USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 12
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It was in August, 1897, that Mr. Whitmore established his home in Denton County and in the vicinity of his present home near Garza. He arrived here, accompanied by his wife and five children, and his capital equipment con- sisted of a pair of ponies, $4 in cash and four cows which he drove along from Arkansas. Under such conditions the ownership of a farm seemed far away. He and his wife and children began picking cotton in September after their arrival and in the meantime lived or camped in their wagon. By November they secured possession of a tenant house on Dr. Gilbert's farm, and by that time they had made enough money to provide them with some furniture and supplies for the winter, and had $5 for their Christmas celebration. Mr. Whitmore farmed Dr. Gilbert's place for three years, accumulated cattle, more and bet- ter horse power, furnished his home, and had $600 in cash and was out of debt. About that time he was approached to buy the farm he now owns, and with a $400 payment and an agreement to pay the balance of the $3,500 in six years the deal was closed and he took possession in Christmas week of 1900. Here he has continued his efforts, has cleared off the debts and has nothing beyond current financial obligations.
His farm is on Hickory Creek and he began with 246 acres. On it stood a modest house, a few acres had been broken, and hard work
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made it possible to support a family from the soil. Mr. Whitmore has enlarged the home to six rooms, has erected two tenant houses, has 170 acres under cultivation and in grass, and has grown some splendid crops of corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and melons besides cot- ton. His progress has been that of a mixed or diversified farmer and experience has made him an enthusiastic advocate of diversified agriculture with livestock. A deep well of the pure water this region is noted for has been drilled to a depth of 230 feet and a windmill furnishes the power to bring it to the surface and distribute it for domestic and stock pur- poses. One feature of the farm when he bought it was an old apple orchard. Its fruit enabled him to meet the payments when they came due, and having done so well with the old he set out a new orchard, though its re- turns were a disappointment as compared with the first. He also put out a grove of peaches, and was one of the first to plant the early Sheeler peach in the county. At times when there was a general scarcity of fruit he made some profit, though the development of the peach industry in Texas gradually cut off his market, and he made no effort to renew the trees as they died. His experience satisfies him, however, that the early peach will pay the grower in this section of Texas, while late fruit does not mature on account of the hot sun of the summer season. Among his hor- ticultural efforts was the planting of pears and these brought good yields, though the trees are subject to disease, and the care involved probably offsets any profit that may be made from this fruit.
During his residence in the Garza commu- nity Mr. Whitmore has kept an active interest in rural education and has been a trustee of the Garza district where his children were educated. He was one of the subscribers to the fund for the erection of the Woodman Hall, and has helped support church and other organizations. He and his family are mem- bers of the Garza Congregation of the Meth- odist Church. He joined the Odd Fellows Lodge at Garza and has since transferred to the Lewisville Lodge.
Since coming to Texas Mr. Whitmore's children have grown up and all but one are established for themselves. The oldest, John- son, a farmer near Garza, married Pearl Mas- sey and has two children, Helen and Wanda. Fleetwood, the second son, a farmer on the old homestead, has two children, Boyce and
Eugenia. Rupert, a farmer near Garza, mar- ried Olio Ross, and their two children are Mary Louise and Elden. Nancy, the older of the two daughters, is the wife of G. Marvin . Hennen of Garza, and has a son Lowell. Lucy, the other daughter, is the wife of Guy Little- field of Austwell, Texas, and has a daughter. The youngest of the family and the only one born in Texas is Clinton, a high school stu- dent at Lewisville.
MARTIN PETER NELSON. Some of the note- worthy farm improvements and developments in the vicinity of Godley, Johnson County, re- sulted from the labor and enterprise of a thrifty Dane, Martin Peter Nelson, who came to this locality with only the experience and capital of a farmhand and with the charac- teristics that have always distinguished his people in farm husbandry, long since achieved a competency and a place of honor in the community.
He was born June 30, 1859, in the Province of Jutland, near where the great naval battle between the English and German navies was fought in the World war. His father, Martin Nelson, spent all his life as a laboring man on his farm in that locality. The mother was Annie Peterson, daughter of a farmer in that section of Denmark. She and her husband owned a little home of less than two acres, on which they grew potatoes, cabbage and fruit as a factor toward keeping and raising their family. The husband worked out all the time and the wife and children cared for the little home.
Martin Peter Nelson was the fourth of their children. He was hired out by his father when only eight years of age, and his earn- ings went into the family treasury. He has made his own living ever since that time. From six to eight he attended school, and became proficient in spelling, mathematics, reading and a fair penman. He began taking care of himself and spending his own wages at four- teen, and not long afterward decided that he would seek the better opportunities of the United States. He worked and saved to that end. His last year in Denmark his earnings totalled only $34. Wages in that country have greatly advanced since then. For eight years he took care of the cattle owned by a widow, and much of that time he was studying a book on American affairs and conditions and thus acquired an insight very valuable to him after he reached this country. He has continued
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the habit of reading ever since and enjoys a Joliet and completed the naturalization proc- wide knowledge of American history and con- ditions.
When ready to come to the United States his capital was still small, but he purchased a cheap ticket, sailing from Hamburg, Germany, for New York, accompanying the wife of an acquaintance already in America. This friend was located at Joliet, Illinois, and to that city Mr. Nelson and his traveling companion pro- ceeded. He had only 49 cents left when he arrived at Joliet, and this he paid for a "jumper." the price of which was 50 cents, though the merchant allowed him to take it for what he had. He immediately went to work on a farm eight miles south of Joliet at $10 a month, and remained there ten months, earning $100, after which his em- ployer increased his wages to $20 for the fol- lowing ten months. He discovered that Mar- tin was a good hand with the stock and did everything he was told, a valuable trait at- tained by his early training in his native land. His employment in Illinois ended with an ill- ness of chills and fever and as soon as possible he started for the west.
Leaving Illinois Mr. Nelson traveled to Texas with a fellow Dane who had been in that state. They traveled together to Fort Worth, and there he found his first employ- ment with a farmer west of Godley, at $18 a month. He stayed there about fourteen months, and then with his Danish friend Olaf Peterson rented and farmed together four years. On separating Mr. Nelson came to the Godley locality, rented two years, and then bought a small farm. He acquired 235 acres in the black land belt for $12.50 an acre. The first three years he rented the land out and worked for wages himself, but eventually took up its improvement and cultivation. By sub- sequent purchases he acquired 833 acres in a body, improved it with two sets of buildings, and his own was one of the best farm houses in the district. He had a big barn that seemed to testify to the thrifty care a Dane gives his stock. The last crop he made on this farm was in 1919, and in 1920 he sold out for $75 an acre and retired with a gratifying reward for his thirty-eight years of experience and work in the community.
Mr. Nelson has never married. For several vears he did all the work outside and inside his house. but for the most part lived with a tenant family and enjoyed the conveniences and com- forts of a home. Soon after reaching the United States he applied for citizenship at
ess there. He cast his first presidential vote for Mr. Cleveland in Texas, and has always voted the democratic ticket in national cam- paigns. His only official duty was as school trustee in the Eureka District for twenty- five years, but at all times he has been ready to support community enterprises. He was active in patriotic drives during the World war, and was one of the few men who bought the limit in baby bonds in his locality. He is one of the directors of the Citizens National Bank of Godley, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and is a member of the Presby- terian Church.
WILLIAM J. MCCROSKEY. In his comfort- able home at Valley View, William J. Mc- Croskey is enjoying a well earned retirement, and can look back upon forty-three years of residence in North Texas, most of that time having been spent in the toil and practical management of farming and stock raising, out of which in spite of many adverse conditions he achieved a prosperity sufficient for his de- clining years.
Mr. McCroskey, who is an ex-Confederate soldier, was born in Sullivan County, Ten- nessee, March 1, 1837. His grandfather, James McCroskey, was of Irish ancestry and spent his last years on a farm in what is now West Virginia. James McCroskey married a Miss Duff, and several of their descendants subsequently bore the Christian name of Duff.
Matthew McCroskey, father of the Valley View citizen, was born in Virginia, was a farmer and also a Methodist minister. He married Elizabeth Hickey, lived for many years in Tennessee, and in 1843 moved to Greene County, Missouri, and spent the rest of his life in the southwestern part of that state. His children were ten in number : Rachel, who married Benjamin Patterson ; Jane, wife of Jo Merritt; Margaret. second wife of Jo Merritt: Martha, who married John McCroskey ; William J., of Valley View ; Mrs. Mary Barnes: Amanda, who died un- married; Mrs. Ellen Glenn: Charlotte, who married Hamilton Doran ; and Duff. who lives on the old farm in Missouri.
William J. McCroskey was six years of age when his parents moved to the vicinity of Springfield, Missouri. He grew up on a farm in that rugged district, and farming was the vocation which he took up when he became of age. The McCroskey home was within four miles of the battlefield of Wilson Creek, and
W. J. McCROSKEY
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those at home could clearly hear the sounds of that battle. Soon afterwards William McCroskey entered the Confederate army. He was wounded in the fight at Corinth and taken prisoner, later paroled and sent to the hos- pital for wounded Confederates at Iuka, and after recovering he rejoined his command at Vicksburg. He was in service until the end of the war, and following that worked several months for wages as a farm hand in Illinois. Returning to Missouri he located in Saline County, and was a farmer in that rich and prosperous section of central Missouri until he came to Texas.
When he left Saline County in 1877 he had a family of wife and four children. They traveled with two wagons and teams and made the thousand mile journey without incident in about four weeks. Two other children were born after they came to Texas. Mr. McCros- key located five miles southeast of Valley View. His land comprised 280 acres, prac- tically virgin soil, and it was the task of many vears to develop it into a productive general farm. His first home contained only two rooms, and out of necessity this had to be sufficient until he had the money to build a better one. Mr. McCroskey was not a cap- italist when he came to Texas, and he had to realize something from his labors every season in order to maintain his family .. For three years he gave his time exclusively to the rais- ing of grain. In later years he planted a limited crop of cotton. For his land he paid only five dollars an acre and added to his holdings until he had more than half a sec- tion. Forty years ago Cooke County was more of a stock region than a strictly farming country. Few of the farms were fenced and there was an almost unlimited range for live- stock. Mr. McCroskey utilized some of this pasture for his modest ventures as a stock man and he was never in the business on an extensive scale, selling his surplus to local buyers. He and his neighbors took no pride in pure bred cattle, handling only the stock usually found in Texas at the time. inferior grades and scrubs. Mr. McCroskey diligently cultivated and occupied his farm for thirty years. He went through the ups and downs of markets, much of his wheat selling for less than a dollar a bushel, some of his cotton bringing four cents a pound, though at one time cotton was only three cents a pound.
While he has never been in politics or public affairs it is safe to say there is no more highly esteemed and substantial citizen of Cooke
County than Mr. McCroskey. He was for several years a trustee of his country school district and he and Mrs. McCroskey took an active part in the organization and main- tenance of the Methodist Church in their com- munity, and he served as a steward of the congregation.
It was in 1867, only a year or so after he left the army that Mr. McCroskey married Benanna Elliott. She was born and reared in Saline County, Missouri, daughter of Ben- jamin and Angeline Elliott. The oldest of their children is Duff D., now a resident of Vernon, Texas; Lena, wife of C. L. Miller of Cooke County ; Charles, who lives at El Paso ; Miss Vannie V. lives at Valley View ; Walter is in Tom Green County, and Ethel, the youngest, is the wife of Charles Steadman, of Valley View.
BERT GIBBS. Some of the striking agricul- tural achievements in the Justin locality of Denton County, the possession of a high grade farm, and the prompt exercise of good in- fluence in civic, church and local affairs have brought to Mr. Bert Gibbs the distinction of being one of the leading men of that commu- nity, where he has lived practically all his life. He represents a pioneer family of Den- ton County.
·His father is Gilbert Gibbs, who was born near Odessa, Missouri, in 1848, grew up on a Missouri farm, had only such advantages as were afforded by an ordinary district school, and though too young to get into the army at the beginning of the Civil war he was en- rolled as a Confederate soldier toward the end. It was about the time he attained his majority that he left Missouri to cast in his lot with Texas, and has been a resident of the Lone Star State for over half a century. He was the only member of his generation to come to Texas. For several years he lived in Dallas and Collin counties, married there, and in 1875 moved to Denton County and located about three miles east of the present site of Justin. Here he bought raw land. broke the sod, made a farm and home, and spent his active years. He was prospered, and in time had accumulated about one thousand acres of land. When he was about sixty years old he retired and is now living at Mineral Wells. His work as a farmer was done chiefly as a grain and cattle raiser. He improved his cattle with registered blooded Shorthorn and his young stock he handles with such care as to win him a market almost equal to that
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found for registered stock of the same strain. He is also a feeder and shipper of beef, and the Chicago and Kansas City markets knew him occasionally in this capacity.
In every way Gilbert Gibbs measured up to the duties and ideals of a thorough Ameri- can citizen in Denton County. He sent his children after completing the work of the local schools to places of higher education, three of them attending the North Texas Normal College. He never sought an office, has voted as democrat, and while not a church member has supported with purse and in- fluence the religious and moral standards. After coming to Texas he married Miss Belle Smith, who was born near McKinney and is eight years younger than her husband. Her children are: Eddie, wife of J. W. Hall, a farmer in the Justin locality; Bert; Homer and Sue, twins, the former living on the old Gibbs home place, and Sue is the wife of J. E. Blair, who also farms a portion of the Gibbs ranch.
Bert Gibbs was born May 13, 1878. He attended the Litsey School and spent two years in the Denton Normal, and then re- sumed his place on the farm and has found it profitable to follow for the most part the good example set by his father in agricul- tural methods. However, his chief stock is Hereford cattle, and for a number of years he has sent some beef to the market every season. He is cultivating 275 acres, chiefly in wheat. A few years ago he paid $50 an acre for 155 acres, and one of his wheat crops brought him the returns that equalled fully two-thirds of the price he paid for the land. In Mr. Gibbs' experience the seasons have been invariably favorable for a crop of grain, and all the failures he has noted have been due to green bugs or hail. Mr. Gibbs en- deavors to do his part as a member of the community, has served as a trustee of the Prairie Mound School for nearly twenty years, and he and his wife are members of the Christian Church of Justin.
In Denton County he married Miss Gert- rude Faught. Her father is John W. Faught. one of the prominent old time settlers of this section, has lived here since the seventies. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs have six children: Wal- ter Glen, John Howard, Rosabelle, Eunice, Catherine Sue and Gertrude Louise.
HON. LUCIAN WALTON PARRISH. Congress- man from the Thirteenth Texas District, Mr.
Parrish has not only made his mark as one of the younger members of the House of Rep- resentatives, but has shown decided qualifica- tions for handling the many important inter- ests of his constituency during his residence in Washington. The Thirteenth District com- prises the counties of Archer, Baylor, Clay, Cooke, Denton, Jack, Montague Throckmor- ton, Wichita, Willbarger, Wise and Young. It is a great district with an enormous amount of wealth and industry based on ranching and oil production.
Mr. Parrish is a native of North Texas, born at Van Alstyne in Grayson County Jan- uary 10, 1878. His parents, Jefferson C. and Mattie (Hanna) Parrish, now live at Dallas. His father was also born in Grayson County and in 1887 brought his family to the south part of Clay County.
Lucian Walton Parrish as a boy showed marked intellectual tendencies and qualifica- tions for leadership. He is a man of thorough education, though most of his liberal train- ing came after he was a young man. He grew up on a ranch, and by actual experience be- came acquainted with every phase of a Texas farm and ranch. He first attended a country school in the Joy vicinity, later attended the public schools at Bowie, and also the State Normal at Denton. Mr. Parrish was a stu- dent in the University of Texas for seven years, graduating in the Liberal Arts depart- ment with the degree B. A. in 1906. He re- ceived his master of arts and law degrees in 1909.
At the university he was distinguished not only for his scholarship but his leadership in student affairs. He was president of the Stu- dents' Association, was captain of the football team in 1906. and captain of the track team in 1903. University athletic circles recall his name as one of the greatest in the history of track and field events at Austin. At Atlanta. Georgia, in 1902, representing the university he won the southern championship for ham- mer throwing, and in 1904 at the World's Fair Exhibition Grounds in St. Louis won the southwestern championship for hammer throwing. For several years he held the southern and southwestern honors as a ham- mer thrower. He won other prizes with the discus and shotput. He was president of the Political and Economic Association of the University of Texas and president of the University Y. M. C. A. During the last year of his college career in 1909 he won the $50
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prize as the best individual debater, and in that year he was the university representative in the debate with the University of Missouri. A prominent university official has expressed the opinion that few men in the student body have ever exercised such a broad and com- mendable influence for good as Mr. Parrish.
As a young law graduate he located at Henrietta in 1909, and for ten years he was successfully associated in general practice with William Wantland. He retired from prac- tice to take his seat in Congress. He was elected in 1918, and began his participation in the Sixty-sixth Congress in May, 1919. He was re-elected to the Sixty-seventh Congress in 1920.
Mr. Parrish was a member of the Com- mittee on Accounts and the Committee on Mines and Mining in the Sixty-sixth Congress. As the production of oil comes under the latter heading he has been in position to render valuable services to his district which in- cludes Wichita County, one of the richest oil producing counties in the world, and a number of other counties where development work is constantly in progress. Mr. Parrish knows the needs of oil districts through his own active participation in oil production. He was one of the organizers and attorneys for one of the first companies to drill successful wells in the famous Burkburnett field. Texas oil men in this section have reposed utmost confidence in Mr. Parrish as their congressional represen- tative in the matters involved in the dispute between Texas and Oklahoma over jurisdic- tion in oil lands along the Red River boun- dary. He represented the operators in their contest for the exemption of the patented lands in this disputed area from direct opera- tion by the Federal receiver. He also intro- duced a bill in Congress providing in the event that Oklahoma's claims for the land should be upheld in the courts the present holders would have early rights to file upon them from Oklahoma. Mr. Parrish is serving as a mem- ber of the Committee on Postoffice and Post Roads during the Sixty-seventh Congress. Mr. Parrish's home is in Henrietta. In 1912 he married Miss Gladys Edwards and their two children are Mary and Lucian W., Jr.
WILFORD HARRISON. It is quite possible that the ordinary person never pauses to re- flect upon the important position the druggist in any community bears with relation to the people who come into his store. Belonging VOL. IV-5
to a profession as exacting in its requirements as that of a physician or dentist, and of much more importance, in that it serves the public health, than that of the lawyer, and requiring many of the moral attributes of the clergy- man, the calling of pharmacy stands apart from all of the other learned professions in that the druggist has to be friend as well as dealer ; advisor, oftentimes against his own in- terests, while acting as a merchant, and at all times affords accommodations never asked or accepted from the hands of any other class of business men. His hours are almost from sun to sun; his store is used for social pur- poses and for temporary hospital service. He is expected to sell stamps with the same cour- tesy and promptitude that he uses in filling a prescription, and to receive and deliver tele- phone messages as a matter of course, usually without compensation, and generally without common gratitude from those thus served. In fact the druggist is the man who is most imposed upon, and perhaps for that very reason is usually one of the best beloved in any community in which he renders his un- ending and accommodating service.
One of the druggists who is very close to the hearts of his customers at Wichita Falls is Wilford Harrison, one of the most reliable and carefully trained men of his calling in the southwest.
Wilford Harrison was born at Cooper, Delta County, Texas, in 1890, a son of Dr. C. M. Harrison, a prominent physician of Delta County. Mr. Harrison was educated in the Polytechnic College of Fort Worth and the College of Pharmacy of Fort Worth Med- ical College, and was graduated from the latter in 1910 with the degree of Registered Pharmacist. He has never been engaged in any other business but drugs, and has the widest and most practical experience in both the retail and wholesale features of the drug trade, and in addition has made the drug store business and the manifold service that it renders to a community a deep and thorough study for several years. As the result his store, which he operates under the name of the Wilford Harrison Drug Company, at Wichita Falls, is claimed by experts to be the finest in Texas, and one of the finest in the United States, and the people of Wichita Falls are proud of it and the enterprise of the man responsible for its establishment and continu- ance. This store is located in the heart of the business district, on Eighth Street, in the
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