History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III, Part 59

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922, ed; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago and New York : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 612


USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 59


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On moving to Eastland he built for his home a beautiful residence, one of the finest in the city, at the corner of Ammerman and Patterson streets, where he has four city lots. Mr. Brewer married Miss Emma Tanner, a native of Kansas, though reared and edu- cated in Texas. Their six children are Bemous, Bernice, Carrie, Jewel, Sadie and Thelma.


WARREN PIERCE ANDREWS: No man is ever given successive promotions in a reputable financial institution unless he has proven him- self worthy in every way of such honor and has demonstrated his capability in the dis- charge of the duties incumbent upon him. Especially is this true of banking establish- ments in a city like Fort Worth, where so many important interests are centered, and this rule finds no exception in the career of the subject of this brief review.


Warren P. Andrews, vice president of the First National Bank of Fort Worth and pres- ident of the Texas Bankers Association, is one of the best known members of the banking


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fraternity in the southwest. He has had long and varied experience in financial circles, and his success has come to him entirely through his merits. He feels justifiable pride in being a native son of the Lone Star State and in the fact that he is descended from a pioneer fam- ily which had part in the early development of Texas. His parents, John D. and Hannah (Griggs) Andrews, were both natives of Georgia, and came to Texas at an early day, when the state was passing through its forma- tive period. Their families were prominent ones in Georgia, and in the antebellum days both were numbered among the extensive land and slave owners.


Warren P. Andrews was born in eastern Texas. He enjoyed the advantages of excel- lent educational training, eventually becoming enrolled as a student in the G. W. Groves School of Dallas, graduating in 1890. Soon thereafter he became associated with the City National Bank of Fort Worth, and remained in its employ for four years. He then became connected with the American National Bank of Fort Worth, where he remained until 1898, when he accepted a position with the First National Bank as bookkeeper. From this posi- tion he was successively promoted, serving as teller, assistant cashier, cashier and in 1920 was elected vice president, which office he now holds.


In May, 1919, Mr. Andrews was elected a member of the Executive Council of the American Bankers Association, representing the members of the Texas Bankers Associa- tion, with which latter association he had long been actively affiliated. At the same time he was elected a director of the Texas Chamber of Commerce, and in this body also represent- ed the bankers of Texas.


On May 12, 1921, at the annual meeting of the Texas Bankers Association, he was unan- imously elected president, through which office he is now putting into active operation the practical ideas which have been arrived at through careful study and research and a clear realization of the true relation of banks and bankers in the promotion of the diversified in- terests of the community, viewed from the broad standpoint of industrial, commercial, agricultural, and civic development, vital ques- tions of which Mr. Andrews has long been a close student. Such men as he, taking an active part in the promotion and welfare of the state, and the banking interests particularly, sound, dependable and reliable, represent the very


backbone of the country's credit and progress. Mr. Andrews has ever been an active supporter and generous contributor to the various civic undertakings of his community, being quick to grasp the true economic value of the dif- ferent movements. He is a member of the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club.


In 1908 Mr. Andrews married Miss Geral- dine Mann, of Portland, Maine.


ROBERT BENNETT TRULY has had his home in Eastland and other West Texas counties for nearly half a century. The work and inter- ests that give him especial distinction as a West Texas citizen have been as a lawyer and leader in public affairs. His abilities as a lawyer have attracted to him interests and responsibilities of the greatest importance, and he has earned some of the best honors of his profession.


He was born in Shelby County, Texas, in 1856, son of Dr. Joseph C. and Sarah J. (Smith) Truly. His father, a native of Mis- sissippi, devoted the best years of his life to the labors of a practicing physician. He was a pioneer settler and doctor in Shelby County in Eastern Texas, and about 1859 removed with his family to Natchitoches, Louisiana, and still later to Red River Parish, Louisiana. He finally came back to Texas in 1874. Dr. Truly served as a surgeon in Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry during the war between the states. His brother, the late William P. Truly, who died in 1910, became a pioneer settler in Eastland County, having established his home on a farm a short dis- tance south of Eastland in 1879.


Robert Bennett Truly spent his boyhood years chiefly in Louisiana. He finished his education in the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and was about nineteen when he first came to Eastland in 1875. In coming to West Texas he left the railroad at Dallas, and all the country west, including Eastland, was without railroad facilities for several years. At Eastland Mr. Truly taught school for several years and in 1878 became county and district clerk of Eastland County. He filled that office until 1884. In the meantime he had taken up the study of law in 1877 and was admitted to the bar in 1882, though he made no attempt to practice until he retired from office. Mr. Truly was one of the capable members of the Eastland bar until 1892, in which year he removed to Ballinger, Texas.


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After a successful practice in that city for twenty-six years he returned to Eastland in April, 1918, and his presence adds another highly equipped and widely experienced lawyer to the Eastland bar.


By appointment Mr. Truly has served as special judge of the District Court in Run- nells, Coleman, Coke, Brown and other coun- ties of Central West Texas. He also acted as special judge in the Court of Civil Appeals. These are practically the only honors he has accepted outside his private practice, and it is possible to account for his high standing by the fact that his abilities have peculiarly suited him for the law and he has never found it necessary to go outside the strict professional limits to satisfy his ambitions.


On December 23, 1877, Judge Truly mar- ried Miss Velpeau Johnson. She is a sister of Dr. J. L. Johnson, of Eastland. The five children of Judge and Mrs. Truly are Mrs. Adrienne Carithers, Mrs. Roberta Clary, Mrs. Merle Flurry, Miss Genevieve and Miss Sybil Truly.


ROBERT F. BROWN. The primary enthusi- asm and the occupation for many years of Robert F. Brown, of Breckenridge, was grow- ing Hereford cattle. Doubtless he would still be a factor in that industry had not the in- creasing forest of oil rigs seriously interfered with his ranching. He then took up the busi- ness which was practically forced on him, and is now one of the leading producers in the famous Breckenridge oil fields.


Mr. Brown was born in Kaufman County, Texas, in 1870, a son of J. F. and Louisa (McCorkle) Brown. His mother died in 1893.


J. F. Brown, who is still living in Stephens County, is justly deserving of all the praise and other good things that can be said of a pioneer who takes up a home in a new country and achieves success that redounds as much to the benefit of the community as to himself. He was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1841. His parents, W. R. and Hettie Eliz- abeth (Fleetwood) Brown, moved to Texas in 1853 and established their home on a farm in Kaufman County, six miles from the county seat. There J. F. Brown grew to manhood and was just twenty years of age when the war broke out between the North and the South. He volunteered in Captain Kiser's Company of Col. William Parson's Dragoons, known as the Twelfth Texas Cavalry, and


fought for the cause of the South throughout the four years of the struggle. All his service was in the Trans-Mississippi Department in Arkansas and Louisiana. The war over, he re- turned to Kaufman County and was a strug- gling farmer during the years of the recon- struction period.


He was thirty-seven years old when in 1878 he left his home in Kaufman County and moved to the Texas frontier, located in Stephens County, three miles west of Breck- enridge, where he secured cheap land and for several years had unlimited range for his stock. He had trials and vicissitudes that would have discouraged a less hardy and en- terprising citizen. There were successive periods of drought, when crops were blasted, and in years of plenty farm products had practically no market and livestock sold for less than the cost of production. J. F. Brown accepted conditions as they were, maintained a cheerful outlook through the years, bad as well as good, and there is no one who justly could begrudge him the well earned prosperity and comfort he enjoys today. He was nearly eighty when in 1920 he relaxed the constant supervision of his farming interests, but is still living near them in the town of Brecken- ridge. The Brown farm is one of the largest individual holdings in Stephens County, con- stituting 2,300 acres. Its manager is now Barney Brown, a son of J. F. Brown.


On the home farm and ranch Robert F. Brown was reared from the time he was eight years of age, acquired such education as was afforded by the neighboring schools, and as a youth entered the cattle business. As soon as possible he began specializing, and has been a decided factor in raising the standards of West Texas cattle, developing one of the fine herds of White Faced cattle found in this section. Mr. Brown had the true cattleman's love for his business, and he sold his stock in 1919 only because of the encroachment of the oil well drilling operations, making it imprac- ticable to maintain securely fenced pastures.


In 1919 Mr. Brown built a splendid home on his property at the corner of Miller and Williams streets in Breckenridge. Extending westward from his residence lot he owns twenty acres of highly valuable city property. On this land are three producing oil wells, and production has not been exhausted on his tract. Since establishing his home in Breck- enridge he has given his entire attention to oil production.


Sidney HIS Fansson


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Mr. Brown married Miss Jessie Addington, daughter of the late Jesse Addington, a Stephens County pioneer. They have two chil- dren, Lillie and Robert James Brown.


CLEM HARMON DAY, M. D. After gradu- ating from Medical College Dr. Day practiced in Oklahoma until he was attracted back to his home state and to the marvelous commu- nity of Ranger, where he has found a large professional clientele, has allied himself with the best interests of the growing city, and is secretary of the Ranger Medical Society.


Clem Harmon Day was born in Thomas- ville, Alabama, in 1882. Two years later, in 1884, his parents, T. C. and Lucy (Fountain) Day, moved west and settled in Bosque Coun- ty, Texas. His father is still living at Kop- perl and is one of the prominent ranchers of Bosque County.


Dr. Day grew up on his father's ranch, is a graduate of the Kopperl High School, and subsequently took up the study of medicine in the Baylor University Medical School at Dallas. He was graduated with the class of 1913, and the following three years practiced at Thackerville, Oklahoma. He then built and conducted a hospital at Quay, Oklahoma, until 1918, when he came to Ranger.


Dr. Day has had his full share of the pros- perity that has reigned in the famous metropo- lis of the Central Texas oil fields. His ener- gies have been taxed to the utmost to meet the demands of a large general practice in both medicine and surgery. He is very popu- lar both in his profession and as a citizen, and has a host of friends in and around Ranger. His public spirit has been aroused to the utmost by the civic problems involved in the rapid growth of Ranger. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations, and the Ranger Medical Society, of which he is secretary, is an organization formed for the benefit of the public as well as for the benefit of the ethical physicians of the town. Dr. Day is a member of the Masonic Order and the Elks.


CAPT. SIDNEY M. HARRISON, who was a captain of infantry in the 36th Division in France, is one of Fort Worth's honored soldier sons, a young business man who both before and since the war has been actively identified with automobile interests.


Captain Harrison was born at Fort Worth, April 18, 1889, a son of James and Gertrude


(Martin) Harrison. His father, a native Texan, was for many years identified with banking at Fort Worth, where he was cashier of the State National Bank, but since 1914 has been a member of the important real estate corporation known as Gilvin & Harrison, a firm that has handled many large transactions in business and residence property. ‘ James Harrison enjoys a high place of esteem among Fort Worth's progressive and public spirited citizens, and has worked with many projects undertaken to realize the best welfare of the city. He was instrumental in securing the location of the Texas Christian University at Fort Worth and is one of its trustees. He assisted in financing the building of the First Christian Church, of which he is a deacon and has long been one of the most loyal members. All of his three sons were born in Fort Worth and still live in that .city.


Of these Sidney M. Harrison is the oldest. He acquired his education in the Fort Worth public schools, attended Kemper Military Academy at Boonville, Missouri, and finished his education in the University of Chicago. Captain Harrison at the age of twenty-two went to work in a Fort Worth hardware house, remaining with the concern for about two years. He then organized an automobile sales business, and was president and general man- ager of the Harrison-Green Motor Company at 200 Houston Street, a sales agency handling almost exclusively the high grade motor cars.


In 1916 it seemed that armed conflict with Mexico was inevitable, and when the Texas National Guard was called out Mr. Harrison turned his business over to other members of the firm and went to the border as captain of Company B, 4th Texas Infantry. For over a year he and his command were in the Big Bend District guarding the border. When the state troops were mustered into the Federal service he passed a successful examination for captain in the army. Later his company was transferred to other stations along the border all the way from Sierra Blanco, near El Paso, to Point Isabel, near Brownsville.


When America entered the war with Ger- many the 4th Texas Infantry was transferred to Camp Bowie at Fort Worth for training, and through consolidation of this and other Texas and Oklahoma units the 36th Division was formed. Captain Harrison as captain of Company D, 144th Infantry, left Fort Worth with the Division for France July 8, 1917. He was with the 36th Division during the training in France and in action at the front until he


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was wounded in the leg by a high explosive shell. While recovering from this wound he was in the hospital at Nevers, France, and after recuperating was transferred to LeBlanc in command of a motor car department. After the signing of the armistice with other casual officers he returned to the United States and received his honorable discharge at Camp Dix, New Jersey. Later he was commissioned a major of infantry in the United States Re- serve Corps.


After returning to Fort Worth Captain Har- rison resumed his former business by organiz- ing the American Saxon Motor Company of Fort Worth. He was president of this con- cern, but in 1919 sold his interests and took over the active management of the Parrant Garage at 1009-11 Commerce street. This is one of the most modern and one of the large garages in the city, performing a general garage and storage service and also a supply station for accessories, repairs, gasoline and oils.


Captain Harrison is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, and is a member of the Meadowmere Club, the Fort Worth Automo- bile Club and the American Legion.


CHARLES H. FEE. A long residence of nearly forty years and accumulating interests of great magnitude have contributed to the authoritative position of Mr. Fee in business and financial circles at Cisco. He has been in close touch with almost every commercial interest of that community from the time Cisco was a frontier village.


Mr. Fee was born at Oxford, Mississippi, in 1860, son of George D. and B. C. (Rey- nolds) Fee. His father was a merchant, part of the time at Oxford, Mississippi, and part of the time at Memphis, Tennessee. Charles H. Fee grew up at Oxford, and besides at- tending the local schools was also a student in the State University located in that city. He was a young man seeking an eligible loca- tion for a business career when he came to Texas in 1883 and established his home at Cisco. For a time he sold groceries, but his chief distinction as a merchant was a service of a quarter of a century or more as a dealer in hardware and implements, developing the largest enterprise of that kind in his section of the state.


About the time Mr. Fee retired from mer- chandising he helped organize the First


Guaranty State Bank of Cisco and is its presi- dent. As a banker his long residence and dis- criminating knowledge of values have made him a recognized authority on loans and other financial subjects affecting Cisco and sur- rounding territory. He has wisely guided the bank since its establishment. It has a capital of $65,000 and deposits of three-quarters of a million.


Mr. Fee is one of the largest land owners of Eastland County. His lands aggregate 2,700 or 2,800 acres, almost adjoining the city of Cisco. Nearly all of this land is now under lease to some of the oil development com- panies.


Mr. Fee is one of the honorary vice-presi- dents of the Dallas State Fair Association, having enjoyed that honor for several years. He is a Knight Templar, Mason and Shriner.


Mr. Fee married Miss Frances Lillian Pat- terson, a native of Missouri. Their three children are Mrs. Elizabeth Fee Spears, George P. and Robert F. Fee.


FRANK E. HARRELL, manager of the Rock- well Bros. Co. lumber yard at Cisco, is one of the best examples of the live, aggressive young business men of Texas, whose energies are finding vent in the directing of the large interests of his company in this region. He was born in Fisher County, Texas, in 1884, a son of W. L. and Josephine (Green) Har- rell. W. L. Harrell was born in Lee County, Texas, and for many years was one of the prominent cattlemen of West Texas. He was one of the organizers of Fisher County, which has been a part of Taylor County, and was the first treasurer of the new county. The family moved to Eastland County in 1894, and Frank E. Harrell has made Cisco his home practically ever since.


The educational training of Frank E. Har- rell was obtained in the schools of Cisco, and his business career has centered in his present company, whose employ he entered in 1904. He has remained with this company ever since, and for several years has been manager of the Cisco yard, which was established in the eighties. The headquarters of this widely known firm of lumbermen is Houston, Texas, its president being J. M. Rockwell, who is a pioneer West Texan, and established his first lumber yard at Albany. The business has since expanded and the company now owns a string of lumber yards through Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, and ranks with


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the largest concerns of the state, and of all of these it is generally conceded to be the best. The Rockwell business succeeded that of the M. T. Jones Lumber Company, Mr. Rockwell having been one of the executors of the M. T. Jones estate.


Frank E. Harrell was married to Miss Ethelia Rush, of Amarillo, Texas, and they have a son, Wesley Lee Harrell. Mr. Harrell has always taken a prominent and public- spirited part in the upbuilding of Cisco. He was a member of the board of aldermen when the City Hall was built in 1915. As an active member of the Cisco Chamber of Commerce he is continuing his efforts in behalf of its civic affairs, and he is also a charter member of the Cisco Rotary Club. It is certainly true that no community can advance faster than the pace set by its leading citizens, and so a very accurate gauge of the business men of Cisco can be taken by reviewing the progress this section has made within recent years, and according to the results these leading citizens show a spirit which is commendable and which places them among the worth-while men of their state and period.


Mr. Harrell has always been able to look into the future with all a man's keenness of vision and comprehend the importance of the lumber industry. In it he believes that a man can find a greater field than ever for useful- ness, and that in it he can attain to the full measure of material prosperity. The spirited competition which exists in this line only stimulates him to renewed effort, but he realizes that this business, as all others, must be conducted according to common fairness and common sense, for no lasting good can be accomplished by an unjust profiting from the necessities of the trade.


WRIGHTMAN W. MOORE. The profession of a druggist is so closely allied with that of a physician that they are of equal importance to a community. In fact in some ways the druggist is closer to the people than the physi- cian, for many come to him for aid who never call in a doctor. As a class the druggists measure up to the highest ideals of American manhood and render a magnificent service, for much of which they receive practically no remuneration. One of these dependable men and public-spirited citizens of Eastland County is Wrightman W. Moore of Cisco.


Wrightman W. Moore was born in Giles County, Tennessee, in 1877, a son of Rev.


J. C. and Minerva (Hall) Moore. Rev. J. C. Moore, who is now living at Sweetwater, Texas, is a widely known minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a native of Tennessee, and came from that state to Texas in 1884, since which time he has filled pulpits in various counties in North and Central West Texas, including those of Hopkins, Hunt, Collin, Denton, Wise, East- land and others, He is now retired from the active itinerary, but has special work at Sweetwater. His brother, the late Henry Moore, was a pioneer railroad builder and official of West Texas. He also built the street railway at El Paso, Texas, and was a prominent figure in the history of West Texas.


Wrightman W. Moore is a pharmacist by profession, having begun work in a drug store in 1893, when sixteen years old. This store was at Carbon, Eastland County, Texas. He has been a druggist at Cisco since 1898, and is associated with the famous Red Front drug store, the oldest in the city and a landmark in Cisco's business history. Mr. Moore and his brother-in-law, C. W. Lowery, are the owners of this fine business, which has always been a prosperous one, and is now doing a larger business than ever.


Mr. Moore is a Knight Templar Mason. He belongs to the Cisco Chamber of Commerce and is identified with all the civic activities. He was married to Miss Carrie Lowery, a member of a pioneer Texas family originally from Alabama. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have four children, namely: Wrightman, Joe Lea, Ora Bess and Carl Tom. Having come to Cisco at an early day, Mr. Moore has been connected with its expansion and can take credit to himself of playing no unimportant part in this really remarkable growth. It is such men as he and his business partner who make possible the improvements so necessary if a community keeps abreast of modern progress.


History proves that the things which men do with the least thought of themselves are those for which their fellows insist upon re- membering them, and it may be that Mr. Moore's influence in his community may rest upon his cheerful willingness to render a kindly service, to inspire others to a proper conception of civic responsibility in its broader sense, and the vision, courage and initiative which has led him to advocate various move- ments which had for their object the better-


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ment of existing conditions, instead of upon his business foresight and success, important as these are.


JESSE LEE JOHNSON. In the story of the growth and development of every great con- monwealth are inseparably connected the names of certain individuals who through their activities and broadness of vision have mate- rially aided in their country's advancement. It has been said that history is but the epitome of biography ; the composite story of individ- ual effort and the result of individual striving, while it is equally true that the progress and standing of any community is but a reflection of the character and energy of those who have made it.




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