The subject of this memoir passed away while in the prime and vigor of life, and while approaching the zenith of a successful career in the stock business in Clay county. He was a representative of an old Cooke county family which was first established in Montague county when hostile Indians frequented there, and in the fear of ultimate annihilation by these marauders the family withdrew into Cooke county, where the parents afterward remained and where their children grew up. From 1882 till his death, April 30, 1888, Mr. Edwards was an enthusiastic and industrious stock raiser, and his early demise terminated a career of much usefulness and promise in his community.
August 28, 1858, George W. Edwards was born. His father was a Texas pioneer from the state of Tennessee and in Montague county he married Zelitha Raines who died in Cooke county in 1883, her husband having passed away many years before. Of the issue of these parents George W. was the oldest; then Maggie, wife of Charles Wood, of Arapaho county, Oklahoma; Clayborn B., and Dr. Albert Edwards, president of the Merchants and Planters’ Bank of Henrietta.
George W. Edwards was limitedly educated in the rural schools and upon the approach of manhood began to deal and traffic in young cattle. When he had acquired a small bunch he brought them to the open country of Clay county, establishing himself southwest of Buffalo Springs where he bought the Enoch Sloan farm, settled by Mr. Blackwell. In time he fenced the land and proceeded to make it an improved farm as well as a cow ranch. He added to it in area, as time swept by, getting together an estate of seven hundred and fifty-five acres before he was carried off by the fatal typhoid of 1888. Two years after his advent to Clay county, he returned to Cooke county and was married, July 20, 1884, and in the few years in which his genius was permitted to display itself, he laid the foundation for a competence sufficient to maintain his widow while her young sons were growing up and taking their stations by her side in the active operations of their estate.
Mrs. Edwards was, prior to her marriage, Miss Mary E. Parmley, born in Wayne county, Kentucky, May 15, 1864. In 1869 her father, Alai Parmley, came to Texas and settled in Cooke county where he died in 1872 at forty years of age. His wife was Miss Norfleet, yet in Cooke county, and their children were: Sallie, wife of William Craft, of Lamar county; Minnie, who married Jeff Scarbrough and resides in Grayson county; William F. and Hiel, of Cooke county; Mrs. Edwards; Ira, of Cooke county; Ella, wife of John Kirby, a young stock farmer of Prospect, who is taking a leading place among the successful young men of Clay county; Belle, wife of Ed Horn, of Foard county; and Lee, who married Richard Payne, and resides in Cooke county.
The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are: Robert Lee, Roscoe C. and George W. Jr. Mrs. Edwards has taken the place of her lamented husband in the management of his estate, and conducted its affairs and credit to herself and with profit as well. She has added to the family assets a tract of pasture land in Jack county, by purchase, and is demonstrating her spirit of modern progress by placing good educational advantages in the way of her sons, whereby they may cope successfully with the world at large when they assume their independent stations in life.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 502.