County, Mississippi, arriving there in June, having compassed much of the journey from Chester, South Carolina, on foot, notwithstanding his grievous infirmity, for little railway service could he had in the prostrate South at that time. After the close of the war Captain Westbrook was able to supplement to a
degree his limited education, and it may well be understood that he
applied himself diligently and with all appreciation during the seven
months that compassed his further attendance at school.
Regardless of his physical infirmity and imbued with ambition and
self-confidence, the gallant young veteran decided to come to Texas and
cast his lot with its progressive element of citizenship.
His worldly possessions included little else than his clothing and
his crutches, but he came to the Lone Star State and after passing a brief
time in Fannin County he made his way to McDade, his present place of
abode, where he established his home in November, 1867.
His skill in chirography here enabled him to earn a little money by
teaching penmanship for a time, and he made his little writing school
definitely successful. In
the early spring of 1868, Captain Westbrook took unto himself a wife and
with the earnest co-operation of his young companion and helpmeet, he
essayed the task of giving his active attention to agricultural pursuits.
He astonished even himself in the facility with which he overcame
the handicap involved in being compelled to walk with crutches and many
men with two feet have shown far less resourcefulness and versatility in
expedients. He made himself
equal to all forms of farm work save that of plowing and after two years
had elapsed he was able to show tangible results from his efforts, in that
he had become a landowner. In
the second year he had accumulated sufficient funds t o permit his
purchase of a good home, and his ability as a trader added much to his
success during this initial period of his independent activities.
The captain continued his active supervision of his farm until
1883, when he removed to the Village of McDade and engaged in the retail
lumber business, besides which he later engaged in the general-merchandise
business, to which he continued to devote his attention six years.
Finally he retired from that line of enterprise and he then
directed his attention to the buying of land in this section of the state.
In this connection he manifested marked discrimination and judgment and
laid the foundation for his substantial and well merited prosperity.
He purchased land at prices ranging from $5 to $16 an acre and
effected the reclamation of a large tract of land, which he placed in
active charge of tenants.
For pasturage and general agricultural purposes he eventually
accumulated a land estate of more than 2,500 acres---all in one body
though included in several surveys. His homestead place, admirably improved with modern buildings
and other facilities and accessories, is eligibly situated
2 1/2 miles distant
from the Village of McDade, on the McDade and Sayers road.
He has divided his large landed estate to the greater extent among
his children, to each of whom he has given a good home, while his own
homestead is recognized as one of the fine places of Bastrop County.
At the time of his first marriage the cash capital of Captain
Westbrook was represented in the sum of $9, and this he invested in
kitchen utensils and other limited furnishings for his modest home.
His first chairs, which lacked bottoms or seats, he obtained by
trading for the same an old saddle-tree.
To make chairs available for service he obtained the skin of a cow
that had recently died in the neighborhood, and from this hide
manufactured seats for the so important articles of household furniture.
He and his wife had fellowship with hardships and deprivations in
those first lean years of their married life, as is evidenced by the fact
that in the first year they expended but $1 for flour and had only a
diminutive package of sugar. The
second year the captain was able to provide an entire barrel of flour, and
from that time forward such privation found no opportunity to lay siege to
his home. He paid cash for
whatever he purchased and never consented to run a store account until
after he had established his residence in McDade, from which point he
still gives a general supervision to his homestead farm.
Captain Westbrook has shown himself to be ably fortified in his
political opinions and convictions and has been unwavering in his advocacy
of the principles and policies of the democratic party, though he has
insistently refused to become a candidate for public office,
notwithstanding the fact that his many friends in the community have
importuned him to become a candidate for representative in the State
Legislature as well as to accept minor official posts.
At the age of forty-five years
Captain Westbrook became a member of the Church of Christ, and his
life has since been guided and governed by the Christian faith which he
has thus professed and which he has shown in his kindliness and generosity
and his earnest desire to aid and uplift his fellowmen. He has served continnously as an elder of the church and has
proved also a most earnest and convincing exhorter, besides
being active and influential in other phases of Christian service.
Captain Westbrook has taken a keen and lively interest
in public affairs in the state of his adoption, has been a student
of economic and governmental matters and is well fortified concerning
matters of importance to his home county and state has not only expressed
in a personal way but also through contributions made to the columns of
the Galveston News and other influential newspapers, in which his words of
advice and suggestion have been read with interest and have proved of
practical value.
In February, 1868, Captain Westbrook wedded Mrs. Mary Barker, whose
death occurred in 1877, and concerning the children of this union the
following data are given: Walter,
who became a prosperous farmer in Bastrop County, married Miss Janie
McWilliams and was a comparatively young man at the time of his death.
He was survived by his wife but by no children.
Miss Lee Westbrook, the younger of the two children, is a
successful and popular teacher in the public school of her native state.
In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Captain Westbrook
to Miss Mary Phillips, who died in 1882 and who is survived by one
daughter, Flores, who is now the wife of Charles O. Rice, of McDade.
On the 2nd of January, 1884, Captain Westbrook
contracted a third marriage, when Mrs. Maggie (Stewart) Cook became his
wife. She
was born in Jefferson County, Missouri, and is a daughter of Alfred
P. and Dicy (Harness) Stewart, the latter of whom is still living.
Captain and Mrs. Westbrook have six children—Grover C., Frances
Folsom, Thomas Warren, Cuthbert, Stella Ella. and Della Evangeline, the
first two having been named in honor of the late President Cleveland and
his wife. Grover C.
Westbrook married Miss Emma Sanders; Frances F. is the wife of Frederick
Weatherford; Thomas W. wedded
Miss Annis Cleghorn; Cuthbert married Miss Alma Harvey; Stella E. is the
wife of M.B. Dixon; and Della is the wife of Haywood Joiner, all of these
children still maintaining their home in Bastrop County except Mrs. Dixon,
who resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
where her husband is prominently identified with business activities.
Reverting to the parents of Captain Westbrook, it may be noted that
he is a son of Barney and Eliza (Christian)Westbrook.
Barney Westbrook , one in a family of ten sons, was born and reared
in North Carolina, and as a youth of seventeen years he removed to
Georgia, where somewhat later he wedded Miss Eliza Christian, daughter of
Moses Christian, a prosperous planter of Elbert Country that state.
After the birth of two of his children, Barney Westbrook removed
with his family from Georgia to Cherokee County, Alabama, where he
remained until 1844, when removal was made to Attala County, Mississippi.
He moved to Texas in the fall of 1867, and here he and his wife
passed the residue of their lives, secure in the respect, and good will of
all who know them. Concerning
those of their children who attained to years of maturity, the following
record is given, in conclusion of this sketch; William G. is a resident of
Mason County, Texas; Mrs. Martha Holmes was a resident of this state at
the time of her death; Captain Westbrook, of this review, was the next in
order of birth, James R. Resides at Wolfe City, Hunt County, Texas, and
one of his sons has served with distinction in the Texas Legislature and
State Senate; Mrs. Hattie
Dashner likewise resides at
Wolfe City; Mrs.Lucy Bethel maintains her home at London, Kimble County;
Barney and Thomas H. are residents of Menard County;
Mrs. Fannie Bethel resides at Wolfe city ; Ella married William
Cray and both are now deceased; Mrs. Hester Nicholson resides at San Anglo; John Albert at
Brady; and Lumpkin Lee in McCullough County, Texas.
Four of the brothers were loyal soldiers of the Confederacy in the
Civil war and all of the above mentioned children reared children of their
own, while all are still living except two. ……………………………………………………… THIS IS NO ORDINARY STIRRUP OWNER; -----CAPT. JOSEPH WARREN WESTBROOK (son of Barney & Eliza Christian Westbrook) B. 9 JULY 1841, CHEROKEE CO. AL. D. 11 JANUARY 1925 MCDADE,
TX. CSA ENLISTED MAY 1861 WOUNDED-1.-------------------------------IN THE NECK WOUNDED 2.—MINNIE BALL HIT HIS LEFT KNEE & PRISONER OF WAR—CAPTURED FEBURARY 16, 1862 TAUGHT PENMANSHIP CORRESPONDENT FOR THE GALVESTON
NEWS CORRESPONDENT FOR THE COURIER TRADER,FARMER,LUMBER BUSINESS GENERAL MERCHANDISE STORE LANDOWNER 2,500 ACRES IN THE ARMY CAMP AREA WIVES; (1). 1868- Mrs. MARY ELANDER WESTBROOK, BARKER (HIS COUSIN)-D. 1877 (2). 1879- MISS MARY ELENA PHILLIPS-D. 1882 (3). JAN.2, 1884- MRS. MAGGIE STEWART, COOK CHILDREN; MISS B. LEE WESTBROOK by 1st
wf. WALTER WESTBROOK by 1st wf. MISS FLORES WESTBROOK, RICE by 2nd wf. G. C. WESTBROOK by 3rd wf MISS FRANCES WESTBROOK, WEATHERFORD THOMAS WARREN WESTBROOK CUTHBERT WESTBROOK MISS STELLA ELLA WESTBROOK, DIXON MISS DELLA EVANGELINE WESTBROOK, JOINER |