USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 26
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Six years of age when his parents moved to Canada, and nine when brought to Chicago, he received practically all of his educational training in the schools of Hamilton and Chi- cago. His first business connection of any moment was with Swift & Company of Chi- cago, as one of their purchasing agents, and he remained with that concern until 1902, when he came to Fort Worth, and had charge of the purchasing department of the plants of Swift & Company in this city. These opera- tions continued until 1909, when Mr. Cobden organized the Cobden Fuel Company, and has continued to be its executive head and man- ager. He is also a director of the Farmers & Mechanics Bank of Fort Worth.
On June 15, 1897, Mr. Cobden was united in marriage with Jessie Johnston, a daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Johnston, of Chi- cago, where she was born February 6, 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Cobden have four children, namely : Florence, Robert, Philip and Don- ald. Mr. Cobden belongs to the Fort Worth and River Crest clubs and to the Masonic order. He is a member and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth.
ALEXIS WILLIAM CHARBONNEAU. For all its other sources of wealth and prosperity Texas will always be a great livestock state. Taken collectively, its livestock interests have been so vast as to distract attention from some of the individual enterprises that both in the past and in the future are destined to exer- cise a lasting influence for good in the rais- ing of livestock standards. One such enter- prise is that established more than forty years
Alexis William Charbonneau, whose fame among Texas stock men rests upon his achieve- ments as a breeder and raiser of the Percheron horse. Members of the Percheron Association of America are all cognizant of the splendid Charbonneau horse farm near Fort Worth, and in the past hundreds of the finest speci- mens of that strain have been sold from the farm and contributed to the improvement of Southwestern and Western horses.
Mr. Charbonneau was born in St. Cesaire, Quebec, Canada, February 11, 1848, a son of Thomas and Lucy (Harris) Charbonneau. During his youth he attended the parochial schools of Quebec, and soon afterward crossed into New England, where for fifteen years he worked at various occupations, part of the time as a clerk in stores.
Mr. Charbonneau came to Fort Worth in 1878, when it was a small village. He located in the country nearby, and while developing a farm he soon took up the breeding of Per- cheron horses and has persistently carried out the policy of one of the leading breeders in the Southwest. His horses have achieved fame as blue ribbon winners in many shows and expositions, and horse buyers and breeders generally are willing to pay a premium for Charbonneau horses on the merit of their sustained performance in the past. In former years Mr. Charbonneau conducted his opera- tions on a large ranch near Fort Worth, but the city has encroached on some of his land and his farm today measures about nine hun- dred acres.
On March 9, 1882, he married Sarah Octa- via Heavenhill. Three children were born to their marriage, Waverly, Wallace and W. F. The only one now living is W. F. Charbon- neau, who was given a thorough college educa- tion and is now actively associated with his father in managing the Charbonneau horse farm.
WILLIAM REYNOLDS EDRINGTON, a Texas banker whose prestige and influence extend to the great financial district of New York, where he also maintains an office and home, William Reynolds Edrington is a lawyer by profession, practiced for several years at Fort Worth, and then left the law to enter bank- ing. He is one of the vice presidents of the great F. & M. National Bank of Fort Worth.
Mr. Edrington was born in Madison Parish, Louisiana, but in infancy was brought to Texas by his parents, Henry Clay and Vir-
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ginia (Clarke) Edrington. He profited by his early advantages and acquired a thorough, liberal education, attending the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, the State University, and also the University of Virgi- nia. He graduated in law in 1892, was admit- ted to the Texas bar the following year, and for five years looked after the interests of a growing and important clientage at Fort Worth.
In 1898 he accepted the post of cashier in the Traders National Bank of Forth Worth. With that institution he laid the foundation of his work as a financier. In 1915 he was chosen president of the Traders Bank, and when that institution was merged with the F. & M. National Bank he became one of its vice presidents.
Mr. Edrington is an exceptional authority on investments, and as an investment banker he maintains a New York office at 5 Nassau street. He also has a home in New York at 830 Park avenue.
In 1893 Mr. Edrington married Miss Fran- ces Field, of Fort Worth, daughter of one of the pioneer physicians of the city. They have one son, Henry Clay, and two daughters, Flo- rence and Mary Olive. Mr. Edrington is a member of the Fort Worth Club, Riverside Country Club, the Metropolitan, Lotos Clubs of New York, the Southern and Texas Socie- ties of New York. He is a Mason, affiliated with Moslah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Fort Worth, and is an active member and deacon in the College avenue church.
Much might be written concerning his pub- lic spirited citizenship. Following the de- structive conflagration at the Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1913 he was entrusted with the important task of financing the re- building, and had general oversight of the building construction. At the close of the work he was presented with a memorial from the Board of Directors. During the World war he was chairman of Red Cross drives and otherwise deeply interested in patriotic movements. For seven years Mr. Edrington was a member of the Fort Worth Park Board, and during his term the meandering road was built through the public park system. He was instrumental in establishing the Forest Park Zoo.
LONNIE M. MITCHELL has for many years been one of the popular figures in Fort Worth's business and social circles. He is a man of ex- ceptional enterprise, intelligence and business
sagacity, and has usually made a success of everything he has undertaken.
Mr. Mitchell was born in Atlanta, Georgia, March 8, 1879, a son of F. M. D. and Jane D. (Wooley) Mitchell. His parents spent all their lives in Georgia and reared six children, Lonnie M. being the youngest.
The latter was reared and educated in the city of Atlanta, and in 1898, at the age of nineteen, came to Texas. He drove all over the state with a team of horses before estab- lishing his headquarters at Fort Worth. Mr. Mitchell has been engaged in several business undertakings, was in the news business and was an undertaker, and still has some import- ant interests in the show and theatrical line. He has never married, and he now spends most of his time at his home at Lake Worth. He is a prominent Elk and was instrumental in building up the Lodge of Elks at Fort Worth.
ROY BINYON. A business that was devel- oped at Fort Worth during pioneer times, finally reaching such proportions that the same capital and management were expanded to in- clude also Galveston and Houston, is the Binyon & O'Keefe Fireproof Storage Com- pany. The Fort Worth manager of this busi- ness is Roy Binyon, a son of the original founder.
Roy Binyon was born in Fort Worth August 31, 1885, son of William J. and Leila (Howard) Binyon. His father was a native of Tennessee and came to Fort Worth about 1874, before the first railroad came to the city. In the early period of the city's growth he developed a storage business that has kept pace with the advance of Fort Worth to metropolitan size and population. This vet- eran business man is still living, though re- tired from active responsibilities. Leila How- ard, his wife, was born at Grandview, Texas, and her father was a pioneer Texan and was killed during the war between the states.
The youngest of five children, Roy Binyon was educated in the Fort Worth schools and was very young when he was taken into his father's establishment as office boy. Later he was made collector, then bookkeeper, assistant manager, and upon the removal of his brother to Galveston to manage the branch ware- houses in that city and at Houston, Roy suc- ceeded him as Fort Worth manager and has kept the business advancing steadily to meet the heavy demands upon its service. The Fort Worth house employs about a hundred and
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Roy Binyon
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twenty-five persons, and in point of facilities and capital invested this is one of the largest firms of its kind in the Southwest.
In November, 1909, Mr. Binyon married Miss Ethel Handy, of Sherman, Texas. Their three children are Elizabeth, Ethel Louise and Lyman. Mr. Binyon is a member of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, the Fort . Worth Club and the Kiwanis Club. He is also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Ma- son and a member of the Baptist Church.
E. P. MADDOX. The same year that wit- nessed the completion of the first railroad into Fort Worth also saw the addition of E. P. Maddox to the citizenship of that community. Mr. Maddox therefore belongs to the old timers in the community, and for many years has been a business man whose interests and activities have been a substantial element in the growth and welfare of the city.
Mr. Maddox, who is president of the Crystal Ice Company at Fort Worth, was born at Homer, Louisiana, January 22, 1859, a son of Colonel W. A. and Mary (Mayes) Mad- dox. His parents were born in Troupe Coun- ty, Georgia, and his grandfathers were natives of the same state. Colonel W. A. Maddox served as a Colonel in the Confederate army. In his family were eight sons and one daugh- ter, E. P. Maddox being the sixth in age.
He grew up in Louisiana, was educated there, and at the age of seventeen came to Texas and direct to Fort Worth, about the time of the Texas & Pacific Railway was completed. For a short time he herded horses south of town, and then worked for his brother, W. T. Maddox, in the livery business. When his parents came on to Texas in 1878 and located on a farm about six miles east of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, E. P. Maddox helped them in getting their land into cultiva- tion and then returned to town. About that time he was a member of the old volunteer fire department and later a peace officer.
It was in 1881 that Mr. Maddox and his brother, R. E. Maddox, began the manufacture of ice at Fort Worth. Later Mr. Maddox erected an ice plant at Lampsas Springs, and remained there operating the plant for eight years. While at Lampsas he was elected may- or, but when he sold his ice business he resigned the office and then returned to Fort Worth. During the next twenty years his business covered a wide territory, since he had the southwestern agency for a corporation manufacturing ice and re-
frigerating machinery. In 1910 Mr. Maddox erected one of the largest and best equipped artificial ice plants in the South, known as the Crystal Ice Company, and has been president and is owner of the controlling interest in the business, nearly all the other stock being owned by members of his family. Besides this im- portant business he finds recreation and profit in supervising a stock farm seven miles south- east of Fort Worth. He owned the first herd of registered Jerseys in Tarrant County.
Mr. Maddox married Miss Nannie Sims, of Fort Worth. She was born in Clarksville, Texas, her father, Captain J. W. Sims, being an ex-Confederate officer. Mr. and Mrs. Mad- dox have six children: Roberta, wife of E. H. Muse, of Fort Worth; Edna, wife of A. G. Hunt, of Fort Worth; Webb, associated with his father in the ice business, and who was a first lieutenant in the air service during the World war and prior to the war had prac- ticed law; Minnie Lee; Frank, an oil man ; and Edward P., also with his father in busi- ness. E. P. Maddox is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the Glen Garden Club and the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He has ever taken that degree of active interest in public affairs consistent with good citizenship, and contributed liberally of his time and personal effort in the promotion of the various movements tending toward the betterment of the city. For four years he served as a member of the City Council and as alderman from the Sixth Ward. For a number of years he served as a member of the School Board of Fort Worth, two years of which time he was chairman of the building committee. It was during his term as chair- man of this committee that the first fire-proof school building in the city was erected, to be rapidly folowed by other similar structures, which have done much toward the educational advancement of the city. The naming of these various schools was an honor conferred upon Mr. Maddox by his fellow members of the building committee, a worthy tribute of their recognition of his untiring zeal and energy as a public official. He still continues his ac- tivities in behalf of the public welfare and is now serving as a member of the Agricultural Committee of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. His entire life has been an active one and Mr. Maddox is one of those few re- maining citizens of Fort Worth of whom it may truly be said "he is one of the city's builders."
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J. C. GAITHER is general manager of Meacham's Department Store, one of Fort Worth's and Northwest Texas' foremost mer- cantile establishments.
The H. C. Meacham Company, owner of the store, and with which Mr. Gaither has been identified for thirteen years, was founded in 1905 by H. C. Meacham, with his store at Second and Houston streets, in a space 25x85 feet. In 1907 the H. C. Meacham Company was incorporated, and at that time moved into a building 50x100 feet. In 1908 the com- pany added similar space, giving 50x200 feet. There was a steady growth and expansion, outgrowing these quarters, and Mr. Meacham then built at Main and Twelfth streets, on the present site, a handsome three story building which has been occupied by the building since 1914. Another progressive step was taken in 1919 in the purchase of what is known as the Houston Street Annex, occupying seventy-five feet of frontage on Houston Street. Today the Meacham's Department Store uses a total of 47,000 square feet of floor space.
Mr. Gaither associated himself with the business in 1906 as manager. Illness in his family compelled him to be relieved of those duties in 1909, but in 1917 he returned to the business as its general manager. Under his supervision are a force of employes ranging from one hundred and fifty to two hundred. Meacham's from the beginning has been strictly a cash retail business, and has never deviated from that policy.
LLOYD WEAVER. Born and reared on a Texas ranch, Lloyd Weaver has shown the respon- sibilities that await the intelligent young man of enterprise in the growing city of Wichita Falls, where he is the oldest man in point of continuous service in the automobile busi- ness, and has one of the largest and most com- plete establishments of that kind in this sec- tion of the state.
Mr. Weaver was born on his father's cattle ranch at Joy in Clay County, Texas, in 1892, a son of William F. and Lenora (Hayes) Weaver. His father moved from Tennessee to Texas when a young man, located in Clay County when it was an unfenced portion of the great cattle range, and for many years has been one of the leading ranchers and cattle raisers in that county. His home is near Joy, and he and his wife have seven sons.
Though only twenty-eight years of age, Lloyd Weaver has the oldest automobile house in
Wichita Falls, and it is now by a good margin also the largest. Coming to the city in 1910, before it has become a world renowned oil center, he established what was merely a small shop on what is known as Wall Street, just off Eighth and adjoining the old City National Bank. His business has grown progressively and has always kept apace with the needs of the enlarging city, and he now occupies a magnificent three story building at Ninth and Travis streets, 50x150 feet. All three floors are devoted to his business. On the third floor is what automobile men and engineers pronounce to be the most modern and best equipped machine shop in Texas, having all the facilities for rebuilding motors as they are rebuilt in the factory and giving them the same factory tests. The blacksmith shop and other machinery afford facilities for fitting pistons, and repairing and replacing every part of the Hudson or Essex cars.
The business, owned by Mr. Weaver, is con- ducted as the Lloyd Weaver Automobile Com- pany. The company are exclusive dealers in this section for the Hudson and Essex cars. The establishment is distinctly creditable to Wichita Falls, as well as to the personal energy and enterprise of its owner.
Mr. Weaver has taken a commendable part in civic affairs and is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Wichita Club, the Wichita Falls Automobile Dealers Associa- tion, and fraternally is a Mason and an Elk. He married Miss Frankie Cecil, of Houston, Texas. They have one daughter, Margaret.
HUBB DIGGS. One of the most notably suc- cessful automobile distributing agencies in the Southwest is the Hubb Diggs Company, presi- dent and owner and guiding genius of which is Hubb Diggs. Mr. Diggs is a native Texan, was formerly a traveling salesman, and had a variety of both successful and unsuccessful experiences during his younger years.
He was born in Fannin County, at the Town of Leonard, June 20, 1882, son of P. H. and G. A. (Stapp) Diggs. His maternal un- cle, R. A. Stapp, was a pioneer nurseryman in the vicinity of Fort Worth and assisted Cap- tain Paddock in building the "Palace" at Fort Worth. P. H. Diggs was born in North Caro- lina and his wife in Mississippi. Coming to Texas in 1870, the family located in Fannin County. Hubb Diggs was the fourth among six children.
He grew up and received his education in Fannin County and as a young man went on
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Lubo Diggo
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the road and traveled as representative for several houses in the Southwest until 1910. In that year, practically without capital, he located at Fort Worth and accepted an op- portunity to engage in the men's furnishings business. This was continued with modest success until 1915, in which year he trans- ferred all his resources and energies to the business of selling Ford cars. From a local salesman he soon came to rank sixth in vol- ume of business done for the company and eventually the Ford Company gave to the Hubb Diggs Company most of the wholesale and retail rights for the sale and distribution of Ford cars over a large territory, and the business is now the largest individual repre- sentative of the Ford Company in the South- west. More than a hundred people are em- ployed by the company.
Mr. Diggs has acquired other important interests. He was one of the organizers and is a stockholder and director of the National Bank of. Commerce, a banking institution which a year after its establishment had over four million dollars in deposits. He is presi- dent of the Automobile Dealers' Association and president of the Automobile Owners' League. Mr. Diggs is secretary of the Fort Worth Park Board, which has supervision of all the park interests of the city, including Lake Worth. He is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club, the Glen Garden Club, and is a Mason and Shriner. In December, 1910, Mr. Diggs mar- ried Lillie Mae Attebery, of Leonard, Texas. Politically Mr. Diggs is a democrat.
JAMES F. CONNELL four or five years ago Ranger had a third class postoffice, the official salary of the postmaster being $1400 a year, and therefore it was practically a one man office. It is doubtful if the records of the postal department exhibit any case with more rapid growth and expansion than that at Ranger. With the increase of the town's population from less than a thousand to at least twenty thousand within a year, the postal revenues justified the . promo- tion to a first class office, and recently an official statement of total receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, showed the amount $1,140,754.37. The postoffice at that time had thirty-five employes, with a monthly pay roll of over six thousand dollars. The postoffice is housed in a fifty thousand dollar building, and this in itself is a remarkable testimony to the public spirit of the local business com-
munity and indicates how far in advance that spirit is than the pace of the postal depart- ment itself. The postoffice building at Ranger was built by local business men, who, probably taking their cue from wartime pa- triotism, have rented it to the Government for a dollar a month.
Mr. Connell, the postmaster, was born at Princeton, Dallas County, Arkansas, and was only a boy when he came from his Arkansas home to Western Texas in 1893. At that time he became acquainted with Ranger and vicinity in Eastland County. Ranger then was only a small station on the Texas and Pacific Railway. He was here for several years, worked on cattle ranches, and also made use of his talents in music as a teacher of vocal and band instruments. He was or- ganizer of two well known bands at Ranger and Eastland. Mr. Connell knows by personal experience the former status of the Ranger postoffice, since he was assistant postmaster there some twenty years ago. In 1902 he was appointed to the railway mail service, and served several years with home and head- quarters at Fort Worth.
Mr. Connell returned to his old home at Ranger in 1918 and immediately identified himself with the enterprises which were transforming the region into one of the fa- mous oil centers in the world. He entered the drilling business as a partner in the Ditt- man Drilling Company, and as such took an active part in the development of the Ranger fields. He continued that work until he was appointed postmaster in April, 1920. Mr. Con- nell is active in local affairs and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
His first wife was Rosa Barnes, of Ranger, daughter of J. E. and Nancy (Yates) Barnes. She is a sister of E. J. Barnes, one of Ranger's leading citizens. By his first marriage Mr. Connell has two daughters, Bertha and Geor- gia. His wife was taken by death about four and a half years after her marriage. Nine years later Mr. Connell married Miss Lillie Gilmer. They have one son, James F., Jr.
H. C. CURTRIGHT. One of the largest orga- nizations occupying the popular mercantile field of the five and ten cent store is S. H. Kress & Company. This company is repre- sented by stores all over the South, and one of the veteran store managers of the corpora- tion is H. C. Curtright, who for the past eight years has directed the business of the firm at Fort Worth.
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Mr. Curtright was born in Lee County, Alabama, August 19, 1882, a son of William Henry and Annie E. Curtright. His parents were natives of Georgia and are now deceased. William H. Curtright in early life was a far- mer and later a general merchant and cotton dealer.
H. C. Curtright was next to the youngest in a family of ten children. Son of a well to do business man, he was given a good edu- cation in private schools and in the high school at La Grange, Georgia, and from school immediately embarked on a business career. For about two years he was employed in a grocery store, then for a year was office man for a hardware concern, and since this three years of training his time and interests have been fully taken up with the corporation of S. H. Kress & Company.
His first association with the company was at Birmingham, Alabama, where he was re- tained about two years. Following that he was manager of the company at Jackson, Tennessee, from October, 1907, to January 1910, was manager at Montgomery, Alabama, until April, 1913, and at the latter date took charge of the business at Fort Worth.
Mr. Curtright is an active Mason, being a member of the Fort Worth Shrine. He is a member of the Rotary Club and the Episcopal Church.
JOHN F. HENDERSON is one of the pioneer telephone men of the country, and his asso- ciations with the telephone equipment, facili- ties and service in the Fort Worth district comprise practically every phase in the devel- opment of a crude instrument of communi- cation to the marvelous efficiency known to the present generation.
He was born in Clinton, Tennessee, January 10, 1859, and in 1877, when he was eighteen years of age, his parents, William and Martha Henderson, came to Texas and settled in Tarrant County. He came to this state with a common school education and finished his early training in the Grapevine Masonic Insti- tute in Tarrant County. Soon after he left that school he entered the service of the local telephone company at Fort Worth in the capac- ity of a laborer. He knows the technical as well as the business side of the telephone industry, and in a continuous service has risen to the position of district manager.
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