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JAMES McDONOUGH MADDOX. In the subject of this notice is presented an ex-sheriff of Jack county and a retired farmer, whose residence within the county dates from the year 188o, when he settled on Keechie creek, thirteen miles south of the county seat. For twenty years he was engaged in stock-farming, four years of which time he was grazing his cattle on the range south of Carlsbad, New Mexico, disposing of his marketable product largely where it was made ready for sale. Since taking up his residence in Jacksboro, however, his interests have extended to farming his land and to the care of the few stock necessary to graze off a small tract. From 1880 to 1888 the firm of Maddox & Van Slyke were well known in the south part of Jack county, Mr. Van Slyke having established himself there prior to the entry of Mr. Maddox to the county. In 1886 the firm drove a bunch of cattle to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to market and Mr. Maddox succeeded the firm two years later and conducted its affairs without special incident the succeeding twelve years. Mr. Maddox came to Texas from Claibourn parish, Louisiana, where he grew up, but his birth occurred in Throop county, Georgia, July 26, 1843. His father was Edward Maddox, born in Cumberland county, Virginia, in 1799, and his grandfather, Notley Maddox, was for six years and a half in the artillery service during the Revolutionary war. The latter took his family into North Carolina and settled on the Yadkin river in the early part of the nineteenth century and he died there. the father of John, who died in Putnam county, Georgia, as did his brother, Alexander; Edward, who died in Claibourn parish, Louisiana, in 1866; Notley, who passed away in Harris county, Georgia; Samuel, of East Texas, and Mrs. Emily Saddler, who passed away in Putnam county, Georgia. Edward Maddox led a plain country life, was limitedly schooled as a youth and settled in Georgia. He acquired slave property, as was the custom of the thrifty farmer of the south before the war. He removed to Louisiana, and there his life ended. He was a Whig in politics in early life, and was a member of the Methodist church for seventy-eight years and a devout Christian. He married Frances Sale, who died in Arkansas in 1872, and their children were: William A., whose life ended in Fort Worth in 1904, was an Arkansas colonel in the Confederate army; Robert F., who died at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1899, was colonel of the Forty-second Georgia during the war; Semantha E., wife of Thomas Scott, of Atlanta, Arkansas; Payton P., adjutant of the Ninth Louisiana Confederate service, died in Fort Worth in 1873; Bettie J. died in Harris county, Georgia, in 1859, as Mrs. Dr. Wallace, and James M., of this notice. On the farm in Georgia and in Louisiana our subject came to mature years and in the rural schools he obtained his education, concluding his school career even after the war. At the age of seventeen he enlisted at Camp Moore, Louisiana, in 1861, in Company I, Seventeenth Louisiana, Colonel S. S. Hurd, and fought at Shiloh and Port Gibson and was surrrendered by General Pemberton at Vicksburg, paroled and later exchanged and the regiment was re-organized west of the Mississippi river, but no more engagements were participated in and when the breakup came he went back to civil life on the farm. Remaining in Louisiana until 1872, Mr. Maddox then came to Texas and passed a year in Fannin county. Going then to Fort Worth he engaged in the livery business on Rusk street, the firm being W. & J. Maddox, and after seven years there he came to Jack county and bought land and took up the stock business on Keechi as already narrated above. October 29, 1872, in Bonham, Texas, Mr. Maddox married Frances A. White, a daughter of Richard and Sarah (Snead) White. The father was born in Georgia, moved to Louisiana and was a farmer. Mrs. Maddox was born in Georgia November 1, 1849, and is one of five children and the only one living. The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Maddox: Pearl, who died in February, 1905, as the wife of E. H. Harlin; Albert Payton, of Denton county, Texas; Maud, wife Frank E. Graham, of Jacksboro; Walter, who married Maggie Oats and resides on his father’s farm, as does Richard W.; Sallie V. and John W. are at the parental home. In his political relations to Jack county Mr. Maddox has always taken a lively interest and in 1900 he was elected sheriff and collector and served two years. He then went into the grocery business in Jacksboro and later into the grain business, but is now retired.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. I, p. 340-341.
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