The Doctor's Scrapbook
by Dr. J. W. Torbett, Sr., M. D.Chapter 10
Biographies of Some Friends of Mine
In writing a history of my life and progress, the record would be incomplete without mention of some of the friends who have contributed to my development and my happiness. They have been a part of my life, and a very essential part.
Close to my heart are the friends who are living, and dear to my memory the ones who have gone.
However, these brief biographies are not intended to be sentimental, but true and practical accounts of lives that have come close to my own. Some of the narratives are contributed by the subjects themselves, at my request, for use in this book.
The loyalty of friendship
From those we love and trust,
It like a bright bouquet from heaven
Sent down upon the just. -
Its beauty and its fragrance
Are balm unto the soul;
They fill our hearts with gladness,
And help us to our goal.
-J.W.T. from Practical Poems for Daily Use.
Dr. Neil Dugald Buie
Dr. Neil Dugald Buie of Marlin, who for many years has been an astute leader in medical circles, and in State and national politics, who knows many of the "big shots" by their first names, was born in Union County, Arkansas, later coming to Falls County, Texas. The Buie family originally came to this country from Scotland and settled in a Presbyterian colony west of the Alleghany Mountains. Dr. Buie is still a staunch Presbyterian.Neil Dugald Buie graduated from Lott High School in 1900. He came to Marlin that summer and took a competitive examination which won for him an appointment by Representative Cy Conley to Sam Houston Normal at Huntsville. "I was so darn poor," he says, "that I got into the one-year graduating class and finished the entire Sam Houston Normal course in nine months. That was in 1901, when a two-dollar bill meant as much to me as two thousand dollars does now. Of forty-five who entered that course only nineteen finished it."
Young Buie taught school for two years, and then in 1903 entered the Medical Branch of the University of Texas at Galveston. He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt Medical College, where he graduated second in his class in 1907. He made first honors before the State Board of Medical examiners, and liked it so well that he has been a member of the Board for many years.
Dr. Buie worked with me here in Marlin during the summers of 1904, 1905 and 1906. After graduation he was with me one year; then entered practice alone and soon became connected with the Sanitarium Bath House. He organized the present Buie Clinic and Hospital in 1913, and has been practicing there continuously since. He is a brother-in-law of United States Senator Tom Connally, was president of State Medical Association of Texas in 1941, and is the present health editor of the Texas Outlook.
The subject of this sketch has a keen sense of humor, which enables him to see the funny side of things. He is sometimes a little late, due not only to the fact that he is of Scotch descent, but because he was born in Arkansas - evidently took a slow train out of there as soon as he learned about Texas. He has been busy here ever since.
Dr. Buie's wife was formerly Miss Marian Clarkson of Marlin. They have three children: Mrs. Charles Cornwell, Dr. Neil Dugald, Jr., and Miss Marian Buie. Dr. Neil D. Buie, Jr., and Dr. Charles Cornwell served in the armed forces during World War II. He has one grandchild.
Dr. Howard Rush Dudgeon
Dr. Howard Rush Dudgeon of Waco, Texas, long has been a surgeon of the first rank, and a good friend of mine. He was born in Chamois, Missouri, November 31, 1873, but came to Texas with his parents in search of a suitable climate to improve the health of his mother, who suffered from tuberculosis. The family stopped at Bremond, the terminus of the Houston and Texas Central Railway, then set out by wagon across the country for Bandera County, but encountered impassable roads. Hence they settled down near San Marcos, where Howard grew up.Dr. Dudgeon's higher and professional education was se- cured from Coronal Institute, San Marcos; Southwestern University, Georgetown, and the Medical Branch of the University of Texas, Galveston, where he graduated with the last three-year class, that of 1899. His first post was that of Assistant Surgeon of the Mexican Central Railway, Auguas Calientes, Mexico.
In one year the young doctor saved up enough money to accept an interneship in John Sealey Hospital. Galveston, which was followed by two years in the Medical Branch of the University of Texas as Demonstrator of Surgery.
Dr. Dudgeon and the former Miss Sue Montgomery of San Marcos, Texas, were married June 11, 1903. She had been a childhood sweetheart and they have one son, Dr. Howard Rush Dudgeon, Jr. The latter was a captain in the army during World War II, having served in Australia and other overseas locations for three years before his recent return. He will continue to be in the service -- of suffering humanity - just as his father has been for so many years.
The elder Dr. Dudgeon is very fond of jokes. One of his favorites is about a negro who often works about his home:
"Rastus," the doctor asked, "why are you always talking to yourself? You must have something on your mind." "Well, you see, Boss, it's like dis," the darky replied. "I likes to hear a smart man talk, and I likes to talk to a smart man."
In a recent letter to me, Dr. Dudgeon quoted part of an address delivered by him before the Medical Association at San Marcos. I could never improve on the vivid eloquence and the rich humor of his wording:
"While I was in school at San Marcos my father occasionally came to town on Friday evening so I could go with him for the week end. Dr. Hons usually met or passed us on the road, driving a splendid pair of well-groomed, proud-stepping bays, with buggy and harness to match. The doctor, tall, lean and distinguished looking, well-groomed himself and generally smoking a fragrant cigar, detracted nothing from the notable appearance of the turnout. I have never seen a man who looked more like a doctor to me. I venture to say that in the sickroom he inspired confidence and hope as only an artist can, and that he kept well abreast of scientific progress in his profession.
"Ask most men why they studied medicine, and they will enunciate fine words about relieving suffering humanity, cooling the fevered brow, and snatching men and women from the jaws of death. How I wish I could lay claim to such noble altruism, but standing as I am tonight in the beautiful town about which my earliest memories cluster, and among whose people I shall lie down to rest when the day's work is done, I am determined to stick to the unvarnished truth. I thought if the study of medicine made men grow tall, lean and distinguished looking, enabled them to wear fine clothes, smoke fragrant cigars, and drive a turn- out such as Dr. Hons drove, it would beat jogging along country roads in a rough farm wagon drawn by a rat-tailed, yew-necked black, and an old flea-bitten gray, like we did.
"How seldom do the happy dreams of youth mature into sober realities of midlife. I have never owned a buggy and team; smoking a fragrant cigar makes me dizzy; I failed to grow tall, lean and distinguished looking, and as for fine clothes, sackcloth and ashes become me about as well as purple and fine linen. Instead of driving out pleasant country roads, listening to the happy songs of birds and inhaling the fragrance of the wild spring flowers, I must walk the smelly halls of the hospital, spending anxious and wakeful hours over the desperately sick.
"No, my friends, all is not as smooth sailing with me as I used to think it must be with Dr. Hons as he met or passed us on the road, driving that splendid pair of well-groomed proud-stepping bays, with buggy and harness to match.
"There are some pleasures, however, that I did not dream of then. I will mention only one: Memory in her happier moments sometimes drives me again for the week end, sitting beside my father in the rough farm wagon drawn by the rat-tailed, yew-necked black and the old flea-bitten gray."
Mrs. Dudgeon has great interest in organized medicine, and has been President of the Women's Auxiliary. She usually goes with the doctor to the state and national meetings. His family moved to the Montgomery community when he was seven years old and they attended the same church and 'school. When he graduated, he came back to that little church and they were married. Many of their friends re- marked, "There goes the finest, sweetest, smartest bride of our community." The doctor, after forty years of wedded life, says it is still true.
In the State Journal of Medicine, June, 1943, is the memorial address given by Dr. Dudgeon before the State Medical Association of Texas, he said:
"In one of the smaller cities of this state there is a doctor whom I guess expects us to rate him as an internist, but his interests and accomplishments in medicine are rather too broad to be described by that term. His reputation in medicine is first class and has been for many years.
"He has been very busy for years keeping up with the new things in medicine, and very often his ideas have been ahead of his time. As frequently happens in the case of outstanding medical men, he is a speaker of first-rate ability, and his scientific papers, read before the various professional associations to which he has contributed liberally, are ably presented and they show the qualities of the great teacher. In his busy life he has found time to become interested in other things than medicine. He is an outstanding leader in his church, he has donated a great deal of money, for a doctor, to its agencies. He has served in official capacity on the board of one of the great church schools. In recognition of his donations, his services on its board, and his fine scholarship, the honorary degree of Doctor of Law has been conferred upon him.
"In old fiddlers' contests he rates as a star performer. He is a philosopher of no mean ability, and has adopted verse as a vehicle of expressing it. In my humble and oft erring opinion, he is the leading poet of Texas."
Someone has given me the credit of filling the description of the above eulogy, but will say that I am still very much alive.
Dr. Marvin Lee Graves, M.A., M.D.
The Texas State Medical Journal had the following to say about Dr. Marvin Lee Graves, a Texas physician of outstanding ability. A brief resume of his life contains the evidence which rates him as one of the leaders of his profession:"Dr. Graves was born at Bosqueville, McLennan County, Texas, March 16, 1866. He attended school at Marvin College, Waxahachie, and Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, graduating from the latter with the degree of B.A. in 1885, and M.A. in 1886. He taught school in Williamson County in 1886 - 1887 and became principal of Belton High School in 1888, resigning after his second year in that position to take up the study of medicine. In 1891 he graduated in medicine, with honors, at Bellevue College, New York, and entered the practice of medicine in Waco, Texas, in June of the same year.
"In 1905, as Professor of Medicine in the Medical Department at Galveston, which position, together with that of lecturer on Mental and Nervous Diseases, he held for many years. He had previously taken post-graduate work at Cornell University and the University of Berlin."
Dr. Marvin Graves and Miss Laura Ghent, daughter of Dr. H. C. Ghent of Belton, Texas, were married in March, 1893. Three children were born to them. Of these. Dr. Ghent Graves, who has returned from overseas service, is associated with his father in the practice of medicine in Houston, Texas.
The Medical Journal especially stressed the fact that "Dr. Graves is a man of high scientific attainments, and at the same time an efficient organizer and general executive." We do have the good fortune to count him among our friends, as I do, know that he is sympathetic and kindly, loyal and helpful, and a student of human nature as well as an expert in medical science
"Texas' Best Known and Most Loved Internist"
You've taught mankind these busy, fruitful years,
The basis of our chosen healing art;
And started thousands on their life-careers
To heal the broken body, mind, and heart.
And thus your mind and soul through others' lives
Go on still serving those in dire distress,
In soothing pain with hope for each who strives
For health to give loved ones more happiness.
And now as evening shadows slowly come
While golden halos gild the fading West,
May mem'ries of these things all help you some
To treasure up, with joy, life's sweetest best.
You've left your imprint on your friends who meet you,
When hallowed twilight ends may angels greet you.
Dr. S. P. Rice
The late Dr. S. P. Rice of Marlin, with whom I was closely associated for many years as a friend, consultant and confidante, was born in Georgia, November 13, 1854. He finished high school in Macon, Georgia, then moved with the family to Texas in 1871. When he received his medical degree from Louisville Medical College, now the University of Louisville, in 1876, he was the youngest member of his class.Dr. Rice practiced general medicine in Marlin for many years. For a number of years he was joint owner of a sanitarium in Marlin, but for the last twenty years of his life he was a member of the staff of the Torbett Sanatorium and Clinic. For a long period he was the local surgeon for the I. & G. N. and the H. & T. C. Railroads, and served for some time on the State Board of Health. In all of his work he showed himself to be a practical man, with a great deal of common sense. Always he was a perfect gentleman, kind and considerate of everyone.
Throughout a long and busy life, Dr. Rice's interest in his profession remained paramount. This was manifested by the fact that he took time out for numerous post-graduate medical courses, made many contributions to medical literature, and was faithful and active in the affairs of local, State and national professional organizations. He was the fifty-first president of the State Medical Association of Texas, and was for many years a representative from that organization to the American Medical Association. During all of this time his counsel and advice were depended upon to a large extent by his fellow representatives.
Dr. Rice was active in the practice of his profession until just a few years before his death, September 22, 1929.
The marriage of Dr. S. P. Rice and Miss Mattie John Anderson of Marlin took place in 1879. Mrs. Rice survived the Doctor by a number of years, but she since has passed on. Their son, Herbert B. Rice, and their daughter, Mrs. A. W. Hutchins, both reside in Marlin.
Upon his death, the body of Dr. Rice was cremated and the ashes interred in Marlin, with impressive services at the Methodist church, of which he had long been an active member. The numerous floral offerings and the wide attendance of friends from over the State attested to the high esteem in which he was held for his conscientious, unselfish and loving service to his fellowmen.
The grandson of Dr. Rice, Dr. Selwyn Percival Rice Hutchins, who graduated from Marlin High School, received his A. B. at Rice Institute in Houston, and his M. D. from the Medical branch of the Texas University at Galveston, and who was with Mayo Clinic at Rochester, New York, was granted a leave of absence and volunteered for navy service in the Pacific. He is highly successful as a physician and specialist. He recently received his discharge.
Dr. Arthur C. Scott
The late Dr. Arthur Carroll Scott of Temple, Texas, was my friend for many years, for I met him soon after coming to Marlin in 1897. He was born in Gainesville, Texas, July 12, 1865. After finishing the local schools he graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City. For two years he was an interne and resident surgeon of Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, followed by four and a half years of private practice in Gainesville.Dr. Scott was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Santa Fe Hospital Association and was made a member of the Board of Directors, with headquarters in Temple. He held these offices for forty-seven years, resigning because of ill health.
Associated with Dr. R. R. White, he organized the King's Daughters Hospital in Temple, and afterward they founded the Scott and White Hospital in Temple, which they operated jointly until Dr. White's death.
Dr. Arthur C. Scott was elected President of the State Medical Association and to many other offices of honor and influence in medical organizations and in the Presbyterian church, of which he was an active member.
The following notes, contributed by his son, Dr. Arthur C. Scott of Temple, show how the idea of becoming a doctor became, very early in life, the core of all his future plans.
"Dr. Scott fell in love with Maud Sherwood, his first and only sweetheart, when she was a child of nine. He was twelve years old at the time. He said he fell in love with her long braids of blonde hair, and when he said his prayers at night he always asked God to give her to him as his wife.
"When Arthur was about sixteen he tested his sweetheart's fitness to be a surgeon's wife. His younger brother Oscar was standing with Maud while two negro boys were fighting. One of the negroes bit through the lip of the other boy. When the two stopped fighting, and Arthur saw the resulting cut, he volunteered to do the repairs. He took Maud along with him to what he called "his office," and made her hold the sponges and mop the lip while he sewed it up. He said he did this to see if she could look at blood without fainting. She stood the test.
"When the young man was in Medical, he wrote to his fiance only every two or three months, and she said the principal theme of his letters was removing ribs or doing other surgical operations. Her father told her he wouldn't have a sweetheart who couldn't write about anything else."
They were married October 30, 1889, and had three children, who now are well known as Mrs. Preston A. Childers, Mrs. Walker Saulsbury, and young Dr. Scott, all of Temple.
More than forty years ago Dr. Scott and I both became interested in educating the laity in preventive medicine, and for several years we gave health lectures. Once we went to Hamilton, Texas, to talk to the people at an after- noon picnic, and that night to the Medical Society. It rained, and we did not get back until seven the next morning - time to go to work again.
As usual, Dr. Scott's subject was the cancer problem, and mine was preventive medicine and diet. More than any other surgeon in Texas, he put forth every effort to make the medical profession, as well as the laity, cancer-conscious.
Dr. Arthur C. Scott accomplished much in service to suffering humanity, and his death is widely mourned.
Our lives ran parallel in many things. We had the same birthday - we selected our professions early and read every- thing available to help us. We married educated musical women; we had one son each, who became a physician. We organized an institution with one partner who died, and then incorporated with two partners, one a relative. We were early educators of the laity in preventive medicine. We were loyal, enthusiastic church members.
Dr. J. T. Harrington
When this was written, in 1945, my good friend, Dr. J. T. Harrington, was still carrying on at the age of eighty-seven, after having spent a long professional life in the service of humanity, lending inspiration and courage to innumerable of his fellowmen, myself included.Dr. Harrington was born in Buena Visita, Mississippi, January 7, 1858, where he grew up and secured his early education. After graduating in medicine in St. Louis, in 1879, he practiced one year in Mississippi and then came to Texas, carrying all his belongings in one small trunk. He practiced in Sweetwater, EI Paso, Abilene and finally in Waco.
Although efficient and successful, Dr. Harrington said that he realized his education was not complete, so in 1885 he interrupted his practice to attend Medical College in Louisville, Kentucky, where he took the whole medical course over again, graduating in 1886. Later, in 1895, he spent a year in New York, trying to make up for what he considered weak points in his former education.
He moved to Waco in 1897, where he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Baylor University for fifty years, and President of that Board for a long time, a post filled by only three men in the past sixty years, Dr. B. H. Carroll, the Hon. Pat M. Neff, and Dr. Harrington. Our acquaintance, formed soon after, has ripened into a deep and lasting friendship that has grown richer during the many years that we have been associated as consultants in our work, and as co-workers in the professional organizations in which we are active. A short time ago he honored me with the following tribute:
"I moved to Waco in 1897 and soon after was fortunate in meeting Dr. J. W. Torbett of Marlin. He has been an inspiration and a professional strength to me all the years since then. When I get seriously sick I resort to his Sanitarium and rely on his aid. I have found him to be not only skilled and sympathetic brother physician, but the overflow of his professional capacity and work has been given to the highest expression of literature and art. Thus he has enrolled himself with the outstanding types of America's greatest physicians and humanitarians."
In June 1884. Dr. Harrington married Miss Genoa Cole, at that time a teacher in the Female Department of Baylor University at Independence, Texas. She was a lady of culture and grace, and he enjoyed with her fifty-five years of happiness. Several daughters and granddaughters of their family were educated at Baylor. Mrs. Harrington passed to her reward in 1939.
I have written the following toast in honor of this dear friend:
We come tonight to honor a man of sterling worth;
Our friend dear Doctor Harrington, a gentleman by birth
Who saw the light of Heaven before the Civil War,
And learned in early childhood what mothers all abhor.
In youth he caught the vision to plan and train his life,
To help and heal, to honor the right and banish strife.
And hence he's been a leader through all these busy years
Among the best 'and noblest in one of life's great spheres.
-J.W.T.
Dr. E. P. Hutchings
Dr. E. P. Hutchings, who has been a member of the Torbett Clinic and Hospital staff for the past twenty years, was born in Caldwell, Texas, the son of E. P. and Lucy Hutchings, but came to Marlin at the age of five years and received his public school education here.The Doctor says that his interest was directed toward medicine because he lived in a town where there were several hospitals and many doctors, and that these doctors represented to him the highest and most worthy calling, that of ministering to his fellowman. His father and mother gave him every encouragement, and he appreciated the sarifices they made to send him to school.
He attended Vanderbilt University with my brother, graduating in 1917. They were bosom friends and met almost every Sunday to review the week's work. Anyone who has gone through medical college knows the amount of study required, but he worked hard and during his senior year became the resident physician of the Tennessee penitentiary, located in Nashville. Here he acquired valuable experience.
Dr. Hutchings then served a regular general rotating internship in the City Hospital at St. Louis. He first entered private practice after his return from Europe, where he had served eighteen months as a medical officer in the United States Army, during World War 1. At the close of that war he was in the front lines, followed the German armies across the Rhine, and remained with the occupational forces for some time.
During the many years that Dr. Hutchings has been with the Torbett Clinic and Hospital he has continued to strive for higher goals. Besides the background of army service and educational travel in Europe, he has taken many post-graduate courses in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. With the motto, "Service above Self" this enterprising physician is doing much to make life happier and more comfortable for hundreds and hundreds of people. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons and the Texas Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Society, as well as of the more general local, State and national medical societies.
Dr. Hutchings is a man of many hobbies which provide him with recreation and relaxation. Chief among these is golf, but he also is a collector of paintings and rare porcelains. He is fond of travel, engages in the breeding of registered sheep, and is interested in gardening.
Miss Glenn Mitchell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Mitchell of Waco, became the wife of Dr. Hutchings on December 28, 1937; They have a charming in Marlin, on Southland Avenue.
The Doctor is ever on the alert for the humorous in his profession. He recalls that while taking a patient's case history recently he asked the man's age. The patient went into a deep study for a short time, then replied:
"Well, I have several ages, but I have to stop and think to be sure which would be the right one at this time."
Dr. Howard Owen Smith
Dr. Howard Owen Smith was born in Hamilton, Texas, June 14, 1898. His parents were Clara Elizabeth Eidson, daughter of a pioneer Texas lawyer, and Dr. Howard Smith, a great friend, as well as a cousin, of mine. He graduated from Hamilton High School, and received his pre-medical work at Baylor University in Waco and the University of Texas at Austin, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas Medical Department at Galveston in 1922. During his senior year he was elected president of the Students' Self-government Association, and was made a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Fraternity. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Academic Fraternity and A.M.P.O. Medical; also the first president of the Medical School Students' Journal Club, a forerunner of the popular Journal Club of today. He had an externship at John Sealy Hospital during his senior year, and later an internship at Cleveland City Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio. During all this time he was in close touch with his friend and sponsor, Dr. J. W. Torbett.After Dr. Smith began to develop a surgical practice at Marlin, there still was much to be done to perfect himself in his profession. Year post-graduate work was taken, including a course in the Laboratory of Surgical Technique in Chicago; work at the New York Post-graduate School and the University of Michigan, and later was made a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, in 1929; subsequently a member of the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; then the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Texas Surgical Society.
Dr. Smith was married in 1926 to Mary Ashley Lee of Galveston, Texas. One child, Howard Lee, was born of this marriage. Four years after the death of Mary Ashley, Dr. Smith married Ann Bauer Welch of Belton and Groesbeck, who has been one of the great inspirations of his life.
His ambition to see the Torbett Clinic and Hospital grow, and to give real surgical service through his department - always an outstanding ambition of Dr. Smith, was interrupted only by World War II. Feeling that all men capable of serving their country should add their share to a quick and overwhelming victory, he could not fail to follow the colors. Hence, in November, 1942, he accepted a commission as Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, and served in various American shore stations; later he was with the hospital ships U.S.S. Relief and U.S.S. Solace in the Pacific. His was a wonderful record, recognized by a citation from Fleet Admiral Nimitz and a decoration on his return to the United States.
Although Dr. Smith has done much serious work, he still has a sense of humor and likes to tell what he considers a good joke. When he first came to this hospital he was doing surgery, which would necessitate giving ether to the patients, who would be nauseated as a result, and unable to take nourishment by the stomach at any time. One day, he says, he was operating on a man and subsequently gave him glucose and saline by the colonic route. The patient saw the apparatus.
"What's that, nurse ?" he asked.
"We are giving you nourishment, and this is the only way we have to feed you, because you're so nauseated."
The sick man studied for a moment; then he said. "Bring me two more just like that." The nurse was puzzled.
"What do you want with them ?" she asked. "That's all right. I'll pay for them."
In order not to irritate her patient, the nurse granted his request. "Here they are," she said as she placed them before him. "Now what do you want done with them?"
"I just wanted to tell you that Dr. Smith and that other nurse have been so darned nice to me that I want them to have lunch with me."
Dr. Smith did not say whether he and the nurse accepted the invitation.
Dr. A. C. Bennett
We feel like singing "Hail, the Conquering Hero Comes" as we welcome Dr. Bennett, who has returned with an honorable discharge from the army service. He is now back on the job as a member of the staff of the Torbett Clinic and Hospital, serving our people with the same honesty, skill and satisfaction that have characterized his work for several years. I promised myself that I would buy my limit of United States E Bonds when he was released, and I have done so.Dr. Bennett was inducted as a volunteer August 5, 1942, and was commissioned Captain in the Army Air Corps. He went first to Peterson' Field, Colorado Springs; then to Randolph Field to attend the Aviation School of Medicine. He graduated from this course at Santa Ana, California, as an aviation Medical Examiner. Afterward he was sent to Bradley Field, Connecticut, and then to Mexico.
His overseas service was over middle and north Africa, Iraq, Iran, and to India. Returning to the United States in July, 1944, as a group surgeon, he received his commission as major. Then he was made staff surgeon and stationed in Denver, Colorado.
While abroad, Dr. Bennett says, he fished and bathed in the Nile River, and gazed on the Pyramids as did Napoleon when he said, "Forty centuries now look down upon us."
Bishop H. A. Boaz
Bishop Hiram Abiff Boaz, my good friend during many years of joyful association in the work of the Methodist Church, inherited the sturdiness of the English, the thrift of the Scotch, and the generosity of the Irish. He was born at Murray, Kentucky, December 18,1866, the son of a planter, Peter Maddox Boaz, who seven years later moved his family to a farm near Fort Worth, Texas. Young Boaz graduated from Sam Houston Normal Institute, Huntsville, and Southwestern University, Georgetown, winning first honors for scholarship when he received his M.A. degree in 1894, also receiving first honors in the Texas State Oratorical Contest.When Hiram A. Boaz started to preach, in 1889, he was paid the well-earned salary of $330.00 the first year, and $500.00 the second year. He continued to preach during his student career, later filling pulpits in Fort Worth, Abilene, and Dublin, Texas.
Bishop Boaz was President of Texas Women's College, formerly Polytechnic College, in Fort Worth, for fourteen years, his strong spiritual leadership and aggressive management causing that school to grow by leaps and bounds. He was one of the important men in the development of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, of which he was vice-president and later president for two and one-half years. He secured an endowment of one million dollars for the school and established it upon a sound financial basis.
This capable and consecrated preacher and educator was elected a bishop in the Methodist church in 1922. He spent the next four years preaching several times a day in Japan, Korea, Siberia and China, but returned each year to America for funds. Always a prodigious worker, he would deliver as many as a hundred sermons during a three months' fund- raising campaign. Succeeding assignments were in Oklahoma and Arkansas, Houston and Fort Worth.
Bishop Boaz bought a in Fort Worth, and intended to settle down there when he retired. Instead, he responded to a plea that he return to Dallas and solicit more funds for Southern Methodist University. This he has been doing ever since, in one year bringing in as much as $80,000 for the growth and development of the University.
On October 2, 1894, young Hiram Boaz married Miss Carrie Odalie Browne, the charming daughter of Rev. J. W. Browne, Methodist missionary to the Indians of Texas. The couple had graduated from Sam Houston Normal Institute in the same class, in 1887. Of his wife Bishop Boaz said, before the large group of people gathered for their golden wedding anniversary, "She has multiplied all my joys, and divided all my sorrows." Their three daughters are: Mrs. Clarence Penniman of Dallas, Mrs. Prentiss M. Terry of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mrs. Graham Hall of Little Rock, Arkansas.
On this happy occasion I wrote a poem in honor of the fiftieth milestone in the journey of life of these friends who have been such an inspiration to me.
Golden Wedding
(Bishop and Mrs. Boaz)
Just fifty years of wedded life,
Of joy and peace, and some small strife,
Are finished up this golden day
With friends who've come to share your way;
To hear you talk of all your past,
Of youthful joys 'too sweet to last' ;
Of early hopes when love began
That brightened up each daily plan;
That gave your little its start,
With that first babe to thrill your heart.
And helped the thousands consecrate
You've served our church, our schools and State,
Their lives to Christ and His great plan
To speed the brotherhood of man.
You've served from low to highest place,
With love and wisdom, skill and grace.
You've reared your family with care,
With music, love, and constant prayer.
And so the years have swiftly gone;
Now eventide is coming on;
But cherished memories come again,
With flowers of love where you have been,
To brighten up the setting sun
With well-earned halos you have won.
May you have many days like this
Before you enter heavenly bliss.
-J. W. Torbett.
Bishop John M. Moore
Upon being asked for a brief sketch of his life, from which I might model a tribute to this eminent divine, Bishop Moore wrote a narrative so absorbingly interesting that I concede it is much better than anything I could have written. The Bishop has an inexhaustible fund of humor, and an inimitable literary style. Therefore, I quote his own words:"I was born and reared in the dog-fennel and pennyroyal section of Kentucky, January 27, 1867-and liked it. My people were all farmers of the sturdy cornfield, tobacco- patch, hog-and-hominy variety. They laid off straight corn- rows, shot sure-fire rifles, cut wheat and oats with a cradle, and 'took out' Saturday afternoons and went to town - or fishing, or squirrel-hunting. In the winter they hunted foxes, caught coons and 'possums, trapped mink and muskrat for their hides, killed hogs and shot rabbits for meat, and kept themselves going-slowly.
"During the year they had corn-shuckings, log-rollings, house-raisings, road-workings, and wheat-threshings, looked after their stock and farms, and did considerable whittling. On the first Monday of each month they went to town for Court Day, sat and stood around chatting, or swapped horses or some pretty strong yarns. On Sunday they put on their Sunday clothes and went to church - at least some of them did. A man with a boyhood like that has something to look back to, even if he is a preacher cramped in a city.
"I went to a country school-and I am glad of that. A half year in school and a half year at work is a good way to make a capable man out of a capable boy. Were it not for leaving the teacher without a job, all boys would vote to reduce the school year. I have found that I learned about as much in five months as these youngsters do now in their long terms, and enjoyed it better. At school we played marbles, mumble-peg, town ball, bull pen, fox and hounds, climbed trees, gathered wild grapes, and did many things not possible or permitted under a school-yard supervisor. There was fun in it all, and we had it.
"I graduated from the Morgantown High School at seventeen, with Latin, Algebra, Geometry, History, Literature, and some other things to my credit; took a B..A. in college at twenty-one, and a Ph.D. at Yale at twenty-eight, with an intervening year at Leipzig and Heidelberg.
"From sixteen to now I have had to earn all I spent. That made me careful about my spending. My Scotch blood and English headiness stood me well in hand. I was not stingy, for I had nothing to be stingy with, but I avoided wastefulness. There were no movies or soda fountains in those days, and I never got the worthless 'fizz' habit. I never chewed or smoked tobacco -- or dipped snuff. Once, snuff-dipping was very aristocratic; now it is cigarettes, or cigar smoking, while chewing tobacco is looked down upon. But there is nothing in any of them to be proud of. I kept an account of what I had saved in twenty years by not indulging in these expensive habits, and it was enough to take me around the world! I had the money! I went around the world!
"As a youth I planned to be a lawyer, but circumstances led me into teaching. I taught in various Texas towns: Comanche, Durango, Waco, and in the Denton Normal in its first year. I liked teaching, and decided I would be a college .professor. So I went to Yale to prepare myself for that work. My plan was never realized, but my deep interest in education never abated. It even increased with the years.
"My bent toward the ministry evidently began early, without my knowledge. My father and mother were godly church people, he a Methodist steward and she a loyal Comberland Presbyterian. I always sat by my father in church, where boys should sit. I never used an oath. My father never drank intoxicating liquors, and I never had tasted them. My mother told me once that I used to preach in my play, when I was a child. When we boys of the neighborhood played revival, I was always the preacher, and when we played immersions in the river, I always officiated. And yet I was seventeen before I made profession of my faith in Christ, and was twenty before I joined the church.
"Upon my return in 1895 from the universities in Germany, and upon receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Yale, my friend Bishop Galloway suggested that I join the St. Louis Annual Conference and preach a while before taking a Church College professorship. This I did, in September, 1895, at Jackson Missouri, and I have been at it ever since - fifty years of that time as a minister of the Church.
"But I have not been alone all these years. For more than forty of them I had the beloved companionship of my wife, Bessie Harris Moore, a woman of distinguished lineage, of rare charm, scintillating mind, gentle graciousness and radiant personality. She made friends of all whom she met, and was loyal to her church, her husband, her family and her friends. She held a torch that lighted many lives, and most of all my own.
"I am omitting details of my genealogy, which may be found in anyone of numerous Who's Whoses; but this ought to be enough for any man to say about himself. Don't you think so, Dr. Torbett?
"Cordially,Bishop Moore is a very original and brilliant man whose charming wife was my very loyal friend. He has a remarkable memory of names and faces. He looks at a new acquaintance and makes a mental picture of his face and eyes, repeating to himself the name several times and rarely ever forgets one.
"JOHN M. MOORE."
Bishop A. Frank Smith
The entire country knows of the record of Bishop Frank Smith. His name is a household word among Methodists everywhere, and he is acknowledged to be one of the greatest preachers and leaders of his time. In a letter written in response to my request for a brief sketch of his life, Bishop Smith says:"I grew up in a Christian home, with rigid moral standards - but it was not a in which there was a family altar; nor was it what would be called a particularly pious home. There were four boys of us, and our father was a merchant of inflexible moral habits and conduct, though not a regular church attendant.
"We children were sent to Sunday School regularly, and were taught to shun drinking, gambling, and bad company. In his own youth, our father had wanted to be a lawyer, but circumstances prevented. He was determined, however, that everyone of his boys should have a chance. The oldest boy became a merchant, the third son did the same. I, the second son, and Angie, the fourth boy, both entered Southwestern University, intending to be lawyers, but both decided for the ministry before we graduated."
It seems that the training and the educational environment of A. Frank Smith definitely contributed to his growing conviction that he was called to preach. He says further:
"I did not know it until after I had entered the ministry, but my mother dedicated me to God when I was five weeks old, very ill and expected to die. She was not surprised at my decision to become a minister. My father, who had so wanted me to be a lawyer, only said, 'It's up to you, son. I only ask that you be the best preacher you can.'
"After the conviction became positive that God had called me to the ministry I submitted myself to His will, and there was no wavering. I was God's man-consecrated to His service."
The fruits of the labors of Bishop Smith are too well known to require comment.
The two Bishops in one family, Frank and Angie, is a remarkable and unusual thing, and shows a very fine heredity and training. They are the Smith Brothers who made fine Bishops instead of cough drops.
Rev. N. H. Melbert
My friend Rev. N. H. Melbert, pastor of the First Methodist Church of New Orleans, whose companionship I always find so refreshing and inspirational, has given me this brief account of his life. It is so interesting and unique that it is being copied for this book just as it stands, with very little editing:"I was born in western Kansas, of devout parents. My father had a little country church six miles from the village where we lived. Each Sunday we drove out there with all the family - father, mother, six sisters and one brother. We had dinner on the grounds, singing and Sunday School in the afternoon. On rainy days, when Kansas mud was too deep to make the trip, we were allowed to attend a Methodist church in town. So I come by my Methodist leanings honestly.
"Then came college in a mid-Kansas town for two years, when I was requested by the president to leave because of an escapade in which our gang had planned to scare a negro boy in our class by threatening to bleach him white in a chemistry experiment. We meant it only in fun, but he nearly died.
"So away to sea I went, rather than face irate parents at -China, Japan, Philippines, India, Malay States, and the Suez-three years before the mast. Then back to New York, broke, heartsick, where I wandered into the Bowery Mission for coffee and rolls. There I was converted, November 10, 1910.
"More university training, via the 'school of hard knocks,' and 1917 found me in Houston, Texas, equipped with fifty song books and a tent-also a local preacher's license. My tent was set up, but that first night it rained. Total congregation: two men, two women, and three dogs.
"Came World War I, and a commission as Instructor in Seamanship for the Maritime Commission; the Armistice, and I was back in Texas to preach the gospel.
"For the last four years I have been in New Orleans at the First Methodist Church. 'What hath God wrought?"
Senator Tom Connally
Details of the genealogy and background of United States Senator Tom Connally would be superfluous in this book, since his name is a houseworld word in his State, in America, and in foreign countries throughout the world where the Brotherhood of Man and the protection of posterity from future wars is an issue. In the councils of the United Nations he is a dominant figure, and his friends have good reason to be proud of his record as a Senator, and in every other public trust.Yes, Tom Connally is a living example of what a country boy from the rolling prairies of Texas, with enough Irish in his make-up to give him warm personal appeal, ardent enthusiasm, and natural political acumen, can do to achieve statesmanship.
Tom came to Marlin as a young lawyer, after he had graduated from Baylor University in Waco and the University of Texas Law School at Austin. He volunteered in the Spanish American War and came back very tall and thin. It was a happy privilege to me to help fatten him up and encourage him in every way I could. I urged him to enter the arena of politics, frequently embodying the thought of J. G. Holland when he wrote:
". . . The times demand Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will ; Men who have honor; men who will not lie."
I told him we needed men imbued with the ideals of the Golden Rule to render service to humanity, and that there was a great opportunity for young men to become of importance in a world where selfishness and hatred were on all sides, and honesty and good service to the people were so badly needed.
Soon after coming to Marlin, Tom met Miss Louise Clarkson, a beautiful and talented young lady, and it was not long until they were married.
They had one son, Ben, a lawyer in Houston, and two grandchildren. Several years after the death of his first wife, he was married to Mrs. Sheppard, the widow of the late Senator Morris Sheppard. I sent him my sincere congratulations.
Hon. Pat M. Neff
My early friend, Pat Neff, former governor of Texas, and later president of Baylor University, wrote me on May 17, 1941, extending to me an invitation, in behalf of the Board of Trustees of Baylor, to be present as one of the two honor guests for the commencement exercises that year. "We want you to remind our students," he said, "and the public generally, that an expression of appreciation to the living is more valuable than eulogies to the dead." The other honoree was Mr. John W. Carpenter of Dallas.On a later occasion, at a banquet given in Waco July 15, 1942, former Governor Pat M. Neff talked for about fifteen minutes on "Friendship." He directed many of his remarks toward me as he referred to our boyhood. In a humorous way he reminded those present that there was a time when people were not as broad-minded as they are now.
"For instance," said Mr. Neff, "when J. W. Torbett and I were boys together in Coryell County, if a Methodist went to hear a Baptist preach, or a Baptist went to hear a Methodist preach, you could depend on it there was something up the creek; there was something he wanted to get on the other fellow. But today here I am, a narrow-minded Baptist, talking about Torbett, a shallow-minded Methodist, in a friendly way. Undoubtedly, 'the world's getting better each day'."
The banquet was unexpected to me, but I was called upon to make some remarks, and of course, I quoted some of my own poems, ending with the one on "Texas," which I have used so many times and which is always received with enthusiasm.
I have spoken of the wonderful mother of Pat Neff, and of her good influence on me and on the lives of other young men. On one occasion, when my heart was full of love and gratitude to her-and admiration for her eminent son, wrote these lines:
To Mother Neff
No mother's name with praise is better known
Throughout this grand old friendly state,
Than Mother Neff's, whose son has proudly shown
That noble mothers help their sons be great.
The cheerful, motherly advice she gave
To hundreds more of young, ambitious men
Has been a blessing that will ever serve
To guide their feet away from paths of sin.
She gave, through forbears with an honored name,
The qualities by which a man should live;
She trained her son and fitted him for fame
Through splendid service she was glad to give.
Her life and love and noble traits live on
To bring us to a brighter, happier dawn.
-J.W.T.
From such homes come the really great men of our country - or any country. Which reminds me, if I may be permitted to digress slightly and to comment on the scarcity of the makings of real homes for the boys who have returned from the service, back to the country they helped to save, that there is a crying need for
More little homes in which love reigns,
With yards where bright, sweet flowers bloom;
Where loving hands may soothe life's pains
And chase away each trace of gloom;
Where each child, born when most desired,
Is hailed with joy, a welcome guest
To homes and hearts by love inspired
Where all may share life's sweetest, best.
- -J.W. T. in Pastime Poems.
President Pat M. Neff
(Baylor University, Waco, Texas)
His mother gave him brains to think and do
And will to choose the things he thought were right,
Ambition's fire to make desire pursue
The high ideals for which his soul would fight.
No clique nor clan could change this man from Truth
To soil his soul with mean and sordid things;
His golden voice was trained from early youth,
To speak with eloquence-ripe judgment brings.
His life has been a lesson true and strong,
For and state, his church and its great school;
To each and train and right life's greatest wrong
Have been his life work and great guiding rule.
His first sweetheart in Baylor is through life,
His loyal, loving, understanding wife.
Epps Gabriel Knight
Col. Epps G. Knight of Dallas, with whom I was associated for many years in the management of the affairs of the Methodist for boys and girls at Waco, Texas, was born February 25, 1858, on a 1,000-acre farm owned by his father, Obadiah W. Knight, at Cedar Springs, three miles north of the village of Dallas. As a typical farm boy of his day he secured his common school education after crops were laid by. Cedar Springs Academy, located on land donated by his father; Rock College, in East Dallas; Marvin College, at Waxahachie, and E. B. Lawrence Commercial College, an early Dallas institution, all contributed to the education of Epps Knight.Mr. Knight operated his father's farm, engaged in the real estate business, served in 1896 as county tax collector, in 1904 as chief of police of Dallas, and in 1919, when the Wichita Falls oil fields were opened, he entered that territory as an independent oil operator. He later became interested in several commercial enterprises in Dallas and aided many community institutions such as Southern Methodist University, the Methodist Hospital, Baylor Hosptial, the Dallas Athletic Club, and the State Fair of Texas.
Colonel Knight married Miss Fannie Lee Patton, one of the belles of the county, January 13, 1887. The two-story Knight was built later under some tall oaks on a hill on the Cedar Springs road, a site selected by Mrs. Knight. For many years the Knight was featured as one of the show places of Dallas. Mrs. Knight died in 1935, and Mr. Knight married again, at the age of eighty-two. His bride was the widow of his nephew, Alva Knight, and was sixty-eight years of age.
Mr. Knight was a man of deep and abiding religious convictions. For fifty years he devoted much time to the work of the Oaklawn Methodist Church at Dallas. He was a practical crusader, who lifted others with him because he lived an examplary life, according to his beliefs. For more than a quarter of a century he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Methodist Home, whose program of life building reflects his thoughts and ideals regarding the development of useful citizens in a Christian atmosphere. His ringing voice, his humor, wise counsel, and compassionate heart will be greatly missed by us who remain to carry on the work.
The Bartletts
Some of my near neighbors in Marlin were Mr. J. W. and Zennas Bartlett, whose father was born in Maine and who were descendants of the Bartletts who sought adventure and freedom by coming to the United States, settling in New England. One ancestor was at one time governor of Massachusetts.The Bartletts inherited strong minds, were book lovers, and had the spirit of adventure. The older Bartlett went south with a friend who had located in Alabama - a Mr. Green - the only Yankee that he knew. Mrs. Green was a very charming woman, the daughter of Churchill Jones, another scion of a distinguished family.
1849, Mr. Bartlett in a spirit of daring that led so many men to risk their lives in the "gold rush," went to California. He was lucky and returned with a small fortune. He moved Mr. Green to Marlin, Texas. The two men bought land here, erected a together and became partners in business. In a few years Mr. Green passed on. Later Mr. Bartlett married the widow, and thus began the Bartlett family in Marlin, outstanding citizens of Marlin, who have contributed much to the upbuilding of the town.
Churchill Bartlett, the oldest son, a close friend of mine, was a State Senator for awhile, and later became Secretary of State. He was a man of strong mind and fine traits of character. His last days were spent in the Torbett Sanatorium fighting an incurable disease. One day in his room, as we were talking together, I read him a poem I had written about him while on my vacation that summer. He appreciated it deeply and thanked me with tearful emotion.
Tempus Fugit
And now the time has come for me to close this section of my book, which has been devoted to the lives of many who have been a part of my own life. I can think of no more fitting tribute to these dear friends of many years than the thoughts which I have expressed in the following lines:The finger prints of Father Time
Have left their lines upon my face;
Most school-day friends have reached the clime
That marks the end of life's brief race;
But sacred mem'ries still remain
Burned in my loyal, loving heart-
Their love and friendship helped me gain
My goal-of me a living part.
-J.W.T.
