biography – Page 28 – Texas History Notebook

Johnny Horton

John Gale Horton was a country and western singer. He was the son of John Loly Horton (1890-1959) and Ella Claudia Robinson Horton (1892-1966) in Los Angeles, California. He was raised in East Texas. In the 1930 census, Johnny was the youngest of five children (three sons and two daughters) and his father John listed his occupation as farmer, probably a sharecropper. In the census form, Johnny is called “Gayle.” By 1940, the family was living in Cherokee County, Texas, Johnny’s father’s occupation was listed as farmer and by that time, the family consisted of the parents, Johnny’s older sister and himself. His name was spelled “Gale” in this census form.

David and Hannah Burnet

David Gouverneur Burnet was born on April 14, 1788 in Newark, New Jersey to Dr. William Russell Burnet (1730-1791) and Gertrude Gouverneur Burnet (1725-1791). Dr. Burnet had been married twice, first to Mary Camp (1737-1781) with whom he had at least eleven children. After Mary died, Dr. Burnet married Gertrude, with whom he had another three children of which David was the youngest. The Burnet family was quite well known and influential in the early days of New Jersey. Many of the adult sons enlisted in the militia upon learning of the Battle of Lexington. Dr. Burnet had previously opened a medical office in Newark. During the Revolutionary War, he became surgeon general of the eastern army. One account stated that Dr. Burnet was stationed at West Point and was in the room with former patriot and traitor Benedict Arnold when he received a letter from a messenger that a British officer, a Major Andre, had been captured. Arnold knew that his activities in cooperation with the British were about to be exposed. During the war, the Burnet family hosted George and Martha Washington. Dr. Burnet and Mrs. Burnet died rather suddenly in 1791. Both of David’s parents having died when he was three years old, he went to live with two of his half brothers, Jacob and Isaac, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Holland Coffee and Coffee’s Station

Holland Coffee was born in 1807 to James Ambrose Coffee (1762-1818) and Mildred Moore Coffee (1770-1812). He was the youngest of twelve children. Both parents had died, apparently of natural causes, by the time he was eleven years old and Holland was taken in by his uncle Jesse Coffee in McMinnville, Tennessee. By 1829, Coffee had found his way to Fort Smith, Arkansas. There he, Silas Check Colville, James Mayberry Randolph other individuals founded Coffee, Colville and Company, to supply local settlers, local tribes and trappers with provisions. Around this time, Coffee is believed to have become acquainted with Sam Houston, an acquaintance that would be revisited later.

Zale Corporation

Morris Bernard Zale (1901 – 1995) came to Texas with his brother William and their parents Samuel and Libby Kruger Zalefsky (spelled Zalessky in some accounts) in the early 1900s from Shereshov, Russia. Samuel emigrated first and brought his family a few years later, first to New York and later to Texas. The family name Zale was “Americanized” from the name Zalefsky. The family initially settled in Fort Worth, where Morris’ uncle Sam Kruger was already established. Morris attended school in Fort Worth for a few years before he left to work in the jewelry store of his uncle Sam. In the early 1920s, Morris later managed a Kruger jewelry store in Burkburnett, Texas before he opened his own first store in a rented section of a drug store in Graham. There were few Jews in town, but Zale left Graham shortly afterward due to local Klan activity, eventually settling in Wichita Falls, Wichita County, Texas. The Zale brothers and Ben Lipshy (1910 – 1985) founded the company and opened their own store in 1924 at 8th Street and Ohio Avenue on the edge of downtown Wichita Falls. The building that housed their original store, formerly a Kruger outlet, is still standing in Wichita Falls.

Henry O. Flipper

Henry Ossian Flipper was born March 21, 1856 to Festus Flipper (1832 – 1918) and Isabella Buckhalter Flipper (1837 – 1887) in Thomasville, Georga, both of mixed race. Accordingly, he was born a slave. In the 1870 census, Festus was shown to be a cobbler or shoemaker. Henry entered Atlanta University, a historically Black college, in 1873. While still a freshman there, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, said to be the the fifth such appointment of a person of African American descent. Though his time at West Point was difficult due to prejudice, he graduated in 1877 as a 2nd Lieutenant. Accordingly, Flipper was the first African American graduate of West Point and the first African American commissioned officer in the United States Army.