USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 55
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Mr. Peterson did not become a citizen of the United States until the events of the World war made him realize his early misake. Having come to this country before reaching his majority, he assumed that he was entitled to the rights of citizenship without further formality and it was only when the citizenship of everyone came to be examined and scru- tinized during the recent war period that Mr. Peterson found himself technically still an alien. He at once went through the natural- ization process and gave his support to the Government fully in keeping with his long record of practical Americanism. He has usually voted as a democrat, but in 1920 voted the republican ticket. He and his fam- ily are identified with the Methodist Church.
OZRO W. CUNNINGHAM, M. D. In the Val- ley View community of Cooke County Dr. Cunningham has rendered a loyal and capable service as a physician and surgeon for the past twenty years, except for the period of the World war, when he was a commissioned medical officer in the army. He is a member of a pioneer family of Northwest Texas, and nearly all his life has been spent in this state.
Dr. Cunningham was born in Marshall County, Tennessee, June 25, 1871. The Cun- ninghams are an old Colonial family numer- ously represented for a number of genera- tions in North Carolina. His grandfather, Alfred Cunningham, was a native of that state, moved to Tennessee, where he was a planter and served as a soldier in the Confed- erate Army, and spent his last years at Boone- ville, Mississippi, where he died at the age of eighty-eight, in 1915. His first wife was Annie Elizabeth Oliver, and her only child was William Riley Cunningham. His second wife was Miss Finch, and of her twelve children the survivors are now widely scattered over the United States.
William Riley Cunningham was a native of Tennessee, was a small child when his mother died, and his education came largely at his
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own expense and effort. On account of his youth he was not a soldier in the Civil war, and his mature years were given to the sturdy vocation of farming. He came to Texas soon after the birth of his son, Dr. Cunningham, lived for several years in Grayson County, and in 1876 moved to Wise County, and made one of the first settlements at the present town of Alvord. He remained there forty-five years, lived to see the region grow up and develop into a thriving locality, and died there at the age of sixty-six. He was a very active and influential member of the Baptist Church, but was never in politics, and was a very retiring and modest man. His wonderful memory enabled him to name all the people he ever knew and tell what became of them.
William Riley Cunningham married Sa- vanna Killingsworth. Her father, Jack Killingsworth, was a Confederate soldier and one who never returned from the war, his exact fate not being determined. Jack Killings- worth married Annie Bagley, and their three children were Isaac D., Thenia and Savanna Killingsworth. The latter is still living at the old home at Alvord. She reared seven chil- dren: Dr. Ozro W .; Mary Elma, wife of Frank Cross, of Bowie, Texas; Fannie, wife of Lafayette Cater, of Oklahoma; Ora, who married Fulton Golden and lives in Texas ; Sarah, wife of Amos Prince, a resident of Fort Worth; Annie, wife of Rev. Oscar Bar- nett, of Oak Cliff, Texas; and Arthur, a farmer at the old homestead in Alvord.
Ozro W. Cunningham was five years of age when the family located on the farm in Wise County, and he grew to manhood there, ac- quiring a public school education. He was trained to farming and did that and other work preparatory to entering the Kentucky School of Medicine, from which he graduated in 1902. In order to complete his medical education he also taught school a year. After graduating Dr. Cunningham located at Valley View, and enjoyed an uninterrupted progress in his professional work there until America entered the war with Germany. He enlisted and received a commission as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps, was first assigned to duty with the Ninth Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and later, by his request, was transferred to the Medical Training School at Fort Riley, Kansas. He remained three months, was then given duty as a medical officer at the Armour School of Technology at Chicago, and continued there until his honor-
able discharge in November, 1918. On leav- ing the service he returned to Valley View and resumed his private practice. Dr. Cunning- ham is a talented physician, enjoys high stand- ing in the various medical societies, and is also a Royal Arch Mason.
At Sivells Bend, Cooke County, March 26, 1905, he married Miss Willie Giddens, a native of Cooke County. Her father, Earley Giddens, came to Texas from Georgia, and was a machinist, operating a gin and thresh- ing machine in Sivells Bend for many years. Mrs. Cunningham finished her education in the Gainesville schools, was a teacher, and was a member of the Cooke County Examining Board, where she lived when she married. She is the third of seven daughters, the others being: Catherine, wife of Dr. Lindsay, of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma ; Mabel, wife of Sam Gunter, of Sivells Bend; Mrs. Mary Jackson, of Waco; Mattie, wife of Robert Whaley of Gainesville ; Visa, wife of Dr. Hale, of Davis, Oklahoma; and Zelma, who married John Polly, of Waco. Dr. and Mrs. Cunningham have two children, William Alfred and Pauline.
DANIEL H. SPOON. Owner of one of the attractive country homes in Cooke County, two miles southwest of Callisburg, is an old resident of this section of North Texas, has been here just forty years, and was one of the pioneer teachers of the county. His life throughout has been one of exceptional serv- ice and experience.
He was born September 14, 1857, in that section of old Orange County now Allamance County, North Carolina. His grandfather, Daniel Spoon, was also a native of North Carolina and a farmer and planter. He had two sons and four daughters. The son Syl- vester is still living at this writing at the ven- erable age of ninety-four, and is a veteran of the Confederate army. He was born in May, 1827, spent his active life as a farmer, and also carried a share of community respon- sibilities, serving as tax assessor and as jus- tice of the peace. He is a democrat and a Methodist. He married Sarah Kivett, a native of North Carolina, and daughter of Henry Kivett, who lived to the remarkable age of ninety-eight. Sarah was one of his thirteen children. The children of Sylvester Spoon and wife were: Fannie, who married Dr. Bohanan and lives at Burlington, North Carolina ; Daniel H .; and Dora, who is the
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wife of Thomas Shoffner and lives with her father on the old homestead.
Daniel H. Spoon grew up in a country com- munity in what is now one of the great milling districts of North Carolina. He suffered some of the disadvantages due to the devastation and depression of the war, attended country schools, and afterward, largely by his own efforts, gained a more liberal education by attending an academy and finally one year in the State University at Chapel Hill. He was only seventeen when he taught his first school, and he continued teaching in his native state altogether for four years.
It was in 1881 that Mr. Spoon came to Cooke County, Texas, and in the fall of that year he resumed teaching. He was one of the leading educators of the county for six years, until failing health compelled him to seek other work, and he went to farming. While he was teaching the first normal institute in Gainesville and perhaps in the state of Texas was held. He was influential in promoting that institute. Some of the teachers associ- ated with him in the county at the time were Rhoda Long, D. J. Enderby, Emery Hay- worth and James Nutting. Mr. Hayworth subsequently was county judge of Cooke County. Forty years ago nearly all the teach- ers were men. Mr. Spoon found educational affairs in Cooke County largely a matter of individual initiative and with no centralized management whatever. There was no uni- formity of text books, the course of study being outlined by the head of each school. There was no grading to show when a pupil had finished so much work. The county was not districted, and pupils attended both under and over the legal age and from any part of the county they wished. As a result dis- tricts having popular teachers were over- crowded. In the case of the Callisburg school more pupils attended it under the administra- tion of Mr. Spoon than has been enrolled at any time since.
With his retirement from the schoolroom and his initial efforts at farming Mr. Spoon established himself in the neighborhood where he has since lived. Twenty years or more ago he located on his present farm, which had first been settled by J. E. Hardy. He bought 160 acres, partly improved, and the growing of grain has been his most profit- able crop. Mr. Spoon has always limited his acreage in cotton, partly owing to the fact that he is a poor cotton picker and has not wished VOL. III-19
his children to bear the heavy labor of that industry.
The Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Asso- ciation of Cooke County was founded some twenty years ago, Mr. Spoon being one of the prime movers. He has been one of the ad- justers of the association and a member of the Official Board. The association has grown and furnishes a large part of the insurance in the country districts of the county. The insurance is limited to farm buildings. At the present time almost a million and a half dollars of insurance are in force.
In Cooke County April 15, 1886, Mr. Spoon married Miss Louie B. Thrasher. She was born in Kentucky, a daughter of Harrison Thrasher, who came from that state to Cooke County when Mrs. Spoon was a girl. She died July 24, 1917, after thirty years of mar- ried life. She was the mother of the follow- ing children : Oscar, Charles, Susie, Richard, Luther and Ruth. Oscar lives at Gainesville. He married Hattie Gimlen and has one daughter. Charles is a resident of New Mex- ico. Susie was the wife of Reuben Hudgens of Amarillo. She died July 13, 1921. Rich- ard lives in New Mexico, while the other two are still at home. On July 11, 1920, Mr. Spoon married Mrs. Mollie (Mann) Ballard, who was born in Cooke County, Texas, January 15, 1871. Her father, Henry W. Mann, was a native of Georgia, while her mother was born in North Carolina. Her parents came to Cooke County before the Civil war and were married there. Of their eleven children nine grew up and six are still living: Joseph Mann, of Wichita Falls; John, of Hedley, Texas; Mrs. Spoon; Emma, wife of Elmer Ford, of Hedley; James, of Hedley; and Tennie, wife of W. B. Rutledge, of Wichita Falls.
Mr. Spoon was, well represented in the World war, having three sons in the service, two of whom went overseas and took part in the real fighting. Oscar was in the artillery and participated in the battles of the St. Mihiel salient and in the Argonne, and ac- companied his division as a part of the Army of Occupation on the banks of the Rhine. Charles was with the Twenty-third Engi- neers, and while road building and in other work was exposed to the fire of the enemy on the front lines. Richard saw practically his service within the United States, though he made one trip across the ocean on a mer- chant marine vessel. None of the sons were
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wounded, and all are filling stations in civil life as competently as they battled against the Germans for the liberties of the world.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL PARKER. Lives in Highland Park, Dallas, but for his character, business enterprise, wealth, practical philan- thropy and personal influence is doubtless one of the best known men of the southwest, and his name has a significance even in the great financial capitals of the country.
He was born in Bazette, Navarro County, Texas, in 1876, a son of Rev. Henry J. and Charlotte (Barnett) Parker, now deceased. His mother was a native of Springfield, Illinois, and his father was born near Merid- ian, Mississippi, and provided for his family largely through work at the trade of carpen- ter, but was also a minister of the Christian Church. Alexander Campbell Parker was the seventh son in a family of ten children, and the physician who attended his mother se- lected his name in honor of the great founder of the Christian or Disciples Church. When Alexander C. Parker was ten years of age his parents left Navarro County and moved to Young County in West Texas.
Recently many of the metropolitan news- papers of the United States carried a story concerning "A Many-Sided Millionaire," written by William C. Freeman. The subject of this story was A. C. Parker of Dallas. A few paragraphs selected from this story will serve to bring out some of his early struggles and achievements and tell something of the character he bears among modern men of affairs.
As soon as he was old enough, "Cam" Parker, as his pals called him, learned to jump into a saddle. He rode his cow ponies through the cacti and the sands of Western Texas, and soon became an expert plainsman-as good as the best.
He had no chance to go to school. It was grim necessity that compelled him to work and work, to ride and ride, from sun to sun. He slept out in the open and knew how to cook his own meals. While he didn't know the look of the inside of a schoolhouse, he was getting an experience that has stood him in good stead all his life. Besides, he was developing great physical power. He mingled with men whose word was as good as a cer- tified check. This instilled in him respect for frankness and honesty-the foundation of real character. These rugged, honest men of
the plains taught him courage and self-reli- ance. He got a good lesson in understanding his fellows. He learned what was right to do and how to do it.
Partly by himself and partly with the aid of travelers and visitors he learned to read the books then common in the ranch homes of the west-the Bible, the dictionary, a few durable classics and the stories of Jesse James, the Younger Brothers and the Dalton Gang. But all out-of-doors was his best book -a book that was teaching him to build char- acter, to love the beautiful, and to be kind to and thoughtful of others. He learned that even animals respond to kindness and justice. No boy can live out in the open and sleep with the stars and moon shining down on him without gaining for himself, besides health, a profound respect for the Great Ruler of all.
His mind was active. He knew, in order to make a mark for himself, that he would have to go to school, so at the age of nine- teen he sold his cow ponies, saddle and gun, to get a little money with which to start. There was no other money in sight for him anywhere. He knew he had to dig for the rest to put himself through school and college.
He attended school and went to college be- tween the ages of nineteen and twenty-six. He put a lot of work into those seven years, maybe more than most boys do between the ages of five and twenty-six. He realized the advantages of an education before he started. His physical power, developed wonderfully by his outdoor life, enabled him to apply him- self assiduously to his books and also gave him the endurance to work outside of school and college hours in order to earn the money to pay for his tuition and board.
He attended a co-educational college in Texas. So did the young woman who was to be Mrs. Parker. One of his friends says that he "served hash as a waiter in the college dining hall to the girl who is now his wife and the mother of his three fine sons." Mr. Parker married the girl he waited on at table one year before he finished his educational course, but he was then earning $35 a month, so much more than he had ever earned before that he regarded it as ample on which to sup- port a wife and to pay for his tuition at college.
Friends of Mr. Parker say that his home life is ideal, that his wife is a wonderful woman, and that he attributes his success largely to the inspiration and encouragement
RESIDENCE OF CHARLES HARPOOL HEBRON, TEXAS
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he receives from her. Mr. Parker was a big man in a certain western town in the early stages of his career. He was mayor of the town, lay preacher, and owner, editor, re- porter, business manager, proofreader, etc., of a weekly newspaper. He was also half owner of an undertaking business.
Mr. Parker's friends all say of him: "His first thought always is what he can do to make people feel their responsibilities as American citizens and to do work that will benefit the whole community. He is a very intense American; he makes it his business to study conditions and to keep posted on the affairs of his country ; he is one of the best informed men in the whole United States on its and the world's history; he analyzes the work of our representatives at Washington and is able with good logic and common sense to pick to pieces proposed laws that bode no good to the country ; he is strong for the men of big business who he thinks, as a rule are able and honorable and willing to distribute their energy, wealth and power for the good of the people., He is very just and honorable him- self and expects every man he meets to play the game as he does-and when a man in this country is on the lookout for those who prac- tice the square deal, he finds them easily enough." While Mr. Parker gives freely of his time and money to his church, performing what he regards as a supreme duty, he never- theless devotes nine-tenths of his time to busi- ness; and that means at least nine hours a day, for he is a prodigious worker.
He regards it a necessary part of his busi- ness life to take an active interest in civic and political matters, and he does so. He has served as secretary of the Chamber of Com- merce, as Government farm demonstrator, etc. He is also a Lyceum and Chautauqua lecturer. At present he is extensively inter- ested in real estate, a wholesale grocery en- terprise, and an automobile and truck jobbing business in Texas. He has been for many years one of the foremost independent pro- ducers in the oil fields of the southwest. His knowledge of oil production and refining is so thorough that he is accepted everywhere as a high authority in these matters.
Mr. Parker has been a figure in daily life, in his business affairs, and as a lay minister has found expression for some of the most earnest and intense sides of his character. He never attended a theological school and pre- ferred the role of a lay minister to regular
ordination, since he would have taken the duties of the latter so seriously as to interfere with what he regarded as his real force, busi- ness. Nevertheless he has filled some of the most prominent pulpits in Texas, at Ladonia, Midland, Waxahachie and in other cities. He helped build Midland College and has been one of the principal benefactors of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, donating $80,000 to build the university church. He has made extensive gifts of money to various church and benevolent enterprises.
Mr. Parker is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner. Mrs. Parker, referred to above, was before her marriage Miss Annette C. Lynch. She was born at Cedartown, Georgia. Their three children are Morris Wesley, a student in Texas Christian University, Alan Elkin and Forest Rupert Parker.
CHARLES HARPOOL. An effective and effi- cient life has been that of Charles Harpool in the Hebron locality of Denton County, where his work and his interests have been centered for nearly half a century.
Mr. Harpool was born near Springfield, Missouri, July 1, 1855, a son of Bowie and Paralee (Rule) Harpool, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Macoupin County, Illinois. They met and were mar- ried in Green County, Missouri. Bowie Har- pool was a Union soldier, was wounded in bat- tle and died from the wounds the same year. His children were: Charles; Josephine, a resi- dent of Hunt County, Texas, wife of Al Perry ; and Martin A., wife of J. B. Kennedy, of Mc- Kinney, Texas. After the death of her soldier husband Mrs. Harpool married E. Bowlin, and they spent their last years at Mckinney, Texas, where she died in 1908 and he in 1919. The children of their marriage were Thomas and Robert Bowlin, both of Collin County, and Bedford, who died unmarried near Hebron.
Charles Harpool acquired some education in the schools of Southwestern Missouri, and was a youth of about seventeen when, in 1873, he accompanied a party of emigrants bound for Texas. After a few days of work on Rowlett's Creek he came to the community around Hebron, where he has lived ever since. That locality was then known as the Aaron Coin ranch, an open prairie country with only a farm here and there, each with a few acres of cultivated land, and the area chiefly de- voted to cattle and horse raising. After two years as a ranch and farm hand Mr. Harpool
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went to work for himself as a renter. He tion. A staunch Baptist in religion, he began reached Texas with only twenty cents in worship with the Baptists more than thirty years ago, when they assembled at Frankfort in the old Masonic Hall, was for ten years a member of the Liberty Baptist Church and eight years superintendent of the Sunday school, and then became identified with the organization of the new church at Hebron. Its first church was a frame house accom- modating about 200 people, but in 1919 the congregation moved into a handsome brick edifice on the hill overlooking Hebron. He is still one of the deacons of the church, has attended the Baptist associations as a delegate and is a member of the Board of the Denton County Baptist Association. Some thirty years ago Mr. Harpool was one of the local leaders in the Farmers Alliance movement, was a lecturer of the society three years and fre- quently a delegate to the higher bodies of the Alliance. In Masonry he has filled all the offices in the Blue Lodge and has repre- sented White Rock Lodge No. 234, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Waco, in the Grand Lodge. money, and his initial capital had to be made from work of his own hands. As a farmer he had only one horse, and he borrowed har- ness and plows. He lived in a small rented house on the farm which he now owns, and made his first crop while he was still a bach- elor. After his marriage he began house- keeping some distance south of this com- munity, renting there for two years, and then returned to his first location, where he took charge of the farm and ranch of his uncle, Aaron Coin. The diligence of his hands and the wisdom of his guidance have brought him steadily increasing prosperity and influence here. After the death of his aunt he made arrangements to buy the property, which then had 200 acres under cultivation. He paid three-fourths of the purchase money out of the soil itself. Improvements began on the farm and a substantial house accommodated his family from 1897 to 1906, when it was burned with all its contents, entailing a loss of five thousand dollars. He immediately began rebuilding, and in 1907 he and his On May 22, 1879, Mr. Harpool married Miss Hester Ann Patterson. She was born near Bowling Green, Kentucky, March 24, 1863, and came to Texas with her parents in 1876. She is a daughter of Levi V. and America (Porter) Patterson, who subse- quently moved from Denton to Palo Pinto County, where they died. The oldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Harpool was the late Albert L. Harpool, to whose life a separate paragraph is dedicated. The second child is R. Thomas Harpool, of Hebron, who married Elsie Beck, a graduate of the C. I. A. of Denton, and a very accomplished young woman. She died, after nearly two years of happy married life, from tuberculosis, without issue. For his sec- ond wife R. Thomas Harpool married Miss Josephine Solomon of Ennis, and has two chil- dren : Tom, Jr., and Albert Edward. W. Har- rison Harpool, the youngest of the three sons, is a farmer on his father's place, and by his marriage to Jessie Skyles has four children : Virgie, Catherine, Lois and Ethel. family entered into the comforts of the pres- ent attractive nine-room bungalow. Other improvements have followed from time to time, and altogether the labors of his years have been well rewarded. For the most part his energies have been directed to grain and stock farming. He is also one of the old-time threshermen of the county. Some forty years ago he started out with an equipment consist- ing of an endless chain machine with power furnished by two horses treading the power plant. His next outfit was a ten-horse power machine, and then came a steam outfit, and when he wore that out he abandoned the busi- ness. The experience, however, was perhaps more gratifying than in the case of most threshers, since he paid for his outfits from its earnings and had some surplus besides. Mr. Harpool has grown cattle, horses and sheep, handles the grades of these animals, has fattened hogs for the market, and a prof- itable phase of the farm industry has been dairying. Mr. Harpool took stock in the Albert L. Harpool, who died in 1920, lived out his life of almost forty years in the com- munity where he was born. He gave early promise of a life of usefulness, and his mental and spiritual training and development were along the lines of his inclination. He married Miss Jennie Cook, and the children who sur- vive are Susie, Ruby and Charles, Jr. Albert had been converted at fourteen, and was long Hebron Bank when it was opened, and has enlisted his support in everything that would round out the institutions and business advan- tages of the village. For twenty-five consecu- tive years he has served as a member of the Board of School District No. 66 at Hebron, and is now serving his third year as a mem- ber of the Denton County Board of Educa-
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