USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 49
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After the war Doctor Osborn completed his medical course in the University of Vir- ginia in 1867, and subsequently attended Tulane University Medical School at New Orleans. He practiced for several years in
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his home locality with his father and on leav- ing Alabama he traveled by railroad to Dallas and to Cleburne by private conveyance. He reached Cleburne in April, 1875. At that time the only method of communication be- tween Cleburne and Dallas was a public stage, and the intervening region was one vast cattle range, with only a few farms along the streams and water courses. Cleburne had only a few hundred population and probably no business man still active in the city was here when Doctor Osborn came. He recalls the court house as a small brick building on the public square, while the postoffice was kept in a little shack and the postmaster, Mr. Harris, died just recently in Fort Worth. Doctor Osborn is the oldest practitioner in the county and has outlived all the old physi- cians whom he found when he came, and has to his credit forty-six years of active par- ticipation in the work of his profession. The physicians here when he reached Cleburne were Drs. Keating, Lorance, Young, Otis, Hayden and Simons, all of whom are now passed to the other world. After a time Doctor Osborn formed a partnership with Doctor Keating, a relationship that continued many years. This firm, in days before tele- phones and automobiles, responded to calls from far and near, over a country in a radius twenty miles around Cleburne. In early years he rode horseback, with medicines carried in saddle bags, then used a single horse and buggy, then drove a pair of mustang ponies, frequently going over the road at a gallop, later a more dignified professional equipment consisting of phaeton and fine driving horse, and finally the automobile. Doctor Osborn remembers when hunters of the frontier brought in great quantities of buffalo meat and sold it from wagons to the people of Cle- burne. Other wild game in abundance were turkeys and prairie chickens and venison.
In early years Doctor Osborn also did some practical work in the way of farm develop- ment and improvement. He acquired a tract of prairie land near the old county seat of Wardville, six miles west of Cleburne, part of Jackson County school lands. He paid a dollar seventy-five cents an acre, and kept it until it sold for a hundred dollars an acre. It was used as a stock ranch and then devel- oped into a farm. The early day expense of this land caused Mrs. Osborn to say that "it would take Doctor Osborn to keep up the expense of Farmer Osborn," but the doctor
never failed to reply that some day the land would come into its own and return the ex- penditures many fold.
In the days when Cleburne was struggling to maintain its position as a village and in later years as a city, Doctor Osborn has been a steady resource of public spirit and effective leadership. He has seen three court houses occupy the Square of the city while the old brick schoolhouse has had three successors on its site, concluding with the splendid high school building of today. Doctor Osborn was president of the school board and for one term mayor of the city, his administration being notable through the construction of the first good streets. This street building pro- gram defeated him for re-election since his enemies charged that he built Prairie avenue for the benefit of Col. B. J. Chambers' prop- erty, though as a matter of fact this improve- ment was carried out with benefits to all con- cerned, and Colonel Chambers made it easy for the public to do the work by contributing the teams and gravel in the construction.
Mrs. Osborn was not behind her husband in interest in public improvements and other matters connected with the good of the city. She originated the first public library, the nucleus of the present handsome Carnegie library at Cleburne. She was active in all literary club work, in advancement of the pub- lic schools and facilities for education and training of children. The school children to the number of four hundred showed their appreciation of her service when they lined up in deference on the day of her funeral. She was prominent in the Magazine Club, in the Episcopal Church, and has frequently con- tributed articles on her favorite topics to peri- odicals.
Doctor Osborn is well known in the polit- ical life of north Texas. He was an opponent of prohibition until he witnessed the efficient results of the law. As a democrat he has been in many conventions, being chairman of the Congressional Convention which first named Hon. Jo Abbott for Congress. He was one of the leading supporters of George Clark for governor in 1892. He introduced Gov- ernor Neff to the audience when he made his public address to the voters of Cleburne. Governor Campbell appointed him president of the Medical Examining Board of Texas, and he was in the position until Governor Colquitt's second term, when he resigned rather than support the governor's re-election, since his own townsman, Judge Ramsey, was can-
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didate for governor and was entitled to the doctor's support.
Doctor Osborn was the twenty-fifth presi- dent of the State Medical Association, elected in 1892. As secretary of the ex-Presidents' Association, he is compiling a history of Texas Medicine as a member of the commit- tee for the collection and preservation of the records of Texas Medicine. As a citizen and professional man he would rather wear out than rust out, although the weight of years might advise his retirement and the compe- tence he has laid away would justify it.
At Greensboro, Alabama, February 11, 1870, Dr. Osborn married Miss Julia Pittman and theirs was a complete union of domestic as well as intellectual and civic interests. Mrs. Osborn, a daughter of Asa Pittman of Ken- tucky, was born at Palmyra, Missouri, in 1848 and died at Cleburne in January, 1904. Of their children the oldest was Dr. Eugene Bryce, who grew up in Cleburne, was edu- cated in medicine at the University of Texas, married Miss Maud Richardson of Fort Worth, and died during the influenza epidemic of 1918, his death depriving Texas of one of her ablest young surgeons. The second child, Hattilu Osborn, graduated in elocution from the Belmont School of Tennessee and died soon after returning home. Dr. James D., Jr., is a graduate of the Cleburne High School, of Tulane University Medical School, and is now in practice at Frederick, Oklahoma. He married Miss May Brown and has a daugh- ter, Pauline. The youngest of Doctor Os- born's children is Irene, wife of J. F. Blair of San Antonio, and the mother of Julian Osborn, Mary Eleanor and J. Frank Blair, Jr.
J. E. MCDERMETT. The oil boom has brought many to Eastland County, but before that event this region was the home of a number of substantial men who had faith in its future and were contented to cast their lot with it, knowing that in the regular course of events a locality so favored in the way of natural resources was bound to expand. This faith has been justified way beyond their most favorable expectations, and they are now reaping a well-merited reward. One of these men who has spent practically all his consec- utive years at Cisco, and who is a native son of Eastland County is J. E. McDermett, one of the leading contractors and builders of the city.
J. E. McDermett was born on his father's ranch in Eastland County in 1888. His par- VOL. III-17
ents were F. J. and Lou T. (Moore) McDer- nett, whose home is at Floydada, Floyd County, Texas. F. J. McDermett was born in Hood County in the early '60s, and was reared in Erath County. He is a son of the late T. H. McDermett, a native of Tennessee, who volunteered for service during the Mex- ican war, and after its close settled in Texas. He was a pioneer freighter between Waco and Shreveport, Louisiana. During the war between the North and the South, he upheld the latter section and served as a soldier in the Confederate army. In 1883 F. J. McDer- mett came to Eastland County and settled on a ranch eight miles north of Cisco, and there for some years he was engaged very exten- sively in the cattle business. In 1894 he moved to Floyd County, on the Texas plains, which was then a newly organized county, and of which he was one of the pioneers. His wife was born in Tennessee, but was brought in childhood to Texas, where ber father became prominent and was among the first settlers of Dublin, this state. Both Mr. and Mrs. McDermett are very prominent people of Floydada, the county seat of Floyd County.
J. E. McDermett attended the Bluff Branch and Allman schools in Eastland and Floyd counties. In 1905 he returned to Eastland County and has since made Cisco his home. He learned the carpenter trade and for sev- eral years worked with A. J. Olson, the well- known contractor of Cisco, being employed on construction work in various towns and cities of Texas and Oklahoma. In 1917 he branched out into the contracting business on his own account, and within the brief time intervening between then and now has com- pleted a large amount of construction work at Cisco and Eastland. He has built a number of the finest residences at Cisco, including those of Waddy Mancill, Mark Stamps, Ross Saint John, Alexander Spears, J. T. McCarty, G. Daniels and many others. Among the busi- ness structures which stand to his credit at Cisco are the McDermett Hotel, of which he is the owner, and others. At Eastland he built the Connor Apartment House, and others of equal importance, the whole making a record of splendid achievement for a young man.
The McDermett family was represented McClain, who was born in Tennessee, and they have two children, O. C. and Opal. Always interested in civic affairs, Mr. McDermett maintains membership with the Cisco Cham- ber of Commerce, is a charter member of the
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Cisco Rotary Club and can be relied upon for whole-souled effort in behalf of his home community. He belongs to the Baptist Church of Cisco. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow.
The McDermett family was represented during the great war by Calip F. McDermett of Floydada, who was a corporal in the One Hundred and Forty-first Infantry, Thirty- sixth Divison, and made the supreme sacrifice, losing his life in the Argonne Forest cam- paign. These gold stars in the service flag of the country have changed their color too recently for the people to be able to view them without the deepest sorrow. As the years pass, however, and the realization comes of what was accomplished through the sad sac- rifice of these young lives on the battlefields of France, the tears will be dried in the blaze of deepest pride in the heroism, the patriotism and devotion of these sons of our dear coun- try who, in laying down their lives for it and the principles for which it stands, displayed a trait common also to divinity. It is yet too soon for this to assuage the natural grief, but the kindly hand of time will lead the gold star families into this state of appreciative pride which grows out of all noble actions in both war and peace.
DAN POWERS. For all the tremendous in- crease of population in some of the regions of oil discovery in Texas, it is a matter of satisfaction to note that some of the strongest and ablest leaders in development, financial affairs and civic leadership are men who have been identified with such communities long before they attracted outside enterprise. A case in point is that of Dan Powers of Des- demona, one of the most successful oil oper- ators in that famous section. Mr. Powers is a native son and has lived in and around Des- demona practically all his life.
He was born on a farm two miles north of town in 1888, a son of P. L. and Sarah ( Hop- kins) Powers, the former deceased and the latter still living. The father was a mem- ber of Henderson County, east Texas, and settled on his farm in Eastland County in the early eighties. As a small boy Dan Pow- ers found his school opportunities at Desde- mona and also attended a country school near the farm. The best part of his education was acquired during four years in the well remem- bered Hankins Normal College at Gorman. That was a school of the highest standard and trained a great many successful men and women. Mr. Powers after leaving school
became a teacher, and for eleven years was active in discharging his responsibilities as an educator, most of the time in the schools of Desdemona.
Since the beginning of Desdemona's oil boom in 1918 he has been engaged in the oil business and has shown the rare ability of handling his affairs to a successful issue, both for himself and for the general welfare of the community. For a little more than a year Mr. Powers was one of the directors of the Desdemona State Bank and Trust Com- pany. He is a public spirited citizen, always ready to lend his influence and effort to prog- ress in civic matters.
He is a member of the Baptist Church and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and several other fraternal organizations. Mr. Powers married Miss Della Blagg, a native of Mississippi. She came with her parents to the Desdemona vicinity when she was ten years of age. They have two sons, Joe Bailey and Woodrow Powers.
F. G. SWANSON. When any special line of industry is promoted and brought to the atten- tion of the public, unfortunately for those who are victimized and the legitimate operators, there arise those who deal in fraudulent stocks and illegitimate schemes which results in a heavy loss of money and the bringing of ill repute upon what ought to be a perfectly hon- est line of business. The oil industry has suf- fered very heavily from such dishonest pro- moters, and some of the most alert and enter- prising men of the oil country endeavored to combat this feature of the business. The citizens of Wichita Falls, in their customary progressive manner, gave hearty support to the Oil Investors' Association, organized by F. G. Swanson, its president and manager, who is one of the best known and capable attorneys of Wichita County. This associa- tion was organized for the purpose of edu- cating the public with reference to the laws defining fraud in the promotion of fake and illegitimate oil development schemes and com- pulsory accounting in Texas, and exposed many fraudulent concerns during its existence.
F. G. Swanson was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, in 1881, a son of Lars and Matilda (Akins) Swanson, and he lived at home until he was seventeen years old, learn- ing to farm and attending the local schools. He received his collegiate course in the Munic- ipal University of Akron, Ohio, and in 1905
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went to Panama, where he remained for twelve years in the Government service, first occupying a clerical position, then an account- ing and executive one, and finally was in the judiciary department of the Canal Zone. He had previously taken up the study of law and been admitted to the bar in the Canal Zone. Returning to the United States, Mr. Swan- son spent some time in Missouri, Oklahoma and points in Texas before he established him- self, in 1918, in the practice of his profes- sion at Wichita Falls, where he has already built up a large and remunerative connection and achieved a standing second to none in his calling. He is a man of quick intelligence and possessed of resourcefulness and distinctively original ideas in politics and civic life, and is not afraid to stand back of his convictions. Much of his practice has been connected with the great oil industry of Wichita Falls, and his attention has been directed to the neces- sity of a better understanding of the existing laws with regard to the rights of the people and the protection afforded them under these laws against those who seek to defraud.
In 1920 Mr. Swanson became a candidate for representative in the State Assembly from Wichita and Wilbarger counties, which form the 101st District. He ran on the following terse and progressive platform :
"More and better schools and wider use. Regardless of past use of Ox-cart and Joe Bailey, admiration for it and reaction in poli- tics, modern complexity and intricacy of in- dustry and commerce require increased and compelling study and intellectual and mental application to understand and solve industrial problems. Those who 'shirk' such efforts can only blindly 'serve' on faith in others or run risk of blindly contributing to lost motion or waste effort in production and distribution, now altogether too great for welfare of farm- ers and producers or workers performing the essential work of society.
"Economical development of natural re- sources, agricultural, mineral, water-irrigation projects, improved roads and transportation. A dollar's worth of community or social serv- ice for each dollar of tax money spent and tax laws to aid and encourage construction, man- ufacture and development rather than gam- bling and speculation.
"Early redistricting of the state for equality of representation."
While Mr. Swanson is a democrat, he is nevertheless independent, an advocate of in- telligent radicalism and devoted to the edifica-
tion and enlightenment of the people on all essential questions, the formation of an intelli- gent public opinion, and the power of the peo- ple to give expression; as contradistinct from the tendency of the mass of the people to take their opinions from self-constituted leaders' without question. He is also an opponent of stand-pattism and rubber-stampism in all forms, as might be gathered from the vol- ume on "Panama Canal Builders," edited by him in 1917.
JOHN W. FLOORE, JR. The business and civic history of Cleburne could hardly be told without frequent reference to members of the Floore family, who have been here nearly forty years, and at all times and under all conditions have played a substantial role in the evolution of the town and city.
John W. Floore, -Sr., who founded the fam- ily here, was born in Macon County, Missis- sippi, in 1851, and grew up as a farmer's son. His education was acquired largely through his own efforts. As a youth he started out as a "mule skinner" in day labor during the construction of the International & Great Northern Railroad through East Texas. From this he graduated into bookkeeping for the R. B. Cousins Dry Goods Company at Tyler, and subsequently was himself a merchant at Tyler for a number of years. When he came to Cleburne in 1883 he embarked in banking as a member of the firm of private bankers, Heard, Allen & Floore, and was cashier of the bank which is now the National Bank of Cleburne, the oldest banking institution of Johnson County. He finally severed his con- nection with the bank in 1896, and spent the rest of his active business life in the loan and investment field. John W. Floore, Sr., has ever been one of the active factors in the growth and development of Cleburne. The council has known him for many years, and while he did his part in the constructive legis- lation of the municipal government, he has as a private citizen been hardly less useful in all avenues open to his influence and encour- aged by his time and means. Politics he has left alone, being satisfied to vote the demo- cratic ticket. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Elks and was president of the Cleburne Country Club, which he helped promote. John WV. Floore, Sr., married Miss Florence Childress. There were three chil- dren : Maude, who died young ; John W., Jr., and Heard, who died at the age of fourteen.
John W. Floore, Jr., who on his own merit
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and ability has achieved recognition as one of Cleburne's most enterprising business men, was born in that city October 12, 1887. He acquired a public school education, later at- tended a noted preparatory school at Bell Buckle, Tennessee, took a year's work in Allen Academy at Bryan, Texas, and for two years was a student in Baylor University at Waco. Like his father before him he opened his career with a period of railroad service, at first being a timekeeper for the Santa Fe Railway out of Cleburne, and subsequently was timekeeper with the El Paso & South- western Railroad with headquarters at Doug- las, Arizona. After returning to Cleburne Mr. Floore in 1908 entered the service of the National Bank of Cleburne and was connected with that prominent bulwark of local finance for about eight years. In 1916 he resigned as assistant cashier and has since given his time to the land, loan and insurance business. Business and other properties in Cleburne bear the mark of the Floore capital and enterprise as builders, and John W. Floore, Jr., has fur- nished leadership where leadership was needed in some of the broader constructive move- ments.
He was made president of the Chamber of Commerce the year it was organized in 1919, and is still a director and has represented that body in many of its plans and meetings to encourage and enlarge the commercial and industrial welfare of the city. He is a mem- ber and director of the Rotary Club and in politics, like his father, takes as little part as possible consistent with good citizenship. He was reared a democrat and gave his first pres- idential vote to William J. Bryan. He is a member of the York Rite Masonic bodies of Cleburne and a member of Moslah Temple, Fort Worth, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
In August, 1908, at Cleburne, he married Miss Flora May Lambard, who was born in Johnson County May 1, 1888, daughter of J. W. and Flora H. (Hand) Lambard. Her father came to Texas from Alabama and spent his life as a farmer. Mrs. Floore is the oldest of three children, her sisters being Gladys A. and Gilma of Cleburne. The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Floore are Heard L., J. W. Floore third, Flora May and Edgar.
JULIAN ROBERT RANSONE. Almost for half a century and nearly as long as Cleburne has had recorded history, the family name Ran- sone has been conspicuous and significant in
that community, a source of leadership in many movements and enterprises vitally af- fecting growth and progress. Julian Robert Ransone is the veteran editor and publisher of Johnson County's pioneer newspaper, and is also postmaster of the city of Cleburne.
He was only a child when the family came to Cleburne in 1873. His father, John Robert Ransone, was born at Quincy, Florida, in September, 1837, but his parents were Georgia people and planters of that old state. As planters they reared and educated their chil- dren in keeping with the best traditions of the South. John Robert Ransone attended college, specialized in mathematics, and his profession was that of a civil engineer and land surveyor. As a young man he entered the Confederate Army under Gen. John B. Gordon, was detailed as a sharpshooter for a time, and went through the war with only minor injuries. He was taken prisoner and for a time was held at a prison in the North. After the war he taught school at Blakely in Early County, Georgia, and from the capital and savings acquired by this occupation be- came a merchant there. He has duly pros- pered in his affairs, and on leaving Blakely he moved to Kentucky and at Elkton in that state, as the result of speculation, met finan- cial reverses so that when he came to Cleburne in 1873 it was as a man without capital but determined to start over again in a new coun- try. Cleburne then had but three hundred population. Here he practiced his engineer- ing profession, and performed a varied duty as his services were required in the laying out of additions, establishing street grades, run- ning boundary lines. For two terms, four years, he was county surveyor .. He was also one of the early druggists of Cleburne. Being a splendid accountant he was invited to take a position in the old First National Bank and was bookkeeper in that institution for four- teen years. Still later he became associated with his son in the newspaper, and that was the occupation of his declining years. John Robert Ransone, who died at Cleburne in April, 1918, was a democrat, though not usu- ally active in politics. He was capable of making strong arguments and pleasing ad- dresses on public occasions. He was a Baptist but later for many years with his family worshipped in the Episcopal Church. John Robert Ransone married Miss Sallie Perry, daughter of Col. Joel W. Perrv, of another Georgia family. She died in May, 1919, the mother of three children: Julian Robert,
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Maud, wife of Dr. J. H. Happel of Cleburne, and Perry of San Diego, California.
Julian Robert Ransone was born at Blakely, Georgia, July 15, 1867, and was not quite six years of age when his parents moved from Elkton, Kentucky, to Cleburne, Texas. Here he attended the public schools and also spent one year in Randolph-Macon College at Ash- land, Virginia. He had made definite arrange- ments with the head of the school to return and finish the course, but during the summer vacation while hunting accidentally shot himself in the hand and on account of that injury never achieved a complete col- lege education. As a youth he learned the printers' trade. That he regarded as a tem- porary occupation, though as a matter of fact it became the permanent basis for his success- ful career. At the age of twenty he was invited to take the position of bookkeeper in the office of W. C. McFarland, representing the International Loan and Trust Company of Kansas City. He remained with Mr. McFar- land about fourteen months, and on leaving that work entered the printing business. He operated a job office for a time, and then bought Cleburne's pioneer newspaper, the Tri-Weekly Enterprise, a plant which, as he looks back, was little more than "a pile of junk." Nevertheless out of the plant and Mr. Ransone's personal direction has devel- oped the Enterprise of today. He took charge of the paper in July, 1888, when just twenty- one years of age, and with thirty-three years of service to his credit as proprietor and editor of one paper probably could make good claim to being the only man in Texas capable of claiming similar distinction. The Daily Enterprise was born in 1894 and it and the semi-weekly, seven column folios, have long been the chief mediums of publicity in John- son County, and have been carefully kept up to the highest standards of journalism by Mr. Ransone. Mr. Ransone was appointed postmaster of Cleburne in 1914, succeeding C. A. Dickson in the office, and was recom- missioned by President Wilson in 1918. The business of the Cleburne postoffice has greatly increased in the past seven years. There are seven rural routes out of the city, while the city itself has a carrier service handled by eight carriers.
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