USA > Texas > A history of Texas and Texans > Part 115
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MARION F. HAMMOND, Texas has upwards of two hundred counties, but not one of them has a sheriff's office administered with greater efficiency of system than that of Harris county. The present sheriff of Harris county is Marion F. Hammond, who took up his du- ties after his election in 1912, and who has made a remarkable record in the handling of the important duties entrusted to the sheriff under Texas state laws. Mr. Hammond saw a long term of service on the Hous- ton police force, and for some years did outside work for a large and prominent firm of lawyers. This experi- ence gave him unusual qualification for his present office, which he conducts along the lines of modern busi- ness methods.
Marion F. Hammond was born at Kosse, Limestone county, Texas, July 22, 1872. His parents were Benja- min Franklin and Sarah Elizabeth (Burns) Hammond. His father came to Texas in 1856 from Yalobusha county, Mississippi, settling at Kosse as one of the pioneers of Limestone county, and engaged in farming and stock raising. He was married in 1857, and four years later left his home to enter the service of the Confederate army. He was fighting on the side of the south all through the war, and then returned to his old home at Kosse, where he has continued to reside on the homestead and is one of the venerable pioneer residents of that vicinity, being now in his eighty-third year. His wife was a daughter of Judge Burns, one of the early settlers of Limestone county. She is now living in her seventy-ninth year.
Sheriff Hammond was educated in the public schools of Kosse. His early training was on the home farm, and he lived with his parents until twenty-one, at which time he started out as an independent farmer in that vicinity. In September, 1897, he moved to the City of Houston, and during the following season put in a erop and carried on general farming in the vicinity. After that came his appointment as a member of the police force, and his service in the department continued for five and a half years. He resigned in order to go into railroad train service, and followed that work about one year. The large law firm of Lovejoy & Malevinsky at Houston then engaged him to attend to their outside work, and he continued as their representative in the performance of many responsible and delicate tasks, for eight years. In the fall of 1910 Mr. Hammond resigned his position with the law firm in order to make the campaign for sheriff of Harris county. He was defeated in that year, but in 1912 was again a candidate, and was elected by a handsome majority against four other candidates. Since taking office he has proved his fitness for the position and the opinion of attorneys composing the Harris county bar is quite unanimous to the effect that the sheriff's office of Harris county under Sheriff Hammond is the best conducted in the entire state.
Mr. Hammond is well known in fraternal circles, be- longs to the local lodge of Masons, the K. of P., the Woodmen of the World, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Knights of the Macca- bees, the Tribe of Ben Hur, the Grand Fraternity, and the Houston Turnverein.
In 1895 occurred his marriage with Miss Pearl Win- field, a daughter of W. J. Winfield, of Kosse. They are the parents of five children, as follows: Eldred, who has manifested special inclination for art work and is now at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago; Marion, now a student in Baylor College at Belton; and Gladys, Janice, and Hope, all at home. The family residence is at the foot of Capitol Avenue in Houston.
JOSEPH ALEXANDER KEMP. That a city may become great in its facilities and commercial service to a large scope of country all through the vitalizing energy of one man is the conspicuous fact in the career of Joseph A. Kemp and Wichita Falls. There is hardly one of the
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larger institutions and enterprises of this city upon which and with which the name and influence of Mr. Kemp has not either now or at some time been impressed and asso- ciated. That a community should be what it is largely as a result of one man's life and activities is perhaps the highest tribute possible to pay to human individuality. Mr. Kemp has had a career typical of many successful Americans. He started out in life a poor boy, but pos- sessed peculiar qualities and abilities in a business way, and was hardly of age when he had become a factor in local business circles. He has been officially connected with a dozen or more successful enterprises, including railroads, in and about Wichita Falls, and he is known all over the state of Texas for his energy and also for his modest manner. Though a man who has attained almost the summit of success, Mr. Kemp is still a loyal and every day citizen of Wichita Falls, and has no de- sire to leave the scene of his many successes for life in the larger metropolitan centers of the world.
Joseph Alexander Kemp was born at Clifton in Bosque county, Texas, July 31, 1861, a son of William T. and Emma F. (Stinnett) Kemp. His father, a native of Tennessee, came to Texas when a young man before the Civil war in 1856, locating in MeClennan county, after- wards moving to Clifton, where for many years he was a well known and respected merchant and citizen. He also served as tax assessor of Bosque county, and died at Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1891 at the age of fifty-two. During the Civil war he enlisted his services with the Confederacy and saw a long and arduous service, includ- ing many notable battles, but went through the war without wounds or capture, and at its close returned to his regular business in Bosque county. His wife, who was a native of Missouri, where her people were pioneer settlers, came to Texas when she was a girl, and front Grayson county moved to Bosque county, where she com- pleted her education and was married. She is still living at Wichita Falls, and is a fine old lady who easily bears the weight of her seventy-three years. She was the mother of seven children, three sons and four daughters, of whom Joseph A. was the oldest.
He grew up in Bosque county, had the usual amount of schooling in the common schools, graduating from the high school at Clifton at the age of seventeen. In the meantime he had become more or less familiar with merchandising through his vacation periods of work in his father's establishment, and at the age of eighteen he undertook his first independent venture as a merchant, opening a stock of goods at Clifton, and conducting the business successfully, until at the end of two years he accepted an excellent offer to sell. Then, in 1883, he came to Wichita Falls, a town which was very small at the time, the Ft. Worth and Denver City Railway having only recently been completed, and he thus became one of the pioneers in laying the foundations of the present city, and has been very closely identified with all the work of rearing the superstructure of this city as a commercial center of North Texas. His first enterprise was the establishment of a small stock of general mer- chandise, and he was one of the early merchants in the village. His store was located on Ohio Street, and was one of the typical establishments of its kind, at least in general appearance, although there was probably uo other business man in Wichita Falls at that time who possessed so much resource and ambition as young Kemp. After several years of successful merchandising he sold out in 1887, and then spent several years in looking over the field preparatory to his next venture. In 1890, was established the J. A. Kemp wholesale grocery company, an enterprise which had been established some time be- fore by C. C. White. Under his control the wholesale grocery business prospered exceedingly, and continued to flourish and develop under the presidency of Mr. Kemp until it was doing a business of more than a mil- lion dollars each year. At the same time branches were established in different parts of the western part of the
state, and the success of this establishment has been one of the corner stones of Wichita Falls' importance in trade circles of north Texas. In the latter part of 1903, Mr. Kemp sold his controlling interest in the grocery company to Mr. Blair and Mr. Hughes, but still has stock in the business and is its vice president. The grocery house has continued to prosper under its present manage- ment and now has branches in all the leading trade centers of the southwest, including a branch house in Dallas, Texas.
Probably at the present time and in years to come the work of Mr. Kemp of greatest importance to Wichita Falls and surrounding territory will be his activity as a builder and promoter of railroads. He has become in- terested in railroad construction before leaving the whole- sale grocery business, and since then has devoted much of his time and ability along this line. His first venture was the organization of a company, and the building of a railroad from Henrietta to Wichita Falls, this being the second railroad built into Wichita Falls. He served as president of the road for many years. Under his management, it was extended four hundred and thirty miles, and was an enterprise of which every citizen of Wichita Falls was very proud. These lines embrace what is known as the Wichita Falls & Northwestern R. R. extending from Wichita Falls to Forgan, Okla- homa, a distance of three hundred and three miles, and the Wichita Falls & Wellington R. R. from Altus, Okla- homa to Wellington, Texas, and also a line known as The Wichita Falls & Southern extending from Wichita Falls to Newcastle in Young County, known as The Young County Coal Fields. Mr. Kemp was President during the promotion and construction of all these lines and remained President until 1911, at which time these properties were acquired by the M. K. T. R. R., Mr. Kemp, however, remaining as vice president of all these lines.
In 1890 the City National Bank of Wichita Falls was organized and in 1891, Mr. Kemp as one of its organizers was elected to the office of president, a position which he has filled to the present time. The capital and surplus of this well known bank now aggregates four hundred thousand dollars, and it is easily one of the strongest financial concerns of North Texas. Mr. Kemp is presi- dent, P. P. Lanford is vice president, Wiley Blair is also vice president, C. W. Snider is cashier, and W. L. Rob- ertson is assistant cashier. It is a model institution of its kind, and its quarters are the entire first floor of the Kemp-Kell office building in Wichita Falls.
Mr. Kemp is vice president of the Blair-Hughes wholesale grocery company of which he was the founder and for so many years active as its president. It was his success in the wholesale grocery business which gave Mr. Kemp his first great start.
The Wichita Falls Traction Company owes its incep- tion and construction to Mr. Kemp, and is a first-class electric line affording good urban transportation facili- ties, and regarded as one of the best equipped properties of its kind in the state. This road was built and opened in 1910, and Mr. Kemp has been its president since it started. The main line of the system operates between Wichita Falls and the beautiful Lake Wichita. Along the route of this electric line is located the plant of the Wichita Falls Window Glass factory, and also of the Wichita Bottle Manufacturing Company. These manu- factures have proved important additions to Wichita Falls' growing importance as an industrial center, and were both organized and brought to successful issue by Mr. Kemp. The plants manufacture high grade of wares, employ a number of expert workmen, and repre- sent a large investment of capital. Mr. Kemp is presi- dent of both companies.
Through his instrumentality has also been brought to Wichita Falls an industry which has already given this city a reputation throughout the west and in various parts of the entire country. This is the Wichita Motor
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Truck Company, an entirely new enterprise for Texas. The company confines its output entirely to trucks, and the Wichita trucks have already established themselves in the favor of users all over the United States and Canada. Mr. Kemp is president of the company. He is also president of the Wichita Falls Water Company, and is president of the Lake Wichita Irrigation and Water Company, which was organized by him in 1901 and is one of the largest irrigation undertakings in this part of the state. Through his success in carrying out this irrigation enterprise, Mr. Kemp first became promi- nent as a pioneer in industrial affairs, and larger con- structive enterprises.
With regard to the project, which involved the im- pounding of the waters of Holliday Creek and the mak- ing of an immense artificial lake, three thousand acres in extent, Mr. Kemp had complete confidence in the mat- ter, but had to endure a great deal of suspicion and apathy before he could get the undertaking well under way. It was regarded as one of those visionary schemes in which a great deal of capital might be sunk and from which the material benefits would never be great. How- ever. Mr. Kemp finally succeeded in enlisting the aid of ontside capital, did much of the preliminary work him- self, and finally produced a body of water which in itself is an attractive feature of this vicinity, and affords water privileges valued at many thousands of dollars every year to the farmers in this locality. Through his success in this enterprise, Mr. Kemp may properly be regarded as one of the pioneers in irrigation in north Texas, and the Lake Wichita project has without doubt influenced many similar enterprises undertaken in different see- tions of the semi-arid regions of the western plain regions.
Mr. Kemp is president of the Wichita Falls & South- ern Life Insurance Company. He is president of the Floral Heights Realty Company, a company which has laid out a subdivision of beautiful home sites within the city limits of Wichita Falls. The company platted and has sold for homes over eight hundred lots, fifty by one hundred and fifty feet and this entire tract is within easy access of the carline.
One of the enterprises in which Mr. Kemp may prop- erly take great pride is the Model office building, which he and his partner Mlr. Kell constructed, and which is a building of such size and accommodation and modern facilities as would be a eredit to any city in this state. Mr. Kemp is president of the company which con- structed and owns the Kemp-Kell Building, and Mr. Kell is vice president. This building occupies 50x150 ft., is six stories high, and has every convenience and fea- ture of the modern metropolitan office building.
These are the more important undertakings in which Mr. Kemp has engaged in line with his purpose to make Wichita Falls one of the leading commercial and business renters of Texas. It is a distinetly worthy ambition, and the more so because in his success he is working not less for the city than for himself. As will readily be understood from this brief review of his active business career, Mr. Kemp has had little time for public affairs, and has never been in any sense a politician. However, when he was twenty-two years old he was appointed to the office of county treasurer of Wichita county, and at the expiration of his appointed term was elected for two successive terms to the same office. Since then he has been too busy to accept any preferment from his party, although he is and always has been a loyal Democrat. Fraternally his associations are with the Masonic bodies, in which he has attained to the Thirty-Second degree, Shrine, with the Knights of Pythias, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is one of the directors in the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce. His church is the old school Presbyterian.
On October 18, 1882, at Clifton, Mr. Kemp married Miss Flora Anderson, a native of Texas and a daughter of Captain and Mrs. Mary (Robinson MeLennan) An-
derson. Captain Allen Anderson was a well known pio- neer and Indian fighter, and did much service on the frontier during the early days in protecting life and property of the settlers. He was accidentally killed by a member of his own company while engaged in a fight with Indians on the western border. Mrs. Kemp's mother was a daughter of the McLennan for whom Me- Lennan county was named, and was one of the very prominent pioneers in central Texas. The five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Kemp were Emma Sibyl, Mary Jewel, Flora Charlotte, Bertha May, and Joseph Ander- son. The first, born in 1885 at Wichita Falls, is a grad- uate of St. Mary's College at Dallas, and also a gradu- ate in the languages and ninsic from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, and is now the wife of Mr. Newton Maer, of Wichita Falls, and the mother of one child, Joseph Kemp Maer, who was born in Wichita Falls. Miss Mary Jewel was born in 1887 at Wichita Falls, and is a graduate of St. Mary's College of Dallas. Miss Flora, born in 1893 at Wichita Falls, died at Detroit, Michigan, in 19II, after a long illness of typhoid fever, Miss Bertha, born at Wichita Falls in 1888, graduated from St. Mary's College, is now in a private school in St. Louis. Joseph Anderson Kemp, born at Wichita Falls in 1904, is in school. Mr. Kemp and his family reside in one of the most palatial homes in Wichita Falls. It has recently been completed and is situated in the Hill district, the most exclusive residence portion of the city.
HORACE BALDWIN RICE. As a civie honor few men would desire one more distinctive and more likely to be associated with favorable comment in later years than that of being the first mayor of Houston under the com- mission form of government. A charter on the commis- sion plan, but somewhat different from the original Gal- vestou organie law, was granted to Houston on March 18, 1905. At the first city election under the new charter Horace Baldwin Rice was elected head of the commission, and titular mayor. At every recurring two years he was re-elected, and continued at the head of the city govern- ment until 1913, at which time he declined to become a candidate for further honors. The progress of Houston as a municipality, including the remarkable reforms in its methods of handling business, in the efficiency of its tax- collecting system, and in a general strengthening and concentration of municipal powers, Baldwin Rice will always have a large share of the honors which go to the city at large.
Horace Baldwin Rice was born at Houston, March 28, 186I, being one of the younger children of Frederick Allen and Charlotte (Baldwin) Rice. On both his fath- er's and mother's side he is descended from American Revolutionary stock, and the ancestry is a mingling of Scotch-Irish and English. One of his great-grandfathers, named Hall, was wounded in the battle of Lexington in 1775, but lived to be one hundred and three years old, and spent all his life in Massachusetts. Frederick Allen Rice, father of Mayor Rice, was born in Massachusetts, moved to Houston, Texas, in 1850, and for many years was identified with mercantile and railroad duties. He was one of the builders of the old Houston and Texas Central Railroad, and one of the men who were largely responsible for making Houston the commercial metropo- lis of the southeastern quarter of the state. Frederick A. Rice died in 1901 at the age of seventy-one. He was a brother of the late William M. Rice, founder of the Rice Institute at Houston. Charlotte (Baldwin) Rice, mother of Baldwin Rice, was born in New York state. Her father, Horace Baldwin, was a brother-in-law to A. C. Allen, one of the owners of the original townsite, and a founder of the city of Houston in 1836. Horace Baldwin himself located in Texas in 1840, and was engaged in the transportation business along the Gulf coast, and from Houston down the Bayou. In 1844 he was honored with election to the office of mayor at Houston. There were
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seven sons and three daughters in the family of Frederick A. Rice and wife, of whom the oldest is Col. J. S. Rice, the well-known capitalist and banker of Houston.
The early education of Horace Baldwin Rice was at- tained chiefly in the Texas Military Institute at Austin, and on leaving school he went into the cattle and cotton business. After some time spent as a cattle raiser, he re- ceived his first political office as public weigher of cotton for Harris county, an office which he filled until 1896. At the same time his interest in the cattle business continued.
His achievements as mayor of Houston have over- shadowed some of his earlier services in behalf of the publie welfare. From 1892 to 1896, a period of four and a half years, he was one of the county commissioners of Harris county. During that time the board of commis- sioners constructed the first paved highway in Harris county. That road was built under a special road act, and was a practical beginning of the many fine shell and macadam roads which now stretch out in every direction about Houston and over Harris county. In 1896 Mr. Rice was elected mayor of Houston under the old municipal form of government and served until 1898. From the close of his term as mayor until 1905 he was closely identified with the cattle industry. After his first election under the new city charter in 1905, Mr. Rice was re- elected in 1907, 1909, and 1911, so that he was at the head of Houston city government for eight years.
In 1901 Mr. Rice was appointed by the probate court of Harris county as administrator for the estate of the late William M. Rice, his unele. The administration of this large estate has taken much of his time ever since.
Mr. Rice is president of the Suburban Homestead Com- pany and vice president of the Houston lee and Brewing Company. He is a student of municipal affairs and a man whose broad information and ability as a social and eivie leader enabled him to fill his office as mayor with distinction as well as with efficiency. Mr: Rice has mem- bership in many social and fraternal organizations, in- eluding the Houston Club, the Houston Country Club, the Thalian Club of Houston, and also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 151, and the Woodmen of the World at Houston. In 1883 occurred his marriage with Miss Georgia Dumble. Her father was the late George Dumble, a native of Canada, who came to Houston about 1850, and was a man of more than ordinary influence and standing in the community. Mr. and Mrs. Rice reside at 1916 Main street, and his business offices are in the Union National Bank Building.
ALOIS R. MILLER, State and County Tax Assessor, Houston, Texas, is by virtue of long service in public office in close touch with the people and affairs generally in his locality. Back of his public service his record is that of an honorable, upright citizen, and his whole life has been spent in Harris county.
Mr. Miller was born at Houston, January 4, 1859, son of Isidor and Lisette ( Plessman) Miller. His father, a native of Alsace-Lorraine, came to America in 1844 and took up his residence at Houston, where he was for years occupied as a contracting painter. During the war of the Rebellion he took up arms in defense of the Con- federate cause, and as a member of Company B, Waul's Legion, at the siege of Vicksburg, endured exposure which resulted in his death in 1867. Mr. Miller's mother was a native of Saxony. She came with her parents to this country about 1844, either just before or soon after the arrival of Isidor Miller,. and from her fifth year was reared in Houston. Here she spent her life, and passed away in 1905. Her parents did not long survive their removal to this new country; both died in 1845. Isidor and Lisette (Plessman) Miller were the parents of ten children, of whom only three are now living: Alois, whose name introduces this sketch; Isidor J., who is in the employ of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad Company, and Laura, wife of M. R. For- ney, of Houston.
The son of foreign born parents and one of a large family of children, in a new country and in a time of civil war, Alois R. Miller had limited advantages for obtaining an education. His father's death made it necessary for the youth at the age of nine years to assist in earning a livelihood. From his ninth to his eleventh year he sold papers on the streets. Then he became ""devil" in the office of the old Telegraph, which later was changed to the Telegram. In the office of this paper he learned typesetting at the case, and until 1850 was compositor for the Telegram. Close confinement in the office brought on ill health and, in seeking outdoor life, he took up farming at Bear Creek, Harris county, in which he was engaged until 1885. The next two years he was a locomotive fireman on the H. & T. C. R. R., after which he returned to his earlier vocation as com- positor on the Houston Post, with which he was con- nected in 1888 for a short time, subsequently became connected with the Galveston Daily News. He remained with the latter publication until 1890, when he returned to Houston and again became connected with the Hous- ton Post, continuing until 1894. The year 1892 marked the introduction of linotypes into the big newspaper offices, and Mr. Miller changed from the case to the machine, being one of the first operators in the office of the Post.
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