USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume III > Part 9
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Besides the Tyler Commercial College Mr. Byrne also is the head of the Byrne Publish- ing Company and the Byrne-Robertson Loan Company of Tyler. His publishing establish- ment has one of the largest job printing plants in Texas, and besides the printing for the school turns out bank and commercial print- ing, also high grade art calendars, and dur- ing the season maintains several salesmen on the road disposing of its products.
The Byrne Publishing Company of Chicago was organized by Mr. Byrne in 1916 and pub- lishes eight different text books for the com- mercial schools and denominational schools. Mr. Byrne is author of all these works, some of which have required from five to eight edi-
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tions and enjoyed an exceptionally wide sale first official notification of the declaration was both in this country and abroad.
The Texas Finance Corporation of Dallas was organized by Mr. Byrne in 1918 for financing automobile dealers in North Texas. The Houston Finance Corporation handles the same line of business in South Texas. The Fort Worth Finance Corporation handles the same line of business for Fort Worth and West Texas. All three of the corporations are meeting with splendid success.
Mr. Byrne was one of the organizers of the Guaranty State Bank of Tyler in 1909, and served as a director and vice president of the bank for several years. In 1920 he acquired a controlling interest and became president of the Security State Bank of Fort Worth. He is a tireless worker. He receives daily reports from the nine concerns of which he is presi- dent, and regularly inspects each of them per- sonally.
Mr. Byrne is a native of Missouri and was born at Edina in Knox County December 14, 1870, a son of John Byrne, a farmer. He was reared on a farm and received his pre- liminary education in the public schools of Chariton County, Missouri, later attending a normal and business college at Chillicothe. He was then elected principal of the commercial department of the high school of Brunswick, Missouri, which position he held for two years, from 1895 until 1897. From 1897 until 1900 he was principal of the commercial de- partment of the Patterson Institute at Hills- boro, Texas, and in the latter year moved to Tyler, Texas, and organized the Tyler Com- mercial College there and of which he is still the active head. While residing in Tyler Mr. Byrne was president of the Chamber of Com- merce for three years and took an active interest in all the civic movements and under- takings of the East Texas city. He is a mem- ber of the Chicago, Dallas and Fort Worth Chambers of Commerce, also of the Texas Chamber of Commerce. He was a charter member of the League of Nations to enforce peace, and a member of the American Immi- gration League.
In 1914 Mr. Byrne was named a member of the American Commission of Municipal Exe- cutives and Civic Leaders appointed by the Southern Commercial Congress to investigate civic conditions in European cities. He went abroad and was in Paris when war was de- clared between Austria and Serbia. He was present at the American Embassy when the
read there in the presence of Joffre, Viviani and other notables. While in London Mr. Byrne delivered an address on education at an International Educational Convention which was commented on in very favorable terms by the British press.
J. W. IRION, M. D. A physician and sur- geon whose professional work has been car- ried on in Fort Worth through a period of more than thirty years, Dr. Irion is vice presi- dent and medical director of the Fort Worth Life Insurance Company.
He was born at Montgomery, Texas, July 1, 1860, and is a member of that distinguished Irion family, one of whom, also a physi- cian, played a conspicuous part in the affairs of the Texas republic and the early state, and for whom the county of Irion in western Texas was named. Dr. J. W. Irion is a son of J. L. and Ann Elizabeth (Griggs) Irion. His father, a native of Tennessee, came to Texas in 1850 and lived at Montgomery, where he was a planter and physician.
The younger of the two children of his parents, Dr. J. W. Irion, grew up at Mont- gomery in Southern Texas, and his early school advantages there were liberally supple- mented in the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in medicine from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in 1883. Dr. Irion had a country practice in Texas until 1887, when he moved to Fort Worth. He was one of the busy physicians and surgeons engaged in a large private practice until he practically retired to assume his duties as med- ical director of the Fort Worth Life Insurance Company and as vice president of this cor- poration. He is a member of all the medical organizations, was reared in the Presbyterian faith, and is affiliated as a Mason.
November 3, 1908, Dr. Irion married Malinda Weber Weeks, a granddaughter of the distinguished soldier, statesman, governor and United States senator of Illinois, Gen. John M. Palmer.
ROBERT C. HEARNE, vice president of the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank of Fort Worth, is a man to whom too much credit cannot be given because his progress in life is the result of his own efforts and the develop- ment of his natural ability. He is now num- bered among the representative men of this city, and is interested in a number of its
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enterprises which he is assisting in the way of money and advice.
Mr. Hearne was born in Missouri, but was reared in Northern Texas, where he came with his parents, James W. and Edith M. (Bristol) Hearne, when but a year old. The family located at Sherman, Texas, where the father developed lumbering interests. He was a native of Kentucky, and his wife was born in New York state. Both are still living, al- though aged people, and make their home at Ithaca, New York. They had two children, Mr. Hearne and his sister, Mrs. Franklin C. Cornell, now a resident of Ithaca, New York, Mr. Hearne being the younger.
Mr. Hearne attended a private school at Sherman, conducted by Capt. J. H. LeTelliar, a noted educator of the times. After complet- ing his studies he engaged with his father in the lumber business, although only fifteen years old, and was with him for three years. At that time his father was appointed col- lector of internal revenue for the Fourth Dis- trict of Texas, and he took his son in with him as deputy, and the youth held that posi- tion for about three and one-half years. In
1893 he entered the employ of the Waples- Platter Grocery Company, wholesale grocers at both Dallas and Fort Worth, and with whom he remained until January, 1910, when he en- gaged in the merchandise brokerage business in Fort Worth, conducting the same with marked success for seven years. He then, in partnership with his brother-in-law, W. R. Edrington, organized a private bank at Fort Worth, which was operated until June 24, 1919, when it was consolidated with the Farm- ers and Mechanics National Bank, of which Mr. Hearne was made an active vice president and a member of the Board of Directors.
In 1915 Mr. Hearne was united in marriage with Mrs. Olive (Edrington) Scott. Mr. Hearne belongs to the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club, and is a Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and Shriner Mason. He is a man who has ever lived up to high ideals in his business life, and is now reaping the reward of his years of faithful- ness. Standing high among his associates, he earnestly strives to prove worthy of the great trust reposed in him, and the success which at- tends him proves that the confidence he in- spires is well merited. Broad in his sympa- thies, he has always given liberally to aid worthy charities, and his support can be de- pended upon in the furtherance of measures he believes will work out for the good of the
majority. During the war with Germany Mr. Hearne took an active part in the Liberty Loan and the Red Cross work, and is still serving as treasurer of the Tarrant County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
ELZA TILMAN RENFRO, As a unit in the aggregate commercial activities of Fort Worth one of the most conspicuous is the Renfro chain of drug stores, nine in number, located at eligible situations about the city, and alto- gether comprising a highly successful business service. These stores are the outgrowth of a single modest enterprise established in Fort Worth some fifteen years ago by Elza Tilman Renfro, who is president and active head of the entire business today.
Mr. Renfro was born in Eastern Texas, in San Augustine County, October 29, 1872, son of D. K. and Alef Augusta (Tilman) Renfro. His mother is a native of Georgia, while his father is a native of Texas and at the age of eighty is now living at Brownwood. The mother is sixty-nine. Elza T. is the oldest of four sons and four daughters, and there has not been a death in the family circle since his parents were married.
Mr. Renfro grew up on a Texas ranch in Brown county, attended school at Brownwood and for several years occupied his abundant energy with the business of farming and cattle raising. It was in 1895, a quarter of a century ago, that he embarked with a modest capital in a drug business at Marlin. From there he moved to Fort Worth in 1905 and resumed business with a small store. In Fort Worth he has come into his own as a business man, and has shown exceptional abilities as an or- ganizer and manager, establishing one after another drug stores until there are nine Renfro drug stores in the city.
Mr. Renfro has also acquired important business interests in other lines. He owns a half interest in the Artesia Bottling Works, is a director in the National Bank of Commerce and is interested in oil properties, being vice president and director of the Bankers Petro- leum and Refining Company of Wichita Falls.
In 1906 Mr. Renfro married Inez Clifton of San Antonio. Their daughter is Inez Clif- ton Renfro. Mr. Renfro is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and is also affiliated with the Elks and Knights of Pythias.
J. H. MUMBOWER is in the cotton business and is vice president and manager of Fisher & Mumbower, Incorporated, cotton brokers. Mr.
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Mumbower before coming to Texas lived for a number of years in Pennsylvania, where he was engaged chiefly in the coal business.
He was born in Washington County, Penn- sylvania, September 22, 1874, son of Isaac N. and Mary Ellen (Jennings) Mumbower. His parents were natives of the same county. The oldest of seven children, J. H. Mumbower, was reared and educated in Southwestern Pennsylvania, attended the State Normal School, the Buckhannon Seminary in West Virginia, and finished in Washington and Jefferson College at Washington, Pennsyl- vania. For several years of his early life he was a school teacher and then entered the coal business in charge of the Charleroi Coal Com- pany in Washington County. After two years he left that to take up the stock and bond mortgage business at Philadelphia, but came south in 1915 to Texas, and was successively located at Waco, San Antonio and Bowie until 1917, when he established his present business at Fort Worth. He has acquired other business interests in Fort Worth and other parts of Texas, and has entered heartily into the civic and business affairs of his home city.
Mr. Mumbower is president of the Kiwanis Club, a member of the Fort Worth Club, and Glen Garden Country Club, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and belongs to the First Christian Church of Fort Worth. In 1906 he married Lucie D. Dickerson, who died July 14, 1918, leaving one son, John L. August 2, 1919, Mr. Mumbower married Flor- ence R. Beachy, of Philadelphia.
WILLIAM NEELY BONNER began practice as a young lawyer at Wichita Falls in 1908. With this addition the Wichita Falls bar then comprised nine members. That fact is inter- esting not only in connection with Judge Bon- ner's personal career, but is significant as an item showing the wonderful development of Wichita Falls as a city within a period of a dozen years, since the active bar alone now comprises a large catalogue, not only numeri- cally but in aggregate of abilities ranks with the leading cities of the Southwest. The pos- session of unusual talents and abilities, com- bined with personal character and public spirit, has brought Judge Bonner some of the most enviable rewards of professional and civic life.
He represents an old and prominent Louis- iana family. His grandfather was the late P. S. Bonner, a well known Confederate
veteran in the state. William N. Bonner was born in Claiborne Parish December 3, 1888, a son of Charles I. and Cordelia (Neely) Bon- ner. His father is a large planter, and still lives on his old homestead in Claiborne Par- ish. On that plantation Judge Bonner was reared, and was liberally educated in private schools and in the University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge. He took the law course in the university, and was admitted to the bar in his native parish in 1908, at the age of twenty. He remained there and practiced only a few months, and in the same year came to Wichita Falls, where his serious career as a lawyer may be said to have begun.
The rewards of his profession were not slow in coming. He took an active part in local affairs and in 1911 was elected city at- torney. In December, 1916, the governor honored him by appointment to the vacancy as judge of the Thirtieth Judicial District, comprising the counties of Clay, Archer, Young and Wichita. In 1917 he was regu- larly elected as judge of this district and was re-elected in 1919. The testimony of the bar and public accords Judge Bonner the honor of having discharged his duties with the high- est ability, and for a time he was the young- est as well as the most popular judge in the State of Texas on the district bench. He was on the bench four years and two months, resigning in March, 1920, to resume private practice. As a lawyer he is associated with his brother, J. M. Bonner, and Wayland H. Sanford. Judge Bonner as a lawyer has at- tained genuine distinction, his brilliant talents bringing him a large and lucrative practice. His work is almost altogether confined to civil law, and he represents some of the larg- est and most important private and corporate interests centered at Wichita Falls. He owns valuable oil productions in the county and is vice president of the American National Bank.
Even now Judge Bonner carries some im- portant civic responsibilities, being commis- sioner of public utilities of Wichita Falls and mayor pro tem. For several years he has given much time to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and has served as commander of the Texas division. He is a past exalted ruler of the local lodge of Elks, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Wichita Club, of both the American and Texas Bar Associations and has been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a Mason and deacon in the Baptist Church. In 1917 Judge Bonner
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yours faithfully nonBonner
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married Miss Irma Electra Mckibbin, of Ver- non, Texas. Her father, H. F. Mckibbin, was a prominent merchant of Vernon for over thirty years.
ANDREW E. WANT is a citizen whose vigor- ous and resourceful individuality has con- tributed definitely to the commercial prestige and general civic prosperity and advancement of Fort Worth, where he is president of the wholesale grocery corporation of A. E. Want & Company, one of the leading concerns of this order in this section of the Lone Star State.
Andrew Edwin Want was born in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, on the 12th of Feb- ruary, 1859, and is a son of Walter and Susan (Harris) Want, the former of whom was born in the section of the Dominion of Can- ada that was formerly designated as Canada West, and the latter of whom was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, where their mar- riage was solemnized. The father died dur- ing the war in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and the mother died in Fort Worth, December 27, 1908. Of the ten children the subject of this review is now the only survivor. Andrew E. Want acquired his youthful education in the schools of his native state, and he was fifteen years of age when he became a resident of Fort Worth, where his splendid advancement in the business world has been won entirely through his own ability and well ordered en- deavors. His first work in this city was in selling copies of the Fort Worth Democrat, of which Captain Paddock was then the edi- tor. Shortly before his twenty-first birthday anniversary, in 1880, Mr. Want married, and he then entered the employ of Charles B. Dag- gett at a salary of nine dollars a week. The youthful benedict was animated by a goodly ambition and determination, which, as coupled with his ability and effective service, soon won him advancement in connection with the wholesale grocery business of Mr. Daggett. On the 1st of January, 1882, he was appointed general manager of Mr. Daggett's business, and he retained this responsible executive posi- tion until 1886. On the 1st of January of that year he purchased the business of Mr. Dag- gett, almost entirely on credit, and in the fol- lowing March John O. Talbott and Charles E. Ryan were admitted to partnership in the business, the firm title of Talbott, Want & Company being adopted at this time. Under this title the business was continued until May 1, 1890, when Samuel C. Jackson and VOL. III-4
George R. Clayton became associated with Mr. Want in the conducting of the wholesale grocery business that has since been success- fully continued under the title of A. E. Want & Company. The business was incorporated in 1890, and Mr. Want has since continued as president of the company. He has been a re- sourceful force in the development and up- building of the large and substantial business of this company, which has a modern establish- ment of the best equipment and service, and which gives employment to an average force of about seventy persons.
In 1898 the Nash Hardware Company, which had been founded in 1872, and which originally conducted a retail hardware busi- ness, was reorganized and expanded its func- tions by entering the wholesale field. At the reorganization Charles E. Nash became presi- dent of the company and Mr. Want, as a sub- stantial stockholder, assumed the office of vice president, the directorate of the company in- cluding also Samuel C. Jackson and George R. Clayton. In 1912 Messrs. Jackson and Clay- ton sold their interest in this business to the president and vice president of the company, and thereafter Mr. Nash continued as presi- dent of the company until his death, in Septem- ber, 1918, when Mr. Want became his succes- sor. He continued as chief executive of the Nash Hardware Company until the 1st of January, 1919, when he resigned in favor of Arthur Hodson, who had been with the busi- ness since he was a lad of twelve years and who is giving loyal and effective service as its executive head.
On the 1st of May, 1890, the wholesale grocery business of A. E. Want & Company was incorporated, with a capital stock of $20,000, and with the splendid expansion of the enterprise the capital has been gradually increased until the capital and surplus are rep- resented in the sum of $362,500 at the time of this writing, in the autumn of 1920. The Nash Hardware Company was incorporated in 1898, and its original capital stock of $20,000 is today replaced by an aggregate capital and sur- plus of $435,000. Mr. Want has an attrac- tive home at 610 Fifth Avenue, nine miles distant from Fort Worth, and there he finds recreation and pleasure during the major part of the time when his attention is not demanded in connection with his large and important business interests in the city.
On the 20th of January, 1880, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Want to Miss Jennie Sherrod. She is the popular mistress
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of their beautiful rural home, which is a center of gracious social activity.
GEORGE R. CLAYTON, secretary and treas- urer of the wholesale grocery house of A. E. Want & Company of Fort Worth, came to this city as a young man of nineteen years, and here his advancement has been gained entirely through his own ability and well directed en- deavors, which have so marked his course as to secure to him prestige as one of the repre- sentative business men of the city, which is the commercial center of this section of the Lone Star Commonwealth.
Mr. Clayton was born in Noxubee County, Mississippi, January 7, 1865, and on both the paternal and maternal sides he is a scion of staunch old southern families. His father, George R. Clayton, was born at Athens, Georgia, and his mother, whose maiden name was Laura Johnston, was born in the city of Louisville, Kentucky. He is the younger of the two children, and his sister, Miss Lily B., has been for many years principal of the Latin department of the Senior High School in Fort Worth, in the public schools of which city she became a teacher in 1885. Mr. Clayton was reared principally in the city of Mobile, Ala- bama, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early education. There he remained until he had attained to the age of nineteen years, when he came to Texas and established his residence in Fort Worth. Here he took the position of office boy in the mercantile establishment of Joseph H. Brown, and effec- tive service won him promotion to the posi- tion of head bookkeeper and official credit man, of which dual position he continued the incumbent until 1889.
At this juncture in his career he became associated with Samuel C. Jackson in pur- chasing the interest of Colonel Tolbert in the wholesale grocery business of the firm of Tolbert, Want & Company on the 1st of May, 1890. With this readjustment Messrs. Jack- son and Clayton became members of the firm, in which the other two members were A. E. Want and Charles E. Ryan. With the growth and expansions of the business, and as a matter of commercial expediency, the inter- ested principals finally effected incorporation under the present title of A. E. Want & Com- pany, and Mr. Clayton has since continued as the secretary and treasurer of this repre- sentative corporation, as one of the leading stockholders and as a director of the company. The large and well equipped wholesale estab-
lishment of this company is situated at the corner of Sixteenth and Commerce streets, and in the employ of the concern are about fifty persons, including traveling representa- tives. The substantial trade of the company extends throughout the territory normally tributary to Fort Worth as a distributing cen- ter, and this is emphatically a growing concern, with effective management and well fortified financial control.
Mr. Clayton holds membership in the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club, and he and his wife hold membership in the First Presbyterian Church, in which he is serving as a trustee.
In September, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clayton to Miss Louise Wardlaw, of Shelbyville, Tennessee, and they have two children: Charlotte is the wife of Glen H. Mitchel, of Fort Worth; and Laur- ance is a member of the class of 1921 in the Fort Worth High School.
BEN O. SMITH. Fort Worth is a city which offers opportunities for advancement along almost every known line of endeavor, and con- sequently has attracted to it some of the most energetic and reliable men of the country, who, as they have advanced themselves, have exerted themselves to further improve the con- ditions and enhance the importance of this metropolis. One of these dependable and suc- cessful men is Ben O. Smith, who is conduct- ing a flourishing business in loans, stocks and bonds in the Fort Worth Club Building.
Mr. Smith was born in Boyle County, Ken- tucky, October 17, 1867, a son of A. R. and Minerva (Calvert) Smith, both of whom were born in Kentucky, and there both died when about fifty years of age. They had six chil- dren, of whom Ben O. Smith is the youngest, and the only one now surviving. His boyhood was spent at Lebanon, Kentucky, but when only fifteen years old he came to Texas, and reaching Fort Worth, entered the office of B. C. Evans Company, with which he re- mained for five years. In 1889 he assisted in organizing the Farmers & Mechanics National Bank, of which he was made teller, and in 1893 was promoted to be cashier, which posi- tion he retained for twenty-three years. In 1913 he was made president of the bank, and officiated as such until January, 1916, when he sold his interests in the institution and em- barked in a private banking business, which he is still conducting.
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In 1892 Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Frances H. Portwood, of Fort Worth, and they have one son, Ben O., Jr. Mr. Smith belongs to the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club, the Masonic fraternity, the order of Elks and other organizations, and is one of the best-known men in this part of the state. His long connection with the Farmers & Mechanics National Bank has given his name added prestige in financial circles, and his methods of doing business and his astuteness in handling matters of moment have won for him the unlimited confidence of men of extensive interests.
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