USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 36
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John W. Sitton was four years of age when the family left Georgia in 1873 and moved to Marshall, Arkansas. He grew up there and acquired a common school educa- tion. His father was well able to send him through college, but the son chose to be inde- pendent and obtained a means to pay for his
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own education, earning money by teaching. At the age of eighteen he began reading medi- cine under Drs. A. J. Redwine and Watter- son of Marshall. A year and a half later he was given a certificate to practice medicine, and practiced for six years as an undergrad- uate. In 1894 he entered the Medical School of Grant University at Chattanooga, Tennes- see, during 1895-96 attended Barnes Medical College at St. Louis, and in 1900, Memphis Hospital Medical College. After each course he resumed private practice, and after com- ing to Texas in 1893 was a special student in medicine at the Texas Christian University at Fort Worth. In each of these schools he was ranked as a senior but did not formally . graduate. In 1917 he did post-graduate work in the Chicago Polyclinic, also in the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, and returned for similar courses in the Chicago Polyclinic in 1919 and the Mayo Clinic in 1919 and 1920. He is a member in good standing of the County and State Medical societies of Texas and is a Fellow of the American Medical Association.
Some special distinctions belong to him in the field of surgery. He performed the first operation for the removal of an appendix in Johnson County, and was the first surgeon to perform the operation of trephining in the county. He was house physician and surgeon- in-chief (chief surgeon) of the Southwestern Sanitarium at Cleburne as the successor of Doctor Cook for two years. Doctor Sitton has several times offered his service to the Govern- ment for war duty. He volunteered at the time of the Spanish-American war. Again he offered himself to the War Department in 1912. He was enrolled in the Medical Reserve Corps during the World war, and was in line for active service when the war closed. Doctor Sitton is a Royal Arch Mason, a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and a Methodist.
At Conway, Arkansas, he married Miss Mary E. Adams. At Frederick, Oklahoma, March 24, 1921, he married Mrs. Era Fowler, a native of Johnson County, Texas, and daugh- ter of W. L. Henderson, of Alvarado, a farmer, and also a native Texan. Doctor Sitton has four children by his first marriage. Earl W., who was a sergeant in a motor trans- port company during the World war and was on duty at Brest, France; is an engineer at the Swift Packing plant at Fort Worth, Pinck- ney F., though a deaf mute, is rated as a gen- ius in mechanical lines and is an expert in
radiator repairs at Dallas. The daughter, Mabel L., is the wife of Neal Bounds, of Santa Ana, California. Willie M. lives at Cleburne.
SENATOR GEORGE W. DAYTON, of the Fourth Texas Senatorial District, is a prominent lawyer of Gainesville. His boyhood recollec- tions after he was ten years of age are of the country around Gainesville. He practiced law for a number of years in Illinois and Florida, and his abilities and talents have made him a leader in every community of his residence.
Senator Dayton was born in Adams County, Illionis, September 29, 1867. He is a de- scendant of the well known Dayton family of Elizabeth, New Jersey. His grandfather, John Henry Hobart Dayton, of Long Island, New York, was a lawyer and probably a brother of Jonathan Dayton, the noted Phila- delphia lawyer. Aaron Ogden Dayton, father of Senator Dayton, was also related to the Ogden family of New York. Dr. A. O. Day- ton was born in Adams County, Illinois, was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, and after a brief period of practice in his native state came to Texas with his family in 1878 and settled near Valley View in Cooke County. For many years he was one of the leading representatives ยท of his profession in that county and was also a stock grower. He took a very keen and scientific interest in agriculture and horticul- ture. He and Judge Lindsay and General Hudson and other fruit growers of the com- munity many years ago organized the Horti- cultural Society, and Doctor Dayton was its president. He was also associated with Sena- tor Joseph W. Bailey in the breeding of race horses at Gainesville. In 1910 he removed to Florida, where some of his family had lived for a number of years, and he died at Dade City in that state September 10, 1911, at the age of seventy-seven. He was a democratic voter and in religious matters was a German Baptist or Dunkard and for a number of years was the sole representative of that faith in Cooke County. Doctor Dayton married Elnora Hannan, of Cleveland, Ohio. In early womanhood she removed to Hancock County, Illinois, where she was married and where she died. Her three sons were Senator George W., James E. and Hannan Dayton. The two younger are farmers and stock men at Valley View, Texas. There are also two half broth- ers, Judge O. L. Dayton of Dade City, Florida, and A. O. Dayton, Jr., also of Florida.
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George W. Dayton was about ten years of age when brought from Illinois to Texas. He grew up in the country near Valley View, con- tinued his education in the Downard District School, the Gainesville High School, the Agri- cultural and Mechanical College of Texas, and in 1895 received his law degree from the Uni- versity of Michigan. Instead of returning to Texas he began his law practice at Quincy, Illinois, the princiapl city in the county where he was born. In 1896 he came to Texas, established his law office in Gainesville. and for two years was busily engaged in practice and in farming. Being compelled to seek a milder climate for reasons of health he left Texas and removed to Dade City, Florida, and was a resident of that state fourteen years. He achieved a high place among the lawyers of Florida and was a highly esteemed citizen of his home community there until 1911. He took an active part in Florida politics, was elected mayor of Dade City in 1908, and in 1909 and again in 1911 was chosen to the State Senate from the Ninth Florida District. In 1913 Mr. Dayton was chosen for the distinc- tive honor of presenting on behalf of the State of Florida to the United States Government the statue of Dr. John Gorrie, inventor of arti- ficial ice and mechanical refrigeration. At the ceremony for placing this statue in the Hall of Fame at Washington there were pres- ent representatives from twenty-six different nations. United States Senator Bryan of Florida accepted the statue for the Federal Government. At the close of his senatorial term in Florida Mr. Dayton spent nearly a year as counsel for the estate of the late Count W. M. Redding of Havana, Cuba. This busi- ness involved frequent trips between Havana and New York.
On his return to Texas Mr. Dayton resumed his law practice at Gainesville. He is a mem- ber of the County, Texas and American Bar Associations, and has been admitted to all the courts of this state, in the United States Supreme Court, and in the local and Supreme courts of Michigan, Florida and Illinois.
Senator Dayton cast his first presidential vote in Texas for Grover Cleveland, and has always endeavored to exercise a wholesome influence in politics and good government. Soon after his return to Texas he was elected to the lower branch of the Legislature in the Thirty-fourth Session. During that term he was the joint author of the compulsory edu- cation law and also assisted in writing the amendment to the state constitution provid-
ing free text books for the children of Texas. From the House he entered the Senate at the organization of the Thirty-fifth Legislature, and in his first term in that body introduced and secured the passage of a library law, the purpose of which was to place a library in every school district of Cooke County. Sena- tor Dayton's bill also provided for redistrict- ing the state for congressional purposes. In the Thirty-sixth Legislature he had his library law amended to apply to all common school districts in Texas, and was also author of the Free Text Book Bill of that session. He was a joint author of bills providing for ratifica- tion of the Federal amendment for prohibi- tion and woman suffrage. In the special ses- sion of 1920 he was joint author with Sena- tor Dean, of the bill enacted in the law pro- viding for the payment of poll tax for all per- sons wishing to vote.
In Hancock County, Illinois, at Hamilton, October 30, 1895, Mr. Dayton, then just at the beginning of his career as a lawyer, married Miss Minnie M. Guymon. She is a daughter of Washington and Alice (Atterbery) Guy- mon, both of English ancestry. Her father was a merchant at Hamilton, Illinois, and she is the oldest of three children. Her brothers are Walter of Kansas City, Missouri, and Roy D., of Orlando, Florida. Senator and Mrs. Dayton reared an orphan girl, Amy Guy- mon, giving her all the advantages of home training and education as though she was their own child. She is a graduate of the Univer- sity of Florida and is now a teacher in the high school of Augusta, Illinois.
WALTER DEARING CLINE. Compared to many men who have sought fortunes in the petroleum oil district of Northern Texas, Walter Dearing Cline is a veteran, since his experience in the oil business in Texas covers a period of seventeen years, beginning in some of the fields of the Gulf Coast. He has been identified with the operations of the Wichita field for the past seven years, and his success and prominence have been such that he holds the honor of being president of the Texas- Louisiana Division of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. Another interesting dis- tinction is that his home city of Wichita Falls, recognizing his qualifications as an expert business executive, elected him mayor, and he is the present head of the municipal adminis- tration of one of the fastest growing cities of the country.
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Mr. Cline was born in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, March 26. 1883, son of O. H. and Cornelia (Dearing) Cline. His parents repre- sented old families of Louisiana. Mayor Cline grew up in St. Helena Parish and fin- ished his education in the Methodist State College at Jackson, Louisiana. There has been 110 other business to claim his chief attention and energy since early manhood than that of petroleum1.
On coming to Texas in 1903 he was at- tracted to the then new developments at Humble, northeast of Houston, and either individually or in association with large oil corporations has been engaged in oil produc- tion ever since. For some years he was asso- ciated with the Texas Company and other large concerns, and prior to coming to North Texas had charge of the company's interests at Laredo.
Mr. Cline came to Wichita County in April, 1913, and was one of the independent oil pro- ducers attracted to the new field following the bringing in of the pioneer well at Burkbur- nett. His business sagacity and technical re- sources made him noted in that famous field, and he would be named easily with any group credited with the most important development and productions. Mr. Cline had his home at Burkburnett until 1917, when he moved to Wichita Falls.
A large share of his oil producing interests are managed through the corporation of the Cline Oil Company, but he still remains a prominent individual producer. His interests are largely in the various fields of Wichita County and in adjacent territory in Oklahoma. While he has experienced some of the vicis- situdes of the oil business, his operations on the whole have brought him substantial for- tune and among oil men he is generally recog- nized as a man of sound, ripe judgment, with an efficiency that cannot be gainsaid. It was. this reputation that brought him the post of honor as president of the oil and gas associa- tion, as above noted.
Mr. Cline is not altogether new to the re- sponsibility of municipal administration, since he served as mayor of Burkburnett while liv- ing there. In April, 1920, his services were commandeered for mayor of Wichita Falls. With more than fifty thousand population and with a larger percentage of growth during the past three years than any city in the country, Wichita Falls has acute and pressing problems incident to such a large and rapid expansion. It is a problem of making over a country town
into a city and involves many difficulties such as the founders of such ready made cities as Gary, Indiana, never had to meet. In the solv- ing of these problems Mr. Cline has brought to bear his accustomed skill, sound judgment and administrative ability. Soon after becom- ing mayor he and the city administration se- cured the direcct advice and counsel of Mr. George E. Kessler of Kansas City, one of America's foremost city planners, and with his co-operation a comprehensive and intelligent program affecting all phases of city develop- ment is being worked out, the details of which will require a period of years to perfect, but the plan when realized will prevent the waste due to conflicting divergent plans and the un- organized efforts of enthusiastic but short- sighted civic groups.
With all these responsibilities Mr. Cline is one of the very busy men of Wichita Falls. He is a director of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Rotary Club, Wichita Club, Golf Club, Rod and Gun Club, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, Knights of Pythias and Elks. He married Miss Ella Pipes, who was born and reared in his home neighborhood in St. Helena Parish. Their five children are Walter, Helen, Ella, Irma and Henry.
CHARLES G. THOMAS. Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Thirty- seventh Legislature, Charles G. Thomas is an honored business man of the little city of Lewisville, Denton County, and has lived in that section of Northern Texas practically all his life.
He was born near Richardson in Dallas County, December 10, 1879. His father, Charles I. Thomas, was born in Adair County, Kentucky, in 1836, the son of a farmer, and acquired a liberal education, graduating front Georgetown College in Kentucky. After the war he came to Texas, and at Richardson continued to follow his profession as a teacher and was also a merchant. He taught his first school in Texas at Rowlet Creek. In 1881 he removed to Lewisville, and continued in the dry goods business in that city until five years before his death, when he retired. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Lewisville and one of its directors, and also participated in the organization of the Denton County National Bank at Denton and for a time was a director. He also owned a large amount of farm land. He was doubt- less most widely known in the different Texas
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communities where he lived because of his kindliness of character and his high religious devotion. He was a Baptist, a leader in the church of that denomination wherever he lived, served many years as a deacon, and was an earnest student of the Gospel. He was deeply interested in the subject of education as well. He and three others bought a lot and presented it for school purposes at Lewisville soon after he became a member of that community, and he was a trustee of the local schools. He voted as a democrat, but was not active in politics. Charles I. Thomas, who died in 1905, married in Collin County, Texas, Miss Emma Graham, who was born near Kahoka, Mis- souri, in March, 1848. She died in 1914. Her father came to Texas after the Civil war and settled at Lebanon, Collin County. Charles I. Thomas and wife had two children: Lillia Mae, wife of M. D. Fagg, a Lewisville mer- chant, and Charles Graham.
Charles Graham Thomas was about two years of age when his parents moved to Lewis- ville, and he completed the course of the high school there when fifteen years of age. He then entered the freshman class of Baylor University, and was graduated A. B. at the age of nineteen. He was the youngest grad- uate in the history of Baylor University. Dur- ing his college career he achieved distinction as a debater, and in 1899 he and Fred Roberts constituted the Baylor team against Texas University, and won the affirmative side of the question, "Resolved that the United States should exercise permanent control over the Philippine Islands." Leaving the university Mr. Thomas returned to Lewisville and be- came associated with his father in the drv goods business, and after the latter retired was for a time a partner with his brother-in- law, Mr. Fagg. He established a retail lum- ber yard at Lewisville, conducting it until De- cember, 1914, since which date he has given all his time to a successful business in real estate and insurance. He was chosen one of the cashiers of the First National Bank of Lewisville, though he is not the active cashier. He is a director of that bank and a stockholder in the Denton County National Bank at Denton.
Mr. Thomas cast his first presidential vote for Mr. Bryan, and has been interested in every subsequent campaign both in the state and nation. He has attended a number of state conventions, including the recent one at Fort Worth. He was an original Wilson man,
and a warm supporter of his administration through the eight years. Mr. Thomas was elected to the Legislature in 1917 as represen- tative from Denton County, and was twice re- elected, having no opposition in the primaries. In the Thirty-fifth Legislature Speaker Fuller appointed him to the chief House committees on appropriations, banking and insurance. He was one of the noble "thirty-one" who sup- ported woman suffrage in that body and also of the minority who supported submission of a prohibition amendment. In the Thirty-sixth Legislature he was appointed chairman of the committee on appropriations by Speaker R. E. Thomason, and also a member of the commit- tees on banks and banking and insurance and the rules committee. He championed the Hopkins State Depository Law, bringing the bill out of the committee on a minority report and was instrumental in securing its adoption by the House. This law has been the means of giving the state annually more than seven hundred thousand dollars of interest on state deposits. The appropriations committee, of which he was chairman, handled for the two fiscal years twenty-nine million dollars of ap- propriations, and only three amendments were made to the appropriation bills on the floor of the house. Prior to the assembling of the Thirty-seventh Legislature Mr. Thomas be- came a candidate for speaker at the request of his friends, and was chosen without oppo- sition. As speaker he remained neutral in the matter of legislation, but he gained high praise for the impartial and considerate man- ner in which he performed his duties as pre- siding officer. Not one of his decisions was appealed.
Mr. Thomas has been a factor in community affairs since he left college. It is said that he has delivered more speeches than any other resident in Benton County, and his range of subjects is a wide one, including religious, political, fraternal and educational topics. For eight years he was a member of the County Board of Education, finally resigning because of the pressure of other interests.
In Denton County June 12, 1901, Mr. Thomas married Miss Roberta Lovelace Everett, who was born in that county in 1879, a daughter of R. M. Everett. They are the parents of four daughters: Lillie Marie, a student in Baylor University at Waco, Texas ; Dorothy, a student in the Institute for the Blind at Austin ; Miss Charley Dee and Helen, attending the Lewisville grade schools.
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CHARLES C. JOHNSON, a leading stock farmer of Denton County, whose home is at the historic Keep and Terry Mill place near Sanger, is a son of the late Robert Gregory Johnson, whose life as a pioneer of Denton County deserves an important tribute.
Robert Gregory Johnson was a native of Kentucky, came to Texas some years before the Civil war, young and unmarried, and soon entered the employ of the noted character John Chisholm, the cattle man who laid out and established the Chisholm trail, over which for years a large part of Texas cattle was driven to Northern pastures and markets. Mr. Johnson was associated with Chisholm for a quarter of a century, and eventually de- veloped his own ranch on a portion of the old Chisholm place. He was a Confederate sol- dier in the war and afterward developed his livestock business on Clear Creek. One of his locations is now the site of Charles C. Johnson's ranch.
For more than half a century Robert G. Johnson was a hewer of things in that locality. He was not educated according to modern standards of education but could transact effi- ciently the business affairs of his life and was a real factor in the development work of the region. He lived there during the various Indian raids both before and after the war, and joined with other pioneers in protecting stock and lives from the invasions of the Comanches. One of these Indian raids prac- tically stripped him of his entire stock of horses, which were driven off to Indian terri- tory and sold. His experience covered the pioneer period of the Clear Creek locality. He carried a share of the burdens and responsi- bilities of settlers, and witnessed the region around him grow from a wild and untamed grassy waste to a well ordered agricultural community of wealthy farmers.
His relation to the spiritual part of the locality was that of a good citizen and believer in his Creator. He lived a practical and use- ful life, and all denominations and all comers of whatever faith received of his aid. His worth was universally recognized and his ex- perience proved a book of revelation to the later settlers, his reminiscences covering most of the important incidents and events that hap- pened from his settlement until his death. He was little concerned about politics and never gave his membership to any organization. He was a good talker and enjoyed the company of old friends or of people of his pioneer type to the full. He was fond of visiting with folks
from his old home back East and with people who were frontiersmen. He helped everybody materially or spiritually as a neighbor. He was a man of medium physique, weighed about a hundred and fifty pounds, and was in rugged health until old age. At seventy-five he was still active in the saddle and rode the range as eagerly as in the vigor of his years. His cat- tle brands were numerous from first to last, one of the most familiar being the "A" on the left side.
In Denton County Robert Johnson married Eliza Gregg, his second wife and the mother of all his children. She died about 1889. The death of Robert G. Johnson occurred March 10, 1917, at the age of eighty-four years one month and one day. His children were: Robert S., of Clifton, Arizona ; James L., who died unmarried in Denton County ; Charles C .; and Bessie, wife of Ed W. Forrester, of Den- ton County.
Charles C. Johnson was born December 14, 1879, and grew up on the lower farm of his father on Clear Creek. He was practically brought up in the saddle, and his limited schooling came from the "hills and hollows" while he was following after the cattle. He lived at home until past his majority, and on starting for himself moved to the old Keep and Terry Mill place, where his independent activities have been carried on with marked success. His chief vocation has been cattle raising, and most of the stock now on his place comprises good grades of White Face and Shorthorn breeds. His home is adjacent to the Cannon School, where his children at- tend. Mr. Johnson is a democrat and cast his first vote for president for Mr. Bryan in 1900.
In Denton County December 24, 1908, he married Miss Alta Roberts, a native of Den- ton County and daughter of Berry and Mary (Kelley) Roberts. Her father was a native of Texas and her parents spent their lives as farmers in the Bolivar community. Mrs. Johnson was born December 27, 1885. She was one of six children: Oran, of Arizona ; Berry, Jr., of Ross, Montana ; Mrs. Johnson ; J. Carlos, of Fort Worth; William Garnett, of Ross, Montana; and Mary O., wife of Charles T. Trickey, of Fort Worth. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are Charles C., Jr., and Robert Berry. 1
FRANK M. GLENN has lived in the Texas Northwest for more than half a century, hav- ing come to the state when the memory of his
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four years' service as a Confederate soldier was fresh in his mind. His life work has been done in the Godley community of Johnson County for more than forty years, and he is one of the few surviving soldiers of the great war between the states who are still active in looking after their affairs.
Mr. Glenn was born in Franklin County, Alabama, January 11, 1844, a son of James E. and Sarah (Bralley) Glenn. His maternal grandfather was Samuel Bralley. James E. Glenn was born in Greenville District, South Carolina, married in Coffee County, Tennes- see, and soon afterward moved to Alabama, where he spent the rest of his life working his farm with free labor. While not a slave owner and while he died before the war, his family sympathized with the Southern cause and four of his sons were Confederate sol- diers. His widow followed her sons to Texas and died in Hood County in 1868, and is buried in Fall Creek Cemetery. The three older sons all enlisted in the army from Texas. The children were: Walter B., who died at Godley; James E., who died while a Con- federate soldier and was buried at Jackson, Mississippi; Andrew, who was also buried in a soldier's grave at Jackson ; Frank M .; Mary, who died in Arkansas, wife of William Bold- ing; Sarah E., who became the wife of Ander- son Baker and died in the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory; Caroline, who married W. B. Massey and is buried at Fall Creek, Hood County; Angeline, who was the wife of E. S. Randolph and died in Hood County.
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