A history of Texas and Texans, Part 144

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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He came to Texas in 1905 and located in El Paso, en- tering the employ of the El Paso Foundry and Ma- chine Company. He remained with this company for five years, after a time becoming secretary and manager and purchasing agent for the supply department. He saw the advantages of this section of the country and the possibilities in the undeveloped resources of the whole section, and his desire to enter this rich field for himself finally led to his resignation from the El Paso Foundry and Machine Company. He entered into part- nership with H. W. Broaddns, and the firm of Broad- dus and Le Baron opened for business. This firm does a general real estate, insurance and investment business, and the push and energy of the two partners has made the business a success from the very beginning. The older men in the business world of El Paso, if asked to point out the men whom they believe will eventually become men of power and influence in the business affairs of the city, will be sure to mention Mr. Le Baron among the number, so good a showing has he already made.

In politics, although believing in the principles of the Democratic party, Mr. Le Baron prefers to vote independently rather than for any man the party chooses to put up. In religious matters he is a com- municant of the Roman Catholic church. He belongs to the Knights of Columbus and is a past grand knight. He is a member of the chamber of commerce, and the high regard in which he is held by the business men is shown in the fact that he was a member of the board of directors in 1911. In the social world of El Paso, Mr. Le Baron is just as popular as in other fields. He is a member of the Toltec Club, the Country Club, and the El Paso Social Club. He occupies beautiful offices, and here his friends are always welcome, though he has too large a business to be able to take very much time for other matters.

Mr. Le Baron has no use for lazy men, but he says

that for any one who is energetic aud willing to apply himself there is room and opportunity in western Texas. Any one coming out here will be measured by himself and not by his ancestors, and, as Mr. Le Baron says, it is a country for strong men and a country where the future is brighter than the past.

Mr. Le Baron was married in El Paso, Texas, on the 20th of April, 1910, to Miss Laura Townsend, a daugh- ter of Judge and Mrs. J. E. Townsend, of El Paso. One daughter, Florence Rohmer, has been born to this union.

CHARLES L. VOWELL. A member of the Texas bar for nearly a quarter of a century, Mr. Vowell had a successful career in practice and in public affairs for many years at Sherman, and more recently has located at El Paso, where he is regarded as one of the strongest members of the local bar.

Charles L. Vowell was born in Grayson county, Texas, August 9, 1868, a son of Dr. John L. and Martha Jane Vowell. There were five children in the parents' family, and Charles L. was the fourth and yonngest son. His early education was attained in the private schools of Grayson county, it being followed by a high school course, and subsequently he was a student in the Sam Houston Normal Institute, at Huntsville, where he graduated in 1886. As a boy he was ambitious for higher attainments and worked industriously in order to acquire the means for his higher education. It was with the earnings from his personal industry that he was able to attend the Sam Houston Normal, and after his graduation there he engaged in teaching school until he was twenty-one years of age. At that time he had per- fected himself in the law and was admitted to the bar. He began his practice in Sherman, and that was hia home until September, 1909, at which date he located at El Paso and established his office here.

Mr. Vowell was married at Sherman, December 20, 1897, to Miss Edna Caruthers, a daughter of M. J. Caruthers, of Sherman. Mrs. Vowell is also a native of Texas. The three children, two sons and one daugh- ter, born to their marriage are named as follows: Edna Eyrline, Jack Caruthers and Fulton Vowell. Mr. Vowell and family are members of the Christian church, and he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, the Maccabees and the Order of Elks. In the line of his profession he has membership in the Texas State Bar Association.

Mr. Vowell has always been an active Democrat and has taken an active interest in both national and state affairs, and problems connected with the political situa- tion. During his residence in Sherman he had numerous political distinctions. He served as city attorney, was for four years assistant district attorney, and then was elected district, attorney, and during his administration in the latter office he secured a larger percentage of convictions according to the number of cases brought before the court than was true in any other county of the state at that time. He was also a member of the school board while residing at Sherman. Mr. Vowell is a man of culture and broad interests, is a thorough student of the law, and excellently well versed in its practice. He takes much pleasure in the resources of his private library, is a man of outdoor interests, and likes hunting and fishing, and in his home community responds readily to every movement for the betterment and advancement of this city.

CHARLES E. Ross, of El Paso, Texas, is one of the many men who have found success in this section of the state of Texas. Mr. Ross belongs to that type of man which is to be found nowhere in the world save in America, the man who learns a trade with the inten- tion of using it merely as a stepping-stone to an inde- pendent business of his own. That Mr. Ross has suc- ceeded in gratifying his ambitions has been due to the

Mr & Mme Frank Hay

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fact that he was skilled in his line of work no less than to his willingness to work, and to work hard.

North Carolina is the native state of Charles E. Ross, his birth having taken place in Union county on the 7th of October, 1877. His father is James E. Ross, who now resides at Montgomery, Alabama, where be is a prominent business man. His mother, Emma Ross, is also living. Charles E. Ross lived in his native state until he was about twelve years old, and then his par- ents moved into South Carolina, living there about four years, at the end of which time they moved to Jackson- ville, Florida. The education of the lad was therefore rather interrupted, and the best years of his schooling were bad in the city of Jacksonville.

It was in the latter city that he first started out as a wage-earner. His first position was as delivery boy for one of the evening papers, and, after about a year of this work, he decided that the best thing for a boy without any capital was to learn some trade, so he ap- prenticed himself to learn the trade of a carriage painter. For three years he worked for the firm of MeMurry and Baker, in Jacksonville, and became an expert in his line. He then entered the employ of Smith and Neil, of the same city, remaining with them for two years and a half. At the end of this time he went to Montgomery, Alabama, and went to work at his trade. He remained in this city for eighteen months and then returned to Florida and located in Pensacola, remaining there for a year. It was in 1905 that he came to El Paso, and he has lived here since that time. He first went to work on a salary, but hy carefully saving his money he was able in five years to establish himself in a business of his own. This was in 1910, and he has been in this business ever since. He has a painting shop in which all kinds of high class painting is done, but he devotes himself especially to the. paint- ing of carriages and automobiles. He has among bis customers the best people in the city and has a large patronage. His shop is furnished with modern equip- ment throughout and he has a reputation for putting out finely finished work.

In religious matters Mr. Ross is a member of no church, but he 'bas a tendency toward the Methodist church. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Loyal Order of Moose. In politics he is a member of the Democratic party, but takes no active part in politics, although he is keenly interested in local affairs.

Mr. Ross says that he likes El Paso and western Texas because they have heen good to him; that be has been very successful here and will make this city his permanent home. He says that when he first came here be expected to remain only a few months, but that he soon realized that the city had a great future and he decided to remain. In his opinion there is no better city in the United States, and he advises all those seeking a permanent location to come and investigate.

J. FRANK SLAY. Since 1888 a resident of Armstrong county, of which he has the distinction of serving as first assessor, Mr. Slay has for a number of years been identified with the hardware business at Claude and has the largest establishment in that line in the city.

J. Frank Slay was born September 6, 1860, in Sabine parish, Louisiana, the third of eight children born to Erastus B. and Frances (Smith) Slay, both of whom were natives of Georgia. The father was a child when his family moved to Alabama, in which state be was educated, and in 1863 he moved to eastern Texas, locat- ing in Van Zandt county. Immediately upon arriving in that county he enlisted in a Texas regiment which did guard duty until the close of the war. He was a cripple and was unable to take part in any of the active campaigns. His death occurred in 1899 in Montague county, hut at the time he was a resident of Armstrong county. His regular occupation throughout his career

was farming, but owing to his infirmities be never be- came to any degree affluent and died a poor man. In politics he was a Democrat and a member of the Baptist church. The mother came to Texas with her husband and is now living in Carson county at the age of seventy- four.

J. Frank Slay had a primary education in Van Zandt and Wise counties, comprising a few months at school. For some years he contributed his work to the support of the family and was performing a man's part on the home farm when many of bis age were in school. His first work on his own account was as a cowboy and he spent a year in riding herd over the western cattle range, and from that occupation branched out into the freight- ing business, which was a large and important enterprise in west Texas before the days of the railroad. He trans- ported many loads of merchandise and supplies between Wichita Falls and Old Clarendon, a distance of two hun- dred miles. The completion of the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad put an end to the business and in 1886 he entered the employ of the railroad company with which he continued for two years. He was next identified with a line of work of hardly less importance in the pan- handle country, in drilling wells. He was one of those who sunk the first well in the panhandle country and continued the work for twelve years. In 1888 he became a permanent resident of Armstrong county, and on the organization of the county government was elected tax assessor, in which he served for two terms. He later served a term of county treasurer. In 1899 he began the lumber business, which he followed for three years, and then established himself in the hardware trade which he has followed to the present time, with particular success. He now carries a stock of general hardware valned at about twenty thousand dollars and has an excellent store building twenty-five hy one hundred feet with a warehouse forty by one hundred and forty feet. Besides his business he has a large amount of city real estate and owns his store property and his residence.

The politics of Mr. Slay have always been Democratic and he has taken much interest in political and civic affairs. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World, belongs to the Commercial Club, in religion was for twenty-nine years a Baptist, and for the past five years has been an active member of the Meth- odist church, south, serving as steward and district steward. In Claude, Texas, July 10, 1895, he married Miss Maggie Miller, a native of Johnson county and a daughter of W. E. Miller, one of the pioneers and a Confederate veteran of Texas. The five sons born to their union are: Olin, born August 10, 1896, in Claude; Alva, born December 3, 1897; Roy, born August 22, 1899; William, born November 22, 1902; and Erwin, born August 7, 1904. All the children were born in Claude.

THOMAS A. BURCH. Proprietor of the Texico Transfer Company, at El Paso, Mr. Burch established and built up an excellent business and is regarded as one of the successful and enterprising young men of El Paso's com- mercial life.

Thomas A. Burch was born in Chillicothe, Missouri, May 1, 1870, a son of John and Elizabeth Burch. His father was a native of New York state and the mother of Kentucky. Thomas A. Burch lived in his native state for more than thirty years and obtained bis education in the public schools, completing it with a course at Professor Moore's Normal and Business College. Be- tween his school and college days he engaged in farm- ing, and after leaving college taught for some time. He and his sister joined their efforts in opening and conducting a mercantile establishment in Missouri, which he operated with considerable success until he was about thirty-four years of age. He then came to El Paso in 1904 and has been a resident of this state ever since. The first two years he spent as a commercial

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salesman, traveling all over west Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 1906 he sought a field of independent enter- prise in his present line, and began a general transfer, livery and storage business. He has built up and main- tained a complete and thoroughly equipped establish- ment, employing about twenty persons, a large number of teams and wagons, and he has very modern and effi- cient facilities for storage and all lines of services con- nected with his business.

Mr. Burch was married at his native city of Chilli- cothe, Missouri, September 5, 1893, to Miss Jessie Rogers, daughter of John Rogers, of Chillicothe. They are the parents of one child, John Q., who is a student in the University of Texas. Mrs. Burch died in May, 1910, and is buried in El Paso. She was a very active member of the Methodist church, with which denomina- tion her husband affiliates. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Masons, and is a Republican voter. Among the out- door sports he is especially fond of football and enjoys all the good things of life.

A. P. MCKINNON, attorney and counselor-at-law, Floydada, Texas, is one of those men, too few in num- ber, who fully recognize the truth so often urged by the sages of the law, that, of all men, the reading and thoughts of a lawyer should be the most extended. Systematic reading gives a more comprehensive grasp to the mind, variety and richness to thought, and a larger perception of the motives of men and the prin- ciples of things, indeed, of the very spirit of laws. This he has found most essential in the prosecution of his profession.

He was born in Thomas county, Georgia, December 19, 1849, and his parents, Daniel and Sarah (Me- Millan) Mckinnon, were natives of North Carolina. They were of Scotch-Irish descent. Daniel MeKinnon was a farmer of considerable means and owned a farm fifteen miles south of Thomasville, the south boundary of his plantation being the line between the states of Georgia and Florida at that place. There was a new line established between said states about the year 1864, which put his plantation, with the exception of about one hundred acres, in the state of Florida, and he thus lived in Florida until his death, in 1882, at the age of sixty-eight. He served in the militia during the last year of the Civil war with the Confederate army. He was elected by his regiment postmaster, and therefore was exempt from guard duty. A negro, Abe, attended him as his body servant during this cam- paign, and Abe was faithful and obedient in all things, until the army was disbanded, though he had every opportunity to escape and have his freedom. The mother was a well educated woman of one of the best families in Georgia. Her chief delight was her large family of children. She was broad-minded and liberal, besides being a devout Christian. Daniel was a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church, while she was a member of the Baptist church. She died in 1859 at the age of forty-nine years. Daniel and Sarah MeKinnon had born to them twelve children, among whom the son A. P. was the eighth.

He was educated in the schools of the neighborhood and at the high school at Monticello, Florida. In 1870 he began reading law at Monticello, under Simkins & Simkins, and was admitted to the bar on the 1st day of May, 1872, and he left the next day for Texas, having been advised by Hon. E. J. Simkins, who had in the meanwhile located at Corsicana, Texas, that Texas was a good place for a young man to come to. He re- mained at Corsicana with Judge Simkins until January 1, 1873. He then permanently located at Hillsboro, Texas. He entered immediately upon his practice, and continued his residence at Hillsboro until December, 1912. He found it necessary to seek a change of eli- mate, both on account of his own health and that of his

wife. He located in Floydada, Texas, February 3, 1913. During his residence in Hillsboro, Texas, which was ahont forty years, he enjoyed a large practice and was engaged in the most important litigation at the Hill county bar, as also in much land litigation in the United States District Court at Waco and Dallas. He has al- ways refused to enter politics as a business, preferring the law to the uncertainties of public life. He, however, took an interest in politics to the extent of exercising his influence in favor of men and measures which he believed to be to the best interest of the state. He was a member of the Democratic state conventions from 1879 until one's views on the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 became a test of one's Democracy in Texas. He was not an advocate of that measure. He was county attorney of Hill county in 1878-79, and filled that position in a very creditable and satisfactory manner. As a lawyer he combines ability and thorough training in legal principles with industry and close application to the interests of his clients, and enjoys general esteem as a scholarly gentleman, a valuable counselor and a useful and influential citizen. He is a strong speaker, making no especial pretensions to ora- tory, but able to express himself forcibly, relying more on matter than manner for influence. He is an exact logician and perfectly at home even in the midst of the most complicated state of facts. He is calm in address and strictly methodical in the arrangement of his matter, terse and vigorous, pointed in phraseology and accurate in the choice of his words.

Having a world of good nature in his make-up, he is never impolite or captions, nor yet boisterous or egotis- tical; however, he has the courage of his convictions and nothing can move him from the rock on which he grounds his beliefs. He always exhibits the nicest sense of professional propriety, his bearing towards the court being always respectful and towards adverse counsel courteous. To the younger members of the bar he is ever willing to extend a helping hand, and no one is quicker to recognize merit or give an encouraging word to a struggling young brother. He possesses an abun- dance of patience and energy, and these he has never ceased to exercise throughout his career. Whatever of success he has attained he attributes to hard, per- sistent labor and to a strict observance of the ethics of his profession.

Mr. McKinnon has held a number of positions which indicate his influence and ability as a lawyer and citi- zen. He served as special judge by the election of the Hill county bar, during several terms of District Court. He was appointed by Gov. Thomas M. Campbell in January, 1907, a member of the state board of pardon advisers, which position he filled two terms, during the full two terms of Governor Campbell's administra- tion. His policy while a member of said board was characterized by strict and exact justice. He made a most careful examination into the history of the con- viet and the facts on which he was convicted, and, in connection with Hon. William Blakesley, his associate on the board, a most competent and conscientious gen- tleman, the application for pardon was either granted or refused. It was well understood that no pardon was recommended or refused except on the merits of the case, and the reasons for the action of the board given in writing to the Governor. In retiring from this office both he and his associate received from the Governor the most flattering commendation for the valuable serv- ices rendered in assisting him to the matter of granting and refusing pardons.

During his residence in Hill county, on October 20, 1878, Mr. MeKinnon married Miss Anna Eliza Shetter, daughter of John and Mary Shetter, a well known fam- ily of Limestone county, Texas, both parents being now deceased. Mr. MeKinnon takes much pride in the fact that he and his good wife have raised a family of five children to manhood and womanhood. They have never

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lost a child hy death. Their children each have been well educated. The eldest, Eldred, now a resident in Hillsboro, is cashier of one of the leading banks in that city; John Alexander, the second son, is now a resi- dent of the city of Austin, Texas, and he holds a re- sponsible position with a leading furniture company of that eity, and Austin James, the youngest son, is a resident of Crosbyton, Texas. He is vice president and cashier of the First National Bank of that place. Lucy, the elder daughter, married R. J. Jung in September, 1907, at Austin, Texas. She now resides in Houston, Texas, at which place Mr. Jung is employed as principal of the high school in Woodland Heights, a suburb of Houston. Mary Nancy, the younger daughter, lives with her parents in Floydada, Texas. She finished her educa- tion while in Austin.

DR. JAMES HENRY WAYLAND. The amassing of a great fortune may be the end and aim of many men, but to gather wealth through business ability and to distribute it widely and well has been the ambition of such men as Doctor Wayland, of Plainview, whose career is a valuable subject for study and emulation, and who has raised for himself a monument and given to the young men and women of Texas a permanent source of intellectual and character training in the Wayland Bap- tist College, which was founded by him at Plainview.

Dr. James Henry Wayland was born in Randolph county, Missouri, April 22, 1863, and is now fifty-one years of age and in the very prime of his manhood and usefulness. His father, Joseph Henry Wayland, born in Virginia in 1832, came to Missouri in 1843, lived in that state fifty-seven years, was a farmer and stock raiser, and in 1900 moved to Texas, and is now living, a hale and hearty old gentleman at the age of eighty-two, in Plainview. The mother, Catherine Wayland, is seventy- two years of age.

Doctor Wayland was educated in the common schools of Missouri and Central College of that state, and in 1886 was graduated in medicine from the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky. Several years before, in July, 1883, he had come to Texas, locat- ing in Parker county, at that time far out toward the western frontier. There he met and married, on Decem- ber 27, 1883, Miss Sallie F. Tucker, who has been the guiding influence in his remarkable career of prosperity for thirty years. Doctor Wayland practiced medicine in Parker county four years, moved from there to Hunt county, but somewhat later, on account of ill health, was obliged to go farther West. In March, 1891, he arrived in Hale county, in the Lower Panhandle, and has had his home there ever since, and expects to spend the rest of his life on the high plains of Northwest Texas. At Plainview he engaged in the drug business and the general practice of medicine, and in the early days practiced medicine over a territory extending one hundred miles in a radius about Plainview, and endured all the hardships of weather and travel over bad roads which have been incident to the practice of pioneer physicians in every locality. He has spent many a night out on the bleak prairies, sleeping in dugouts when he could get to them, and at the present day looks none the worse for that experience. Doctor Wayland came to Plainview an invalid, weighing only ninety-six pounds, but is today strong and vigorous, a man of about one hundred and sixty pounds weight, and bids fair to live many years. He is always doing something, is never idle, a man of tireless energy, life and helpful activity. His own comfort is never considered, and, though he has acquired large wealth, his living is as plain and simple as the most ordinary man. Doctor Wayland is a man of culture, refinement, ability and leadership among men. Early in his career he began buying cattle, established a ranch, and his prosperity extended much beyond his expectations, so that he is now considered worth a quarter of a million.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 144

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