JUDGE NEWTON F. LOCKE
JUDGE NEWTON F. LOCKE, prominent merchant of Miami county and county judge of
Roberts county, holds a premier position among the pioneer citizens of the
great Texas Panhandle. For over a quarter of a century he has been closely
identified with the life and affairs of this section of the state, and his
influence and prosperity have increased with the years. The industrial and
commercial phases of the region have not alone felt the impetus of his energy
and enterprise, for he has almost from the first taken an active part in
public affairs and has often been the incumbent of some important office.
Judge Locke has always lived in the sunny south, and though a man just in the
prime of his years he has had a varied and earnestly active and useful career.
He was born near Selma, in Dallas county, Alabama, January 13, 1853, being a
son of William F. and Elizabeth (Brazeal) Locke. His parents
were both natives of Alabama, and his father lost his life while serving the
cause of the south in the armies of the Confederacy.
Reared on a farm, Judge Locke spent the first twenty-one years of his life in
his native state, and in 1874 came to Texas where for over thirty years he has
centered his activities. His first location was in Dallas, where for a year he
was employed in the mercantile firm of Leonard Brothers. He then moved to
Jacksboro in Jack county and was in a store there for about a year. It will be
remembered that the seventies were still a period of Indian trouble and
depredation for the Texas frontier, along which at that time Jack and Young
counties still lay, and these especially suffered from the ravages of the
redskins. Accordingly the Texas Rangers, that famous body of state troops of
whom Texas history will never cease to speak, where kept pretty busy, and Mr.
Locke joined the organization under Lieutenant Hamilton. General John B. Jones
being in command of the battalion. For two years he was in the exciting and
arduous service of the Rangers in the frontier counties from the Red river
southward.
In the spring of 1879 Mr. Locke came out to Wheeler county, which was the
first county to be organized in the Panhandle, and the organization was
effected that very year. He located at Mobeetie, the county seat. At that time
all the counties north of the Red river in the Panhandle were attached to
Wheeler for judicial purposes, and in the year of Mr. Locke's coming the
nearest justice of the peace was at Henrietta in Clay county. In 1884, when
the second regular election after the organization of Wheeler county occurred,
Mr. Locke was elected clerk of the county and district courts, and received
three successive re-elections, so that he held the office for eight years. He
remained a resident of Wheeler county until 1894, and early in that year came
to Miami in Roberts county. After engaging in the mercantile business for a
while he sold out, and was then on his ranch three years. In 1901 be bought
back into the mercantile business, and has since been numbered among the
enterprising merchants of the town of Miami. His well known firm is the N. F.
Locke and Son, his son, Newton, being the associate in the business. In
Roberts county also Mr. Locke has been publicly active, having served one term
as county treasurer, and in 1902 was elected to the office of county judge for
a term of two years. He was re-elected in 1904.
A man of the highest character and standing, with a most creditable record in
every enterprise he has undertaken since be became a resident of this section
of the state, Mr. Locke is greatly esteemed by all who know him and has
wielded his influence in the right direction for public progress and
prosperity. Fraternally he is a Mason and Odd Fellow. In 1881 he was married
in Young county to Miss Dora Barton, and they are the parents of four
fine sons, named respectively, Claude, who is a merchant at Allanreed,
this state, Newton, William and Clarence.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West
Texas, Vol. I (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), pp. 298-299.
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