USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 43
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Hugh M. Larkum was reared and educated at Clarksville, and as a youth took up rail- roading. For a time he was with the freight department of the Texas & Pacific Railway,
and subsequently with the Fort Worth & Den- ver City Railway. He has been a resident of Wichita Falls since 1908, when he entered the freight office of the Fort Worth & Denver Railway in that city. Subsequently he was promoted to chief clerk in the freight depart- ment, and held that position until he resigned.
In October, 1918, he became connected with the Sunshine State Oil & Refining Company as traffic manager, a position for which his previous experience thoroughly qualified him. He has since had an active part in the up- building of this remarkable industry, the value of whose property at Wichita Falls is over a million dollars. The company built at Wichita Falls one of the most modern refiner- ies in the country, and also has a large num- ber of oil tank cars for the shipment of re- fined oils throughout the country. The auxili- ary company, the Sunshine State Pipe Line Company, owns a large network of pipe lines leading direct from the oil fields to the re- finery.
Mr. Larkum is now treasurer 'of this great business and is also interested in oil produc- tion in Wichita County, being vice president of the Derden Oil Company, which holds val- uable production acreage in the county. In 1907 Mr. Larkum married Miss Anna Funston.
JUDGE OSBORNE L. LOCKETT, a resident of Cleburne since 1906, has been a member of the bar of Northwest Texas since 1877, and is distinguished among other things for his valued service on the bench of the Eighteenth Judicial District.
He was born in Cole County, Missouri, February 19, 1849. His father, Thomas F. Lockett, was a native of Virginia, graduated from college at Richmond, that state, and devoted his civil life to the ministry of the Baptist Church and teaching. He was a Con- federate soldier in General Price's army and before the war was over was detailed to take charge of the building of a factory to make army blankets at Old Washington, Texas. He came out of the army with the rank of major and then resumed his former profession. From Washington he removed to the vicinity of Waco, and several years later to Bosque County and died at Meridian in 1902. While in Missouri he had served as chaplain of the House of the Missouri Legislature, and as a young man was identified with the Whig party, but afterwards became a staunch dem- ocrat. He was always an advocate of tem- perance and prohibition. He was born in
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1826 and was seventy-six when he died. Rev. Mr. Lockett married Miss Sallie W. Dixon, who was born in North Carolina and was a child when her father, Thomas W. Dixon, moved to Missouri and settled in Cole County. Mrs. Lockett died while visiting a daughter in San Diego, California, and is buried there. Her children were: Judge O. L., of Cleburne ; William H., a lawyer, who died at Abilene, Texas; Mollie K., who married F. W. Carter of San Diego, California ; Thomas B. of Fort Worth; and Lee D., who lives at Happy in Potter County, Texas.
Osborne L. Lockett spent the first fourteen years of his life at Missouri's capital city, Jefferson City, where he acquired a common school education. He left there with his mother, who went South under a flag of truce to join her husband in Old Washington, Texas. They went down the Mississippi River to Natchez, across to Black River and thence to Marshall, Texas, where, after a few weeks, they continued their journey to Old Washington. Osborne L. Lockett finished his education in Baylor University at Waco, where he was graduated in 1874. While teach- ing school he read law at Meridian and was admitted to the bar before Judge Prendergast, the examining committee being Judge L. C. Alexander, Colonel Anderson, of Waco, and L. H. Coon of Meridian. His first case was assisting in the prosecution of two men tried for the murder of a prisoner in their custody. The result of the trial was their condemnation to the gallows but while appeal to a higher court was pending they broke jail and were never captured. Shortly afterward Judge Lockett entered the Law School of the Uni- versity of Virginia, where he pursued his courses though he did not graduate. On leaving law school he located at Meri- dian and took a prominent part in the many celebrated trials in Bosque County. He ap- peared both for the prosecution and the defense in a number of noted criminal cases and also in lawsuits that settled land titles which had been in dispute because of defec- tive methods of transfer and recording titles. His ability before the Court brought him such prestige that he was regarded as exceptionally well qualified for the Bench. He and his brother, William H., for some years had been unconsciously leaders of their party in Bosque County and their influence and judgment were usually accepted as final in political matters. Judge Lockett entered the campaign for the district judgeship against formidable com- VOL. III-15
petition, each of the three counties having a candidate. He was nominated in 1904, was elected as the successor of Judge Poindexter and took his seat on the bench in January, 1905. His judicial service covered a period of sixteen years, four full terms, closing in January, 1921.
Judge Lockett established his home at Cle- burne in 1906 and since leaving the bench has resumed private practice as a member of the firm Lockett & Henry. His son J. O. is asso- ciated with him and also Heber Henry. Judge Lockett has ranching interests, both sheep and cattle, in Shackelford and Coke counties, and some investments at Breckenridge. For many years he has been deeply interested in church work and Sabbath school. He is a deacon in the Cleburne Baptist Church and has fre- quently been a delegate to Baptist associations.
In Bosque County April 21, 1880, Judge Lockett married Zora M. Cureton, who was born in Palo Pinto County, Texas, in June, 1861. Her father, Captain J. J. Cureton, was a captain of Rangers both before and after the Civil war, coming to Texas from Arkan- sas, and was also sheriff of Bosque County. Captain Cureton married Elizabeth Price, who died in Cleburne at the home of Judge Lock- ett. The oldest of the children of Judge and Mrs. Lockett is Maggie, wife of Dr. William P. Ball of Cleburne. The oldest son is Joseph Orby, who was born May 10, 1883, is a grad- uate of the University of Texas and has been in active practice as a lawyer since 1909. He has served as assistant county attorney and is the legal representative of all the railroads at Cleburne. Joseph O. Lockett married Jackie Fields, daughter of Captain William A. Fields, postmaster of Hillsboro, Texas. Judge Lock- ett's second son, Richard W., born in Octo- ber, 1888, is a graduate of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, served as a second lieutenant in the 36th Division and from Fort Worth was transferred to Camp McArthur at Waco as drillmaster ; he is now a resident of Breckenridge, Texas. William C. Lockett, the third son, was born in 1892, is a graduate electrical engineer from the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and went overseas as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery, serving with the artillery branch in the Argonne sector. He also lives at Breck- enridge.
JAMES M. MOORE of Cleburne has been practicing law as a Texas attorney forty-five years and has been well known and prominent
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both in eastern Texas and in Johnson County, where he has made his home since 1898.
Judge Moore was born at old Boston, Bowie County, July 14, 1854. His father, also a lawyer, was William Moore, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, where he was reared and liberally educated. He was admit- ted to the bar before he left South Carolina, also married there, and brought his family to Texas by the water route through New Or- leans and up Red River to Shreveport, and thence by overland conveyance to Bowie County, where he settled in 1850. He was one of the able lawyers of the old town of Boston and continued in the practice of his profession there the rest of his active life. He entered the Confederate service in Col. Charles DeMorse's Regiment, the second year of the war, and was a private soldier in the Trans- Mississippi Department. He came home broken in health before the end of the strug- gle and this service hastened his death, which occurred in March, 1868, when he was about forty-five years of age. William Moore lived a righteous life, was deeply interested in Methodist Church affairs, and was also a pro- found law student and regarded as an able advocate. He was the principal attorney in the defense of Governor Runnels, charged with murder. They always remained close personal friends. Governor Runnels was an old bachelor, a man of real ability, but not a public speaker. When he made the campaign for governor against Gen. Sam Houston and defeated him, another distinguished Texan, Lewis T. Wigfall, accompanied him and bore the brunt of the speechmaking.
William Moore married Miss Jane Mc- Cright, of an old South Carolina family, born at Columbia. By her marriage to William Moore she was the mother of four children, three of whom grew up: William, who died at Jefferson, Texas, at the age of twenty- seven ; James M., and Lula, wife of Gillette of Dallas. The second husband of Jane Moore was Maj. William E. Estes, a business man of Texarkana. He was a soldier in the Mex- ican war, serving under Jefferson Davis, re- mained a close friend of that Southern states- man all his life, and earned his title as major in the Confederate Army. He died in Tex- arkana in 1909, and after his death Mrs. Estes lived with her children and passed away in January, 1917, at the age of eighty-four.
James M. Moore was only thirteen years of age when his father died and two years later he left the old home and became a mer-
chant in Jefferson. He never attended school after completing his lessons under the school- master Dr. John McLean at Paris, Texas. He continued clerking until he was nineteen when he began his preparation for a legal career in the office of Epperson & Maxey. The junior member of this firm was Judge Maxey, a for- mer Federal District Judge, now living at Austin. Mr. Moore was admitted to the bar in 1876 at Jefferson before District Judge Reuben R. Gaines, subsequently chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. For a time he practiced at Jefferson and in 1877 established himself at Daingerfield, where he was active in the law and politics until he removed to Cleburne. During the twenty-one years of his residence at Daingerfield Mr. Moore achieved more than a local reputation in his profession and in the public life of East Texas. He was elected flotorial representative for the coun- ties of Morris, Titus and Red River to the Twenty-fourth Legislature. He was the only democrat sent by that region to the Legis- lature that year, all the other members being chosen as populists. He served in the House under Speaker Tom Smith of Hillsboro, and was appointed to Judiciary Committee No. 1, and was on the committees on Penitentiaries and Public Lands. Governor Culberson called the Twenty-fourth Legislaure in special ses- sion in October, 1895, to prevent the Corbett- Fitzsimmons prize fight, and the required leg- islation was passed within two days after the legislators assembled. Among bills introduced by Mr. Moore was Bill No. 500, providing for a change in the method of bringing witnesses to court from various counties in the state by substituting the Federal practice in subpoena- ing witnesses, a design to save much money to the state. The bill passed the House but failed in the Senate for lack of time. Gov- ernor Culberson at a subsequent session rec- ommended this measure, and it was enacted and has since been a law. In the sale and leasing of the public lands of the state Mr. Moore contributed much to the debates on the subject. He was a member of the com- mittee appointed by Speaker Smith, compris- ing one member from each congressional dis- trict, to redistrict the state for judicial pur- poses, the object being to reduce the number of district judges. Mr. Moore was in the Legislature and cast a ballot and helped elect Horace Chilton for the United States Senate. He and Senator Chilton were close friends and he was one of his most active supporters in the Legislature.
SaussTaylor
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Since coming to Cleburne in 1898 Judge Moore's legal work has been no less conspic- uous than it was in Texas. His colleagues called him to the bench to sit as judge pro tem of the Eighteenth Judicial District. He was himself a candidate for the bench in 1916, but lost the nomination. Judge Moore cast his first presidential vote for Samuel J. Tilden in 1876 and has attended nearly every state convention as a delegate since he reached his majority. He was a member of the Houston convention that endorsed the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson for president, and as the delegate from Johnson County presented the name of Hon. Cato Sells for national commit- teeman, a choice accepted by the convention. He was a spectator at the national convention of 1904 at St. Louis.
Judge Moore has earnestly worked in be- half of various movements instituted at Cle- burne for giving that city its rightful place among the progressive communities of North Texas. He was chairman of the Citizens Com- mittee which built the street railway some years ago and has been given the credit for being its chief promoter. He was president of the old Board of Trade, had a part in secur- ing the Interurban Railway from Fort Worth, and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, successor to the old Board of Trade. He and Mrs. Moore are Methodists, and he was a trustee of the Main Street Church and has the honor of teaching the largest class in Sunday school, the Married Women's class.
At Daingerfield, Texas, February 4, 1880, Judge Moore married Miss Louella P. Cook, who was born in Morris County, Texas, daugh- ter of George and Jane (Chambers) Cook. She was educated in one of the best schools in Texas at Daingerfield. The only child of Judge and Mrs. Moore is a son, born in 1895. He was educated in the Cleburne High School, and left the State University to enter the Offi- cers' Training Camp at Camp Travis, was commissioned a second lieutenant, was pro- moted to first lieutenant while going over- seas, and was in the engineering department of the American forces in France. He re- turned home in February, 1919, and spent an- other year in the University of Texas, and since then has been identified with the Trad- ers State Bank of Cleburne. In the univer- sity he was a member of the baseball team and otherwise active in athletics.
MAX K. MAYER is one of Fort Worth's prominent lawyers and business men, and his
prestige has been steadily growing in his native city since he began the practice of law here more than twenty years ago. He is a member of the law firm of Wray & Mayer.
Mr. Mayer was born in Fort Worth July 11, 1877. The preceding year his parents, Joseph and Amanda (Kaufman) Mayer, had come to Texas from Indiana. His father died at the age of fifty-nine and his mother is still living. Max is the fifth among nine children, six of whom survive.
He acquired his early education in the Fort Worth public schools, and early decided upon the legal profession. He prepared for the law at the University of Texas, graduating in 1898 and being admitted to the bar at the same time he received his diploma. The same year he entered practice at Fort Worth, and for many years has been recognized for his skillful work in general civil and commercial law. In 1903 he formed a partnership with Judge A. J. Booty, but since 1910 the firm of Wray & Mayer has been in existence, the senior partner of which is John W. Wray. Mr. Mayer served as tax attorney of Tarrant County during one local administration. He is vice president of the Washer Brothers Cloth- ing Store, one of the monumental mercantile establishments of Northern Texas.
In 1917 Mr. Mayer married Berenice Gaus, of an old Little Rock, Arkansas, family. They have two children, Max K., Jr., and Berenice. Mr. Mayer is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, an Elk and a member of the Fort Worth Club.
SAM H. TAYLOR is a veteran of the typo- graphical art, is active head of a successful printing business which he has built up at Fort Worth, the Sam H. Taylor Company, of which he is president, and as a printer has been closely associated with the development of the North Texas metropolis from about the time the first railroad train came in from the East.
Mr. Taylor was born at Rome in Smith County, Tennessee, March 2, 1867, son of Rev. W. Y. Taylor, who was a minister of the Christian Church and came to Fort Worth as pastor of the First Christian Church of the city in 1876. Later, in 1878, he moved to Weatherford, but continued his ministerial duties in other parts of the state until his death in 1901.
Sam H. Taylor, the second of three sons, has lived in Fort Worth since 1877. The first man who ever paid him a salary was Capt.
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B. B. Paddock, editor of this history. He was employed by Captain Paddock on the old Fort Worth Democrat, and the two years he spent there about completed his apprentice- ship as a printer. For two years he was also in the mail service, but subsequently worked on the Gazette, the old Fort Worth Mail, the Telegram, and in some capacity or another has served every newspaper of importance estab- lished at Fort Worth. Mr. Taylor in 1899 began a very modest business of his own as a commercial and job printer, and since then has developed a shop with all the modern facilities of the printing art, employing a large force of people and doing a commercial printing busi- ness fully in keeping with the size of the city. Mr. Taylor is one of the men who by per- sonal recollection can recount the successive stages of Fort Worth's growth from the time the first chapter was written to the city as a railroad town.
In 1889 he married Miss Edith Attwell, daughter of L. H. Attwell, a well known busi- ness man and citizen of Fort Worth. Of their three children Sam H. Taylor, Jr., is now deceased. Their daughter, Celia, is the wife of Dr. F. G. Sheddan, one of the prominent physicians of Fort Worth. Doctor and Mrs. Sheddan have one son, Frank, Jr. The young- est child of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor is Dick Taylor .:
Mr. Taylor is an Elk, Knight of Pythias and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Glen Garden Club.
HENRY CALVIN GRESHAM has been one of the progressive citizens of Cleburne and John- son County for forty odd years. He has been a merchant, banker, and has promoted a num- ber of constructive measures in the advance- ment of town and country.
Mr. Gresham represents an old Virginia family, and was born on a plantation near the head of York River, thirty-five miles from Fredericksburg, King and Queen County, and forty miles east of Richmond, October 28, 1848. The plantation on which he spent his boyhood was worked by slaves, and he had only an incidental part in the manual toil there until after the war. His father. Sylvanus Gresham, was born in the same locality in 1822, and was almost eighty-nine when he died. He did not gain a liberal education, spent his young manhood as a brick mason, and after his marriage settled on a farm and was a planter the rest of his life. Though nearly forty years of age when the war came
on he entered the Confederate army and was discharged for disability in 1864. His son Todd served to the end of the struggle in Gen- eral Mosby's command, one of the famous Confederate guerrillas, and came to Texas about eight years after his brother Henry and managed for this brother a little store at Glen- rose where he died. Sylvanus Gresham mar- ried Susan Cauthorne, daughter of Amos Cauthorne of another old Virginia family. Her father was a wealthy planter. Susan was the third in a family of nine daughters and two sons. She survived her husband one year. Their children were: Todd, above men- tioned ; Henry Calvin: John Amos of Seattle, Washington; and Mollie, who died in Rich- mond, Virginia, unmarried.
Henry Calvin Gresham had limited school advantages before the war, and when that struggle was precipitated schools were prac- tically discontinued in that section of Virginia. About the close of the war he attended a little country school taught by a woman and ac- knowledges that she gave him some of the best training he received from books. Too young to be a soldier he nevertheless gave his aid in proportion to his strength while the war was on, and after its close he earned much of the money to give him a further education. In the general poverty of the country follow- ing the war he had to consider himself and act like a man in years and responsibilities. Before reaching his majority he was earning his own way and managing his own affairs. He learned something of business working in a country store in his native locality, and after a time he went to Mississippi, securing better wages in a store there. The money he saved from this he spent in going back to Virginia to study arithmetic, a subject in which he was weak. He even borowed some money to com- plete this phase of his education. His wage in Virginia was but twelve dollars and a half, while in Mississippi he was paid sixty dollars a month for similar work. From 1870 to 1874 he was in business as a clerk at Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Later he engaged in business at a little country place called Mata- pike, where he was associated with R. B. Hart in the firm of Hart & Company. His inter- est was small and the business as a whole was also small. He performed the inside while Mr. Hart had the outside duties. The firm handled and shipped wood brought in from the mountains and shipped on the Mattaponi River. This phase of the business was looked after by Mr. Hart while Mr. Gresham took
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care of the sale of the goods and the accounts. The partnership continued about three years and Mr. Gresham accumulated a little capital in this way.
Selling his interest to his partner he started for Texas with less than four hundred dollars. Fifty dollars of this was expended on the journey. He made the trip by way of Rich- mond, thence to Wheeling, West Virginia, by boat from there to Cincinnati, and by train to Fort Worth, and was a passenger on the old Johnson stage to Cleburne where he ar- rived September 15, 1877, thus beginning a permanent residence that has continued now forty-four years. He went to Cleburne be- cause the only man in Texas whom he knew was located there, J. S. Taylor, an old Cle- burne merchant. The day after his arrival he was clerking in Mr. Taylor's store, and continued in his employ for nine years. On leaving he and two other clerks of Mr. Taylor, Nix and Baird, joined in establishing a busi- ness of their own in 1885, and the firm, Nix, Baird & Gresham and later Nix & Baird, con- tinued in business until 1899. Mr. Gresham left this firm to spend a few years recovering his health much of the time in travel through new districts in Virginia and North Carolina. With restored health he returned to Texas and resumed business as a real estate opera- tor, opening up additions in Cleburne and putting the property in the hands of a real estate firm who sold the lots. At the same time he was a stockholder in the Heron-Hodge Grocery Company. He continued his real estate operations until 1913 when the Home National Bank was organized with him as one of the original stockholders. He was the sec- ond president chosen to guide the affairs of the bank and was active in the management for three years, and has since been chairman of the board of directors.
As an influential and old time resident Cle- burne owes Mr. Gresham its chief debt for the constructive efforts he has put forth in matters of improvement and upbuilding. He has provided the capital and enterprise for the building of many homes, and has thus afforded adequate facilities for the increasing population of the county seat. His interests and means have been liberally bestowed upon urban matters of the town and have been a genuine contribution to the substantial wel- fare. This has been in the nature of a public service, while formal politics and public office have had no attraction for him. Neither has he been a fraternity man, since his interests
are primarily those of the home and his own fireside. He is a member of the First Baptist Church and during the World war was a bond buyer and contributor to other patriotic causes.
At Cleburne, October 2, 1880, Mr. Gresham married Miss Ida Beverly, who was born at Anderson, South Carolina. Her father Rev. W. D. Beverly moved out of South Carolina to Marshall, Texas, later to Crockett and fin- ally to Cleburne where he was pastor of the First Baptist Church. Again he answered a call to the Crockett pastorate, where Mrs. Gresham's mother whose maiden name was Mason, died. Later he moved to Austin, mar- ried again, and engaged in missionary work there. He died and is buried at the state capital. Mrs. Gresham was the third of her parents' children, and, the only other sur- vivor now is her brother Melvin of Shreve- port, Louisiana.
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