USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 34
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president of the Lowdon Company of Fort Worth; May, wife of Cleaves Rhea, president of the First National Bank of Whitney, Texas; and W. C. Lowdon, secretary and treasurer of the Stafford-Lowdon Company.
E. C. Lowdon, who was the third in age of these children, was about two years of age when brought to Texas, and he spent the years of his boyhood chiefly at Abilene. He attended the high school there and finished his educa- tion in the William Penn Charter School of Philadelphia. He learned banking under his father at Abilene, and for about three years was associated with his brother in a mercan- tile business at Van Horn in Culberson County in extreme Western Texas. Mr. Lowdon's next enterprise was operating a farm in Mary- land, where he continued until 1915. On re- turning to Texas he located at Fort Worth and acquired his knowledge of the printing and engraving business with the Reimers Com- pany. In 1918 he became associated with the Lowdon Company, a similar enterprise, and in October, 1919, he and his associates bought the business of the Reimers Company and organ- ized the Stafford-Lowdon Company, of which Mr. Lowdon is vice president.
In 1916 he married Miss Lillie Shepherd, of Fort Worth. Mr. Lowdon is a member of the Kiwanis Club, the Glen Garden Country Club, and of other civic and social organiza- tions in Fort Worth.
J. J. BALLARD came to Fort Worth thirty years ago, was formerly a telegraph operator and train dispatcher, but during most of his active career at Fort Worth has been a leader in the ice manufacturing industry.
Mr. Ballard, one of the city's highly es- teemed citizens and business men, was born at Milton, Kentucky, in March, 1865. His father, A. C. Ballard, now living retired at La Grange, Kentucky, at the age of seventy-seven, pos- sessed a very fine literary education and for a number of years was a teacher. Later he was a merchant, was elected and served a term as county clerk, and in politics was a democrat but finally became a republican. Of his nine children eight are still living, J. J. Ballard of Fort Worth being the third in age.
J. J. Ballard was prompted to get out into the world and make his own living, and con- sequently attended school only long enough to get the fundamentals of learning. At the age of thirteen he went to work in a telegraph office, learned telegraphy, and became very proficient with the key. He was in the tele-
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graph service for twenty years, being an oper- ator at different places, and when he came to Fort Worth in 1891 he was train dispatcher several years. While thus engaged he be- came interested in the manufacture of ice in partnership with Mr. Walter. In 1897 the business was organized as the Ballard-Walter Company, and they conducted a model ice plant in Fort Worth for several years. After dis- posing of his interests Mr. Ballard went to Cleburne, Texas, organized a company, built an ice plant, and saw it in a successful stage of operation. He then sold out and returned to Fort Worth and organized the Ballard Ice & Fuel Company. In 1918 he disposed of his holdings in the Ballard Ice & Fuel Company and organized the Ballard Martin Electric Ice Company. This firm conducts a large plant, with the latest machinery, and manufactures a large portion of the ice supply for Fort Worth and vicinity.
Mr. Ballard was one of the organizers of the Northern Trust Company of Fort Worth. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner, and a democrat in poli- tics. On October 23, 1897, he married Miss Anna Lee Hogsett, daughter of Judge J. Y. Hogsett, and she is a member of the Christian Science Church. They have two children : J. Y. Ballard, the older, is attending the Boston School of Technology. J. J. Ballard, Jr., is a student in the Fort Worth High School.
REUBEN CHARLES HATFIELD is one of the best known railway commercial agents in the Southwest. He took up railroading as soon as he finished his education, and has been con- tinuously in that business and profession over thirty years.
Mr. Hatfield, who is now division freight agent for the Cotton Belt Line at Fort Worth, was born at Dayton, Ohio, June 30, 1869, son of George W. and Elizabeth (Knecht) Hat- field. His parents were natives of Dayton and both are now deceased. Of their eight chil- dren R. C. was the fourth in age and is next to the oldest of the four still living. Mr. Hat- field was reared and lived at Dayton until he was seventeen, and acquired his education in the public schools there. In 1889, at the age of twenty, he entered the railroad service as a clerk in the car accounting department. His varied experience took him to several differ- ent systems and to many locations. For a time he was a commercial agent at Cairo, Illinois, and in 1897 was transferred to San Antonio, Texas, where on June 10, 1898, he was ap-
pointed commercial freight and livestock agent. July 1, 1904, he came to Fort Worth as general agent. During the Federal railway administration this office was abolished and Mr. Hatfield was made chief clerk of the con- solidated freight offices at Fort Worth. On March 1, 1920, he was given his present duties as division freight and passenger agent for the Cotton Belt lines at Fort Worth.
Mr. Hatfield has been a resident of Fort Worth for over sixteen years, and through his business and his civic enterprise has loyally co-operated with everything for the city's ad- vancement and betterment. He is unmarried, and is prominent socially, being a York and Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Elks, the Hoo Hoos, the Fort Worth Club and the Rotary Club.
THOMAS G. DEFFEBACHI has had a very in- teresting and vital association with the remark- able oil city of Ranger. He was there as man- ager of the Burton-Lingo Lumber Company before the oil boom struck, and with the in- crease of local population from less than a thousand to twenty thousand within a few months no business service contributed to more exacting demands than that of supplying lum- ber and building material for the community. Even without the handicap imposed by war- time limitations the supply could never have equalled the demand. However, Ranger was fortunate in having a branch establishment of the Burton-Lingo Lumber Company, one of the greatest retail organizations of the kind in the country. Mr. Deffebach made himself invaluable in the line of business service to the community, and has been also prominently identified with various civic movements.
Mr. Deffebach was born twenty miles north of Denver, Colorado, in 1873, son of John and Elizabeth (Westover) Deffebach. His father, a native of Missouri, was a frontiers- man and cattle man all his life. At the close of the Civil war, still a very young man, he went into the West and engaged in freighting on the plains, and subsequently ranged his cattle and livestock over a vast territory through Colorado, Wyoming and the Dakotas. For some years his home was on the ranch twenty miles north of Denver, where his son Thomas was born. In 1876 he took his cattle across the country to the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota, establishing a new home there. He was killed by the Indians in Eastern Wyoming in 1880.
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Thomas G. Deffebach was seven years of age when his father lost his life. He grew up in the West, acquired a good education, graduated from the Western Normal School of South Dakota, and began his active career as a teacher. He taught five years in South Dakota and then became a rancher, and for about ten years handled stock on his own land and on the open range in North Dakota.
Mr. Deffebach came to Texas in 1909, and his association with the Burton-Lingo Lum- ber Company began at the same time. As a branch yard manager he first located at Snyder, where he had charge of the Com- pany's lumber business about five years. It was in 1914 that he took the management of the Burton-Lingo lumber yards at Ranger. He was therefore on the ground and had become well acquainted with the people and the local situation before the beginning of the oil boom in the fall of 1917. As a result of the emergency demands made upon his busi- ness the Ranger plant has become one of the largest operated by the Burton-Lingo Company.
The Burton-Lingo Lumber Company is one of the largest retail lumber concerns in Texas. The company was organized in 1888 by Willard Burton and E. H. Lingo at Denison, Texas. The business grew and developed until the company had more than fifty branch establishments in the states of Texas and Oklahoma.
Mr. Deffebach has supplied some of the counsel and the effort that have enabled Ranger to solve the problems of rapid growth and expansion. He was chosen at the first election under the new commission charter as commissioner of finance of the city in April, 1919, and has given much of his time to the duties of this office. His firm is a member of the Ranger Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Deffebach married Miss Ethelyn Stevens. She 'was born in Ohio but was reared in South Dakota, where they met and married. Her five children are Vernon, Beth, Lyle, Arthur and Thomas.
HUBERT M. HARRISON. The Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce is one of the bodies of sensible, hard-headed business men who have been anxious to get away as far as pos- sible from the old-time methods of "boosting," and they sensibly placed the affairs of their organization in the capable hands of a man who had specialized in this kind of work, and
in the person of Hubert M. Harrison have one of the best managers in the state.
The old order is passing ; new methods are being adopted and every organization is being systematized where progressive men have charge. In days gone by, and unfortunately the plan still persists in some communities, the idea of a Chamber of Commerce was to have that body offer special inducements to manu- facturing concerns in order to have them locate their plants in that certain community, without taking into due consideration the re- liability of the company or the suitability of the industry for the region in question. All over the country in the smaller towns and cities are to be found abandoned factories, and painful memories of money and effort expended in vain. The modern method is en- tirely different, for according to it the re- sources of a locality are carefully studied by experts, hired for the purpose, and movements are put on foot for the development of them, as much as possible with local capital. Loca- tion with reference to water courses and rail- roads, sources of supply and demand, are all considered, reported upon, and final action taken only after proper deliberation, so that what improvements are made and innovations inaugurated are permanent and belong to the people themselves and are not dependent upon the whim or good will of outsiders. Of course no community can be developed accord- ing to progressive and systematic plans with- out the influx of additional capital and people, but such a growth is natural and healthy, and those who come and bring their money do so with the intention of remaining and develop- ing into reliable citizens, and not with the in- tention of fleecing the older inhabitants.
Mr. Harrison is a young man in point of years, although old in experience, for he was born in 1888, and he is a native of Texas, as his birthplace was Greenville. He is a son of Will N. and May (Moulton) Harrison. The Harrisons are one of the historic families of Texas, dating back to 1839, when Mr. Harri- son's grandfather, J. C. Harrison, a native of Gibson County, Tennessee, was brought, a child of four years, to the state by his father, Gideon Valsane Harrison. The latter was a surveyor and civil engineer, and was engaged in much of the survey work of the lands which had been granted to the Texas patriots who had brought about Texan independence in 1836. While he went all over the state, Gideon V. Harrison maintained his residence at Paris, Lemar County. While the family was still
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residing in Tennessee they were friendly with Davy Crockett and his family. the younger members of both families being intimate asso- ciates. After living at Paris for some years Gideon V. Harrison removed to what is now Hunt County and laid out the town of Green- ville, in association with McQuinney H. Wright. Mr. Harrison's mother, with one of her sons, is now living at Greenville on the original lot acquired by J. C. Harrison from the original town commissioners. With the exception of the period he was serving gal- lantly in the Confederate army J. C. Harrison spent practically all of his life at Greenville, and there he died.
Will N. Harrison was born on the Harri- son homestead at Greenville, and there he lived all his life. On his mother's side he was a grandson of Judge Moore, a well-known Kentuckian. Will N. Harrison was noted for his achievements as a city builder and civic worker at Greenville. and he did a great deal for his native city. He carried on extensive building operations there, and entirely aside from material considerations or profit accom- plished much for it of a civic nature, develop- ing into one of its best-known and most highly esteemed citizens.
Mr. Harrison's mother, Mrs. Will N. Harri- son, is the daughter of the late O. D. Moul- ton, who was born of English parents on the line between Vermont and Canada. During the war between the States he served in the Union army, and after the close of that con- flict he came to Hunt County, Texas, where he became a prominent and widely known citizen.
Hubert M. Harrison attended the Greenville High School, Burleson College at Greenville and Baylor University at Waco, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1909 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For the subsequent seven years he did reportorial work and was also a special writer on the Dallas News and its evening edition, the Dallas Journal. During this period he made an enviable record, leaving newspaper work to be associated with an advertising agency at Dallas and specializing in the preparation of booklets and advertising matter for large cor- porations and municipalities, and was the author of the books issued by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. It was while thus engaged that Mr. Harrison began to be spe- cially interested in the class of work he is now doing, as his attention was called to the evils resulting from the old and wasteful methods
of expansion on the part of municipalities, and he took under advisement the various problems with really remarkable results. His work in this direction was somewhat inter- rupted by his decision to devote his time, talents and energies to war work, and he was selected by Louis Lipsitz, of Dallas, director of the War Savings and other war campaigns, to do special work along these lines in Eastern and Northern Texas. He traveled through- out these portions of the state, organizing committees for the sale of War Savings Stamps and Liberty Bonds and starting the drives, in all organizing 100 Texan commit- tees and making about 250 speeches in the prosecution of his work.
Early in 1919 Mr. Harrison came to Wichita Falls to take charge of the organiza- tion of the Greater Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, and has assisted in building it up to a membership of about 2,200, and has made it one of the most useful bodies for city growth and development in the South. The organization is departmentized with highly spe- cialized experts in charge of the various de- partments, among which are the traffic de- partment, the publicity bureau, the welfare bureau, open shop association, employment de- partment and others equally important. The chief idea of the Chamber of Commerce is to make Wichita Falls a better city for its own people, and it is not much concerned over the old-style "boosting" plans which less progres- sive organizations may favor.
In June, 1920, Mr. Harrison reported to the board the result of six months' work by the Chamber, as it was re-organized the previous winter. Attention was called to the success of the project launched by the business coun- cil to obtain an ornamental street lighting sys- tem for the down town section of the city; the good work done by the welfare council in eliminating begging on the streets and caring for deserving charity cases; the results ob -. tained by the civic betterment and beautifica- tion bureau in bringing George E. Kessler to Wichita Falls to draft a city plan ; the organ- ization of neighborhood life under the block party idea ; the relief of traffic congestion and improvement of train service ; the bringing of many new industries to Wichita Falls, includ- ing some 200 new concerns, wholesale, retail and small manufacturers ; the splendid organ- ization work accomplished by the Mercantile Bureau; the development of the irrigation project ; and the work done at Austin along legislative lines.
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Mr. Harrison was married to Miss Juanita Bouknight, and they have two children, Moul- ton B. and Juanita. He belongs to the Rotary Club. In Scottish Rite Masonry he has at- tained the thirty-second degree, and is a Shriner. Mr. Harrison is a young man of brilliant parts, whose flaming sincerity im- presses everyone. He has entered upon his great work with the enthusiasm of youth, tem- pered by broad and comprehensive experience and close study of various subjects. Having gained the full confidence of his associates, he is going right ahead, and his plans, which extend far into the future, are wonderful in their practicability and scope. As yet Mr. Harrison is something of a pioneer in this line of work, but the results he is getting are of so sweeping and satisfactory a nature that many are bound to follow him, and the benefit to the whole country will be immeasurable and illuminating.
1
E. LYNWOOD MOORE, JR., is a member of the firm of Moore & Wagenseller, certified public accountants, Mr. Moore having charge of the firm's business at Wichita Falls. He entered the profession of public accounting while studying law, and came to Wichita Falls after he was released from the air service of the United States army.
He was born at Lafayette, Alabama, in 1896, son of E. L. and Pauline (Sledge) Moore, his father a native of Alabama and his mother of Georgia. E. L. Moore, Sr., moved to Texas in 1910, and has since lived at San Antonio. His ancestors lived for several gen- erations in Patrick County, Virginia, but be- fore the time of the war between the states moved to Chambers County, Alabama.
E. L. Moore, Jr., was educated at LaGrange, Georgia, and also by private tutors, and early showed special proficiency in mathematics. On going to San Antonio in 1913 he took up the study of law, but has never taken the bar ex- aminations, having in the meantime adopted the profession of accountancy.
In March, 1917, before the war with Ger- many began, he volunteered at San Antonio in the air service of the United States army, and was accepted as a cadet. Subsequently he was sent to the ground school at Austin, and next to California, where he was commissioned a pilot. He was in the army about a year and a half, a portion of the time being on duty in the Intelligence Department at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, under Major Barnes.
Mr. Moore has been a resident of Wichita Falls since December 31, 1919. For nearly a year he carried on accounting practice in the city under the name of the Guaranty Audit Company. In December, 1920, he organized the firm of Moore & Wagenseller, certified public accountants, handling audits and sys- tems and income tax reports. The firm main- tain offices also in New York City and in Dallas. The Dallas office is in the Slaughter Building and is under the personal direction of Paul B. Wagenseller. The Wichita Falls office is in the City National Bank Building. As a special feature of their general account- ing and auditing practice they have established a special oil department under a graduate oil engineer, a service greatly appreciated by the extensive oil interests represented at Wichita Falls and vicinity.
D. O. MODLIN came to Fort Worth in 1900, just previous to the time when the city reached its prominence as a packing house and live- stock market. At that time he was in the employ of the Evans-Snider-Buel Company, livestock commission dealers, having offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Fort Worth. When the packing houses were lo- cated in Fort Worth Mr. Modlin foresaw a very substantial growth for the city, and he engaged in the real estate business. During the greater part of his residence here he has been one of the leading real estate operators, and has contributed in many ways to the growth and welfare of the city. His energies have been consistently devoted to the develop- ment and improvement of real estate, and through his efforts various properties have been improved and materially enhanced in value and usefulness.
Mr. Modlin was born in Xenia, Illinois, October 26, 1872, a son of B. F. and Rhoda D. Modlin, both of whom were natives of In- diana. D. O. Modlin was reared and educated in Illinois, and in 1894, at the age of twenty- two, located in Chicago. For the following six years was engaged in the livestock busi- ness in that city, and in 1890 brought his quali- fications and training to the Fort Worth market, where he established responsible con- nections as a commission man. In 1902, confi- dent that Fort Worth was destined to grow much more rapidly than most other cities of its size, he embarked in the real estate busi- ness, in which he still continues as the senior member of the well known firm of Modlin & Jackson, a highly successful organization con-
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ducting many of the larger transactions in city property, farms and ranches. He is also identified with numerous other successful business enterprises in Fort Worth, and has place among the representative and progres- sive business men of the city.
In 1902 Mr. Modlin married Miss Maude Chandler of St. Louis, Missouri. He is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club and the Masonic and Elks fraternities.
ROBERT ALVIN CARTER. An interesting illustration of the changes and coincidences of human destiny is shown in the career of Robert Alvin Carter of Breckenridge, a wealthy and prominent oil operator. The acci- dent of birth made him a native of Brecken- ridge, but during his infancy his parents moved away and all his experiences were identified with distant localities until a year or so ago, when he returned and reacquainted himself with the scene of his birth and in a remark- ably short time his energy and enterprise have been responsible for some of the most success- ful oil production in that noted center of West Texas oil territory.
Mr. Carter was born in Breckenridge in 1883, a son of A. J. and Dell (Peeks) Carter. His mother was the daughter of the late J. M. Peeks, one of the pioneer settlers of Breckenridge and Stephens County. A. J. Carter, who died in 1911, was a native of Alabama, studied at Breckenridge in Stephens County in 1880, but in 1884, when his son Robert was only a year old, moved to Fannin County, Texas, and several years later be- came a pioneer in Oklahoma, locating at Marysville in Garvin County. It was in the State of Oklahoma that Robert A. Carter was reared and educated and lived until May, 1918, when he returned to Texas.
His initial efforts were put forth in the Breckenridge oil fields in January, 1920, but he began drilling operations as president of the Breckenridge Oil & Gas Company. The drilling rig was first set to work on the Lou Wragg tract, just outside the southwestern limits of the city and, curiously enough, not more than three hundred yards from the old Carter home place where Robert A. Carter was born. The well on this place, known as the Breckenridge Oil & Gas Company's No. 1, was brought in on March 2, 1920, with a flush production of 1,200 barrels per day, and con- tinued to be a large and steady producer. Par- ticular fame attached to this well as having
inaugurated the great oil boom on the Breck- enridge townsite. Up to February, 1921, the Breckenridge Oil & Gas Company paid five 40 per cent dividends, a total of 200 per cent on its capitalization of $120,000. The second well of the company was brought in June 15, 1920, in the same vicinity.
Mr. Carter also organized and is president and general manager of the Guaranty Oil & Gas Company. This company drilled two wells north of the city, the first coming in on June 10, 1920, and the second September 15, 1920, while the third was brought in Decem- ber 30, 1920. Mr. Carter also organized the Indiana-Texas Oil & Gas Company of which he is vice president and general manager. The first drilling operations of this company were done in the spring of 1921, three miles west of Ivan in Stephens County. Two smaller syndicates representing some of Mr. Carter's nominal energy as a promoter and organizer are the Gaddis Trust, which brought in a four hundred and fifty barrel well on a ten acre block south of the city, and the Par- due Trust, which drilled a well to a depth of over thirty-three hundred feet two miles north of Ivan.
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