USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 64
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EARL CONNER. For a long period of years the name Conner has been one of special prom- inence and honor in the legal profession of Northern Texas. Two men of the name have practiced law in Eastland County, one of whom is Earl Conner, whose home and professional conections are still in the City of Eastland.
He was born in Ellis County, Texas, in 1875, son of Samuel S. and Margaret (Hol- man) Conner. The Conners were established in Virginia by the great-grandfather Conner, who had a land grant from the Crown. Sam- uel S. Conner lived for a number of years near Logansport, Indiana, where some of the older of his children were born. Leaving Texas, he went West to Colorado and spent a period at one of the first mining districts
of the state. Subsequently he returned to Indiana, and from there came to Texas, spend- ing a brief time at Lockhart and then moving to Ellis County and in 1876 locating on a farm two miles south of Eastland in Eastland County. Margaret Holman Conner's father was one of the prominent men of Indiana in the, early part of the last century, and at one time was land commissioner under President Jackson. Samuel S. Conner was always a farmer in Texas, and at the time of his death was one of the oldest members of the Masonic Order in the state.
Earl Conner is the youngest of the family. His older brother is Judge Truman H. Con- ner, who earned some of his first honors as a lawyer at Eastland, where he was a law part- ner with the late Major Harper, one of the most distinguished lawyers of Western Texas. Judge Truman H. Conner in 1887, was ap- pointed by Governor Ross district judge, and in 1898 was chosen chief justice of the Court of Civil Appeals for the Second Supreme Judicial District, with headquarters at Fort Worth. He has served continuously in that office for the past twenty-two years.
Earl Conner was reared from early infancy in Eastland County, attended local schools, also Park College at Waxahachie and the State University at Austin. He studied law at Eastland, acquiring most of his early training in the office of his brother, Judge Conner. He was admitted to the bar in that city Decem- ber 25, 1896, and for a quarter of a century has been prominent in his profession. He has always enjoyed a large practice, and is a lawyer of ability whose counsel and leadership have brought him many important though un- remunerative posts of public leadership. His record has in every way been honorable and has contributed to the distinctions of one of the best families in West Texas.
Mr. Conner married Miss Ava E. Duggan. Their three children are Tully Elizabeth, Earl, Jr., and Sam.
THOMAS R. HALL. Probably no town in West Texas double its size sends out greater quantities of products needed and used in the economic life of Texas than Thurber, the home of a group of corporations including the Texas Pacific Mercantile & Manufacturing Company, the Texas Pacific Oil & Fuel Company, the Thurber Brick Company and Thurber Earthen Products Company.
All the thousands of employes of these com- panies, and that means practically the entire
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population, has a high degree of esteem and hearty friendship for Thomas R. Hall, one of the veteran representatives of Thurber's indus- trial life and cashier and paymaster for the affiliated group of companies just named.
Mr. Hall was born in Hinds County, Mis- sissippi, in 1862, a son of B. F. and Amanda (Farr) Hall. His father served throughout the four years of the war between the states as a Confederate soldier, and his life was other- wise devoted to his plantation. On this planta- tion Thomas R. Hall grew to manhood, acquiring an education in the local schools. As a young man of twenty-two he came to Texas in 1884, and for several years was connected with the Engineering Corps on construction work for the Santa Fe Railway and the Texas & Pacific Railway.
It was in 1889 that he went to Thurber to take a position with the Texas Pacific Coal Com- pany. His relation with that and the other companies for many years has thrown him into intimate daily contact with the employes of these industries, and he is regarded not only as an official but as a citizen and friend indis- pensable to the progress and welfare of the community.
Mr. Hall married Miss Alma Pendleton. Their five children are James E., Winnie, Thomas R., Jr., Lillian and Marian.
Mr. Hall is a member of Solomon Lodge No. 813, of Thurber, Thurber Chapter No. 299, Royal Arch Masons ; Worth Commandery No. 19, of Fort Worth ; Hella Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Dallas, Texas, and belongs to the Presby- terian church.
R. A. HUNTER. In the Fort Worth munic- ipal campaign that ended so satisfactorily to those interested in clean, efficient and orderly administration of affairs, one of the successful candidates was R. A. Hunter, present commis- sioner of lights. Mr. Hunter is in every way highly qualified for his duties in this important city department, since through practical expe- rience and theoretical training he has been identified with electrical engineering and prac- tice nearly all his mature lifetime.
Mr. Hunter was born in McLennan County, Texas, February 24, 1884, son of J. L. and Martha Matilda (Dupuy) Hunter. His father was a native of Tennessee and his mother of Arkansas. J. L. Hunter, now living retired at the age of eighty at Polytechnic, the Fort Worth college suburb, was in early life a sad- dle and harness maker. He left his work at
the bench to join the Confederate army early in the war between the states, but subsequently was assigned to special duty, since his skill as a· saddle and harness maker was more im- portant to the Government than what he could do as a soldier. After the war he moved to Texas, and for many years conducted a grow- ing business as a stock farmer near Waco. In 1899 he went to Taylor County and con- tinued stock farming there until 1914, when he retired and has since lived at Polytechnic, Fort Worth. He was very successful in his affairs, is a staunch Democrat in politics, and for forty years has been a leading member of the Methodist Church and has filled every lay office in the denomination. Of his nine chil- dren seven are still living, R. A. Hunter being the seventh in age.
R. A. Hunter was educated in the public schools of McLennan County, and he supple- mented practical experience by courses of in- struction in electrical engineering in the Inter- national Correspondence School of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He began his career in the electrical business at Fort Worth in 1902 with the old Southern Electric Company. In 1916 he was honored with the appointment of in- spector of electrical work under the city gov- ernment, but after three years resigned, on April 1, 1919, to accept a position with the Government during the construction of the helium plant north of Fort Worth. He re- mained on duty there until the building was nearly completed, and then became city sales manager for the H. L. Carson Company. His election as commissioner of lights took place in April, 1921.
Mr. Hunter is a devoted member of Hemp- hill Heights Methodist Episcopal Church and president of the Wesley Adult Bible Class. He was formerly affiliated with the Macca- bees, and for several years with the Wood- men of the World, being secretary-treasurer of the degree team until a change of affairs came about in that order in 1918, when he dropped his membership. He is affiliated with South Side Lodge No. 1114 of the Masonic Order. He has been in continuous good stand- ing for nearly eighteen years as a member of the Electrical Workers Local No. 116, I. B. of E. W., and has filled every position in that body. His interest in good and practical gov- ernment measures his interest in politics, and he has been a man of influence in the Fort Worth Democratic party for twelve or four- teen years. He is a progressive in every sense. Mr. Hunter gave his active support to the pro-
R.a. Hunter
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hibition movement, voting the White ticket six times, and he stands ready to support that cause and principle again should occasion de- mand.
On December 24, 1901, Mr. Hunter married Miss Ella Randall, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Randall, of Fort Worth. They are the parents of four children, all living. Homer, born September 12, 1904, and a graduate of the Senior High School in June, 1921 ; Leland, born January 24, 1907, in Taylor County, now a student in the Junior High School; Mattie Louise, born May 21, 1910, attending the Fifth Ward School; and Carrie Marie, born November 8, 1917.
DOUGLAS H. DORSET, M. D. A prominent Texas physician, Dr. Douglas H. Dorset's experience has been largely an institutional practice and for a number of years he was senior surgeon and physician for the Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company and associated companies at Thurber. Since 1916 he has been engaged in a private practice.
He was born at Bonham, Texas, in 1878, a son of Dr. J. S. and Martha Bird (Moore) Dorset. Dr. J. S. Dorset, who died in 1913, was a native of Richmond, Virginia. During the war between the states he was a first lieu- tenant in the Second Virginia Cavalry, in the Army of Northern Virginia, under Lee. He graduated from the Long Island Hospital Medical College of New York, and in 1869 came to Texas and located at Bonham. He was one of the highly respected and able mem- bers of his profession in the state for many years. His service of four years as superin- tendent of the State Insane Asylum at Austin was during the administration of Governor Sull Ross.
Douglas H. Dorset graduated from the high school of Bonham, and for a time attended medical lectures in the Medical Department of the University of Texas at Galveston. In 1899 he graduated from the Medical School of the University of Louisiana, now Tulane Univer- sity, at New Orleans. For several years he was assistant surgeon in the Texas & Pacific General Hospital at Marshall, Texas, and in 1902 moved to Thurber.
Here he had the medical care and health supervision of the thousands of employes of the Texas Pacific Mercantile & Manufacturing Company, the Texas Pacific Oil & Coal Com- pany, the Thurber Brick Company and the Thurber Earthen Products Company, being senior surgeon and physician for this great VOL. III-22
group of industrial corporations whose pay- rolls practically sustain the entire population of that section of Eastland and Erath counties. Dr. Dorset was assisted by three other physicians in his work. He has attained the highest rank in his profession, and is an acknowledged authority on his specialty of mining surgery. Doctor Dorset is a member of the County, State and American Medical Asso- ciations, is a Mason and an Elk and belongs to the Knights of Pythias. He married Miss Elizabeth Joiner, of Alabama, in 1913.
HESTEN LEE MCCUNE is one of the able authorities on land title and corporation law in Western Texas, is a member of a well- known firm of El Paso, but for several years has given his special attention to the branch office of the firm at Eastland and has handled a large amount of business in connection with the oil activities of that section of the state.
Mr. McCune was born near Lisbon, Linn County, Iowa, in 1887, a son of Harvey Sutliff and Lillian (Harvey) McCune. His parents were born in Iowa, and his father is still living in that state. His grandfather, who was of Scotch descent, was the late Charles McCune, who came from Ohio to Johnson County, Iowa. He became one of the noted stock farmers and cattle breeders of Iowa, and at one time owned one of the finest herds of Shorthorn cattle in the United States. He was a pioneer western breeder of the Shorthorns. He was also promi- nent in public affairs, was a leading republican and served in the Iowa Legislature. Lillian Harvey McCune was born in Iowa and is of French origin on her maternal side. Her mother was born near New Orleans, a member of the aristocratic Rosseau family of that city, her father having been born in France.
Hesten Lee McCune was educated in the grammar and high schools of Iowa, graduated from the Springfield High School in 1904 and from the Interstate School of Cedar Rapids in 1906. He came to Texas in 1908, locating at Dalhart. Examined for the bar at Amarillo, he passed in the general subjects with a general average of ninety-five per cent. Mr. McCune while practicing law at Dalhart conducted an abstract business for five or six years. He then removed to El Paso and became a member of the law firm of Denton, McCune & Berk- shire. In 1918 he established a branch office of the firm at Eastland. While concerned with the general practice of law with his firm in various state and federal courts, Mr. McCune is the specialist in the firm in the law of land
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titles and corporations, and a large share of his individual work is in that special field.
Since coming to Texas Mr. McCune has taken an active part in civic and public enter- prises, and is one of the very enthusiastic boosters of West Texas and its wonderful resources. He has been a lifelong republican and is interested in local and state politics and is an active worker in the republican ranks. In a normally democratic county he was elected by the Eastland County Bar Association to serve as district judge in the absence of Judge Davenport. He was one of the first republicans in the history of the county to hold such an office. Mr. McCune married Miss Fielda Den- ison, also a native of Iowa. Their three children are Harvey Denison, Hesten Lee, Jr., and Helen Arzalea.
GEORGE W. CRUTCHER. With a long and active life to his credit, George W. Crutcher has been able to impress his influence and work upon several communities of North and West Texas. His home is now at Eastland, and he was one of the first settlers of that infant com- munity nearly fifty years ago. For many years he was also a prominent resident of Dallas.
Mr. Crutcher was born in Harrison County, Kentucky, in 1849, and his parents, Granville and Rebecca (Dawson) Crutcher, were also native Kentuckians. The parents finally left their home at Frankfort, Kentucky, and fol- lowed their son George to Texas, and spent the remainder of their lives in Dallas, where Granville Crutcher died at the age of ninety- four.
George WV. Crutcher was educated in the country schools of Kentucky and for four years was a student at the University of Ken- tucky at Lexington. He came to Texas in 1875. One of the new towns in the central western portion of the state laid out and founded in that year was Eastland, in Eastland County, and George W. Crutcher allied himself with the community as one of its talented citi- zens. He has the historic distinction of having taught the first school in Eastland. It was a subscription school, and he taught it during the year 1876. Following that experience he was in the mercantile business in partnership with H. K. Martin until 1879. After four years with the firm he made another westward change, going one county further west, to Belle Plain, in Callahan County. He was likewise identified with pioneer settlement in that local- ity, and taught a subscription school there and in 1880 took the Federal census of the county.
The first railroad was not built in Callahan County until 1880.
For about thirty-five years, from 1881, Mr. Crutcher was a resident of Dallas, and reared his family there. His home was in what was formerly known as East Dallas, which was consolidated with the city proper in 1890. Mr. Crutcher had the honor of being the mayor of East Dallas from 1886 to 1890, and Crutcher Street in Dallas is named for him.
In 1912 Mr. Crutcher removed to El Paso, and was in business on the western border of the state for five years. In the early part of 1918 he returned to his pioneer home in East- land, which town had grown into a fine modern city and was enjoying the great prosperity resulting from the oil discoveries which began in 1917. Since then he has been in the gen- eral fire insurance business in association with his son Tom W.
By marriage Mr. Crutcher is allied with one of the old Texas families. He married Miss Leonora Lawrence. Her father, the late Judge Adam Lawrence, was born at Galveston, and the tradition is that he was the first white child born on Galveston Island. He became a promi- nent lawyer and for many years practiced his profession at Eastland and served at one time as county judge. Mr. and Mrs. Crutcher became the parents of three sons and three daughters: Harry, Thomas W. and Richard Lawrence Crutcher ; Mrs. T. J. Roberts, of El Paso ; Mrs. Helen Moore, of Ranger, and Mrs. Edith Barton, of Mobile, Alabama.
Harry Crutcher is one of the leading busi- ness men of Dallas, head of a large general insurance business of that city. The other two sons, Thomas W. and Richard L., are both associated with insurance business at Eastland. Harry and Tom Crutcher are prominent Masons and Shriners and Tom is exalted ruler of the Elks at Eastland.
JOE W. SANGER. The present department store of any large city is a far cry from the general store of the pioneer merchant, and yet in one respect the two are alike, in them are to be found commodities of all kinds for every need. While, however, the owner of one of the pioneer stores could have but a few articles of a kind, the modern department store han- dles stocks which are bought in car-load lots. These great marts of industry have been de- veloped to a state of perfection almost un- known in other countries, for the department store is an American institution, and those engaged in operating them are on the alert to
IMSanger
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afford their customers every advantage of quality, price and service. One of the best- known concerns of this kind is the store oper- ated under the name of Sanger Brothers at Fort Worth, and so reliable is it, and so de- pendable are its goods, that a trade is attracted to it from a wide territory. The manager of this great concern is Joe W. Sanger, one of the experienced merchants of Texas, who has worked his way up from the beginning.
Joe W. Sanger was born at Waco, Texas, January 26, 1884, a son of Lehman and Isa- bell Sanger. Growing up at Waco, he there secured a high-school education, which was later supplemented by a course in the Phila- delphia Textile School, from which he grad- uated as a textile engineer. Returning to Texas, he at once entered upon a mercantile career as an associate of his father and brother at Waco. In 1918 he came to Fort Worth as general manager of the Sanger mercantile interests in that city. This business was in- corporated in 1919 under the present name of Sanger Brothers. This store gives employ- ment to 275 persons, and a fine and varied stock of goods is handled at all times. The store has a frontage on both Main and Hous- ton streets, and there is ample space for dis- play purposes.
In 1913 Mr. Sanger was united in marriage with Elsa Liebman, of Dallas, Texas, and they have two children, Elsa and J. L. Mr. Sanger belongs to the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club, and to the Masonic fra- ternity, in which he has risen to be a thirty- second degree and Shriner Mason. His shrewd business sense and well-directed ef- forts have resulted in very gratifying results, and his honesty and sound judgment have won him appreciation from successful and inspir- ing men.
LESTER SUMRALL. Few men reach positions of financial independence and prominence without some reverses, but all do not overcome obstacles quite as successfully and cheerfully as has Lester Sumrall, one of the leading con- tractors and builders of Eastland, who, after seeing the labor of years swept away by disas- ter, not once but thrice, has risen from the ruins of his former fortunes to an enviable position among his fellow citizens. Mr. Sum- rall says that the foundation stone's of a suc- cessful career are a religion which includes faith in God and honorable dealing with one's fellow man. He modestly attributes to these his own prosperity, but others claim that to
these important factors he has added a first- class mental equipment, initiative, industry and pluck, all of which qualities have played their part in all of his movements.
Lester Sumrall was born at Reed's Lake, Bell County, Texas, in 1882, a son of Capt. N. R. and Eliza (Thomas) Sumrall, both of whom are now deceased. Captain Sumrall was a native of Mississippi, and when war broke out between the North and the South he natur- ally was one of the enthusiastic volunteers for the Confederate army from that state. For four years he was captain of the Thirty-seventh Mississippi Infantry, known as the "Enterprise Tigers," and for some time was under the command of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson. Fol- lowing the close of the war, like so many of the ex-Confederate officers, Captain Sumrall came to Texas, and found congenial surround- ings and occupation in Bell County.
Growing to young manhood at Holland, Texas, Lester Sumrall acquired the funda- mentals of his educational training in the local schools, and completed his studies in Baylor University, Waco, where he spent three years, specializing in engineering. After leaving the university he entered the business field as a builder at Rogers, Texas, and invested his profits in a farm, on which he lost money. Leaving Rogers he went to Wellington, in Northwest Texas, where he went into the con- struction business, and here, also, he made money, but once more lost it in injudicious investments. Still determined to succeed, he located at Corpus Christi and made a large amount of money in construction work which he invested in a large ranch which was stocked with fine cattle. The region was visited by a three years' drought, and his investment yielded him nothing but a loss. Some idea of his transactions may be gained from the fact that when he located at Corpus Christi he had but $2,000, which he increased to $120,000. Of this amount he had just $2.35 when he totaled up his profits and losses on his ranch.
Leaving Texas, he then went to Oklahoma and was at Ardmore when this country entered the World war. The necessity for extensive training camps for the soldiers of the Selective Draft gave him his opportunity, and he was fortunate enough to secure contracts for sewer- age work in the army camps, principally at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, and another one in Florida. With the money thus obtained he was able to pay off all his obliga- tions, and he came to Eastland in December, 1918, without capital, but with the reputation
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for honorable dealing, to which he has lived up in so exemplary a manner and the firm determination that here he would permanently locate and become successful. He was able to secure reliable and substantial backing from one or two wealthy men of Eastland who had faith in his ability, and beginning with Janu- ary, 1919, he entered upon a course of building and construction in this city that has put him again, and permanently this time, in the best of financial circumstances. His operations in Eastland and its vicinity aggregate hundreds of thousands of dollars. Among other impor- tant structures he has built the Masonic Temple, the Root, Hupp & Frost Building, the Roe Building, the residences of Elmer Hupp, Judge N. N. Rosenquest, and a number of the other business blocks and private houses of the city which have been erected in the past two years, including the Postoffice block.
Mr. Sumrall was married to Miss Murphy Gideon in the year 1900. Undoubtedly one of the most enterprising and public-spirited citi- zens of Greater Eastland, Mr. Sumrall takes an active part in the work of the Chamber of Commerce and is one of its directors. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. After coming to Eastland Mr. Sumrall was converted and is a member and an enthusiastic supporter of the work of the First Baptist Church of the city, and carries his religion into his everyday life, proving conclusively that a man can be a sincere Christian and at the same time achieve a well-merited prosperity. His flaming sincerity, his whole-hearted earn- estness and his enthusiasm make him a power- ful factor for good not only in the church but as an effective worker in behalf of the raising of moral standards and the awakening of the public to the necessity for clean living.
LEVANDER P. DOUGLAS. Electra was a pio- neer center of oil production in North Texas, and some of the very early wells were brought in on the farm of Levander P. Douglas, adjoin- ing Electra on the east. Mr. Douglas has been receiving royalties from oil wells for the past ten years. One thing that distinguishes him from many other land holders who have acquired wealth through petroleum is that the presence of drilling operations and flowing oil wells has not diverted him from his main and central business and occupation, that of a farmer and stockman. It is true that a great deal of land has been practically withdrawn from agricultural production because of oil operations, but Mr. Douglas has found means
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