USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 22
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Some of the ablest business men in the af- fairs of Wichita Falls have been officially identified with the City National Bank. Men- tion has already been made of Joseph A. Kemp, the story of whose career is presented elsewhere. When he became officially identi- fied with the bank in 1891 there were two men in the clerical force who are now active vice presidents of the City National Bank of Com- merce and whose record of service is slightly longer than that of Mr. Kemp. They are P. P. Langford and W. L. Robertson, the lat- ter having joined the bank as bookkeeper soon after its organization. Another vice president is C. W. Snider, who for eight years was cashier of the City National Bank and who in recent years has become prominent in oil pro- duction around Wichita Falls. Another active vice president is J. T. Harrell, who is a veteran Iowa banker and came to Wichita Falls at the beginning of 1920. The cashier of the City National Bank is R. E. Shepherd, who had been made cashier of the City National just a few months before the consolidation.
The history of the National Bank of Com- merce belongs entirely to the modern period of Wichita Falls. This bank was established in May, 1914, by Charles W. Reid, who served as president until the consolidation and is now an active vice president of the new institution. C. E. Basham, one of the vice presidents, was the vice president of the National Bank of Commerce for a short period before the con- solidation. He came to Wichita Falls from the Waggoner National Bank of Vernon, Texas, with which bank he had been connected for a number of years. Though a young bank, the National Bank of Commerce took rank as third among the city's banks in resources by 1920, its capital and surplus having been
doubled in July, 1918, and again in August, 1919.
TAYLOR HUDSON has shown signal initiative ability and well directed progressiveness within the period of his residence at Wichita Falls, where, early in the year 1920, he organized the Taylor Hudson Company, as the executive head of which he is developing a large and prosperous business in the handling of the Stearns-Knight and other popular automo- biles. For the facile handling and distribu- tion of motor cars he has effected the erection of a handsome and modern building, with the best of equipment, and this garage is eligibly located at 808 Lamar Street. The estab- lishment takes precedence as one of the best and most important of its kind in this favored section of the Lone Star State.
Mr. Hudson was born at Belton, Bell County, Texas, and is a son of Taylor Hud- son, M. D., and Elizabeth (Long) Hudson, who still maintain their residence at Belton, where Doctor Hudson holds prestige as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Bell County, both he and his wife being members of old and honored Texas families. Doctor Hudson is a son of Dr. William H. Hudson, who was born and reared in Ala- bama, and who became a pioneer physician and influential citizen of Bell County, Texas, where he continued to reside until his death. W. J. Long, maternal grandfather of the sub- ject of this review, was the first sheriff of Bell County.
Taylor Hudson gained his early education in the public schools of his native place and supplemented this by a four years' course in the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege, in which institution he specialized in mechanical and civil engineering. For two years after leaving college he was in service with the engineering staff of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, engaged in im- portant construction work in Texas. He then went to Toledo, Ohio, where he became a factory salesman at the headquarters of the Willys-Overland Automobile Company. As a representative of this great manufactory he traveled extensively through the United States, with headquarters for a time in Memphis, Tennessee, and later in the city of Denver, Colorado.
In September, 1918, Mr. Hudson estab- lished his residence at Wichita Falls, Texas, and effected the organization of the Hudson Oil Company, the stock of which found ready
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sale in the stock market of New York City. In the exploitation of the oil-producing enter- prise of this company Mr. Hudson was very successful, though his capitalistic resources were very limited when he initiated operations, with characteristic determination and vigor. His resumption of active association with the automobile business occurred in the early part of 1920, as previously noted, and he is not only making the business a distinctive success but has secure status as one of the progressive and representative business men of the younger generation in the thriving city of Wichita Falls. He is an active member of the local Chamber of Commerce and is an enthusiast in the furtherance of measures and enterprises tending to advance the civic and material progress of the thriving city in which he maintains his home and in which his inter- ests are centered.
Mr. Hudson married Miss Eldora McGin- ley, daughter of M. McGinley, formerly a prominent business man of Wichita Falls but now a resident of the city of Fort Worth.
LLOYD HAWLEY MCKEE. Integrity of pur- pose, uprightness of dealing, soundness of principle and a keen sense of business values are qualities which go toward developing the substantial men of affairs. No man reaches a prosperous material condition without striv- ing towards some desired end, but he must have something back of the ambition to suc- ceed in order to attain his object. Natural and acquired qualities which are rooted in a foundation of deep-laid principles are abso- lutely necessary, and it is fortunate for Fort Worth that so many of its men do possess these characteristics, for through them and their consequent efforts has been brought about the present day supremacy of the me- tropolis of Tarrant County. One of the men above referred to is L. H. McKee, vice presi- dent of the Waples-Platter Grocer Company.
Mr. McKee was born at Chillicothe, Mis- souri, November 15, 1875, a son of Edwin and Frances McKee, natives of New York, who moved to Missouri, and after a stay at Chillicothe became residents of Macon, that state, and there L. H. McKee was reared and received his educational training in the mili- tary academy at that point. Upon leaving school he was associated with his father, first in his mercantile interests and later in the development of coal interests in Northern Missouri, and then accompanied him to Col-
fax, Louisiana, where the two engaged in lum- bering upon an extensive scale.
In 1905 Mr. McKee came to Texas, and for some time was connected with manufac- turing ventures, but in 1907 became assistant cashier of the Waples-Platter Grocer Com- pany, rising to be assistant secretary and later was made manager of the Fort Worth branch of the business. Since 1916 he has been vice president and general manager, and has about three hundred and fifty persons under his supervision. This company is a very large one and has about twenty houses in Texas and Oklahoma, its volume of business enti- tling it to the position of being one of the most extensive jobbing grocery houses in the United States. In addition to his holdings in this company Mr. McKee is a stockholder in a number of local concerns, and is a man of large affairs and assured position.
In 1907 he was married to Helen Waples, the daughter of John G. Waples, and they have three children: Edward, Helen and John Paul. Mr. McKee belongs to the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club, and is active in both organizations. His value to his community as a man and a citizen is un- questioned, and few men inspire more con- fidence than he.
BENJAMIN F. WITT. In Gainesville Benja- min F. Witt has for many years been a hard working business man, is one of the leading grocery merchants of the city, and from time to time the citizens have put a requisition upon him for public duty and public honor. Mr. Witt represents one of the pioneer families of Cooke County. He was himself a child when his parents moved to this frontier region a few years after the close of the Civil war, now fully half a century ago.
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Before coming to Texas the Witts were resi- dents of Missouri and prior to that were Ten- nesseans. The Gainsville merchant's grand- father was Rev. James Witt, a native of Ten- nessee, of Scotch ancestry, and noted for his splendid and vigorous physique and his far reaching influence and work as a Baptist min- ister. He married a member of the Kirby family, and they had a large number of chil- dren, including Joseph R., James, Silas and John, all of whom came to Texas. The de- scendants of some of these brothers are still in Bell and McLennan counties.
Joseph R. Witt, father of Benjamin F. Witt, was a native of Tennessee, where he had only the advantages of the country schools. ยท He
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had a keen and inspiring mind, increased his knowledge through life, was a constant reader of the Scriptures and a firm believer in their authenticity and active in the Baptist Church. From Tennessee he moved to Mis- souri and served three years in a Missouri regiment of cavalry in the Union army, escap- ing wounds or capture. As a Union man he became identified with the Republican party, and retained that affiliation until a few years before his death, when he voted as a Demo- crat, and all of his sons took up the latter political affiliation.
Joseph R. Witt had married in Dade County, Missouri, and from that section he started with his family in the spring of 1871 and by wagons traveled to Texas. He established his home nine miles south of Gainesville, starting a new farm on the prairie. He cut and split the rails which fenced his land, and his first home was a small log cabin with a dirt floor. This served as the family habitation for several years, until he could freight the lumber from Jefferson, Texas, for the construction of a more commodious frame house. Only a few years before his death he left the farm and moved to Gainesville, and the old house is still doing service on the farm. Joseph R. Witt had some difficulty and discouraging ex- periences the first few years he tried farming and stock raising in Cooke County. The trials and burdens finally accumulated until he began loading up his goods preparatory to a return to Missouri. While this was going on an old and prominent resident of the county, Judge Piper, appeared on the scene and inquired about his neighbor's actions. Joseph Witt re- plied that he was going back to Missouri be- cause he couldn't make a living. "Do not think of such a thing," said the judge, "as long as I have a dollar you shall have half of it, and we need just such men as you are to stay in the country and help improve and build the right kind of society here." This with other assurances turned the scale in favor of remaining, his goods were taken off the wagons, and Joseph Witt lived to rejoice that he had accepted the old judge's advice, since he succeeded financially, purchased two addi- tional farms and died possessed of a good estate. The same kind of land he paid $1.25 an acre for is now worth $175.00 an acre. He was a sturdy farmer and an equally sturdy citizen, and his influence for good remains in that community today. He continued active in rural affairs until he was about sixty, and then retired, being satisfied with what he had
achieved financially and with the industry he had poured out in the development of the locality. Leaving the farm, he moved to Gainesville and lived quietly in his suburban home there until he died in 1906 at the age of sixty-three.
He married Josie Holder, a native of Dade County, Missouri, daughter of Martin Holder. She died a year before her husband and was four years his junior. A brief record of their children is as follows: William J., of Gaines- ville; Nora, wife of B. F. Frantz, of Gaines- ville ; Benjamin F .; Clara Belle, wife of Lewis Rogers, now general attorney for the Federal Farm Loan Bank at Houston; James Martin, a farmer nine miles south of Gainesville ; Rob- ert, a farmer at Sugden, Oklahoma; Eva, wife of John Dobkins, of Cooke County ; Ralph, who is postmaster of Maud, Okla- homa; Myrtle, wife of Ed Williams, a Santa Fe conductor living at Gainesville.
Taking up now the personal career and ex- periences of Benjamin F. Witt, he was born in Dade County, Missouri, April 18, 1866, and was five years of age when the family came to Cooke County. In his rural district he at- tended one of the primitive country schools, walking three miles to the schoolhouse, which was built of logs, had puncheon seats, and without desks of any kind. He learned what he could there, but the best training of his early boyhood he received under Prof. J. T. Leonard in the school at Fairplay. Later he attended school at Gainesville and also the State Normal School at Paris. He received a four years' state certificate to teach, and had some part in the education of the youth of the next generation, teaching one term of country school at Nelson Grove and another at Buck Creek.
After leaving school work Mr. Witt came to Gainesville, where he found employment in the local brick yard. This was the hardest physical labor he ever experienced, but he had tasks almost equally difficult when he went to work in the Gainesville Packing House. He became interested in the grocery business, and went through a long and arduous apprentice- ship to learn it in detail. He began at a salary of $20.00 a month with John N. Modrall, and for eleven years was on a salary basis. At the end of that time he had only $150.00 in capital, and then, borrowing $350.00 more, started in business for himself in 1909. He was first in a partnership with W. T. Lynch in the firm of Witt & Lynch, but soon bought out his partner and now for almost a decade has been
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doing a prosperous business under the title Ben Witt, Grocer.
Of his public record the most important was a service of nearly four years as alderman and mayor pro tem of Gainesville. He finally resigned this office. While he was in the Council a matter of chief importance was the granting of the telephone franchise and the merging of the two telephone companies. Mr. Witt gave his first presidential vote to Grover Cleveland, and has steadily supported the democratic ticket since then. In 1920 he was a member of the Texas State Convention at Dallas and helped promote the candidacy of Pat M. Neff for governor. Since childhood he has been affiliated with the Baptist Church, and brought up his own family in that faith and he is a member of the Woodmen of the World. During the war he was one of Gaines- ville's citizens assisting in the Liberty Bond and Thrift Stamps campaigns, doing espe- cially effective work in the country districts. His oldest son volunteered, was trained at Leon Springs, Texas, and at the close of the war received an honorable discharge.
At Nelson Grove, the same community where he had taught a term of school, Mr. Witt married, December 25, 1892, Miss Stella Claybrook, daughter of Francis M. and Sarah Euphrates (Major) Claybrook. Her father . was a captain in the Confederate army and a pioneer farmer in Cooke County, but is now on a farm near Allen, Oklahoma. Mrs. Witt was born in Cooke County, Texas, May 27, 1874. They have three sons. The oldest, Roehl, who was in the army, is associated with his father in the grocery business. He married Nell Boots. The second son, Ran- dolph, is in Beloit, Kansas, conducting a cafe. The youngest, Arthur Lewis, is a student in the Tri-State University of Indiana.
ROBERT LEE KENDALL was born at Boliver, Denton County, the year the last raid of In- dians was made into that section. His life history is therefore closely identified with the development of Northern Texas. While by practical experience he learned farming and stock raising during his younger years, his business career has been as a grain merchant, and he has managed the interests of the Bur- riss Mill & Elevator Company of Fort Worth for about three decades, and is one of Gaines- ville's most public spirited citizens.
He was born May 10, 1866, at the locality noted above. His family took part in several successive stages of western emigration. His
grandparents, about 1832, moved out of Vir- ginia, with such property as they could carry and in a time before the construction of rail- roads, across the Cumberland Mountains on horseback and settled in Morgan County, Ken- tucky. They lived out their lives on a farm in Texas. Their sons were William Addison, J. Wick, Robert A., S. Kelley, Dan J. Travis, all of whom became Confederate soldiers, Dan losing his life in the war. There were also two daughters, Jane, who became the wife of Henry Deering, and Angeline, who married Lewis Powell.
Of these William Addison Kendall, who was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, August 6, 1830, and went to Kentucky at the age of two, was the father of the Gainesville business man and was one of the prominent settlers of Northern Texas. During his youth he acquired a liberal education, and for some time was a teacher. He married Mary C. Daily, daughter of Dr. Hiram Daily. They lived in Morgan County, Kentucky, until 1858, when with team and wagon they came to Texas, bringing with them four children. Their first home was at Weston in Collin County, on a farm. While William Kendall attended to the farm his wife was an early school teacher in that vicinity. Subsequently he bought land in Denton County, then a fron- tier locality, the hunting ground of Indians who occasionally raided the homes of white settlers.
At the opening of the war between the states, William A. Kendall enlisted as a pri- vate in Gano's Squadron of Cavalry, subse- quently was attached to General John H. Morgan's Third Kentucky Cavalry, and was promoted to captain. He was a participant in the Morgan invasion of the district north of the Ohio River, was captured with the Morgan troops at Cheshire, Ohio, and was placed on Johnson's Island with the other officers. He was held there until General Morgan himself was captured. Then Captain Kendall with 117 others were sent to the Western Peniten- tiary of Pennsylvania, being confined in cells and treated as felons except as to labor. Sub- sequently they were transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland, thence to Fort Delaware, and from that prison 600 officers, including Captain Kendall, were selected and taken to Morris Island, South Carolina. Here they were placed in front of and in direct range of the batteries of Fort Sumter, in retaliation for alleged cruelties to Federal prisoners at Charleston. The officers were exposed to
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every indignity and privation, being guarded by negroes and placed on short rations. This treatment was continued until the alleged cause was remedied. Then they were trans- ferred to Fort Pulaski, Georgia, and again in retaliation for cruelties to Federal prisoners at Andersonville they were rationed scantily, with ten ounces of meal and no meat or salt. Seeking relief from such intolerable conditions Captain Kendall and four others burrowed under the foundation of the fort, through and under twenty-two brick walls, hoping to get a skiff and rejoin the Confederate forces on the coast of South Carolina. Being observed by the guards, they were captured and returned to prison, were stripped, searched and for three days kept on a diet of bread and water. In the meantime offers of relief were made if they would promise to remain north of the Ohio River, but these offers were indignantly refused. Soon afterward Captain Kendall was sent to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to be exchanged, but so many prisoners were awaiting exchange that Captain Kendall's squad was sent on to Fort Delaware to await the further pleasure of a commissioner. In that northern prison he waited until the 13th of July, two months after the surrender of the Confederate forces, and the end of the war. On being released he made his way back to Dallas, Texas, where his father lived. The returned soldier had to witness the widespread devastation caused by war, finding his farm ruined and his family reduced to the barest existence. He went to work tending a crop, and at night worked at repairing wagons and utensils until better times should arrive.
Greatly admired and respected as a man of force and character, with the additional pres- tige of his army service, Mr. Kendall was elected to the eleventh session of the Lower House of the Texas Legislature in 1866 on the democratic ticket. He attended the ses- sion at Austin, and while there received word that Indians had made a raid through his county. This prompted him to resign and return home, but his plucky wife, who had endured so many hardships and discomforts while he was in the army, pleaded with him to continue as a legislator, and he complied with her wishes and remained. After the close of the session he removed his family to Pilot Point for safety from Indian attack, and then resumed farming the rich lands of that local- ity, and was soon providing amply for the needs of those dependent upon him. Further- more, by taking building contracts he made
money rapidly. In 1868 he was appointed manager of the government mills in Wise County, and supervised the manufacture of the lumber and other material for the con- struction of old Fort Richardson at Jacksboro. In this connection he also opened a small sut- ler's store, and every prospect seemed most favorable. About that time his wife's health failed, and putting his affairs at the Fort in the hands of an associate he hurried home. His supposed friend turned traitor, collected the outstanding accounts, and wrecked his other property interests. His good wife passed away on this sickbed, and that was the greatest calamity of his life. For three years he was both father and mother to his children, but realizing his unfitness for so responsible a trust he married Mrs. Jennie V. Ware, oldest daughter of Joseph Rogers of Collin County. He was appointed by Governor Ross superin- tendent of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and assumed the duties of the office February 1, 1887. He was reappointed by Governor Ross in 1889.
Captain Kendall lived a long and useful life, surviving by more than forty years the trials and vicissitudes he experienced dur- ing the decade of the sixties. This honored old Texas pioneer passed away April 9, 1910. His second wife died at the home of her step- son, Robert, in 1914. The children of Captain Kendall by his first marriage were: Lizzie, who became the wife of William Newton and died at Gainesville; Florence, who married Dr. Ragland and lived at Paris Point, Texas ; Julia, who died in Dallas, the wife of J. J. Simmons; Sallie, wife of T. B. Gardner and a resident of Waco; John C., of Grand Prairie, Texas; and Robert L., who is the youngest child.
Robert L. Kendall grew up on his father's farm in Denton County and was educated in the common schools there. About the time he reached his majority he left the farm and entered the grain business with William Cam- eron, of the Cameron Mill & Elevaor Com- pany. This business was subsequently sold to the Burriss Mill & Elevator Company of Fort Worth, Mr. Kendall remaining as country ele- vator manager and grain buyer. He has been steadily in that business for this Fort Worth corporation twenty-nine years, and is one of its veteran grain and elevator men in North Texas.
While a young man he also learned the car- penter's trade, and in slack seasons of his busi- ness he devoted his spare time to the bench.
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Mr. Kendall removed to Gainesville in 1910, and his home is at 211 South Morris Street in that city. He is a Royal Arch Mason and his wife is a member of the Royal Neighbors. He has tried to perform an intelligent part in citi- zenship, and in recent years has been consid- ered one of the invaluable assets to Gaines- ville's progress. In 1917 he was elected a member of the City Council and re-elected in 1919 to represent the Fifth Ward. He has given much time and study to the work of the council and has aided in the erection of the McMurray school, the building of the fire station, and the extensive municipal improve- ment represented in the paving of the streets with tarvia and brick.
At Pilot Point, Texas, December 23, 1891, Mr. Kendall married Miss Florence J. Smith, daughter of Felix and Callie (Fant) Smith. She was born in Barren County, Kentucky, July 23, 1869, and was three years of age when her parents came to Texas and located in Collin County. Her father was a farmer there and in Denton County, where he died in October, 1893, and her mother is still living, a resident of Prosper, Texas. Mrs. Kendall, who was educated in the common schools of Collin County, is the second of six children. Her oldest brother, Harry, died in Collin County, leaving a family. The others all live at Prosper, Texas: Lewis; Mary, wife of S. C. Settle; Kate, wife of James Bryant, and Jewel.
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