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Willis W. Brazeal  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
Susan Hawkins |