USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 58
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organization to work and engaged in building houses in that city.
In 1904 A. L. Mayhew, of Cisco, engaged Mr. Olson for some building contracts. Com- ing to Cisco at the time to give personal over- sight to the business, he has lived here ever since. His work as a contractor in this local- ity includes about twenty-five brick buildings, including the City Hall, Mobley Hotel, Union Depot, and others. In recent years Mr. Olson has retired from active contracting and build- ing but continues as in the past, being a very busy man looking after his individual prop- erty and business interests. He is owner of much valuable real estate, including six resi- dences and four business buildings in Cisco and is the owner of some five thousand acres of land in Texas. He is one of the directors of the Cisco and Northeastern Railway, and assisted in financing that project.
While personally he would make no claim to that quality, Mr. Olson is essentially a thoroughly public spirited citizen, and his pub- lic spirit has led to his taking an interest in everything connected with the welfare and upbuilding of his home town. He has helped develop the Chamber of Commerce as an influential and helpful institution, is one of its directors, and as a member of the school board regards his duty as almost predominant upon every other claim to his time and atten- tion.
Mr. Olson is also deeply interested in the welfare of the schools for the reason that he has three children getting their education. He married Miss Pauline Rushing, of Weather- ford, and their children are Marion, born in 1905; Carl, born in 1907 ; and Bessie, born in 1909. The oldest son had already reached the tenth grade in 1920-21, and has been a leader in his classes and distinguished in ora- tory and debate.
During a quarter of a century engaged in the contracting business, Mr. Olson has been engaged independently in that work, firmly believing that partnership association is not conducive to great success.
ALEXANDER H. GEE has been active head and president of the Pilot Point National Bank throughout its existence under a national charter, a period of thirty years, and prior to that was manager of a private bank, and also has been associated with the commercial, financial and civic affairs of Pilot Point for a longer period than perhaps any other living resident of the community.
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Mr. Gee was born near Huntington, Car- roll County, Tennessee, December 25, 1849, a son of James H. and Ann W. (Hawkins) Gee, his father a native of Virginia and his mother of Maryland. James H. Gee was a surveyor by profession, moved to Tennessee in early life, and ran many of the early boundary lines in the western part of the state. He was a youthful member of General Jack- son's staff at the battle of New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812. For a number of years prior to his removal to Texas he was elected and re-elected without opposition to the office of county clerk of Carroll County. In 1859 he moved his family to Texas, locat- ing at Greenville in Hunt County. He was long past the age of active service at the time of the war between the states, but his enthusi- asm prompted him to do something for the Southern cause. He was gratified that six of his sons helped fight the battles during the period of four years' struggle. He finished his life at Greenville but was never identified with any active business there. He died in 1885 and his wife before him in the same year. In Tennessee they were members of the old-school Presbyterian Church, and not find- ing a church of that denomination in Texas became Cumberland Presbyterians, though for a number of years after they settled in Green- ville there was no church, and meetings of the society were held in the courthouse. Minis- ters always found a welcome at the Gee home. James H. Gee and wife had a large family of children. Francis M. died at Pilot Point, leaving a wife and two daughters. William H., who served as a major in the Confederate army, spent most of his life at Dardenelle, Arkansas, where he died. Thomas J., who was a captain of scouts and later a hardware merchant at Greenville, died leaving five chil- dren. Robert B. lives at Dallas, Texas. James M. is a resident of Greenville. C. Hawkins died at Greenville, unmarried. The next in age is Alexander H. Dr. J. C. was a sur- geon in the Confederate army and died at Greenville. W. H. and Caleb Hawkins were twins, and the oldest son had a twin sister. The daughters of the family were: Maggie, who died as Mrs. W. M. Scott, at Sherman ; Mrs. Lucy Harrison, of Oklahoma City ; and Mattie who became the wife of Lawson Rob- inson and died at Greenville.
Alexander H. Gee was about ten years of age when his parents moved to eastern Texas and he grew up there, being too young to join the army, but saw and was deeply im-
pressed by many of the events of the war period. He reached his majority with only a common school education and at the age of fifteen was supporting himself by clerking in Greenville. Later, when he left home, he found employment in a wholesale house at Jefferson with the firm Wright & Clark, the senior member having been one of his boyhood friends in Greenville and toward him he sus- tained a somewhat confidential relation. He remained there a year and a half and then married and came to Pilot Point, reaching this community about half a century ago.
At Pilot Point Mr. Gee was in the dry goods business with the firm of Harrison & Gee and later under the name N. Wilson & Co., and he continued as manager of this house until he gave up merchandising to become a banker. He bought a third interest in the Pilot Point Bank, and continued it as a pri- vate institution for seven years. During that time he increased its capital from $25,000 by its earnings to $60,000. Friends of the bank and of Mr. Gee urged that he take out a national charter that they might become stockholders. He yielded to the request and he and his partner offered $30,000 of the capital stock among their friends and it was subscribed within a few minutes. The cap- ital has been retained at $60,000 since the national charter was taken out in 1892. There has never been a year since when the bank has not paid dividends, some of them as high as 12 per cent. In 1921 the bank has surplus of $20,000 and undivided profits of $12,500. Mr. Gee was the first and has been the only president of the bank. The first vice presi- dent, inactive, was the late A. P. Cosgrove. The first cashier, J. L. McFarland, is now vice president, while the official cashier is J. E. Selz, and Winston Peel is assistant cashier.
While a very successful banker, Mr. Gee has found many other interests both in busi- ness and citizenship. He is a director in the local oil mill, the cotton gin and ice plant, and is a farm owner and farm developer. He became interested in education while Doctor Franklin conducted his excellent private school or college, and following the death of the doctor that school was closed, and Mr. Gee aligned himself with other progressive citizens, including George Light, Mr. Selz, Mason Rus- sell, who gave their complete influence to the success of a bond issue that would provide for the erection of a public school and insti- tute a real public school system. Mr. Gee
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served for twelve years as a member of the local school board. In politics he has been a staunch democrat and voter for the candi- dates of that party. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and was formerly affiliated with the Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias.
At Pilot Point, March 28, 1872, Mr. Gee married Miss Nettie Harrison, a native of Denton County. Her father, W. R. Harri- son, was one of the early settlers of the county, a merchant and farmer who also came to Texas from Tennessee. Mrs. Gee was one of a family of two sons and three daughters, the other survivors being Mrs. Peel, of Pilot Point, and Edwin Harrison, of Wichita Falls. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Gee the oldest is Homer Winfield, who finished his education in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and is now head of the Western Indemnity Company at Dallas. Werter Leon, the second son, was educated at Pilot Point and in a business school at Galveston, and is now traveling for Benedict & Company of Kansas City. Vera, the third child, is the wife of J. M. Hellings, vice president of the Interstate National Bank of Kansas City. The only grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Gee are the two children of Mr. and Mrs. Hellings, Josephine and Jerome Hellings.
ED WILLIAMS, a banker of Valley View and of Era, has been actively identified with Cooke County forty years, came to manhood here, entered vigorously upon the vocation of farming, owns a splendid body of cultivated land around Era, and laid the foundation of his prosperity in days of low prices and ad- verse conditions to agriculture.
Mr. Williams was born in Hickman County, Tennessee, July 27, 1864. His father, R. D. Williams, was a native of Virginia, grew up as a farmer and had only the advantages of country schools; and while in Tennessee he enlisted and served in the Confederate army, most of his service being in the vicinity of Nashville. For several years he was a farmer in Hickman County, Tennessee, and from that locality moved west to Texas, going by rail. For three years the Williams family lived in Johnson County, Texas, and in 1880 moved to Cooke County. R. D. Williams established his home at Era when it was merely a local trading point, and lived out his life there. He was one of the early farmers to begin the improvement of the land, and his labors were a direct contribution to the im- provement of his section. The work of his VOL. III-20
farm and the interests of his home were the strongest ties in the life of R. D. Williams. He was a good farmer, improved his land, was one of the early growers of cotton in Cooke County, and was a member of the Methodist Church and a democratic voter. He died in February, 1896, at the age of sixty- two, and his widow lived almost to the age of ninety-one, passing away October 2, 1920. Her maiden name was Mary M. Puckett, and her father was a northern man, a physician and surgeon who practiced medicine in Wil- liamson County, Tennessee, many years. Of the children of R. D. Williams and wife, N. E. is the wife of L. B. Allen, of Fort Worth ; James M. lives in Clay County, Texas ; T. N. died unmarried in Cooke County ; Ro- land W. is a resident of Era, Texas ; Ed is the next in age; Bird and Will are twins, the former living in Gainesville and the latter in Myra, Texas; and Emma is the wife of S. G. Scott, of Era. The mother of these children was a life-long member of the Christian Church and her husband was a Mason.
Ed Williams was about fourteen years of age when he came to Texas, and he acquired most of his education in Tennessee. When he was a boy a large part of the farming done in Cooke County was running stock on the range, and he was old enough to assume such responsibilities. He was a factor in the home until past thirty-one, and then established his own home near Era, and still owns property there. He bought land before his marriage with money he had earned. His progress as a land owner has brought him to a position to rank with the most extensive farmers in Cooke County. The first land he bought cost him $20 an acre. His second tract cost $32 an acre, a third $65, and subsequently he bought land at $80 an acre. His present holdings aggregate 875 acres, and of this 775 acres are in cultivation, devoted to grain and cotton. Out of his actual experience he knows the difficulties farmers have had to meet in making their way. He sold wheat as low at 40 cents a bushel, oats at 17 cents, and cotton at 4 cents a pound, though at that time picking cost only about 40 cents a hundred. To supple- ment his efforts at practical farming Mr. Wil- liams many years ago operated a cotton gin in Era for twenty-six years and a threshing outfit twenty-four years. Contrary to the usual experience of threshermen he operated at a profit. When he gave up this work he concentrated his entire attention upon farming for several years, and on leaving the farm
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settled at Valley View, from which point he supervises his lands and farms, is also presi- dent of the Guaranty State Bank of Valley View and a director of the Guaranty State Bank of Era.
Mr. Williams is interested in the good roads question, being commissioner for the improve- ment and care of the roads in District No. 2. He has always voted as a democrat and is a deacon in the Baptist Church, of which Mrs. Williams is also a member. During the World war he was a purchaser of bonds and a con- tributor to other causes, and Mrs. Williams was one of the leading workers in the local Red Cross Chapter at Valley View.
Mr. Williams and Sallie Allegood were mar- ried in Era March 3, 1897. Her father, E. T. Allegood, was a Georgia man, a Confederate soldier, a farmer by occupation, and moved . to Texas about 1890. Mrs. Williams is one of four children, one of whom died in Georgia. Her brother, M. R. Williams, is the present county treasurer of Cooke County. Mrs. Wil- liams and H. M. Allegood are twins. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have three children. Otis is a graduate of the Gainesville schools, took a business course at Dallas and is connected with the Southern Publishing Company at Dallas. Coy is now a student in the University of Texas at Austin. Alton, the youngest, is still in the Valley View schools.
WILLIAM H. GOLDSMITH has been justly rated for a number of years as one of the most extensive cotton growers in Johnson County. He began business at Alvarado thirty- five years ago as a dealer in cotton, and through his hands and organization have passed a large amount of the staple raised in this section of Texas. He is a former mayor of Alvarado and in recent years has been equally active in civic affairs at Cleburne.
Mr. Goldsmith was born at Montgomery, Alabama, March 19, 1866. His father, A. M. Goldsmith, was also a native of Alabama, and was a merchant in that state and about 1881 removed to Texas and settled at Hempstead in Waller County, where he continued merchan- dising several years. Later he moved to Port Arthur, where he died about ten years ago, when past seventy. He was a Confederate soldier in General Hood's Brigade, but other- wise spent his life as a private citizen. He was an ardent member of the Missionary Bap- tist Church and a member of the Masonic fraternity. At Fort Deposit, Alabama, he mar- ried Sarah Blake, daughter of Squire Blake.
She died at Hempstead. Besides William H. she was the mother of three sons, Russell, de- ceased, and Reginald and Earl, who are busi- ness men at Port Arthur, connected with the Guffy Oil Company, and one daughter, Mrs. J. Morris Kennerly, of Houston, Texas.
William H. Goldsmith acquired his early education at Montgomery and was about fif- teen years of age when he came to Texas. In 1886 he entered business as an employe of J. H. Brown & Company, cotton factors and exporters. This firm had offices at many points over Texas, and Mr. Goldsmith was their rep- resentative in opening the business at Alva- rado. After being with that firm about five years he engaged in business for himself, and for a time bought and sold daily. He then established representatives over this territory and for several years shipped his cotton to New England mills and later became an ex- porter to such European centers as Bremen, Havre, Antwerp and Ghent, and except as those ports were closed by the war his exporta- tions have continued down to date.
Mr. Goldsmith a number of years ago be- came interested in the production of the cotton staple as well as dealing in it. He bought lands in Johnson County, and for a number of years planted about thirty-five hundred acres to cotton. He began buying land when it was fifteen dollars an acre, and continued to buy it until the price reached a hundred and fifty dollars. While many would regard this value as an exorbitant one for Texas lands, Mr. Goldsmith believes the kind of soil he acquired well worth the money. Through his extensive holdings and the organizations he has devel- oped to handle his properties Mr. Goldsmith is easily one of the largest cotton farmers in Johnson County. About thirty-five families reside on and work his lands, so that a popula- tion of about a hundred and seventy-five peo- ple make their living from his estate and busi- ness. During the war period, when the Gov- ernment was insisting upon a greater out- put of grain, he responded with a reduction in his cotton acreage, and in 1917 produced 13,000 bushels of wheat. Mr. Goldsmith sold out his cotton interests at Alvarado in 1916 and has since continued his business with Cleburne as his home and headquarters. He was an extensive builder and developer of property at Alvarado, and continued the same work at Cleburne. He built one of the sub- stantial brick business blocks facing the Mar- ket Square.
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For eight years he was mayor of Alvarado, and was almost personally responsible for securing the waterworks and the electric light plant for the city. While his extensive busi- ness interests have demanded so much of his time and energies he has never been neglectful of the calls of community needs. Politics has not entered into his life as a source of profit or reward for ambition, though he has taken a good citizen's interest in political campaigns, and occasionally has attended the conventions of the Democratic party. He was a supporter of Hogg in the famous factional fight of 1892 and in 1920 supported Senator Bailey for governor as he would an old friend, having admired the senator for years. He had a sol- dier son in the World war, and his entire fam- ily did their full part as civilians. Mr. Gold- smith was one of the few men in his locality to buy the thousand dollar limit in baby bonds.
At Alvarado December 22, 1887, he married Miss Gertrude Hoyle. Her mother was Angy Poindexter, daughter of Thomas C. Poindex- ter and sister of Judge William Poindexter of Cleburne. Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith have six children, Ida Glenn, Miss Angie Nell, of Cle- burne, Corneil P., Miss Rachel, Miss Willie Dell, and Lazell. Ida Glenn is the wife of Victor Gerstenkorn, of Cleburne. Corneil P. was with the 359th Machine Gun Company of the 90th Division, and was on the firing line when the armistice was signed. Since the war he has been farming and trading in stock near Alvarado, where he owns a farm.
LYMAN J. PRESTON. In the annals of Stephens County and of several other locali- ties in Western Texas the story of the Pres- ton family has been linked intimately with history and affairs for nearly half a century. Lyman J. Preston of this family is a native of Stephens County, and for over thirty years has been actively associated with the great lumber organization, the Burton-Lingo Lum- ber Company.
Mr. Preston was born in Stephens County March 20, 1876, a son of N. A. and Arabelle (De Graffenreid) Preston. N. A. Preston, who celebrated his ninetieth birthday March 3, 1921, is a native of Illinois, and his life in Texas recalls one of the most interesting and romantic factors in the development of the western plains. He brought his family to Texas and settled in Stephens County in the early seventies. His pioneer home was about ten miles northwest of Breckenridge, on what is now known as the Sloan ranch. He was a
real frontiersman, and on coming to Texas he became identified with one of the most profit- able industries during the seventies and early eighties, the hunting of buffalo. Following the buffalo trails, he spent several years with headquarters in Crosby and Dickens counties. He had buffalo hunting systematized and or- ganized, and for several years did an exten- sive business in the collecting, shipping and marketing of buffalo hides. About 1882 he removed to Cisco, and is now one of the oldest residents of that flourishing Texas city.
Lyman J. Preston was reared and educated in Cisco. The Burton-Lingo Lumber Com- pany is one of the oldest organizations for the manufacture and distribution of lumber in the southwest, and with headquarters at Fort Worth has yards all over Central and West Texas. Lyman J. Preston became iden- tified with the Cisco yard of this company in 1898, when he was only twenty-two years of age. His thirty years of continuous and active service make him now one of the veterans of the organization. He learned the business thoroughly as a youth, and for many years has had important responsibilities as one of the most trusted representatives of the busi- ness. For about three years during the nine- ties he was manager of the company's yard at Albany, where he opened the business. With that exception his connection has been at Cisco, where for many years he has been manager of the Burton-Lingo tlant.
Mr. Preston is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss Edna Little- page. They have three children : Hazel Louise, Velma and Lyman Dale.
GEORGE ROBERT WILSON. Except for the first year of his life George Robert Wilson has been a resident of Stephens County, and during the past decade has prosecuted a very successful and progressive business career at Cisco, where he is one of the leading mer- chants.
Mr. Wilson was born in Missouri in 1879. He is a son of W. H. and Salena (Goodwin) Wilson. His father was a native of Ken- tucky and his mother of England, being brought to the United States and to Missouri when she was seven years old. In 1880, the year following the birth of George Robert, the family came to Breckenridge, Stephens County, Texas. This was then a frontier village, and the late W. H. Wilson set up and conducted for many years a blacksmith shop,
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and through that business provided for his family. His shop was on the main business street, and he lived in a house adjoining the shop. His last years were spent in Ballinger, Texas, where he died. Mrs. Salena Wilson, who died February 8, 1920, is affectionately remembered as one of the good-souled pioneer women of Breckenridge.
George Robert Wilson was reared and educated in Breckenridge, but since 1910 has lived at Cisco. For about six years he was employed in grocery stores, and in 1916 en- gaged in that line of business for himself. Besides his flourishing mercantile business he has engaged in building operations at Cisco. In 1921 he erected two modern cottages ad- joining his own home on West Tenth Street.
Mr. Wilson married Miss Mary Etta Underwood, of Kentucky. Their four chil- dren are Salena, Clara Rose, Jewell and George.
FLOYD BREWER. While he has shared in the new wealth of petroleum of West Texas, was a man of very substantial interests in Eastland County long before the beginning of the era of oil, and belongs to the pioneer citi- zenship of that section of Texas.
Mr. Brewer is a native Texan and was born in the historic old town of Birdville, the county seat of Tarrant County, in 1870. His parents were M. V. and Eliza (Thomas) Brewer. His ' father, who is still living, making his home with his son, Floyd, was born in Grayson County, Virginia, April 3, 1841, but grew up in Floyd County, North Georgia. He went from his old home there into the Confederate army, and for three and a half years was in service in Company C, Twenty-third Regiment, Colquitt's Brigade. Immediately after the war he came to Texas, in 1866, and for about five years was located at Birdville, then spent twenty months in Erath County, and in February, 1873, moved to Eastland County. His permanent settle- ment was made on the frontier more than eight years before a railroad was built west of Fort Worth, and before Eastland County was organized. He acquired land in the east- ern part of the county on the creek known as Colony Fork, about nine miles east of East- land. In that vicinity was located the first county seat, Merriman, and the Merriman School later was established near the Brewer home. M. V. Brewer continued active as a farmer and stockman until very recent years.
The operation of oil drilling outfits put a tem- porary end to farming, and since then he has lived quietly, retired with his son at Eastland. He still owns his farm of 304 acres on Colony Fork, and adjoining it is the property of his son, 380 acres, both lying in one of the best agricultural districts of the county.
Floyd Brewer has no conscious recollection of his birthplace or of the family home in Erath County, and his memory begins with the old pioneer homestead of Eastland County. He grew up in that agricultural community and attended the Merriman School and after school devoted his energies to farming and stock raising with varied but in the aggregate successful fortunes until December of 1918. His land was in the path of oil discoveries. The first well on his farm, known as the Brewer No. 1, was drilled by the Texas Pa- cific Coal Oil Company, and was brought in in June, 1918. It came in with a flush pro- duction of about 3,500 barrels per day, soon settling down to 2,500 barrels, and it is still producing as a pumper. Since then several other productive wells have been brought in on this farm, and these constitute a gratifying source of wealth. Mr. Brewer is a thorough business man, has conserved his resources, has invested heavily in real estate in Eastland, and is one of that community's solid and public- spirited citizens.
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