Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 824 of 894

710

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

The childhood and youth of A. L. Matlock were
passed in Blount County, Tenn., to which county
his parents moved during his infancy. He grew
up on a farm; attended school and completed his
education at Ewing and Jefferson College, Tenn.,
from which institution he graduated with the class
of 1870. Desiring to qualify himself for the bar,
he prosecuted the study of the law under Judges
Green and Carruthers at the law school at Lebanon,
Tenn., from which he graduated with distinction
in 1872. In the same year he was admitted to
practice, being at that time twenty years of age,
and located in Loudon, Tenn., where he opened an
office and pursued his profession until the fall of
1873, and then moved to Texas and settled at Montague,
where he soonbuilt up a large and paying practice
and gave evidence of those superior qualities of
mind and that thorough grounding in the principles
and practice of law which have since enabled him to
achieve eminence in the profession. Mr. Matlock
continued to reside in Montague until 1889, and
then moved to Fort Worth, where he has since been
successfully engaged in practice, winning with the
passage of each year brighter laurels. He has had
to meet the best forensic talent in the legal arena,
but the most redoubtable have found him a foeman
worthy of their steel. He is considered a conscientious,
painstakiig, learned and able lawyer.
In 1876 Mr. Matlock was united in marriage
to Miss Annie Herbert, of Denton, Texas,
daughter of Dr. C. L. Herbert, a native of Tennessee.
She died a year later and in 1879 Mr.
Matlock married Miss Alice Hyatt,born in Missouri,
a daughter of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Clara (Weaver)
Hyatt, who came to Texas in 1878. Mrs. Matlock
is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, and is a lady of many social and Christian
graces, and admired by a wide circle of friends, in
the city of Fort Worth and throughout Texas.
Mr. Matlock served as County Attorney of

Montague County from 1876 to 1878, during which
time he made a State reputation as a fearless and
successful prosecuting attorney. It was during
this time that many of the most notorious murder
cases in the State were tried and convictions
secured, notably the Krebs, Preston and Brown
cases.
In 1880 Mr. Matlock was elected to the State
Legislature from the district comprising Wise
County, and a contiguous section north of the
Texas and Pacific Railway. In that body he
served as Chairman of the House Committee on
Public Lands and Land Office, and succeeded in
securing the passage of several bills relating to the
public domain, that have resulted in great benefit
to that section of the State. In 1882 he was elected
to the State Senate, and served in that body for a
period of two years. In 1884 he was nominated by
the Democracy, made an active canvass, and was
elected a presidential elector and cast his vote for
Grover Cleveland. The Clark and Hogg gubernatorial
campaign was one of the most hotly contested
that has been fought in Texas since its
existence as a State. Both sides selected their
best men to lead in and manage the battle. Mr.
Matlock was selected as the chairman of the Clark
Democracy, and managed the forces at his disposal
with a skill and brilliancy that gained him a
national reputation as a political leader. Since
1887 he has represented the Capital Syndicate and
other large interests, and now enjoys a large and
lucrative practice. As a lawyer he has few equals
at the Texas bar. In social life he is genial and
engaging, and as a citizen he has sought to do his
duty faithfully and fearlessly as he has seen it, and
it is not surprising that he should occupy a place
among the foremost Texians of to-day. This success
has come to him as a result of correct living
and unremitting labor, and is well worth what it
has cost in self-denial and time expended.

. .

W. L. DAVIDSON,
GEORGETOWN.

Hon. W. L. Davidson, Associate Justice of the
State Court of Criminal Appeals, and a jurist whose
labors have done much to cause the Texas reports
to take higher rank in other States, is a native of
Mississippi. He was born at Grenada, in that

State, November 5, 1845; moved to Texas in 1851
with his parents, Rev. Asbury and Mrs. Mary M.
Davidson, who settled at Gonzales; was educated
at Gonzales College and Stonewall Institute, and
was admitted to the bar in 1871. December 22,