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From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any historical facts in the article.
Past History and Present Stage of Development of Texas
Published by The Forrister History Company
Regan Printing House, Chicago, Ill.
I. G. Forrister, Publisher
(No date given. 1912??)
James M. Tapp was born in Florence, Lauderdale County, Alabama, in the year 1833. It was in 1857, at the age of twenty-
four, that he came to Texas and settled at Cedar Grove, in Kaufman County, where he acquired considerable business
interests and later some commercial reverses as a merchant, cotton dealer and land owner. Here he was married to Miss
Ida Hill, of Panola County, Texas, in 1873; four sons and two daughters being born to them, and all of whom are living
except the eldest daughter, Lizzie, who died at the age of seventeen in 1891. In rank of age the children are as
follows: Henry W., furniture dealer in Sulphur Springs; Cowan J., station agent for the "Katy" at Taylor, Texas; James
M., druggist in Sulphur Springs; Mrs. Fannie Mae Pangborn, Ft. Worth; Samuel H., bookkeeper for the Armour Packing
Company, Ft. Worth. In 1877 the family moved to Sulphur Springs, where Mr. Tapp engaged in the dry goods business until
his death which occurred in1892. Mr. Tapp was a devout Methodist, a ranking Mason, and an ardent Prohibitionist when it
was unpopular and expensive to be so. His death suddenly shifted a heavy responsibility on the mother, the family
competence having dwindled to small proportions and oldest, Henry W., of six children, being but seventeen years of age.
Mrs. Tapp’s parents were land owners and extensive slave holders up to the closing of the Civil war, and the fact that
she has by her wonderful industry and foresight reared, educated and developed her children to uniformly successful
pursuits in life is to immense credit and cause for congratulation on her part. It was under her personal management
that in 1909 she purchased a farm six miles from Sulphur Springs and moved to the same for the purpose of restoring
health to two of her sons. It was their first experience at farming, but their products, exhibited took first prize at
the Hopkins County Fair, and second prize at the State Fair in Dallas in 1909. The year following they took first prize
at the State Fair in Dallas, as the best individual exhibit from over the state, having a variety of 123 products. It is
to the credit and honor of the Tapp family that the price of land in Hopkins county has been raised to a higher level -
one evidence of which is found in the fact that their own farm has since been sold for $30. per acre.
James M. Tapp was born in Florence, Lauderdale County, Alabama, in the year 1833. It was in 1857, at the age of twenty-
Mr. Henry Tapp, eldest son, was married to Miss Zerva Pate, daughter of Mr. O. M. Pate, a wealthy hardware merchant in
Sulphur Springs, and they have two sons and one daughter. Mr. Tapp’s furniture and undertaking business is one of the
largest in this city, and commercial and social standing is of the highest order. He belongs to the K. of P., W. O. W.,
Odd Fellows, and is Steward in the M. E. church, in which denomination the mother has reared her children.
James M. Tapp whose name heads this article, is an enterprising young business man of Sulphur Springs, who has made
his own way in the world since he was a small boy of fourteen. He finished his education at Eastman College, clerked in
this father’s store, followed the railway mail service for a few months, was with the Pullman service for two and
Sulphur Springs. He belongs to the Elks and U. B. A.
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