Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 311 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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268
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
J. J. JARVIS,
FORT WORTH.James Jones Jarvis was born in Surry County,
N. C., April 30th, 1831, and received his education
in that State, Tennessee and Illinois, his
parents, Daniel and Lydia Jarvis, having moved to
Illinois when he was about twenty years of age.
He read law with Hon. W. B. Somers, of Arbana,
Ill., wrote in the clerk's office at the same time to
acquaint himself with the machine work of practice;
was granted license by the Supreme Court of Illinois,
in 1856; then started South and reached Shreveport,
La., and in the winter of that year determined to
go to Texas. He at first thought that he would buy a
horse to travel on; but, only having $100, realized
that such a purchase would too greatly diminish his
scanty supply of cash, and started out afoot;
walked from Shreveport to the east fork of the
Trinity river in Collin County, and then, doubling
back on his course, went to Quitman, in Wood
County, located there and began the practice of his
profession. When he reached the town he had sixty
dollars and, loaning fifty-five dollars to a friend,
commenced his career with only five dollars in his
pocket. He soon won an enviable standing at the
bar, served for two years as county judge and two
years as district attorney of the Sixth Judicial District;
returned to the practice of law and in 1872
went to Fort Worth, where he has since resided.
Having saved a few thousand dollars, he invested
all he had in real estate and is now one of the
largest tax-payers in Tarrant County. He owns
one of the finest business blocks in the city, $40,000
stock in the Fort Worth National Bank, of which
he is vice-president, five thousand acres of land
ten miles north of the city, other valuable country
property and one hundred acres adjoining the city,
on which he has an elegant residence. He has
quite a passion for stock-raising and is engaged
in raising fine cattle and horses on his ranch near
town.
In 1861 Mr.'Jarvis entered the Confederate army
as a volunteer in Company A., Tenth Regiment of
Texas cavalry, Ector's brigade, Van Dorn's corps,
Beauregard's Army of Tennessee, and served as
Adjutant and Major of his regiment. After the
battle of Corinth the troops with which he was connected
were transferred to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and
Mr. Jarvis served with that army and took part in
its battles through the whole of Gel. Smith's campaign
in Kentucky, participating in the battlesaround Richmond, Ky., and other engagements.
On the evacuation of Kentucky and after joining
Gen. Bragg, he was also in the battles of Murfreesboro
and Jackson, Miss. In the former battle
he was slightly wounded, but did not leave the
field. He came home just before the close of hostilities
on furlough, and was at home when the
Confederate armies surrendered.
Mr. Jarvis was married in 1866 to Miss Ida Van
Zandt, daughter of Isaac Van Zandt, once Minister
from Texas to the United States and who was appointed
by Gen. Sam Houston to negotiate the
treaty under which Texas became a member of the
American Union of States. They have three living
children: Van Zandt, Daniel Bell and Lennie
Flynn.
Mr. Jarvis has always been an active and earnest
Democrat, believing that upon the triumph and successful
application of the principles of that organization
depends the perpetuity of free institutions in
this country. Although never in any sense an
office-seeker, he has not hesitated to serve his people
when it was thought that his experience
and abilities could be employed in the promotion
of the general good. He was nominated in
1886 by the Democracy of the twentieth senatorial
districts composed of the counties of Tarrant,
Parker, Wise and Jack, and was elected
by a majority of twelve hundred votes. In the
regular and extra sessions of the Twentieth Legislature
and in the Twenty-first Legislature, he was
Chairman of the Committee on Finance (perhaps
the most important of all the standing commitees),
second on Judiciary Committee No. 1 (the next
most important), and a member of the committees
on Internal Improvements, Education, Public
Debt, Frontier Protection, Retrenchment and
Reform and Engrossed Bills, committees that with
those already enumerated transact nine-tenths of
the business that comes before the Senate. He was
the author of a number of salutary laws during
these sessions, among others one enacted by the
Twentieth Legislature requiring assessors and
collectors to report monthly their collections under
oath and requiring them to send all money collected
directly to the treasurer of the State instead of to
the comptroller, as formerly. The effect of this
bill was the speedy collection of a surplus in a
previously depleted treasury. Although he had
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/311/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.