USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 30
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VERNER STUART WARDLAW is president of the Exchange State Bank, which has substan- tial prestige as one of the staunch and well conducted banking institutions of the City of Fort Worth, with the business activities of which city he has been prominently identified since 1891.
Mr. Wardlaw, the fifth in order of birth in a family of nine children, all of whom at- tained to years of maturity, was born at Clarksville, Tennessee, on March 25, 1861, and is a son of Rev. T. DeLacey Wardlaw, D. D., LL.D., M. D., and Louise (Fisler) Wardlaw. Doctor Wardlaw was born in the north of Ireland, a representative of a sterling Presbyterian family of Scotch lineage, and
was eighteen years of age when he came to America and established his residence in To- ronto, Canada, having previously received his academic education at Trinity College (Dublin University), Dublin, Ireland. After finishing his collegiate course in the leading colleges of Toronto he went to Princeton University and entered the theological department to pre- pare himself for the ministry of the Presby- terian Church, finishing with the degrees of D. D. and LL.D. His first charge was the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he married in the early '50s. He had subsequent pastorates at the First Presby- terian churches at Paris, Kentucky; Clarks- ville, Tennessee, and Shelbyville, Tennessee. During his pastorate at Clarksville the town was occupied by the Union forces, and upon his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the Union cause, he being a firm believer in the justness of the Confederate cause, his church was closed and he went to Philadel- phia, where he pursued a course of study of medicine and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He did not, however, engage in medical practice, for following the close of the war he returned to Tennessee and resumed his ministerial duties as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Clarksville, remaining until 1868, when he moved to Shelbyville, Tennessee. There he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring July 29, 1879, at the age of sixty-three years. His widow at- tained to the venerable age of seventy-five years and passed the closing period of her gentle and gracious life at Shelbyville, Ten- nessee.
Verner S. Wardlaw gained his earlier edu- cation in the schools of Shelbyville and Clarks- ville, Tennessee, and further had the fortify- ing advantages of a home of signal culture and refined influences. In 1882 he was gradu- ated in the Southwestern Presbyterian Uni- versity at Clarksville, Tennessee, and there- after he remained in his native state until 1886, when he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and became a bookkeeper in the Merchants National Bank. In this institution he won promotion to the position of assistant cashier, of which he continued the incumbent until 1891, when he came to Fort Worth, Texas, where he assumed the dual office of treasurer of the Fort Worth Packing Company and sec- retary and general manager of the Union Stock Yards Company. His executive capac- ity set no limitations upon its application, shown by the fact that he gave effective serv-
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ice also as cashier of the Union Stock Yards Bank. In 1893 he organized the first livestock commission company to operate in connection with the Fort Worth market, and with this corporation he continued his active and effec- tive association for the ensuing eleven years. In 1904 he sold his interest in this field of business and again showed his initiative, abil- ity and progressiveness by effecting the erec- tion and equipment of the North Fort Worth Ice and Cold Storage Plant, which was suc- cessfully operated under his able administra- tion for the ensuing sixteen years. Within this period Mr. Wardlaw became one of the organizers of the Exchange National Bank, which was incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000 and which began business in North Fort Worth, which at that time was a separate municipality. When North Fort Worth be- came a part of the City of Fort Worth in 1908 the Exchange National Bank surren- dered its national charter and reorganized as a state bank, and its banking offices were removed from the original location to quar- ters at 101 Main Street, Fort Worth. At that time the capital of the bank was increased to $100,000 and in January, 1921, to $300,000, and Mr. Wardlaw, who had been president of the bank under the national charter, has continued as chief executive of the Exchange State Bank. This institution has been signally prosperous in its business. Mr. Wardlaw gives the major part of his time to the super- vision of the affairs of the bank, but has other capitalistic and property interests, including a valuable ranch property in Parker County, Texas, sixteen miles west of Fort Worth. Through his own ability and well directed en- deavors he has gained secure status as one of the representative business men of Fort Worth, and his character and achievements have marked him as worthy of the unqualified popular esteem in which he is held in this community. He is prominently affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Mystic Shrine, and holds membership in the Fort Worth Club, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and the West Texas Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian Church in their home city.
In 1887 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wardlaw to Miss Annie M. Miller, of Louisville, Kentucky, and they have two daughters : Jessie, wife of M. Lyle Talbot, M. D., of Fort Worth, and Verner S.
SAM D. YOUNG. When he became presi- dent of the reorganized and newly chartered Security State Bank & Trust Company of Eastland in November, 1920, Sam D. Young had the distinction of being the youngest bank president in Texas, and undoubtedly one of the youngest men in such a position in the entire country. He has grown up in the atmosphere and technique of banks and finan- cial institutions, and possesses a very mature and extensive experience qualifying him to guide this important financial institution of the West Texas oil district.
Mr. Young was born at Woodville in Tyler County, Texas, November 15, 1895, a son of C. A. and Sarah Frances (Sims) Young. His parents still live at Woodville. C. A. Young was also born in East Texas. His father was the late Rev. Acton Young, a pioneer Metho- dist minister of . East Texas and for many years a presiding elder.
Sam D. Young grew up at Woodville, where he had a public school education. Several years before reaching his majority the oppor- tunity for a banking career was opened to him by a position in the Gulf National Bank at Beaumont. One of the large stock holders of that institution was his uncle, ex-Congress- man S. P. Cooper. Since then Mr. Young has worked and studied, and has made banking the object of his complete energies and enthu- siasm. At the age of twenty-two he was made a state bank examiner, his duties taking him to many sections of Texas and giving him a favorable acquaintance with bankers and a knowledge of banking practices and methods.
From the time Eastland was a small town the City National Bank was an organization and institution performing an adequate serv- ice to the business community, and was con- tinued under that name for thirty years. In 1920, owing to the necessity of greatly in- creased capital and other facilities demanded by Eastland's position in a wealthy oil dis- trict, the officers determined upon a complete reorganization, and a new charter was secured under the name of the Security State Bank & Trust Company of Eastland. The capital is $150,000 and the active officials chosen to take charge of the reorganized bank are S. D. Young, president ; Allen D. Dabney, vice presi- dent; and D. G. Hunt, Jr., cashier. Mr. Young was well known to Eastland citizens, and a great faith in the future of the city was what led him to accept the office of president of the bank, preferring a connection with East-
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land rather than the vice presidency of one of the large banks of Dallas.
WILLOUGHBY J. HOWARD is a Fort Worth boy, representing a Tarrant County family that came here when things were still in a pioneer state, and practically his entire busi- ness career has been with the Fort Worth office of R. G. Dun & Company, of which he is now manager.
Mr. Howard was born at Fort Worth, April 1, 1881, a son of Adelbert J. and Sarah J. (Van Hoosier) Howard, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Texas. A. J. Howard, a son of Thomas R. Howard, came to Fort Worth during the '70s, and for several years they were associated in the trans- fer business. In 1880 A. J. Howard entered the employ of Fakes & Company, furniture dealers, and has now completed more than forty years of continuous association with that prominent Fort Worth firm.
Willoughby J. Howard was educated in Fort Worth schools and at the age of seventeen became an employe of the local office of R. G. Dun & Company. In 1910 he was appointed manager.
Mr. Howard is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Kiwanis Club, and is prominent in the Fort Worth Credit Men's Association. In September, 1907, at Fort Worth, he married Kathrine Bell Clarke. Her father, W. K. Clarke, is a stock farmer living near Weather- ford, Texas. Mrs. Howard completed her education in the Weatherford Seminary.
BENJAMIN DELANY SHROPSHIRE. Shrop- shire & Shropshire is a firm of lawyers whose practice has covered an extensive field in Fort Worth and Western Texas. They maintain offices both at Fort Worth and at Eastland. The senior partner is B. D. Shropshire, who began practice more than forty years ago, and for upwards of thirty years has been a leading member of the Fort Worth bar.
Judge Shropshire was born at La Grange, Texas, September 23, 1855. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Ben Shropshire, the former a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky, and the latter of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Ben Shrop- shire was also a lawyer, and in 1851 located at La Grange, Texas, where he earned a high position in his profession. He served two years as district judge, and during the war between the states was captain of his com- pany. He died in 1867 and his wife in 1877. Captain Shropshire was a member of the Epis-
copal Church. Of his family of three sons and one daughter all but one son are still living. B. D. Shropshire being the third in age.
B. D. Shropshire finished his education in Trinity University and in the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar in 1879, and did his first professional work in Fayette County, Texas. He was assistant county attorney and was elected county attorney, but after one year in office resigned and located at Comanche in Western Texas. Here he practiced with his brother, E. L. Shropshire, until 1888, when he was appointed district attorney of the Forty-second Judicial District. He was reg- ularly elected to that office in the fall of 1888 and re-elected in 1890, but subsequently re- signed in order to resume his private practice and then removed to Fort Worth.
Judge Shropshire is a member of the Epis- copal Church and for several years was a vestryman. On January 31, 1879, at La Grange, Texas, he married Miss Mary E. Pope. She finished her education in the Sem- inary at Staunton, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Shropshire have three sons and one daughter. L. L. Shropshire, the oldest son, is in the wholesale grocery business at Fort Worth ; R. B., known as Bob Shropshire, is junior member of the law firm of Shropshire & Shropshire; Delany G., the daughter, is now Mrs. A. L. Bussey, and lives at Fort Worth ; and B. D. Shropshire, Jr., is a Fort Worth real estate man.
WILLIAM PINKNEY MCLEAN, who was a member of the first Board of Railroad Com- missioners in Texas, still carries responsibili- ties as a practicing lawyer in Fort Worth, and is one of the few active lawyers of the state who tried their first cases before the Civil war.
Judge McLean, whose life has been one of distinction as well as of length of years, was born in Copiah County, Mississippi, August 9, 1836, son of Allen Ferguson and Ann (Rose) McLean. His father was born in Robeson County, North Carolina, where he was reared and acquired his early education, was a gradu- ate of Princeton College, and spent his active life as a merchant. He died in Mississippi in 1838. Judge McLean has a brother, John H. McLean, long a prominent clergyman of Dal- las. In 1839 the widowed mother brought her two sons to Texas and located in Harri- son County. Later she lived in what is now Cass County. Judge McLean attended his
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first school in Marshall, Harrison County, at- tending what was known as the university there. Later he was sent east to enjoy the superior facilities of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1857 and received his law diploma in 1858. With a training much su- perior to the average young lawyer of the time Judge McLean returned to Texas and began practice at Jefferson, but soon afterward moved to Victoria County in Southern Texas, where he bought a plantation on the Guada- lupe River. He conducted his farm enter- prise in addition to his practice as a lawyer, and soon afterward was elected to the Legis- lature to represent Victoria, DeWitt, Goliad, Jackson and Calhoun counties. He resigned his seat in the Leglislature in 1861 to enlist in the Confederate Army, going in as a pri- vate in the Nineteenth Texas Infantry. He was made adjutant of the regiment, after- ward adjutant general of the Third Brigade, Walker's Division, and rendered all the duties of the valiant soldier until the close of the war, coming out with the rank of major of cavalry. During the war his family had re- moved to Titus County, where he rejoined them and where about 1869 he resumed his career as a lawyer. In that year he was elected to the Legislature from Red River and Titus counties. Judge McLean had the dis- tinction of representing Texas in Congress during the closing years of reconstruction. He was nominated at Mckinney at a conven- tion of the Second Congressional District, was elected in 1872, but after one term voluntarily retired. In 1872 he was also chosen one of the democratic electors at Corsicana, but re- signed that honor to accept the nomination for Congress. In 1875 Judge McLean was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention which framed the present organic law of Texas.
In the meantime he was engaged in a stead- ily growing private practice as a lawyer at Mount Pleasant until 1884, when he was elected district judge of the Fifth Judicial District. He served one term and then re- sumed his practice. In 1891 Governor James S. Hogg appointed him a member of the newly created Railroad Commission and in 1893 he was reappointed to that office. Judge Mc- Lean's services have always been commended for the part he played in instituting the Rail- road Commission as one of the first effective steps toward the regulation of corporations in Texas.
Judge McLean resigned from the Railroad Commission in 1894 and in that year removed from Mount Pleasant to Fort Worth, where for over a quarter of a century he has been busied with the congenial duties of a private law practice. For many years he was head of the well known firm of McLean, Scott & McLean.
July 11, 1859, Judge McLean married Mar- garet Batte, of Titus County, Texas. Nine children were born to their marriage: Ann, Ida and Richard B., all deceased; Thomas Rusk; Jefferson Davis, deceased; William Pinkney, Jr. ; Margaret ; John H .; and Bessie. All the children were born in Texas. Judge McLean is a Royal Arch Mason and a mem- ber of the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity, also a member of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.
NORMAN NEIL BINNS, optometrist, one of the successful business and professional men of Fort Worth, whose store is at 713 Main street, has lived practically all his life in Texas.
His birth occurred in Manchester, England, March 27, 1889. His father is George Alfred Binns, now sixty-five years of age and a well to do farmer in Wood County, Texas. George Alfred Binns came to America with his family in 1887, two years before the birth of this son. For a time he lived at Corpus Christi and then moved to Dallas County and became manager of the extensive ranch of former Lieutenant Governor Barney Gibbs. This ranch consisted of some ten thousand acres situated twenty miles south of Dallas, and dur- ing the early boyhood of Norman N. Binns he recalls that about half of it was in one vast pasture, where as many as a thousand head of cattle grazed. One incident of his boyhood was riding on top of a load of cotton seed hulls en route from the nearest railroad station at Farmers Branch to the ranch. It was a cold day, and he nearly froze during the ride.
The wife of George Alfred Binns returned to England, and during her visit to the old country in 1889 her son and only child was born. George A. Binns applied for his first citizenship papers after reaching Texas, but never completed the formality of naturaliza- tion. Norman N. Binns did not know of this until the World war came on, when much to his chagrin he discovered that he was not an American citizen. It was an astonishing dis- covery, since he had lived in America all his
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life, and the first song he learned to sing in school was the Star Spangled Banner. He took immediate steps to naturalize, but was not granted his final papers until after con- siderable delay. His father had voted at elec- tions ever since coming to Texas, and the son likewise voted after coming of age, and neither was conscious of lack of qualifications. George A. Binns is a thorough farmer and stock raiser, and has been active in that business for over thirty years. Norman N. Binns received his education at first in the old Hackberry School near the Gibbs ranch, and by educa- tion and training has thoroughly qualified him- self for the vocation he now follows. He has been in the optical business in Fort Worth since September, 1908.
On April 24, 1909, Mr. Binns married Miss Ruby Evalyn Skeen, daughter of R. E. Skeen, a business man of Winnsboro, Texas. They have one child, Richard Ainslee Binns, born October 31, 1911. Mr. Binns has been active in the affairs of the city ever since he took up residence here, lending his aid at any and all times to the upbuilding of Fort Worth. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club and the Lions Club, of the Knights of Pythias and the D. O. K. K., and is also a member of Broadway Presbyterian Church.
LEE A. BARNES. Almost a unique and pic- turesque business career has been that of L. A. Barnes, head of the L. A. Barnes Company, commercial stationers at 1009 Houston Street.
Mr. Barnes, whose fortunes and life became linked with Fort Worth nearly thirty years ago, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, November 27, 1860. His father, Elijah Barnes, was a native of Manchester, England, came to America in 1820, and lived for a time in Philadelphia and later in Morgan County, Ohio. He was a weaver by trade, and in Ohio followed farming until the close of the war in 1865, when he moved further west and for six years was a resident of Hancock County, Illinois, and then moved to St. Clair County, Missouri, where he died after many years of successful experience as a general farmer. He was a democrat and a member of the Christian Church.
Of his family of three sons and one daugh- ter, Lee A. Barnes is the youngest. He ac- quired his early education in common schools and when he left home he clerked in a drug store at Appleton City ten years. Mr. Barnes came to Texas in 1894, locating at Fort Worth.
His first enterprise here was a confectionery and news stand, and some of his old time friends and associates assert that practically his entire stock in trade consisted of a stock of roasted peanuts. As is frequently the case in business history, his personality and char- ter were more important than financial stand- ing. The business gradually took on increased prosperity, and out of that modest nucleus has developed the present L. A. Barnes Com- pany, a large and profitable business with sales running over a hundred thousand dollars annually.
On November 11, 1886, Mr. Barnes married Miss Maggie Howell. They have a son, Floyd H., born November 3, 1888, at Apple- ton City, Missouri. He was reared and ed- ucated in Fort Worth and is now a member of the firm of L. A. Barnes Company, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Kiwanis Club, the Elks, and is an enthusiastic believer in the great destiny of his adopted city.
R. WALTER PORTER began his career as a railroad man, but for the past ten years his time and energies have been completely de- voted to the nationally known business of the Woolworth Stores Company, and for two years past he has been identified with Fort Worth citizenship as manager of the Wool- worth store in that city.
Mr. Porter is a native of Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, where he was born January 21, 1886, a son of David W. and Mary E. (Kerr) Porter. His parents are still living in Pitts- burgh, and five of their six children are alive. R. Walter Porter was the third in order of birth. He acquired a public school education in his native city and lived at home to the age of eighteen. He then entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a clerk, and for seventeen years was employed in the depot ticket office.
On leaving Pittsburgh he came to the South- west and acquired his first experience in the five and ten cent business with the F. W. Woolworth Company at San Antonio. In the service of this great corporation he has made rapid and notable progress. In 1914 he was transferred to the New Orleans store for further training, and from there was promoted to manager of the store at Tyler, Texas. In April, 1917, he was transferred as manager of the Woolworth store at Galveston. Upon the death of Mr. Henry Stillman, manager of the Fort Worth store, Mr. Porter succeeded to those responsibilities in September, 1919. In
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the two years past the sales of the Fort Worth dent of the Cicero Smith Lumber Company and interested in the Tombs Sash and Door Company and ranches in Texas.
branch have shown a healthy increase. The Woolworth store is one of the permanent mer- cantile institutions of Fort Worth. The busi- ness is located at 908 Main Street and 909 Houston Street, with a space of 50 to 100 feet on Main Street and 25 by 90 feet on Houston Street. From thirty-five to forty- five employes are required to handle the stock and sales, most of the employes being girls. The store is well equipped in every respect, and besides the main sales floor has a base- ment for surplus stock.
Mr. Porter is a young man, one who has achieved a highly creditable position at the age of thirty-five, and with youth and enthusiasm at high tide he takes practically no recreation, giving his time mainly to his business. Never- theless he has interested himself in civic affairs at Fort Worth. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club.
WILSON E. CONNELL, president of the First National Bank of Fort Worth, is one of the men who has gained an enviable position in financial circles, and has made for himself a name that is national. His connection with this bank gives it added solidity, and his in- terests are centered in and about Fort Worth, for he is loyal to his home community. He was born in Bell County, Texas, April 12, 1858, a son of William and Louisa (Wills) Connell, natives of Tennessee and Missouri, respectively. The family is of Scotch-Irish descent, although long established in America.
Growing up in Brown County, Texas, Wil- son E. Connell attended its schools until he was sixteen years old, at which time he began to be self-supporting, and from then on has made his own way in life, for he is one of the many instances of self-made men to be found in Texas. As many did at that time, he secured employment on a ranch, and was in the cattle business for about seven years, and then embarked in a mercantile business at Sweetwater, Texas, having as his partner his brother G. H. Connell, but sold his inter- ests at the expiration of ten years.
Mr. Connell found the business for which his abilities fitted him, however, when he or- ganized the First National Bank of Midland, Texas, of which he was cashier for ten years, and then, in 1898, came to Fort Worth and was cashier of the First National Bank of this city. Later he was made its vice presi- dent, and in 1912 was made its president, which office he still holds. He is vice presi-
In 1881 Mr. Connell was married to Hattie Millican, and they have three sons and three daughters, namely: Mollie, who is the wife of P. G. Spinner, of Oklahoma; Clyde C., who resides in Garza County, Texas; Nell, who is the wife of I. N. McCrary, of Fort Worth; Blanch, who is the wife of Tad Wal- lace, of Fort Worth; Giles W., who is a resi- dent of Post City, Texas; and Allen B., who lives at Fort Worth. Mr. Connell is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club and the Temple Club. He is a Mason. As a member of the Baptist Church he gives expression for his religious beliefs. Mr. Connell is a man who has advanced surely and steadily. Having been in the bank- ing business for so many years he has learned its every detail and understands it as well, if not better, than any man in the state. His judgment in financial matters is unquestioned, and when he takes a stand with reference to any movement its success or failure is deter- mined, for others, depending upon him, will follow his example. With such men as he in charge of the finances of the state its future is assured, for they will not countenance any operations which are not sane, sound and in accordance to strict banking principles.
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