USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
WALTER SCOTT CURLEE. While he has been a factor in the business affairs of the Texas Northwest only about a decade, Walter Scott Curlee has played a very influential role in developing some of the vast range and pasture area of this part of the state into farm col- onies, and from his initial ventures in han- dling farm land has extended his business to the urban improvement of Wichita Falls, and has been a real leader at all vital points in the city's remarkable progress and growth of the last few years.
Mr. Curlee is a native Texan, born in Lime- stone County in 1887, a son of Henry Wesley and Julia (Frazier) Curlee. His father was a native of Louisiana, but as a boy came to the Lone Star State and lived in Limestone County. Walter Scott Curlee had a farm training, and knows the practical side of a Texas farm, a knowledge that stood him in good stead when he began his work as a col- onizer in North Texas. Most of his early education was acquired at Mart, Texas, and in 1907 he graduated from the Central Texas University at Blooming Grove. The first two years out of school he was a teacher, but in 1910 he came to North Texas and established his home at Wichita Falls.
From this city he became actively identified with an ambitious scheme of farm develop- ment in Clay County, not far from Wichita Falls. He took charge of a 13,000 acre ranch, one of the great undivided parcels of land still remaining in that part of Texas. On this vast property was only one house. Under Mr. Curlee's direction the tract was divided into 80-acre and 160-acre farms. On each such farm was built a house, other initial improve- ments were made for the purpose of agricul- ture, roads were constructed, three school- houses built, and Mr. Curlee was busy in locat-
ing practical farmers, and in the course of a few years there was developed a prosperous farming community with an enormous aggre- gate of production above the possibilities of its previous use for pasture and grain.
In his business as a real estate man at Wichita Falls Mr. Curlee has been similarly guided by the creative and constructive side of the work. In most of his local enterprises he has been associated with the firm of Curlee & Johnson. This firm owns the Curlee Addi- tion, West Side Park Addition, and they are also exclusive agents for the Highland Heights Addition and the North Park Addition, and do a general real estate and brokerage busi- ness, handling business and residence property in Wichita Falls and vicinity.
While his business responsibilties are heavy, Mr. Curlee has never stood back and allowed other public spirited citizens to perform com- munity duties. During the war with Ger- many he was county food administrator for Wichita County, had charge of War Camp Community Service, and after the war served on the Fair Price Committee. He is vice pres- ident and a director and one of the leading spirits in the Chamber of Commerce, and has assisted in carrying out some of the big plans formulated by that body. As a means of sup- plementing the constructive enterprise of the Chamber of Commerce he is reorganizing the Wichita Club and making it a clearing house of civic plans and public undertakings. Mr. Curlee is one of the present city commission- ers of Wichita Falls, a director of the Wichita Falls Council Boy Scouts of the World, a director of the Wichita State Bank and a member of the Elks, the University Club and the Kiwanis Club.
He married Miss Myrtle James, of Waco. Their five children are Ardath, Derwood, Walter S., Jr., Fayton and Monette. The fam- ily enjoy one of the most beautiful and pre- tentious residences in the city, located on Buchanan Avenue in Floral Heights. It is said that this home was built for Mr. Curlee at a cost of about a hundred thousand dollars.
WILLIAM A. HANGER has for thirty years been engaged in the practice of law at Fort Worth, and in that time has achieved many of the highest successes and best rewards of the able lawyer. He is a member of one of the leading law firms of North Texas, and at different times has taken a prominent part in civic and political affairs,
52
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Mr. Hanger was born in Tarrant County, Texas, October 9, 1869, son of Robert N. and Hannah (Swan) Hanger. He comes of a pioneer family in this section of Texas. As a boy on the farm he attended local schools and gained his college education in the noted institution now at Waxahachie, Trinity Uni- versity, then at Tehuacana, which he attended from September, 1886, to June, 1889. During 1889-90 Mr. Hanger was a student in Cumber- land University at Lebanon, Tennessee, and on completing his law studies was admitted to the bar and began his professional career at Fort Worth in 1890. In November, 1890, he was appointed assistant county attorney, an office he held until July, 1895. This brought him an invaluable experience in the funda- mentals of law practice. He then began an individual practice, and in 1898 was elected a member of the State Senate, and held that office for two terms, eight years, during which he ably represented his constituency in the Upper House. Since retiring from the Senate he has devoted his chief energies to his accum- ulating law business and is now a member of the firm of Capps, Cantey, Hanger & Short. Mr. Hanger is a member of the Fort Worth Club and of a number of civic and social or- ganizations, is a Knight Templar and thirty- second degree Mason, and a member of the Elks and Woodmen of the World. He married Mattie Scruggs. Their only son is Robert K., who throughout the World war served as a captain in the One Hundred and Thirty-Sec- ond Field Artillery.
ROBERT MCCART tried cases at law in Fort Worth when the little city was precariously connected with the outside world by a single line of railway track, and for over forty years his practice and his reputation have kept apace with the rising importance of the city. He is one of its prominent pioneer attorneys and able citizens.
He was born at Flemingsburg, Kentucky, January 22, 1844. His father and grandfather also bore the name Robert, his grandfather coming to this country from the north of Ire- land. His father, Robert McCart, was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, in 1800, and spent his active career as a contractor. The mother of the Fort Worth lawyer was Elizabeth Lee, who was born at Flemingsburg in 1815.
Seventh in a family of eight children, Robert McCart when eight years of age, in 1852, accompanied his parents on their re- moval to Bloomington, Illinois. Robert
McCart grew up in Illinois, was liberally edu- cated, graduating from the State Normal School in 1864, and completed his law course at the University of Michigan in 1866, receiv- ing the LL.B. degree. A.young lawyer with some degree of practical experience, he ar- rived at Fort Worth in 1877, and all his pro- fessional and civic interests have been cen- tered in the city since that time.
Mr. McCart married Fannie Kingsley, of Dallas, Texas. They have three children: John Lee, Robert, Jr., and Fannie Belle, the latter the wife of T. E. D. Hackney.
SAM DAVIDSON. Nearly all of the great commercial and civic interests centered at Fort Worth and surrounding territory give tribute to Sam Davidson for something constructive, for leadership in important measures at criti- cal times, and no man has worked harder to achieve prosperity for himself and the welfare of his home city.
He came to America at the age of sixteen, had only an ordinary education, and was equipped chiefly with physical strength, good health and an ambition to make something of himself in the world. For a time he was em- ployed as a cigar maker in Michigan. In 1872 he came to Texas. Texas at that time was enjoying an era of spectacular growth due to the rapid building of railroads and the ex- tension of population out to the western fron- tiers. Sam Davidson worked as a teamster, clerked in a grocery store, and finally accum- ulated modest savings with which he started a grocery and confectionery store of his own at Granbury. In spite of the pressing times of the seventies he was in business with pros- perous results for about nine years, and really laid the foundation of his career at the little town of Granbury. Selling a stock of mer- chandise, he then took a contract for grading a portion of the Texas & Pacific Railroad be- tween El Paso and Wild Horse, Texas. This road was then rapidly closing up the gap be- tween El Paso and Fort Worth. After a short time he sold his interest in the contract and moved to Henrietta, where he again re- sumed his business as a merchant. While there he also acquired his interests as a cattle man, and it is as a cattle man that the name of Sam Davidson is perhaps best known out- side of his home city of Fort Worth. His interests rapidly grew in that line and he had his ranch and stock holdings in many parts of the range district.
-
Rifgough m &
53
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Mr. Davidson moved to Fort Worth about 1895, and his activities since then have been of such a diverse nature that they can be sketched only briefly.
When Fort Worth adopted the commission plan of government Mr. Davidson was one of the first commissioners, and this assignment of responsibility was as commissioner of pub- lic property with jurisdiction over public high- ways and buildings. It was due to his official influence that Fort Worth adopted a plan pro- viding for public parkways, by the setting aside of ten per cent of the annual tax income to be used for the purchase and maintenance of parkways and breathing spaces in the city, and this plan as developed during the past decade has gone far toward beautifying Fort Worth and realizing the benefits of its great increase in population and wealth. Mr. Davidson has been also one of the best friends of the Fort Worth Public Library, and em- ployed his official influence in providing a reg- ular fund for the support and upkeep of this institution. He is a former president and di- rector of the Public Library Association. Mr. Davidson for many years has been a promi- nent figure in republican politics in his section of the state, and for a number of years served as chairman of the Tarrant County and the Congressional District Committees.
His commercial and business interests are still extensive, though many of them are shared by his son. Mr. Davidson organized in 1912 the North Texas Trust Company, and as president has wisely guided that institution in its prosperous career. He is also president of the Chevrolet Motor Company of Texas, is president of the Consumers Ice Company of Amarillo, is vice president of the Quarles Lumber Company of Fort Worth, was vice president of the King Candy Company of Fort Worth, is vice president of the Southern River Cold Storage Company, director of the Fort Worth National Bank, director of the First National Bank of Chickasha, Oklahoma, and secretary of the Ardmore Oil & Milling Com- pany of Oklahoma.
Through all these years Mr. Davidson has maintained his active associations with the great livestock industry of Texas, and on his ranches still produces many cattle, sheep and Angora goats. He is an honorary vice presi- dent of the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas. He is a leading member of the Fort Worth Club and is a Mason. During the war Mr. Davidson served as chairman of the American Red Cross Chapter, and that is
only one of the many practical philanthropies with which his name and fortune have been associated. During 1910 he served as census supervisor for this. congressional district, and is one of the most active men in the city, being interested in all enterprises of impor- tance that tend to the greater development of Fort Worth and Texas. He is a reformed Jew in religion and is a former president of his congregation at Fort Worth.
Mr. Davidson married in 1879 Sally A. Jones, of Granbury, Texas. His second wife was S. A. Getz, of Dallas. Mr. Davidson has four children. His son, H. H. Davidson, is the active head of the Texas Manufacturing Company of Texas. His daughters are : Mrs. H. E. Mantz, whose husband is an assis- tant professor of Columbia University of New York; Mrs. D. A. Elmer, who lives in Michi- gan; and Mrs. Lucille Scudder, who lives in New York.
ROY HAMPTON GOUGH, A. M., M. D. In Texas medical circles Dr. R. H. Gough, of Fort Worth, is widely known for his exten- sive experience and proficiency as a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and besides a large private practice has given much of his time to work and duties as an educator and lecturer in different medical col- leges and the public schools of Texas.
Doctor Gough was born near Sulphur Springs, Texas, in 1875, son of Rev. Lycurgus and Almedia (Brecheen ) Gough. He acquired a liberal education, receiving the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Texas Christian University, attended the medical department of the University of Texas two years, and received the degree Doctor of Medicine from the Barnes Medical College of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901.
Doctor Gough has kept well abreast of medical thought during the twenty years of his career as a physician, having attended numerous clinical courses in eye, ear, nose and throat diseases in the leading colleges and hospitals of Chicago, New Orleans and New York, as well as those of London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin and Vienna.
While a resident of Hillsboro, Texas, from 1905 to 1912, Doctor Gough served as secre- tary for six years, and president one year of the Hill County Medical Society. For the past nine years his office has been in Fort Worth, during five years of which time he was professor of otology in the Fort Worth School of Medicine and a member of the faculty in
54
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
eye, ear, nose and throat diseases in the All Saints Hospital and Training School for Nurses.
He is a member of the Tarrant County, North Texas District, Southern Medical and American Medical associations.
Doctor Gough is a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, a member of the Kiwanis Club, the River Crest Country (golf ) Club and other social clubs. He holds his church membership in the First Christian Church of Fort Worth, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Christian Cour- ier, the official church paper for the Christian churches of Texas.
Always willing to serve the community in its good work, Doctor Gough served as mem- ber of the Board of Directors of the Fort Worth Welfare Association for four years, was president of the Humane Society of Tar- rant County for one year, and served as chairman of the board of the Union Gospel Mission for several months. For five years he was a member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of Texas Christian University, and was active in the movement to bring that institution to Fort Worth from Waco in 1911. His offices have recently been established in suites 504-5-6 in the new F & M National Bank Building, corner of Seventh and Main streets.
JAMES DAVISS COLLETT. It is an old adage which tells us that "opportunity knocks once at each man's door," that at least one time in a man's life he is given the chance to grasp adventitious circumstance and through it place himself in a position to rise to recognition in the field opened up before him. This is un- doubtedly true, as can be proved by thousands of successful careers, but the man who waits for the knock of opportunity will be found far in the rear of the individual who has the ability to make opportunity when his less am- bitious fellows have allowed it to slip through their grasp. The modern man of business has little use for the man who waits for something to "turn up." He realizes that it takes but mediocre ability to seize something that has already been developed; and it is, therefore, that the man who makes a place for himself, not the man who takes a place vacated by others, is the one who creates the greatest de- mand for his services. Some men there are who can follow but one line; their abilities seem to have been developed in but one direc- tion, and oftentimes they never discover their
field of activity until it is too late, until the best of their power has been contributed to a vocation to which their inclination and inher- ent abilities have been wasted. It is the man who realizes his proper field, who is possessed of the courage to grasp the opportunity pre- sented in that direction, who rises above his fellows and eventually attains distinction, just for the reason that he has these qualities.
The career of James Daviss Collett, of Fort Worth, is one which for its record of oppor- tunities grasped and achievements attained may stand as representative of the busy life which has made Fort Worth the metropolis it is today. Mr. Collett has made a success in many lines, and is at present a forceful fig- ure in the oil and cattle business of this region.
James Daviss Collett was born at Galveston, Texas, March 10, 1869, a son of James Ham- ilton and Eliza (Daviss) Collett, natives of North Carolina and Alabama, respectively. Mr. Collett comes of Scotch-French and Irish ancestry, although his family has long been established in this country. James Hamilton Collett was one of the best-known men of Texas and for a number of years was mana- ger of the original Washington Hotel. He died at the advanced age of ninety-two years. His wife is still living, being now a lady of eighty-two years. They had six children who reached maturity, and of them all James Daviss is the eldest son and second child.
In 1877 James Daviss Collett moved to Austin, Texas, where he attended school, be- ing graduated from the high-school course. He went into the land business with his father, dealing in Texas land, surveying and locating land claims, and later was connected with W. C. Belcher in a land and mortgage company. In 1890 the business headquarters was transferred to Fort Worth. Until 1900 Mr. Collett continued with this company as its secretary, but in that year went to Mexico to look after some mining and engineering in- terests, and remained there for a year, when he returned to Fort Worth and became inter- ested in oil, going to Spindletop at the time of the boom. Coming back once more to Fort Worth, he engaged in an insurance busi- ness and carried it on very successfully until 1914, when he sold it, and since then has been engaged in looking after his oil and cattle interests, which are very heavy. For the past few years he has also been connected with freight handling and shipping at Galveston, Texas, and is a man of many activities, and large means.
55
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
In 1901 Mr. Collett was united in marriage with Marie R. Anderson, a daughter of E. J. Anderson of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Collett have one son, James Daviss, Jr. Mr. Collett belongs to the Fort Worth Club, which he is now serving as vice president, and he was one of the organizers of the River Crest Country Club, to which he still belongs. The enterprises with which Mr. Collett has associated himself have all been sound, legiti- mate concerns, and when he severed a con- nection with any of them he left it better for his association with its management. Looking back over his career it must be a pleasure to him to reflect that his advancement has been and is gained through merit and knowledge and not by pulling down another or by wreck- ing a competitor. Taking him all in all, no higher praise can be bestowed upon him than to say that he is a true man and a dependable citizen.
ROBERT WILLIS FLOURNOY. It is sometimes found that without the stimulus of necessity a man is apt to rest content upon the laurels already gained and become engulfed in inertia, but this is not true of the man who has taken for his life work the profession of the law. In it he is forced to be constantly on the alert and to devote much time to study and thought. Without doubt the law has been the main high- way by means of which more men of merit have advanced to prominence than any other road, and it is not unusual to find the legal practitioners the leading citizens of a com- munity. To respond to the call of the law, to devote every energy in this direction, to broaden and deepen every possible highway of knowledge, and to finally enter upon this chosen career and find its rewards worth while, such has been the happy experience of Robert Willis Flournoy, of Fort Worth. He has gained honor and position in his profes- sion through the application of honesty, en- ergy, perseverance, conscientiousness and self- reliance, and has kept abreast of his calling in its constant advancement; but it is not alone as a lawyer that he is known to the people of his adopted city, for he has won distinction as one of its most public-spirited citizens and as one of the most active war workers during the period this country was at war. He has numerous club connections, and has given freely of his time, his money and his energies in promoting various movements for the good of the city and county.
Mr. Flournoy was born at Sandersville, Washington County, Georgia, September 22, 1867, a son of Robert W. and Ophelia C. (Tucker) Flournoy, both of whom were born in Georgia. The Flournoy family is one of the old and aristocratic ones of the South, of Huguenot extraction, his ancestors having been driven from France to the American colonies on account of religious persecution. The paternal grandfather, Robert W. Flour- noy, was born in Georgia, where he became one of the distinguished attorneys of the state, but spent the last years of his life in Missis- sippi. When the trouble arose between the North and the South, which terminated in a declaration of war, he was one of the ardent supporters of the latter section, and was a member of the Secession Convention of Mississippi.
The maternal grandfather of Robert Willis Flournoy, Nathan Tucker, resided in Laurens County, Georgia. He was an extensive planter and practicing physician at the time of the holding of the Secession Convention of Geor- gia, and although he was a native of Rhode Island, and of "Mayflower" descent, his sym- pathies were all with the South, and he was a member and gave to the Confederacy his hearty support.
Robert W. Flournoy, father of Robert Willis Flournoy, like his father and father-in-law, was a distinguished figure in the history of Georgia, although he was not spared to round out his full measures of years, for he died when only twenty-seven years old. Although his passage through the world was of brief duration, he accomplished much. During the war of the sections he held the rank of lieuten- ant-colonel in the Confederate army, and was acting colonel of his regiment at the close of the war. Upon his return home he assumed the position in his community to which his talents and his profession as a lawyer entitled him, and he was a member of the Reconstruc- tion Legislature of Georgia in 1869, and had a brilliant future before him when his career was cut short by death.
Robert Willis Flournoy was the only son and one of the two children born to his par- ents. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, and was admitted to the bar in Mississippi in September, 1887, having disabilities of min- ority removed for that purpose. In February, 1891, he came to Fort Worth and entered upon a general civil and criminal practice and since then has gained notable distinction as a
56
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
legalist and has been connected with some of the most important jurisprudence of Texas. While he was very active in all of the war work, he was especially valuable to the ad- ministration as chairman of the Tarrant County Council of Defense during the great war.
In 1896 Mr. Flournoy was united in mar- riage with Miss Martha Redd Fontaine, of Mississippi, and they became the parents of three children, Robert Willis, Virginia Lewis and Martha Fontaine. Mr. Flournoy's every action is marked by great mental resource- fulness, and he has responded in a wonderful manner to all demands made upon him both in his professional and in civic affairs. He has ever been an inspiration for activities of the best kind, and a constructive force in his community. Holding his friends in good account, he likes to have them about him, and to them, as to all who know him, he is one of the finest examples of true southern man- hood and professional efficiency and honor Texas has produced.
THOMAS B. YARBROUGH. Fort Worth has long been distinguished for high rank in its banking and brokerage system, and in this field of activity the business here is repre- sented by men of high standing and national prominence. Among the alert and enterpris- ing financiers of this city, who have utilized the opportunities offered for preferment and attained thereby a notable success, and whose career is typical of modern progress and ad- vancement, is Thomas B. Yarbrough, vice president of the First National Bank, one of the largest financial institutions of Texas.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.