| Notes |
- - HOPKINS COUNTY, TEXAS - 1895
A Souvenir of The Sulphur Springs Gazette, by H. Bascom Thomas
Charles Osborne James was born in Hopkins County, Texas, December 18, 1860, and was educated largely by his own efforts in the common school of the community where he was raised. His father, Charles F. James, was a native of Virginia, and his mother, Sarah H. James, who was the daughter of Jesse Brooks, was a native of Georgia. His father died during the war leaving a widow and five children to fight the battles together.
When he was not in school he labored in the different cotton fields of his neighborhood as a cotton picker and there are no less than forty different cotton fields in the community of his birth that were the scenes of his choice manual labor. Like many American boys who subsequently in life achieved laurels in the arena of intelligence and wealth, he was credited and reared in the lap of poverty and by the hand of adversity. His education lacked the polish of the regular curriculum, but on the other hand the environments of his youth stimulated and concentrated thought and action into lessons more useful than theory. Chas. James taught school in his native and adjoining communities, and on February 22, 1883, was licensed to practice law. He studied law under Hon. Seth W. Stewart and Hon. A. A. Henderson, now of Fort Worth, Texas. For his first years experience he was paid a $10 certificate by Mr. J. B. Sparkman near Black Oak, who was surety for his client, and on the same day that he collected this $10, he paid A. B. Williamson $7.50 as an occupation tax, leaving net profit of his years practice of $2.50. In 1886, a few friends prevailed on him to make the race for county attorney, which he did, defeating both of his opponents and having several hundred votes to spare, and in 1889-90 he was re-elected without opposition, holding the office six years. In 1892 he was nominated by the Democratic party for the Twenty-third Texas legislature and was a candidate against A. G. Penn his populist opponent whom he defeated by an ample majority in the county. Chas. James is of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather, Jessie Brooks, who died in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 8, 1894, was born ninety years ago in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, just 73 years after Georgia was first settled by General Oglethorpe.
His grandfather, James, was born in Culpepper County, Virginia. Chas. James was married to Ida Marion Whatley on February 26, 1888, and at the time of this writing is the father of three children -- Jessie, Grace and Carrie, all sweet little girls.
Chas. James is about 5 feet, 7 inches in height, has broad intellectual forehead, a genial mouth, large eyes and pleasant demeanor.
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1860 - 1931 (70 years)
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