Hardin Hart
Hardin Hart was born in West Virginia on August 23, 1814 and served in the Texas Senate from 1849 – 1855. He was not recorded as being actively involved in the Civil War or Union sympathizer activities, but he was a Union sympathizer. At the end of the Civil War, during reconstruction, Hardin was appointed District Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District. The Dallas Herald reported on December 29, 1867, that Judge Hart ruled that the stay of execution law was unconstitutional in all cases, civil and criminal, and that executions may issue at once in all civil cases. This and his sympathies to federal reconstruction mandates made Hardin one of the most hated men in Texas.
Hardin was also tangentially involved in the Lee-Peacock Feud. Bob Lee had run afoul of Freedmen’s Bureau Agent Hardin Hart, who had learned of the family’s labor practices. They had contracted with some freedmen to help work their land but after the harvest the Lee’s refused to give the workers their share, with Lee threatening them unless they continued to work the family’s land. Hart then led a detachment of the 26th Infantry to the Lee Farm, intending to secure the release of the freedmen and to make sure they were paid what they were owed. Lee refused to cooperate and started a gun fight. Being outnumbered, Lee fled to avoid arrest. Lee’s men would attempt to kill Hart on November 13, 1868, when Hardin was going to Bonham from Greenville with military guards. Hart survived the attempt but had to have his arm amputated due to an injury sustained in the attack. The Galveston Daily News reported that Judge Hardin Hart died on October 5, 1883, of a prolonged illness and is buried at East Mount Cemetery.
Homer Horton, Jr.
Homer Horton was born in Ft Worth, TX in 1925 to Homer Horton, Sr. and Annie Laurie Millaway Horton. He enlisted in the Navy and served as a Pharmacist’s Mate, Third Class in Okinawa and Shanghai in World War II. He married Shirley Marie Pringle Dec. 23, 1946, in Benicia, CA.
He returned to Texas with his new bride and received a degree in business administration from the University of Texas in 1949. He began his career in hospital administration in Columbus Texas, continued in Port Lavaca, Texas, and then moving to Greenville in 1960 when he was recruited to become the administrator for the newly created Greenville Hospital Authority. He took the Hospital Authority through the process of acquiring funds for the beginning of community medicine in Hunt County and the creation of the Hunt County Hospital District in 1967, a new hospital in 1971, the Hunt Memorial Hospital District in 1981, the addition of the hospital in Commerce in 1983, then a 4-floor expansion of the Greenville hospital in 1987. He retired as Chief Executive Officer in 1987.
Chester Williams
Chester L. Williams, Sr. was born November 24, 1916. He died on February 19, 1995. He owned the first Black construction company in Greenville. Williams built the first four floors of the Greenville, Texas Hospital that was then known as Citizens General Hospital. He also won contracts that included the Greenville Post Office on Wesley St., poured concrete for most of the Turtle Creek subdivision and in the Raytheon addition. Mr. Williams’ quality of work allowed him to enter into a market that was previously closed to Black people.
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