USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 14
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He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has been twice married, and has two daughters, Miss Lena Faye and Bailey Ray.
WV. T. WAGGONER. One of the very largest of Texas skyscrapers is the W. T. Waggoner Building of Fort Worth. It is a distinctive monument to the wealth and enterprise of a man whose name has been synonymous with the ranching industry and banking in North- west Texas for the past forty years. Mr. Waggoner practically grew up in the cattle do- main of Northwest Texas, and first became prominent as a banker in the Panhandle city of Vernon.
Mr. Waggoner is a native Texan, born in Hopkins County August 31, 1852. He was the only son of Dan and Nancy ( Moore) Wag- goner, his mother being a native Texan, while his father was born in Tennessee. Dan Wag- goner came to Texas during the fifties, and for many years was a cattleman of prominence, with home at Decatur in Wise County. He died at Colorado Springs at the age of seventy- four, but was buried in Decatur.
WV. T. Waggoner from the age of six years was reared on his father's ranch near Decatur, and he grew up in an environment calculated to bring out his peculiar talents and qualifica- tions as a successful stockman. He was asso- ciated with his father as long as he lived in the firm of Dan Waggoner & Son. Mr. Wag- goner began extending his livestock enterprise into the Panhandle district as early as 1873, and he achieved the bulk of his wealth by the steady accumulation of land and stock and against the many adversities that beset the old time Texas cattle man. He gained wealth without the envy of his less fortunate fellow- men, and all the way from Fort Worth to the farthest limits of the Panhandle are men in comparatively humble circumstances who re- call his acts of kindness and good faith and his sterling integrity in all of life's busy relations. Mr. Waggoner in 1899 became one of the or-
ganizers of the Waggoner National Bank at Vernon, and the following year became presi- dent of that institution. On removing to Fort Worth about five years later he became presi- dent of the Waggoner Bank and Trust Com- pany. This bank was subsequently consoli- dated with the First National Bank of Fort Worth, of which he is still a director. He has his offices in the magnificent and lofty Wag- goner Building, which was completed in 1919. Mr. Waggoner still regards himself funda- mentally as a rancher, and has the active direc- tion of extensive interests in that line. He and his children own approximately six hundred thousand acres of land in Texas. He gave each of his children a hundred thousand acres. This land lies in Wichita, Wilbarger, Bailey, Ford and Knox counties.
In 1877 he married Ella Halsell. Their three children are Electra, wife of A. B. Wharton, and Guy and Paul, both of Fort Worth.
CHARLES A. WHEELER, president of the Acme Laundry Company, which owns and operates one of the leading laundries of the city of Fort Worth, the establishment and service of the same being of the best metro- politan standard, claims the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. He was born in the city of Mansfield, Ohio, on the 28th of March, 1874, and is a son of William B. and Aurelia (Latimer) Wheeler. William B. Wheeler was born and reared in the state of New York, established his residence in Ohio in the year 1867, and there became promi- nently associated with the lumber business, in which he maintained alliance with Hon. John Sherman, who became one of the distinguished men of Ohio. He was active in support of the Union during the period of the Civil war, and after its close he continued his residence in Ohio until 1876, when he came with his fam- ily to Texas and established his residence at Sherman, judicial center of Grayson County. In May, 1880, he removed with his family to Fort Worth, where for a time he was identi- fied with the telephone business. About the year 1885 he established and equipped the Fort Worth Laundry, and he was otherwise active in connection with the civic and busi- ness advancement of Fort Worth in the earlier period of its history. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife were originally members of the Presbyterian Church, from which they transferred their membership to the Congregational Church.
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Mr. Wheeler was one of the venerable and highly honored citizens of Fort Worth at the time of his death, at the age of seventy-six years, and his wife passed away at the age of seventy-five years. Of their two children the younger son died in infancy.
Charles A. Wheeler was a lad of about six years at the time of the family removal to Fort Worth, and here he was reared to man- hood, his educational advantages having been those of the public schools. When fifteen years of age he began work in his father's laundry, and he thus continued until he was seventeen years old. Thereafter he was for a short time employed in a local ice factory, and he then went to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he completed a course in the celebrated Eastman Business College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1891. Upon his return to Fort Worth he became associated with the Artesian Ice Company, and he was connected also with the Fort Worth Coal Company and the Fort Worth Laundry. In 1896 he purchased the Fort Worth Laundry, but in 1898 he sold the plant and business. In the following year he pur- chased the Acme Laundry, and of the com- pany which operates this large and well equipped laundry establishment he has since been the president and general manager. He is a member of the directorate of the Fort Worth National Bank and is a director of the Employers Indemnity Association, which maintains headquarters in Kansas City, Mis- souri. Mr. Wheeler has achieved distinctive success and prestige in his business career at Fort Worth, and is known as a progressive and public-spirited citizen who takes deep in- terest in all things touching the well-being of his home city. In 1912-13 he was president of the National Laundry Owners' Association, of which he continues a popular and prominent member. He was vigorous in support of the various local war activities during the nation's participation in the World war, and was lib- eral in support of the various Governmental loans. He has received the thirty-second de- gree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and is a member of the Mys- tic Shrine, and is also a member of the Benev- olent and · Protective Order of Elks, and is identified actively with the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club.
The year 1894 recorded the marriage of Mr. Wheeler to Miss Marian Alberta Bridgess, who was born and reared in Fort Worth, a daughter of Albert A. and Martha (Utley)
Bridgess. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have two sons, William Brown and Charles A., Jr.
THOMAS B. VAN TUYL. The first Texas experiences of Mr. Van Tuyl were acquired in the great cattle range of West Texas before a single line of railroad traversed that im- mense region from Fort Worth to El Paso. He was a rancher, then became identified with banking, and has been a man of growing pres- tige in financial and business circles at Fort Worth for many years, where he is manager of the Tillar estate.
Mr. Van Tuyl was born at Brooklyn, New York, November 13, 1861, a son of Andrew and Kate (Clifton) Van Tuyl. His father was also a native of New York City, and lived there until about fifty years of age, when he came to Texas and established a home on a ranch near Abilene. Kate Clifton was born in England, where her parents died when she was a child, and she was brought to New York by her guardian. Thomas B. Van Tuyl is the fourth in a family of five children, four of whom reached mature years. He was reared and educated in Brooklyn, and was about seventeen years of age when he came to Texas in 1878. Going to the frontier in Taylor County, his work in that section for eight or nine years was as a sheep rancher. In 1887 he became connected with a bank at Colorado City, and in 1906 came to Fort Worth to take the post of assistant cashier of the old American National Bank. He was with that banking house for five years, and during that time became closely associated with the vice president of the bank, B. J. Til- lar. Mr. Tillar's father, J. T. W. Tillar, died in 1908, leaving a great estate, valued at sev- eral million dollars, to his son as trustee and manager. B. J. Tillar in 1911 appointed Mr. Van Tuyl as business manager of this estate, and for these responsibilities his long financial training and exacting standards of business integrity amply qualify him. Mr. Van Tuyl has a number of other business interests in Fort Worth and is a director in several cor- porations.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Wood- men of the World and is a member of the Bap- tist Church. In 1892 he married Ella Jolly, of Colorado City, Texas. Their four children are, Thomas B., Jr., Andrew J., Elizabeth and Laura. Mr. Van Tuyl is independent in poli- tics, but takes a keen interest in the public affairs of his home city.
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ROBERT R. DARRAH has considered Texas his home state for thirty years or more, and during the greater part of his time has been agent or sales manager for several oil cor- porations. He is now manager of the North- western division of the Magnolia Petroleum Company.
Mr. Darrah was born in Belmont County, Ohio, October 8, 1862. His father's grand- father and also his mother's grandfather were born in Scotland and moved to Ireland. Grandfather Alexander Darrah was born in Ireland and came to this country and estab- lished a home in Belmont County, Ohio. Mr. Darrah's father, David Darrah, was born in Belmont County, Ohio, and married a Miss Wiley, a native of the same county. Her father was born in Ireland. Robert R. Dar- rah was fourth in a family of seven children, all of whom reached mature years except one twin boy. He grew up in Belmont County, which is a peculiarly industrial district of eastern Ohio. He was only ten years of age when his mother died, and after getting a common school education he worked about four years in a glass factory. In April, 1881, he started west, going out to California, and in September, 1882, first saw Fort Worth, then a typical cattle town. In the spring of 1883 he removed to Abilene, Texas, and while there cast his first vote. In the fall of 1883 he established a home in Runnels County, West Texas, and worked at the carpenter's trade for a year or so. In October, 1885, he returned to his home in Ohio, accompanying a train load of cattle as far as Chicago.
Mr. Darrah returned to Fort Worth Janu- ary 6, 1886, and for a number of years was successfully engaged in the transfer and stor- age business. He sold this business in 1898 and joined the Lone Star Oil Company as its agent. Subsequently he was for three years a salesman for the Waters-Pierce Oil Com- pany, but about 1910 he resigned to engage in the real estate business. He has been asso- ciated with the Magnolia Petroleum Company since August, 1912, and in January, 1914, was made sales manager of the Northwest Divi-
sion, with headquarters at Fort Worth. Mr. Darrah has acquired other business inter- ests in the city and has taken an active part in its affairs for many years. He is a past president of the Fort Worth Rotary Club and for thirty-one years has been connected with the Knights of Pythias, filling all the chairs and serving as a member of the Grand Lodge. He was instrumental in the building .of the
splendid Knights of Pythias Club at Fort Worth. In 1920 was completed the Mag- nolia Petroleum Company's filling station and office building at Fort Worth, one of the largest and most complete stations of the kind in Texas. It cost over a hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars.
Mr. Darrah by his second marriage has two children, Willie May, wife of R. B. Hodges, of Fort Worth; and Elizabeth. Mr. Darrah is a member of the Presbyterian Church and Mrs. Darrah is very active in the Christian Church, being president of the Ladies' Aid Society.
H. J. ADAMS has lived in Fort Worth con- tinuously for forty years, since early boyhood, served an apprenticeship in business in this city as clerk for a leading grocery house, but for a number of years past has been a member and is now president of that notable mer- cantile organization the Sandegard Grocery Company.
Mr. Adams was born in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, December 21, 1875, son of Captain Joe M. and Sannie (Offutt) Adams. His father was born in Scott County, Ken- tucky, served as captain of a company in the Confederate army with the Eighteenth Mis- sissippi Regiment, became a lawyer by profes- .sion, and practiced for many years in Ken- tucky. In 1881 he removed with his family to Fort Worth, and was a retired lawyer for a number of years before his death. His wife also died in Fort Worth, and of their five chil- dren four reached mature years.
The fourth in age among the children, H. J. Adams was five years of age when brought to Fort Worth, was educated in the public schools, and later returned to Kentucky and was a student in Bethel College at Russellville. His first training in the grocery business was received with the firm of Turner & Dingee, and he continued with that establishment in increasing responsibilities until he went into business for himself. In July, 1900, associated with A. and A. J. Sandegard, he effected a partnership, and they started out on a modest scale with one small store. In 1912 the Sande- gard Grocery Company was incorporated, and since then Mr. Adams has been president of the company, A. J. Sandegard, vice president, and A. Sandegard, secretary and treasurer. The business has grown greatly in volume, the aggregate of transactions running up into mil- lions every year, and a chain of seventeen com- plete and high class stores are operated in the
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city of Fort Worth, involving the service of about seventy-five people.
Mr. Adams as a successful Fort Worth busi -- ness man is an influential member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a charter member and has served as a director of the Fort Worth Rotary Club and one of its first presidents, and also assisted in the organization of the Fort Worth Merchants' Association and the Retail Merchants' Association of Texas, serv- ing both in an official capacity. He is a mem- ber of the Glen Garden Country Club and is vice president of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church. In 1898 Mr. Adams married Florence Orndorff, of Russellville, Kentucky. They have two daughters, Lucy Harding and Mary Orndorff Adams.
WILL L. SARGENT. In the development of the land and other material resources of Western Texas, particularly along the routes of the Texas & Pacific, the I. & G. N. and the Texas Midland railroads, probably no other one man deserves more credit and has exer- cised more real influence than Will L. Sar- gent, who was immigration, industrial and publicity agent of these lines at various times being last with the Texas & Pacific Railroad, covering the entire system with headquarters at Fort Worth, thus making him one of the popular and esteemed citizens of the Panther city.
Mr. Sargent was born August 8, 1859, on the old homestead plantation at the head of navigation on the Tombigbee River in Fulton County, Mississippi, at Cotton Gin. His par- ents were Capt. James L. and Melisa A. (Cray- ton) Sargent, of old southern families. The mother died in 1862, during the progress of the Civil war. Capt. James L. Sargent after the war married Mary Harris, of Lee County, Mississippi, and he spent his last days at Caddo, Oklahoma.
Will L. Sargent grew up on the Mississippi plantation and acquired a common school edu- cation. He has lived in Texas since 1879, when he located in Colorado County. He moved out to the Texas plains a few years later and became prominent in Stonewall County, where he had an active part in pro- moting settlement and development in that sparsely settled region, and was also elected county and district clerk. He was editor and publisher of the Lasso at Raynor in Stonewall County, and either as owner or editor was connected with Texas journalism about fifteen
years. He was editor and publisher of the Terrell Times-Star, and made that one of the leading papers in that section of Texas, suc- ceeding ex-Governor O. B. Colquitt-the two were great friends. In 1893, while living in Nevarro County, he was elected sergeant-at- arms of the Lower House of the State Legis- lature, and served during the Twenty-third Assembly, refusing a second term.
After giving up newspaper work Mr. Sar- gent went into the land business, with head- quarters at Terrell. He had the knowledge, enthusiasm and resourcefulness that admira- bly equipped him for land colonization and development work. For a time he was Texas immigration agent for the Frisco Railroad and also the Texas Midland, and officials of those roads said that he was personally the means of securing a larger number of settlers and investors than any one man in the state.
He was with the immigration department of the Texas & Pacific from 1905 to 1912, and has had his headquarters at Fort Worth since 1906. He represented the general immigra- tion bureau of the Gould system of railroads, which was organized January 1, 1909. Mr. Sargent is a real authority on the resources of Texas, particularly those in the great west- ern and Southwestern sections of the state. As a trained newspaper man he has through contributions to newspapers and magazines done much to bring the resources of that part of the state to the knowledge of an extended public.
Under appointment from former Governor Campbell Mr. Sargent was a delegate and specially represented the governor and com- missioner of Agriculture at the Seventeenth National Irrigation Congress at Spokane, Washington, in August, 1909. By appoint- ment from the Thirty-first Legislature he be- came a member of the executive committee for conservation and reclamation service pro- vided by Legislature. His service has been particularly efficient in securing co-operation among railroads, local commercial clubs and associations and the farmers in promoting the interests of Western Texas. He has arranged numerous permanent and temporary exhibits of Texas resources and products out of as well as in the state, and through that means alone brought to the state hundreds of de- sirable settlers and large investments of capitai and industries. Mr. Sargent is credited with having done more for irrigation in West Texas than any other individual. This work has brought the greatest results in the lower Pecos
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Valley, and he was the first to give publicity to the resources of the Toyah Valley in that section and assisted in establishing the first irrigation system there. He interested the capital that built the Pecos Valley road from Pecos to Balmorhea.
Mr. Sargent for four years was a large contributor to and editor of the great Texas and Pacific Quarterly, served as Texas corre- spondent of the National Irrigation Journal of Chicago, is a former vice president of the Texas Press Association, has been president of the Texas Real Estate and Industrial Asso- ciation, and was honorary vice president from Texas of the Eighteenth National Irrigation Congress and member of the executive com- mittee of the Texas Conservation Association. For five years he was private secretary to R. C. De Graffinreid, known as the "Black Eagle of the Piney Woods," during his serv- ice in Congress. Mr. Sargent has been tempo- rary and permanent secretary of more state democratic conventions than any Texan, and had he desired or consented, politics would long ago have made him a prominent figure in the state. He was a close personal friend of the late Governor Hogg, and had an active part in the campaigns in that period of Texas politics.
Mr. Sargent married in 1891 Miss Ruby V. Kennon, who was born and reared in Lowndes County, Mississippi, where her father, Dr. William Kennon, was a prominent physician and surgeon. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent enjoyed an ideal married companionship. For the last six years of her life Mrs. Sargent was practically an invalid. She passed away April 22, 1908. She was survived by four children, Mary, Bessie, Winifred and William. Mr. Sargent in October, 1911, married Miss Eva Lee Castlen, of one of the old and best families of Owensboro, Kentucky.
C. H. WINGROVE is a native Texan, for a number of years was a commercial traveler, and is now active head of the leading mer- chandise and brokerage firm of Fort Worth, the Wingrove-Austin Company.
Mr. Wingrove was born at Denison, Texas, September 19, 1877, son of H. C. and Anna Mary (Carroll) Wingrove. His parents were born in Pennsylvania of Dutch ancestry and came to Texas from Missouri in 1876, locat- ing at Denison. Charles H. was the third in their family of five children, three of whom reached mature years.
He spent his boyhood and early youth at Denison, graduated from the high school there, and also attended the University of Texas. For a number of years he traveled as a com- mercial salesman, but in 1909 established his permanent home and headquarters at Fort Worth and entered the merchandise brokerage business. The firm has offices in the Moore Building. Mr. Wingrove is interested in sev- eral other business concerns in Texas.
He has always endeavored to exercise the full duties of citizenship. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and one of its directors, is a member of the Fort Worth Club, Rotary Club, a director of the Glen Garden Country Club and a director and one of the very active members of the Welfare Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Council and Knight Templar Commandery of the Masonic Order, also with the Mystic Shrine, and is a member of the United Commercial Travelers and the Travelers Protective Association.
Mr. Wingrove married Nan Byrd Wallett in 1900. She also lived in Denison, Texas. They have one son, Charles Henry, Jr.
ROBERT M. ROWLAND is a prominent Fort Worth lawyer who has always been satisfied with the mature achievements of his profes- sion rather than the honors of politics.
He is a native of Tarrant County, Texas, born January 19, 1872. His father, W. H. Rowland, was a native of Tennessee, and as a child came to Texas with the family prior to the Civil war. He served as a Confederate soldier. W. H. Rowland married Martha Fowler, who came to Texas from Missouri with her father, Meredith Fowler. The Row- land family traces its origin back to the Nor- man French. In the family of W. H. Row- land and wife were the following children : Charles, William, James, Benjamin, Ruth, and Bernice, wife of Dr. Bradley Davis of West Columbia, Texas.
Robert M. Rowland was second in age, and spent his boyhood near Azle in the northwest part of Tarrant County, where he attended district school. He finished his literary edu- cation in Baylor University at Waco and began the study of law under Judge N. A. Stedman of Fort Worth. He was admitted to the Fort Worth bar in August, 1894, and in October of the same year opened his office. For about two years he was associated in partnership with S. C. Massengale. Mr. Row- land in May, 1896, moved to Ladonia, Texas,
Robt. M. Rowland
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and enjoyed a pleasant and profitable pro- fessional career there until May, 1905, when he returned to Fort Worth and for the past fif- teen years has handled an important individual share of the general practice and the legal business centered at Fort Worth. For one year, in 1910, he was assistant attorney gen- eral at Austin, resigning at the end of the year to resume his practice at Fort Worth.
He is a member of the Fort Worth Club, River Crest Country Club and Knights of Pythias and of the Magnolia Avenue Chris- tian Church. In 1895 he married Miss Kath- erine Myers, of Fort Worth, who is a native of Tennessee. They have four children : Irene, wife of Gerald B. Whitney, living in Canada ; Catherine, wife of L. Paul Bryant, an attorney living at New Orleans ; Maud and Mary Elizabeth, both at home.
PATRICK H. EDWARDS. In some men the business sense is remarkably developed, and through it they reach an eminence not attained by those who try to control affairs for which they have no aptitude. It is now generally recognized that no one reaches to an unusual measure of success who goes against his natural inclinations, for when competition is so strenuous men need to have every advan- tage in order to meet and overcome the obsta- cles which are bound to arise, and profit by legitimate business chances. Especially is this true in a city like Fort Worth, where, although the field of operation is broad, the rivalry is intense and the man who distances others must keep on a constant strain in order to win the race of life. In no branch of activity are these facts more clearly proven than that which deals with insurance, and one of the men engaged in it who has, with profit to himself and advantage to his customers, found a congenial work, is Patrick H. Edwards.
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