SOURCE: A History of Texas and Texans, by Frank W. Johnson, The American Historical Society, Chicago & New York, 1914, pg 1208

W.T. Padgett, Tax Collector of Runels county, is a native Texas product, born in Coryell county, this state, on the 25th of June, 1859. He is a son of S.O. and Hester A. (Taylor) Padgett, the father a native of Alabama and the mother born in Angelina county, this state.
S.O. Padgett was a millwright in his younger days, and up to about the year 1904 he made his home in Coryell county. From that year up to the present time he has done a considerable moving about, locating in Tom Greene county in 1904, and going thence to El Paso county, and he is at present making his home in Bandera county. He is now eighty years of age, and enjoys an exceptional degree of health and strength for a man of his years. During the Civil war he ran a flouring mill at Waco, and he supplied immense quantities of bread stuffs to the army in the course of the war. He and his wife became the parents of two children, a son and a daughter, and the mother died in 1862, when her youngest, child, the subject of this review, was about three years of age.
W.T. Padgett received only the meagrest educational advantages, attending as a small boy the primitive log school of his home community, and he was yet very young when he began to bear the responsibility of his own keeping. His first business venture was in the mercantile line at Osage in Coryell county, but he sold the place and turned his attention to farming after a short interval, and in 1889 he came to Runnels county. Here he identified himself with the stock business for several years, in which he enjoyed a fair success, and later he served as deputy sheriff of the county and tax collector. In 1900 he was elected to the office of tax assessor, serving in the office for six consecutive years, after which he was engaged as a bookkeper until November 1910, when came his election to his present office, that of Tax Collector for Runnels county. He is now serving in his second term and his administrations have both been eminently satisfactory to the public, and highly creditable to himself. A Democrat, Mr. Padgett is active in the party ranks, and has done good work for the cause of the party. He is a Mason, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
On March 6, 1883, Mr. Padgett was married to Miss Cora Raby at Osage, in Coryell county. She is a daughter of J.W. and Catherine S. Raby, the father being a merchant and ranchman, as well as being a well known minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was chaplain in the Confederate service during the Civil war, and is a man of the finest character and standing in the county and wherever he is known. A son and three daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Padgett, named as follows: Sammie, the eldest daughter, aged twenty-eight years; John Raby padgett, aged twenty-seven; Mrs. Alma C. Maddox, living in Lubbock, Texas, Mr. Maddox being there engaged in the insurance business; and Miss Hester, aged twenty-three years, who shares the parental home. The eldest daughter, Miss Sammie, is at San Marcos, attending the State Normal school.
Mr. Padgett is filled with enthusiasm for the future of the great Texas commonwealth, and is intensely loyal to the place of his birth. He regards the state as leading in all the many characteristics that make for advantage to the homeseeker, and is well content to spend his days within her borders.