USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 19
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The large plant, with the additional build- ing mentioned, and the equipment of fifty thousand dollars worth of modern power ma- chinery, is the largest of its kind this side of
St. Louis, and one of the really important industrial enterprises of the oil metropolis. Fifty workmen, many of them skilled and highly paid mechanics, are employed. The ma- chinery includes the most modern corrugating machines, culvert-making machines, pipe-mak- ing machines, and many other devices for the making of all kinds of tanks, piping, culverts, well-casing, eave troughs, and practically everything in galvanized iron. The largest business is the manufacture of galvanized iron tanks and well-casing for the oil industry. The concern has a large wholesale trade in tanks for farm purposes, and other articles made from galvanized ware. The galvanized iron is received flat from eastern factories, but all the processes of fabrication are done in the plant. The wholesale feature of the business includes a demand from many sec- tions of West Texas, from Amarillo to San Antonio. Their steam boilers, fed by natural gas, furnish power, and there is two hundred feet of line shafting in the plant.
Not all of Mr. Ray's capital is represented in this thriving industry. He is a property owner in other cities of Texas and Oklahoma, having business buildings in Chickasha, Okla- homa, valued at a hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Ray is affiliated with the Order of Elks. He married Miss Blanche Hobson, of Okla- homa, and they have two daughters, Opal Ray and Mary Frances Ray.
WALTER P. MORGAN, an ex-service man who for ten months was with the American armies in France, has for several years both before and since the great war been one of the leading young business men of Wichita Falls, where he is vice president and general manager of the Morgan Feed & Fuel Company.
Mr. Morgan was born at Henrietta, Texas, in 1887, a son of C. W. and Louisa J. (Ray) Morgan. His mother is still living. Walter Morgan grew up on a farm in North Texas, but at the age of sixteen, in 1903, came to Wichita Falls, and for two years attended the city high school. Largely through his indi- vidual exertions he has been responsible for the growth and upbuilding of a plant and organization that share prominently in the commercial affairs of the city. The Morgan Feed & Fuel Company, of which he is presi- dent, does both a wholesale and retail busi- ness in feed and fuel. Early in 1920 the company occupied its new warehouse and yards on Austin Street in the southern indus-
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trial section of the city, where they have one of the largest and most complete plants of the kind in Texas.
Mr. Morgan's war services began in Janu- ary, 1918, with his volunteering as private. He joined Field Remount Squadron No. 302 at Jacksonville, Florida. From the ranks he was promoted to second lieutenant. His ten months' overseas duty began with his land- ing in France, May 13, 1918. His squadron operated successively with the First Army, the Third Army and the Army of Occupation. His first fighting experience at the front was at Chateau Thierry, and he was in that sector and between there and Rheims until Septem- ber 15th, when he went into the Verdun sec- tor, and was in the Argonne Forest when the armistice was signed on November 11th. He reached America March 9, 1919, and was discharged March 11th.
Mr. Morgan married Miss Ruth H. Masters, of Sherman, Texas, on April 8, 1919. They have a son, Walter P. Morgan, Jr., born March 2, 1920. Mr. Morgan is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
ROBERT A. PAINTER. Practical oil men all over North Texas acknowledge a great debt to the enterprise of Robert A. Painter in estab- lishing and building up one of the most in- dispensable auxiliaries to successful work in the development of oil territory. This is the Lone Star Tool Company, of which he is founder and president, operating a model twentieth century factory where nearly every tool, appliance and equipment used in the oil fields are manufactured complete.
Mr. Painter from his earliest recollections has had an oil district as his home environ- ment. He was born in Clarion County, Penn- sylvania, in 1878. That was an important center of petroleum production. He spent part of his boyhood in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and also attended school in West Virginia, being in that portion of West Virginia where petroleum is one of the lead- ing sources of wealth. The feature of this environment which influenced Mr. Painter in the selection of a career was its mechanical and technical side. He learned the machinist's trade and is a thoroughly expert mechanical engineer involving practically every mechani- cal facility connected with oil production. He came to Oklahoma about the time of the be- ginning of the great oil boom in that state and established the Muskogee Tool Company,
which has since become one of the large con- cerns of its kind.
In 1911 the Electra oil field was discovered in North Texas, and this development made Wichita Falls a logical point for the establish- ment of such an industry as Mr. Painter had specialized in. Therefore in 1912 he started a small tool shop in the city, and later took over the shop of the Ramona Machine Com- pany. In 1914 he organized the Lone Star Tool Company, and from that time devoted renewed energy and capital to enlarging the tool manufacturing business. At first his plant had an equipment costing about fifteen thou- sand dollars. The present modern plant in- ventories around
four hundred thousand dollars. Associated with Mr. Painter in the conduct and management of the Lone Star Tool Company are W. R. Hammond as assist- ant superintendent and who has been an in- valuable assistant to Mr. Painter in the development and growth of the firm; Mr. H. J. Fenton is vice president and has been associated with Mr. Painter since 1917, and has been instrumental in bringing about the present plant of the Lone Star Tool Company. His experience as a salesman of oil well sup- plies has proved of great benefit in his present connection.
This plant of the Lone Star Tool Company is on Mississippi Avenue at the corner of Oak Street. The buildings are modern con- crete and brick structures, that for convenience of operation and facilities of shop work and practice are conceded by engineers and tech- nical men to be among the most modern in the country, and certainly unsurpassed in any western city. The modern idea of plenty of light and ventilation is carried out completely. The machines are of the most expensive and modern design, driven individually by com- pressed air from electrical power, while the compressed air plant is one of the most mod- ern and complete found anywhere, and was installed at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars.
The output of the company is almost ex- clusively the manufacture of tools for oil well drilling and the various complicated devices and tool auxiliaries to the drilling of oil weils, the erection of rigs and the installation of drilling outfits. The business is a self-suffi- cient and complete one, since the tools are all manufactured first hand from forgings made in the shops, and the only raw material brought in from the outside are the original steel billets. One feature of the equipment is an electric
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crane running the entire length of the shops and through the yards. Thus in about half a dozen years Mr. Painter has given Wichita Falls one of its leading and most valuable in- dustries. He is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and Wichita Club. Mr. Painter married Miss Edith Brown, of West Virginia. Their four children are Zella E., Mabel, Pearl and Mary.
ANDREW L. JACKSON has had an active membership as a practicing lawyer of the Fort Worth bar for a quarter of a century, and enjoys the highest standing in his profession, not only in Texas but in many other cities where his professional engagements have made him known in the trial of cases before State and Federal Courts.
Mr. Jackson was born in Sumter County, Alabama, May 18, 1862. The family settled in Alabama just a century ago. His parents, James and Charlotte (Blakeney) Jackson, were married in South Carolina, near Cheraw, Chesterfield County, in 1836, and their bridal tour was a wagon journey across the country to Sumter County, Alabama. They lived out their lives in that section of Alabama, and the father was a farmer and planter. He died about 1865, while the mother lived to the age of seventy-seven. Andrew L. is the youngest of nine children, eight of whom reached ma- ture years.
His boyhood was spent in the environment of an Alabama farm, and as a result of the war he had limited opportunities and had to construct his own career with little aid from any one. He attended a country school near his birthplace, and for several years was a teacher, largely as a means of achieving his higher and professional education. Mr. Jack- son is a graduate of the University of Ala- bama with the class of 1884. Then after sev- eral years of teaching he entered the law school of Columbia, now George Washing- ton, University at Washington, District of Columbia, and had the benefit of instruction from some of the great masters of jurispru- dence and also of residence at the capital city. Mr. Jackson received his LL.B. degree in 1893 and the following year was awarded the Master of Laws degree. He came to Fort Worth in December, 1894, was admitted to the bar and at once began practice. He has never had a partnership. but since the earlier years his practice has been one not only of large volume but of first rate importance. As an attorney he has practiced and handled cases
before many of the Federal Courts of the country, at Washington, District of Columbia, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Madison, Wis- consin, Cleveland, San Francisco, Baltimore, Maryland, and Atlanta, Georgia, and has had many associations with the leading American lawyers.
Mr. Jackson is a member of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, and has long been one of the leading men in the First Bap- tist Church. In 1895 he married Miss Annie Wylie, daughter of Oscar Wylie, of Sumter County, Alabama. They have three daughters, Virginia, Lillian and Edith Mae.
ROBERT LEE YATES cast his lot with the City of Wichita Falls when it was a busy coun- try town expressing its character largely as a shipping point and a center of market and dis- tribution for the outlying agricultural com- munities. Mr. Yates has taken great pride in the growth and development of the city during the past twenty years, and his name has come to signify good citizenship and also leadership in the community's affairs.
He was born at Sharon in Weakley County, Tennessee, March 13, 1875, son of William and Marie (Malin) Yates. His father was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, and his mother at Ralston, Tennessee. His father was a Con- federate soldier and after the war lived in Tennessee, where he died in 1887.
Robert Lee Yates was twelve years of age when his father died. He grew up and at- tended school at Sharon and in 1891 came to Texas. His first home was in Texarkana, later at Wolfe City, and at Fort Worth he entered the railroad service of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway. Mr. Yates is a veteran in railroad operating circles, and for seventeen consecutive years, from July 6, 1902, until 1919, he was a conductor on the Fort Worth & Denver road. His home has been at Wichita Falls since 1902. He re- signed from the railroad service to take an active part in the oil industry in Wichita County, and has had some important inter- ests in the development of that field. Later he has acquired other business connections, among them being the ownership of the cigar and news stand in the courthouse. He is known as a man of thoroughness and effi- ciency in everything he undertakes. He is a charter member of Division No. 515, Order of Railway Conductors, at Wichita Falls. In January, 1921, he became a candidate for the
a. L. Jackson.
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office of police commissioner of Wichita Falls. His wife and children are members of the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Yates married Miss Lella Fultz, who was born and reared at Ladonia, Texas. Their two children are, Gerald Scott, born August 21, 1902, and Ruth Marie, who was born September 27, 1904.
HENRY S. FORD, while running a drug busi- ness in West Texas some years ago, took over the management of a small local picture show and thus became interested in a business that is now one of the greatest in the country in capital and number of people interested, and has gone from one modest success to another until now the "D. F. R. Organization," of which he is a member, is one of the largest amusement corporations in North and West Texas. This organization owns playhouses in a number of Texas cities, but chiefly at Wichita Falls, where a large part of the patronage of theatrical talent is indebted to Mr. Ford and his associates.
Mr. Ford was born at McCondy, Missis- sippi, in 1884, son of Dr. S. Q. and Maggie (Shell) Ford, also natives of the same state. The family moved to Texas in 1890, locating at Temple in Bell County. Henry S. Ford was reared and educated at Temple, and while there learned the drug business and became a registered pharmacist.
About 1910 he located at Tulia in the Plains country and was a retail druggist of that town. About 1913 he took over the picture show house, thus making his entry into the amusement business, and he has long since discontinued his work as a druggist. Wichita Falls has been his business headquarters and home since March, 1920. His associates in the D. F. R. Organization are Ross Rod- gers of Amarillo and Dr. E. Lee Dye of Plain- view. The full corporate name of their busi- ness is Dye, Ford & Rodgers Enterprises. They own and conduct vaudeville and picture show houses in Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Plain- view, Canyon and Dalhart. Most of their capital is at Wichita Falls, where they control and operate five playhouses-the Olympic, Palace, Empress, Majestic and the Wichita theaters. Three of these, the Olympic, Majes- tic and Empress, are devoted exclusively to pictures, the Wichita is patronized by the "legitimate" drama organizations, and the Palace is a vaudeville house.
The Olympic Theater, completed and opened for business in 1920, ranks with the
very largest and best equipped picture theaters in Texas, has a seating capacity of over a thousand, and has the third largest combina- tion organ of any theater in the state. This instrument, which was installed several months after the theater opened, is a Hope-Jones organ costing sixteen thousand dollars. The Olympic has every facility for a perfect tech- nique for motion pictures and also every con- venience contributing to the comfort and pleasure of spectators.
The Palace Theater, completed and opened in January, 1921, is devoted exclusively to vaudeville. It handles the complete Majestic program, and is now the first city in Texas marking the tour of Majestic programs in the state. These. programs are witnessed at Wichita Falls before they go to Fort Worth and Dallas. Like the Olympic, the Palace is a theater of the first class and most modern type, having been constructed without regard to expense in order to give Wichita Falls a perfect vaudeville house.
Mr. Ford is a member of the Masonic Order and the Elks. He married Miss Aleta Bruce, of Georgetown, Texas, and their two children are Leah and Steve.
WALTON W. MURPHY, whose numerous friends and admirers in a number of com- munities of Northwest Texas know him as "Pat" Murphy, is auditor of Wichita County, and has had a long and varied experience in public and business affairs.
He was born in Union Parish, Louisiana, in 1880, and came to Texas when a youth. He attended high school and business college at Fort Worth, and leaving that city removed to Haskell, Texas. He was assistant cashier of the Farmers National Bank of Haskell until 1908. At Dallas he was for three years clerk of the Criminal District Court, and then for two years chief deputy in the office of Dallas County's sheriff, following which he was spe- cial assistant county attorney of Dallas County.
Mr. Murphy has been a resident of Wichita Falls since 1918. In July, 1919, he was ap- pointed auditor of Wichita County by District Judges Scurry and Bonner. As auditor he has charge of the county finances, supervising the expenditures for all purposes and the pur- chasing of supplies. Texas laws make this a very important and highly responsible office, particularly so in such a rich and growing county as Wichita. The office is one requiring for the proper discharge of its duties a man
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of business ability and experience of the first rank.
Mr. Murphy is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Wichita Falls, and is affiliated with the Elks. He married Miss Auba Post, of Haskell, Texas, and they have two daugh- ters, Burch and Faire.
E. R. COCKRELL, mayor of the City of Fort Worth, had an active part in public affairs of Texas for many years prior to his election to the office he now holds. As a lawyer he has been one of the men of prominence in North Texas and at Fort Worth for many years. He has been active in many good causes, and his professional standing and his integrity of character have well earned him the confidence of all interests and classes who seek effective leadership in matters of civic advancement.
Mr. Cockrell was born in Missouri April 2, 1872, son of H. C. and Sadie ( Reiley) Cock- rell, who were also native Missourians. His father was a lawyer by profession and died in 1918. His mother is now living at San Jose, California.
The oldest of five children, E. R. Cockrell grew up in the State of Montana and had a rugged experience there on the stock ranges. Later he acquired a liberal education and is a man of mature scholarship, an important fac- tor in his advancement as a lawyer. He re- ceived the Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas Christian University and is the president of the Alumni Association of that institution. He holds the Master of Arts degree from Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, and is a grad- uate of law from the Iowa College of Law. He did post-graduate work in law and econom- ics at the University of Chicago, Columbia University and Oxford University in England, spending a year in investigating city and national governments in Europe and also ac- quiring much first hand knowledge of munici- pal affairs in New York and other cities.
Mr. Cockrell was admitted to practice law by the Supreme Courts of Montana and Texas, and has been a resident of Texas for twenty- one years. Since 1910 his home has been in Fort Worth. He founded the College of Law of Texas Christian University, and much of the time since then has been devoted to this university department. In 1921 Mr. Cock- rell was put forward as the candidate of a large group of Fort Worth citizens for mayor, and his election which followed showed one
of the most sweeping victories ever recorded in municipal affairs.
In 1897 he married Miss Dora Brokaw, of Des Moines, Iowa. They have two children, Dura Louise and Vardaman. Mr. Cockrell is a member of the Masonic Order and Shrine, of the Knights of Pythias, the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club and the Christian Church.
ANDREW THOMAS BYERS came to Fort Worth some thirty odd years ago as a north- ern lawyer, capitalist and business man, and through his personal enterprise and the re- sources he commanded contributed in a vital and significant way to the first real industrial progress and advancement of the city. He is credited with having been the chief influence in giving Fort Worth a modern system of elec- tric service transportation, and at one time he owned the land and made the disposition of it, through wise planning, by which all that section of the city north of the river has become the scene of Fort Worth's most per- manent industrialism, the stockyards and packing plant.
Mr. Byers was born in Madison County, Ohio, September 27, 1847, son of John and Sarah (Painter) Byers. His parents were native Pennsylvanians and early settlers in Madison County, Ohio. His father died at the age of eighty-two and his mother at seventy-eight, and all but one of their ten children grew to mature years and four are still living.
The sixth child and fourth son, Andrew T. Byers, came to manhood with a liberal education acquired in the public schools and later as a graduate in 1874 from the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. He studied law at Springfield, Ohio, under Judge Shelle- barger, and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He at once entered a busy practice at Spring- field, was elected and served as city attorney three years, and was also admitted to practice in the Federal Courts of Cincinnati. Begin- ning about 1884, his law practice was con- tinued at the same time with an increasing share in manufacturing industry, and these interests continued to engage him in Ohio until 1888, when he came to Fort Worth.
Fort Worth was then struggling with some of its most difficult problems involved in a change from a country town to a city, and its chief importance was still as a market town for the tributary district, with very little man- ufacturing or industry. On coming to Fort
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Worth Mr. Byers bought 1,400 acres of land, including practically all the Trinity River bot- toms north of the courthouse, where the Fort Worth stockyards and many of the kindred industries now have their location. Mr. Byers and his associates laid off what is now North Fort Worth, and as a means of developing this property and also the city in general he and his associates also secured a lease on the old Fort Worth Street Railway property, which had only one line on Main Street. The tracks were extended to the south side and also to North Fort Worth, a double track was laid, and electricity was substituted for horse motive power. It was one of the first electric railway systems constructed in the Southwest, the electric lines in Kansas City and St. Louis having been built about the same time. Thus Mr. Byers was busily en- gaged for a number of years in modernizing this southwestern city, and has been deeply interested in everything vitally concerning Fort Worth since then. He has handled many tracts of real estate, and in recent years has also become interested as an investor in oil production. He is an honored member of the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Coun- try Club.
In 1877 Mr. Byers married Ida Bidwell. Of their three children the only one now living is Gertrude, whose husband, Dan C. Richard- son, is auditor of the Western Electric Com- pany of New York.
L. H. VAN ZANDT is one of Fort Worth's prominent business men, long identified with and now proprietor of the Van Zandt Iron Works at 209-215 West Railroad Avenue. This is an industry that has lent its facilities to a broad general service in former years, and is now exclusively devoted to the manufacture of ice and refrigerating machinery, and as such stands as the largest and one of the most exclusive plants of the kind in the Southwest.
Mr. Van Zandt was born in Fort Worth August 26, 1871, and is a birthright pioneer of the city. The house in which he was born stood at the corner of Throckmorton and Sixth streets, on the present site of the First Christian Church. He is a son of Dr. I. L. and Ellen (Henderson) Van Zandt, native Texans. L. H. Van Zandt acquired his early education in Fort Worth's schools and had a thorough training in technical lines for his chosen career. He attended the Rose Poly- technic Institute of Terre Haute, Indiana, and also the University of Michigan. On return-
ing to Fort Worth he established the Van Zandt-Claypool Machine Company, which later became the Van Zandt-Moore Iron Works, and is now the Van Zandt Iron Works, with Mr. Van Zandt, proprietor. Since the facilities of the concern have been exclusively devoted to the manufacture of ice and refri- gerating machinery the business has greatly expanded. Every large building in Fort Worth of any consequence has had part of its equipment installed and manufactured by the Van Zandt Iron Works. These include in part the Fort Worth National Bank Building, the First National Bank Building, the W. T. Waggoner Building, Dan Waggoner Building, Star-Telegram Building, Neil P. Anderson, Building, F. and M. National Bank Building, the Carter Grocery Company, Metropolitan Hotel, Joseph's Cafe, Westbrook Hotel, Hotel Winfield, Turner & Dingee Building, Walker Bread Company's Plant, and many others. The company's products and service have also gone as far away as Colorado and Louisiana.
Mr. Van Zandt married Miss Lula Keese December 18, 1907. They have four children, William, Gertrude, L. H., Jr., and Nell.
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