USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 29
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Mr. Davis married in 1879, at Birdville, Lou V. Calloway, who was born and reared there, a member of one of the oldest families of Tarrant county. The four children of this marriage are John W., James Arthur, Mary Lou and Robert M. Davis Jr.
JOHN H. McLEAN, M. D .- An able and honored representative of the medical profession in his native state, Dr. McLean is engaged in the active practice of medicine and surgery in the city of Fort Worth, where he is also a valued member of the faculty of the medical department of Fort Worth University. He controls a large and representative practice and is recognized as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the city.
Dr. McLean is a scion of staunch old southern stock and was born at Mount Pleasant, Titus county, Texas, on the 11th of June, 1877. He is a son of Judge William P. and Margaret (Batte) McLean, the former of whom was born in Mississippi and the latter in Virginia. Judge McLean was an' infant at the time of his parents' removal from Missis- sippi to Texas, and they became pioneers of Jefferson, Marshall and Mt. Pleasant in the eastern part of the state, where they took up their abode in 1840. The parents passed the residue of their lives in that section, and there Judge McLean was reared to maturity, receiving the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period and greatly amplifying this discipline through his own self-application to higher branches of academic study in North Carolina. In Titus county he also began read- ing law, and admirably did he fortify himself in the learning of the great profession in which he was destined to attain much of distinction and success. He has long been one of the foremost members of the bar of the state in which he has maintained his home from childhood, has wielded large and beneficent influence in public affairs and has been called to
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numerous offices of high trust and responsibility, including that of judge of the circuit court, of which office he was incumbent for a number of years. He served in Congress in 1873-75, and also served as railroad commissioner under Governor Hogg. He took up his residence in Fort Worth in 1894 and has been prominently identified with the civic and material development and progress of the city, where he has ever com- manded unqualified popular confidence and esteem. He has represented a distinctive force in political and general public affairs in his home city and state and has been a leader in the ranks of the Democratic party. He and his wife have long been active in connection with the best social life of their home city. Of their nine children, three sons and three daughters are now living. One of their sons, Jefferson D. McLean, be- came one of the strong and honored members of the bar of Tarrant county and was engaged in the work of his profession in Fort Worth until his death-as a martyr to the worthy cause of clean government in his home county. While serving as county attorney he was assassinated, in 1907, by representatives of the criminal gambling element, against whom he had waged a relentless warfare, in an attempt to purge Fort Worth of this undesirable class of citizens.
Dr. John H. McLean gained his preliminary education in the public schools, having been nineteen years of age at the time of the family removal from Titus county to Fort Worth, where he was reared to years of maturity and where he has since continued to maintain his home. At the age of nineteen years he began reading medicine under effective pre- ceptorship, and finally he was matriculated in the medical department of Fort Worth University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899 and from which he received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. Soon after his graduation, for the purpose of still further fortifying himself for the exacting and responsible work of his chosen profession, the Doctor entered the medical department of Cornell University, said department of this well known institution being estab- lished in the city of New York. He did most effective post-graduate work and was granted the ad eundum degree of Doctor of Medicine by Cornell University in 1901. Thereafter he passed two years as one of the resident physicians of the celebrated Bellevue Hospital, in the national metropolis, where he devoted one year to clinical work in medicine and one to surgery, thus gaining most valuable experience of a practical order.
In 1903 Dr. McLean returned to Fort Worth, where he has since been successfully engaged in the general practice of his profession, and he has gained not only distinctive prestige in his chosen vocation, but has also retained the inviolable confidence and esteem of his professional con- freres, as well as the general public. He controls a large practice of representative order and is an able and honored member of the medical fraternity of his native state. He has been a member of the faculty of the medical department of Fort Worth University since 1903, and in the same is the valued incumbent of the chair of gynecology and surgical diseases of women. He is a member of the American Medical Associa-
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tion, the Texas State Medical Society, the North Texas District Medical Society and the Tarrant County Medical Society.
In politics the Doctor gives an unswerving allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party, but he has had no desire to enter the turbulent stream of so-called "practical politics," preferring to give his entire time and attention to the noble profession for which he has so admirably equipped himself. He is a member of various social and civic organiza- tions of representative character in his home city.
In April, 1907, Dr. McLean was united in marriage to Miss Anita Hunter, daughter of William Hunter, a representative citizen of St. Louis, Missouri, and they have one son, William Hunter McLean. Dr. and Mrs. McLean enjoy marked popularity in connection with the social activities of their home city, where their circle of friends is coincident with that of their acquaintances.
JAMES W. SWAYNE .- A distinguished representative of the bench and bar of Texas and a citizen who has wielded much influence in con- nection with public affairs in this commonwealth is Judge Swayne, of Fort Worth, who is now presiding on the bench of the Seventeenth judicial district.
Judge Swayne is a scion of old and honored southern families, and the lineage, direct and collateral, shows many names of distinction. He was born at Lexington, Henderson county, Tennessee, on the 6th of October, 1855, and is a son of James W. and Amanda J. (Henry ) Swayne, the former a representative of one of the prominent and patrician families of Virginia, with whose annals the name became identified in the colonial epoch, and the latter a member of a well known family of South Caro- lina. James W. Swayne Sr. was for many years a prominent member of the bar of the state of Tennessee, having been engaged in the practice of his profession at Jackson, that state. The record of the Swayne family shows that in the various generations have been many able representatives of the legal profession. Judge Noah H. Swayne, an uncle of the subject of this review, although of southern birth, was an unyielding advocate of the abolition of slavery, and he finally moved to the city of Columbus, Ohio, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1861 he was appointed a member of the supreme court of the United States, by President Lincoln, and he served in this office until 1883. Judge John T. Swayne, another uncle, was a prominent lawyer and jurist at Memphis, Tennessee, and another honored representative of the family was General Wager Swayne, a distinguished member of the bar of New York city, and partner of Judge Dillon.
Judge James W. Swayne, the immediate subject of this sketch, was reared to maturity in his native state, where he received excellent edu- cational advantages of a preliminary order, and he afterward continued his studies in the Kentucky Military Institute at Frankfort, Kentucky. In preparation for the work of his chosen profession he entered the law department of Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, in which
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institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1877, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Early in the follow- ing year he came to Fort Worth, Texas, which was then a mere frontier town, and here he has since been actively identified with the work of his profession, in which his success has been on a parity with his distinctive ability. He is to be considered as one of the pioneer members of the bar of the state, and through his character and services he has lent dignity and honor to his profession and to the judicial annals of this common- wealth, to which his loyalty is of the most insistent order. Judge Swayne served as city attorney from 1883 to 1885, was representative of Tarrant county in the lower house of the state legislature in 1891-2, and was a member of the state senate from 1892 to 1894, inclusive, under the ad -. ministration of Governor Hogg. From 1896 to 1900 he served with marked ability as county attorney of Tarrant county.
At the time of the initiation of the development of the great oil industry in Texas, Judge Swayne was chosen by Governor Hogg as his chief legal adviser and business representative, and in this capacity he effected the organization of the Hogg-Swayne Syndicate, which became a powerful factor in the crude oil operations in this state and which for a time set at naught the calculations of the other great oil interests of the world. The management of the affairs of the Hogg-Swayne Syndi- cate involved Judge Swayne and his associates in a number of important litigations that attracted wide attention, and through his effective legal and executive services in this connection he greatly added to his profes- sional reputation and incidentally gained valuable experience in his clash- ing swords with some of the most distinguished lawyers of the country. During his identification with the oil industry Judge Swayne spent about four years of his time in the southern part of the state. In the year 1909 Governor Campbell appointed him to his present position on the bench of the seventeenth judicial district of the state, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Michael Smith. As a jurist, Judge Swayne has shown not only marked acumen in the administration of the affairs of his court, but has brought to bear his broad and exact knowledge of the science of jurisprudence, showing familiarity with law and precedent, and, it is said, has brought to the bench unusual executive ability.
In politics Judge Swayne has long been a leader in the ranks of the Democratic party in Texas, and he has rendered effective service in the promotion of its cause. He was a delegate at large from Texas to the Democratic national convention of 1900, when William J. Bryan was nominated for the presidency. The judge is an appreciative member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the chivalric degrees, being affiliated with Worth Commandery, Knights Templars. He is also a valued member of Queen City Lodge, No. 21, Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor.
On the 6th of October, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Swayne to Miss Josephine Latham, who was born at Alexandria, Virginia, and who is a daughter of Phillipson Latham, a representative of one of
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the distinguished Revolutionary families of the Old Dominion state. Mrs. Swayne is a woman of high scholarship and distinctive culture, having marked literary ability and having made many contributions to leading periodicals. Her family has been one notable for scholarship and she herself has been an appreciative student of the best in literature and art. She was a student at Vassar and was afterwards a graduate of the Uni- versity of Missouri, and also received the degree of Master of Arts from the University of Missouri, in which she was a successful and popular teacher for some time. She occupies a position of prominence in con- nection with the representative social activities of Fort Worth, where her popularity is of the most unequivocal order and where she has taken a deep interest in reform movements and civic improvements of various kinds. Her services in these lines have been of much value, though ren- dered with naught of ostentation. She is a member of the board of trus- tees of the Carnegie library of Fort Worth, and she has been the leading spirit in the affairs of the Civic Art League. Although her work has been done quietly and is little known to the public, she has exerted much influence in bringing about civic reforms and public improvements, in which connection special reference should be made to the effective work done by her in bringing about the improvement of the park system of Fort Worth and in providing public playgrounds for the children of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Swayne have one child, Ida L.
WILLIAM M. TRIMBLE, M. D .- The high professional standing of Dr. Trimble is measurably indicated in his incumbency of the office of city physician of Fort Worth, where he is established in the general prac- tice of his profession, in which he retains a large and representative clientage and is known as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of his native county and state, where he retains an inviolable hold upon popular confidence and esteem, both as a physician and as a loyal and public-spirited citizen.
Dr. Trimble was born in Tarrant county, Texas, on the 11th of June, 1868, and is a son of Green B. and Annie L. (Morrow) Trimble, both of whom were born and reared in Cole county, Missouri. The parents are numbered among the honored pioneer citizens of Tarrant county, where the father took up his abode in 1866, after having served as a valiant soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, in which he was a member of a Missouri regiment. He and his wife still reside on their fine old homestead farm, twelve miles east of the city of Fort Worth, where they have maintained their home for nearly forty years, and where they are held in the highest esteem by all who know them. Robert Mor- row, maternal grandfather of the Doctor, died in Tarrant county in 1903, at a very advanced age, and was one of the honored and notable characters of this section of the state. He was a sterling veteran of three wars-the Seminole Indian war in Florida, the Mexican war, and the war between the states, in which last he was a zealous supporter of the cause of the Confederacy.
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Dr. Trimble passed his childhood and youth on the home farm, and after availing himself of the advantages of the public schools he contin- ued his studies under effective influences in the Sam Houston Normal School, at Huntsville, and the North Texas Normal School, at Denton, in which latter he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901. Long prior to this, however, he had established a secure reputation as an able and popular teacher in the public schools, and he became a prominent factor in educational circles, having been the founder of Arlington Col- lege, at Arlington, Tarrant county, of which he was president for some time, and which has since continued effective service under the title of the Carlisle Military Academy. Upon resigning his pedagogic work in connection with the institution mentioned, Dr. Trimble became superin- tendent of the public schools of North Fort Worth, of which office he continued incumbent for three years. He then began the work of prep- aration for the medical profession, in which he has achieved unequivocal success, having prosecuted his technical studies for two years in the medical department of Fort Worth University and having initiated the active practice of his profession in North Fort Worth in 1907. He soon entered the medical department of Baylor University, in the city of Dallas, from which admirable institution he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1907. Thereafter he continued in the successful practice of his profession in North Fort Worth, where he served as city physician, being in tenure of this position in 1909, in which year North Fort Worth abolished its individual municipal government and became an integral part of the city of Fort Worth. At this amalgamation fitting recognition of the eligibility and effective services of Dr. Trimble was given in his appointment to the office of city physician of the "Greater Fort Worth," and his labors in this official capacity have been signally discriminating, zealous and commendable. He has well equipped offices in the Reynolds building and controls a large and representative practice as a physician and surgeon. He is identified with the American Medical Association, the Texas State Medical Society and the Tarrant County Medical Society, and he is held in high regard by his professional confreres in his native state.
As a loyal and progressive citizen Dr. Trimble manifests a lively interest in all that concerns the civic and material prosperity of his home city, and in politics he is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratic party, keeping in touch with the question and issues of the hour and being well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public polity. He and wife are members of the first Christian Church.
On the 17th of February, 1897, Dr. Trimble was united in marriage to Miss Susie C. Borah, who likewise was born and reared in Tarrant county, being a daughter of William J. Borah, a representative farmer and stockman of Grapevine Prairie. They have four children-Green B. Jr. (named in honor of his paternal grandfather), Terrell, Willie Lou and Walter Lee.
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ROBERT H. FOSTER is widely known as a young man who has made a remarkable record as a promoter and organizer of large business enter- prises, and in which are interested some of the wealthiest and most promi- nent citizens of Fort Worth and other Texas cities. In this city alone he has initiated and carried out so many enterprises of importance that it is difficult to comprehend how he could have had the time in the space of little over three years to accomplish such a wonderful work, but, being a tireless and constant worker, a deep student and thinker, economizing time and capable of bringing physical action down to the minimum, he has brought about some of the largest deals in real estate and organized some of the largest companies that have ever been recorded in the history of Fort Worth. He has associated with him as clients some of the strongest men financially of the state, and has succeeded in getting capital for investments from men who had been considered practically unap- proachable on the subject of general improvements. His scientific study of real estate, financial and general business conditions in Fort Worth has given him a fund of knowledge on these subjects possessed probably by no other one man, but perhaps he has gained his most exalted reputa- tion as an organizer of enterprises that are substantially profitable and pay dividends.
On the Ist of June, 1906, Mr. Foster and Mr. C. B. Epes formed a partnership for the purpose of handling municipal and corporation bonds, bank stocks and other high class Texas securities, Texas lands and Fort Worth city property, forming the firm name of the Foster-Epes Company, and in December of 1909 this company was succeeded by the Foster Company, incorporated, the new corporation continuing in about the same lines but on a much larger scale, and with increased facilities in each department for handling business, Mr. Foster being its president. The first large real estate enterprise to be undertaken by the old Foster- Epes Company was the subdivision and improvement of Chase Court, a beautiful residence section of the highest class in the heart of the most aristocratic residence section, expensive improvements having been placed on the property by the Consolidated Improvement and Construction Com- pany, which Mr. Foster organized for that purpose and of which he is president. He is also the president of the Continental Investment Com- pany, another successful corporation, and in the fall of 1909 he organized the American and Mexican Land and Cattle Company, of which he is the vice president, and which purchased and owns two hundred and sixty- five thousand dollars' worth of land near Vera Cruz, Mexico. John R. Griffin is the president of that company and R. W. Montgomery its sec- retary.
But one of the largest and most successful operations that Mr. Foster has consummated was the development, the placing on the market and the selling of Fostepco Heights, a high class residence subdivision sitil- ated directly north of the packing house district in North Fort Worth. The preliminary work of improvement at Fostepco Heights, begun in 1907, was completed early in the year of 1909, and among the notable
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conveniences that Mr. Foster brought about for this addition was the street car line, built by the North Texas Traction Company and being an extension of the North Fort Worth line. For the purpose of promoting and financing this large enterprise, Mr. Foster organized the Greater Fort Worth Realty Company, which owns the property, and of which he is the secretary, the other officials and directors of the company in- cluding such leading citizens as Paul Waples, W. C. Stripling, F. M. Rodgers, E. H. Carter, Louis J. Wortham and others of equal promi- nence. Mr. Foster is also the president of the Syndicate Land Company, organized during the summer of 1909, and which owns valuable holdings adjacent to Fostepco Heights, and among the stockholders of this cor- poration are Benjamin J. Tillar, W. B. Harrison, Tom B. Yarbrough, I. H. Burney, Burke Burnett, George Light and W. P. Fischer. Mr. Foster was also instrumental in organizing the Hub Land Company, which purchased, owns and is holding for future development a body of six hundred and fifty acres of land adjoining the city of Fort Worth on the southeast, its officers and stockholders including such well known men as Newton M. Lassiter, Bernie P. Anderson, Tom Yarbrough, William Bryce, T. B. Owens, W. B. Ward Jr., Robert Mather of New York, B. F. Tensman of El Reno and R. C. Evans of St. Louis, the three last named being officials of the Rock Island Railroad Company.
Mr. Foster is a son of R. V. Foster, who died in 1894 and who was one of the prominent and wealthy citizens of Milam county, Texas, where he had located in 1849. During a long number of years he was a suc- cessful planter and stockman. The son Robert was born in Milam county, August 5, 1877, and received his educational training in the public schools of Calvert and in the Southwestern University at Georgetown. While in Calvert he was identified with a general mercantile business and with other interests in Milam county, but on moving to Sherman, this state, he became largely interested in real estate transactions and promi- nently connected with the Commercial Club and other local organizations. In 1906, desiring a larger field for his operations, he came to Fort Worth and established his permanent home and the headquarters for his large undertakings in this city. He is variously connected with representative business and social organizations here, and is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a member of other orders. Mr. Foster married on May 8, 1896, Miss Minnie Ladd, of Biloxi, Mississippi. They have three children, Clair, Joseph H. and Kathryn.
WILLIAM W. STEWART .- There is no dearth of interesting data in the personal and genealogical history of this venerable and distinguished law- year and jurist, who is now living retired in North Fort Worth, after many years of earnest endeavor in the work of his chosen profession and as a man of affairs. He is a scion of a family whose name has loomed large in the annals of American history, and even the brief review here possible to enter will measurably indicate the consistency of this state- ment.
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Judge Stewart was born in Alleghany county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of December, 1827, and is a son of Captain Alanson C. and Sabrina (Wallace) Stewart. In both the paternal and maternal lines the ances- try is traced back to stanch Scottish clans, as the names indicate, but both families were founded in America in the colonial epoch. Captain Alanson Stewart was a native of Wyndham county, Connecticut, and he received his military title from service in the wars of the Pottawatomie and Sioux Indians of Indiana, Michigan, and from Governor Lewis Cass of the latter state, as did his distinguished brother, General Hart L. Stewart. For a protracted period the two brothers were associated in the extensive and important public contracting work in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and other states. They were the contractors who constructed the tunnel under the Alleghany river near Pittsburg, and in 1829 they removed to southern Michigan, where they took up large tracts of gov- ernment land in the midst of the wilderness still infested by the Indians. In the autumn of that year Captain Stewart established his family home on the beautiful White Pigeon Prairie, in St. Joseph county, Michigan. He was a contractor in connection with the Illinois and Michigan canal, and later was one of the construction contractors in the building of the line of the Michigan Central Railroad from Chicago to Michigan City. In addition to other public works of importance, he and his brother at- tempted the building of the first tunnel under the Chicago river, at La- Salle Street, Chicago. After the work was practically completed a severe flood in the river destroyed the tunnel, and many years elapsed before another was constructed. It is interesting to record in this connection that at the present time a new tunnel, of the most modern type, is nearing completion in the same location.
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