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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

BARNETT GIBBS,
DALLAS.

Hon. Barnett Gibbs, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of
Texas, ex-member of the State Senate and now,
and for many years, a prominent figure in public
life in Texas, was born in Yazoo City, Miss., May
19, 1851. His parents were Judge D. D. and Mrs.
Sallie Dorsey Gibbs, of that State. He is a grandson
of Gen. George W. Gibbs, of Tennessee. He
received his literary education at Spring Hill
College, Mobile, Ala., and at the University of
Virginia, and his professional education at the Law
School at Lebanon, Tenn. He came to Texas in
1873, and located at Dallas, his present home. The
citizens of Dallas early showed their appreciation
of Mr. Gibbs' legal talent by electing him City
Attorney. This position he held during a period of
six years. He was then elected to the State Senate,
made a splendid record, and was later nominated
by the Democracy and elected to the position of
Lieutenant-Governor. This office he filled from
1882 to 1886, during Ireland's administration.
Col. Gibbs is the youngest Lieutenant-Governor
Texas ever had, the youngest acting Governor, the
youngest Senator, and represented the largest senatorial
district in the State. His friends, recognizing
in him the requisite qualities to represent the
State with creditable ability, brought him out for
Congress, and he made the race for the Democratic
nomination against Hon. Olin Wellborn. The contest
resulted in locking the convention, and, as
usual, a compromise was effected by bringing in
the traditional "dark horse," named by Gibbs,
who withdrew in favor of Hon. Jo Abbott, who
received the nomination.
Col. Gibbs is a prominent Odd Fellow, being
Past Grand Master of the order in Texas.
His wife was Miss Sallie Haynes, a daughter of
the late J. W. Haynes. He was one of the principal
and most effective workers in the movements
that resulted in Deep-Water conventions being held
in Fort Worth, Denver, Topeka and elsewhere, and
the Federal Congress making suitable appropriations
for securing deep-water harbors on the Texas
coast. He has been a liberal contributor to railroads
and every worthy enterprise designed for the
upbuilding of his section and the State at large.
As a lawyer, he stands deservedly high, and through
his practice and good financiering, he has accumulated
a comfortable fortune.
Enjoying a large personal and political following,
possessed of remarkable qualities as a statesman
and politician and being a powerful and magnetic
speaker and a polished and trenchant writer, he
has wielded a wide influence in shaping the course
of public events in Texas. He has at all times
shown himself a friend of the people and a champion
of the cause of good government.

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DAVID M. LEVEL,
LAREDO.

The subject of this brief memoir is one of the
few Texas veterans who still survive to relate to
the historian for the benefit of coming generations
the experiences of pioneer life on the Southwestern
frontier. With the rapid flight of years they have
one by one been passing away and if the story is
not gleaned now it will soon pass out of human
memory. Col. Level came to Texas at a time
when there was great need for young men of his
stamp. He is a native of the Old Dominion (State
of Virginia) and was born at White Sulphur

Springs, in a portion of the State since set off as
West Virginia, January 1st, 1824.
His father, James Level, was a mason by trade,
a native of County Down, Ireland, and came to
America at about twenty-one years of age a single
man and located in Virginia. He married Miss
Nancy McClure, a daughter of David McClure, at
her father's house in Green Briar County, where
she was born in the year 1798.
Mr. and Mrs. Level had two sons and two daughters,
of whom the subject of this notice was the