TEXAS AVERY L. MATLOCK Handbook of Texas Online: MATLOCK, AVERY L. (1852-1933). Avery L. Matlock, attorney and state senator, son of Avery and Margaret (Russell) Matlock, was born on April 22, 1852, in Roan County, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee and in 1873 graduated from Cumberland Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee. He moved to Texas and, at the persuasion of his former roommate, John Hall Stephens, settled in Montague County. Matlock served as county attorney of Montague County from 1875 to 1878, during which time he successfully prosecuted several gangs of murderers. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1881 and to the Texas Senate in 1883. In 1887 he was sent to the XIT Ranch as a legal investigator for the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company. He was instrumental in clearing the XIT properties of desperadoes and putting the ranch on a sound financial basis. In 1901 he represented the company in extensive suits. In 1906 he moved to San Antonio, where he went into private law practice. He served as city attorney of San Antonio and was one of the organizers of the Rockport and Mexican Railroad, which he served as general attorney. Matlock married Annie S. Herbert of Denton in 1877; she died in 1879. In 1881 he married Alice Hyatt of New York; she died in 1902. In 1903 Matlock married Susan Polk Hyman of Fort Worth; they adopted two daughters. After 1920 Matlock spent part of his time in Fort Worth and died there on July 14, 1933. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Fort Worth. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 15, 1933. J. Evetts Haley, The XIT Ranch of Texas and the Early Days of the Llano Estacado (Chicago: Lakeside, 1929; rpts., Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953, 1967). Men of Affairs of San Antonio (San Antonio Newspaper Artists' Association, 1912).Carolyn Hyman  Recommended citation:  "MATLOCK, AVERY L." The Handbook of Texas Online. <http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/fma76.html> DAVID MEDLOCK MEDLOCK, DAVID (ca. 1824-?). David Medlock, who represented Limestone, Falls, and McLennan counties in the Twelfth Texas Legislature, was born in Georgia around 1824 and moved to Texas about 1846. A slave preacher and farmer, Medlock was owned by Limestone County plantation operator Logan Stroud until the end of slavery. During Reconstruction Medlock won election to the Texas House of Representatives for the Twelfth Legislature, which met in 1870, and served on the Federal Relations Committee. He sponsored a bill that incorporated his hometown, Springfield, and sought the return of taxes to Limestone County for the building of a jail. He also joined the Radical Republican Association, organized to support Governor Edmund J. Davis's vetoes of railroad development bills. According to the 1870 federal census, Medlock was married to a woman named Eloy and was the father of eight children. He was classified as a laborer and owned property valued at about $280. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alwyn Barr, "Black Legislators of Reconstruction Texas," Civil War History 32 (December 1986). Doris Hollis Pemberton, Juneteenth at Comanche Crossing (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983). Merline Pitre, Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: The Black Leadership of Texas, 1868-1900 (Austin: Eakin, 1985). Paul M. Lucko CLAIBORNE P. MATLOCK (Permission granted by Gloria to use this article) The following bio was taken from page 301 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission. Transcribed by Claudia Schuster Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator Claiborne P. Matlock arrived in Rusk County in 1849. He came from Tippah County, Mississippi.  He was born in Limestone County, Alabama in January, 1822 and died in Mt. Enterprise, May 31, 1910. He is buried in the Gatlin Cemetery at Mt. Enterprise. His parents were Littleberry Matlock and Nancy Strother. Claiborne P. Matlock married Margaret Frame, July 29, 1850 in Rusk County. She was the widow of William Shoffitt, who died in Rusk County February 22, 1850. The Shoffitts had also arrived in Rusk County in 1849, having come from Jackson County, Alabama.  Margaret Elizabeth Frame was born in Franklin County, Tennessee, in September 1828 and died in Mt. Enterprise, October 8, 1906 and is buried in Gatlin Cemetery. Her parents were Robert Frame and Lucinda Griffin. William Shoffitt and Margaret Elizabeth Frame were the parents of one son, Robert Shoffitt, who was born in 1842 in Alabama and died in Arkansas during the Civil War.  He never married. Claiborne P. Matlock and Margaret Elizabeth Frame were the parents of the following three children: General Samuel Houston Matlock, born in Mt. Enterprise, July 8, 1858, died in Altus, Jackson County, Oklahoma.  He married Sarah Josephine Gatlin, June 27, 1878 in Rusk County. Charles Logan Matlock, born in Mt. Enterprise, August 27, 1861, died in February, 1931 in Pollock, Angelina County, Texas and buried in King Cemetery, Mt. Enterprise.  He married Lundy Belle Gatlin in Rusk County, March 25, 1882. Mary Ann Matlock, born in Mt. Enterprise, July 15, 1865, died in Mt. Enterprise, February 1, 1905 and is buried in Gatlin Cemetery.  She married Sam R. Smith, February 22, 1883 in Rusk County. Submitted by E. Ray Green     Graphics and page designed by Leona1999 January, 2005 Copyright © The main image is a courtesy of http://dirk.holoweb.net/~liam/pictures/oldbooks/pictures-of-old-books/   updated May 2008