USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 48
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Mr. Pafford like his father and grandfather has always cherished and worked for the spiri- tual welfare of the community. While at Drop he took much responsibility in behalf of the Methodist Church, serving as a steward and superintendent of the Sunday school. While there and also at Claude and at Justin he was selected as a lay delegate to con- ferences. The church at Drop was erected while he was there and the Methodists at Claude also undertook a building program while he was a member of the community. He contributed liberally to both causes. Another matter that has enlisted his active support has been public schools and he was a member of the district board at Drop and is now chair- man of the Board of Trustees of the Justin School. Mr. Pafford cast his first presidential vote for Cleveland in 1884 and has been a steady adherent of the party ever since.
In Collin County he married Dora Wilson, a native of that county and daughter of J. I. Wilson. Mrs. Pafford died November 3, 1916. Of her children the oldest is Nannie Belle, wife of C. Y. Leuty of Justin, and the mother of two sons, Howard and Walter Guy. Eula May the second of the family is the wife of L. R. Jordon of Fort Worth and has three children, Jack, Audrey May and Ray. Mr. Pafford's third child is Vera, wife of L. G. Alread of Justin, and the mother of Pafford and Cammie. Ray Wilson Pafford was with the Students' Army Training Corps at Den- ton during the World war and is now con- nected with the Acme Brick Company at Mill- sap, Texas. Walter J., the youngest, is a farmer at the old homestead. At Justin, April 21, 1919, Mr. Pafford married Mrs. Lola Pafford. Her father, D. C. Leuty, was one of the early settlers of Denton County where Mrs. Pafford was born. He was in the
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Home Guard of Texas during the war be- tween the states and was also one of the de- fenders of Northern Texas against the Indians during their last raids. Mrs. Pafford's mother was a daughter of J. J. Young. Besides Mrs. Pafford, the oldest of her parents' children, there were Clyde, Will, Callie, Dane, Reggie, Leuty and Mrs. Lizzie Mason.
OTHO LEE BISHOP is a native son of John- son County, Texas, and at Cleburne, its judicial center, he is now vice-president of the Traders State Bank, one of the substantial and impor- tant financial institutions of this vital and pro- gressive city. He has shown deep interest in all things pertaining to the civic welfare and industrial and business advancement of his native county and is known as one of the pro- gressive and public-spirited citizens of Cle- burne.
Mr. Bishop was born on a farm near Cle- burne and the date of his nativity was June 21, 1875. His father, Wiley Brinkley Bishop, was born and reared in Tennessee, and from Milan, that state, he came with his family to Texas about the year 1869. He had served as a member of a Tennessee regiment in the Con- federate Army, his assignment having been to the commissary department. In his native state he had been engaged in the mercantile business and with his family he became a member of a colony of Tennessee folk who came to establish homes in Texas, the over- ยท land trip having been made with teams and wagons. He first settled in Hill County, where he remained two years, and he then came to Johnson County and purchased a tract of land about six miles south of Cleburne, where he instituted the reclaiming of a pro- ductive farm from the raw prairie. He split the rails with which to fence his fields and otherwise he showed the constructive versatil- ity of a well fortified pioneer. A few years after he here established his home Mr. Bishop was elected justice of the peace, about the year 1880, and he then removed from his farm to Cleburne. After holding this office four years he became deputy county clerk under Judge F. E. Adams, and after a few years of effec- tive service in this capacity he was elected county clerk, an office of which he continued the incumbent sixteen years. Upon his re- tirement he returned to his farm, to the active supervision of which he continued to give his attention during the ensuing period of about ten years, at the expiration of which he re- turned to Cleburne, which city continued his
place of residence until his death, in March, 1917, at the venerable age of eighty years. He was ever a stalwart advocate of the principles of the democratic party, was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, both he and his wife hav- ing been zealous members of the Presbyterian Church. A man of sterling character and dis- tinctive ability, Wiley B. Bishop was a vig- orous supporter of the enterprises and agen- cies that conserved civic and material devel- opment and progress in Johnson County and its county seat, and he was known and hon- ored as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. His wife, a playmate of his childhood, bore the maiden name of Ann Lansdon, she likewise having been born and reared in Tennessee and it having been hers to prove a true helpmeet to her husband in connection with their pio- neer experiences in the Lone Star state. She died at Cleburne in 1882, and of her eight children five are living: William R., of Ho- bart, Oklahoma; Robert B., of New Orleans, Louisiana; Mrs. Bettie Brown, of Burkbur- nett, Texas; Mrs. Onie Ramsey, of Cleburne, this state; and Otho L.
Otho L. Bishop continued his studies in the Cleburne schools until his graduation in the high school, when he was about seventeen years of age, and thereafter he was for two years a student in a well ordered private school. In the meanwhile he passed his vaca- tion periods on his father's farm whenever this was possible, as he was fond of outdoor life and early manifested a deep interest in live stock. His first real work after leaving school was rendered by his becoming driver of a wagon for the Wells-Fargo Express Com- pany, from which he was promoted to a posi- tion in the company's office at Cleburne. About a year after this promotion he resigned his position to become an assistant in the office of his father, who was then county clerk. After the close of the term of his father he remained eight years with the latter's suc- cessor, and he was then elected county clerk, as the successor of R. H. Crank. Like his father before him, he gave a most efficient and satisfactory administration, and after serving four years as county clerk he turned his attention to the banking business. He as- sisted in the organization of the Traders State Bank, in which he initiated his service in the capacity of bookkeeper, and of which he is now active vice-president, an executive office of which he has been the efficient and valued incumbent for the past ten years. This bank was organized and incorporated in 1905, and
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among those most prominently identified with the institution in the early period of its his- tory were S. P. Ramsey, E. Y. Brown, W. J. Capps, Riggs Pennington and C. W. Breech. Mr. Ramsey was the first president of the bank and Mr. Brown is its first vice president. The original capital stock of $50,000 was increased to $75,000 in 1920. The record of the bank has been one of conservative poli- cies and effective service, and a recent state- ment of its condition shows its deposits to be fully $1,500,000, and its undivided profits about $200,000. These figures bear their own significance as to the solidity and high rela- tive importance of the Traders State Bank of Cleburne. Aside from his purely personal and business interests Mr. Bishop has taken an active part in the upbuilding of his home city. He served four consecutive years as president of the Cleburne Chamber of Com- merce, of which he is treasurer in 1921, and of the official board of which he has been a valued member for ten years. He has been a vigorous and effective worker for the suc- cess of the Johnson County District Fair As- sociation, of which he is now president, and 1921 also finds him serving his second term as representative of the Third Ward in the city board of aldermen. He does not neglect to do his part in connection with local politics and civic affairs, in which his influence has ever been potent and for the best, and he is deeply interested in the good roads movement, for the furtherance of which he has given liberally of time and money. He attends the meetings called to exploit the movement and is a vigorous worker in encouraging the con- struction of permanent highways of high grade, as he realizes their economic impor- tance in the community. During the nation's participation of the World war Mr. Bishop was actively identified with the committee work in the sale of government bonds and savings stamps, was a loyal worker in every Liberty Loan drive and invariably bought his own quota of bonds before asking others to subscribe. Red Cross and other auxiliary agencies in support of war measures enlisted his earnest and active co-operation, and much of his time and thought were given to con- structive work along these lines during the period of the American association with the great conflict.
In November, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bishop to Miss Ora J. Fran- cis, daughter of Dr. C. C. Francis and Bru- nette (Armstrong) Francis, of Johnson
County. Dr. Francis came from Tennessee to the eastern part of Texas and finally estab- lished his home in Johnson County, where he became a representative physician and sur- geon at Cleburne. In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Bishop: Reba is the wife of Wel- born Hutchins, of Grand View, Texas, and they have one son, James Francis. Francis L. Bishop, the younger of the two children, is a member of the class of 1922 in the Cle- burne high school. The home of the Bishop family, at 306 Featherston Street, is one of the most modern and attractive in the city and is a center of representative social activity and genuine hospitality.
LEONARD FRANK RAMMING. One of the most famous locations in the great oil dis- tricts of North Texas is known as Ramming Pool, and that phrase probably has a signifi- cance wherever men profess more or less inti- mate knowledge of American oil production. The Ramming Pool is located on farming lands long owned in the Ramming family. One of these farm owners is Leonard Frank Ramming, who oddly enough has not been diverted or perverted by riches due to the oil industry, and is still devoted to the basic art of agriculture, though his home is in the city of Wichita Falls.
Mr. Ramming has lived in Wichita County most of his life, but was born in the north- western state of Minnesota, in Wilton Town- ship, Waseca County. His parents were Peter and Bertha (Schunke) Ramming. Peter Ramming was born in Bavaria, Ger- many, and was a year old when his people came to this country and settled in Wiscon- sin among the pioneer settlers of that state. When about twenty-one years of age Peter Ramming moved to Waseca County, Minne- sota, and developed a pioneer farm. He lived in that state for twenty-one years, and in 1887, when his son Leonard was nineteen years old, came to Wichita County, Texas, and settled ten miles north of Iowa Park. Here as in Minnesota he continued farming, and was one of the leading wheat growers of that section. His efforts at agriculture brought him a sub- stantial success and it was by the diligent practice of agriculture that he and his sons acquired a large amount of land in the famous grain growing center of Wichita County. Peter Ramming and sons, on coming from Minnesota, acquired 560 acres of land. To this they added until the family holdings con-
LEONARD F. RAMMING
MRS. LEONARD F. RAMMING AND BABY PERCY LEROY
Born December 30, 1919 Died July 8, 1921
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stituted 1,770 acres of rich and productive soil.
This land was in the path of the oil devel- opment and the wells constituting the Ram- ming Pool have produced untold wealth in . petroleum. Thus from being men of substan- tial fortune so far as fortune is estimated in rural districts, the Rammings were quickly elevated to the rank of capitalists and immense sums have been paid them in royalties. Two of the brothers, W. F. and R. W. Ramming, have acquired a more active interest in the industry than merely as land owners. They had a decided liking for oil production, and for a number of years past have been promi- nent oil operators.
However, Leonard Frank Ramming is essentially a farmer, fond of the business, and has been only incidentally identified with oil production. When the multiplicity of oil wells and the accompanying derricks and impedimenta cluttered up his home farm, making farming operations no longer prac- ticable, he moved with his family to Wichita Falls, where they have a fine home on Ninth Street. But he intends to continue as an active farmer, and has bought another fine farm of 616 acres north of Wichita Falls, and owns much other property besides. His home has been in the city since May, 1918. He also has 480 acres in Caddo County, Okla- homa, agriculture land which his son Law- rence is operating.
Mr. Ramming has the honor of being one of the directors of the City National Bank of Commerce, a great institution of Wichita Falls which has resources of over $22,000,000. He is also a director of the Sunshine State Refining Company.
Mr. Ramming married Augusta Holtzen and they have a family of eight sons: Lawrence, Irvin, Rinehardt, Archie, Elmer, Arthur, Mar- tin and Percy Leroy, but the last named, who was born December 30, 1919, died July 8, 1921.
TED WALLACE, who has spent most of his life at Fort Worth, has had a varied business experience but for several years has been identified with a growing and flourishing gen- eral insurance agency at Fort Worth.
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He was born at Sherman, Texas, September 1, 1887, son of J. E. and Nettie (Phillips) Wallace, his father a native of Georgia and his mother of New York. J. E. Wallace came to Texas about 1878 and for several years was in the hardware business at Sherman.
While there he became associated with the interests that now comprise the widely known Waples-Platter Grocery Company of Fort Worth, and is now treasurer of that whole- sale house, and has lived at Fort Worth for many years.
Ted Wallace, only child of his parents, at- tended public school in Fort Worth and later the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege. For about eight years he lived on a ranch in Ector County in West Texas. He also spent several other years in Western Texas. Mr. Wallace was in the grocery busi- ness at Fort Worth about five years, but later turned his attention to insurance and on Feb- ruary 1, 1921, formed a partnership with John Ward Harrison. This firm is Harrison & Wal- lace, handling general insurance, with offices in the First National Bank Building.
Mr. Wallace married in 1910 Miss Blanche Connell. She is a daughter of W. E. Connell, president of the First National Bank of Fort Worth. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace are Hattie Bess and John Edgar. Mr. Wallace is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner.
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BRUCE ALLISON, M. D. In the fifteen years since he graduated in medicine Dr. Allison's experience has been chiefly in nervous and mental diseases, and for many years he has been the physician in charge of the Arlington Heights Sanitarium near Fort Worth.
Doctor Allison was born in Mexia, Lime- stone County, Texas, May 16, 1882, son of William L. and Ella C. (Morrow) Allison, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Alabama. His father died in 1883 when Dr. Allison was a year old. The mother is still living. There were two sons, Bruce and Wilmer Lawson. The latter is also a physician engaged in practice at Fort Worth.
Dr. Bruce Allison grew up in Limestone County, was educated in the public schools at Mexia, and in 1902 entered the medical department of the University of Texas at Galveston, pursuing the regular four year course and graduating in 1906. The follow- ing year he was on the staff of the Southwest- ern Insane Asylum at San Antonio and in 1907 came to Fort Worth to take up his work with the Arlington Heights Sanitarium. October 1, 1919, he was elected president of the sanitarium as well as its superintendent. Doctor Allison is a member of the Tarrant County, Texas State, North Texas and South- west Texas, the Southern, American Medical
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and American Medico-Psychological Associa- tions. He is a thirty-second degree and Knight Templar Mason and a, Shriner. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club.
September 12, 1907, he married Edith Ed- ward King of San Antonio. They have one daughter named Edith Bruce.
C. B. TEAM is a well known Fort Worth business man, long an active figure at the stockyards, and known here and in many other markets as a mule buyer.
Mr. Team was born in Camden, South Carolina, September 18, 1862, son of P. M. and Sarah ( Bowen) Team. His parents were native South Carolinians. His father was a planter in that state, a slave owner, and when the war came on between the sections entered the Confederate army and died shortly after the war was ended.
C. B. Team was reared in his native state and was about nineteen years old when he first came to Texas. Later for several years he was in the stock business in Mississippi and returned to Texas to make Fort Worth his permanent home in 1905. His enterprise has had much to do with development of Fort Worth as a leading mule market. During the World war he was practically in the Govern- ment service buying and handling mules by the carload.
Mr. Team is a member of the Fort Worth Club and the Chamber of Commerce and re- sides at 1410 Mistletoe Avenue. In 1888 he married Miss Maud Sligh of South Carolina. They have two children, Eric C., who is in the mule business with headquarters at Wich- ita, Kansas; and Ludie, wife of Dr. H. V. Johnson of Fort Worth.
BERT K. SMITH, member of the dependable firm of Smith Brothers, dealers in grain, is one of the substantial men of Fort Worth, and one who is playing an important part in the commercial life of the city. He was born at Longview, Texas, March 11, 1877, a son of B. K. and Mary Josephine (Smith) Smith, who had five sons, of whom Bert K. Smith was the fourth.
Growing up in his native state, Mr. Smith was educated in public schools at Tyler, and his first connection with the business world was made when he became a clerk in the gen- eral offices of Cotton Belt Railway at Tyler. Later he went into the employ of R. G. Dun & Co., of Waco and Fort Worth, but subse-
quently moved to Houston, where he was engaged in the cotton business, but soon went into the grain trade in that city and in 1905 transferred his operations to Fort Worth, where he has since resided. In addition to his grain interests, which are large and impor- tant, Mr. Smith is vice president of the com- pany operating The Fair store, and vice pres- ident of The Star Refining and Producing Company, is owner of the Justin Mill & Elevator Company of Justin, Texas, and ex- president of the Grain and Cotton Exchange of Fort Worth, and is interested in other enterprises of the city.
In 1902 Mr. Smith was married to Miss Maizie Bewley of Fort Worth, and they have two children, namely : Maizie Bewley and Bert K., Jr. Mr. Smith belongs to the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club and Temple Club. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner. In national politics he is a democrat. Through the medium of the Baptist Church he finds expression for his religious views, and he is a valued member of the local congregation, and stands high in its councils. Mr. Smith is a man of varied interests, which he manages ably, and with them he couples his keen sense of duty as a citizen, so that it is small wonder that he has advanced so rapidly. Fort Worth is a city which offers an ambitious man many op- portunities, but he must have something more than ambition to achieve worth-while results, and these Mr. Smith has had to a more than ordinary degree.
I. H. ROBERTS came to Wichita Falls long before the modern period of development started, and was the pioneer concrete con- tractor of the city. He has continued in that line of business ever since, though with greatly broadened interests, and is one of the city's ablest and most public spirited men of affairs.
He was born near Waterloo, Iowa, in 1868, was reared in his native state, and some of his early business experiences were connected with the handling and laying of concrete, then a comparatively new material. From Iowa he came to Wichita Falls in 1903, and soon developed an organization for handling every class of concrete work. When he came Wich- ita Falls could boast of few of the permanent improvements which the use of concrete im- plies. There were no permanent sidewalks and not even crossings in the downtown streets. Mr. Roberts engaged in concrete
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IN Roberts,
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work on a large scale, and in the building of sidewalks and streets his organization has handled many contracts both in Wichita Falls and elsewhere. A large proportion of the extensive mileage of sidewalks and paved streets in Wichita Falls was constructed by him. His business has kept pace with the remarkable growth and expansion of the city in recent years. Mr. Roberts is president of the Wichita Builders Supply Company and the Wichita Falls Sand & Gravel Company, and is a director of the Black Eagle Oil Com- pany and the Red Seal Oil Company.
But opportunities for gaining wealth have not caused him to forget the needs of the educational, religious and ethical factors in the growth and expansion of a city. He has shown an especial interest in the public schools of Wichita Falls. The public schools reached a crisis in 1919-20, and in his capacity as a private citizen he aids in educational wel- fare, and also as president of the Wichita Falls Rotary Club Mr. Roberts took action along the line that would insure the salva- tion of the schools in a prosperous and most efficient manner. The Rotary Club in the fall of 1918 raised over six thousand dollars to purchase a home for the superintendent of schools. The high rents prevailing in the city made it practically prohibitive for the school superintendent to pay for a house out of his salary. Furthermore the Rotary Club instituted a formal canvass of the city to pro- vide rooms and boarding places for the teach- ers at prices they could afford to pay. It was as a result of these measures that the schools were able to open with a full corps of teach- ers in the fall of 1919. Mr. Roberts has been one of the leading members of the Rotary Club for several years, and was honored with the office of president in April, 1920.
He is also a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine and the Elks, belongs to the Wichita Country Club and Chamber of Commerce, and he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian Church. He married Miss Frances Bryan, a native of Alabama but reared in Texas. They have one daughter, Frances Irvine, born in December, 1919.
JAMES D. OSBORN, M. D. Forty-five years of distinguished work in one locality is some- thing of an achievement for any man. When that work has been concerned with the issues of life and death, with strenuous advocacy for effective ideals in community affairs, as in the
case of Dr. James D. Osborn of Cleburne, such a career deserves more than passing memorial in the records of Texas citizenship.
Doctor Osborn is the son of a physician and was born in Greene County, Alabama, August 24, 1845. His father, Dr. Thomas C. Osborn, was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, graduated in medicine at Memphis, and as a young man removed to Alabama and spent his entire professional career in the canebrake region of that state. When he re- tired from his profession he came to the home of his son in Cleburne, where he died in 1902 at the age of eighty-four. At Huntsville, Alabama, he married Miss Harriet McClellan, whose father, Gen. M. W. McClellan, was a distinguished Indian fighter and prominent Alabama planter, whose plantation is still known as Idle Wild. Dr. Thomas Osborn and wife reared seven children : Dr. James D .; Mrs. J. S. Taylor of Dallas; Thomas H. of Cleburne; Laura, who married Ed Mason of Fort Worth; Miss Ethel of Cleburne ; Luns- ford M., who died at Monroe, Louisiana, leaving several children; and Carrie, who became the wife of Robert Drake and died at Greensboro, Alabama, the mother of four children.
Dr. James D. Osborn grew up in his native section of Alabama and graduated from the Southern Methodist University at Greens- boro. He made an almost abrupt change from the academic halls of learning into the army, joining Company D of the 7th Alabama Cav- alry at Greensboro in 1863. He was in the command of Gen. N. B. Forrest, under whom he served in the Tennessee campaign, was wounded in front of Columbia, Tennessee, in November, 1864, and after recovering rejoined his command and was with the Confederate forces from Selma, Alabama, to Columbus, Georgia, resisting the advance of Sherman's army from Atlanta to the sea. When the war ended his command was at Gainesville, Ala- bama, where he surrendered to General Canby. Doctor Osborn has held in affection the great cause for which the South struggled so bravely and has been deeply interested in the welfare of his comrades of that strife. By appoint- ment of General Van Zandt he is now surgeon general of the ex-Confederate Veterans with the rank of brigadier general.
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