USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 17
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May 4, 1909, the first services were held in the new church, in the presence of the Rt. Rev. Bishop, the local clergy and many of the faithful from the entire city. Father Park of- fered the first mass, assisted by Rev. James MacRoberts, C. M., and Rev. Patrick J. O'Beirne. The opening sermon was preached by Father MacRoberts. During the last ten years St. Mary's has received over 400 con- verts, reflecting a marked spiritual growth that has been characteristic of the church from its establishment. Father Park has shown rare ability in bringing large numbers into the church, a work that meant time and patience, though the reward of seeing misguided souls safe upon the path of salvation was well worth the while. And as a crown to all his works in Fort Worth, he is now erecting a business col- lege wherein any and all poor young boys and young men, without any cost whatever, will be educated for business life, receiving a train- ing that will fit them to measure up to the standards of commercial and civil life. This institution was opened September 12, 1921.
BONNIE C. WORKMAN is a specialist in ex- perience and skill in all branches of electrical contracting, and under his personal manage- ment has built up a large and prosperous wholesale, retail and contracting electrical business at Wichita Falls for the Nunn Elec- trical Company, of which he is manager.
Mr. Workman was born at Scurry in Kauf- man County, Texas, thirty odd years ago, a son of J. J. and Agnes ( Johnson ) Workman. His parents still live at Scurry, where the son was reared and educated. Through inclination he took up the electrical business. He first joined the Nunn Electrical Company at Ama- rillo. In November, 1917, this company chose him as its representative to establish a branch house at Wichita Falls. The beginning was made with a small plant and retail store. Through Mr. Workman's enterprise, energy and intelligent management the concern has grown to large and important proportions. The company does all kinds of electrical con- tracting, installation and equipment, and car- ries one of the largest stocks in Texas as wholesale and retail dealers in electrical goods and equipment. The quarters occupied by the company have been enlarged several times to meet the demands of its greatly expanding business. In August, 1920, Mr. Workman moved into the handsome and commodious Adams and Martin Building on Scott Street, near Tenth, a building especially arranged for
his purpose. Besides the wholesale and retail store there a warehouse and manufacturing plant are maintained on Pecan Street with floor space 50x125 feet.
Mr. Workman is active in all civic affairs, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is a representative of his line of business in the Rotary Club.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL EASLEY, who recently took up his duties as trust officer of the Wichita State Bank & Trust Company, achieved his early prominence as a banker at Waco, but his name will be recognized and chiefly recalled by many successful men on account of his long continued service as an educator with Add-Ran College at Thorp Springs and Waco.
Mr. Easley came to Texas in 1876, with his parents, William and Phoebe (Teter) Easley. Mr. Easley was born at Kirksville, Missouri, and his father was a native of Kentucky and his mother of Virginia. When the family came to Texas in 1876 they located at Thorp Springs in Hood County, and A. C. Easley grew up on a farm. After a common school education he found his opportunity and in- spiration for a higher education in the noted Add-Ran College, and worked and paid his way through that famous institution, which for years was one of the best schools in the state. After graduating in 1890 he continued as a member of the teaching staff, having taught in the college before his graduation. For seventeen years he was an instructor at Add-Ran. He received his Master's degree from the college in 1892, and while teaching he also spent two summers in post-graduate work at the University of Chicago. Mr. Eas- ley did much to extend the work of Add- Ran, and his abilities as a financier came into play as business and financial manager. He organized the business school of the college, conducting it for a number of years. When Add-Ran was removed to Waco in 1895 he went with the institution, both as teacher and business manager. It is with a proper degree of pride and satisfaction that Mr. Easley can recall his long and honorable connection with a school whose graduates for years have in- cluded some of the best citizens of Texas. Add-Ran College in 1903 was incorporated as the foundation of Texas Christian Uni- versity, and in 1910 the University was re- moved from Waco to Fort Worth.
Mr. Easley was for eight years paying teller and auditor of the Citizens National
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Bank of Waco. Just before coming to Wichita Falls he was for two years president of the Waco National Farm Loan Association, a branch of the Federal Land Bank of Houston. He came to Wichita Falls in January, 1920, to take the position of trust officer of the Wichita State Bank & Trust Company, of which W. R. Ferguson is president and Lester Jones, cashier.
Mr. Easley organized and was captain of the first football team of Add-Ran, which was probably the first team to play the modern style of football game in Texas. He was also organizer of the Military Department of the school, for many years was a member of the National Guard of Texas, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He is a member of the Christian Church.
A. C. Easley and Miss Claudia Miller were married after they graduated from Add- Ran College, both being members of the same class. Mrs. Easley is a native of Texas and was also a teacher in Add-Ran. Mr. Easley has three sons, all of whom were soldiers dur- ing the World war. His two daughters are Misses Annie May and Maybelle Easley. First Lieutenant Claude Easley was in the National Guard several years, and before the war with Germany began had joined the Regular Army. He is now a member of the Thirty-Seventh Infantry, and was with the regiment on the Mexican border during the World war and is now with his command at Fort Wayne, Detroit, Michigan. In the army he is noted as a rifleman. While in the National Guard he was in every state rifle team since he was seventeen. In 1920 he was a member of the Infantry Rifle Team of the United States Army and won the championship of the United States.
The second son, G. L. Easley, volunteered in the war with Germany, and went overseas with the Thirty-sixth Division, serving in France for eight months. K. H. Easley, the third soldier son, was a former National Guardsman, was on the Mexican border in 1916, and during the war with Germany was in the Students' Army Training Corps.
HORACE WALTER GREENWAY. One of the most important branches of the building trades is plumbing and heating, and in recent years the contracts for that essential feature of building construction in some of the great modern offices and other structures have fre- quently involved outlays running into hun- dreds of thousands of dollars. One of the
plumbing and heating engineers of the South- west who has the facilities for handling any of the largest contracts in building construc- tion is Horace Walter Greenway of Fort Worth, who has been a master plumber in that city for over fifteen years.
Mr. Greenway was born at Belleville, New Jersey, November 18, 1874, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Horner) Greenway. His par- ents were natives of England, his father of Birmingham and his mother of London. In 1871 they came to America, accompanied by their five children, and settled at Newark, New Jersey. Horace Walter Greenway was the ninth of their eleven children. In 1885, when he was eleven years of age, his parents moved to Hutchinson, Kansas. His father died in 1903, and his mother is now living at Fort Worth. Mr. Greenway completed his education in the schools of Kansas, and in 1891 went to St. Louis and began his appren- ticeship at the plumbing trade. He lived and worked at St. Louis for nine years and in 1900 came to Dallas, Texas, and four years later took up his home at Fort Worth. In 1906 he engaged in the plumbing business for himself and he has rapidly developed an or- ganization competent to handle every class of contract and has had business relations all over Texas and extending to Louisiana, Okla- homa, Arizona and Arkansas. He was the contractor for the plumbing and heating plants in nine of the ward school buildings at Fort Worth, for the County Jail, U. S. Helium Plant at Fort Worth, a great many of the private residences, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Stripling Department Store, the Fakes Furniture Store, and Mr. Greenway has the contract for the plumbing and heating installation in the new Winfield Hotel, to be the largest hotel in the state. Mr. Greenway supplied the plumbing for Captain Paddock's residence on Jennings Avenue. In recent years his business has required the assistance of a force of about twenty skilled mechanics, but during the building rush at the beginning of 1921 he had approximately a hundred and fifty men on his payroll.
In 1899 Mr. Greenway married Mounette Adams, daughter of Robert A. and Lettie (Camerene) Adams, of Boston, Massachu- setts. Mrs. Greenway was born at Boston in 1880, and that city was her home until her marriage. They have one son, Horace W., Jr. Mr. Greenway has considerable investments in oil and other properties in Texas. He is a
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member of the Elks Lodge at Fort Worth, is a Mason and is a member of the Kiwanis Club.
H. B. HINES. Long before Wichita County had any significance among the counties of Texas beyond that of an agricultural district H. B. Hines chose it as his field of action, and from an exceedingly modest beginning had a place as a leading merchant, banker and property owner several years before the great oil boom.
His interests have grown and kept pace with the remarkable development of the past decade, and his character and achievements are closely associated with the upbuilding of the city.
Mr. Hines was born at Atlanta in Cass County, Texas, June 7, 1872. In 1880, when he was eight years of age, his parents moved to Fannin County, and he grew up there in a country community, with such education as was supplied by local schools. Mr. Hines had determination and ambition even as a boy, and these qualities were first demonstrated when at the age of sixteen he went to West Point, Mississippi, the home of a very fine high school, and by working to pay his own way remained a student within its walls for three years. Then, returning to Fannin County, he clerked in a store, and in the spring of 1892 reached Wichita County.
Twenty dollars comprised his only capital, but with confidence in himself and assurance for the future he managed to stock a small building with groceries. This modest enter- prise as a merchant was at Iowa Park. His affairs prospered, and not long afterward he started a general store, at first the smallest of its kind in Iowa Park but eventually the largest. From Iowa Park he extended his interests to the little town of Kell, where he established a bank and a lumber yard.
Wichita Falls has been the center of his extensive operations as a business man since 1909. In that year Mr. Hines bought what became known as the Hines Building on Ohio street, at the corner of Seventh. This was the first modern office building in Wichita Falls and for many years the only one. Its offices were occupied by the town's leading professional men. In subsequent years Mr. Hines has supplied a large amount of capital and enterprise in further building up the city's commercial district, and for several years past it has been the popular judgment that he probably owns more business property
and parcels of real estate than any other man in the city.
An important enterprise directly associated with the development of the oil industry was the Wichita Valley Refinery at Iowa Park, of which he was one of the founders and owners. He and his associates built this plant with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, and after several years of successful operation sold it for approximately a million dollars. Mr. Hines has also been interested in the cotton gin and lumber business a number of years, most of these interests being centered at Iowa Park.
The history of petroleum oil in North Texas might properly mention Mr. Hines as a pioneer. He helped drill the first oil well in Wichita County, at a place now known as Burk Station, between Iowa Park and Elec- tra. He has been more or less identified with oil production ever since the Electra field was opened in 1911.
Mr. Hines is a pioneer city builder, and while still a resident of Iowa Park became a charter member of the Wichita Falls Cham- ber of Commerce, serving several years as a director, and supplying some of the important resources and plans which that body has evolved as a means of promoting the metro- politan life and affairs of Wichita Falls.
In the spring of 1920 Mr. Hines bought the beautiful Adams home at Highland Park, Dallas, in the most exclusive and beautiful residential section of the city and in close proximity to the Royal A. Ferris and other notably handsome residences there. Mr. Hines acquired this resident property chiefly to se- cure the benefits of Dallas' educational facili- ties for his children.
RHEA S. NIXON. Among the thirty or forty thousand new citizens attracted to Wich- ita Falls during the past four or five years one of the easily conspicuous ones, by reason of his personal abilities and his active associa- tions with capital, is Rhea S. Nixon, president of the American National Bank, which he founded.
Mr. Nixon did not leave his native state to come to Texas, since he was born and grew up in the southwest quarter of the Lone Star State, and learned banking as well as ranching in the district southwest of Antonio. He was born at Luling in Caldwell County, November 22, 1885, son of J. K. and Mary (Little) Nixon. His parents are still living. His father was born in Caldwell County, and
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at the early age of fifteen went into the Con- federate army and served as a courier on the staff of General Hardeman. J. K. Nixon was a brother of the pioneer citizen of Southwest Texas after whom the town of Nixon was named.
Rhea S. Nixon at the age of eight years accompanied the family to a ranch in Frio County, and he grew up in a country then and still devoted to the great livestock industry. He attended local schools, and acquired his first knowledge of banking when a boy as an employe of a bank at Moore. From there he removed to Pearsall and accepted what was perhaps the lowest position in the Pearsall National Bank. He had the making of a financier, the ability, the willingness to learn and the diligence, and in a few years was cashier-manager of the institution and con- ducting the affairs of the bank in such a way as to attract favorable comment from bankers elsewhere in the state. He also took an active part in public affairs, and served as deputy tax assessor of Frio County, and for four or five years was deputy sheriff under Sheriff J. J. Little, one of the most distinguished offi- cers of the law which Texas has ever had.
Mr. Nixon's prestige increased as a banker, and before leaving Southwest Texas, he owned a large amount of ranch property in the two counties of Frio and Atascosa. Then, in November, 1918, he came to Wichita Falls, and took a prominent part in the organization of the American National Bank, which began business February 10, 1919, in a building at Ohio and Seventh streets. During 1920 the bank was removed to a new home on the first floor of the Commerce Building, where it has one of the best equipped banking houses in the state. The removal to this building was made June 1, 1920, and the occasion was prop- erly celebrated as one of the notable events in the expanding financial affairs of the city. Mr. Nixon is a prominent type of the pro- gressive young man in finance, and it is note- worthy that the two vice presidents of the bank, F. L. McCoy and H. G. Burlew, also came up from the bottom without missing a single grade in experience and service in banking.
Mr. Nixon since coming to Wichita Falls has become personally interested in local real estate, and is an independent oil operator and leaseholder in the oil district. However, his chief interest is the bank, and he has had the satisfaction of seeing its original capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars increase to
two hundred thousand dollars, while its total resources in the summer of 1920 were more than two and a half million. Mr. Nixon rep- resents the banking interests of the city as a director and second vice president of the Rotary Club. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Golf and Country clubs, is affiliated with the Masons and Elks and member of the Methodist Church.
At Pearsall he married Miss Mary Hindes. Her father, C. F. Hindes, is one of the oldest and most distinguished citizens of Frio County, long identified with the cattle industry and with banking in that section.
JUDGE GUY ROGERS. At the special session of the State Legislature in 1920 a new legal body was authorized for Wichita County, known as the County Court at Law. This special branch of the judiciary was necessitated as an auxiliary to the regular County Court for the handling of the tremendous volume of business due to the enormous growth in pop- ulation and business in the county. In filling the office of judge of the new County Court the Board of Commissioners selected a young lawyer of high attainments and a former army officer, Capt. Guy Rogers, who had begun the practice of his profession only a short time before he went into the army.
Judge Rogers was born in Grapevine in Tar- rant County, Texas, December 24, 1893, son of Linville Bradley and Emma G. (McGhee) Rogers. His parents now live in West Texas, at Canyon City. Judge Rogers grew up on the old farm at Grapevine, finished his high school course there in 1911, and after graduat- ing from the West Texas Normal College in 1913 entered the University of Texas, pur- suing both the academic and law courses. He graduated in law with the class of 1917, and handled his first cases as a lawyer in his home town of Grapevine.
After America entered the war with Ger- many he joined the Officers' Training Camp at Leon Springs, was commissioned a lieuten- ant three months later, and as a first lieu- tenant was assigned to duty with the One Hundred and Sixty-second Depot Brigade at Camp Pike, Arkansas. After several months there he was detailed to Camp Perry, Ohio, in the Small Arms Firing School. He dis- tinguished himself as an expert rifleman, and his special efficiency led to his promotion as captain while there. Returning to Texas, he was an instructor with the rank of captain during the remaining period of the war at the
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Central Officers' Training School at Camp Bowie. Captain Rogers received his honor- able discharge December 16, 1918.
He at once located at Wichita Falls, where he gained a gratifying private clientage before his appointment by the Board of County Com- missioners on June 8, 1920, as judge of the County Court of Law. His appointive term expired December 1, 1920, at which time he was elected county judge for a two-year term, without opposition.
Judge Rogers is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and a member of the Methodist Church and the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss Alline Burle- son Hartson, of Kyle, Texas, and they have a daughter, Mary McGhee Rogers, and a son, Guy Rogers, Jr.
SAMUEL BURK BURNETT is one of the last survivors of that group of Texans who were pre-eminent in constructive achievement. He has been one of the builders of empire in the Southwest. Through personal courage, in- domitable energy and a remarkable practical wisdom he made himself master of vast bodies of land and other property, developed natural resources and made it all count toward one aim, the substantial wealth and prosperity of the country, his own wealth being only inci- dental to the working out of the larger and broader purpose.
Everyone in Texas knows something of Burk Burnett. He came to North Texas when a boy more than sixty years ago. He was born in Bates County, Missouri, January 1, 1849, son of Jeremiah and Nancy (Turner) Burnett. The section of Missouri where his parents lived was a rather lawless region, and in 1857 the family came to Texas and settled on Denton Creek in Denton County. The old Burnett farm there has long been owned by Samuel Burk Burnett. The latter had only the opportunity of a few years of public schooling in Denton County. He grew up on a farm and from his earliest years was com- pletely at home in the saddle. He trained him- self as a cowboy in looking after his father's stock, and in 1866 hired out to a cattle out- fit, driving over the Chisholm trail. The fol- lowing year he took a large bunch of cattle for his father north to Indian Territory, and in those years he learned how to fight Indians and white outlaws, and has had repeated expe- riences to test the physical and moral courage fundamental in a man's man.
Burk Burnett has been called the pioneer in the work of grading up the native Texas Longhorn steer. While a mere youth he bought the first thoroughbred bull ever brought to Denton County. In 1874 he set a new precedent among Texas cattlemen when he bought in southern Texas a bunch of all steer cattle, and his success in preparing them for the market convinced his neighbors and asso- ciates of the wisdom of the plan of buying steers. In the fall of 1875 Mr. Burnett drove his herd to Wichita County, establishing him- self at a place later known as Burke Station. He built the first frame house in Wichita County, hauling the lumber from Fort Worth with ox teams. There was no Wichita County and no Wichita Falls at that time. It was a lonely and desolate region, and the cattlemen experienced much difficulty in keeping the buffaloes from their herds. A large part of the Burnett holdings in Wichita County was subsequently sold to Kemp & Kell of Wichita Falls, who founded the town now the famous oil center of Burk Burnett. Mr. Burnett had to fight to hold his place in the frontier region of Wichita County. The worst enemies were white outlaws, and by the killing of the noted desperado Jack King, Mr. Burnett helped put an end to one of the worst bands that infested the region.
With the advance of settlement into the Wichita country Mr. Burnett sought other grazing districts. He was a stanch friend of the great Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, and the Indians always looked upon Mr. Bur- nett as a man who could be implicitly trusted in every act of business. Through his influ- ence with the local tribes Mr. Burnett secured the lease of some three hundred thousand acres of the old Kiowa and Comanche reser- vation in what is now southwestern Oklahoma, and continued to graze his herds there for over twenty years, until the Indian lands were opened for settlement. Mr. Burnett never made a promise to the Indians which he did not faithfully keep, and his use of the lands distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Indians.
About twenty years ago Mr. Burnett began extending his ranch holdings in western Texas and in 1900 bought an extensive tract in King County, subsequently known as the famous 6666 ranch, long noted as a model in efficiency and productiveness and the home of one of the greatest herds of thoroughbred Herefords in the world. As a land owner Mr. Burnett's holdings at one time totaled about 360,000
A. B. Qual
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acres, including the original ranch at Burk Burnett, and with thousands of acres in King and Carson counties.
Mr. Burnett has been a banker and business man as well as a land owner and stock raiser. He is the last surviving director of the orig- inal board of the First National Bank of Fort Worth and the largest stockholder, and has been officially identified with a number of industrial and banking companies in Texas and Oklahoma. The Burk Burnett Building in Fort Worth is a modern and handsome structure of the "skyscraper" type, and Mr. Burnett is one of the largest property owners in the city.
He is the last survivor of the group of cat- tlemen who organized the Texas Cattle Rais- ers Association, and for many years has been the honored treasurer of the association. He has been through every phase of the cattle industry of the Southwest, and in terms of large scale production probably no man has done more for the modern cattle business than Burk Burnett. His brand "6666" has long been famous in the livestock industry. It has been on the sides of hundreds of thousands of cattle on the range, in the markets and in the prize ring at state and national livestock shows. His Herefords have appeared in expositions for over ten years and have won many prizes from grand champion to white ribbon.
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