USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 15
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WILLIAM BOHNING. Several communities in north and west Texas including Fort Worth were impressed by the influential activities of William Bohning as a banker, business man and citizen.
He was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, and was educated for a physician. After practic- ing a few years in Cincinnati he came to Texas in 1890 and in this state his genius was exemplified as a banker and merchant. In Fort Worth where he lived and where he died in 1912 and was buried at the age of forty- nine, he was vice-president of the Western National Bank. He was president of several other banking institutions in Texas and was also in the lumber business. He was a Knight Templar Mason.
June 28, 1893, he married Emma Garrett. Mrs. Bohning lives at Fort Worth, her home being at 2226 Hemphill Avenue. She is the mother of a son and daughter. The son, Gar- rett, is a business man at Ranger, Texas, where his father had some important interests before his death. The daughter, Beth, is a student at Smith College. Northampton, Massachusetts, class of 1922.
JOHN W. FAUGHT came to Denton County in 1878, and his subsequent career is a record of interesting experience and achievement,
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marking him as one of the real leaders and effective citizens in the Justin locality, where he and his family reside today.
Mr. Faught was born in Giles County, Ten- nessee, January 10, 1854, son of Pleasant Miller and Margaret (Locke) Faught, and grandson of Wiley and Betsy Ann (Wood) Faught. His grandfather was a Tennessee farmer and both the parents were natives of Giles County and spent their lives as farmers. The children of Wiley Faught and wife were Joseph, Isom, Moses, Levi, Jack, Wiley, James and Pleasant M. and the daughters were Mrs. Fannie Inman, Mrs. Sallie Tennis and Rebecca Inman.
Pleasant Miller Faught and wife also came to Texas and are buried at Prairie Mound Church in Denton County. Their children were John Wesley ; William Allison a farmer of Denton County ; Thomas J., who is buried at Prairie Mound; Turner B. of Justin ; and Ida, wife of W. M. Cannon of Denton.
In Obion County, Tennessee, January 10, 1875, John W. Faught, who at that date was just twenty-one years of age, celebrated his birthday by his marriage with Miss Etta Jarrell, who was born in Wilson County, Ten- nessee, January 23, 1858. Her father, Edward Jarrell, was both a farmer and physician, and he and his wife are now at rest in the cemetery at Prairie Mound Church in Denton County.
It was about two years after his marriage that Mr. Faught left Obion County and started for Texas, accompanied by his wife and child. They traveled by train to Fort Worth, and a wagon brought them from Fort Worth to Argyle in Denton County. Mr. Faught possessed a small amount of cash cap- ital to sustain him while getting established in a new country. Some other equipment he brought with him comprised a little bedding and a sewing machine. His first home was on a rented farm on Dry Fork of Denton Creek about three miles southwest of Den- ton. He bought the team and tools and the seed needed to make his first crop and also the supplies for his household, also two or three cows, and expended the modest sum of $55 for household furniture. The following year he bought land now included in his homestead farm in the locality of Justin. This land had no improvements beyond a few rods of fence, and he was the first to break the sod. and put up all the buildings. His first residence was a box house, the main part being sixteen feet square with a side room
ten feet wide. While this was being con- structed a smokehouse previously erected fur- nished kitchen quarters and the living room was the barn. The little house briefly men- tioned served the family for practically twenty-two years until it was absorbed by the new and commodious rural home in 1900.
Mr. Faught's first land purchase was sev- enty acres at $6 an acre, and he paid cash for it, having only 35 cents left after the transaction. As a farmer he became a grain and cattle raiser, also promoted his livestock interests, and through the profits of pros- perous years he invested in more land and better improvements. His farm today com- prises 275 acres, of level ground, ideally situ- ated in every way. From the planting of his hands the buildings are surrounded by shrub- bery and forest trees that transform the gen- eral appearance and add greatly to the value and comfort. The commodious home which he erected in 1900 is two stories and contains thirteen rooms, and is one of the most attrac- tive residences on the Fort Worth, Elizabeth- town and Denton road.
Farming has not been Mr. Faught's only business interest since coming to Texas. Twenty-two years after he settled here he en- gaged in merchandising at Justin and was active in that line for seventeen years, the store being conducted by his oldest son and the first child of the family born in Texas. His old business is now continued by Mr. Grissom. Mr. Faught erected the brick build- ing in which the stock was carried and this is now owned by his son. Mr. Faught's chil- dren were educated in the Prairie Mound School, and at times he was a member of the board of trustees. His son Alonzo E. a few years after completing his education there taught school for three years.
The first child of Mr. and Mrs. Faught is Maggie, who by her first marriage has two sons, Leonard and Jack Hall, the former at Wichita Falls and the latter at Justin. Maggie is now the wife of J. W. Collins of Justin. Alonzo E., the son previously referred to, was a traveling salesman for some years and now lives at Fort Worth. He married Zella Eads. The third child, Gertrude, is the wife of Bert Gibbs, a farmer living on a place adjoining the Faught farm, and they have children named Walter Glen, John Howard, Rosa Belle, Eunice, Catherine Sue and Gertrude Louise. The fourth of the family, Cordie, is the wife of Homer Gibbs, a farmer in the
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same neighborhood and they have a son Homer. E. Miller Faught, the youngest of the family, is active manager of the home- stead farm, and by his marriage to Ila Don- nell has a son John Donnell.
John W. Faught was reared in a republi- can home. and has always voted the repub- lican ticket in national affairs in Texas and elsewhere. He has republican brothers, but his own sons have accepted other allegiance in politics. Mr. Faught is a member of the Church of Christ and Mrs. Faught is a Mis- sionary Baptist.
JUDGE H. S. MORAN practiced law continu- ously as a member of the Weatherford bar forty years before he retired. He was one of the successful attorneys there when the Weatherford bar was noted all over the state for the brilliance and fine attainments of its members.
Judge Moran was born in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia, August 11, 1851, son of John A. and C. D. (Jaqueth) Moran, who were married November 20, 1850, the former a native of Campbell County, Virginia, and the latter of New York. The father was born in 1818. They came to Texas many years ago, lived on a farm near Millsap, and both of them died on that homestead. Their three children are Judge H. S. Moran. A. O. Moran of Millsap, Mrs. Mary I. Mann of Weatherford.
H. S. Moran spent his early years on a farm in West Virginia. He was of a studious nature and while there were limited opportu- nities he made the best of them to secure a practical education. In 1870 he went to Ken- tucky, taught school in that state and also in Missouri, and in 1873 arrived in Texas, going to the frontier many miles from the nearest railroad to Parker County. Judge Moran was one of the teachers of Parker County for sev- eral years, and at the same time diligently carried on the study of law until he was ad- mitted to the bar and began practice at Weatherford in 1875, He was continuously active in his profession thereafter until 1915, when he retired.
Judge Moran represented Parker County in the Legislature for six years, three two- year terms. He has also had other public honors and responsibilities, and has given freely of his time to the general welfare, having served several years on the county and state democratic executive committees.
In Parker County in 1877 he married Annie E. Rider, member of one of the first pioneer families to settle in Parker County. Her father, William Rider, went into Parker County and established a ranch there when it was a border district between the scattered settlements on the east, and the Indian country north and west. Mrs. Moran was born in Parker County in 1858. They have one daugh- ter, Miss Mary Ruth.
Judge Moran has for over forty years been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
JUDGE F. O. MCKINSEY. In nearly thirty years of active practice as a lawyer Judge Mc- Kinsey has spent a large part of the time on the bench either of the County or District Court. and his record of varied and important service makes him one of the outstanding fig- ures of the bench and bar of West Texas. Judge Mckinsey is now in his third term as district judge of the Forty-third Judicial Dis- trict. comprising Parker, Wise and Jack counties.
Judge McKinsey was born in Tarrant County, Texas. September 23, 1858, son of George W. and Hester Ann (Leach) McKin- sey. His parents were both born in Indiana. his father being of Scotch and his mother of Irish ancestry. In the Leach family were some soldiers of the Revolution. George W. Mc- Kinsey brought his family from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Texas in 1853 and in 1863 moved from Tarrant into Johnson County. He was a cabinetmaker, architect and contractor, and for many years carried on this business, having contracted for the erection of many houses in Weatherford and at other points in the state. He died when sixty-five years of age. He enlisted and served for a brief time in the Confederate army after coming to Texas.
Judge McKinsey, who is the fifth child and fourth son of his parents, spent his boy- hood on a farm in Johnson County. He at- tended country schools, one of his principal teachers being his uncle, J. R. Mckinsey, who had the distinction of being one of the early probate judges of Johnson County and was tax collector during the Civil war. Judge McKinsey completed his literary education in what is now Texas Christian University, and, after his graduation, spent six years with that institution as instructor of Latin and Greek. He acquired a thorough. classical education,
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and while teaching he studied law and re- signed his work as a teacher to begin practice. In 1893 he located at Weatherford, and was absorbed in a busy professional career until he went on the bench. For four years he was county judge of Parker County, but is most widely known over the state through his rec- ord as district judge. Judge Mckinsey has always been a staunch democrat, and has also taken leadership in the prohibition movement. He attended as a delegate the National Con- vention at San Francisco in 1920. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Wood- men of the World and active in the Christian Church in Weatherford.
June 17, 1882, Judge Mckinsey married Josephine Scott, who was born and reared in Collin County, Texas, daughter of Enos and Sarah Ann (Cox) Scott. Her parents came to Texas from Maury County, Tennessee, Judge and Mrs. McKinsey have seven chil- dren: Mark; Hester Leach, wife of H. H. Reynolds; Nell Doyle; George; F. O., Jr .; Mary Snow, and Logan.
DAVID TERRY BOMAR, who died at his home in Fort Worth September 22, 1917, possessed all the qualities of character and record for action which makes his presence in a commun- ity invaluable to all the interests represented and makes his death seem like a calamity of nature. The late Mr. Bomar was a patient, painstaking, conscientious and profound law- yer. He was thorough in his scholarship, and a man of the highest and truest worth. At one time or another he has been retained as general or special counsel for some of the great corporations of the Southwest. He was also a banker, and during his residence of thirty years in Fort Worth he impressed his energy and influence in many ways for good upon the community.
David T. Bomar was born in Henry County, Tennessee, March 28, 1861, son of David T. and Susan (Colwell) Bomar. He was edu- cated in public schools, in Cumberland Uni- versity at Lebanon, Tennessee, and studied law at Paris, Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar in 1881 and the same year moved to Texas and began practicing his profession at Henrietta in Clay County. For five years he was a member of the firm Swan & Bomar, and then moved to Fort Worth where he prac- ticed until 1893 in the firm of Meade & Bomar. For nearly fifteen years he was associated with his brother, J. E. Bomar, in the firm of Bomar & Bomar, a partnership dissolved by
the death of J. E. Bomar in 1906. Later Mr. Bomar practiced as member of the firm Broad & Bomar, and this firm did an extensive busi- ness representing various financial interests and handled a large amount of money loaned on real estate.
The late Mr. Bomar organized in 1904 the Continental Bank & Trust Company of Fort Worth, with a capital of $500,000. He was acting vice-president of the institution until 1910, and during the same period was presi- dent of the Fidelity Trust Company. He was counsel for the Abilene & Southern Railway Company and his name was represented on the directorates of a number of corporations.
Mr. Bomar was an organizer of the River Crest Country Club and he built a fine home at Rivercrest. For many years Mr. Bomar was associated with Morgan Jones of Abilene in carrying out some of the extensive railroad construction projects of Mr. Jones.
Mr. Bomar married Miss Anna E. Purin- ton, who survives him with one son, William P. Bomar, who was born August 9, 1886. He graduated from Yale University in the class of 1908 and is now associated with his mother in the management of the Bomar estate.
Mrs. Bomar was born at Mattoon, Coles County, Illinois, a daughter of W. W. and Margaret McAlister (Montgomery) Purinton. Her father was a native of Brattleboro, Maine, and her mother of Mattoon, Illinois. Mrs. Bomar is a graduate of the Mary Nash College of Sherman, Texas, has found time to culti- vate many intellectual and civic and social interests, and has very capably looked after the business of her late husband. She is a member of the Woman's Wednesday Club, and was one of the original members of the Library Association of Fort Worth.
LEWIS BURROUGHS. While many of the residents of Sanger are comparatively new- comers to the county, some of them have made this region their home for many years, during that period becoming thoroughly identified with its interests, and productive of much good of a constructive character. One of these older settlers of Denton County, one worthy of special mention, is Lewis Bur- roughs, a retired farmer of Sanger, and a man who stands deservedly high in popular esteem. For more than forty years he has been identified with the county, and during all of that time has allied himself with its best element, and many times has led in pro- gressive movements. During that period he
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has been privileged to witness the remarkable development of the great southwest, and al- though Texas is not his native state, he feels that it is the banner one of the Union.
Lewis Burroughs was born in the Anderson district. South Carolina, September 1, 1850, but was reared after he had reached the age of three years in Franklin County, Georgia, to which section his father. James Burroughs, moved. James Burroughs was born in the Anderson district. South Carolina, and was liberally educated. Like the majority of southerners of his day he was a slaveowner, and had a large plantation operated by his slaves. Born of southern parents, and brought up in the South, it was but natural that James Burroughs should have held that section of the country close to his heart, and espoused its cause when war was declared between it and the North. He gave proof of his devo- tion by enlisting in the Georgia militia, and sought to defend Atlanta during the campaign against that city by General Sherman of the Union army. With the close of the war came chaos for him, along with his neighbors. His slaves were free, and at first he could not plan to farm with hired labor, but in time learned to do this, and do it successfully, and before he died was once more a man of inde- pendent fortune. This ability to adjust himself enabled him to accept the defeat of his "Cause" as one of the fortunes of war. His life was prolonged until he had passed the milestone of four score years, he passing away near the beginning of the present century. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Jane Kelly, died some years before her husband, when about sixty vears old. Their children were as follows: Susan. who became the wife of Henry Stephenson, died in Morris County, Texas ; William, who died in Knapp County, Texas, was an ex-Confederate soldier ; Bry- ant, who is also an ex-Confederate soldier, has spent his life in Bryant Countv. Georgia, where he still resides: Lewis, whose name heads this review; and Eliza. who married Washington Bagwell, lives at Dallas, Texas. The Burroughs are of old American stock, and have been located in the southern states for many generations.
Lewis Burroughs learned to be a grain and cotton farmer under his father's expert su- pervision, but the old home neighborhood be- came too constricted for him. and he sought a wider field, and so, in 1881 he and his wife came with several other families from Frank-
lin County, to Texas, among them being the Isbells of Rockwell County. Mr. and Mrs. Burroughs first stopped at Mckinney. They were poor in purse but rich in health and en- thusiasm, and were willing to work hard in order to get a start. With barely $100 in cash as their sole capital, they decided to rent land until a start could be made. The first year they were forced to put in their crops as best they could without a team, but their savings of that year went at the beginning of the sec- ond to the purchase of a team, and Mr. Bur- roughs then was able to make an arrangement to work a place on shares, which proved more profitable. After six years he was able to pay down one-half of the purchase price on 100 acres, and the balance was cleared off in suc- cessive payments. Although the improvements on this farm were of the most primitive kind. the family gladly moved on the farm for now they felt they were making a positive begin- ning, and they put up with the hardships and inconveniences of those times without com- plaint, and enjoyed the comforts when they could be afforded, all the more for the period when they did without them. After the first farm was paid for, Mr. Burroughs bought a small one of thirty-five acres, and placed a tenant on the larger one. He built a fine resi- dence on his second farm and lived in it until 1911, when he moved to Sanger where he bought a lot on the west end of Bolivar Street, and built a comfortable home on it. From his present vantage point of comfort- able retirement Mr. Burroughs can look back over a life of usefulness and worthy industry. While all of his efforts did not prove success- ful, his reverses were much less numerous than his achievements, and he has every reason to be satisfied with what he has accomplished. For many years he and his wife worshipped together in the Baptist Church with which they had early united, but he now attends the services alone for she was taken away by death March 1, 1914. Mr. Burroughs comes of an old democratic family, and was of age when Horace Greeley was the standard bearer for his party, and he cast his first Presiden- tial vote for him. Until 1920 he continued faithful in his support of democratic plat- forms and principles, but in that year, after the convention at San Francisco, became con- vinced that he had come to the parting of the ways, and cast his vote for Warren G. Harding, as did so many other solid, conser- vative men and women of the country. Aside
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from serving on the school board as a trustee of his district Mr. Burroughs has not held office, preferring to exert his influence as a private citizen. He has never joined any fra- ternal or social organization, but enjoys meet- ing his old friends in the church gatherings.
Mr. Burroughs' happy home life was in- augurated when he was united in marriage in Franklin County, Georgia, March 26, 1871, to Miss Margaret Garner, who was born in that same county, in February, 1847, a daugh- ter of John Garner. Neither she or Mr. Bur- roughs received much educational training, but both always took an interest in everything and made the most of their opportunities. They became the parents of children as fol- lows: Margaret, who married Thomas Mc- Daniel, has the following children: Berry, Marguerite and Thomas ; James, who is a mer- chant of Sanger, married Cora Fondren, and they have two children,-Gladys and Willie; Thomas, who is a druggist of Sanger, mar- ried Miss Grace McMurtry ; and William, who is a merchant of Sanger, married Neppie Bishop, and they have a daughter, Margaret Frances. The success which has crowned Mr. Burroughs' efforts he claims can be attained by anyone who is willing to work hard and practice strict economy during the productive years. The man who considers his own com- fort in his youth is very apt, according to Mr. Burroughs, to find himself penniless in his old age.
DANIEL BALDWIN GARDNER is the son of H. K. Gardner and Francis I. Gardner. His father was a distinguished Confederate sol- dier and served his country during the entire war between the states and was paroled in May, 1865. His parents moved to Chicka- saw County, Mississippi, in 1859.
Daniel Baldwin Gardner was born in Pickens County. Alabama, on the 25th of February, 1851. He had two brothers and two sisters, only one of whom, a sister, is now living. He was educated in the common schools of the country, and lived and worked on a farm, making a crop of cotton, with the proceeds of which he attended the Eastman Commercial College at Poughkeepsie, New York. After his graduation in that school he worked as a bookkeeper at Shannon, Mis- issippi.
He came to Texas in 1871 and located at Fort Griffin in Shackleford County, then the most advanced military post in Northwest VOL. IV-6
Texas, where he worked for "Judge" J. C. Lynch, one of the pioneer cattlemen of that section. After working on the ranch one year he came to Fort Worth and was a clerk in the Pacific Hotel, the then leading hotel of the city. He was also the agent for the El Paso stage line, of which Gen. Frank Armstrong, a distinguished Confederate general, was the general manager. In the early part of 1873 he was employed by the land department of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company under Gen. J. J. Byrne, and assisted in surveying the vast domain granted that company by the state of Texas to aid in the construction of that railway. He helped to survey all the territory between Palo Pinto County and the Colorado River; to establish the one-hun- dredth meridian and the boundary between Texas and the then Indian Territory.
In January, 1875, he went to work for J. S. and D. W. Godwin on their ranch in Baylor County, at the Round Timbers on the Brazos River. He became a partner in this firm in 1877 on their ranch in Shackleford County, and has been in the cattle business since that time. In 1880 they purchased the "Pitchfork" brand of cattle and located on the head of the Wichita River in Dickens and King counties, where the ranch still exists.
In 1881 the Godwins sold their interest in the ranch to E. F. Williams, of St. Louis, and the firm became Williams & Gardner. It was incorporated in 1883 as the "Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company," with a capital of $300,000 and Mr. Gardner became the secretary and manager, and is now the president and gen- eral manager of the company. The company owns something over one hundred thousand acres of land, on which they graze about ten thousand head of improved cattle. Mr. Gard- ner was one of the organizers of the Texas Cattle Raisers Association in 1877, and served for several years as a director and member of the executive committee of that organization.
He is a Mason of high rank, being a Knight Templar, a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He has been a "staff officer" of the Commander of the Trans-Mississippi Depart- ment of the United Confederate Veterans and is at present on the staff of the commander-in- chief of that organization.
Mr. Gardner was married in 1877 to Sula Pope Ellison, the daughter of R. L. Elli- son, at Paris, Tennessee. His wife died in May. 1889. They had one son, named for his
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