USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 26
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It employs seventy-five people and its average weekly payroll is around $2,250.
ANACONDA GRAVEL COMPANY
This is a new enterprise recently installed on the east bank of the Trinity River. Its mission is to furnish washed gravel used in making concrete for streets and buildings. It is equipped with the most modern machinery and devices for this purpose. It has a capacity of 200 cubic yards per day and represents an investment of around $40,000.
LUMBER
There are eleven wholesale and thirty-four retail lumber dealers in the city, and the rapid growth of town and country afford them a good market every day in the year.
THE ALEXANDER LUMBER COMPANY
This company is the manufacturer of "Circle A" interchangeable unit buildings, for which patents are pending. It also manufactures sash, doors, interior finish, boxes, crates, paints, stains, roofing and other articles of the building trade. Its plant is on the I. & G. N. Railroad Company's tracks in the southeast portion of the city. Its investment is about $500,000. It employs 150 men, with a payroll of $5,500 per week.
GAS WORKS
On August 31, 1876, the first gas company in the city was organized and a franchise granted the company, with J. P. Smith as president, John Nichols, treasurer, J. G. St. Clair, secretary. On November 26th a contract was entered into with John Lockwood, of New Jersey, to con- struct the works and lay the mains. Some idea of the extent of the plant can be gathered from the fact that it was to cost $20,000. The plant was added to from time to time until the entire business section was supplied with gas. The works were finally sold to a new company, of which Mr. H. C. Scott, of St. Louis, was the principal owner ; and it remained under his control until sold to the Fort Worth Light & Power Company, and it in turn transferred the property to the Fort Worth Gas Company, which is the present owner.
The mains and service pipes now reach to every portion of the city, and natural gas is supplied its patrons, coming from the petroleum fields in Clay County, from Ranger and Oklahoma.
ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER
The Fort Worth Power and Light Company, confessedly the largest concern of its kind in the Southwest, was organized in 1911.
A party of Cleveland, Ohio, capitalists, recognizing the importance of Fort Worth as a great distributing center, organized this company taking over the Citizen's Light and Power Company and the Consumer's Light Company.
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Its plant is one of the most prominent industrial enterprises in the city, and being located at the north end of the Paddock viaduct, which connects the main city with North Fort Worth, it stands out prominently and cannot fail to attract the attention of the thousands of people who daily pass through this part of the city.
Its capital stock is $4,360,000. It employs 275 people and its pay- roll averages $10,000 per week.
It supplies electric power and light to the cities and towns within a radius of a hundred miles from Fort Worth.
MARBLE AND GRANITE WORKS
The Fort Worth Marble and Granite Works is the oldest enterprise of this character in the city. They manufacture mausoleums, monu- ments, marble, granite, stone and bronze. It has about $25,000 invested in the plant, and its annual production averages about $65,000. It has several traveling salesman besides its employes in the factory, and its business reaches many of the Southern and Western states. Its average weekly payroll is around $600.
THE FORT WORTH MONUMENTAL WORKS
The Fort Worth Monumental Works, manufacturers of monuments, mausoleums and memorials in granite, marble and bronze, represents an investment of about $20,000. It employs twelve skilled granite cutters and its production for the year 1920 was about $80,000.
INDUSTRIES
One of the most recent industries established in Fort Worth is a fac- tory for the manufacture of galvanized service hangers, of which Mr. John F. Shelton is the inventor.
He has invented a machine so absolutely free from irregularities that it is able to turn out the hanger as fast as the wire can be fed into the machine, and is capable of making 8,000 hangers a day. The battery of machines in the factory turn out on an average, over 7,000,000 hangers annually, representing a value of $200,000.
The factory is unique in the fact that it is more like a home than an industrial establishment. It has a nicely furnished reception room, and the office, work rooms, lunch rooms, bath rooms and store rooms are more like a large home than a factory.
OIL REFINERIES AND PIPE LINES
There are eleven refineries in Fort Worth converting the crude petroleum, found in such inexhaustible quantities in the territory tribu- tary to Fort Worth, into gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oils and other petroleum products. They have a daily capacity of 130,000 barrels. Information as to the amount of investment in these industries is not obtainable, but it will aggregate ten or fifteen million dollars, and the daily expenditures for crude oil and the payroll of the hundreds of employes will approximate a half million dollars per day.
There are eleven pipe lines converging here extending from the Okla- homa, Burkburnett, Ranger and Breckenridge fields to this place and to tide water at Beaumont and Port Arthur.
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Pipe lines to the Oklahoma, Petrolia and Ranager fields bring hither natural gas for industries and domestic consumption.
THE TEXAS CYCLONE FENCE COMPANY
The Texas Cyclone Fence Company, successor of the Texas Anchor Fence Company, has a large and successful factory in this city.
The latter company was organized about 1902 and has grown and expanded beyond the dream or ambition of its founder. It manufactures ornamental fences, wire cages and other fixtures for banks or offices, elevator cages and almost every other article made of galvanized wire or iron of the most attractive and substantial character. It has branch factories at Waukegan, Illinois, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Rochester, Philadelphia, New York, Oakland, Portland, Oregon and San Francisco. Statistics as to the amount of capital invested, annual product, number of employes and amount of payroll are not available.
CANNING FACTORY
One of the most modern and best equipped canning factories in the country is located just inside of the east line of the city limits on the T. P. and I. & G. N. Railroads. It owns twenty-seven acres of land with two two-story brick buildings, one of which is 50x100 feet and the other 50x130 feet. It is devoted to the canning of pork and beans, sweet potatoes, and manufactures jellies, jams, catsup and other condi- ments, and to the packing of teas, shredded cocoanut, cocoa, currants, nuts and other fruit products. It has its own printing plant producing the labels for the several brands, which are beautifully ornate. It also has a box factory completely equipped, 60x100, which manufactures all the boxes used for the canning plant, roaster, etc. There is a machine shop, 50x125 feet, thoroughly equipped to care for all the machine shop work, autos and trucks.
It gives employment to from 50 to 225 people, varying with the sea- sons. The factory is owned and operated in the interest of the Waples- Platter Grocery Company.
NISSLEY CREAMERY COMPANY
Nissley Creamery Company, manufacturers of Mistletoe Creamery Butter, represents an investment of $258,000. Its annual product is around two million pounds of butter per year. Its average number of employes is eighty, with a payroll of $2,500 per week. In addition to this it has a plant at Amarillo and other points in Texas. The amount mentioned above does not include investment in other cities.
CIGAR FACTORIES
There are four cigar factories in Fort Worth, representing in the aggregate a capital of around $50,000. The largest of these is the L. E. Peters Cigar Manufacturing Company, which makes 150,000 cigars . a month. It has a weekly payroll of about $800. This is the largest factory making union-made cigars in the state, and its trade extends over all of the territory contiguous to Fort Worth.
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THE BURDETT OXYGEN COMPANY
The Burdett Oxygen Company, manufacturers of electrolytic, hydro- gen gas welding and street cutting apparatus and carbide supplies, has a capacity of 10,000 feet of oxygen and 20,000 cubic feet of hydrogen every twenty-four hours. The investment in the plant and equipment is $238,000.
CANDY FACTORIES
There are two successful factories for the manufacture of all kinds of candy in this city. The most prominent of them is the King Candy Company, of which John P. King is the founder and president. Its capital stock is $150,000 and it has a surplus from earnings of $400,000. It distributes its products through all the Southern and Western states and the slogan, "King's Candies for American Queens," are household words throughout that section.
The second most successful enterprise is that of the Pangburn Candy Company.
PEANUT FACTORY
The company inaugurated some years ago to encourage diversified farming resulted in the planting and cultivating of thousands of acres of peanuts in the territory contiguous to Forth Worth. The Bain Pea- nut Company of Texas established a factory at Fort Worth some years ago, which has been of great benefit to the former and of profit to the owners. Their normal business runs as high as one and a half million dollars per annum, and gives employment to from 75 to 100 men and women, with a payroll of between two and three thousand dollars per month.
The cultivation of peanuts is increasing every year and is proving a . profitable adjunct to agriculture.
JERSEY CREME
The Jersey Creme Company was organized in 1906 by the late W. G. Newbee and Mr. Howell.
Its capital stock is $50,000 and it has branch plants at Chicago and Toronto, Canada. Jersey Creme is its principal product, but it manu- factures all kinds of soft drinks and some flavoring extracts. Its annual production from this plant is around $450,000, which is distributed throughout the South and Southwest.
It has twenty-two employes and its weekly payroll is about $800. Its present officers are W. C. Stripling, president, J. B. Hogsett, vice- president, and A. M. Luckett, secretary and treasurer.
ICE FACTORIES
Notwithstanding the fact that Forth Worth is located in latitude 36.30 degrees, and snow and ice are infrequent visitors, the inhabitants of the city ought to be able to keep cool. There are thirteen ice fac- tories in the city, with a production of around one thousand pounds of ice per day. This is an average of about twenty pounds to each man, woman and child in the city, which should be more than sufficient for all domestic purposes. But the people are not the only consumers of
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FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
ice in Forth Worth; large quantities are required for the refrigeration of meats at the three packing houses, and the train loads of fruit coming from California, for which Fort Worth is the distributing point of the Southwest, require many tons of ice daily for refilling refrigerator cars for their journey North and East.
In addition to the local and refrigerating demands for ice Fort Worth supplies many of the nearby towns and villages. Arrangements are now in contemplation for increasing the output of ice during the incoming year to a very considerable extent.
HUBB FURNITURE COMPANY
Fort Worth has for many years enjoyed the distinction of being the largest distributing and manufacturing point for furniture of all kinds in the Southwest. Desiring to take advantage of this fact and to in- crease the output of household and office furniture a number of the public spirited, enterprising citizens of Fort Worth organized this com- pany in August, 1907, with W. G. Turner as president, W. E. Austin, vice-president and general manager, E. Coombs, secretary and treasurer. These, with George E. Cowden, N. H. Lassiter, and Dr. J. W. Irion, con- stitute the Board of Directors.
Its capital stock is $215,000 and its annual output is around $500,000. Plans for an increased capacity are about ready for announcement, when the output will be increased by at least fifty per cent. It will have 200 employes, with a monthly payroll of approximately $20,000.
THE ART PRESERVATIVE
There are twenty-one publications and thirty-six printing establish- ments in the city. These comprise every branch known to the trade, in- cluding engraving, lithographing, embossing, blank books and commercial printing of all kinds.
The largest and most complete printing plant in the Southwest is that of the Stafford-Lowden Company. This company is capitalized at $360,000, with net assets to more than cover the capital. It occupies a brick structure, two stories and basement, covering 200x200 feet. The amount of product for the year 1920 was about three quarters of a million dollars. It employs on the average 150 people, with an average payroll of $5,060 per week. It is one of the many prosperous institutions of the city.
ARTESIA BOTTLING AND ICE CREAM COMPANY
This company manufactures ice cream and pure drinks, including soda waters, ciders and other beverages. Its capital stock is $20,000 and its annual production about $150,000. It employes fifteen men, with a weekly payroll of $500.
MAIL ORDER HOUSES
There are three mail order houses in Fort Worth, those of Mont- gomery Ward & Co. and the Sears-Roebuck Co. being the largest in the country, while that of Kress & Co. is but an adjunct to their retail business.
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The Sears-Roebuck Co. has but recently acquired several huge ware- houses, which were erected for the use of Camp Bowie during the war. and from there they distribute their wares to all parts of North Texas.
THE FORT WORTH DRILLING TOOL COMPANY
This company has recently established a factory in this city for the manufacture of drilling and fishing tools for oil, gas and artesian wells.
They have erected a large plant near the tracks of the M. K. & T. Railway, south of the city, and are now employing about seventy-five men and have a weekly payroll of $3,500. At present they are working about fifty per cent of their contemplated capacity, but expect to get to their full capacity within a few months.
THE AXTELL COMPANY
This company manufactures windmills, drilling machinery, tanks, mill and water supplies, drinking troughs, cisterns and other equipment for the farm, ranch or industrial enterprises.
It has about $125,000 invested in its factory and employs some fifty or sixty skilled mechanics. The payroll is around $35,000 per year. It is one of the successful industries which has grown from small begin- nings.
AGEE SCREEN COMPANY
This has been one of the most successful industrial enterprises of the city. While not large, it has been constantly on the increase from its foundation. It manufactures door and window screens, with which it supplies all the territory contiguous to Forth Worth and reaches into the adjoining states as far east as Georgia. It employes about thirty skilled mechanics and has a payroll of $800 per week.
TELEGRAPH LINES
The first telegraph line was constructed into Fort Worth in the sum- mer of 1876. It was owned and operated by Max Elser and C. L. Frost. After the advent of the railroad it was sold to the Western Union. In 1886 the Baltimore & Ohio Telegraph Co. built into the city, but it soon sold to the Western Union.
The Western Union, the Postal and the Mackey Telegraph and Cable Company are now serving the public in Fort Worth.
COFFEE AND SPICES
Not a very large but a very successful industry is that of the National Coffee Company, importers and roasters of high grade coffee and spices.
The company is capitalized at $45,000. Its monthly payroll is $1,260. Since these goods are manufactured almost exclusively by machinery very few men are employed.
FRUITS AND FLOWERS
There are half a dozen nurseries in Fort Worth and its suburbs where shade trees, fruit trees, vegetables and flowers of all kinds are cultivated for the market.
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These are all equipped with the most modern devices and appliances for the cultivation of fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. The products of these nurseries are shipped to all parts of the Southwest in large quanti- ties in addition to supplying the home market with everything useful and beautiful that could be desired.
CLEANLINESS
Forth Worth has every facility for keeping clean. It has an inex- haustible supply of pure water from Lake Worth, and there are a dozen steam laundries and forty-seven cleaning and dyeing establishments, which ought to enable the residents of Fort Worth to keep clean.
COLLINSVILLE MANUFACTURING COMPANY
This Company was organized in Collinsville, Texas, in 1904, with a capital of $5,000, for the purpose of manufacturing Acetylene Gas Gen- erators. In 1906 it moved to Fort Worth and enlarged its business to include sheet metal work of every character, including fire-proof doors and windows, cornices and sheet metal roofing. The capital was increased to $10,000. It has been a phenomenal success in every way.
It now employs about forty mechanics and does an annual business of more than $200,000 and has a weekly payroll of $2,000.
Mr. S. A. Menczer is the president and general manager of the Company.
THE DOUBLE SEAL RING COMPANY
The Double Seal Ring Company began business in a 25x100 foot garage in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1915, with two machinists and two salesmen. The machinery consisted of one borrowed lathe and a sur face grinder.
At the present time the Fort Worth factory of the Double Seal Ring Company employs more men in the manufacture of piston rings than does any other piston ring manufacturing company in the world. There are two modern factory buildings, 80x200 feet, which are the property of the company free of any incumbrance or debt.
The general sales offices of the company occupy a three-story, 25x160 foot office building at 2335 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, which is owned by the Double Seal Ring Company. A permanent sales force of over 150 men is employed throughout the United States and in Canada, with headquarters in thirty-five of the principal cities of both countries.
This company is the product of Fort Worth men, Fort Worth enter- prise and Forth Worth genius. The general manager is Kirk D. Hol- land, reared in Fort Worth and a product of the Fort Worth schools.
An effort has been made to give in full the industrial activities of the city. That success has been only partial is conceded. The indus- tries of Fort Worth are so numerous and varied that the space allotted this subject will not admit of specific mention of many of them. .
The following list will serve to corroborate this statement : Ammonia Automobiles Automobile Lens Automobile Tires Artificial Limbs Art Glass
Artificial Stone and Monuments
Automobile Tire Machinery
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Automobile Tops
Drilling Tools
Automobile and Truck Bodies
Drugs
Automobile Windshields
Electricity Engines
Awnings
Bags and Sacks
Engravings
Bar Iron
Feather Goods
Barrels
Fence
Batteries
Flavoring Extracts
Beverages
Flavoring Syrup
Blank Books
Floor Sweep and Disinfectants
Bran and Shorts
Flour
Bread and Bakery Products Brick
Fuel Oil and Kerosene
Brass Products
Furniture
Brooms and Mops
Garbage Cans
Blue Prints and Maps
Garments
Boilers
Garment Bags
Books, Book Binding
Garment Hangers
Boxes
Gas
Brushes
Gas Machines
Butter
Gasoline
Buttermilk
Glass Equipment
Cabinets
Glue Stock
Calf Feeds
Gray Iron
Candy
Grease
Canned Meats
Hardware
Canned Vegetables and Fruits
Hog Feed
Carriages
Hominy Meal
Cement Staves
Horse Feeds (ground )
Chemicals
Iron Products
Chili
Ice
Cigars
Ice Cream
Coffee
Ice Cream Cones
Cooperage
Ice Cream Supplies
Confectionery
Jacks
Corn Meal
Kerosene
Cotton Cleaners
Lard and Cooking Compounds
Cotton Choppers
Lime
Cotton Mill Machinery
Lithographs
Cotton Seed Cake
Lubricating Oils
Cotton Seed Meal
Macaroni
Cotton Seed Oil
Machines
Cow Feeds
Mattresses
Creosote
Meat Products
Culverts
Metal Goods
Cup Grease
Mill Work
Cylinder Oil
Millinery
Distillate
Mirrors
Dolls
Naphtha
New Publications
Drilling Machinery
Flour Mill Machinery
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST 679
Oil Mill Machinery
Silos
Oil Well Supplies
Smoke Stacks
Oleomargarine
Soft Drinks
Ornamental Iron and Ware
Structural Steel
Overalls
Stuffing Boxes
Oxygen
Syrups
Packing House Products
Paint
Tanks, Cypress
Patent Medicine and Compounds Patterns
Tank Flanges
Peanut Butter
Tanks, Steel
Peanut Oil
Tarpaulin
Picture Frames
Tents
Pigeon Feeds
Tinware
Piston Rings
Tile
Planing Mill Products
Tires, Steel
Plating
Toilet Preparations
Portable Houses
Tools
Potato Chips
Trunks
Pottery
Umbrella Covers
Poultry Feed
Upholstering
Pumps, Pump Valves, Floats, etc.
Vaccines
Refinery Equipment
Varnishes
Rendered Products, Fats
Vinegar
Roofing
Violins
Rugs
Vulcanizing Machinery
Saddles and Harness
Sash and Doors
Wagon Sheets and Cotton Duck Products
Seals and Stencils
Wax, Petroleum
Semi-Steel
Well Machinery
Serums
Windmills
Sheet Metal
Wire and Wire Goods
Show Cases Signs
Women's Garments
Wood Saws
Many of these have been treated more or less elaborately. There are others, worthy of special mention, of which the management have failed, and in some instances declined to furnish the details necessary to a proper description of the enterprises.
Enough has been said to indicate that Forth Worth is a manufacturing city of no mean proportions.
VOL. II-16
Rubber Stamps
Wagons
Screens
Table Sauces Tallow
CHAPTER LII WAR ACTIVITIES OF FORT WORTH
It was natural that Fort Worth should be selected by the Government as the location for great military activities during the war.
The great railroad facilities of this city reach directly all the larger cities of Texas, and those of the adjoining states, hence, the city naturally came to the notice of the Government for its excellent distribution facili- ties. The great packing houses and grain elevators made this city a concentration point for bread and meat.
The Government had full cognizance of the city's strategic location for locating here the Bureau of Grain Standardization for North Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana ; the Bureau of Markets for Texas, New Mex- ico and Arizona; the Bureau of Federal Grain Inspection; the Depart- ment of Grain and Hay, and the Country's Federal Highway Depart- ment for the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico. These departments made Fort Worth the greatest United States Agri- cultural Exchange in the Southwest.
The Government doubtless made recognition of the facilities of the city by establishing at Fort Worth as early as July, 1916, an Army Supply Base for the United States Army operating in Mexico. This depot, however, was only short-lived, but was revived in a more varied extent at the outbreak of the World war.
In June, 1917, a Military Committee, headed by Major General Mor- ton, visited Fort Worth and other cities of Texas, relative to the location of an Army Cantonment. The citizens of Fort Worth offered to this committee, without rental, a tract of land immediately outside of Fort Worth and adjacent to the city, consisting of approximately 1,410 acres. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, acting for the citizens of Fort Worth, agreed to give this tract of land water and sewer connection, with a two-way hard surface road, double street car track, railway spur connections, light and telephone connections, all without cost. This tract of land was divided into lots and was estimated to include approxi- mately a thousand owners, and hence the Chamber of Commerce in pledging this same tract of land to the Government showed supreme con- fidence in the loyalty and patriotism of the people of Fort Worth, that they would surrender the use of their land without charge. In July of the same year the Government notified the Chamber of Commerce that their offer of the cantonment site was accepted.
The construction of the camp was begun immediately and was ready for occupancy about the first of September following. The physical improvements of the cantonment were estimated to have cost $2,225,000.
A full division of the army was maintained at the cantonment, which approximated in number 30,000 men, under the command of Major General St. John Greble, who remained in command of the division throughout the training period. The troops that constituted this division consisted solely of boys from Texas and Oklahoma.
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Further additional training facilities were provided by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, such as a target range, comprising 750 acres, located just west of the cantonment ; a trench training area, some two miles southwest of the cantonment site, along the Stove Foundry Road, comprising 125 acres ; and an artillery range, located west of Fort Worth, on the old Weatherford Road, comprising 2,000 acres. These additional facilities were likewise furnished to the Government by the citizens of Fort Worth through its Chamber of Commerce without rental.
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