USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 26
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This industry and all other lines of business were greatly impaired during the succeeding decade. From 1892 to the close of the century Fort Worth suffered its longest and most severe period of financial and industrial depression. The city has always been closely dependent upon the industrial conditions of its tributary West Texas, and during the long time when immigration into the western counties had practically ceased, Fort Worth was unable to advance faster than the region of which it was the business metropolis. Until the first years of the present century the development of Fort Worth and West Texas was periodic rather than continuous. Thus we witness the period of prosperity in 1872 and the early part of 1873, followed by almost a depopulation of the town on account of the failure of railroad construction. From 1876 to 1883 the city progressed almost marvelously, only to find itself in the slough of. industrial despond in the middle eighties. Then came the completion of the long-projected railroads and the inception of the livestock market and packing business, after which the city experienced the lean years of the nineties. In 1898 the packing operations were suspended and were not resumed until May, 1899, when the plant was sold to Boston capi- talists, who operated the industry until it was taken over by Armour & Company in March, 1902.
With the inception of the present century began an unexampled period of material growth and development for Fort Worth. Without question, this prosperity is on a substantial basis, and the progress that has been made, while rapid, has been conservative and consistent with the general upbuilding of the entire country. In this time Fort Worth has become a city of varied resources, and no longer depends upon the sta- bility of one or two industries. Its key position in the development of North and West Texas now seems assured beyond the disposition of events and circumstances.
The stock yards and packing houses are regarded as a cornerstone of Fort Worth's greatness, and the earnest effort and money contributions
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which the citizens put forth to secure them are among the most beneficial achievements in Fort Worth's history. With the success of the negotia- tions which resulted in Armour & Company and Swift & Company locat- ing their large branch plants here, the stock yards were enlarged to accommodate the increased number of cattle shipped to this point. During the year 1902 both the Armour and Swift interests spent millions in building two of the most extensive and complete packing plants in the west. The plants have been in operation since March, 1903, and since then the capacity has been increased and new departments have been added to the industry.
During the last decade, around the central institutions of railroads and packing industries, Fort Worth has built up a city rich in the varied resources of commerce and civic enterprise. It is now one of the impor- tant wholesale, banking and manufacturing cities of the Southwest, and every year has witnessed the construction of buildings and other improve- ments which have resulted in a practical transformation of the city during the time of one decade.
The sum of these developments, most of which have been instituted during the time mentioned, and the important features of the city's great- ness, are epitomized in a recent publication by the Fort Worth Board of Trade. With this condensed statement this article may be properly closed :
Fort Worth has sixteen banks-national, state and trust companies- representing bank deposits slightly in excess of $20,000,000.
Fort Worth through her Clearing House Association, from Septem- ber 1, 1909, to September 1, 1910, cleared the stupendous sum of $341, -. 479.569.09.
The capital and resources of the associated banks in the clearing house is given as $6,156,256.
Fort Worth building permits for the nine months of this year total $2,351,270, representing 485 new buildings in the city.
Fort Worth postoffice receipts for the first half of 1910 total $15,- 071.14, showing a gain of 268 per cent over the same period for 1909.
Fort Worth is the greatest mail distributing terminal point in America today, mail for Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico and parts of Oklahoma and Louisiana being distributed at this point, 104 mail trains daily entering and leaving the city.
Fort Worth now has an assessed valuation of $54,000,000, while in 1900 the valuation was $21,306.785.
Fort Worth now has seventeen railroad outlets-more than any city south of St. Louis, Mo .- and in the past five years $2,500,000 has been spent in improving their terminal facilities, thereby giving the city 142 miles of siding. Two hundred and eight freight trains each day annually handle the astounding number of 936,234 interchanged cars of freight, and 190,000 cars which are handled without change.
There are 142 miles of railway sidings in the city.
Daily passenger trains, 104.
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Fort Worth is the greatest distributing point for groceries west of the Mississippi.
Fort Worth has ninety-five miles of street railways, which represent two lines, and over which 125 local cars and fifty interurban electric trains operate daily.
Fort Worth has twenty-eight miles of paved streets at present, and contracts have been let for twenty-three miles more. In 1900 the city had not a single mile of pavement.
Fort Worth is the county site of the county possessing the most hard roads in Texas. Tarrant county now has 280 miles of improved roads and is adding to them at the rate of thirty-five miles a year.
In this connection for the Dallas Fair the Board of Trade is pre- paring a Tarrant county road exhibit, models, photographs of roads, bridges, road work and road working machinery, etc.
Fort Worth in the past month has installed a dual water system, thus absolutely insuring the city against a water famine. Twenty-two artesian wells 900 feet deep, each eight inches in diameter, and eight shallow wells of the same diameter and of 350-foot depth, yield each a water supply of 550,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. In the other system available for factory purposes, coming directly from the Trinity River, the supply is unlimited. Daily water supply, 16,500,000 gallons.
Fort Worth has 282 factories, exclusive of the packing houses, repre- senting an investment of $4,600,000.
Fort Worth packing houses now do an annual business of $75,000,000 compared with $550,000 in 1900. One million six hundred and sixty-five thousand head of live stock are slaughtered annually, whereas 65,000 were slaughtered in 1900.
The number of employees has increased from 200 to 5,000 and the size of the cattle pens has increased from fifteen to fifty acres, and 1,217 cars can be accommodated daily, while only 147 could be in 1900.
Fort Worth possesses the only rolling mill west of Birmingham, Ala., and south of St. Louis, Mo., where puddling and smelting of iron is done to any degree whatsoever.
Fort Worth has sixteen grain elevators with a capacity of 2.155,000 bushels of grain daily, and her flour mills have milled 1,150,000 barrels this year to September I.
Fort Worth has a national reputation as a convention city. Since January I, sixteen conventions with thousands of delegates have met in Fort Worth.
Fort Worth, in securing the national convention of the Knights of Pythias for 1912, will be the first city in the Southwest to entertain this national secret order convention.
Fort Worth has 16,831 bona fide students within her borders, dis- tributed as follows: 10,836 in the public schools, 2,800 in the various colleges and universities, 831 in private schools and 2,404 taking corre- spondence courses.
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Fort Worth has eighty-six churches, representing every denomina- tion-an increase of more than 100 per cent in two years.
Fort Worth's new $1,000,000 hotel is the most modern hostelry in the Southwest.
Ice consumption, 1,000 tons daily.
JACK CARTER .- A scion of one of the old and honored pioneer fam- ilies of the Lone Star state, this representative citizen and business man of the city of Fort Worth is specially entitled to consideration in this historical work. He is senior member of the real-estate firm of Carter & Oldham, which in extent and importance of its operations takes precedence of any similar concern in the state, throughout all sections of which its business ramified, being conducted with the greatest discrimination, ability and probity and thus contributing in large and generous measure to the civic and material progress of this favored commonwealth of the Union. It may be said without fear of legitimate denial that no man in Texas is more familiar with its land values, resources, institutions and people than is the honored native son whose name initiates this paragraph, and the propriety of this emphatic statement will be revealed in later portions of this context.
Jack Carter was born at Hillsboro, Hill county, Texas, on the 17th of August, 1871, and is a son of Hamp W. and Emily ( Wornell) Carter, the former of whom was born in Missouri and the latter of whom was born in Anderson county, Texas, so that the subject of this review is a scion of pioneer stock in both the paternal and maternal lines. Hamp W. Carter was but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Missouri to Texas, and the family settled in Hill county at a time when it was on the very frontier of civilization. Under such conditions Hamp W. Carter was reared to maturity, finding enjoyment in the wild, free life of the new country, receiving but limited educational advantages, but waxing strong and independent in both physical and mental faculties. In 1909 he and his wife celebrated the fifty-first anniversary of their marriage and they are numbered among the best known and most highly honored pioneer citizens of Central Texas, still maintaining their home at Hillsboro.
Jack Carter was reared to maturity in his native county, in whose public schools he secured his early educational discipline. His initial business experience was gained in connection with his father's operations as a ranchman and merchant, and he continued to be identified with him for years, but subsequently he concerned himself with land operations, to which he has devoted many years in a most effective way. In 1898 he received appointment to a clerical position in the general land office in Austin, and after passing four years in connection with its work, the major part of the time in the general office, he was appointed inspector of school lands in western Texas, with headquarters at Midland. He served the state in this capacity for four years, with marked efficiency. and at the expiration of this period, in April of 1908, he established his
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residence in Fort Worth, for the purpose of engaging in the land and general real-estate business on his own responsibility. He conducted his operations individually until the Ist of January, 1909, when he entered into partnership with Charles Oldham, who had come to this city from Lexington, Kentucky, and who has proved a most able and valued coad- jutor 'in the extensive business already built up, under the firm name of Carter & Oldham.
Mr. Carter's long association with the state land office and his con- sequent familiarity with school lands and other tracts in the western part of the state have made his interposition in the active real-estate field an asset of great value to the firm of which he is a member and which has already gained front rank among the real-estate concerns operating in Texas. Mr. Carter has personally gone over and inspected every county in western Texas, and there is, perhaps, no other one man who has so thorough and intimate a knowledge of all conditions and features in connection with this region-its soil, climate, varied productive advan- tages, water facilities, native grasses, mineral resources, location of towns and trading points, character of the people in the different communities, facilities for the exploiting of new industries and the propagation of new kinds of vegetable products, grains, fruits, etc. In fact, he has broad and exact, information concerning every point that a prospective settler or investor could wish to investigate. The firm of which he is a member gives employment to a corps of seven energetic and capable salesmen, who are prepared to show clients any portion of the state. The firm of Carter & Oldham has, within an almost incredibly short interval, built up the largest business of its kind in the state-a result all the more notable in view of the fact that the firm initiated operations in a year in which the rainfall was much below the average and when conditions had not adjusted themselves after the hard times. It is the policy of the firm to keep always busy with land operations, even when cash sales are not to be negotiated, for by the effecting of judicious changes they bring about transactions that are advantageous to all concerned. Operations are based on ample resources of a financial order, and the reputation of the firm is already its most valuable asset. No misrepresentation of any kind is permitted, and absolute fairness, integrity and honor characterize every dealing and operation. The well equipped offices of this firm, in the city of Fort Worth, have become well known as a comfortable and con- genial resort for land buyers and prospectors from all sections of the Union, and the books of the concern show at all times the most desirable investments in western lands and city property, while expert advice and service are assured to all patrons or investigators.
Through his business operations and through his public spirit and civic progressiveness Mr. Carter is doing much to foster the advancement of his home city and state, and he has so ordered his course as to gain and retain the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has come in contact-in an official capacity when with the land office, as a business man and in the social relations of life. In politics he is aligned as a
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staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, and he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
In the year 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Carter to Miss Cho Coffield, who was born at San Marcos, Texas, and reared at Gates- ville, this state. She is a daughter of Henry Coffield, a representative citizen of San Marcos. Mr. and Mrs. Carter have two children-Emily and Lillian.
WILLIAM D. DAVIS .- Among the virile, progressive and public-spir- ited citizens who have contributed materially to the industrial and civic prestige of the city of Fort Worth is its present efficient and popular mayor, who is one of the essentially representative business men of the old Lone Star state and whose administration as chief executive of the municipal government is doing much to foster the best interests and dis- tinctive advancement of the city. There has been naught of apathy or inertia in his attitude as a citizen or business man, and he is one of those enthusiastic "captains of industry" who have unbounded faith in the still greater future of his home city, to which his loyalty is of the most impreg- nable type.
William D. Davis, mayor of Fort Worth, was born in Neshoba county, Mississippi, on the 30th of October, 1867, and is a son of Moses and Cynthia (Threat) Davis, representatives of old and honored southern families. The father was born in Georgia, but he was reared and edu- cated in Mississippi, which state was the place of his wife's nativity and which continued to be their home until 1869, when they came to Texas, locating first at Calvert, which was then the northern terminus of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, the line of which road was then in course of construction toward Dallas. Moses Davis engaged in the freighting business between Calvert and Dallas, and later, after the com- pletion of the railroad to the latter point, he continued in the same line of enterprise between Dallas and various places in the western part of the state. He became identified with the cattle business, later conducted a successful enterprise as a merchant, and he directed his energies in various lines of enterprise for a number of years, especially in the northern part of the state. He is one of the sterling and well known pioneer citizens of Texas, is now retired from active business and he maintains his home in Sherman, this state. His wife died in 1904.
The present mayor of Fort Worth was about two years of age at the time of the family removal to Texas, and under the beneficent conditions and influences of this fine old commonwealth he has developed typical western initiative, energy and progressiveness and has won for himself a stable position as a successful business man of marked capacity for the administration of affairs of wide scope and importance. His early busi- ness experience was principally in connection with the cattle business. in which he was trained as a boy and youth, in the old days when the entire range was open, with no fenced pastures, and the great cattle outfits
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worked over the broad acres of the open range. In the meanwhile he had not neglected his educational work, having gained his earlier discipline in the public schools and having effectively supplemented this by a course of study in old Granbury College, at Granbury, this state, an institution in which many prominent and influential citizens of the state have been students, including such well known citizens as Governor Thomas M. Campbell and his brother, James B. Campbell. For several years Mr. Davis maintained his home in Sherman, whence he finally removed to Roanoke, Denton county, where he built up a large grain-shipping and cattle business. In the great and memorable flood that brought grievous disaster to the city of Galveston in 1900 he met with losses that prac- tically reduced his financial resources to the lowest possible ebb, as the large amount of grain which he had in storage in Galveston preliminary to exportation was swept away, entailing to, him great loss. He mani- fested the same indomitable courage that marked the attitude of the leading business men of the stricken and devastated city, and he girded himself firmly for the battle through which he was again destined to attain victory and retrieve his fortune. In the year that thus marked the practical obliteration of the fair city of Galveston Mr. Davis removed to Fort Worth, where, with characteristic energy and enthusiasm, he entered again into active operations in connection with the cattle industry. He became a cattle commission merchant at the North Fort Worth stock yards, effecting the organization of the Davis-Hamm Commission Com- pany, which soon gained prestige as one of the most successful concerns in the live stock market of Fort Worth. He continued as one of the interested principals and executive officers of this company until the 15th of June, 1909, when he disposed of his interests in the business, which was then merged into the National Live Stock Commission Company. His withdrawal from this enterprise was brought about by his realization that his executive duties as mayor of Fort Worth placed such insistent demands upon his time and attention as to require undivided allegiance to his official duties and responsibilities. His loyalty to his home city and its people was significantly manifested in the action taken by him at this time, as in disposing of his interest in the extensive and profitable com- mission business which he had so largely aided in building up he made a very appreciable financial sacrifice. He is the owner of a considerable amount of realty, both improved and unimproved, in his home city and has some landed interests in the northern part of the state, in which con- nection he is president of the Union Land Company, and to some extent is still engaged in the cattle industry.
Concerning Mr. Davis' able and businesslike administration of the office of mayor of Fort Worth the following pertinent and appreciative statements have been made by one familiar with his earnest, upright and successful career as a business man and as a public official, being specially worthy of reproduction and perpetuation in this brief sketch: "Mr. Davis had served a term as mayor of North Fort Worth prior to being called
Vol. 1-18
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to the office of chief executive of the greater city. In the spring of 1909 he was nominated and elected mayor of Fort Worth and, ex officio, a member of the board of city commissioners, as Fort Worth's admirable municipal government is conducted under the commission plan. Mr. Davis' typical western energy and power of accomplishing things and his perennial objection to being 'kept down' have made his administration one of ideal type for the robust, progressive and rapidly expanding city of Fort Worth. He has at all times his hand on the civic and industrial pulse ; has all affairs of the city well in hand; is watchful, alert and efficient in every respect ; is a mayor who not only stands as a model of conscientious civic loyalty and devotion but also as one of whom the city of Fort Worth is justly proud."
In politics Mr. Davis has been an effective advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, in whose cause he maintains a lively and helpful interest. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and the Knights of Pythias. His personal popu- larity in his home city is of the most unequivocal type and is based on his generous attributes of character and his genial, democratic spirit.
Mr. Davis has been twice married. In 1890 was solemnized his union to Miss Ella Reynolds, daughter of S. F. Reynolds, one of the oldest pioneer settlers of Denton county. Mrs. Davis was summoned to the life eternal August 7, 1908, and is survived by one son, Marvin L., who was born on the 17th of September, 1891. At Aubrey, Denton county, this state, on the 7th of November, 1909, Mr. Davis was united in marriage to Mrs. Ola (Henderson) Price, who was born in Denton county, Texas, and who is a daughter of the late Newton Henderson, a well known citizen of that county.
JOHN N. WINTERS was born in Perry county, Indiana, and was reared in Spencer county of that state. In 1876 he came to Texas, and his life since that time has been almost a part of the wonderful progress and development of the central and north central part of this state-a pioneer of the pioneers. After spending a short time at Sulphur Springs he in 1880 came to central Texas to locate lands for himself and for his father-in-law, Mr. Bivins, and he established his headquarters in what is now Runnels county, although that particular division had not then been organized. Upon the organization of the county the old town of Runnels, now extinct, was made its seat of government and it was located four miles north of the present flourishing city of Ballinger, which later became the county seat.
Mr. Winters remained in Runnels county for fourteen years, from 1880 until 1894, and during that time he was the means of founding the town of Winters, now a prosperous little city situated in the midst of what is undoubtedly the richest agricultural region of central Texas. He had purchased several thousand acres of land in that section of Runnels
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county, and in 1892 he located a small colony of Germans on a part of that tract, and they in 1893 started a small settlement, with stores, etc., and named it Winters in honor of the owner of the land and the promoter of the settlement. It has since grown into a wealthy and progressive town, having advanced more rapidly since the Abilene & Southern Railroad was completed to that point in 1909. When Mr. Winters first located in this part of the state Runnels county formed a part of the far frontier of Texas and of the great free and open cattle range. Farming was not then thought of, and even the enclosing of pastures with wire fence was not begun until about 1882 or 1883. He bought land as low as from eighty cents to a dollar and a half an acre. Mr. Winters is remembered by all the older settled residents of Runnels county as having been one of its most progressive and public spirited citizens and as responsible in a large degree for much of its early growth.
He came to Fort Worth in 1894, and this city has been his home since that time, and he has long been one of its prominent real estate owners and operators, making a specialty of country property, farming and ranch lands. Mrs. Winters was before marriage Alice Bivins, and their five children are Jet, Oliver, Ona, Ivy and Una.
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