USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 53
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Howard Pennette
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many of the greatest men the oil industry has ever known-men of great practical knowl- edge and experience.
The concerted efforts of these men, when the interests of the industry demand it, result in the compilation of manuals, briefs and arguments of superior value-in accomplish- ments impossible to individual agents or agencies.
In 1918 the by-laws of the Mid-Conti- nent Oil & Gas Association was amended in such a way as to authorize the formation of divisional organizations, and accordingly the Texas-Louisiana division was formed, likewise the Kansas-Oklahoma division. These divi- sions handle matters of a purely local nature arising within their jurisdiction, while the par- ent association at Tulsa handles Federal mat- ters exclusively.
A great deal of constructive work has been performed by the Texas-Louisiana division, and its activities have never been dictated by purely selfish or monetary motives. It has given its thorough cooperation and support to the enforcement of all laws applicable to the industry and particularly the conservation law, and in this respect has rendered valuable assistance to the oil and gas department of the Railroad Commission of Texas.
The following is a list of the officers and members of the Executive Committee :
Frank Cullinan, President ...... Dallas, Texas W. M. Massie, Treasurer. . Fort Worth, Texas Howard Bennette, Secretary. .. Dallas, Texas J. D. Collett. Fort Worth, Texas
H. J. Morlang . Fort Worth, Texas
W. B. Pyron. Wichita Falls, Texas
T. B. Hoffer
Fort Worth, Texas
W. M. Harrison Fort Worth, Texas
Louis J. Wortham Fort Worth, Texas
Fred M. Lege, Jr .Dallas, Texas
Roy B. Jones.
Dallas, Texas
W. H. Francis.
Dallas, Texas
J. Edgar Pew Dallas, Texas
Frank M. Smith Dallas, Texas
G. Clint Wood. Wichita Falls, Texas
C. H. Clark Wichita Falls, Texas
J. A. Kemp Wichita Falls, Texas
J. L. McMahon Wichita Falls, Texas
C. M. Caldwell Breckenridge, Texas
W. H. Fuqua.
Amarillo, Texas Wm. B. Sutton
Eastland, Texas S. P. Farish. . Cisco, Texas
W. K. Gordon. Thurber, Texas
M. H. Hagaman Ranger, Texas
E. S. Graham Graham, Texas
C. D. Keen
Shreveport, La.
C. K. Clarke. Shreveport, La.
E. R. Ratcliff Shreveport, La.
D. C. Richardson. . Shreveport, La.
Walter D. Cline. Wichita Falls, Texas
Mr. Bennette, as secretary, has important responsibilities in carrying out the program of these various activities. He is a native Texan, born at Flatonia in Fayette County, January 14, 1890, son of J. O. H. and Molly (Honts) Bennette. He was educated in the public schools of Conroe, and acquired his higher education and law course in the Uni- versity of Texas. Mr. Bennette was admitted to the bar in January, 1909, and for six years practiced at Conroe, county seat of Mont- gomery County. He was elected and served as city attorney two years, was elected and sat as a member of the Thirty-fifth Legisla- ture from his district, embracing Grimes and Montgomery counties; was nominated by the democratic party for the Thirty-sixth Legis- lature, but declined the nomination. On
November 15, 1918, Mr. Bennette became a member of the legal department of the Sun Company at Dallas. He resigned June 14, 1919, to become secretary of the Mid-Conti- nent Oil & Gas Association, Texas-Louisiana Division.
Mr. Bennette is a past master of Conroe Lodge No. 748, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is now affiliated with Washing- ton Lodge No. 1117, Dallas Chapter No. 47, Royal Arch Masons, Dallas Commandery No. 6, Knights Templar, Dallas Council No. 18, Royal and Select Masters, and is a member of Hella Temple. He married Miss Carrie Pauline Prestwood April 22, 1913. Her father was for many years county clerk of Grimes County, Texas. They have a daughter, Audrey Pauline Bennette.
WILL W. LEVERETT is a native Texan who acquired a knowledge of the printing trade when a youth, and has never for any impor- tant length of time been separated from the interests of a printing shop and a newspaper. He has been a resident of Gainesville for the past twenty years, and is editor and one of the proprietors of the Gainesville Signal.
Mr. Leverett was born in a country home near Austin in Travis County June 4, 1874. The family name is of French origin. It was introduced to this country following the American Revolution and was originally spelled Leverette. The grandfather of the Gainesville editor was James D. Leverett, for many years a planter at Macon, Georgia. His
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son, William P. Leverett, was reared in that state, entered a Georgia regiment at the time of the war between the states, and for the greater part of his service was with Lee's army of Northern Virginia, participating in many historic combats. He was wounded at Gettysburg and later rejoined his command and surrendered at Appomattox in April, 1865. Soon after the close of the war he came to Texas, and was identified with this state until his death in January, 1913, at the age of sixty-eight. He was deeply interested in the Confederate Veterans meetings and sel- dom missed a reunion. He had no time for politics, but was a devout Presbyterian and a strong friend of Masonry. He married Amanda Wilson, who was born near Macon, Georgia, and is still living at Gainesville. Their children are : James D., of Fort Worth ; Mary Frances, wife of J. P. Meek, of Lampa- sas, Texas; Will W .; Guy, of Wortham, Texas; and Walter, of Arlington, Texas.
Will W. Leverett attended public schools in Travis County and learned the printers' trade in Georgetown, Texas. Later he at- tended commercial colleges at Nashville, Ten- nessee, and Forth Worth, Texas. Mr. Lever- ett on coming to Gainesville in 1900 began his career as a printer here in the office of the Daily Register, edited and published so long by J. T. Leonard. He was with that paper six years and then became editor of the Signal, owned and conducted by B. F. Mitchell, now the Gainesville postmaster. In 1912 Mr. Lev- erett became owner by purchase of the Signal office and plant and had associated with him as a partner Albert E. Herman, and in 1920 they sold a third interest to Fred D. Hender- son. The publishing firm is now Leverett, Herman & Henderson.
The Signal was founded by H. D. Cadwell in 1888 as a Populist weekly. It has been issued once a week for over thirty years, but its politics has been democratic for a quarter of a century. It has been issued as a seven- column quarto, and its columns are devoted largely to farm news and agricultural inter- ests, and it is essentially an agricultural paper and correspondingly esteemed throughout Cooke and surrounding counties. The Signal in the campaign for governor in 1920 was a partisan of Ewing Thomason for that office, but after he failed of the nomination the paper took no further active part in the campaign.
During his service as editor, before he be- came one of the owners of the paper, Mr. Leverett was city auditor four years and
judge of the Corporation Court a like period. He has been an interested worker in the dem- ocratic party, has attended a number of con- ventions, including those at Houston and San Antonio, when Governor Colquitt was nominated, and the Dallas convention, where, as a delegate, he helped name James E. Fer- guson as a candidate for governor. He was an original Wilson man for president, sup- ported the second Wilson campaign as warmly as he did the first, and regards Mr. Wilson as one of the ablest presidents the country has ever had. Mr. Leverett takes much pride in the ardent support he has always given Joseph W. Bailey in his political aspirations, and for four years was president of the local Bailey Club.
Mr. Leverett figured prominently in Gaines- ville's local war record. He was food com- missioner of Cooke County, was one of the Four Minute speakers, and for a time chair- man of the County Council of Defense. He and Mrs. Leverett were officially and person- ally identified with all branches of Red Cross work and made speeches all over the county in the interests of this war auxiliary. Mr. Leverett is a past consul of the Woodmen of the World and a member of the Maccabees.
At Ennis, Texas, January 7, 1901, he mar- ried Miss Maggie Kirkpatrick, a native of that county and daughter of an old settler there. Mrs. Leverett was liberally educated and is a graduate of Patterson Institute of Hillsboro and for several years before her marriage was a teacher in the public schools of central Texas. She is the older of two daughters, her sister being Mrs. A. M. Anderson of Hillsboro.
P. WALTER BROWN has been a member of the Texas bar for over thirty years. He entered his chosen profession without being able to command any influential connections beyond the power of his individual abilities to attract, and his substantial value as a coun- selor has brought him increasing recognition in the bars of the several cities where he has practiced. Mr. Brown for the past six years' has been an honored resident and attorney at Fort Worth.
His father, W. P. Brown, was born in Georgia in 1829, and as a youth accompanied the family to Homer, Louisiana, where he grew up and where in 1860 he married Mrs. Elizabeth Rebecca Ramsey. At that time W. P. Brown was a general merchant at Athens, Louisiana. He sold his business to
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enter the Confederate army and served in Young's Brigade from northern Louisiana until the close of hostilities. When the war was over he resumed business life at Far- mersville, Louisiana, but in 1870, on account of failing health of his wife, moved to Bre- mond, Robertson County, Texas. W. P. Brown lived at Bremond until his death in October, 1900. His widow is still living and is now ten years past the psalmist's allotted span of life.
They were the parents of three children. The oldest, Jefferson Davis Brown, died un- married at the age of twenty-one. The sec- ond, Charles W. Brown, is deceased, and his only child, Perry D. Brown, now lives in Fort Worth.
Youngest of the three sons, P. Walter Brown was born on a small farm in Union Parish, Louisiana, July 20, 1865, and was therefore about five years of age when brought to Texas. He was accorded the rather limited advantages of the public schools at Bremond, but at the age of fourteen he started to make his own living as a traveling newsboy in the service of the Crescent News Company with a run between Bremond and Waco. From the age of sixteen to eighteen he had a still closer acquaintance with the practical side of railroading, in both the transportation and locomotive departments.
By the end of that time he realized the need of an education in order to achieve something substantial in his mature careeer. He then entered Trinity University at Tehuacana, with a view of completing his education. Fol- lowing his university course he taught school at Bremond. His experience as a teacher soon caused him to give up any idea he had entertained of making it a life work, and later at the insistence of his mother he entered the law department of the University of Texas. He began his studies there in the fall of 1887 and graduated LL.B. in June, 1889.
In the early fall of 1889 Mr. Brown began practice at Columbus, Texas, in partnership with Judge Delaney, a former member of the first Commission of Appeals appointed to aid the Supreme Court. After a few months he moved to San Antonio, and in August, 1890, removed to Palestine, where he had formerly lived as a railroad man. At Palestine he formed a partnership with Capt. J. J. Word, then mayor of the city. Many of Mr. Brown's most substantial achievements as a lawyer were gained at Palestine. He had not
long been located there when he was elected city attorney, and while in that office he con- ducted a case for the city against the Water- works Company which resulted in a forfeiture of the franchise of the corporation. During the quarter of a century of his residence in Palestine he was identified with many impor- tant pieces of litigation. When the city organ- ized its City Court he was chosen by the City Council to prepare the ordinances putting the court into effect, and was chosen to preside over the court.
Through the offices of Judge R. H. Buck Mr. Brown became associated in the practice of law with one of his former schoolmates, Sidney L. Samuels of Fort Worth. Their law partnership of Samuels & Brown was formed in the fall of 1914, but Mr. Brown did not remove with his family to Fort Worth until July, 1915. This has since become one of the prominent law firms in north and west Texas. Perhaps the most important single piece of litigation conducted by the firm was as representatives of the city of Fort Worth in the case of the National Park Bank of New York against the Reid Cattle Company and the city of Fort Worth, involving some thirty thousand acres of land.
In 1893 Mr. Brown married Miss Dora Davenport of Ennis. Her father, Capt. James M. Davenport of Frankfort, Kentucky, was for many years prior to his death in 1888 engaged in educational work in Texas. He was a school man of cultured mind and thorough education and came of a family of high distinction in Kentucky. He was a cousin of Judge John M. Harlan, for more than thirty years an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Captain Davenport's father, Charles Fox Davenport, was a brother of Mrs. Elizabeth Harlan. The mother of Captain Davenport was Catherine McFerron of Virginia, who at one time was the recognized belle of the noted Kentucky resort, Crab Orchard Springs. Mrs. Brown's mother is still living and represents an old Kentucky family who for years lived at Hen- derson in that state and whose parents on the paternal side came from Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, and on the maternal side from Balti- more, Maryland. Mrs. Brown's brother, Charles Harlan Davenport, is a resident of Palestine, Texas, and has for many years been chief statistician of the International & Great Northern Railroad, prior to which he was superintendent of the public schools of Palestine.
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VERY REV. ROBERT M. NOLAN is dean of the Catholic church of the Fort Worth district and a clergyman of the highest esteem not only among his own people but among citizens of all classes and creeds. Since attaining priest- hood he has done all his work in Texas, and came to Fort Worth, January 1, 1908.
Father Nolan was born at Chapman, Dick- inson County, Kansas, August 20, 1874, son of Patrick and Margaret (Healion) Nolan. He received his early education at the hands of the Sisters of Charity at St. Mary's, Kan- sas. He took his literary course at St. Bene- dict's College at Atchison, Kansas, entering that school in 1887 and graduating in 1892. The following six years were devoted to the discipline required of aspirants for the priest- hood, and on June 4, 1898, he was ordained priest by Archbishop Chapelle of New Or- leans.
Father Nolan's first charge in Texas was St. Stephen's church at Weatherford. He re- mained pastor there until 1900, and on the 17th of November of that year was trans- ferred to Gainesville, where his labors were attended by much constructive achievement for seven years.
January 1, 1908, he was delegated as Dean of St. Patrick's District with headquarters at Fort Worth. This district comprises four- teen sub-districts, and he has general admin- istration over all the churches in these dis- tricts. Much of his time has been devoted to educational affairs, and the parochial school of St. Ignatius and the seminary of Our Lady of Victory under the supervision of the Sis- ters of St. Mary are schools recognized as meeting the very highest standards of educa- tional institutions in the state.
While very busy with his routine of affairs Father Nolan has shown a deep interest in the general welfare of the community and has many friends among ministers and of- ficials of non-Catholic churches.
WILLIAM F. CUNNINGHAM. A number of facts and incidents that are a part of the real history of the agricultural community around Roanoke in Denton County are re- vealed through a brief record of the experi- ences of the Cunningham family, who have been honored and respected and useful resi- dents of that locality since 1877. William Fred Cunningham was about sixteen years of age when he began to share in the family experiences in that locality, where he has lived
and worked and done his part as a citizen more than forty years.
The record of the Cunningham family goes back to Ireland, from which country Asa Cunningham came to Virginia in Colonial times. One of his children was Billie Cun- ningham, who lived for some years in the Carolinas and later moved to Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Oglethorpe County was the home of the family for several generations. James Cunningham, a son of Billie Cunning- ham, was born in South Carolina in 1812 and was a child when the family moved to Georgia. He had some part in helping to remove the Cherokee Indians from Georgia to their reservation in Indian Territory. His active life was spent as a farmer and planter, employing a few slaves to operate his fields. He was a splendid type of citizen, high minded, straightforward, earnest in every- thing he undertook, and was elected sheriff of Oglethorpe County at the beginning of the war between the states, and performed the multitude of duties devolving upon that office throughout the war. His last years were spent on his farm near Lexington, Georgia, where he died when about eighty-eight years of age. He married Patsy Watson, and their children were John W., George, Cap, Lizzie, Polly and Amanda. The daughters never married and are buried on the old homestead by the side of their parents. All the sons became Confederate soldiers, and George and Cap are still living in Ogelthorpe County.
The founder of the family in Denton County, Texas, was the late John W. Cun- ningham, who died on his farm near Denton in 1904, at the age of sixty-eight. He was born in Ogelthorpe County in 1836, acquired a good education, and made a splendid record as a soldier. He was in the Thirty-eighth Georgia Infantry as a private in Captain Mat- thew's Company, and was in Stonewall Jack- son's Corps until his great commander was killed during the Wilderness campaign. After that he served under General Gordon. He was in many battles but never received a wound. Once his knapsack was knocked off, at another time his rifle was knocked from his hand, and again a bullet grazed his cheek. He was on a furlough when General Lee surrendered at Appomatox, and never re- turned to his command. He accepted philo- sophically the results of the war, and in later years displayed no bitterness whatever, and in fact seemed to rejoice that the struggle
W.J. kunminghame
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ended as it did and he took pride in the greatness of a united country. He admired the character of Mr. Lincoln and, like a host of other citizens, believed that his tragic death was the greatest possible loss to the South. He became a member of the Masonic Order in Georgia, but never participated in politics, and his real life was chiefly expressed through his business and his home.
On leaving Georgia he brought his family by rail to New Orleans, thence by steamship to Galveston, and traveled as far as Crockett on the International and Great Northern Rail- way. Ox teams conveyed them to Nacog- doches County, where the family spent the years 1875-76. In the fall of the latter year they proceeded to the end of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, then at Fort Worth, and the children attended school in Fort Worth during the following winter. In the spring of 1877 they made their final move to Denton County, John W. Cunningham establishing his home east of Denton on a tract of new land. He was a factor in that community seventeen years. He reached there with limited means, but exhibited superior skill in the handling of cotton and corn crops, and eventually acquired a fine farm of 200 acres on Elm Creek, and lived out his life practically in the same neighborhood. His land was heavily timbered and he and his son Fred put forth tremendous exertions for some years in clearing up and developing it as a farm. While John W. Cunningham was not widely known outside his home community, the record of his life is one that every member of his family can cherish. He was regarded as the best cot- ton raiser in his locality, and he also favored good stock, though he had no registered ani- mals. He favored education, believed in peace and order and in good government and while not a church member his presence was an element in raising the moral and spiritual standards of his neighborhood. He voted as a democrat and was deeply interested in cur- rent affairs.
John W. Cunningham married Frances Barnett, who died the year following her hus- band's death, at the age of sixty-eight. Her parents were Abel and Rachel (Meadows) Barnett, of Oglethorpe County, Georgia. John W. Cunningham and wife had three sons : William Fred; George, who died in Old Mexico and is survived by a daughter, the wife of Doctor Claxton of Brooklyn, New York; and Luther A., of Denver, Colo- rado.
William Fred Cunningham was born near Lexington, Georgia, December 15, 1861, and his early education was the product of com- mon schools in several different localities. His home was with his parents until he was twenty-seven, and when he married he estab- lished a temporary home nearby. He came to his permanent location January 1, 1900, and has lived in that community on Denton Creek for over twenty years. The first year he rented the land and made a beginning with only a wagon and team, but owed practically all that equipment was worth. He had learned the secret of success in cotton growing under his father, and the first year he set a splendid example of thrift and energy. He hired only seventeen days work done, picked twenty- seven bales of cotton, raised 600 bushels of corn and twenty of potatoes, and in the fall was able to purchase his land outright, pay- ing for it from the proceeds of his cotton crop. Of course land at that time was cheap, being from ten to twenty dollars an acre. The favorable results of his first year as an inde- pendent farmer have continued, and of twenty crops planted on his home farm there has been only one year of failure in getting a harvest of corn. He continued up to a few years ago investing his surplus in land, and is now owner of almost 1,000 acres, practically half of which is devoted to productive agriculture.
While this is a brief record of his mate- rial prosperity, Mr. Cunningham has not been less attentive to his obligations and duties as a citizen and as a factor in his home com- munity. For eight years he was a member of the School Board and instrumental in get- ting the special taxes for his district. In 1912 he was elected a county commissioner to succeed John A. Harmonson, and during the first four years served with Commission- ers Sweat, Morgan and Riley, and the last two years with W. S. Ready, John F. Morgan and E. W. Forester. He had hardly taken his seat on the board when he began an agi- tation for good roads and bridges, but had practically nothing to show for his earnest advocacy until the last two years of his mem- bership. About that time colleagues were chosen similarly minded, and energetic plans were laid to provide a good roads system, which has been carried out so far as possible by subsequent boards, and Mr. Cunningham has the satisfaction of seeing a. highway prac- tically finished across the county from North to South. While he was on the board he was instrumental in building a permanent road
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from Denton to Ponder, six miles of gravel road east from Roanoke and a five-mile stretch of gravel out of Denton south. These public works were performed largely with convict labor and at a cost of about twelve hundred dollars to the mile.
In 1888 Mr. Cunningham married Miss Effie Camp. She is survived by two chil- dren, Carl and Maggie, the latter the wife of John Beard, of Denton. The second wife of Mr. Cunningham was Miss Bertha Heath, daughter of John and Sallie ( Burle- son ) Heath. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham have five children: Freddie, Gordon, Thelma, Eula May and Alvin. Her father, John Heath, brought his family to Texas from Mississippi after the war, and settled on Denton Creek, where Mrs. Heath died. John Heath was a Mississippi soldier in General Loring's command in the 20th Division, was in the battles of Fort Donelson and Mur- freesboro, and in Bragg's Tennessee cam- paign. Like John W. Cunningham, he never was scratched by an enemy bullet, though a minie ball struck his rifle and bent the barrel almost around him. John Heath has always been a splendid example of physical vigor and manhood, and though now eighty years of age he rides about his farm and makes a crop and is active as many men in middle life. He inherits this physical vigor, his father, Lamarcus Heath, who died in 1903, having attained the venerable age of ninety-four. The children of John and Sallie Heath were: John; Van, wife of Robert Mulinex; Miss Lina, deceased; Mrs. Georgia Underwood, who died at Ardmore, Oklahoma; Mrs. Cun- ningham ; Loren J .; Charles ; and Ellis.
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