CAPTAIN RICHARD W. HYDECAPTAIN RICHARD W. HYDE, the well known hardware merchant of Iowa Park, Wichita county, has been identified with the business life of this town almost since its inception, and as a Texas is one of the oldest and foremost citizens, this state having been his home practically all the time since boyhood. He was born in Rutherford county, Tennessee, in 1840, being a son of Jordan W. and Melinda (Davis) Hyde. His father was a Tennesseean by birth, and from that state enlisted for service in the Mexican war, after the conclusion of which he located in Texas. During this time he lost his wife, the mother of Captain Hyde, and in 1854 the father located here after the Mexican war and his two sons came to Texas and located in Clarksville, in Red River county, where the father engaged in the mercantile business and became a large and prosperous merchant and trader. That was before the railroads penetrated that section, and his goods were shipped up the Red river from New Orleans as far as Shreveport, and thence freighted across the country to California, but remained there only a short time. After becoming well established at Clarksville he started a branch store at Sulphur Springs, Texas, and did a flourishing business at both places for some time before the war. During the rebellion he supplied cattle to the Confederate army, but during that period his fortune was largely sacrificed, and when peace came he entered into the cattle business. In November, 1879, while he was taking a shipment of cattle north, his train went down with the bridge across the Missouri river at St. Charles and he was killed. He was a resourceful and well known man, was influential in affairs, and was generally successful. Captain Hyde was a boy when he came to Texas with his father, and he learned the mercantile business under the latter’s direction. He was just of age when the Civil war broke out, and he at once joined the army at Clarksville, although he did not regularly enlist there. He fought for the southern cause throughout the war, and is one of the Confederate veterans whose service extended over nearly four years. From Clarksville he went to Missouri with a lot of McCullough’s men, and enlisted in Benton county, that state, in the Seventh Missouri Cavalry, Company K. He was under General Price, and when that general went east he was one of the twenty-two hundred soldiers who were sent back from Helena, Arkansas, to Missouri. During the war his services were confined to Arkansas, Missouri and Indian Territory. He was under Colonel Marmaduke and General Jo Shelby, when the latter was a captain, and was with the former at the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, fighting against Phillips; he was with Colonel Coffee at the Lone Jack engagement, on which occasion he was struck by a sabre and his forehead still bears the scar from this wound. Especially bitter was the war in Missouri, where the hostile feeling was at fever heat and where neighbor was against neighbor and even members of the same family in deadly feud. He was captured a number of times during his military experience, and had many narrow and thrilling escapes. When the war was over he went into the cattle business, and in the summer of 1865 he set out for Montana, where he arrived that fall. The exciting times of discovery were then at their height in that territory, and he was at Alder Gulch (Virginia City) soon after the discovery of the precious metal at that place, as also in other noted mining camps in that state. Western life with all its free and rough features became very familiar to him, and more than once he saw the quick and effective work of the vigilantes. While there he was mainly concerned with the cattle trade, and he continued in Montana and neighboring territories for about fifteen years. At one time he had for a partner Captain William F. Drannan, a noted frontiersman, and they had become acquainted at Salt Lake City. Captain Drannan, in his “Thirty-one Years on the Frontier,” speaks very highly of Captain Hyde. Though many years have elapsed since Mr. Hyde was in Montana, he still has friends there, and is also owner of a half interest in the Boaz gold mine near Virginia City. After leaving Montana Captain Hyde went to Mills county, Iowa, and engaged in farming and the cattle-feeding business, and while there he was married to Miss Colona Wearin, a member of the Wearin family who are noted for being the largest landholders in southwestern Iowa. Captain Hyde lived in Mills county from 1879 to 1889, and in the latter years came to Texas and located at his present home town of Iowa Park. Here he bought some land, was engaged in trading and loaning money until 1893, when he established his hardware store. With the exception of two years he has been in this business ever since, and now has as partner Jesse Tanner, a young man who formerly worked for him, the firm name being Hyde and Tanner. The maiden name of Captain Hyde’s present wife is Sarah Isabel Powers, and they were married in Texas. He has three children, all living in Mills county, Iowa, namely: Mrs. Olive Swayne, Otha Hyde and Othello Hyde. Captain Hyde is a Mason, and a popular man among all his many friends and business associates. B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 161-162. |
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