A history of Texas and Texans, Part 102

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906

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Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"Perhaps the most distinguished service rendered by Mr. Looney while a member of the senate was along moral lines. During his term of service he did more to perfect and strengthen the local-option law than any other member of that body. He was the author of the felony feature of the gambling law, which has made publie gambling a thing of the past in Texas. He had secured the passage of this law by the senate prior to the assassination of Jeff MeLain, the county attorney of Tarrant county. The bill was pending in the house of representatives at the time MeLain was killed by a gambler, and thus its final passage was rendered easy and met with practically no opposition."

The foregoing quotations measurably indicate the broad and well taken opinions of Mr. Looney concerning matters of public importance, and his standing as a legislator and as a lawyer marked him as specially eligi- ble for the office of attorney general of the state, to which position he was elected in November, 1912, and to which he brings most admirable equipment, ability and civic loyalty. In the primary election he defeated

two strong and well supported candidates, and in the popular election he rolled up a most gratifying majority at the polls. He assumed the duties of office in January, 1913, and bis administration is creditable to himself and of benefit to the state which he represents.

Mr. Looney married Miss Robena Pender, at Green- ville, Texas, on March 17th, 1887. She is a daughter of Rev. H. B. and Frances (Sharkman) Pender, of Jacksonville, Texas. And they have the following children: Lawrence P. Looney, a farmer of Commerce, Texas; Mai Fair, who married F. S. Ashburn, a mer- chant of Emory, Texas; and Benjamin F. Looney, Jr., a student. Mr. Looney has taken the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery degrees in Masonry.

MAJOR WILLIAM H. LONG. No city in America is so fortunately situated as El Paso in possessing a com- hination of elimatie conditions and many of the finest business and industrial resources found anywhere in the country. This combination of climate and business has attracted many enterprising citizens, and one of the most conspicuous of these is Major Long, who has been a resident of El Paso for twenty-seven years, is one of the largest owners of city property, and, though now retired, has always been a leader in business and civic undertakings.

William H. Long is a native of the state of Pennsyl- vania, having been born in London, in Franklin county, October 21, 1839. His father was Jacob Long, also a native of Pennsylvania and of Scottish descent, a farmer by occupation, who had a moderately successful career and who died in 1843. The maiden name of the mother was Mary Springer, who was born in Pennsylvania, her family being of Dutch stock. She had one daughter by her first marriage, and there were two sons and one daughter by her marriage with Mr. Jacob Long. Major Long had his early educational advantages in the schools of Pennsylvania and Illinois, his mother and family having moved out to the latter state when he was a child. He never got any further than the common schools and gave up his studies of books at the age of seventeen and from that forward was familiarized by constant practice with men and affairs. On leaving school his first regular employment was as a clerk in a general store at Mt. Carroll, Illinois, where he received the moderate wages of $10.00 per month. His occupa- tion at the beginning of this work was as a chore boy, and during the four years spent in the store he famil- iarized himself with the stock and all the details of the business, and his next position, in 1860, was in the Car- roll County Bank. In 1864 this bank was organized as the First National Bank of Mt. Carroll, and from a clerkship he was promoted through the different grades, remained with the bank for fifteen years and during the last five years was assistant cashier and one of the stock- holders. In 1875 be sold out his interest in real estate, farms and stocks in and around Mt. Carroll, Illinois, and moved to the city of Chicago. He there became . connected with the commission and brokerage business, which he continued for eight years with fair success. Then, in association with other Chicago men, he became interested in a zine mine at Knoxville, Tennessee, and moved to that city as manager of the enterprise. After several years he moved out to San Francisco, California, on account of his wife's ill health. During the four years he spent on the Pacific coast, he was not engaged in any particular business.

From San Francisco, Mr. Long came to El Paso in 1886, so that he has been a resident of this city for more than a quarter of a century, and has witnessed practically its development from a frontier village to a eity of 50,000. He invested heavily in real estate during the early years of his residence, when property was sold at only a fraction of its present value, and thus became owner of some of the best lots and improved blocks in the downtown district of the city. During these years

William Along

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Mr. Long has identified himself with a number of El Paso's conspicuous undertakings. In 1905 he was one of the organizers of the El Paso Brewing Association, of which he is now secretary and treasurer, and his son, Ralph Walter Long, is president. From 1893 to 1900 Major Long was the sole owner of the El Paso Abstract and Loan Company. For many years he has been affili- ated with the Masonic Order and with the Knights of Pythias, but has taken no active part in fraternal mat- ters in recent years. He is a member of the El Paso Champer of Commerce, and in polities is a Republican. He is now retired and enjoying the comforts of a well spent life at his home at 1028 Olive street. Major Long was married at Mt. Carroll, Illinois, December 9, 1867, to Miss Julia A. Marston, who was born in the state of Maine. Mrs. Long died July 7, 1887, at El Paso, when about forty-two years of age. Ralph W. Long the older of the two children, runs the largest chicken ranch in the country, is also the owner of the Long Lumber Company and president of the El Paso Brewing Com- pany at El Paso. He was married at Quincy, Illinois, to Edith Ann Shetler. Nina D. Long, the second child of Mr. Long, is the wife of J. E. Grayson, now a resident of Canutillo, Texas. On October 10, 1911, Major Long married Annie L. Bates, who was born in Athens, Ala- bama, a daughter of William Waldrep.

OTTO HEROLD. Not in one day is the reputation of a large hotel built up and extended throughout a state or country. In the entire southwest there is no hotel with a better reputation for general excellence than the Oriental of Dallas. A generation of travelling men have known and esteemed this old hostelry. It has always stood for the best standard of hotel comforts, convenience, and both home and business facilities. As the Oriental was supreme a quarter of a century ago, so it is today, apace with the growing development and improvement all over this country. The new Oriental is one of the finest hotels in the south, and in recent years its equipment and service have been improved and extended far beyond any point reached in previous years. This modern improvement of the Oriental is largely due to the general manager, who has directed the workings of this hotel for the past seven or eight years. Mr. Otto Herold through his connection with the Oriental is one of the ablest hotel men of the south, and for this reason, and for his public spirited activities in other directions is one of the foremost citizens of Dallas.

Otto Herold, first vice-president and general manager of the Oriental Hotel Association, also president of the Oriental Laundry Company, was born in St. Louis, Mis- souri, October 9, 1875. His father was Commodore Ferd Herold, who was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and came to America in 1851. He first located at a town in Illinois, where he started a bottling works, and was first postmaster, and in 1869 came to St. Louis, where he engaged in the Mississippi River Steamboat business. He built the large and commodious steam- boat the Cherokee and Ferd Herold, after which the Cherokee was sold to the Eagle Packet Company, and her name changed to the City of Chester. The Ferd Herold is still running regular trips up and down the river.

Otto Herold received his education in the St. Louis public schools, and in Smith's Academy of that city, and on completing his education in the Academy took a position with the Cherokee Packet Company as clerk. After four years of that experience he became a trav- eling salesman for the house of David Nicholson & Com- pany, in the wholesale grocery trade. He represented this house over a large territory, and was an energetic and successful salesman for five years. He then was given the place of paying teller for the Lincoln Trust Company of St. Louis, and held that office for five years. No position in banking requires greater skill and quick knowledge of mankind than that of paying teller, and

in his position during that five years Mr. Herold han- dled many millions of dollars, and established a record among the men of his profession for the ability to serve at almost lightning speed a long line of people waiting to have their checks cashed. All this he could attend to without an error. In 1904, after leaving the bank, Mr. Herold came to Dallas as an accountant for the Oriental Hotel Association. He was made manager in 1905, and has managed this establishment to the present time, having since been elected to the office of first vice presi- dent.

It was during the period of his management that the old Oriental Hotel has undergone its chief improve- ments. When he came to Dallas the hotel was very much as it had been for many years, although even then known all over Texas as the one standard hotel. Both on the outside and inside the Oriental has undergone many changes since then. The interior has heen remod- eled throughout and the cost of remodeling has been about $100,000, and as a result the Oriental Hotel has become one of the best equipped structures of its kind in Texas and has resumed its old position as one of the noted landmarks of the city. In 1905 Mr. Herold was elected vice president as well as being retained as manager for the company, and this promotion met the complete desires of the board of directors, as well as the large patronage of the hotel. During the year 1912 the Oriental has had some important accessions in equipment, including turkish baths of the most modern style, this improvement alone having cost over $90,000.

In 1906 Mr. Herold organized the Oriental Laundry Company, Incorporated, with a capital stock of $100,000. This company has established in Dallas the most up-to- date laundry plant in the entire state, and it has facili- ties for taking care of not only all the hotel laundry, but for general patronage, and has done a large busi- ness since its establishment. Mr. Herold became presi- dent of this company at its beginning.

It is largely due to Mr. Herold that the Adolphus Hotel was brought to Dallas. The commission com- mittee of Dallas, in its desire to establish another hotel in the city, cooperated and advised with Mr. Herold, to whom it submitted its general plans. After this, Mr. Herold went to St. Louis to see Mr. Busch, and that great capitalist, after Mr. Herold's full explanation, was convinced of the possibility of such a project, and soon after purchased the site for the erection of the hotel. The hotel building, as every one knows, is one of the lofty and beautiful structures in the Dallas busi- ness district, and one of the finest hotel buildings any- where in the country. When the building had been fully completed, Mr. and Mrs. Herold superintended the fur- nishing of the hotel throughout, even designing the kitchen, which is one of the most modern in the world.

Mr. Otto Herold married Miss Carolyn Bodmer, a daughter of William Bodmer of Cincinnati, Ohio. They are the parents of one child, Alvin W. Herold, who was born October 27, 1903.

EDWARD H. REED. One of the best equipped archi- tects both in experience and in the technical points of the profession in Central Texas is Edward H. Reed, who since 1912 has been in the independent practice of his vocation at Waco.

The only child of his parents, Edward H. Reed was born at Newport, Kentucky, August 2, 1883. Charles H. Reed, his father, was born at Newport, in 1848, was a painter and decorator, and died at the age of thirty- six years. The mother was Nellie Marsalles, born at Newport in 1854. Edward H. Reed was educated chiefly at Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from the Ohio Mechanics Institute and from the Cincinnati Technical School in 1903, having concentrated most of his work in the mechanical department. Following up for some years he worked as a draftsman with several large elec- trical manufacturing and engineering companies. In

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1908 he came to Texas, and locating at Fort Worth was engaged in the architectural department of the well known firm of Saeger & Staats for three years. At the end of that time the company sent him to Waco to take the management of its local office, and after one year he set up in business for himself and has since enjoyed a good practice as an architect and construction engi- neer.

Mr. Reed was married at Newport, Kentucky, June 3, 1904, to Miss Miranda M. Smith, a daughter of Otto Smith, now a banker of Deming, New Mexico. They have one child, Edward H. Jr. Mr. Reed affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fra- ternal Order of Eagles, the Knights of Columbus, the Waco Maennerchor, the Deutscher Central Verein, the Woodmen of the World, the Young Men's Business League, the Ad Men's Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate Exchange, the Firemen's Association, and is a member and trustee of the Catholic Church. In politics he is a Progressive Republican. He stands high among Waco's business men, and at the age of thirty years has accomplished a success which many men ten years older would well envy.

FRANK H. ROBINSON, a resident of Sabine, Jefferson County, Texas, was born at Newton, Texas, September 26, 1856. He received a limited education, studied law, and in 1878 became the publisher of the "News-Boy" newspaper, at Jasper, Texas. He has since published various newspapers and supplied industrial correspond- ence to numerous publications, endeavoring to advance East Texas to its proper place industrially. He located at Sabine in 1898, as a publisher, but ceased publishing in 1904, and became manager for the Sabine Land & Improvement Company, the latter owning large land and townsite interests. Under his management Sabine has become the largest sulphur export point in the world, and is one of the largest oil export and import points on the Gulf of Mexico, as also a port at which vast quantities of lumber and other Southern and West- ern products tranship to and from land and sea. Mr. Robinson is local representative for the Houston Oil Company of Texas, the East Texas Oil Company, and for a number of private interests holding big land inter- ests in East Texas and especially in the vicinity of . Sabine.

CAPT. WILEY PICKENS BROWN. A prominent factor in the citizenship of Texas since 1849, when he came to the Lone Star commonwealth as a child of twelve years with his parents, Capt. Wiley Pickens Brown is today one of the best known men of the eastern part of the state. His record in military and civil life, as a business man and financier, as a helpful public-spirited citizen and in social and fraternal circles, has been at all times such as to win him the regard, esteem and confidence of his fellow men, and no individual is deserving of greater commendation for his contributions to the wel- fare of the section in which he has resided for so many years. He was born in Tallahachie county, Mississippi, December 12, 1837, and is a son of Col. William A. and Margaret (Turbeville) Brown.

Col. William A. Brown was a South Carolinian, born in Pendleton District, in October, 1805. His father, David Porter Brown, a planter, owned a number of slaves and moved out to Alabama when William A. was a boy, and lived in Lauderdale county for several years, moving next to Mississippi, where he died in Tallahachie county, as did his wife. David Porter Brown died about 1845, having reached the age of about seventy-three years. He was likewise a native of South Carolina, as was his wife, Mary Anderson, after whose family the noted Andersonville was named. Grandfather Brown's family comprised David, Joseph, William A .; Mary, who married Doctor Stone; Julia, who became the wife of Moses White, and three other daughters.

Col. William A. Brown was a Mississippi militia colonel during the old training days and served as sheriff of Tallahachie county for several years. He was always a Democrat, and after coming to Texas, in 1849, was elected treasurer of Limestone county, prior to the war. He was located at old Springfield and had many cattle grazing over the prairies. He did not belong to any church, yet he believed strongly in their work and died a Christian man, in 1869. In the matter of Secession he encouraged it and aided and abetted the cause of the Confederacy in every possible way, furnishing his only son of sufficient age for a soldier. Colonel Brown married Margaret Turbeville, a daughter of Samuel Turbeville, of a French family which settled in Louisi- aua, its posterity drifting into Wilkinson county, Mis- sissippi. Grandfather Turbeville was a planter and mar- ried twice, rearing children by his first wife only, they being: Mrs. Brown and Jackson Turbeville, who died at twenty-one years of age. The children of Colonel and Mrs. Brown were as follows: Mary, who married J. J. Cullison and died at Fairfield, Texas; William Pink- ney, who never reached mature life; Capt. Wiley P .; Laura C., who died single; Elizabeth, who married A. L. Steele and died in Limestone county; Albert G., who spent his life as a farmer and died here; Joseph H., who was also a farmer and died in Limestone county, and David Hudson, who died at the age of two years. The mother of these children was born in 1816, and died at the age of eighty-two years.

Capt. Wiley P. Brown grew up around old Springfield, then the county seat of Limestone county, the family having made the journey here by wagons and crossing the Mississippi river at Memphis on a flatboat. The trip was made without incident of unusual character, and the company included Hudson Johnson and family, the brother-in-law of Colonel Brown. Captain Brown spent his youthful activities on his father's ranch and attended the log schoolhouse of the community and before becoming of age took a clerkship in a store at the county seat for Col. J. R. Henry, a wealthy man of this section. He succeeded this employment as clerk and bookkeeper for Oliver Brothers up to the outbreak of the Civil war, when he raised a company in connec- tion with Major Farrar and was elected first lieutenant. The company rendezvoused at Waco and was there to become a part of Colonel Parson's regiment, but was subsequently dissolved by Captain Farrar and Lieuten- ant Brown then returned to Springfield. Here he at- tempted to join Wall's Legion, forming at Galveston, but could not get in and subsequently offered himself as a private in Captain Shropshire's Company, Colonel Nichols' Regiment. This was a six months regiment and when his time was up Captain Brown returned home and found a company organizing, joined it, and with it marched to the front. At Old Boston the company was reorganized and Captain Brown was elected first lieutenant under Captain McGee, Col. T. C. Bass' Regi- ment of cavalry, the Twentieth Texas. The captain soon died and Captain Brown was made captain of the com- pany and remained so through to the end of the war.

From Old Boston the regiment went to Fort Smith, Arkansas, then to Little Rock and by forced march to Arkansas Post, but reached there too late to prevent its fall. The command then joined Price's army in Northern Arkansas and took part in the battles of Prairie Grove and Fayetteville, and then went back again to Fort Smith and to Little Rock. It remained there until December, 1862, when ordered north again, and when it reached Van Buren, Arkansas, the regiment was dismounted, this being the Twentieth Texas, Dis- mounted Cavalry, and went into winter quarters at Fort Smith. In the spring the regiment was assigned to duty in the Indian Territory, very much to its chagrin and regret, although it did valuable service there for some months, fighting the "Pin" Indians, a tribe of Federals. Later, in July, 1863, it engaged in battle

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with General Blunt's Federal troops at Honey Springs, where the regiment lost heavily on both sides in killed, wounded and prisoners taken, and was subsequently engaged in patrol and guard duty in sections of the country around Buffalo Gap aud Fort Washita, Indian nation, until ordered again into Louisiana. The com- mand failed to reach Mansfield in time for that cam- paign, but proceeded on south into Louisiana and Texas and was disbanded at Houston.

Captain Brown reached home somewhat discouraged and disheartened and little disposed to resume civil life with any certainty of success. He began trading in stock, and in the spring of 1866 turned his attention to merchandise with Capt. J. W. Stephens, his father-in- law. The store was situated in Springfield, and the firm of Stephens & Brown did business for twelve years with reasonable success. About this time the H. & T. C. Railway built through the county and the county seat was removed to Groesbeck, and in 1878 the firm moved from Mexia to the county seat. They closed out here and after an attempt to collect the remnant of the busi- ness of the old firm, Captain Brown entered political life.

He was elected county treasurer of Limestone county in 1876 and served in that office six years, and was then elected county clerk, a capacity in which he acted ten years, succeeding S. D. Walker and being succeeded by J. F. Gwines. On retiring from office, Captain Brown entered the drug business with his son, W. W. Brown, and the firm of W. P. & W. W. Brown did business for two years when the senior member sold out to the junior. In the meantime Captain Brown had secured some farm- ing interests and did something toward the development of farms from the raw lands he owned. He also helped to organize the Oliver Bank and was a director of it for several years. In political matters he has ever been a Democrat.

Captain Brown was married at Springfield, May 25, 1864, to Miss Mary Stephens, a daughter of Capt. J. W. Stephens and Rhoda (Wilcox) Stephens, the former born in Georgia and the latter in Vermont. They came from Mississippi to Texas, where Captain Stephens died in 1881 and his wife in 1899, their children being: Mary; Lewis; John; Martin; Charley; Alice, the wife of D. A. Waller; and Clara, who married David Strain. To Captain and Mrs. Brown the following children were born: W. W., a physician of Groesbeck; Wiley P., Jr., of Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Porter P., of Waco; Frank F., of Wichita Falls; Leslie L., of Groesbeck; John, also of this place; Marion M., of Mexia; Howard, who died here leaving no issue; Lena A., wife of J. A. Walker of Groesbeck, and Mary Pearl, the wife of R. L. Reese, of Corsicana.

Captain Brown has been a Mason since young man- hood, and has been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church since 1867, being senior deacon thereof and one of the oldest church members here. Mrs. Brown died in the faith of this church, October 21, 1913.

JESSE NECUSOUS PYLE, M. D. One of the physicians already well established and with a reputation that has now extended beyond the immediate vicinity is Dr. Pyle, proprietor of the sanitarium and with a large practice both in medicine and surgery.

Jesse H. Pyle was born November 1, 1871, at Prince- ton, Kentucky, a son of Jesse Wilson and Harriet Ellen Pyle. Dr. Pyle is of cosmopolitan lineage, but of old American stock. His grandmother was a Virginian and a descendant of King James I. His great-grandfather was a chief surgeon and served with that rank under Washington in the Revolutionary war. The name Pyle is found throughout the United States. Dr. Pyle's mother was of a southern family, and many of its mem- bers were prominent planters and slaveholders before the war. Jesse W. Pyle, the father, was born in Illinois, while his wife was a native of Kentucky. The father

was a stockman and farmer, and in 1883 moved to Texas, locating in Fannin county, where he continued as a farmer and stockraiser until a good old age. On retiring he lived with his children, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William Wells, at Tishmingo, Oklahoma, at the age of eighty years, in ahout 1909. The mother died December 13, 1911.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 102

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960 Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 906

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906