JUDGE WM. O'HAIR
Died Monday night, September 3rd, 1906, at the residence of J.
H. H. Berry, in Lampasas, Judge Wm. O'Hair, one of the most
prominent citizens of this section.
The deceased was born January 1821, in Floyd County, Kentucky.
Thus you see he passed, by fifteen long weary winters, the biblical
limit of three-score years and ten.
In the year 1822, his father moved to Edgar County, Illinois,
where the subject of this sketch was raised. When seventeen or
eighteen years of age he began to teach school, in Edgar County,
Illinois, afterward in Moltre and other counties.
In 1840, when the Republic of Texas was attracting so much
attention throughout the world, young O'Hair, at the age of nineteen,
bade farewell to the broad prairies of Illinois, and came South to
Texas, as at this time "Southward the course of Empire made its way."
Locating in Smith County, he began teaching again. In 1841 or
1842, he married Miss Annie Carson, daughter of a Mr.
Larkin, at that time a prominent man of East Texas. From this
union, four children were born&emdash;three girls and one boy, all of
whom have long since crossed over to that other shore.
His former wife having died many years prior, in 1850 he was
united in marriage to Miss Anos Wolf, daughter of Joseph
and Anteline Wolf, who survives him, as does his only sister,
Aunt Clarissa Wolf. He leaves seven children, whose names
are as follows: Mrs. John Hutto, Mrs. J. H. H. Berry, Mrs.
Nicks, and Messrs. Rolla, Joe, H. J. and Tom
O'Hair.
December 22nd, 1855, deceased moved to Burnet County, locating
near Dobyville. Moved to Naruna some eight years ago, where he lived
up to the time of his death.
Wm. O'Hair held official position in this county more than
twenty-one years, having held the offices of Judge, Treasurer and
Assessor.
He retired from public life on account of his hearing. Thus ends
the active career of a remarkable man, remarkable in this, that
during that long eventful life he was never known to do anything
unbecoming a true gentleman.
Though reared in the state of Lincoln's nativity, he believed in
secession as an inalienable right of the state. Though never an
active participant in that great memorable struggle which set the
Africans free, he fought the battles of every day life with a
courage, unsurpassed by those who fell in battle's stern array and
verified the truth of the statement that "He that ruleth his own
spirit, is greater than he that taketh a city."
He stood high in the Masonic fraternity, with whose ritual he was
buried. An active member of the Christian Church always living that
each day might find him farther on the way.
An obedient and dutiful son, a kind and loving husband, and a
devoted and self sacrificing father, withal: "His life was gentle,
and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say
to all the world, 'This was a man.'" A strict adherent of truth is
gone! Sleep father, sleep; God's eternal years are yours.
"Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, Dear as the blood ye gave; No impious footstep here shall tread The herbage of your grave. Nor shall your glory be forgot While fame her record keeps, And honor points the hallowed spot Where Valor proudly sleeps Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, Nor Time's [unreadable word] doom, Shall dim one ray of Glory's light That gilds your deathless tomb."
Mark
Naruna, Sept 16, 1906
|