USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 61
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Mr. Winston now gives his attention to his ranch-interests in Eastland and Stephens County. The family own some valuable oil production, including some producing wells in Stephens County adjoining Breckenridge on the east. These wells have contributed a large source of wealth to the family. Mr. Winston is a safe, conservative business man, whose judgment in financial transactions is unexcelled. He is a member of the Chamber
He married Miss Clara Wilson. Besides the two sons who comprise the firm of Win- ston Brothers there are two other children, Ernest and George Robert.
EGBERT ALONZO WATTERS, M.D. Promi- inent in his profession as a physician and an old resident of Northern Texas, Dr. Watters has been a general medical practitioner at Fort Worth for the past nineteen years and is a man of the highest standing in professional circles.
He was born in Union Parish, Louisiana, February 2, 1860, a son of Henry B. and Amanda (Rossitter) Watters. When he was a boy his parents moved to Texas, and he was educated in public schools and attended Long's Institute at Cleburne. Subsequently he took a commercial course in Mahan's Business Col- lege at Cleburne. After some varied business experience Dr. Watters entered the medical department of the University of Texas, and received his degree with the class of 1896. For seven years he enjoyed an extensive coun- try practice at Crowley, but since 1902 has been a resident of Fort Worth, and his work is now largely city practice. He is a member in good standing of the Tarrant County, Texas State and American Medical Associations.
Dr. Watters is prominent in fraternal af- fairs, being a member of Fort Worth Lodge of Masons, the Eastern Star, Loyal Order of Moose, Woodmen of the World and Wood- men's Circle. He married Miss Anna Gray, of Carthage, Missouri, and their children are Rossitter, Pierce and Walker Watters.
CALVIN RHEA STARNES, present county judge of Eastland County, is an able lawyer, and has had a remarkable degree of success in his profession and in public affairs ever since his admission to the bar. Judge Starnes has brought some unusual qualities to the ad- ministrative duties of a county judge, and from the work already done it seems likely that his term will set an unprecedented stand- ard in the energy and leadership of a county judge handling an important portion of the great state program of good roads con- struction.
Judge Starnes was born at Georgetown in Williamson County, Texas, October 28, 1885, a son of W. T. and Mary (Rhea) Starnes. His father, a native of Tennessee, moved to Georgetown, Texas, in the early '70s and was
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a very popular and highly considered citizen of that locality until his death in the fall of 1909. At the time of his death he was serving as justice of the peace.
Calvin Rhea Starnes finished his education in Southwestern University at Georgetown, graduating with the class of 1907. His junior year in law was taken at the University of Texas, but upon his father's death in 1909 he returned home and was elected to the vacancy as justice of the peace. While in this office he studied ław with Judge T. J. Lawhon, and was admitted to the bar at Georgetown in November, 1911. Immediately after his ad- mission he was made assistant county at- torney, and for seven years he was one of the hard working members of the Georgetown bar and brought with him to Eastland in January, 1919, the reputation of a thoroughly good lawyer.
Beginning practice at Eastland early in 1919, he was appointed county judge July 28, 1919, and in the regular election of 1920 he was chosen to office for a term of two years.
As previously noted, under his administra- tion one of the greatest programs of good roads building ever undertaken in West Texas is being carried out. The citizens have ap- proved appropriations and bonds to the amount of four and a half million dollars for this purpose, and the program as devised and now being worked out is largely the result of Judge Starnes' leadership in securing the in- terest and co-operation of local citizens and other county authorities adjoining Eastland. Judge Starnes has regarded the good roads plan as a work in whose success he is directly and personally responsible, and has exercised a vigilance and watchfulness over expendi- tures and the adequacy of the work which might properly be imitated by public officials everywhere. It is often noted by people who have to see him that he is one of the busiest men in the county. He keeps himself posted daily by personal inspection and in every pos- sible way of the progress of the road work, and the vigor and energy that characterize his official services are highly appreciated by all the good citizens of Eastland County.
Judge Starnes married Miss Kathrine Mckinnon, of Georgetown. She was also ed- ucated in Southwestern Univeristy. Their two sons are Calvin Rhea, Jr., and William.
JUDGE HOMER P. BRELSFORD. With a resi- dence at Eastland beginning before he was admitted to the bar, Judge Brelsford is one
of the older citizens, and for years has been a successful lawyer, banker and an influential leader in almost every phase of community life and undertaking.
Judge Brelsford is a native of Illinois, born at Onarga, Iroquois County, in 1869. His father, Dr. Joseph Brelsford, was an Illinois physician. Judge Brelsford enjoyed a whole- some boyhood, with incentive for individual effort and with excellent educational advan- tages. He is a graduate of the Grand Prairie Seminary in his home town of Onarga, and completed his literary education in Notre Dame University of Indiana, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1891 and his Master of Arts degree in 1892. He took his law studies in that university and also in law offices in his home county, and was qualified for a career when he came to Texas and located at Eastland in 1891. He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1892, and has been one of the dignified and successful attorneys of East- land County for nearly thirty years. In 1909 Judge Brelsford organized the first State Bank of Eastland, and is president of this institution. He has done much to build up and promote the interests of his home town, and since the oil boom made this a city of largely augmented wealth and population he has been a leader in every movement of com- munity advancement and welfare. He is pres- ident of the Eastland Chamber of Commerce and recently was made president of the West Texas Chamber of Commerce.
While not now active in politics or public life, Judge Brelsford in former years wielded both power and influence in local and state politics. He was a member of the first state democratic executive committee of 1896, sat in the Legislature as a member of the twenty- third and thirty-fifth sessions, was state sena- tor from his district in the thirty-third and thirty-fourth sessions, and on several occa- sions has served by appointment as special justice of the Court of Civil Appeals at Fort Worth. Also by appointment he served once as special justice of the State Supreme Court. Mr. Brelsford was a delegate from his con- gressional district to the National Democratic Convention at Denver in 1908.
Both as a patriotic citizen and as the father of three soldier boys he was very active in promoting the success of America's army and war undertakings during the World war. Dur- ing that period he was chairman of the Draft Board for Eastland County, also chairman for the Eleventh Congressional District of the
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Speakers Bureau in the sale of Liberty Bonds, and was Eastland County's food administrator.
Judge Brelsford married Miss Marjorie Parvin. Her father was the late Capt. Wil- liam H. Parvin, president of the Eastland National Bank. Judge and Mrs. Brelsford have five sons. Harold is now a student in the University of Colorado at Boulder ; Homer P., Jr., is assistant cashier of the First State Bank; Harry, a student in the University of Texas; Bryan, also in the State University, and Gordon Lee, attending the Eastland High School. The three older sons were all volun- teers for army service. Harold was a sergeant in the Signal Corps and Homer, a second lieutenant of Cavalry. Harry was captain of a battery in the One Hundred and Thirty- Second Field Artillery and was perhaps the youngest officer of that rank in a combat unit of the American army. Mr. Brelsford is a York Rite Mason and a Shriner, and is also an Elk, an organizer and president of the Eastland Golf and Country Club and of the Lake Eastland Corporation.
SAMUEL ERNEST HITTSON. Into the thirty brief years of his lifetime Samuel Ernest Hittson has compressed the enormous amount of energy and business activity which make him the admiration of his associates and friends and explains the position he enjoys as a business man and public leader in his home town of Cisco.
He was born in Eastland County in 1890, a son of W. T. and Eddie (Waglev) Hittson. His parents live at Cisco, and Hittson is a well known pioneer name in West Texas, par- ticularly in Palo Pinto and Eastland counties.
On his father's ranch eight miles from Cisco Samuel E. Hittson grew to manhood, shar- ing in its experiences and work, and at the same time getting a good education. He was graduated from the Cisco High School in 1907, also attended the Britton Training School at Cisco and the Normal College at Gorman. For two years he was a teacher in Stephens County and then for another two years in Eastland County. For about six vears he was in the grocery business at Cisco. Since May 1, 1918. he has been associated with the Cisco Banking Company, of which he is now as- sistant cashier.
The Cisco Banking Company is one of the three largest unincorporated banks in Texas. Its officers and stockholders represent some of the most solid and substantial men of this section of Texas. The capital of the bank
is $100,000, surplus and undivided profits, $55,000, while its deposits aggregate in excess of a million dollars. In every sense of the term it is the financial bulwark of Cisco and its growing business affairs. The bank occu- pies its own building, a handsome five-story office structure.
In April, 1917, Mr. Hittson was also hon- ored with election as a member of the Board of City Commissioners, being the youngest on the board. He was re-elected in April, 1921, for another terms of two years, making his third consecutive term in that office. He is the finance commissioner, duties which his talents and experience qualify him for most apt performance. He is a member of the First Baptist Church and superintendent of the Sunday school. In 1911 Mr. Hittson mar- ried Miss Maude Yeager, of Cisco.
JOSEPH CARTON" LORD, the present water commissioner of the Fort Worth government, has devoted practically all his mature years to the technical problems involved in the con- struction and management of public utilities, particularly gas, electric and water plants. His range of experience goes back nearly fifty years, and he is an interesting authority on the history of public utility developments in America.
Mr. Lord was born at Oldham, Lancashire, England, January 17, 1854, a son of Charles and Sarah (Ashton) Lord. Joseph C. Lord was nineteen years of age when he came to America in June, 1873. His first service of importance was assisting in constructing a gas works at Warren, Pennsylvania. Leaving there after about a year he went to Indiana, built the gas plants at Shelbyville, Crawfords- ville and Anderson, and for several years lived at Washington in southern Indiana, where he had the technical supervision of the construc- tion of gas works, electric light plant and waterworks. Mr. Lord came to Fort Worth in 1890, when the city was just beginning to adopt such modern improvements as electric- ity. He became general manager of the Fort Worth Light and Power Company, and re- mained with that corporation continuously and was instrumental in effecting many of its im- provements and extensions until 1912. Fol- lowing that he completed the Lake Worth Res- ervoir, and since then has been one of the city commissioners, having charge of the water department. He is now serving his third term in that office.
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In 1875 Mr. Lord married Esther Bonner, and they have one daughter, Esther. Frater- nally Mr. Lord is affiliated with the Masonic Order.
JOSEPH HERMAN RUSHING. The Rushing family became identified with the quiet rural solitudes of the Desdemona community in Eastland County more than thirty years be- fore that region leaped into fame as the center of one of the greatest productive oil fields in the Southwest. As a family they were sub- stantial farmers, an occupation which Joseph Herman Rushing took up after reaching his majority, and his wide acquaintance with the country and its people and his business ability well fitted and qualified him for an active part in the new destiny of Desdemona as an oil city.
Mr. Rushing, who is a wealthy owner of oil lands and other interests, was born in Wilson County. Texas, in 1881, a son of Eli F. and Elizabeth (Buster) Rushing. His father was born in 1841 in Georgia, was nine years of age when his parents moved to Mississippi, and as a young man he joined a Mississippi regiment and served in the Confederate army. In 1869 he came to Texas, locating first in Falls County and later in Wilson County. It was in 1885 that he established his home in Fastland Countv, on a farm a mile and three-quarters northeast of Desdemona. That land contained 201 and 1/10 acres. Eli F. Rushing, who was well known among the early settlers and who died in 1903, was a deacon and devout member of the Baptist Church.
He was twice married. Elizabeth Buster be- ing his second wife. Of their union seven sons and one daughter were born. Four of the sons are still living. the other three being Millard F., of Lorenzo, Texas ; Leroy. of Des- demona, and Charles B., of Stephenville. Millard Rushing married Miss Annie Grice, grand-daughter of T. N. Prater, a pioneer citizen of Desdemona. Leroy Ruching mar- ried Miss Nettie Williams, of near Desdemona, where her people are among the pioneer citi- zens. The wife of Charles B. Rushing was Miss Mary Ellison, daughter of Mrs. N. V. Ellison, the Ellisons being another pioneer family of Desdemona.
Joseph H. Rushing grew up on the old homestead of his father, and that was his home practically until he entered the banking business at Desdemona. Through purchase
from the other heirs he owns the farm indi- vidually, and for several years had carried on extensive operations as a farmer and cat- tle man prior to the beginning of Desde- mona's oil boom in 1918. The Rushing farm was in the pathway of oil development, and the land has been leased to development com- panies, and its producing wells have brought Mr. Rushing a splendid fortune.
Mr. Rushing is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, is affiliated with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World, and is completely devoted to the welfare and upbuilding of the locality where he has spent most of his life. He married Miss Lulu White, of Desdemona, and they have one son, J. Welton Rushing, born in 1910.
BEN HOWELL LAUDERDALE. The develop- ment of the Breckenridge oil field brought into prominence the Lauderdale ranch property, where some of the pioneer and most profitable discoveries were made. Ben Howell Lauder- dale, of this family, has spent most of his life in Stephens County, and for a number of years has been an active rancher and farmer. His local interests in business and as a citizen are now identified with the flourishing little city of Cisco.
Mr. Lauderdale was born at Hickman, Ken- tucky, in 1887, a son of S. W. and Nannie (Howell) Lauderdale. His mother is still living at Denton, Texas. The Lauderdales in Kentucky were kin to the historic Lauder- dale family of Mississippi for whom Lauder- dale County was named. In former gener- ations the family lived in South Carolina. A great-uncle of the late S. W. Lauderdale was Col. Jim Lauderdale, who fought under Gen- eral Jackson in the Indian wars in Florida and at the battle of New Orleans, where he was one of the few Americans who lost their lives in that historic engagement.
In 1891, when Ben Howell was four years of age, the Lauderdales came to Texas and established their home on a farm in the south- ern part of Stephens County, near Wayland. S. W. Lauderdale sold that farm in 1906 and moved to his farm and ranch three miles south of Breckenridge. He was one of the able farmers and ranchers of Western Texas, a man of high character and generally esteemed. He died at his homestead south of Brecken- ridge in the fall of 1911. This farm is now the property of Ben Howell Lauderdale and his brother.
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The first oil well in the close vicinity of Breckenridge was drilled on the Lauderdale lands in 1918. On this land are now a num- ber of producing wells, and these have con- stituted a source of substantial wealth to the owners.
Ben Howell Lauderdale removed from his farm to Cisco in 1918, and has since acquired a number of substantial property interests in that city. He built and occupies a beautiful home at 710 West Eighth Street. Mr. Lauder- dale married Miss Fannie Swan, a member of a pioneer family of Jones County, Texas. They have one little daughter, Sybil.
HENRY CORRIDON ROMINGER. One of the best examples of old time merchants and busi- ness men, those whose success has been laid on the substantial rock of Christian integrity, is afforded in the career of Henry Corridon Rominger, who continuously for thirty-seven years has sold goods as a hardware merchant at Cisco.
Mr. Rominger was born in St. Louis, Bartholomew County, Indiana, November 27, 1855, a son of Michael and Annie (Simmons) Rominger. His father was born in Western North Carolina, representing one of the pioneer Moravian families of that section. However, he was always a Methodist in reli- gion. At the age of eleven he was bound out to a tanner, and learned the tanning trade and also became a skilled worker in leather. At the age of twenty-one a pile of boots he manufactured took first premium in an ex- hibit. During the early '40s he removed to Indiana, locating in Bartholomew County, where for a number of years he worked at his trade as a shoemaker. In the late '50s he removed to Illinois and became a farmer in Shelby County. He died in Missouri at the advanced age of eighty-eight, but his father had passed the century mark at the time of his death.
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Henry Corridon Rominger grew up on an Illinois farm. He plowed and cultivated corn in Shelby County, and at the same time at- tended school and acquired the fundamentals of a good education. His chief interest on the farm was in farm machinery and imple- ments, and he was a master of every crude implement then in use. He studied these ap- pliances, and while still a young man was an acknowledged authority on the John Deere plows and other high grade implements of that time.
When Mr. Rominger came to Texas in 1880 he found employment in the hardware store and tin shop of N. H. Burns at Weatherford. In February, 1882, Mr. Burns sent him to Cisco, Texas, to handle the Burns branch hardware and implement store there and where he remained until the early part of the year 1883 at which time he went to Albany. Eighteen months later, in the fall of 1884, Mr. Rominger returned to Cisco and began what has been a permanent residence in this market center of Eastland County. He acquired an interest in the hardware and implement busi- ness of T. F. Edgar & Company. In 1885 the firm was changed to Edgar & Fee, and in 1886, when Mr. Edgar retired, the business was continued as C. H. Fee & Company, Mr. Rominger being the company. His partner- ship was an important factor in the growing business of the firm until 1912 when, Mr. Fee retiring, Mr. Rominger acquired sole owner- ship and has since continued in business as H. C. Rominger & Company. For many years this has been widely known as one of the largest and most successful hardware and im- plement businesses in West Texas, with a trade extending over several counties. It is a business built up on the strictest principles of honor and the Christian religion. Mr. Rom- inger as a merchant has proved his unswerv- ing adherence to rules and methods which too often unfortunately are regarded only as of nominal importance in life.
To quote his own picturesque phrase, Mr. Rominger has undoubtedly "weighed nails on a Howe scale" continuously longer in one loca- tion than any other merchant in Texas. He has been selling goods on one site at Cisco since 1884. He has in fact a Howe scale in his store used for weighing nails and similar merchandise that has not varied a fraction in thirty-six years. After coming to Texas Mr. Rominger learned the tinner's trade and for many years he worked at the bench and per- sonally did the tin and sheet metal work re- quired of his firm.
Mr. Rominger has been a life-long and prac- ticing member of the Methodist Church. He was carried to church by his parents before he was able to walk. For many years he was a Sunday school superintendent, and has long been a trustee and steward of the First Metho- dist Church of Cisco. He is one of the promi- nent lay Methodists of West Texas.
Mr. Rominger, and Mrs. Rominger also dur- ing her lifetime, were pioneer leaders in tem- perance movements and did their share of
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work contributing to national prohibition. Mrs. Rominger was an active leader in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Her maiden name was Miss Elizabeth Heathington. She was born in Missouri. Mrs. Rominger is survived by five children, Temple S., Corridon Vance, Grace Lee, Wil- lard Heathington and Bettie Mae.'
HENRY GERNSBACHER. A Texas merchant for many years, proprietor of one of the high class mercantile establishments of the metro- politan district of Fort Worth, Henry Gerns- bacher is widely known outside of his imme- diate business and community. He is a former president of the State Retail Merchants Asso- ciation. He also bore large responsibilities in civic affairs both at Weatherford, where he was a merchant, and at Fort Worth.
He was born in New Orleans June 27, 1858, a son of Loeb and Caroline (Grabenheimer) Gernsbacher. His parents were both natives of Germany. Mr. Gernsbacher grew up in New Orleans, was educated there, and had the advantages of a business college. When about sixteen he left home, and in 1876 came to Texas and located in Houston County. He has been active in business ever since, a period of forty-five years. Mr. Gernsbacher for seventeen years was one of the leading mer- chants of Weatherford. In 1900 he engaged in business at Fort Worth, and since then people all over the southwest have acknowl- edged themselves as grateful patrons of the Gernsbacher store. He does both a wholesale and retail business.
In March, 1880, Mr. Gernsbacher married Miss Julia Falk, a native of New York, but reared in New Orleans. They have six sons, Jacob, Aaron, Myer, Byron, Roy and Laur- ence. Three of them constituted the honor roll of the Gernsbacher family as soldiers in the World war. Byron was in France, while Roy was trained as an officer at Little Rock and Laurence served at Camp Bowie at Fort Worth.
Mr. Gernsbacher was the organizer and first president of the Reformed Jewish Congrega- tion at Fort Worth and is now vice president. He also assisted in organizing the I. O. B. B., being its first president. During his residence at Weatherford he assisted in organizing the local fire department, served seven years as president, and he was also for one term an alderman and mayor pro tem. He has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias for over twenty years.
VESPASIAN V. COOPER. While all but a few hundred of the twenty thousand popula- tion of Ranger can claim residence of less than three years, there is a great deal to be said of those who are already on the ground and as pioneers share credit for the wonder- ful advancement and permanent upbuilding of the community. One of these is Vespasian V. Cooper, for many years a substantial farmer raising crops on land now practically within the city limits and who has been ex- ceedingly generous of his time, efforts and means in constructive enterprise that would enable the young city to make the best of the wonderful opportunities placed before it through the oil discoveries.
Mr. Cooper was born in Durant, Holmes County, Mississippi, but when a small child his parents, J. Jeff and Helen Jane (Mitchell) Cooper, moved to Sturgis, Mississippi, where he grew up on his father's plantation. Both his parents are now deceased. His father served four years in the Confederate army and subsequently was a well-to-do planter.
Vespasian V. Cooper had not yet attained his majority when in 1890 he came to Texas and located in the northeastern part of East- land County. His location was about a mile south of Ranger, and in that one community he has lived ever since. He devoted himself to the improvement and cultivation of farm lands that made him a prosperous and well- to-do citizen long before the oil boom. With the growth that started in the fall of 1917 he set off part of his original farm in lots known as Cooper's Addition, and this addi- tion is now linked by practically an unbroken stretch of buildings and streets with the old center of the town. Mr. Cooper managed the Cooper's Addition with a great deal of fore- sight and wisdom, selling the lots under judi- cious building restrictions, guaranteeing high standards of residence structures and also a high character of citizenship. It is without doubt the choice residence section of Ranger, being intersected by Desdemona Boulevard.
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