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Source: A HISTORY OF TEXAS AND
TEXANS, Vol 3 - by Francis White Johnson
Written in 1913
James C.
Wootters.
Any piece of biographical writing should
be both an impression and an interpretation, quite as much as a
mere summary of facts. Facts, to be sure, are of use as a
wholesome corrective of prejudice or whimsy; but in the
condensed narrative of a life there is danger that they may
tyrannize. In studying a clean-cut, sane, distinct character
like that of the late Major James C. Wootters, interpretation
follows fact in a straight line of derivation. There is small
need for indirection or puzzling. His character was the positive
expression of a strong and loyal nature, and his strength was as
the number of his days. His name looms large in connection with
the civic and industrial development and up-building of the Lone
Star state, where he established his home fully sixty years ago
and where he made his influence definitely felt during the
pioneer era of formative policies and activities, as did he also
during the latter days of magnificent and opulent advancement.
In a work of the province assigned to the one at hand it is
imperative, as a matter of consistency, that an outline of his
career be given, marked, as it was, by splendid achievement, and
guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and
honor.
Major James C. Wootters was born in Queen Anne county, on the
east shore of the state of Maryland, and the date of his
nativity was April 20, 1830 (headstone in Glenwood Cemetery,
Crockett, Houston Co., TX shows January 20, 1830), so that he
was seventy-four years of age when he was summoned from the
stage of his mortal endeavors, at his home in the city of
Crockett, Houston county, Texas, on the 12th of July, 1904,
after a life replete with usefulness and honor. He was a son of
Ezekiel C. and Mary (Downs) Wootters, both of whom were likewise
natives of Maryland, where the respective families were founded
in the colonial era and where the parents continued to reside
until their death. In his native commonwealth Major Wootters was
accorded excellent educational advantages, and during all the
years of his long and prolific life he was a student of books,
of men and of affairs,—a man of broad mental ken and mature
judgment. A dominating personality was his and he could not long
remain obscure or dependent, for action was as the breath of his
life in his youth as well as in later years of prodigious
achievement. In 1853 he joined the vast concourse of Argonauts
who were making their way to the newly discovered gold fields of
California, and he made the voyage down the Atlantic coast,
through the Gulf of Mexico and thence proceeded across the
Isthmus of Panama, and secured passage on one of the early
vessels transporting the gold-seekers to the New Eldorado. He
encountered his quota of dangerous and novel experiences in the
wilds and the rude mining camps, but his quest for the precious
metal in the placer mines proved of negative order, with the
result that he soon set forth for the east.
He continued his eastward journey only as
far as Texas and arrived at Crockett, Houston county, on the 8th
of October, 1853. Little could he have anticipated at the time
how great success he was destined to achieve in the great state
to which he came as a youth with but meager resources of
financial order, but with a full equipment of energy,
determination and ambition. For several years he was employed in
a clerical capacity by Colonel Long, one of the pioneer business
men and influential citizens of Crockett, and in the meanwhile
he made careful survey of the situation, manifested great
circumspection in his sizing up of resources and opportunities,
and finally engaged in the mercantile business on his own
responsibility. He soon gained secure status as one of the
foremost merchants of the progressive little city, and with its
rapid growth and development he not only kept pace but also
proved a leader in the forward movements along both industrial
and civic lines. He built up a large and important retail
mercantile business and with the same he continued to be
actively identified until the time of his death, this enterprise
having been established by him shortly after the close of the
Civil war. Through the business noted Major Wootters formed the
nucleus of his really great fortune, but his greatest financial
advancement was gained through his extensive and judicious
investments in real estate. At the time of his death he was the
largest landholder and individual taxpayer in Houston county, as
well as one of the largest in the entire state. His estate at
the time of his demise included more than thirty-three thousand
acres of land, besides much city realty, stock and personal
property. The greater part of his land was in Houston county,
but he also had holdings of valuable order in the counties of
Trinity, Henderson, Leon, Galveston, Young, Hall, San Augustine,
Jack, Haskell, Wise, Anderson, Montgomery, Angelina and
others,—a statement that in a measure indicates the wide scope
of his operations and the important part taken by him in the
development of the resources of the state. He conducted
extensive farming and stock-growing operations and was known and
honored as one of the most liberal, loyal and public spirited
citizens of his home county. He had at all times a deep and
abiding faith in the great future of the Lone Star state, and he
was an influential factor in virtually every progressive
movement and enterprise projected in his home county along the
line of social and industrial advancement. He was never
self-centered but in all of his business activities he had due
appreciation of his stewardship and sought to make them definite
conservators of general prosperity in the community. He served
for a number of years as president of the First National Bank of
Crockett, and in a quiet and absolutely unostentatious way he
gave liberal support to charitable and benevolent objects and
movements, the while his private benefactions were many and
timely, even as they were generally known only to himself and
the recipients of his sympathetic largess.
Major Wootters had the distinction of being elected the first
mayor of Crockett and about a score of years after his original
administration, when the old corporation was revived, he was
again made the popular choice for the office of chief executive
of the municipal government, the affairs of which he
administered with discrimination, and with the business-like
policies which he had made potent in his private affairs. He was
in no sense a politician, but he gave unqualified allegiance to
the Democratic party, and he served at one time as
representative of Houston county in the state legislature, in
response to insistent popular demands. He was most loyal in the
supporting of the cause of the Confederacy during the progress
of the Civil war and in the latter period of the same he served
as a soldier in a Texas regiment, with which he saw arduous
service and with which he continued until the close of the war.
He and his wife were most zealous members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and he was chairman of the building
committee that had supervision of the erection of the present
fine edifice of the First Church of this denomination in
Crockett.
One of the dominating interests in the life of Major Wootters
was his deep and appreciative love for the time honored Masonic
fraternity, of whose history and teachings he was an earnest
student and whose exalted precepts he followed in his daily
life. For more than half a century he was actively affiliated
with Lothrop Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, and
of Trinity Chapter, No. 4, Royal Arch Masons. He filled every
office in each of these bodies and to many of the official
chairs he was elected several times. He was a most regular
attendant of the meetings of the lodge and chapter, and his
noble character and generous sympathy gained to him a peculiarly
intimate place in the regard of the fraternity. This was most
effectually shown in the beautiful memorial tribute paid to him
by his lodge at the time of his death,—a tribute of appreciation
and honor and affection that could have been accorded to none
who was not worthy of the same. He was an influential figure in
the affairs of Masonry in Texas and received the unique
distinction of being made a life member of the Texas grand lodge
of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons by the unanimous resolution of
that body. This honor has had no precedent or subsequent
repetition in Texas and probably in no other state in the Union.
This splendid tribute was accorded to Major Wootters as a token
of fraternal appreciation of his long and zealous service as a
member of the grand lodge, and his liberal and earnest work in
promoting and establishing at Fort Worth the splendid home for
widows and orphans of Masons. He attended the sessions of the
Texas grand lodge and grand chapter with regularity for more
than thirty years and for twenty years he served as a member of
the finance committee of the latter, having been chairman of
this committee at the time of his death. He was lovingly
referred to as the corner-stone of the Masonic grand lodge of
the state which he signally honored and dignified by his exalted
character and services.
On the 7th of June, 1860, was solemnized the marriage of Major
Wootters to Mrs. Emilv Mildred Long, widow of Col. L. Long, of
Crockett. She was born in Louisiana and her maiden name was
Emily Mildred Cash. Mrs. Wootters was a woman of most gentle and
gracious personality and her memory is revered by all who came
within the compass of her influence. She was summoned to eternal
rest on the 8th of November, 1898, at the age of fifty-seven
years, and her remains rest beside those of her honored husband.
Major Wootters, in the beautiful cemetery at Crockett. Of the
six children only two are now living—Andrew H. and Robert H.,
both of whom are associated in the management of the vast estate
left by their father. Two of the children, Annie Eliza and Eva,
died in infancy. Nannie became the wife of Dr. John Markham, of
Decatur, this state, and after her death one of her children,
John, was reared in the home of his grandparents, Major and Mrs.
Wootters. James C. Wootters, Jr., was about twenty-nine years of
age at the time of his death; and Mary B. died at the age of
about forty years. Andrew H. and Robert H. Wootters are"
admirably upholding the prestige of the honored name which they
bear and are numbered among the most progressive and influential
business men of their native city, with commanding place in the
esteem of the people among whom they have lived all their lives.
Both received most liberal educational advantages, including
those of the historic old Washington & Lee University, at
Lexington, Virginia. It was while a student in this institution
that Robert H. Wootters formed the acquaintance of the beautiful
and accomplished young woman who is now his wife. Her maiden
name was Lucy Mildred Smith and she was born and reared in
Rapabannock county, Virginia, where her father was an extensive
planter and stock-raiser and a citizen of distinctive prominence
and influence. The one child of this union is a winsome little
daughter, Corrie Mildred Elizabeth, who was born in the
picturesque little city of Culpeper, Virginia, on the 16th of
November, 1910. Robert H. Wootters is affiliated with the
same Masonic lodge and chapter as was his honored father, and of
the latter he is high priest at the time of this writing, in
1913. He is found arrayed as a stalwart in the local camp of the
Democratic party, with naught of ambition for public office, and
both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant
Episcopal church, in which they hold membership in the local
parish of Palestine, Texas.
Andrew H. Wootters
Andrew H. Wootters, the elder of the two
brothers, and who has just recently moved to San Antonio, Texas,
is a man of distinctive originality and independence in thought
and action and he has shown special interest in the developing
of his home county along industrial and commercial lines. He has
undoubtedly done more to make Houston county a center of
successful horticulture than has any other one man. He shipped
the first carload of Irish potatoes ever sent out from this
county and was also a prominent factor in the development of the
lignite coal fields in this county. Besides being a valued
frater of Lothrop Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons,
and Trinity Chapter, No. 4, Royal Arch Masons, he is also a
member of Trinity Commandery, Knights Templers, at Huntsville,
this state, and is a member of the finance committee of the
Masonic grand lodge of Texas, in which office he succeeded his
father at the time of the latter's death. He is a close student
of Christian Science and is deeply interested in its teachings,
his wife and daughter being members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. On the 28th of June, 1894, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Wootters to Miss Byrde Eastman, daughter of
Byrde Eastman, an honored citizen of Huntsville, Texas, and she
is a popular and representative factor in the leading social
activities of her home city. Of the two children born, Byrde E.,
died in infancy; and Delia Mildred, who was born September 7,
1900, upon the date of the great storm and flood that brought
disaster to the city of Galveston, Texas, is attending the
public schools of San Antonio.
Note: Della Mildred Wootters Craddock is
buried in the Glenwood Cemetery, Crockett, TX.
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