A history of Texas and Texans, Part 131

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

USA > Texas > A history of Texas and Texans > Part 131

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In his youth, Thos. M. Cunningham attended the pub- lic schools of Cleburne, after leaving which, like many other young men of the great Southwest, he took up the stock business. For several years he followed the life and fortunes of a range rider, or cow-boy, his skill as a horseman and in the use of the lariat enabling him to easily secure profitable employment. However, he had aspirations and ambitions far above those of the average range rider, and it was not long before his hard work and careful saving made it possible for him to embark in the cattle business on his own account. His first ven- ture was in Johnston county, where he took up stock rais- ing and farming, but subsequently he moved to Tarrant county, thence to Dallas and Hill counties, and finally to Roberts county. As he made each move he inereased the size of his holdings, and now owns two ranches in Roberts county, comprising many thousands of acres of fine grazing ground, which he has leased out to re- liable parties. On his retirement from active participa- tion in stock raising, Mr. Cunningham came to Miami, and here became one of the organizers of the Bank of Miami, which he has since been president, a substantial financial institution of this city, whose stockholders and board of directors all make their home here. He has interested himself in various other enterprises of an extensive nature, and his activities have been es- sentially of a business and financial character, although he has not neglected the duties of citizenship, and has served three terms of two years each in the capacity of county judge of Roberts county, where he has displayed his ability to handle the affairs of public life. His politieal affiliation is with the democratic party, and he has ever been stanch in his support of its principles and candidates. With his family, he attends the Baptist church.

Mr. Cunningham was married at Archer City, Texas, in October, 1884, to Miss Fronie Cooley, daughter of J. W. Cooley, also an early pioneer of Texas, now de- ceased. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham have had no children. It is but natural that Mr. Cunningham should have a deep-rooted faith in the future of Texas, for the mar- velous development that has gone on under his eyes has been of such a nature as to inspire confidence. Many of the prosperous and flourishing towns and villages that are now great centers of industrial, commercial and educational activity have come into being since he rode the ranges in the sombrero and chaps of the "cow- puncher," while the productiveness of the farming country has been brought to a state where it promises great things for the future. He has never hesitated to express his views along these lines, and by word and pen has done much to encourage settlement in the State of his adoption.

WALTER WIPPRECHT stauds in a varied relationship with the business and public community of Bryan and Brazos county. In 1904 he was elected to the office of tax collector of the county, and has since been re-elected four times, a fact which indicates the confi- dence reposed in him by the people of that section. Mr. Wipprecht is an expert cotton man, and acquainted both with the scientific and the practical side of agri- culture. He is general manager of the Bryan Press Company, and as president of the Bryan Telephone Com- pany has directed the affairs of that public utility with much profit to the stockholders and increase of good service to the community.

Walter Wipprecht was born at Sisterdale, Kendall. county, Texas, January 3, 1864. A scholarly man him- self, he is a son and is descended from a line of scholarly ancestors. His father was Rudolph Wipprecht, who died at Seguin, Texas, in 1891, when sixty-seven years of age. The elder Wipprecht was born in Saxony, Ger- many, at the town of Rudelstadt, where the family name had been for many generations. He left Germany in 1849, coming to Galveston and thence to the old town of Indianola, whose history and existence came to a termination with the disastrous flood of many years ago. Rudolph Wipprecht was a graduate of Jena University, and was especially proficient in the Spanish language, and some of his Spanish translations done after com- ing to Texas are now to be found in the State Library. In Texas he taught school for a number of years, and in Germany had been in the customs service. Rudolph Wipprecht was married in Kendall county to Miss Kapp. Her father, Ernest Kapp, who came from the town of Minden, Prussia, was an educator and the author of sev- eral philosophical works, who died in Dueffeldorf, Ger- many. Ernest Kapp married a Miss Cappel. The chil- dren of Rudolph Wipprecht and wife were: Ida, wife of I. Japhet of Houston; Paul, who is connected with the department of agriculture at Austin; Walter and Elsbeth, of Bryan.

Walter Wipprecht has lived in Brazos county almost continuously since 1881, when he entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College. After graduating in the class of 1884 be took the first post-graduate course offered by that institution in 1885, receiving the degree of Bach- elor of Science, and for two years was an instructor, being assistant in chemistry and physics. Subsequently he went abroad, and was a student in the University of Jena, Germany, where his father had previously gradu- ated. He took special courses in chemistry while abroad, and remained in the prosecution of his higher studies from 1887 until 1889. After returning to Texas Mr. Wipprecht was appointed to the position of the first chemist for the Texas Experiment Station, and was en- gaged in that important work for about two years. He then went to the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station at Audubon Park, near New Orleans, and opened a chem- ical laboratory under the state government. Returning

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to Bryan he was engaged in the drug business as junior member of the firm of James & Wipprecht, his partner being M. H. James. After a few years in that line Mr. Wipprecht engaged in the cottou compress work, and in 1897 was one of those who organized the Bryan Press Company, of which he has since been manager. In 1906 the plant of the company was destroyed by fire, but owing to the prompt and energetie business methods of its managers, a new press was in operation within ninety days from the date of the disaster. The company's facilities are equal to one hundred bales of cotton per day, and during the season is run at its full capacity. Mr. Wipprecht is interested in farming in his rich agri- cultural district, carrying on a general and diversified plan of operation, and has spent much time and money in the improvement of his building, and in increasing the soil value of his estate. He is also one of the directors of the Parker-Astin Hardware Company of Bryan.

Mr. Wipprecht first entered the field of local politics in 1904, with his election to the office of tax collector, as the successor of J. J. Adams. He is a strong believer in higher education, and has decided convictions as to the principles of maintaining all state institutions upon an independent basis, and free from political or other prejudicial influence. In line with this policy he was chairman of the committee appointed to defeat at the polls the senate joint resolution No. 18, which threatened the independence of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan. He was sent to Austin by the city of Bryan to bring the legislature of 1913 on a visit of inspection to the college. Mr. Wipprecht affiliates with the Sons of Hermann, and supports the Lutheran church faith.

On June 15, 1892, he married Miss Ethel Read, a daughter of Dr. R. W. Read of Texarkana, Texas. Their children are: Miss Ida, a student in the Texas State University ; Read, Carl and Walter.

JOE B. REED. A resident of Texas since 1870, Joe B. Reed first came to the state in 1869, and for a brief time prospected at Galveston, and subsequently located in Corsicana. For nearly forty years Mr. Reed has been a resident of Bryan, was connected with the cotton busi- ness at that point for a number of years, and has been in the insurance business ever since. The life and acci- dent insurance agency conducted by him represents some of the oldest and best known companies, and enjoys a large share of the business credited to similar agencies in this part of the state.

Mr. Reed is a native of Massachusetts, and came to Texas from New York City. He was born at Hub- bardston on December 31, 1847. The first sixteen years of his life were spent in his native state, on a farm, and his schooling was obtained at Canadaigua, New York, and later in the Eastman's Business College at Pough- keepsie. A year and a half was spent in New York City as a clerk, and when a young man with considerable business experience and ability he started ont to carve his own fortune in the world, he turned his eyes toward Texas. His old New York employer, C. W. Adams, was located in Galveston, and it was that fact which caused young Reed to consider Texas as the field of his future operations. After locating at Corsicana, he was in the dry goods business a year, and in July, 1871, moved to Comanche, where he was in general merchandising busi- ness a year and a half. Moving from there to Rockdale, which at that time had recently become the terminus of the I. & G. N. Railroad, he started in business there as a furniture merchant, and subsequently was proprietor of a hotel and restaurant. Mr. Reed moved to Bryan in 1874, and became associated with his father-in-law, Col. A. C. L. Hill, in the cotton business. Colonel Hill was a commission merchant, who did business all along the line of the Houston and Texas Central, and was one of the prominent business men of Bryan from the time it first sprung into prominence as a commercial center,

with the completion of the Houston and Texas Central Railway to that point. The cotton business continued to be the line in which Mr. Reed was chiefly interested for eighteen years. He then started in the life insurance work, at first with the Mutual Reserve Life Company, and subsequently became representative for the South- western Life of Texas, his present company. He is one of the pioneer agents of the Southwestern Life, and the first policy he wrote for the company was number two hundred.

Mr. Reed is well known in fraternal affairs; ISSI at Bryan he joined the Ancient Order of United Work- men and the Knights of Honor and is still with both, and has been Grand Recorder of the Ancient Workmen in Texas and Supreme Representative to the Grand Lodge. He has represented the Knights of Honor in the State Meeting, and was an officer of the Grand Lodge. In the Knights of Pythias Mr. Reed has represented the order in the Grand Lodge of the state, and is master of finance for his own lodge. He is the record keeper for the Knights of the Maccabees, and has also been in the Grand Lodge of that organization. For many years he has been clerk of the Woodmen of the World, has rep- resented it at the head camp of Texas. In both Odd Fellowship and Masonry he has served as secretary of his own lodges, and is secretary of the Royal Arch Chap- ter. Mr. Reed was brought up under Democratie influ- ence, has supported that party regularly, but has never been an aspirant for any publie position. His parents were Unitarians, and Mr. Reed was at first of the same faith, but since living in Texas' has been a member of the Christian church. He is one of the leading men of Bryan, is a member of its commercial club, and at one time served as collector for the club. Governor O. M. Roberts, during his administration, commissioned Mr. Reed as major in the Texas militia. During all the years of his residence at Bryan he has interested himself in every movement for the betterment and improvement of the city, and not only as a publie spirited individnal for the larger phases of civie work has he been promi- nent, but his practical charities and helpfulness to the poor and those who need counsel has been almost with- out limit, and no record could be made of the thousands of kindly acts he has performed for his fellowmen.

Mr. Reed was married in Corsicana, Texas, in June, 1870, to Miss Carrie Hill, daughter of Col. A. C. L. Hill, who came to Texas from Arkansas, where he was a planter and slave holder, but who was born in the State of Maine. Colonel Hill died in Bryan during the nine- ties. The maiden name of his wife was Sarah Manley who died at Bryan. Mrs. Reed, who died in June, 1904, without children, was one of five children, as follows: Frank, Helen, Lillie, Daisy, and Mrs. Reed.

The family to which Mr. Reed belongs is of Revolution- ary stock, and came from old England to the New World. Grandfather Reed was Micajah, of Massachusetts, and a farmer by occupation. Major George W. Reed, father of the Bryan business man, was born in Petersham, Mas- sachusetts, was a farmer, and married Lydia Smith, a daughter of Samuel Smith of Barry, Massachusetts, a pioneer New Englander in lineage, and a farmer by call- ing. Of the Reed family Mr. Joe B. Reed is the last of the line, even from Micajah Reed, his grandfather. Major Reed had the following children: Frederick, who was the first to grow up and who spent his life and died at Hubbardstown, Massachusetts; Charles H. F., who early went to sea, became a captain of a vessel, subsequently engaged in brokering and as a speculator in New York City, and spent his last years in California, dying in San Francisco.

ALBERT WADSWORTH WILKERSON. The cashier of the City National Bank of Bryan is preeminently a business man, bas devoted all his time and energy to banking since he was a boy of seventeen, and his success is due to this concentration and to his exceptional capabilities

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in that field. Mr. Wilkerson came to Bryan in 1902 and assisted in the reorganization of the old Merchants & Planters National Bank into the City National Bank, and since that date has held the post of cashier. Asso- ciated with him in the work of reorganization were G. S. Parker, Ed Hall, and E. H. Astin. Mr. Wilkerson came to Bryan from Austin, where he had been for thirteen years identified with banking, and had entered the City National Bank at the age of seventeen, and was assistant cashier when he left. A. P. Wooldridge was president of the bank during Mr. Wilkerson 's connection therewith.

Albert Wadsworth Wilkerson was born in Robertson county, Texas, September 28, 1870, a son of Jonathan G. Wilkerson, and a grandson of E. Archie Wilkerson. The latter was born in County Clare, Ireland, while his wife was from Dublin. After coming to America they lived in Alabama, and reared a large family of chil- dren. Jonathan G. Wilkerson was one of the early-day merchants of Hearne, a member of the pioneer firm of Brown & Wilkerson. His death occurred in 1873, at the age of twenty-six, just at the beginning of a promising business success. He was born in Wilcox county, Ala- bama, came to Texas before the war as a runaway boy, stopped at Matagorda, and while there enlisted in the army, and was one of the boy soldiers of the Confed- eracy. He was a member of the Methodist church. He was married in Matagorda to Miss Sarah H. Wadsworth, a daughter of Albert Wadsworth, who at one time was an officer in the United States Navy, was an early settler of Texas, and a merchant and justice of the peace. Mrs. Wilkerson died in Hearne in 1912, and her children were: Albert W., and Warren A., a lumberman of Hearne, in the firm of Wilkerson Brothers.

Mr. Albert W. Wilkerson belonged to the Episcopal church. He was married in Austin, July 16, 1895, to Miss Mary Clare Weeden, a daughter of F. T. Weeden of Austin. The children of their marriage are three: Clare Aubrey, and Edward A. and John W., twins.

JAMES L. FOUNTAIN, a real estate dealer of Bryan, Texas, has been identified with this place since 1875, when he came here from Dallas county, Alabama. He was born there, in Carlowville, on February 5, 1853, and is a son of James Alexander Fountain, who brought his family to Texas in the year 1872, locating at Bryan. It should be said here that the Fountains are of French origin and ancestry, this family springing from one of three brothers who settled at Racine, Wisconsin, in the early days of that place, and whose posterity scat- tered from there to the south and other parts of the United States.

James Alexander Fountain was a farmer by birth and training and he followed that occupation after coming to Texas. He died in 1900 when he was seventy-two years of age. He was a slave-holder in the early days and as a resident of Alabama he was a well known and prosperous planter. The Civil war reduced him to almost penury, and he left his native state broken in fortune, here to spend his remaining years of life. He was a quiet man, not given to political activity, though a stanchi Democrat, and he was a member of the Baptist church. He was a man of considerable education, having been a graduate of the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa. He married Miss Maey Lily, a daughter of Dr. Thomas Lily, of Mississippi. She died at the age of sixty and her children were as follows: Dr. Thomas L., who died in Bryan in 1876, unmarried; James L., of this review; Charles P., professor of English in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas: Lily, the wife of J. W. Ragsdale, died at Bryan; Nellie, unmarried; Dr. Henry L., of Bryan; Edmond J., of Bryan; Rosa, wife of W. S. Howell, who died in San Antonio; and William C., of Brvan.

James L. Fountain gathered what might be termed a pick-up education during the war period, his boyhood ex-

perience being similar to that of the average country youth, barring the flavor of military activity that per- vaded the years of his early boyhood. He began life as a clerk in Selma, Alabama. He later studied dentistry and took a course of training in the New Orleans Dental College, after which he practiced his profession in Dallas county, Alabama, coming to Texas in 1875. He followed his profession in Bryan for twenty-five years, after which he abandoned it and turned his attention to real estate pursuits, in which he has since been engaged.

In 1900 Mr. Fountain associated himself with his brother, Edmond J., and together they conduct a general farming and real estate business, which is exceedingly prosperous. They buy and sell lands and are the pro- moters of the Brazos County Development Company of Bryan, a thriving enterprise of the city. Mr. Fountain was active in securing the location of the Allen Academy at Bryan, and he has served as a trustee of the school. He has also served in a similar capacity in the public schools, and he is now a member of the Board of Trus- tees of the Bryan Baptist Academy. His interest in educational work is a live and healthy one, and he has done good work in the various posts he has held along those lines.

Mr. Fountain is a Democrat by birth, and in 1876 he cast his first presidential vote for Samuel Tilden. He has since voted for practically every regular nominee of the party. He has played a fairly active part in local and district politics, and in 1901 was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, serving as a mem- her of the 27th assembly. He later served from the same district as a member of the 28th, 29th, 32d and 33d legislative bodies. When first a member Mr. Foun- tain was assigned to the appropriations committee and the educational committee, and he was active and help- ful in legislation favorable to the A. & M. College.

In 1886 Mr. Fountain was married in Bryan to Miss Mary Calhoun, who came to Texas as a child and the niece of Colonel Yarborough of Grimes county. She died on November 17, 1892, the mother of Frances, now the wife of Edwin P. Price, who is a resident of Chicago and has one son, Edwin P. Price, Jr.

MARX MARCUS. A business man of North Texas, who during his career at Wichita Falls and elsewhere gained the respect and confidence of the entire community, and whose public spirit was as notable as his success, was the late Marx Marcus, who came to Texas about forty years ago, and from modest beginnings created a large and prosperous business.

Marx Marcus was born in Poland, and in his native land married Pauline Mittenthal. In 1869 when both were quite young they emigrated to the United States and first located in New York City, but in a little while went west and lived in Peoria, Illinois, until 1875. In that year they came to Texas, and located at Tyler, in Smith county, where Mr. Marcus was in the dry goods business. He afterwards moved to Gainesville, and was in the same line of trade, and in 1882 came to Wichita Falls, where for sixteen years he was one of the successful merchants. In 1898, though still keeping his home at Wichita Falls, he extended his enterprise to the operation of a large ranch in the vicinity of Amarillo, and was in the cattle business there until 1904. In that year at Wichita Falls, he established the plant of the People's Ice Company, of which he was president, and which he lived to see established upon a substantial basis.

The late Marx Marcus died at Wichita Falls, May 12, 1905, when fifty-four years of age. He was a man of exceptional enterprise, of an ambitious spirit which had carried him successively through all the vicissitudes of business experience, and together with industry had a character as a man of conviction and sterling ideals of honor. After coming to America he was patriotic and public spirited in all his relations with civic affairs, and

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in his death his community lost a man whose place was hard to fill. He took a keen interest in Wichita Falls, and during his long residence in Texas gained and retained numerous friends. His widow, who still survives, is a resident of Dallas, Texas, and is now sixty years of age. They were the parents of seven children.

MARION O. NIX. There is no one official of Falls county to whom the community is more indebted for practical and permanent improvements in county affairs than to Marion O. Nix, county treasurer. His earnest- ness, honesty and unassuming ability have retained hin in office during two terms, and the final result of his faithful and progressive service is not only to firmly es- tablish him in the confidence of the local publie, but to give him a place among the men who may be named as the builders of the great commonwealth of Texas. Mr. Nix was born in Dallas county, Arkansas, April 15, 1848, and is a son of Isham J. and Frances W. (Berry) Nix. His father, a native of Franklin county, Georgia, was born August 28, 1822, and in his native county was for a number of years engaged in farming. Subse- quently he migrated to Arkansas, where he resided for some years, and in 1877 came to Texas, this state being his home from that time until his death in 1898. He devoted his entire life to agricultural pursnits, and was known as an industrious workman and a public-spirited citizen. He married Frances W. Berry, who was born September 11, 1820, in Newton county, Georgia, and she passed away in October, 1898, having been the mother of seven children, as follows: Marion O., of this review ; Juliet T .; Harriet, who is deceased; Naonica, who is also deceased; George A .; Newton, who is deceased; and Daniel A.

Marion O. Nix received his early educational training in the public schools of Dallas county, Arkansas, and in his boyhood divided his time between his school books and the duties of the home farm. He completed his studies at the age of nineteen years, and for ten years thereafter followed farming in Arkansas. In 1877 he accompanied his father to Texas, and was employed on farms in various capacities until 1898, when he was thrown from a mule, and in the fall broke the knuckle bone from his hip, which has made him a cripple ever since. In 1900 Mr. Nix received the election to the office of the justice of the peace of Chilton, an office which be filled satisfactorily for six years, and follow- ing this spent four years as a clerk in a mercantile establishment in that city, being so engaged at the time of his election, in 1910, to the office of county treasurer, an office to which he was re-elected in 1912. He has dis- charged the duties of his office with zeal, honesty and ability, and has established a record for notable vig- ilanee in safeguarding publie office, of praiseworthy enthusiasm in official service, and of splendid adherence to high ideals.

On August 31, 1873, Mr. Nix was married in Dallas county, Arkansas, to Miss Lethea R. Toone, and to this union there have been born eight children, namely : Robert T., Walter N., Lawrence C., Frank M., Charles E., John R., Lucian M. and Ira, of whom Charles E. is deceased. Mr. Nix has always been a stalwart Democrat. His fraternal connections include membership in the Masons, and his religious belief is that of the Missionary Baptist church. He owns his own residence at Marlin, has a wide acquaintance in this community, and numbers his friends by the scores.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 131

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