A history of Texas and Texans, Part 17

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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Mr. Love, who makes his home in Houston Heights, has served twice as mayor of that community, his service covering the years between 1896 and 1900, and since 1898 he has been president of the Houston Heights school board, as has already been mentioned. In 1907 he was appointed district attorney to fill an unexpired term for the criminal district comprising Harris and Galveston counties and in 1908 was elected to fill the office for a two years' term. Upon the expiration of that term he retired and has since devoted himself ex- clusively to his private practice.

Mr. Love is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but has no other fraternal affiliations. He was married in 1901 to Miss Lillie Webb, the daughter of the late Dr. W. T. Webb of Mobile, Alabama, and to them has been born one son, William Hamilton Love. The family residence is at the corner of Avondale avenue and Hopkins street, Houston.

WILEY C. MUNN. Now one of the merchant princes of Houston, proprietor, president and general manager of the W. C. Munn Company, Incorporated, whose im- mense general department store is located in a prominent district in this city, Wiley C. Munn has had a typical American success, emerging from a farmer boy to a place among the foremost merchants of the state of Texas. Along with success in his private business he has given of his energies and co-operation without stint to those larger activities which are at the foundation of a greater and better Houston.

Wiley C. Munn was born near Jefferson, in Marion county, Texas, November 9, 1861, a son of John H. and Frances. Ann Judson (Cooper) Munn. The parents were both natives of Alabama and came to Texas in 1838, locating near Jefferson, where the father was a pioneer planter. They subsequently moved into Fayette county and in 1875 to Salado, in Bell county, but the last years of the father's life was spent in Colorado county, Texas. The mother is still living and resides with her son.

Mr. Munn received a fair amount of schooling when a

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boy and spent one year in the Salado school. After that training he started out in business for himself and his first venture was in selling the Singer sewing machine. After two and a half years as a salesman he bad accumulated one hundred head of cattle and suf- ficient money so that he was able to take one term of instruction in the Baylor University at Waco and one year of study at Weimar, after which he returned to Waco and completed bis business education in Hill's Business College. For six months thereafter he was bookkeeper for the firm of Simons & MeCarthy at Taylor.

Having in the meantime married and returned to Weimer, Mr. Munn there engaged in mercantile busi- ness on the first of January in 1885 in partnership with his father-in-law, Daniel W. Jackson. In January, 1886, he bought out the interest of Mr. Jackson and then con- ducted the business alone for a number of years. At first it was a very small store and a very small stock and the enterprise was conducted not notably different from many others that might have been found in this section of Texas. Mr. Munn from the first, however, applied himself to the great field of merchandising, and though his business was located in a small town, he built it up to be the largest concern of its kind in that com- munity, and then sold out seeking larger quarters in Houston in 1906. Since that time the growth of the business has been phenomenal. In 1906 was organized the Mistrot-Munn Company, a mercantile organization which was very familiar to Houston and all the people of South Texas until recently. Mr. Munn owned the controlling interest and was general manager of the store and on August 20, 1912, he bought out the stock of Mr. G. A. Mistrot and on January 1, 1913, reorganized the company under the name of the W. C. Munn Com- pany, Incorporated. With this reorganization the capital stock of the concern was raised from two hundred thou- sand to five hundred thousand dollars, of which Mr. Munn holds more than one-half, and he is president and gen- eral manager of the business.

With the reorganization came the building of a mammoth department store, concerning which a some- what extended description is here presented and which is now in course of construction, the same to be ready for occupancy on February 1, 1914. To give a detailed description of the new building were, of course, im- possible in the limited space at our disposal here, but some of the more salient features may be presented consistently. The building now under construction, is located at the corner of Travis street and Capitol ave- nue, and when completed will undoubtedly be one of the splendid architectural embellishments of Houston. The main building will have a frontage of 150 feet each on Capitol avenue and Travis street, and will comprise six stories and a basement. It will be absolutely fire proof, in so far as architectural and engineering skill can so render, and will be thoroughly modern in every detail, as well as laying claim to a certain dignified beauty that is seldom found in structures of this order. The furniture and fixtures of the store alone will rep- resent a cash outlay of $100,000. The front of the build- ing is to be done in terra cotta for the first two stories and the remaining stories in buff pressed brick. Rein- forced concrete will enter into the construction material used and inferior stand pipes and other fire protective appliances will be installed. Five large elevators, driven by electricity, will ply between the basement and the top floor, and many other, in fact, every labor-saving device known to the builders' art will be installed in this splendid structure. The show windows are a con- spicuous feature of this building. There will be slightly more than 350 lineal feet of window space fronting the two streets, while the entrance to the Main street de- partment, which will go into construction later, will have more than 100 lineal feet, including the vestibule and store front cases. It is planned by the moving spirit of this mammoth concern that this shall be a great de-

partment store and mail order house. Catalog and mail order trade are to be given the dignity of an entire de- partment, at least one floor of the entire building being occupied by this phase of the business. All Texas and the adjoining states of the south will be reached and Mr. Muun is also laying plans to place representatives in the Latin-American Republics of Mexico, Cuba and South and Central America, whose business will be given important consideration. Spanish catalogs and stocks especially supplied to meet the demands of these coun- tries, will be carried and close attention and study will be accorded those countries with a view to developing the widest possible trade relations. In short, it is ex- pected that this budding enterprise will establish trade relations between Houston and the districts above men- tioned such as have never before existed.

Outside of his regular business affairs Mr. Munn is interested in a number of local enterprises, being presi- dent of the Houston Turning Basin Investment Com- pany, president of the Port Houston Land & Townsite Company and in 1912 was elected president of the Hous- ton Chamber of Commerce, being one of the leading members of that organization, and active in the work it promulgates for the good of the city and its allied com- mercial and industrial interests. He is also a member of the No-Tsu-Oh Carnival Association of Houston. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Honor, the Woodmen of the World, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Order of Pretorians and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He and his family worship in the First Baptist Church of Houston.

On November 5, IS84, at Weimar, Texas, Mr. Munn married Miss Georgia A. Jackson, a daughter of Daniel W. Jackson of Weimar, Texas. Her death occurred on July 27, 1910, and her five children are named as fol- lows: Eunice, the wife of Charles A. Bryan of Houston; Nellie, who married N. H. Keith; Kathleen D., Wilma G. and Dorothy A. The family home is at 2901 Main street in Houston.

BRYAN BREWSTER GILMER. Under a popular form of government, like that of the United States, where the democratic idea of equality is as fully developed as the present imperfect condition of mankind will permit, we expect as its legitimate result the triumph of individual worth and energy over all the competition that wealth and class may array against them. Here the avennes of wealth and distinction are fully opened to all, which fact enhances rather than detracts from the merits of those whose energy and integrity have triumphed over all obstacles intervening between an humble position and the attainment of those laudable ends. Obscurity and labor, at no time dishonorable, never assume more at- tractive features than when the former appears as the nurse of those virtues which the latter, by years of honest and persevering effort, transplants to a higher and richer soil; hence, the biography of those men of sterling worth whose active enterprise has won for them the dis- tinction and influence in society in which they move must be replete with facts which should encourage others in the arena of life. Such a man is Bryan Brewster Gilmer, president of the Southern Drug Company, Hous- ton, Texas, a man who, while yet young in years, has fought bis way from a somewhat humble beginning to marked prestige in the business and social world of the city of his residence and who by the exercise of those talents and qualities which were cultivated from his youth, has reached an honorable position in the public mind and earned the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens.

Mr. Gilmer was born in Butler, Alabama, November 3, 1876. He is a son of Abram Bessent Gilmer and Amelia (Brewster) Gilmer. The father was born in Dallas county, Alabama, and there spent his life as a planter and physician, and was a well known and influential man

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in that section of the state. During the war between the states he served in General Wheeler's cavalry in the Confederate army. His death occurred in 1892. His mother was born in Lauderdale county, Mississippi, and she is still living, making her home in Houston. Grand- father Gilmer was a native of South Carolina. Elmira (Powell) Gilmer, the paternal grandmother, was born in Alabama before it was a state. Her death occurred in January, 1907, when over ninety years of age.

Bryan B. Gilmer was educated in the high school at Butler, his native state, and in the year 1891 he came to Texas, locating at Eagle Lake, Colorado county, where be attended the high school, subsequently completing his education at the university at Lebanon, Ohio, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He then returned to Eagle Lake, Texas, and was en- gaged in the retail drug business there several years, during which time he mastered the ins and outs of that line of endeavor and got a good start in the business world. Seeking a larger field for the exercise of his talents, he came to Houston, taking a position with the Houston Drug Company, with which be remained for several years, giving his employers eminent satisfaction. Later he became secretary and treasurer of the Standard Milling Company of Houston. In the early fall of 1906 he organized the Southern Drug Company of 1214-1218 Franklin avenue, Houston. Under his able management and indomitable energy it has forged to the front until today it ranks among the largest and most successful wholesale drug houses in the Southwest, and does an annual business of very large proportions, its trade ex- tending over a very extensive territory. Prompt, honest and courteous service has been the aim of the manage- ment, and a mammoth and carefully selected stock of all kinds of drugs and drug sundries is carried.

In 1911 Mr. Gilmer was president of the Houston Bankers, Jobbers and Manufacturers' Association, and in 1912 he was vice president of the National Wholesale Druggists' Association. For several years he was a director of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, and is president of the same for 1913. He is a member of the Houston Board of School Trustees. In all these positions of trust he has given eminent satisfaction to all con- cerned, discharging his duties ably and conscientiously.

· Fraternally, Mr. Gilmer belongs to the Scottish Rite Masons, having attained the thirty-second degree in the same; also belongs to El Mina Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is vice president of the Houston Club, of which he has been an active member for some time; also a member of the Houston Country Club, of which he was one of the organizers. He is a charter member of the Thalian Club of Houston. He is a member and a director in 1912 of the No-Tsu-Oh Association of Houston.

Mr. Gilmer's attractive residence is located at 3402 Garrott avenue, Houston, and is presided over with grace and hospitality by a lady of culture and many com- mendable characteristics, known in her maidenhood as Miss Edna Daffan, whom Mr. Gilmer married on June 7, 1905. She is a daughter of the late Col. L. A. Daffan. This union has been graced by the birth of two children, namely: Lawrence A. Daffan Gilmer and Edna Daffan Gilmer.

Personally, Mr. Gilmer is a gentleman of pleasing address, genial, obliging and unassuming, a splendid type of the successful, self-made young business man of the twentieth century.

JAMES S. KENDALL. The leading lawyer in Munday, Texas, and one of the most successful attorneys in Knox county, is James S. Kendall. He has only been located in Munday for a short time but he has a good practice and has made a wide circle of friends. Mr. Kendall, although not a native of Texas, has been bred in the state and is an enthusiastic champion of this sec-

tion of the Union. He is a lawyer of wide experience, and is well known for his careful preparation and the conscientious work which he gives to his cases outside of the court room as well as for the able manner in which he handles cases before the bar.

James S. Kendall was born in Independence county, Arkansas, on the 21st of August, 1876. He lived in Arkansas until he was ten years of age when his parents moved to Texas. His father, Samuel G. Ken- dall, was born in the state of Arkansas and came to Texas in 1887. He followed farming both before and after coming to Texas and was also interested in real estate investments. When the Civil war broke ont Mr. Kendall enlisted in the Confederate army, as a member of the Tenth Arkansas Infantry. He saw much active service and among the important engagements in which he participated was the Battle of Shiloh. Mr. Kendall was very active politically, being a member of the Demo- cratie party. In religious matters he was a member of the Baptist church. He died in 1898 at the age of sixty-seven. He married Miss Sarah H. Wyatt, after moving to Arkansas. She was born in Tennessee and like her husband was a devout member of the Bap- tist church. She died in 1907 at the age of sixty-six, and is buried by the side of her husband in Decatur, Texas.

Of the eight children born to Samuel and Sarah Ken- dall, James S. Kendall was the fifth. He went to school in Arkansas first and later attended the public schools of Texas. He completed the high school course at De- catur and then left school to accept a position in a dry goods store. He was seventeen years of age at this time and his salary at the start was forty-five dollars a month, a good beginning for a young boy. After about eighteen months of this work he went into an abstract office where he worked until 1897. It was during this period of his life that he took up the study of law and in 1897 he was admitted to the bar.

He immediately began the practice of law in Decatur, continuing his abstract business at the same time. In 1901 he left his home town and went to Robert Lee, Texas, where he was engaged in the practice of law for three years. His next move took him to Tahoka where he only practiced his profession for a year hefore going to Vernon, Texas. After a year in this place he came to Knox county and located in Benjamin, the county seat. For six years be was here engaged in the practice of law and in the real estate business. Then in Novem- ber, 1912, he came to Munday and established himself in practice here. He has been elected city attorney of Munday and has a growing practice.

In politics Mr. Kendall is a member of the Democratic party and takes a very active interest in both local and national politics. He is a member of the Methodist church and in the fraternal world is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Red Men. He is also an active member of the Commercial Club of Munday.

Mr. Kendall was married in Knox county, on the 27th of June, 1909, to Miss Flora Smith, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Smith, who were formerly of Missis- sippi. Mr. and Mrs. Kendall have had two children born to them, as follows: Walter Gaynor and Edna Arlene.

HON. CLARK C. WREN. The first judge to be appointed to preside over the newly created Harris County court at law, Mr. Clark C. Wren, has been once elected by popular vote to that office, and it is largely through his capable judicial administration that the court has so well ful- filled the high expectations entertained for it, and in that position he has strengthened his position as one of the brilliant lawyers of the state. Judge Wren is still a young man, thirty-six years of age, and was admitted to the bar when only nineteen.

Born at Galveston, Texas, May 25, 1877, Clark C. Wren is a son of Powhatan S. and Mattie (Campbell)

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Wren. Through his mother he is a great-great-grandson of General Elijah Clark, who won distinction in the Revo- lutionary war. Judge Wren's father was born in Vir- ginia, was captain in a Virginia regiment during the war between the states, came to Texas about 1867, and located in Galveston, where he acquired prominence in polities. He served as city clerk during 1878-80, and resigned to take the position of county clerk of Galveston county. Then for a number of years he was deputy internal revenue collector for that district. In August, 1903, P. S. Wren moved to Arizona territory, which has since been his home. He is now a member of the first state legislature of Arizona.

Clark C. Wren grew up at Galveston, attended the pub- lie schools, and when fourteen years of age became a regular wage earner and has since paid his own way in the world. As a boy he took up the study of law at home, and in 1896, at the age of nineteen, was admitted to the bar. For the active prosecution of his work as a lawyer he moved out to San Angelo, and remained there until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war. His record in that war was made with the Third Texas Volun- teer Infantry, and he served as sergeant of Company E. Soon after his discharge from military service in 1899 Mr. Wren was diverted from the law into a profession for which he had long manifested decided talent, being for about five years in theatrical work and traveling as an actor throughout the United States. Though the duties of his work were arduous, he found time to take up and complete a course with the Sprague Correspond- ence School of Law. In 1904 Mr. Wren located perma- nently in Houston and took up the practice of law.

He soon gained recognition as one of the able young attorneys, and at the same time was drawn somewhat into the field of polities. In 1908 he made an unsuccessful campaign for the office of state senator against F. C. Hume, Jr. In 1910, after the legislature had created the Harris County Court at law, he was appointed judge of the court. This honor came without any solicitation on his part, and in 1912 the citizens of the county elected him for continued service in that office without any oppo- sition. Judge Wren affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and the Improved Order of Red Men.

On February 3, 1909, Judge Wren married Miss Mamie Culpepper. She is a daughter of Horace Culpepper of Houston, and is related to the famous Culpepper family of Virginia. The Judge and wife have two children : Mary Martha Wren and Clark C. Wren, Jr. The family home is at 2704 Milam street.

MARCUS O. WRIGHT, M. D. A physician and surgeon of El Paso since 1896, Dr. Wright is one of the oldest .established men in medical practice in the city, only three other physicians having been here longer than he has. In his chosen vocation he has been unusually sue- cessful, has built up a large practice, and through his faithful service as a physician has done much for the . community with which he has been identified for upwards of twenty years.

Marcus O. Wright was born in Morgan county, Ala- bama, December 23, 1859. He was the only son of Wil- liam A. and Martha (Ferguson) Wright, his father being a native of Georgia and his mother of North Carolina. His father was a slave owner and planter in Alabama, and when the Civil war came on he entered the Con- federate service, was taken prisoner during one of the campaigns in which he was engaged, was sent to Fort Delaware, and died in that Federal prison in 1864, when forty-five years of age. The mother died at the old home place in Morgan county, Alabama, in 1898, at the age of seventy-two.

Dr. Wright attained his early education in the schools of his native county, and spent his years of boyhood and youth on the plantation, assisting in its operation for a number of years. At the age of twenty-two he entered Tulane University, in the Medical Department, and was

graduated M. D. in 1886. All his practice had been in Texas, and his first location was at Bartlett, where he had an office from 1886 until 1892. Several years after that were spent in Las Vegas, Hot Springs, New Mexico, and for two years he was in practice at Alpine, Texas. Then in 1896 he established his office at El 'Paso, and has given all his time to general practice. He is a member of the El Paso County and the State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He is a Repub- lican in politics, though without active participation in party affairs. Dr. Wright is a member of the El Paso Country Club and the Toltec Club.

At Bartlett, Texas, in October, 1885, the doctor mar- ried Miss Mary Moss, daughter of Augustus and Dorcas (Kay) Moss. Mrs. Wright is a native of Texas and of an old Alabama family. They are the parents of two children. Hugh Wright, the elder, born at Bartlett April 21, 1887, is now a practicing mining engineer and a graduate of the University of Texas. Clark Wright was born December 22, 1893, at Las Vegas Hot Springs, in New Mexico. Dr. Wright owns an attractive home at 1418 Montana street. Outside of his regular practice he is examining physician for some of the old-line life insurance companies, and his office is at 215 Caples building. Dr. Wright deserves much credit for his sue- cess since he began making his own way when fifteen years of age, paid his own tuition through college, and has always relied upon his own energy and ability to get ahead in the world.

EDGAR D. PARK. Coming to El Paso several years ago as an employe of the Wells, Fargo & Company Express, Mr. Park has since engaged in business for himself and is one of the young and very enterprising business build- ers of the city. He was born in Pulaski, Tennessee, April 24, 1887, the oldest in a family of eleven children born to William J. and Lulu (Belew) Park, both natives of Tennessee. The father was of English and Scotch ancestry, and his grandfather had served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The father was a planter, and came to Texas in 1893, locating at Winters, where he now resides. The mother represents one of the old families of Tennessee, and in the different generations it has furnished soldiers to the Revolution, to the War of 1812 and to the Civil war.

Edgar D. Park was reared in Texas from the age of six years, and such education as he obtained was in the country schools. Most of his training was through expe- rience, and he has succeeded none. the worse apparently for lack of what are popularly regarded as the best advantages of books and schools. Up to the time he was eighteen he lived on a farm, and his first position after leaving home was as a clerk in a grocery store in his home county. He then went with the Wells-Fargo Com- pany Express for two years, and was sent by that com- pany to El Paso in 1909. Since that time he has broad- ened out into larger fields of independent enterprise. In 1910 he established the Park Brothers Realty Company, and that is now one of the leading firms of the kind in El Paso. He has established the Texas Fibre Machine Manufacturing Company and the Mexican Indian Drawn Work Company, both being practical and successful enterprises.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 17

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