From “Proud Heritage Volume II ” by DCPA. This 317 page hardcover book is now available online.
In 1872, Benjamin Dodson Atwell (1842-1928), a Civil War veteran who had participated in the closing campaign in Virginia and was present at the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, moved to Mesquite.
Benjamin Dodson Atwell, the elder son of Benjamin A. (1813-1896) and Sarah Ann (Dodson) Atwell (1811-1848), was born in Maryland in 1842. The family first moved to Trumball County, Ohio, and when Benjamin Dodson was eight, the family moved again, this time to Wisconsin. At 19, in September 1861, he enlisted in Co. C, First Berden’s Sharpshooter’s. He was commissioned Adjutant, Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in 1864. In June, he was shot in the shoulder during a battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia, and sent to a hospital in Washington, D.C. He returned to his regiment and was taken prisoner just three days later at Reams Station on the Weldon Railroad in August. He was imprisoned at Libby Prison for three months, paroled and sent to Annapolis. He rejoined his regiment in time to be present at Appomattox.
After the war, Benjamin Dodson Atwell returned to Wisconsin where he established three commercial colleges before moving to Texas. He farmed for eight years in Mesquite and his son, Judge William Hawley Atwell (1869-1961), recalled in a letter to the Dallas Times Herald in 1948, the move from Mesquite to Hutchins by farm wagon utilizing the Dowdy Ferry across the Trinity. In Hutchins, Benjamin Dodson had purchased land known as Veal’s Addition. The property at this time consisted of the homestead built before 1876, the barn and gin lot, a total of about ten acres. The gin and dam were among the first brick structures in Hutchins. The brick was manufactured by a man named Bandy whose plant was located near the Trinity and the ferry.
There is a spring-fed creek through this property which was dammed to provide water for the boiler of the engine that ran the gin. Though long ago flooded and broken, part of the dam still remains as do the brick foundations and anchor bolts that held the engine and machinery for the gin.
Benjamin Dodson Atwell was first married to Miss De Emma Hawley (1849-1884) of Jamestown, New York in 1868. Their first born was William Hawley Atwell, a small boy when they came to Texas. The next child was also a son, Horton B., then two daughters, Ida 0. and Fannie De Emma. After the death of De Emma, Benjamin married Miss Kate C. Simpson of Tennessee. They also had four children. One of these daughters, Kittye Atwell, married Montell Tessman of another pioneer Hutchins family and they resided in Hutchins until their deaths. All eight of the children were college educated.
William Hawley Atwell was educated in the public schools in Dallas County. He attended Southwestern University at Georgetown and graduated in 1889. He was admitted to the bar the next year at the age of 19. He went to the State University in 1890 and graduated from there with honors. He was recognized as a great orator. He practiced law in Dallas and was appointed United States Attorney for this district by President Warren Harding and once ran for governor of Texas. William H. Atwell served as a federal judge of the Northern District of Texas for 41 years. He lived on Ross Avenue in 1915. His next residence was at 5411 Swiss Avenue. By 1924, the Atwell family lived at 4900 Gaston Avenue.
Two of the cases that Judge Atwell ruled on were mentioned by contemporaries. Henry Camp Harris denotes his breaking up of a national dope ring in his book entitled, “Dallas, Acorn Planter of Yesteryears 1862-1924.” In “Lusty Texans,” John William Rogers described Atwell’s sentencing of Mrs. Barrow and Mrs. Parker. The charge was for harboring fleeing criminals. When the trial was finished Atwell gave Mrs. Barrow a sentence of sixty days. He asked her if she had anything to say, and she said, “Judge, why not make it thirty days?” He changed the sentence to thirty days for the mothers of Bonnie and Clyde.
In 1890, at the age of 77, Maryland native Benjamin A. Atwell, left Wisconsin and came to Hutchins to spend the last six years of his life with his son and family. He is buried in the Hutchins Cemetery along with other members of the Atwell family. Benjamin A. was a carpenter by trade and was also in the mercantile business in Wisconsin for 30 years.
In 1889, Benjamin Dodson Atwell was appointed postmaster for Hutchins. A son, U.S. “Bob” Atwell, was appointed postmaster in 1941. Upon Bob’s death in 1944, his widow Livy was appointed postmistress and served until 1969. Their son, Sam William Atwell, was appointed postmaster in 1971 and served until his retirement in 1985. Sam was a veteran of World War II and died in 1987. Among his survivors is his mother, Livy, wife, Wanda, and three children. Still another son, C. S. Atwell, a Texas Aggie, was the engineer in charge of building an oil refinery in Shanghai, China, that was blown up by the Japanese in 1937. He was also in charge of laying the great Barco oil line across the Andes Mountains in Columbia, South America. In 1958, he endowed the library in Hutchins that bears the Atwell name. A grandson, Ben D. Atwell III was elected to the Texas legislature in 1950, and served with honor and distinction for 24 years.
Benjamin Dodson Atwell was the first mayor of Hutchins which was a distribution point for south west Dallas County. When the railroad came to Dallas in 1872, this created a great rivalry between Hutchins and Lancaster which exists to this day.
The Civic Center in Hutchins was dedicated in 1948 by Judge Atwell. There is a middle school in the Dallas Independent School District named for Judge William H. Atwell.
The Dallas County Poor Farm was established on farm land near Hutchins in 1877, and many residents of the town were involved in that endeavor. The doctors from Hutchins treated the residents and the superintendent in 1881 was from the community. Some of the supplies for the Poor Farm were purchased in Hutchins.
Before 1900, a farmer in Hutchins introduced Johnson Grass to Dallas County. Perhaps that contributed to the disappearance of the cotton farms in this area and the fact that dairy herds were grazing on the land by 1940s. By 1948, the population had grown to 500 and there were 13 businesses. When U.S. Highway 75 was completed between Houston and Dallas, this opened the small town to modem growth and development. In 1970, Hutchins passed its first bond issue in 120 years. This was for improvement and extension of the first waterwork system. The Atwell family continues to have much influence on the people who choose to live in Hutchins.
By Frances James, Dallas, Texas
