A History of Greater Dallas and Vicinity: Volume 2 Page: 221 of 485

                                
198            GREATER DALLAS AND VICINITY
known as the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and he graduated with its
class of 1876. He made his entrance into business life in a professional
way, as a surveyor and school teacher, in Virginia, but it was not long before
he left that state for Shreveport, Louisiana, and in the same year, that
of 1881, he came to Texas, arriving in Dallas in April. He married Miss
Susie C. Brown, a daughter of his partner in business, F. 0. Brown, and
their four children are Robert Percy, Louis Madison, Frank Kelso and
Virginius.
THOMAS J. WEATHERFORD, president of the Globe Pressed Brick Company,
is one of the leading pioneers and business men of Dallas county, having
resided in the locality since 1846, when his parents brought him hither
as a child of less than five years of age. He has been a citizen of Eerris for
twenty-eight years, during which he has been engaged in mercantile and
land operations and, for the past decade, in the development of the brick
manufacturing industry of the locality. Mr. Weatherford has extensive
realty interests about Ferris, occupies a substantial brick residence as a home
and, although he has never come into notice as a public man, is freely acknowledged
to be a citizen of strong character and wide influence. Born
December 29, 1841, in Macoupin county, Illinois, Thomas J. Weatherford is
a son of Jefferson and Mary (Stadden) Weatherford. His father was a native
of Alabama, born in 1810, and prior to attaining his majority migrated
to the Illinois county named, where he married Miss Stadden, who had come
into Macoupin county with her parents from the former homestead near
Dayton, Ohio. A man of but limited education, Jefferson Weatherford inspired
all his associates with confidence and a conviction of his wisdom in the
practical affairs of life.. In 1846, with his wife and family, he located his
headright just east of Wilmer, which remained the family homestead for the
last twenty-one years of his life. His popularity and an acknowledgment of
his sterling qualities eventually spread far beyond Dallas county, as is evident
by his election to the state senate for the district comprising not only
that county, but Tarrant, Bosque, Johnson and Parker. His services and
his individuality made an impression on that body, which honored him by
christening the county seat of Parker county with his name. Considerably
past middle life at the outbreak of the Civil war, he was so earnest in his
support of the Southern cause that he insisted in joining the Confederate
service as a member of Colonel Darnall's regiment. Late in life he became
interested in spiritual matters, and died in 1867, a devout member of the
Baptist church. His wife had died on the family homestead near Wilmer in
1851, and the parents lie buried together in the Stadden cemetery. Jefferson
Weatherford had been married three times, having five children by
his first marriage, all now dead, and the following three by his second
union: Thomas J., of this sketch; Milberry, who married a Mr. Capewell
and resides in Dallas county; and Mary, who became the wife of S. C.
Weatherford and died in the county.. His third wife was formerly Sarah
Neelev, who bore him the following: Seth, a resident of W    oilmer; Ellen,
who is the widow of David Lovett and the wife of a Mr. Samuels, also