USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 11
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Thomas B. Yarbrough was born at Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas, June 4, 1873, a son of Thomas B. and Sallie (Waggoner ) Yarbrough. Mr. Yarbrough was reared and educated in his native place, where he com- pleted the high school course. He later ob- tained employment as messenger boy in the bank at Honey Grove, and there began his practical banking experience at the remunera- tion of $1.50 per week. In 1894 he went to Decatur, where he spent the ensuing year upon a ranch, engaging in general ranch and live stock work. In 1895 he accepted a position as bookkeeper in the bank at Decatur, and rose through successive promotion to official con- nection as vice president of the institution. In 1907 he came to Fort Worth and became vice president of the Waggoner Bank of this city, and when in 1911 this bank was consolidated
with the First National Bank, he was made first vice president of the new bank. Mr. Yar- brough is also vice president of the American Seed Company of Fort Worth and St. Louis, vice president of the Schumerhorn Company, proprietors of the "Fair" store, vice president and treasurer of the Fort Worth Power & Light Company, and is financially interested in other enterprises, including land and stock interests, owning 100 sections of land in Texas. Mr. Yarbrough's career is a very remarkable one. Starting out in life a poor boy, with absolutely no backing and no special training, he has steadily advanced until today he is one of the wealthy and influential men of his native state. His wonderful advancement but proves the contention often made that any- thing is possible in this country to the intelli- gent and industrious youth, and his example ought to stimulate others to renewed efforts.
Mr. Yarbrough married Miss Glenn Halsell, of Decatur, Texas, and they have two chil- dren, Dan Waggoner and Josephine. Mr. Yar- brough belongs to the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club. He is a direc- tor in the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and in fraternal circles is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias.
HARRY J. MORLANG is one of the alert and representative young business men of the City of Fort Worth, where he maintains his official headquarters as manager of the North Texas district of the Oil Well .Supply Company, the home offices of which corporation are estab- lished in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Morlang was born at Parkersburg, West Virginia, on November 9, 1877, and is a son of George and Meta (Pahl) Morlang. The early educational discipline of Mr. Mor- lang was obtained in the public schools of his native city, and after having attended the high school he initiated his business career by tak- ing the position of rate clerk in the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In 1898 he assumed a clerical position in the offices of the Oil Well Supply Company, of Parkers- burg, West Virginia, and his efficiency led to his promotion to the management of a store conducted by this company at Weston, West Virginia. He proved his initiative and execu- tive powers in such a way that he was ad- vanced by the company to the responsible office of district manager, in which capacity he has served at Fort Worth since May, 1918. He has been resourceful in the developing of the large and substantial business of the com-
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pany in his assigned territory, and under his management is retained a corps of about one hundred employes.
Mr. Morlang has gained secure place in popular esteem in both business and social circles since establishing his home in Fort Worth, and here he is identified with the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club and the Fort Worth Lodge of the Benevelont and Protective Order of Elks, besides which he is prominently affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the thirty- second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, with membership also in the Mystic Shrine.
The year 1906 recorded the marriage of Mr. Morlang to Miss Amy Catherine Ross, daughter of George Ross, of Weston, West Virginia, and they are popular factors in the social activities of their home city. Mr. Mor- lang takes loyal interest in the civic and mate- rial well being and advancement of Fort Worth, and is not only an active member but also has served as a director of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.
HON. ROBERT LEE CARLOCK. Fort Worth was a city of about ten thousand population when R. L. Carlock arrived and opened his law office, and continuously for thirty-seven years his abilities have adorned the local bar. He is now gradually retiring from the re- sponsibilities of a long professional career, being succeeded by his son, Capt. R. L. Carlock, Jr.
Mr. Carlock, who is representing the Fort Worth district in the State Senate, was born in McMinn County, Tennessee, February 5, 1863, son of James C. and Elizabeth M. (Hoyl) Carlock. His father was born in Ten- nessee and his mother in North Carolina. James C. Carlock, who died at the age of sixty-eight, was one of Tennessee's prominent citizens, a farmer, merchant, a sterling demo- crat and a man of great influence in his party over the state. At one time he served as a member of the Tennessee Legislature. The mother of Senator Carlock lived to the age of eighty-one. He was the youngest of a large family of fourteen children, being the seventh son, and of this large family eleven reached mature years and seven are still living.
Senator Carlock spent his boyhood in East- ern Tennessee and was liberally educated, graduating in law in 1882 from Cumberland University at Lebanon. He was only nineteen
when he graduated, was admitted to the bar the same year, and for about a year practiced at Athens, Tennessee. In 1883 he cast his lot with the vigorous young metropolis of Northwest Texas, and has always enjoyed a large practice and at the same time has been interested in community affairs and in poli- tics. He was elected and served one term as county attorney early in his career. In 1916 he was elected a member of the Lower House of the Legislature and in 1918 was elected without opposition for a four-year term as senator from the Thirtieth Senatorial District. He was in the Legislature and one of its in- fluential members throughout the period of the war. Senator Carlock has acquired some val- uable interests in Fort Worth real estate, and is also connected with some of the city's typi- cal business enterprises. He is an honored member of the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order.
In 1884 Mr. Carlock married Sallie L. Hen- derson, of Athens, Tennessee. His only liv- ing son is Capt. Robert L., Jr., who was born in Fort Worth in 1887, and graduated in law from the University of Texas in 1911. He began practice with his father but early in the war volunteered and was commissioned a captain of artillery, and served with the famous Thirty-sixth Division in France. He was overseas nearly a year, and since his re- turn has resumed his special work and is one of the highly successful younger members of the Fort Worth bar.
LUTHER BYRON COMER came to Fort Worth in the railroad service, June 6, 1894, was a prominent railway official for many years, later an active banker, and is one of the men of large affairs having their home and inter- ests centered at Fort Worth.
Mr. Comer was born in Henry County, Mis- souri, July 12, 1870, a son of John W. and Everett (Gillaspie) Comer. His parents were also natives of Missouri, and the family came to Texas in 1895. The father died in Okla- homa City and the mother in Fort Worth. Three of their five children reached mature years. A. O. Comer is still connected with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, and J. A. Comer is an oil operator and broker in Fort Worth.
Luther Byron Comer spent his early life in Missouri, had a high school education and at the age of fifteen entered the employ of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway as a yard
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clerk. He was promoted from time to time on the basis of efficiency, and when he came to Texas it was as general passenger agent and freight agent at Fort Worth for the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad. Later, when this railroad was incorporated in the Frisco system, he became vice president and general superintendent of the line. Mr. Comer re- signed in 1904 and for several years afterward was livestock agent for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas system at Fort Worth. In 1909 he assisted in organizing the Fort Worth State Bank, becoming its vice president, and in 1912 was elected president. On account of other business enterprises he resigned the pres- idency in 1919, but is now vice president and chairman of the board of directors of the bank. He has acquired some very extensive and valuable interests in the oil fields of Texas, and also in real estate.
Mr. Comer is a charter member of the Fort Worth Moslah Temple of the Mystic Shrine and is identified with several branches of Masonry. July 12, 1899, he married Mariola Boaz, daughter of W. J. and Mary Belle Boaz. Their one son, Everett Boaz, is now attending the Fort Worth schools.
R. ELLISON HARDING. Throughout the ex- istence of the Fort Worth National Bank as a successor of the old private bank of Major Van Zandt, the name Harding has been asso- ciated with its personnel and management. Such association with one of the oldest and strongest bulwarks of finance in Texas is a distinction and responsibility thoroughly appre- ciated by R. Ellison Harding, now one of the vice presidents of the bank and who was born only a few months before his father came to Fort Worth and assisted in the organiza- tion of the institution.
Mr. Harding was born at Paris, Henry County, Tennessee, March 7, 1883. His father was the late Noah Harding, who married Celia Matthewson, both native Kentuckians. On coming to Texas in 1883 Noah Harding be- came associated with Major Van Zandt and others in establishing the Fort Worth National Bank, took the post of cashier of the institu- tion, and served in that capacity and as vice- president until his death more than thirty years later, in 1914. Outside of banking he was a man of prominence in the upbuilding of his home city.
R. Ellison Harding, the only survivor of three children, was nine months old when brought to Fort Worth, grew up in the city
and finished his education in the University of Texas. In 1908, at the age of twenty-five, he became officially identified with the Fort Worth National Bank as assistant cashier. In 1914, at the death of his father, he was elected a vice president.
Mr. Harding is actively concerned with the management of several of Fort Worth's lead- ing enterprises, being a director of the Fort Worth Life Insurance Company, treasurer and director of the Acme Brick Company, treasurer and director of the Fort Worth Gas Company, a director of the Fort Worth Power & Light Company, treasurer and director of the John Quarles Lumber Company, a direc- tor of the Citizens Hotel Company, a director of the North Texas Trust Company and director of the First State Bank of Keller, Texas.
His name is also associated with the cause of good citizenship. He is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Young Women's Christian Association of Fort Worth, is a member of the Fort Worth Club, River Crest Country Club, Meadowmere Club, Rotary Club, and is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner, and an Elk.
In January, 1911, Mr. Harding married Miss Annie Merle Reynolds, daughter of W. D. and Susie (Matthews) Reynolds, of Fort Worth. They have two children, Robert E., Jr., born in 1912, and Sue, born in 1916. Mr. Harding is a member of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church.
GEORGE HENRY CLIFFORD. With that pecu- liarly twentieth century phase of modern transportation, electric interurban lines, George Henry Clifford, of Fort Worth, has been identified practically from the beginning of such development around this city, and while he entered the offices of the original company as a stenographer, he has for several years past had the chief responsibilities of manage- ment of several of the big public utilities of Fort Worth and has been active in promoting extensions of the service.
Mr. Clifford was born at Crowley in Tar- rant County April 30, 1881, a son of George and Elizabeth (Birdwell) Clifford. His par- ents were also natives of Texas. Mr. Clifford was well educated in public schools and in the college at Weatherford, and a business col- lege gave him a knowledge of stenography. In 1901, as a stenographer, he entered the offices of the Northern Texas Traction Company. He became interested in the subject of electric
A. H. Gifford,
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transportation, studied the technical and busi- ness side of the problems involved, and rapidly rose from one position to another in the company until he became its secretary and treasurer, later general superintendent, and is now vice president and general manager of the Northern Texas Traction Company, in addition being manager of the Tarrant County Traction Company. Every phase of the mod- ern commercial development of Fort Worth as affected by electric transportation owes something to Mr. Clifford's expert knowledge and public spirited co-operation. Among other things he has done he promoted and built the Fort Worth-Cleburne interurban line. Few men in so short a period of years have risen so high in electric transportation circles. His prestige is indicated by the office he held in 1920 as president of the Southwestern Elec- tric and Gas Association.
Mr. Clifford is also a former president of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and has acquired many interests in the business and industrial affairs of his home city. He is a director of the F & M National Bank and also has real estate and ranch lands.
Mr. Clifford is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club, and Glen Garden Club, is a Knight of Pythias, an Elk and a democratic voter. In 1905 he married Mrs. George Thorne.
ELMO SLEDD is consistently to be designated one of the representative figures in the finan- cial circles of the city of Fort Worth, where he is a vice president of the Fort Worth Na- tional Bank, an institution with which he has been associated since 1887 and in which his advancement to his present office has been won through effective executive service in various capacities. Mr. Sledd was born at Murray, Kentucky, on the 2d of April, 1868, and is a son of J. Z. and Florence (Churchill) Sledd, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky, and both members of rep- resentative old southern families. J. Z. Sledd was about seventy years of age at the time of his death, and his wife passed away at the age of sixty-five years. Of their nine children five attained to years of maturity, the subject of this review having been the fifth in order of birth.
Elmo Sledd gained his youthful education in the schools of his native place, including the Murray Male and Female College, and as a youth became deputy clerk of Calloway County, Kentucky, of which his native town
is the judicial center. Thereafter he learned the trade of druggist, but to this he devoted his attention only a short time. In October, 1887, when nineteen years of age, Mr. Sledd came to Fort Worth and assumed a minor clerical position in the Fort Worth National Bank. Since that time he has filled every offi- cial position in this institution, with the sole exception of that of president, and this rec- ord stands as the most effective voucher for his special ability as an executive in the bank- ing business. He won promotion to the posi- tion of cashier, and since his retirement from this office he has held that of vice president. He has identified himself most fully and loy- ally with the civic and business life of Fort Worth, and only one other person, Major Van Zandt, has been continuously associated with the Fort Worth National Bank for an equal period-thirty-three years. Mr. Sledd has been a resourceful factor in connection with the development of the business of this great financial institution, which now bases its oper- ations upon a capital stock of $600,000, and the surplus of which is in excess of a million dollars, the while the undivided profits aggre- gate $600,000. Mr. Sledd holds membership in the Fort Worth Club, is prominently affili- ated with the local organizations of the Masonic fraternity, including the Mystic Shrine, and holds membership also in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Woodmen of the World, while both he and his wife are active members of the Christian Church in their home city.
In the year 1890 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Sledd to Miss Lyde Graham, daughter of John Graham, a representative citizen of Seymour, Texas. The one child of this union is Florence Churchill, who is the wife of Sanford C. Webb, of Fort Worth.
JOSEPH GREEN WILKINSON. To be presi- dent of more than a score of Texas banks is a distinction enjoyed by few financiers in the southwest. Moreover Joseph G. Wilkinson is founder and active head of one of the large metropolitan banks in Fort Worth, the Conti- nental Bank and Trust Company. He has a genius as a financier and banker, and had been interested in a dozen or so banking institutions in Tennessee before he came to Texas. He has risen to power and prestige as a financier from a beginning as a country boy with no capital except what he could earn by his labors in the fields.
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Mr. Wilkinson was born in Coffee County, Tennessee, February 5, 1857, son of Isaac M. and Mary L. (Willis) Wilkinson. His father and mother were born in the same county and reared five children there, Joseph G. being the youngest.
His early life was spent on a farm, with at- tendance at the local schools, and he also had an ambition for a college education, partly sat- isfied at the Carrick Academy at Winchester, Tennessee. On account of the illness of his father he had to give up his college course at the age of eighteen, and took his place on the farm, worked in the fields industriously for seven years, and by the strictest kind of econ- omy managed to save seven hundred dollars. He also read law for about eight months, but his knowledge of the law has been used only to help him in business. When he left the farm he invested his capital of seven hundred dollars in the mercantile business at Manches- ter. He handled his stock of goods in a way to secure a steady patronage and a growing friendship and prominence in the community, and he was soon branching out to invest in town property, and in a few years was able to satisfy a sentimental ambition of his boy- hood to buy a certain farm in the community as soon as his resources made that possible.
It was at Manchester, Tennessee, that Mr. Wilkinson began banking, establishing a bank in February, 1890. At the end of the first year with another associate he bought out the only other banking institution in the town. He merged this with his bank, and from the con- solidation formed the Coffee County Bank, and managed this institution so successfully that he was able to reach out and make finan- cial connections with other localities. Mr. Wilkinson established eight other banks in Tennessee, northern Alabama and Mississippi, and some of these institutions he controlled at the time of the panic of 1893, and went through that period of depression with unim- paired resources and with added prestige as a banker.
Mr. Wilkinson, disposing of some of his interests in Tennessee and other states, came to Fort Worth in 1903, soon after the city had became known as a packing center, and on the 20th of April of that year organized and estab- lished the Continental Bank and Trust Com- pany. He has been president of the company since the beginning, and the bank now has a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars. The original cashier was A. M. Young and the present cashier is E. M. Perkins. During the
seventeen years of his residence in Texas Mr. Wilkinson has organized thirty-five country banks, with capital stock ranging from ten thousand dollars to a hundred thousand dol- lars, and upon organization became president of each. He is still officially identified as pres- ident with twenty-five banks in the state.
May 18, 1886, when he was a young mer- chant at Manchester, Tennessee, Mr. Wilkin- son married Dessie F. Strickler. They have one son, H. H. Wilkinson, now vice president of the Continental Bank & Trust Company of Fort Worth. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson are active members of the Church of Christ.
SIDNEY L. SAMUELS is a native of Fort Worth who by the application of his natural talents has achieved many distinctions as a lawyer, and in his profession has again and again rendered services of distinctive value to his home city and state.
Mr. Samuels is a son of Jacob S. and Bertha (Wadel) Samuels, both native Americans. His father came from Louisiana at the age of fourteen to North Texas in 1857, and was long identified with the pioneer community of Fort Worth. During the war between the states he served as a Confederate soldier under Gen- eral Tom Green.
Sidney L. Samuels acquired his early educa- tion in Fort Worth schools, and was gradu- ated in law at the University of Texas. He opened his law office in his native city in 1895 and his work as a lawyer has covered a quarter of a century. Out of the large volume of his private practice there have been many cases of great public interest and importance. He was counsel for the city in a suit in the United States District Court involving title to thirty thousand acres of land in Crain County, in connection with the Baldridge Bank failure. The individual creditors of the Baldridge sought to impound this property. He was also special counsel for Fort Worth perfecting the interests involved in the failure of the Fort Worth Savings Bank & Trust Company, which was the depository of city funds at the time of its failure. Another important service was rendered when he was retained as special counsel for Tarrant County at the time of the issue of its bridge bonds, and his resourceful- ness was an important factor in upholding that issue and enabling the county to embark upon its important program for the construction of modern highways. Mr. Samuels is now re- tained as special counsel for the city in some
Johan & Efead.
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pending litigation in the State and Federal courts.
For nearly two years Mr. Samuels devoted nearly all his abilities' to the service of the Government while at war. He was chairman of the District Exemption Board for the Northern District of Texas. This was the largest district in the United States, embrac- ing one-half of the State, and he discharged his duties in a way to justify the commenda- tions upon his work from Army and Federal authorities. It is well known to public men at Washington that Mr. Samuels was pressed to take the position of Minister to Copen- hagen during a period of the Great World war.
Mr. Samuels is senior member of the law firm of Samuels & Brown. He is an eloquent orator and widely known for his oratorical gifts. At one time he was appointed alumni orator for the University of Texas.
CHARLES WILLIAM HEAD was educated as a lawyer, but from the time he came to Fort Worth fourteen years ago has given all his time and exceptional qualifications to the in- surance business, and is now senior partner of Head, Teas & Company, operating one of the largest general insurance agencies in the state.
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Mr. Head was born at Paris, Tennessee, August 4, 1884, son of John J. and Sarah E. (Boggs) Head. His parents were native Kentuckians and of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Charles William Head is the youngest of five sons by his father's second marriage. His boy- hood days were spent in Tennessee and he acquired his literary education in South Ken- tucky College at Hopkinsville. While there he acted as commander of the military organi- zation of the college, and for a time was also a member of the faculty of instruction. He later entered the law school of Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1906. He was admitted to the Tennessee bar, but has never formally prac- ticed, though his legal education has been in- valuable to him in the insurance business.
Coming to Fort Worth in 1906, Mr. Head was for a time a real estate operator and since 1907 has been in insurance, beginning as a local agent and during the past ten years has built up his general agency to rank among the first in the state.
He is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club, is a Scottish Rite and a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner and is affiliated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fraternity. In 1909 he mar- ried Miss Hazel Walker, daughter of Fort Worth's distinguished surgeon, Dr. A. C. Walker. They have two sons, Clark Walker and John Davis Head.
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