A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 110

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 972

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Harry B. Smoot, the only surviving member of the father's family, was born in Mobile, Ala- bama, March 14, 1856. His education was largely acquired in Crawford's Commercial School of

Galveston, from which institution he was grad- uated in 1871. There were in his class seven young men, all of whom are now occupying prominent positions in public and business life in Texas. After the completion of his educa- tion he went to Bryan, Texas, where he engaged in merchandising as an employe and in 1883 he came to Colorado. The town had recently been founded and he became one of the early busi- ness men here. He was elected assistant cash- ier of the First National Bank and the following year was chosen cashier, which position he filled for ten years. In 1894 he was offered the posi- tion of cashier in the Colorado National Bank, in which he has continued to the present time. Soon after he entered upon this position he came into possession of the People's National Bank, which was eventually consolidated with the Colorado National Bank. The latter now has a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars with a surplus of like amount and is just- ly regarded as the strongest bank between Fort Worth and El Paso, covering a stretch of coun- try six hundred miles. The development of the business and the high premium rating of the stock is largely due to the business capacity, enterprise and careful management of Mr. Smoot, who is thoroughly familiar with bank- ing methods and has conducted the interests of the Colorado National on a safe conservative plan that inspires confidence and wins patron- age.

Mr. Smoot is also largely interested in every enterprise that has for its object the public good and has been closely identified with the growth and development of this section in many ways, giving hearty co-operation to all the movements for the welfare of his community. He has been a member of the Baptist church for twenty-five years and for twenty years has affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, belonging to the subor- dinate lodge at Colorado, the commandery, and Hella Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Dallas.

On the 15th of September, 1880, Mr. Smoot was married to Miss Anna Figh, a daughter of George M. Figh of Montgomery county, Ala- bama. They have but one son, Joe H. Smoot, who was born April 19, 1891. Mr. Smoot is a typical American business man, leading a stren- uous life and accomplishing every task which he undertakes. In this land where individual merit · receives recognition and where genius and talent in business gain a reward unknown in any other country of the world he has made for himself an honorable name and gained a gratifying measure of success.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

THOMAS BUCK was born in Carroll county, Ohio, near the Virginia line and in the vicinity of Canton, the home of William McKinley, No- vember II, 1841. His father, John Buck, was one of nature's noblemen. He was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania. When he reached manhood he wedded Margaret Slem- mons, a lady of Scotch-Irish descent and a na- tive of Harrison county, Ohio. He had left Pennsylvania when about twelve years of age and had settled in the Buckeye state, where he was married and spent his remaining days. To him and his wife were born three sons and three daughters.

Thomas Buck, whose name introduces this record, was reared upon his father's farm and made his home there until he was about twenty- one years of age. During that time he attended the country schools and a high school at Port Washington and was also a student in the Pres- byterian Academy at Hagerstown, Ohio, after which he followed the profession of teaching in Ohio, Iowa and Missouri. He was engaged in teaching to a greater or less extent for a period of eight or ten years and was recognized as a capable educator.

During the period of the Civil war Mr. Buck enlisted in the Ohio State Guards, and upon the call of Governor Tod, went to the southern border of the state to defend it against the raids of Generals Morgan and J. Kirby Smith. This brigade was known as the Squirrel Hunters. His discharge from the service was signed by Adjutant General Hill and Governor Tod in 1862. In 1868 he engaged in the granite and marble business in connection with F. W. Mc- Call & Company, one of the old business con- cerns of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and remained with them for about eighteen years. They were manufacturers of finished granite and marble work.

On the expiration of that period Mr. Buck started out to seek a new location, for the rigor- ous winters of that locality proved detrimental to his health and he decided to seek a more congenial climate. Removing to the south, he remained for a brief period in Florida, whence he made his way westward to Colorado and New Mexico. Finally leaving El Paso, Texas, he went to the interior of the state and located at Abilene, reaching this city in February, 1888. Here he has since made his home and has be- come a prominent factor in its substantial de- velopment and improvement. He immediately entered into partnership with G. B. Triplett, a son-in-law of Judge Cockrell, in the real estate,

insurance and live stock business. The associa- tion was maintained for about one year and since the dissolution of the partnership Mr. Buck has continued the business alone with constantly increasing success. He has conducted his af- fairs with thoroughness and energy and general good has also accrued in addition to his personal benefit. His judgment on lands can be taken as sound and the policy upon which he has based all his operations is in harmony with honest, straightforward dealing. There is no misrep- resentation in his opinions concerning property and his labors have been of direct benefit to the community as well as a source of profit to him- self.

Mr. Buck has been married twice. In 1867 he wedded Miss Mattie E. Borell of Connors- ville, Indiana, and in March, 1903, was united in marriage to Mrs. Zelpha Ebersoll of Abilene, Texas. By the first union there were two chil- dren: E. Todd Buck, deputy postmaster of Abi- lene, and Lulu M., the wife of J. A. Frates, chief train dispatcher of the Frisco railroad system at Springfield, Missouri. Perhaps we cannot bet- ter give account of his political and religious views than to quote his own words: "Having been born and raised a Presbyterian of the Presbyterians and a Democrat of the Demo- crats, after the George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton school, yet, now at this date, am forced to say I am classed and allied with the Republican idea of politics and the Liberal or Free Thought school of religion, utterly refusing to be bound by the legends and mythology of the barbaric past and especially wholly ignoring what I regard to be the miscon- ceived and almost shocking conception of a merciful God."

ROBERT SHERWOOD GOWAN. The subject of this personal reference is a representa- tive of one of the prominent families of Clay county, whose connection with the cattle. indus- try of the county covers a period of nearly thirty years, and he is himself one of the widely known young stock farmers of his municipality. For twenty-nine years he has been a resident of the vicinity of Bellevue, where his father launched the nucleus of what proved to be one of the ex- tensive and most successful cow ranches of Clay county.

A son of Garrett H. Gowan, Robert Sherwood Gowan was born in Navarro county, Texas, August 8, 1869. That county, the Creek Nation in the Indian Territory and Clay county, Texas, were the scenes of our subject's boyhood, but the

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

latter place has known and owned him since he was seven years of age. He grew to manhood with the "UD" ranch and watched its boundaries extend to baronial proportions and witnessed its final dissolution and distribution by its owner, our subject's father, among his worthy children. In the northeast correr of this once famous pasture lie the possessions of Sherwood Gowan, em- bracing eighteen hundred and nineteen acres, sur- rounding an oak-crested hill upon which his mod -. est and cozy residence stands. Since, he has built a commodious residence in the village of Belle- vue.

In the rural schools and in the Methodist col- lege at Georgetown, Texas, Mr. Gowan acquired his literary training, and Mahan's Business Col- lege at Sherman provided him with his business education. He finished a course in the latter in- stitution in his twenty-first year and then became a fixture on the ranch which brought him up. His parents' home was his own until his marriage, when he set up his own establishment and took his place among men in the serious affairs of life. October 15, 1891, he married, in Bellevue, Miss Hettie Harbison, a daughter of S. B. and M. E. (Smith) Harbison, now of Hereford, Texas.

Mr. Harbison was a native of Kentucky, as was also his wife. Of their children Mrs. Gowan was the oldest, born October 17, 1872; Fannie, wife of B. H. Frazier, of Hereford, Texas, was the second, and the other was Virgil, residing at the same place. Mr. and Mrs. Gowan's children are : Clifton Brentz, born September 17, 1892; Robert Elmer, born March 14, 1896; Lewis Buford, born December 22, 1898; Edna May, born No- vember 1, 1900, and Fannie Josephine, born Feb- ruary 23, 1904.

In his stock operations Mr. Gowan includes cattle, horses, mules and hogs, and his two hun- dred and fifty acres under cultivation and his large pastures provide the food necessary to equip them all for market. One hundred and fif- teen head of steers are grazing for the market of 1905 and his stock cattle number nearly one hundred and fifty head. He is one of the active young Democrats of Clay county and has repre- sented his precinct in conventions of his party.

WILLIAM H. AUSTIN, at one time mayor of El Paso, in which office he made a creditable record, is now an extensive operator in real estate, developing some of the best residence portions of the city, so that his efforts are pecu- liarly advanageous to the city in its upbuilding and permanent improvement. He was born in Carroll county, Missouri, in 1858. His father, Archibald Austin, a native of Virginia, was a

relative of Stephen F. Austin, famed in Texas history and in whose honor the city of Austin was named. The family came from the vicinity of Lynchburg, Virginia. Archibald Austin mar- ried Lucy R. Newman and removed to Carroll county, Missouri, at an early day. Being of southern birth and training, he was naturally drawn into the fierce contest that existed along the Kansas-Missouri line when the attempt was made by one faction to introduce slavery into the territories and by the other to prevent this. As a result of the troubles and Mr. Austin's pro- nounced views on questions of state he lost his- life, being killed in 1861. His widow in later years came to Texas to live with her son Wil- liam, and died in El Paso in 1886. She was a sister of E. S. Newman, Tom Newman, the well-known pioneer and business man of this. city, and of H. L. Newman, the banker and real estate dealer.

William H. Austin spent much of his youth in Leavenworth, Kansas, until eighteen years of age, when in 1875 he went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he secured a position in the well- known pioneer banking house of Tidball, Van Zandt & Company. At another period he was with the First National Bank, also one of the early financial institutions of the county, estab- lished by Captain Loyd. In those two institu- tions he received a thorough knowledge of and training in the banking business. In the spring of 1881 he decided to come west and take part in the development of El Paso, just then in the early stages of progress and improvement brought about by the prospective completion of a transcontinental railroad. He arrived in the city on the 21st of March, 1881, before the com- pletion of the railroad, coming in by way of Deming.

In April, 1881, Mr. Austin in connection with C. R. Morehead took part in the establishment of the State National Bank, the pioneer bank of El Paso, and was made its cashier with Mr. Morehead as the president. Mr. Austin, how- ever, was the real manager and head of the insti- tution. He continued with the State National as cashier until the later part of 1886, when he became interested in another local national bank. Later he became a partner in the bank of H. L. Newman & Company, of which he was cashier. Eventually he retired from the institution and the bank became the Lowdon National Bank. Mr. Austin's next step in the business life was as a real estate operator in El Paso and for several years he was in partnership with the Newmans, the firm for some time being the:

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Newman-Austin Investment Company. The firm is now Austin & Marr, his partner being his son-in-law, James L. Marr. They constitute the leading real estate firm of the town with a large clientage, and a business large in volume and importance makes the enterprise one of val- ue to the city. Mr. Austin is extensively inter- ested financially in various fine business prop- erties, and the firm is the exclusive representa- tive in the somewhat remarkable real estate de- velopment now taking place in the East El Paso district as represented by the East El Paso Town Company, also in the upbuilding of Altura Park, a select residence district. Mr. Austin is also interested in the Golden Hill addition. These are all in East El Paso, where the largest de- velopment of the city is now taking place and where its growth is now centered. Through the efforts of Mr. Austin unsightly vacancies have been transformed into fine residence districts with all modern equipments and improvements, and his efforts have been of practical and per- manent good.

In official lines, too, Mr. Austin has rendered valuable service to the city, especially during his mayoralty, extending from 1893 until 1895. In other ways, too, he has co-operated in meas- ures for the benefit of El Paso, and his labors have been far reaching and beneficial.

Mr. Austin was united in marriage to Miss Sue Maude Mason of Warren county, Tennes- see, who has long been one of the prominent women in the social life of El Paso. They have three daughters: Lucy, Maude and Lillian, and the first named is now the wife of James L. Marr. Fraternally Mr. Austin is connected with the Elks and the Pioneer Association, and also with the Chamber of Commerce, the Min- ers' Association and other local organizations. He is animated by a public-spirited interest in El Paso and its welfare that is most commend- able and at the same time has so directed his private business affairs as to gain a place among the successful men of the city.

EZEKIEL S. NEWMAN, a real-estate dealer of El Paso and a member of one of the pioneer families of the city, several of whom have been prominent in its business enterprises, was born in Spencer county, Kentucky, May 19, 1842, a son of E. R. and Rebecca (Carrico) Newman. In his childhood he went with his parents to Missouri, the family settling in Carroll county, which was one of the rich river counties. Both the father and mother died during the youth of their son Ezekiel, who a little later in life went

to Lexington, in Lafayette county, Missouri, where he spent several years and thoroughly ac- quainted himself with merchandising in his brother H. L.'s store. He had attended school at Carrollton and at St. Louis, Missouri, and he remained at Lexington until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in the Con- federate army as a member of Captain Mor- land's Company, Bledsoe's Battalion of the Trans-Mississippi department under command of General Sterling Price. He participated in the fierce and bitter warfare that waged in south- western Missouri and northwestern Arkansas, taking part in several battles and skirmishes, among the most important of which were the battles of Springfield, Carthage, Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. A little later, while stationed at Memphis, Tennessee, his health became very seriously impaired and he had to leave the army, but on account of the changed conditions at his old home he never returned there to live.

After a short time spent in Leavenworth, Kansas, Mr. Newman made an overland trip to the far west, going to Salt Lake City and thence to the territory of Montana, being among its earliest settlers. He arrived there early in the year of 1864, visiting Virginia City in that spring, and he was the witness of many of the stirring events which have made the history of that section memorable. He spent some time in the new west and afterward passed a few years in St. Louis, whence he came in October, 1881, to El Paso, which has since been his home, although he has spent several years in foreign travel. His business connections in this city have been largely in the line of real estate, oper- ating in partnership with his brothers and oth- ers. He was at one time a member of the firm of Newman & Russell, afterward of Newman & Coles, while later the Newman-Austin Invest- ment Company was organized and has since been succeeded by the Newman Investment Company, the partners in this firm being Eze- kiel S. Newman and his son, Charles M. Since 1882 the Newman family have been very largely interested in some of the most extensive and important real-estate transactions in El Paso, and at the present time they are manipulating Highland Park property, which constitutes an excellent residence sub-division in the north- east section of the city. Of this they are part owners and the exclusive sale representatives. In addition to this they have large general real- estate business interests elsewhere. George Thomas Newman, a brother of our subject, has for many years been interested in real estate

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

and other business interests of El Paso and was the pioneer of the family here. Another broth- er, Henry L. Newman, has for many years been a prominent figure in El Paso business life as a pioneer and real-estate dealer, having been pres- ident of the Lowdon National Bank, the East El Paso Town Company and a participant in other numerous projects of note. The family have thus been among the foremost in El Paso's growth and business development, and like his brother, Ezekiel S. Newman possesses keen dis- crimination, marked business sagacity and un- tiring enterprise-qualities which have gained him prominence as a representative of the busi- ness life of this city.

Mr. Newman was married to Miss Fannie Morris, a native of Mason county, Kentucky, and a lady of superior educational and other attainments. She was a sister of Mrs. C. R. Morehead and Mrs. H. L. Newman of El Paso. She died in Los Angeles, California, but her remains were brought back to this city for interment. There were a son and a daughter of this marriage: Charles M., who is his father's associate in business, and Mrs. Myra Mapel, of this city.

In community affairs Mr. Newman has taken a deep and helpful interest and through his busi- ness operations and in other ways has contribu- ted in large measure to the substantial growth and prosperity of El Paso. For eight years he was a member of the board of health, and he has withheld his active co-operation from no move- ment calculated to benefit the city or secure its advancement along material, social and intel- lectual lines. He has himself gained that culture and knowledge which only travel can bring, for he has spent much time in visiting other parts of the globe, devoting several years to foreign trips. For quite a long while he was in the min- ing business in South Africa, and he has traveled extensively through European countries. Later he visited China, Japan and the Philippine Is- lands, making quite a thorough investigation of our recently acquired colonial possessions there with a view to possible investment. He has also traveled extensively in Mexico, and has a mind enriched and broadened by his experiences in foreign lands and stored with many interesting reminiscences of his trips abroad.

WILLIAM F. ROBINSON. Few men are more prominent or more widely known in the enterprising city of El Paso than William F. Robinson, who has been an important factor in business circles and is to-day a leading represen-

tative of industrial interests as president of the El Paso Brick Company. His success in all his undertakings has been so marked that his methods are of interest to the commercial world, and in an analyzation of his life record it is found that he has based his business prin- ciples and actions upon strict adherence to the rules which govern industry, economy and un- swerving integrity.

Mr. Robinson is a native of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he lived until he was twen- ty years of age. In early life he learned teleg- raphy, entering the railroad service, and in the latter '70s came west, locating first in Colorado, where he was employed as telegraph operator on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Subse- quently he occupied a similar position in New Mexico on the Southern Pacific Railroad and afterward in Old Mexico on the Mexican Cen- tral. In 1882 he came to El Paso and this county has since been his home. Here he turned his attention to the cattle industry, es- tablishing a cattle ranch, with headquarters at Fort Hancock, where, in connection with H. G. Ross, he also conducts a mercantile establish- ment under the firm style of H. G. Ross & Com- pany. His ranch and cattle interests are also in El Paso county and Fort Hancock, and the business placed upon a safe basis has proved a source of gratifying profit.

About 1895 Mr. Robinson turned his atten- tion to other lines, thus broadening the scope of his labors. He became interested in the project of manufacturing brick in El Paso, and although the first few years were somewhat discouraging and financially unprofitable, owing to experi- menting in a pioneer industry, to the high cost of material and lack of skilled labor and a limited market, Mr. Robinson persevered and the busi- ness is now a very flourishing one, paying a handsome dividend upon the investment and enjoying a constantly increasing trade.

It is a matter of note that El Paso is largely and compactly built of brick, the most of which has been furnished by the El Paso Brick Com- pany, under which name the business was in- corporated, with Mr. Robinson as president. The plant has constantly been enlarged in order to meet the growing demands of the trade and now employs about sixty men and has a capac- ity of eight to ten million bricks annually. The plant, although an El Paso institution, is located just across the river in Donna Ana county, New Mexico, just beyond the El Paso smelter and almost at the edge of the city. Pressed brick is also manufactured and this is the only pressed-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

brick plant between Fort Worth and Los Ange- les. At this writing arrangements are being made to manufacture fire brick. The manu- facture and sale of brick has grown to be an industry of great importance in El Paso'during the past few years, and as an indication of the phenomenal building growth of the city no more striking illustration could be given than the pro- duction of the El Paso Brick Company, which plant has manufactured in a period of twelve months eight million bricks, an increase of one- third over the output of the year previous. The forcefulness of this statement becomes more effective when it is understood that the great bulk of this supply has been consumed locally. The fact that the product is mainly pressed brick of superior quality shows the character of resi- dences and building blocks that are being con- structed in the city. No review of the develop- ment of the city would be complete without some reference to this company. Its growth has kept steady pace with that of the city, a fact fully realized where it is stated that, begin- ning business in 1897, it has to-day the largest brick-making plant between Thurber and Los Angeles.

The plant of the company is situated across the Rio Grande river from the El Paso smelter, but most of the business is transacted in the city office in the Buckler building. This is the only pressed brick works in El Paso, and the only one making brick from shale, which is conceded to be the best material in the west. In the plant there are three large boilers, two of which are kept heated regularly. There are two of the Fernholtz dry presses with a capacity of fifty- thousand brick per day. In the common brick department there is one large mud machine for common wire-cut brick, with a capacity of fifty thousand daily. All the machinery necessary to swift and perfect work has been secured, in- cluding the Scott patented brick cars and tracks extending through the large yards, where the open-air drying tracks have a capacity of two hundred and fifty thousand mud brick per week. The works are between the river and the moun- tain, with the kilns and the railroad switches on one side and an inexhaustible supply of raw material within a few rods on the other. The company owns four hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the plant, and it is almost a solid body of shale. While some wood is used in starting the heat in the kilns the burning is done almost entirely with oil, which has been proved to be the greatest fuel for keeping an even fire and producing regular strength and color in the

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 110

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 972

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 972