A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas Page: 137

                                
LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNC ETIS ,.

moved here in 1846 from Madison county,
Illinois, where Mrs. Beaton was born and
partly reared, being only a girl when her
parents came to Texas.   Her father is
most pleasantly remembered by many of
the old citizens of the county, who attended
his meeting more than forty years ago, and
members of her family are still to be found
among some of the county's most prominent
and best people. Major Beaton and
his wife have had but three children, two
sons and a daughter, all of whom are grown.
Their eldest son, Ralph, is a member of the
firm of Damon, Beaton & Co., real-estate
dealers, insurance agents and brokers, of
Corsicana.  Their only daughter, Mrs.
Mary Kate Johnson, is the wife of Dr. S.
W. Johnson, a prominent physician of Corsicana,
a sketch of whom appears in this
volume. Thomas Ruffin, named in honor
of the old friend previously mentioned in
this sketch, is bookkeeper in the office of
Damon, Beaton & Co., aforesaid.
The major is probably the oldest Mason
in the county, having been made a Master
Mason in 1850, in the first lodge ever held
in Corsicana, by General E. H. Tarrant, a
distinguished and glorious old  Texan,
beloved by everybody, between whom
and the major there existed the closest
intimacy. Tarrant county is named after
him  and in his honor.   Major Beaton
never was an office-seeker, and was constitutionally
averse to office-seeking.  His
individual independence of thought and
action forbade it, the scramble for office
he always detested, and pitied the scramblers.
"The glorious privilege of being
independent," in honorable retirement
away from the crowd, with his books, se9

renity of mlind and1l  Ulpright eonlscisitece and
peace have been for many years his beau
ideal of hlapines,,  t iue liviIg, and true
life.
J UDGE) SAMUEL R. FnosT was born in
Montgomery   county, Texas, March 1,
1846, and was brought by his parents to
Navarro county the same year. He was
reared on his father's farm in the western
part of tle county and received his early
education in the common schools of that
locality. In 1863, at the age of seventeen,
he entered the Confederate army, enlisting
in Company I, Nineteenth Texas Cavalry,
and served as a private in Arkansas, Missouri
and Louisiana, until the close of the
war. In 1867 and 1868 he attended school
at Alvarado, Texas. March 1, 1869, he
began reading law  under Judge C. M.
Winkler, and in October, 1870, was admitted
to the bar at Corsicana before
Judge F. P. Wood. In 1871 he was appointed
county attorney of Navarro county
and served in that capacity till removed by
the provisional governor as an impediment
to reconstruction. In 1876 he was elected
county judge of Navarro county and held
that office two years. In 1878 he was
elected to the Sixteenth Legislature, representing
Navarro county in that body. In
1886 he was appointed by Governor Ireland
judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District,
to fill a vacancy caused by the death of
Judge L. D. Bradley, and after serving
that term out he was elected to the same
position and held it for two years. In the
meantime he was elected floater for the flotorial
district composed of the counties of
Johnson, Hill, Ellis and Navarro, and
served in the Twenty-first Legislature.

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