USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 41
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MELL PICKENS, of Vernon, a building con- tractor whose interests cover a large section of northern Texas, represents the third gene- ration of a family that has been identified with Texas from the very earliest times, and the remarkable energy and initiative Mr. Pickens puts into his business seems reminiscent of the pioneer spirit exemplified both by his father and grandfather.
William Pickens, his grandfather was a native of Boonville Missouri. A few years after Stephen F. Austin had planted his first American colony in southern Texas, William M. Pickens came to this Mexican region and found a home in northeastern Texas. For a time he sojourned in what is now Dallas County, which then had scarcely a white in- habitant but later moved to Black Jack in Hopkins County. From the State of Mis- souri he had transported by wagon and ox- team equipment for a grist mill, including the old-fashioned millstones. This equipment he set up at Black Jack, and it was one of the first, if not the first, grist mills in northeast- ern Texas. William M. Pickens was a typi- cal pioneer of the best type, sturdy, honest, and by enterprise fitted for leadership in every community where he lived. He was enrolled as a soldier during the Texas war for inde- pendence, in 1835-36, and an incident which occurred at that time will serve to give an idea of the courage and resource of this hardy old settler. Just before "The Siege of the Alamo" Mr. Pickens had been granted a furlough, and returned to the Alamo the morning following the massacre. He was promptly seized by the Mexicans, who lariated him with a grass rope. Mr. Pickens, however, proved a hard prisoner to keep, for he pulled the rope loose from his captors hands, tearing the skin and flesh from their palms while so doing, made good his escape, walked to San Antonio, where he pro- cured a horse, and then rode to his home in northeastern Texas, where he lived to the age of ninety-four years, his only illness being his final one. He was married at the age of eight- een years. William M. Pickens assisted in the organization of the first Masonic lodge in
northeastern Texas, and later became a thirty- third degree Mason.
J. H. Pickens, the father of Mell Pickens, was born in Upshur County, Texas. As a young man he became a carpenter, and built, owned and operated the first cotton gin in Delta County, the power for which was sup- plied by oxen. Later he was engaged in the hardware and grocery business at Cooper, Texas, a community in which he owned con- siderable property, but eventually disposed of his interests there and moved to Vernon. He married Louise Baker, and their son, Mell Pickens, was born in Delta County, Texas in 1873.
Mell Pickens grew up in his native county and finished his education at Paris, Texas, un- der W. L. Rountree and M. J. Mayo, the latter of whom subsequently became head of the East Texas Normal College at Commerce. From his father Mr. Pickens learned the car- penter's trade and after several years as a journeyman turned his skill to account as a contractor and builder, a line in which he has erected structures over many north Texas counties. For a number of years past his home has been at Vernon in Wilbarger County, and the building up of that rich and prosperous community has found him an important factor in numerous ways. In connection with his business activities he has erected a number of business and residential structures in the city. For several years he had charge of the entire building program on the ranch proper- ties of W. T. Waggoner in northwest Texas. He built four large ranch homes for Mr. Wag- goner and a number of other buildings. Mr. Pickens is individual owner of nearly twenty buildings at Vernon, the greater number of which are residences.
In recent years he has developed his build- ing organization largely for performing the special service of constructing theatres and moving picture houses. During the early months of 1921 his business headquarters were at Electra, from which point he has handled a number of large contracts. He built the Grand Theatre at Electra at a cost of $121,000, remodeled the Crown Theatre, built the garage and automobile warehouse of Prince Brothers, and also erected a new bank building and a number of residences. Mr. Pickens is a very active man and has worked as hard and faith- fully as any of his employes. He believes in and practices the policy of "business as usual," and keeps his organization at work
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in slow times as well as in periods of pros- perity.
Mr. Pickens married Miss Ruth Glover, daughter of Capt. William Glover, of Lamar County, Texas, her father having been a cap- tain in the Confederate army during the war between the states. She is also a sister of Hon. Robert L. Glover, of Oklahoma, who served several terms in the Legislature of that state and who also made a close race for Congress. Mr. and Mrs. Pickens are the parents of three children: Melba Ruth, Paul and Louise.
LEE SWAFFORD. The name Swafford ap- plies to a substantial family numerously rep- resented in the affairs of northern Texas during the past forty years. One of them is Lee Swafford, who with his brother Tom has been prominently identified with the Ponder community of Denton County for thirty years.
He was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, September 16, 1850, a son of Thomas and Mary (Lee) Swafford. His mother was a daughter of Burrell Lee, of eastern Tennessee. Thomas Swafford served in the Home Guard of the Confederate Army during the war be- tween the states, and soon after the close of the war moved to Marshall County, Ten- nessee, where he continued farming until he removed to Texas. He died at the age of eighty-one, having survived his wife five months. She was seventy-one when she died. Their children were: Mrs. Nannie Green, who died in Marshall County, Tennessee ; Emeline, of Boyd, Texas, widow of W. A. Smith ; Nase, who died unmarried at Springtown, Texas ; Eliza, wife of Frank Jones, living near Boyd ; Burrell, who died unmarried in Wise County ; Lee, who was fourth in age among the chil- dren; Thomas, his partner in business and farming for forty years; Isaac E., who died at Denton, married Alleen Anderson and was survived by three children; Robert E., of Boyd; Mary, who was the wife of William Francisco, died in August, 1921, and at her death was survived by three children.
Lee Swafford, who has never married and for many years has lived with his brother Thomas, was educated in the public schools of Bledsoe County, Tennessee, before the war. He has vivid recollections of many scenes of war times, especially when the Federals car- ried off the family stock and food supplies.
He was a young man of twenty-six when he made his first visit to Texas. He left Marshall
County, Tennessee, and on New Year's morn- ing of 1876 ended his journey at Weatherford in Parker County. He brought as his capital only a knowledge of how to work, and soon hired out as a farm hand at fifteen dollars a month at old Springtown. He was there and in Ellis County, for a month, then went back to Tennessee, after three months re- turned to Texas, was a hired man for two months, when homesickness again overtook him and he spent six months recuperating in Tennessee. His third arrival in Texas was the beginning of his permanent citizenship in the Lone Star State. This was in 1878, and this time he was accompanied by other mem- bers of the family. He drove his father's team from Tennessee to Wise County, his father establishing a home fifteen miles south of Decatur. His father finished his life on a farm in that county. For six years Lee Swaf- ford busied himself with the tasks of farming. He and his brother Tom then formed a part- nership and invested their capital in an out- fit for the drilling of water wells. For six- teen years they did an extensive business over the counties of Wise, Denton and Parker, and were among the first to drill deep water wells in that section of the state. They have drilled a well every month of their operation, and brought in approximately 200 sources of water supply for ranch and home. When they gave up this profitable business the brothers began farming near Ponder and their enterprise has been reflected in that community for thirty years. Their first purchases of land were made at twelve dollars an acre, and the process of accumulation continued until land reached seventy-five dollars an acre. Much of it was brought under cultivation, and they also erected buildings or improved those on the land, and their joint holdings of 1,000 acres now contain three sets of modern improve- ments. For the most part their profit has come from grain farming. The past thirty years has registered only one total failure, but offsetting this have been a number of record crops. In matters of prices they have sold wheat from fifty cents to two dollars and a half a bushel and oats from thirty cents to a dollar a bushel. When every other crop failed they planted corn, and the Swafford boys are credited with some of the remarkable yields of this cereal in Denton County. Their method has been to prepare the ground well before planting, but their enterprise has never led to any discovery that would destroy or interfere with the raids of the greenbugs.
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The Swaffords as a family have been staunch supporters of the democratic party, though Lee Swafford in 1920 supported the republican candidate for president.
Thomas Swafford married Daisy Alston in Wise County, Texas. They have six children : Marvin, in the garage business at Ponder, mar- ried Myrtle Thomason and has five children, named Hugh, Robert, Mary Lou, T. W. and Marvin; Ray, with his father on the farm; Era, who is the wife of Earl Wakefield, of Ponder, and has a daughter, Frankie: and the three younger daughters are Kate, Willie May and Grace.
ROBERT M. EVERETT, of Hebron in Denton County, has spent half a century in Texas, those being the years of early youth, mature manhood and the period in which he has real- ized the fruits of prosperity. His career is somewhat in contrast with many of those who have been identified with the agricultural in- terests of this section, since he laid the basis of his success as a tenant farmer, though he was a land owner while working the land of others.
Mr. Everett represents an old family of Dal- las County. His father, Zachariah J. Everett, was a brick maker by trade, an occupation he followed in southern Illinois. He brought his family all the way from Illinois to Texas in a wagon, starting from Carbondale and arriv- ing at Dallas when it was an unincorporated town. He saw the great future of that city and told his son that it offered the best oppor- tunity for the brick business of any town in the state. The nearest railroad point to Dallas when the Everetts settled on the old Nesbith farm, now included in the Dallas townsite, was Kosse. Had Zachariah Everett survived, his efforts would probably have built up an impor- tant business in Dallas. Death overtook him in his labors in April, 1870, leaving his widow and seven children, Robert M. being the youngest son. Robert Everett was then a schoolboy of ten years. In 1879 he accom- panied his mother to Denton County, and he largely provided for her support the rest of her life. She died in March, 1903, when about seventy-eight years of age. Her children were : Margaret, wife of E. Low, of Vernon, Texas; Mollie, who died at Trinity Mills, Texas, wife of Robert Sears; James Wilson, of Dallas; Nannie, who died at Henrietta, Texas, wife of Frank Low; Mattie, widow of John Dudley, of McKinney ; Robert McBride;
and Alice, widow of Tom Huntley and liv- ing near Crowell, Texas.
Robert M. Everett acquired little education in a schoolhouse, his training being of a prac- tical nature, and gained by observation, read- ing and experience. He has been an active factor in farming and farm enterprise in the Hebron locality of Denton County since 1879. He rented land in that neighborhood for a few years, having no capital to buy land of his own. He subsequently moved to the Fur- neau land, and was a renter on that tract for sixteen years, and from his labors gained the capital which enabled him to buy 500 acres situated almost against the present town- site of Hebron. He continued his work on the Furneau place while he improved his own land and made it ready for occupation. Pay- ments over a period of years gave him owner- ship of his present tract, which he bought at prices ranging from eighteen to twenty dol- lars an acre. He formally occupied it as a home in October, 1899, and on a hill over- looking the little village of Hebron and a wide scope of region he has carried on his labors since. He opened out nearly four hundred acres of tillable land, devoted to diversified farming, grain and cotton being equally im- portant. He has so shifted and rotated his crops as to conserve the soil and get the best possible results. Mr. Everett in precept and practice is a staunch advocatae of thorough soil preparation, and that he believes is half the battle in successful agriculture. He has also exercised careful selection of seed. Not- withstanding these qualities of thorough agri- culture he has recorded one absolute failure of his grain crop, the green bugs being respon- sible for that. This is an enemy which neither agricultural practice nor science has yet found means to combat. While his farm and home at Hebron constitute a valuable property, Mr. Everett has extended his investments to other lands and he owns another farm west of Hebron, where the same kind of agriculture is practiced as on the home place. One of his family lives there and cultivates the land.
With the building of the Frisco railroad through this region Mr. Everett donated land for a station on his farm, and around that station he has been a leader in bringing about commercial activities. In association with his partner, J. W. Sheppard, he erected three of the store buildings constituting the main busi- ness houses. At times he has been interested in merchandising himself. He was foremost
Gro Gordon MC Bride
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in the move for a bank, is vice president of the Hebron State Bank and was one of its directors from the beginning.
Good schools and good educational advan- tages have been another object of Mr. Ever- ett's worthy endeavor in this community. For twenty-two years he was a trustee of the little country schoolhouse known as the Griggs School. He helped improve its facilities until there is now a popular graded school with seven teachers holding session nine months of the year. He and his colleagues on the board built the brick school which stands above the town and near the Everett home and serves the district as its educational center.
He has been equally liberal in promoting the church and religious interests of the commu- nity. He became a member of the Baptist Church when he first married, and was with that congregation when it worshiped in a little frame house and was one of those most in- terested and gratified when in 1919 the con- gregation dedicated, at a cost of $12,000, a brick building on the high ridge overlook- ing Hebron, a site that he donated. Frater- nally Mr. Everett is affiliated with the Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World.
Soon after his twentieth birthday Mr. Ever- ett married Miss Dicy E. Adkins, a native of Tennessee and daughter of Elijah Ad- kins. Her father was a farmer in the Hebron locality, where he died in 1897, at the age of sixty-five. During the war between the states he was a Confederate soldier from Tennessee. The surviving children of his first marriage are : James, of Hamlin, Texas; Mrs. Everett, who was born in May, 1860; William G., of Seymour, Texas; Mary, wife of William Burks, of Dallas; Lon, of Electra, Texas; Lucy, wife of Dr. L. L. Dooley, of Hebron ; and Alice, wife of Foster Hardcastle, of Okla- homa. The two deceased children were Joseph, who died at Seymour, Texas, and Robert, who died at Dallas.
Mr. and Mrs. Everett have reared and have seen six children go out into the world and give good accounts of themselves, and they have a total of thirteen grandchildren. Their oldest child, Roberta, is the wife of Hon. Charles G. Thomas, of Lewisville, present speaker of the House of Representatives of Texas; Aubrey, living at Dallas, married Nettie Bowser; Roy, a farmer near Hebron, married Lucy Collier; Marie is the wife of Rev. D. B. Allen, of Elgin, Texas; John B. is a merchant and farmer at Hebron and mar- ried Jennie McMurray; Fred, the youngest,
a farmer at the old homestead, married Edith Cox.
Mr. Everett is president and a director of the Farmers Gin Company and was largely instrumental in providing the facilities of that company for Hebron. He is a director of the Hebron Warehouse, and he staked off the ground for the first elevator in the town. For several years he was grain buyer for the com- pany and also has been a cotton buyer in this locality.
GEORGE GORDON MCBRIDE. No other pro- fession or calling has proven such a broad highway to public honors as that of the law, and it is a notable fact that this calling has given to the United States more distinguished statesmen than all of the others put together. There are several reasons for this, the first, of course, being that unless a man is possessed of more than average ability he is not likely to be attracted to a line of endeavor which demands so much. Another one is that by the time the aspirant has completed the long and arduous training necessary before he can be admitted to practice his natural faculties have been so developed and his sense of perception so sharpened that he is better fitted to handle the problems of public life than one who has not had such advantages. A third, and cogent reason, is that in the handling of the cases brought to him the intelligent lawyer gains such a knowledge of human nature and the motives which actuate mankind that it is not difficult for him to sway his associates and take the place of a leader among them. Go into any community the country over, no matter where it may be, and the leading men of it are certain to be those who are either practicing attorneys or men who at one time prepared themselves for the profession of the law. Especially is this condition of affairs found to be true in those sections of the country where boom periods have brought in a rush of outsiders, and a consequent fre- quency of land transfers with subsequent dis- putes with reference to titles and legal pos- session. With the discovery of oil in the Burkburnett district Wichita County gained a wonderful influx of settlers, and acquired such a variety of new problems of a legal nature that this region has needed the services of some of the most competent lawyers in the state to handle them and see that justice is done to all.
One of the brilliant young men who is find- ing at Burkburnett the field for the exercise
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of his skill and wonderful capabilities is George Gordon McBride, who formerly served the city as attorney, whose rise has been phenomenal, and whose abilities are unques- tioned. He was born at Greenville, Texas, in 1895, a son of Perry and Mary (Skinner) McBride, and grandson of John W. McBride, who sacrificed himself to an ideal and died while serving in the Confederate army during the war between the North and the South.
Perry McBride was also born at Greenville, Texas, and he was reared in the Lone Star State, becoming one of its eminent attorneys, and was engaged in an active practice up to the time of his demise, which occurred a few years ago. Early recognizing the importance of settling the controversies with reference to land and title matters, he specialized in this branch of his profession and became one of the experts of the state, traveling all over Texas. While he was oftentimes called into consultation in disputed cases, for his knowl- edge was admitted by everyone, his practice as a land-title lawyer was centered largely at Galveston, Beaumont, Houston and Sweet- water in Western Texas. His death was rec- ognized as a distinct loss to the state and pro- fession, but fortunately he has left behind him two sons to maintain the standards he had raised, and confer added prestige on the name, George Gordon and his brother, H. C. McBride, the latter a law graduate of Cum- berland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, class of 1920, who has joined his brother at Burk- burnett, the two forming a very strong legal combination. H. C. McBride is now serving as city attorney.
George G. McBride was reared in his na- tive city in a home of comfort and intellec- tuality, and his tastes were moulded after the pattern of his honored father, in whose foot- steps he elected to follow. He was given his collegiate training and legal education in Cum- berland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1919. He also had the honor of winning the oratorical contest of the Philomathean Society, through which he re- ceived the degree of Bachelor of Oratory.
Immediately following his graduation Mr. McBride came to Burkburnett, the famous oil town of Wichita County, Texas, arriving here in the summer of 1919. His talents im- mediately won him recognition, and within a year he has built up a large and lucrative practice which embraces almost every phase of law practice in Texas. A young man of
enthusiasm with reference to civic duties, he accepted the burden of office and served as city attorney of Burkburnett, giving to his munic- ipality the benefit of his training and natural aptitude for his profession. He resigned this office in May, 1921, to assume the private prac- tice of law.
Mr. McBride is a born orator and a great trial lawyer, knowing how to impress his juries by the force of his argument, the clearness of his logic and the eloquence of his pleading. Taking all of his qualifications into considera- tion, it is small wonder that he has achieved such a wonderful success. He did not enter his professional training as do most pupils, for he had been reared in the atmosphere of the law from childhood and was accustomed to hear his father discuss various mooted ques- tions of the law as other men do the everyday occurrences of life. He works at his cases for the love of his calling, and goes into court with the determination to win, and the con- viction of his own powers and knowledge. Mr. McBride carries the same enthusiasm into his conduct of public affairs, and is very justly numbered among the live, active and public- spirited factors in this section of the state.
THOMAS DANIEL ROBINSON. On an emi- nence overlooking the Village of Ponder and commanding a view of the whole community is the country home of Thomas Daniel Robin- son, one of the attractive features to the trav- eler along the Santa Fe Railroad and consti- tuting one of the trio of rural residences mak- ing the Wakefield estate. Mr. Robinson has been a factor in the management and agricul- tural prosperity of this locality since 1900.
He was born in Monroe County, Tennessee, February 15, 1879, but since early boyhood his environment has been the agricultural district of Northern Texas. His grandfather was Henry Dotson Robinson, a Tennessean, who for several years was in the hotel and livery business at Madisonville, Tennessee, where he died. In his large family was James Tate Robinson, also a native of Monroe County, Tennessee. He married Lucy Donohoo, whose father was Capt. Henry Donohoo, a Confederate officer. James Tate Robinson acquired only a meager education and was too young to go into the war as a soldier. He brought his family to Texas in 1889, but died five years later. His widow is a resident of Denton. Their children are: Henry, of Den- ton ; Glennie, wife of J. B. Farris, of Denton; Thomas Daniel ; Charles, who was accidentally
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killed; leaving a wife and three children in Denton County; Miss Fannie and Miss Blanche, both of Denton ; Mattie, Mrs. Henry Rens, of Dallas; and Mollie, wife of Stanley Cowan, of Denton County.
Thomas Daniel Robinson after coming to Texas at the age of ten was reared in Denton County and attended school at the Brown School west of Denton, the Burk School south of Denton and the Cooper Creek School north- east of the county seat. While his family lived in the Cooper Creek locality he reached his majority and soon afterward he came to Ponder. For two years he was employed in the ginning and threshing operations of his brother-in-law, O. W. Myers, owner and oper- ator of the Ponder gin.
In February, 1900, Mr. Robinson married Miss Clara Allie Wakefield. She is a daughter of Henry Franklin Wakefield, whose person- ality is so indelibly stamped upon the Ponder locality and who is now living retired at Min- eral Wells. Mrs. Robinson was born at Wake- ton in Denton County, January 15, 1881. Her twin brother is Charles F. Wakefield, one of the prominent men of Ponder. Mrs. Robin- son was liberally educated, finishing in the convent at Dallas.
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