JUDGE DUNCAN G. SMITHJUDGE DUNCAN G. SMITH. A man who has made for himself a place in connection with the activities and honors of life, who has successfully surmounted obstacles and who has gained recognition for intrinsic worth of character is Duncan G. Smith, a leading lawyer of Quanah. He was born in Covington county, Mississippi, in 1849, his parents being W. G. W. and Elizabeth Jane (Graves) Smith, natives respectively of South Carolina and Georgia. The father, who was a planter by occupation, removed from Covington to Lawrence county, Mississippi, where his death occurred in 1889, when he had reached the eighteenth milestone on the journey of life, and there the mother still makes her home, near Monticello. In 1867 Duncan G. Smith left his parents’ home and came to Texas with the idea of becoming a cowboy, and for two years was a cow puncher in the Lampasas country. Those were the pioneer days in that section of the state, and in addition to the bad characters which infested the country, Indian raids were an almost regular occurrence in every light of the moon. Mr. Smith continued his education in this state by attendance at the public schools of Georgetown, there also receiving his legal training, and was admitted to the bar at Belton on the 8th of October, 1872, and from that time until September, 1874, was employed in the office of the county and district clerk at Georgetown. In January, 1875, he opened a law office in that city, there practicing until the latter part of 1884, when he came to northwestern Texas, and January 1, 1885, took up his abode in Hardeman county. At that time Margaret was its county seat, it then including what is now Foard county, and at the time of his arrival there were not over seventy-five voters within its borders. The county had been organized December 31, 1884. The city of Margaret was located on Pease river, about nine miles south of Medicine Mounds, and there Mr. Jones continued in the practice of his profession until January 1, 1890, when he removed to the newly appointed county seat of Quanah. Here he is known as a lawyer of profound erudition and practical ability, and for twelve years has been the local attorney for the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad Company. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma City & Texas Railroad Company, which was built from Quanah to the Red River and which is now a part of the Frisco system, also prepared the original papers for the O., C. & T. Railroad Company and was their general attorney during the life of the corporation. He has on a number of occasions acted as special judge both in the county and district courts. Judge Smith has always been interested in development of Hardeman county and vicinity as a cotton and agricultural country, only deciding to remain here after determining that it was such, and at that time, 1885, the land office at Austin was selling state school lands in lots of from one to seven sections, and in July of that year he appeared before the land board and gave them a description of these lands in northwestern Texas, filing a written protest against further selling except to actual settlers and their purchases limited to one section each. His suggestion prevailed, the land office acting accordingly until the act of 1895 charged the laws so that one person could purchase as high as four sections of school land. In 1890 the Judge erected the two-story brick and stone business building in which his office is now located, on the second floor, and in a general way has been prominent in the up building of Quanah & Mangum Telephone Company, which owns and operates telephone lines from Quanah to Mangum, Eldorado, Kelly, Hollis and other points in Oklahoma. In Georgetown, Judge Smith was united in marriage to Miss Katie L. Miller, and they have four children— Minnie Rufus, Lola, Geraldine and Mittie. He has been an Odd Fellow in good standing since 1874, and has also been a prominent member of the Knights of the Pythias. He was the first chancellor commander of Central Lodge, No. 54, K. P., at Georgetown, was for five years a member of the Grand Tribunal of that order, consisting of three members, and during the last years was chief of the Tribunal. B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 631. |
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