The rural
development of "Ten Mile" prairie, in
Jack county, and the
promotion
of the substantial interests of
agriculture in the same
community
have had an active ally in the person of
George W. Brazeal, whose name
introduces this particular article. For the
past twenty-one years he
has
been connected with agrarian affairs in this,
one of the most favored
spots
of rough and rugged Jack county, and the
efforts of himself and his
twin brother,
who has been equally active and progressive,
have
brought a naked and untamed tract of land into
the union of
homesteads, a beautiful and productive farm
with ample and substantial
improvements and with an area of a baronial
estate.
George
and Willis Brazeal were
born in Grayson County, Texas, December 23,
1867, and were sons of
Henry
Brazeal, who settled there before the Civil War
and owned a
farm
near Pilot Point,
upon which he died in 1868, at about thirty-five
years of
age. The father was a Confederate soldier during
the conflict between
the
states, and as a tiller of the soil carried
on business
somewhat
extensively for his day. He came to Texas
from Tennessee a
single
man and married in Grayson county, Sarah, a
daughter of G. Wash.
Lemons,
who bore him George W. and Henry W., twin sons
and the subjects of this sketch.
The
paternal grandfather of our
subjects was Henry Brazeal, who passed away
in Grayson county
at
a ripe old age, and the maternal grand sire was
George W. Lemons, who
was
a Missouri settler to Grayson county and in
Missouri his
daughter
Sarah was born. Some years subsequent to her
first husband's death Mrs.
Brazeal married Jesse L. Craig, once a prominent
citizen and farmer of northern Jack county, and
this union
was productive of children as follows: John
T. of Greer
county, Oklahoma;
and James E. of Hale county, Texas. The
mother of these
children
passed to rest near the home of our subject in
1893.
The
brothers of this notice
have passed their lives exclusively as farmers,
being brought
up
and instructed by a sympathetic step-father and
by a kind and loving
mother.
Their educations were looked after by the
masters of the country school
near by and at seventeen years of age they
accompanied the family into
Jack county. On reaching their majorities
father Craig gave
each
a horse, ten head of cattle and all the
good-will he possessed, and
they
set about at farming as tenants and worked
occasionally for wages and
immediately
started up the long and stony incline to
success. On buying the nucleus
of their "10 mile" farm, they contracted for two
hundred acres, built a
box shanty for their families and began to grub.
General farming
yielded
them profits from year to year and farm
improvements and further farm
development
was constantly carried on. The farm boundaries
were extended
to include
other lands and they now own a body of five
hundred acres, a beautiful
landscape and an ideal place for a country
seat.
April
15, 1891, George W. Brazeal
was first married, his wife being Laura O.
Faver, who died in 1892
leaving
a daughter, Jessie A. In June 14, 1903,
Mr. Brazeal married
Effie May Jones, a daughter
of Thomas Jones, who died in Johnson county,
Texas, where Mrs. Brazeal
was born in the month of July, 1888.
Wealthy Jewell, a little
daughter,
is the result of this marriage.
Willis
W. Brazeal was united in marriage to Miss Mattie
Faver, and
has seven children. The brothers are not
interested in politics beyond
the expression of their will at the polls, and
on national questions
this
expression is always Democratic.
History
and Biographical Record of North
and West Texas, Vol.
II.
Chicago: Lewis
Publishing Co., 1906
