USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 11
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His father was the late William E. Seely, who was born in Calhoun County, Mississippi, and was eight years of age when his father, Ellis Seely, died. He grew up in the home of his uncle, Terry Seely, acquired a country school education, and was a Confederate sol- dier in a Mississippi regiment all the four years of the struggle. He saw some of the strenuous fighting in the South, did his duty as a private, and had the fortune never to be wounded or captured. He was a man of strong southern faith and sentiment and al- ways voted as a democrat, but was never attracted by the honors and responsibilities of public office. Anything his community needed aroused his immediate support, and he is re- membered for the earnest and helpful influ- ence during his career in Denton County. It was shortly after the close of the war that he moved out of Monroe County, Mississippi, traveling by wagon to Texas, accompanied by his small family and bringing very limited capital. He first settled in Freestone County, Texas, and for seven years rented a farm at the old postoffice of Stewarts Mill. His next move brought him to Denton County, and he bought practically a new farm on Elizabeth Creek seven miles southwest of Justin. It was during his residence in Denton County that he achieved financial independence and effected generous provision for his family. The first habitation of the family in this county was a log house with a shed leanto, but later he supplanted it with a good home, and also erected substantial buildings for stock and grain and other purposes. Grain raising was his chief resource as a farmer. He grew cotton on a small scale, and grad- ually got into the stock business, improving his herd with high grade shorthorns, and also bred some of the better class of saddle horses. He found a ready market for his surplus stock in the home locality. His first land purchase was a quarter section, and then as prosperity justified he accumulated a larger holding until he owned practically a section in a body. More than half of this came under cultivation during his lifetime, and his chil- dren generously assisted him in developing the farm. The only organization in which he claimed membership was the Baptist Church.
William E. Seely died at the age of seventy- five. He married in Calhoun County, Missis- sippi, Luvisa Thomas, who passed away at the old home near Justin when about sixty years old. Her children are James T., of Weatherford, Texas, and George W., of Jus-
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tin. The father by his second marriage, to Mrs. Lizzie Hays, had a son, Frank Seely, now in Oklahoma.
George W. Seely was born in Freestone County, November 14, 1872, and was two years of age when his parents moved to Den- ton County. He grew up on the old Elizabeth Creek farm, gained his education in the county schools there, and remained in school until about eighteen, though in the meantime he had proved his usefulness to his father in clearing the land and attending the crops. He continued with his father until past his major- ity, and when he married he succeeded his father on the home place and subsequently built a new home. His land holdings com- prised 4541/2 acres and of this generous body 335 acres are under cultivation. He has made success as a grain and stock farmer, and is still active in the supervision of his farm inter- ests, though his home for several years has been in Justin that his younger children might have better school advantages immediately accessible. He has always been interested in the matter of education and served several years as trustee of the school board. He and Mrs. Seely took part in the organization of the Community Baptist Church and are still members of it. In politics he is a democrat and cast his first vote for W. J. Bryan.
At Jefferson, Texas, on his birthday in 1895, Mr. Seely married Miss Virginia Mc- Alester. She was reared in that section of Eastern Texas, her father, Newton L. Mc- Alester, having settled there from Arkansas. Newton McAlester was a Confederate soldier. a farmer by occupation, and died at Austin. Texas. His children were four daughters and one son, and Mrs. Seely and her sister, Mrs. Emma Westerberg, of Jefferson. are the only survivors.
Mr. and Mrs. Seely became the parents of twelve children. There are ten living sons and a daughter. The oldest, George Arthur, is a farmer on the homestead, married Virginia Hardeman and has a son, Arthur Jerome. The second son, William Earl, of Justin, married Mamie Ogle and they have a daughter, Noma Jean. The next two sons are Thomas, of Justin, and Homer, a clerk in that town. Lizzie Lee, the daughter, is a student in the North Texas Normal College at Denton. The vounger children are Roy, Charley, Horace, Marvin, Carl, Virgil and Walter and the only one deceased is Carl. Four of the sons were registered in the draft during the World war.
The Seely home in Justin is a two story
bungalow, built by the old time merchant, T. W. Leverett, and is one of the most attrac- tive residences of the community, containing eleven rooms with bath, running water and is electrically lighted by a Delco community system of which Mr. Seely is a member and part owner.
HARRY R. LORD. That the Hebron locality of Denton County is one of the most progres- sive communities is due in some degree at least to the influence and activities of the Lord family, which has been represented here over forty years. Among them is Harry R. Lord, farmer, stockman, cotton ginner, and a real leader in community affairs.
His father was the late Charles Lord, who was born near London, England, in 1847, and acquired his early educational advantages in his native land. When about twenty years of age he accompanied his parents to the United States, who settled near Bloomington, Illi- nois, where they died. Charles Lord had three brothers and four sisters and was the only member of the family to come to Texas. He married while in Illinois, Amelia Harrison, who is now living at Lewisville, Texas, at the age of seventy.
Coming to Texas in 1874, Charles Lord made his first settlement some sixteen miles north of Dallas, and during the two years on the farm there his son, Harry R., was born. He then moved over into Denton County and established his home on the farm now occu- pied by his son Harry. The first improve- ments on this land were made by him, and the development work continued under his direction and hand until it stood as proof of the work and enterprise of a progressive settler. He was engaged in mixed farming. and though he began with a tract of some forty or fifty acres he added by purchase until he had title to 210 acres. He erected one of the good homes of the locality, and there were other improvements as well. The stock he raised was the best strain he could acquire, and he derived pride and satisfaction as well as profit from his herd of Shorthorns and his horses and mules. He planted a yard of cedar trees against the advice of his neighbors who said they could not be grown in the black soil of this hill top. They grew, and developed something of an arbor of cedar woods. Like many Englishmen he had a practical bent for horticulture, and set out an orchard of apples, peaches, plums, apricots, pears and other fruits and the trees grew and fruited and
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proved his good judgment as an orchardist. While the orchard had disappeared, other im- provements remain as substantial witness to his good work.
His interests also extended to other affairs of the community. The public schools lay especially close to his favor. He contributed to the building of the Union Church, one of -the early religious organizations of that sec- tion. He and his family were Methodists, and he was a Sunday school worker. He voted as a democrat, but was not in politics, his concern being rather with the broader is- sues of politics and matters of good govern- ment.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lord were: Harry R .; Fred, a farmer in the home community ; Irving of Denison, an employe of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway ; Lula, wife of J. H. Morgan, Jr., of Denton County ; May, wife of Jacob Gravley of Car- rollton, Texas; Maggie, wife of J. C. Cobb of Lewisville, Texas.
Harry R. Lord was born July 5, 1875, and since infancy has lived at the old homestead in the Hebron locality. He attended country schools, also the public schools of Dallas, and spent a year in the North Texas Normal Col- lege. He left school to return to the home farm and has been actively identified with its crops and livestock interests ever since. He was the organizer and is one of the largest stockholders and managers of the Farmers Gin Company. Mr. Lord has taken the lead in bringing to the attention of the farmers of this section the advisability of growing Acala cotton, a longer staple than the ordinary, and which is bringing the growers forty to fifty per cent more profit per bale than other va- rieties.
The "Better Community Club," a note- worthy feature of Hebron, is doing much to encourage better facilities for the locality, better crops, better cultivation and all around improvement in community matters. To this work Mr. Lord has given his earnest support. He is a Baptist, and has been prominent in the Hebron Church, serving as chairman of the committee during the construction of the handsome new church edifice. For three years he was a member of the Hebron School Board and for ten years identified with the Wood- men of the World and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a democrat and has served as a judge on the election board.
October 26, 1899, in Denton County, Mr. Lord married Miss Willie Estelle Walker, who
was born in Georgia in 1879, but grew up in Denton County, where her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Walker, lived for many years on a farm. Her parents are buried at Den- ton. In their family were five daughters and four sons, and those surviving are: Jesse, Miss Lillian, Mrs. Lord, Mrs. Julia Moore, Mrs. John Crain, Arthur and Charles. The interesting family of Mr. and Mrs. Lord con- sists of Guy, Glen, Lula Maud and H. R., Jr. Guy has made a brilliant record as a stu- dent and while in Denton High School won a scholarship in business college for excellence and advancement in his studies, and in 1920 at the age of nineteen graduated from the North Texas Normal College and is also a teacher in the public schools.
CLARK TAYLOR HODGE was educated as a civil and mechanical engineer, had a thorough university training, and for a quarter of a century has been actively identified with the contracting and building industry. The greater part of that time he has lived in Fort Worth and in that city and over a wide sur- rounding territory has, kept an organization busy in handling many constructive projects.
Mr. Hodge was born in Lebanon, Kentucky, July 13, 1874, and comes of an old and his- torically prominent family of Kentucky. His parents were George D. and Virginia (Taylor) Hodge, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. C. T. Hodge spent his early life chiefly at Columbia in Maury County, Tennessee. His technical education as a civil and mechanical engineer was acquired in the University of Tennessee and the University of Pennsylvania, and from early youth his experiences have identified him almost entirely with the contracting business. Mr. Hodge came to Texas and located at Weatherford about 1896, but since 1898 has made his business headquarters and home at Fort Worth. His specialty in building con- struction is flour mills and elevators, and a great many industrial plants of this kind throughout Texas and the Southwest were built by him. At times Mr. Hodge has had as many as 1,200 men at work under his direc- tion, though the average number of employes kept busy on his various contracts are about 175.
Among the many important structures designed and constructed by him in Fort Worth, are the Binyon Building, the Stripling- Jenkins Building, the Ballard-Martin Ice Plant, Smith Brothers Elevator, and the Dia-
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mond Hill Auditorium and Gymnasium. As an associate engineer, he also had active part in the construction of Fort Worth's large reservoir, an important adjunct to the city's water supply.
Mr. Hodge has also been particularly inter- ested in the handling, and the improvement of city real estate, and has done much towards securing modern improvements in the city. He is directly responsible for the paving of Hemp- hill street, the first paved residential street in Fort Worth. He contributed liberally to this project, both of his time and his means, and personally superintended the work.
He is one of Fort Worth's enterprising cit- izens, and every movement tending towards civic betterment, receives his hearty support. He served as president of the Eighth Ward Civic League : for eight years was secretary and treasurer of the United Commercial Travelers Association, and has served as pres- ident and secretary of the North Texas Field Trial Association. He is a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and holds membership in the Fort Worth Club. and the River Crest Country Club.
In 1894, he married Mrs. Lottie Quill, a daughter of Dr. Wilson, who devoted his life to the profession of medicine, and served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army. Mr. and Mrs. Hodge have one daughter, Louise, now the wife of Frank Jones, of Fort Worth.
JAMES C. BLAKENEY. Ability and faithful and efficient service have been given definite appreciation in connection with the business career of Mr. Blakeney, the popular cashier of the National Bank of Cleburne, judicial center of Johnson County, where he is known and valued as a successful business man and liberal and progressive citizen.
Mr. Blakeney was born in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, January 25, 1861, and in 1867 his parents removed to North Carolina, and established their residence at Monroe. There the father was engaged in mercantile pursuits, in connection with farm operations. It was about the year 1877 that the family home was established in Hill County. Texas. Hon. William W. Blakeney. father of him whose name initiates this re- view, was born in Chesterfield district, South Carolina, in 1821, a scion of a family that was founded in America in the colonial days. He received a liberal collegiate education and as a young man was a successful teacher in the schools of his native state. He was a
member of the State. Senate of South Carolina at the outbreak of the Civil war, and he did effective service in dispensing food to needy families of Confederate soldiers and otherwise giving loyal support to the Southern cause during the period of the war. One of his sons became captain in the Confederate service when but seventeen years of age, and this gal- lant young soldier passed the closing years of his life as a farmer near Weatherford, Parker County, Texas. Upon coming to Texas, Wil- liam \V. Blakeney established the family home in Parker County, and there his death oc- curred, as a result of cancer, a few years later. His wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Ann Evans, was likewise born in Ches- terfield district, South Carolina, in 1832, a daughter of John Evans a representative citi- zen and prosperous agriculturist of that dis- trict. Mrs. Blakeney, a first cousin of B. C. Evans, of Fort Worth, Texas, long survived her husband and was venerable in years at the time of her death, at Cleburne, in the year 1900. Of the children the eldest was Captain Albert Blakeney, who served as a Confederate officer in the Civil war and who was a resi- dent of Parker County, Texas, at the time of his death, as noted earlier in this paragraph : Martha Jane became the wife of David A. Johnson, of Charlotte, North Carolina, where she still maintains her home: Mary became the wife of O. C. Curlee, of Monroe, North Carolina, and there her death occurred; Cor- nelia. the wife of W. J. C. McCauley, like- wise died at Monroe ; John S. is a resident of San Antonio, Texas; James C., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Cora is the wife of A. W. Baird, of Shreveport, Louisi- ana ; Bettie is the wife of A. D Wells, of Cle- burne, Texas; Virginia is the wife of J. H. Lee, of Fort Worth, this state; and Charles O. is a resident of Stephensville, Erath County.
The early education of James C. Blakeney was acquired mainly in the schools of Mon- roe, North Carolina, and after having profited by the advantages of the high school he gained valuable experience by assisting in his father's store at Monroe. He was about sixteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Texas, and after the death of his father he assumed a large measure of responsibility in providing for the support of the widowed mother and younger children. In 1879, at the age of eighteen years, he found employment as clerk in the grocery store conducted at Cle- burne by I. C. Meek, one of the pioneer busi-
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ness men of this place. After remaining three years with Mr. Meek he took a position in the local dry goods store of Clayton Brothers & Company. After having there been employed two years he became a traveling salesman for the wholesale clothing house of Charles P. Kellogg & Company, of Chicago, and he con- tinued as the successful and popular repre- sentative of this concern in Texas territory for a period of ten years. This house was then one of the largest of the kind in the West and had a corps of sixty-two traveling sales- men, Mr. Blakeney having covered all of the territory west of the Houston & Texas Cen- tral Railroad between Denison and Houston. After severing his connection with this Chi- cago house Mr. Blakeney gave ten years of effective service in the same territory for the wholesale clothing house of Goldman, Beck- man & Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. In enter- ing this service he stated to his new employers that he had been for ten years with his former employers and that he would give a similar period of service to them, with the understand- ing that at the expiration of the decade they could look for a man to take his place. When the time came for his retirement the house delegated him authority to choose his own suc- cessor, besides further marking their appre- ciation by presenting him with a cash bonus of $1,000, in addition to a silver loving-cup, which latter he holds as one of his most prized treasures, as it betokened the fine sentiment that ever should be a part of business as much as the mere consideration of dollars, for of mutual appreciation is born the loyalty that makes for maximum success.
Upon retiring from his long and active serv- ice as a commercial salesman, Mr. Blakeney, in 1903, was chosen cashier of the Citizens National Bank of Cleburne, which had been recently organized and incorporated. In 1905 the institution was merged with the National Bank of Cleburne, and of the latter institu- tion Mr. Blakeney has since continued the cashier. The Citizens National Bank was in- corporated with a capital of $100,000, and the National Bank of Cleburne now bases its oper- ations on a capital stock of $1,500,000, with a surplus of $75,000.
During the entire period of his activities as a traveling salesman Mr. Blakeney main- tained his home at Cleburne, and he has ever shown a most loyal interest in all that con- cerns the civic and material welfare of this thriving Texas city. He has served since 1905 as a trustee of the Cleburne Board of Educa-
tion, and for sixteen years he was superin- tendent of the Anglin Street Sunday School. He identified himself earnestly with the move- ment that resulted in the organization of the Cleburne Chamber of Commerce, and of this vital and progressive institution he served one year as a director and as its treasurer for a similar period. He is treasurer of the fund that is to be applied to the erection of the Citizens Hotel, which is to be one of the most modern in this section of the state, and he is a member of the building committee, as well as a director of the organization which has this important enterprise in charge. As a trustee of the Board of Education Mr. Blakeney's name appears on the cornerstones of each of the public school buildings of Cleburne, and a similar distinction is his in connection with the Carnegie Library building.
Though he has had no desire to enter the arena of practical politics, Mr. Blakeney al- ways takes a definite stand upon public ques- tions and in a generic way he gives his alle- giance to the democratic party, though in local affairs he is not constrained by strict partisan lines. He is affiliated with the York Rite Ma- sonic bodies in his home city and also with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
At Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas, on the 11th of May, 1886, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Blakeney to Miss Annie C. Red- ner a daughter of Daniel S. and Ruhame (O'Kane) Redner, both natives of Virginia. Mr. Redner was one of the early settlers in Fannin County, Texas, and there both he and his wife remained until their death. Mrs. Blakeney was born at Ladonia, that county, in April, 1865, and is the youngest in a family of four children; Luther F. is a resident of Ladonia; Lucy became the wife of George M. Evans and is now deceased; and Daniel was a boy at the time of his death. Mrs. Blakeney completed her education in a college at Mc- Minnville, Tennessee, and her marriage oc- curred within a short time thereafter. In con- clusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Blakeney: James Palmer is a graduate of the law department of the great University of Michigan and was engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Detroit, metropolis of Michigan, prior to entering the United States army. As a member of the regular army he was a mili- tary instructor in France during two years of the World war, after having been commis- sioned a first lieutenant at Fort Sheridan, Illi-
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nois. He is now an instructor in training officers and men at Camp Benning, Georgia. as one of the 700 officers at that camp. Eva is the wife of J. Winston Ball, of Dallas, Texas, and they have one son, J. Winston, Jr. Ruth is the wife of Heber Henry, of Cleburne, and they have a winsome little daughter, Helen. Cora received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas and is now a popular teacher in the public schools of Cle- burne. Marjorie is a member of the class of 1923 in the University of Texas.
ERASTUS F. WHITMORE. That the state of Texas still presents opportunities for the man without means but with sufficient enterprise to take advantage of them is one of the chief blessings derived from the record of the ex- periences of Erastus F. Whitmore, a farmer of the Garza locality of Denton County. Mr. Whitmore came to Texas a little more than twenty years ago. While the region that he chose for a home has since been highly de- veloped and land prices have generally as- sumed a high level, there are other portions of the state where similar opportunities could be found today. Mr. Whitmore's achieve- ments are those of the pioneer, though his residence within the state has been entirely within the modern era.
He was born in Howard County, Arkansas, January 27, 1858. His grandfather, Thomas Whitmore, moved to Arkansas from South Carolina before the Civil war, bringing his slave property with him, and lived out his life on an Arkansas farm. Thomas Whit- more married Miss Nancy Wessen. Their children were: Dr. Johnson Joshua, John, Reader, Curtis Edward, James, Joseph, Mrs. Lizzie Cypert and Mrs. Dollie Anderson. The first four sons were in the Confederate army, Dr. J. J. being a surgeon and for a time in Gen. Joe Shelby's command.
The father of Erastus Whitmore was Dr. Johnson Joshua Whitmore, who began the practice of his profession at the age of nine- teen in Howard County and proved himself useful not only in his profession, but in citi- zenship in that county. He was a Mason and democrat. Dr. Whitmore who died in 1890 married in Howard County Miss Fannie Mc- Donald and after her death her sister Amanda. By the first marriage there were two children, Erastus F. and Mollie, who is now the wife of John Props and lives at Broken Bow, Okla- homa. The children of the second marriage
were J. T. Whitmore, Mrs. Florence Wallace, Mrs. Jesse Hughes of Decatur, Texas, Claude, Nina. wife of Dr. Dildy of Arkansas, Harry and Jay Whitmore.
Erastus Whitmore spent all his early life in Howard County, Arkansas. He married there January 25, 1883, Rachel Carlile Wil- liams. Her father, J. Lafayette Williams, was a native of South Carolina, living for a time at Spartanburg, and during the fifties moved to Arkansas and was with an Arkan- sas regiment in the Confederate Army. He married in South Carolina Miss Finny, and of that union one child, Elmore, is now living in Parker County, Texas. His second wife was Nancy Dillard, and her surviving chil- dren are: Mrs. Whitmore, who was born May 30, 1865; Mrs. Lizzie Brown of Arkan- sas; Lee, a farmer in Terry County, Texas ; Mrs. Simmie Rigbee of Arkansas; Mrs. Ora Farley of Arkansas ; and Earl. The father of these children died in 1903 at the age of sev- enty-seven, being survived by his widow who is now seventy-five.
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