USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 20
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He was born in Harrison County in East Texas, August 8, 1881, son of M. R. and Fan- nie (Dirskell) Andrews. His father was also a native of Harrison County. His grand- father, C. K. Andrews, was born in Tennes- see and came to East Texas during the Texas Republic. He had some special responsibili- ties in introducing a number of Tennessee col- onists into the Republic and for that service was given an extensive land grant. He was prominent in the affairs of Harrison County, being the first county clerk. M. R. Andrews was for many years in the mercantile business. and also held the office of county clerk of Harrison County, living at the county seat of Marshall.
Walter R. Andrews was born on his father's plantation some miles east of Marshall, and lived there and in the city until 1908. Then, as a young man, he moved to Northwest Texas, establishing his home at Childress, where he was in business until January, 1920. At that date he came to Wichita Falls and established the Andrews Grain & Coal Com- pany, dealers in grain, coal and feed. Within a short time his business had progressed to a point where he was justified in establishing a branch office and elevator at Electra.
He married Miss Bennie Reagan, of Harri- son County. Her father, the late Ben Reagan, was a prominent citizen of East Texas and related to the notable Reagan family of this state. To Mr. and Mrs. Andrews have been born the following children: Ragon, Homer, Norma, Ruth, Fay and Tom.
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JUDGE JAMES M. LINDSAY. While he was a pioneer lawyer and jurist of North Texas, a volunteer. Confederate soldier from that sec- tion, the living generation of citizens in Cooke County recalls the late Judge Lindsay more particularly for his widely extended interests as a banker, land owner and business man, and the conspicuously high character he exempli- fied at all times in his public and private re- lations.
Judge Lindsay, who was one of the real fac- tors in the growth and upbuilding of Cooke County, was a native of Tennessee. He grad- uated from the old Lebanon Law School of that state, and as a young man in search of opportunities for a professional career he came to Texas in 1848 and chose the country town of Gainesville for his home. His office was in a small single room frame building on the south side of the Public Square, near the pioneer Court House. He had appeared in a number of cases to his credit and the success of his clients before the war. At the time of the war he was representing his district in the State Legislature, and was its youngest mem- ber. At the very outset of the struggle be- tween the North and the South he joined a company of twenty or thirty men in his com- munity and marched to old Fort Arbuckle in Indian Territory for the purpose of prevent- ing a threatened move on the part of the Fed- eral Government to re-enforce that border post. When Judge Lindsay and his compan- ions arrived they found the fort abandoned. While his official position in the Legislature exempted him from military duty, early in 1862 he joined Company A in Colonel Fitz- hugh's regiment, General Walker's division, Trans-Mississippi department. He was a pri- vate soldier in East Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas until the close of the war. Judge Lindsay never mourned the results of the war, seldom discussed the matter, and it was prob- ably a part of his character that he showed no strong partisan prejudices. He was member of the Confederate Veterans Camp a Gaines- ville, but never attended the state meetings.
Nevertheless, he was an influential power in the political reconstruction of Texas. He was chosen a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1866 over which Jack Hamilton presided. He and Judge McLean of Fort Worth were the only surviving members of that transaction. When Coke was elected gov- ernor he appointed the Gainesville lawyer judge of the Judicial District comprising Cooke, Grayson, Denton, Wise, Montague,
Clay and a number of unorganized counties out to the Panhandle region. As he had at- tended sessions of the Legislature at Austin on horseback, so he used the same means of conveyance to take him from court to court in his widely extended district, and he held pioneer court in many counties where Indians still threatened the peace of the inhabitants. He was on the bench until 1874 and had the distinction of never having had any of his decisions reversed by the Supreme Court.
After leaving his judicial office Judge Lind- say appeared only occasionally in the role of a lawyer, and was more and more identified with his land, cattle and banking business. Among his important services to his home town of Gainesville should be mentioned his work in 1879 in securing the extension of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway from Den- ison to Gainesville, a road which gave this sec- tion of Cooke County its first rail communi- cation with the outside world. Soon after- ward he took a leading part in the organiza- tion of the Lindsay-Heming Banking Com- pany of Gainesville. Later he organized the Gainesville National Bank, was president until the liquidation of its affairs, and afterward was president and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lindsay National Bank until his death.
Judge Lindsay died May 3, 1919, and the accumulated record of his labors and achieve- ments in his home community is an extensive one. It is said that when he rode his horse into the town more than sixty years before his death his capital consisted of only nineteen dollars in money. His ownership of material property was even less when he returned from the war. He shared the vicissitudes common to his profession in the pioneer days, but at the same time his abilities as a lawyer, his remarkable enterprise, and his foresight and good judgment brought him eventually a dom- inating position in his county. He lived to realize many of the fruits of his extensive investments in lands, cattle and town prop- erty. Some of the permanent development of Cooke County as an agricultural region was due to his energy. He established the second German colony in the county, locating them at Lindsay, on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. He sold this colony about ten thou- sand acres of land, and the settlers developed from that tract many of the rural homes com- prising one of the most flourishing communi- ties of the county today. It is said that Judge Lindsay owned and sold hundreds and hun-
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dlreds of acres in the county, but never fore- closed a mortgage given in payment. He was also a director in the Missouri. Kansas and Texas Railway, but retired when the road was taken over by the Schaaf interests.
Much of his time in later years was given to the wise distribution of his means as di- rectly affecting the welfare of the city. He gave liberally to churches and other institu- tions, donating sites to three churches in Gainesville, and gave several acres of ground to the Catholic Church at Lindsay. He prac- tically secured the establishment and building of the Carnegie Library in Gainesville. With the organization of the school district he do- nated the site for the first school. He served many years as chairman of the Gainesville School Board. For many years he was an honored figure in the Chamber of Commerce, was a Baptist, but not a member of any fra- ternal order.
After coming to Cooke County Judge Lind- say married Miss Tennie Bonner. Her father, George M. Bonner, was of an old Ten- nessee family and came to Gainesville from Paris, Texas. He was a farmer and stock- inan. Mrs. Lindsay, who was one of five chil- dren, had two children of her own, Lewis B. and Mrs. Jimmie T. Embrey.
The successor to his father in the manage- ment of the extensive Lindsay business inter- ests is Lewis B. Lindsay, who was born at Gainesville August 31, 1871. His early life and training and educational advantages thor- oughly equipped him for the responsibilities of his mature career. He attended public school at Gainesville and the University of Texas, and studied law in the University of Michigan and at Cornell University. He has never engaged in professional practice, and on leaving school became associated with his father in the organization of the Lindsay Na- tional Bank. He was its cashier six years. Following that he gave his personal supervi- sion to the cattle business, later took up farm- ing, and since the death of his father has managed the J. M. Lindsay estate.
Lewis B. Lindsay for a number of years has been prominent in the republican politics of North Texas. In 1912 he was identified with the progressive movement, was chosen a delegate at large to the Chicago Convention, being one of the eight delegates from Texas. After that convention he was chairman of the Dallas Convention for organizing the progres- sive party in Texas. He was once republican candidate for the State Senate, and received
the highly complimentary vote of about eight hundred, though Cooke County normally gives less than two hundred to the republican candi- date. He has formed friendships with a number of the republican leaders of Texas, including Cecil Lyon of Sherman, Phil Baer of Paris, Judge J. O. Terrell, Ed C. Lassiter and Judge J. M. McCormick of Dallas. Mr. Lindsay in 1910 was supervisor of the thir- teenth census of the Thirteenth District of Texas, and it may be further noted that his appoinment was dated the 13th day of Au- gust. In 1919 he was county chairman for Cooke County of the Roosevelt Memorial As- sociation, and was instrumental in raising a liberal sum for the memorial to be erected at Oyster Bay.
Mr. Lindsay is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fraternity and of the Knights of Columbus.
At Cheyenne, Wyoming, December 9, 1907, he married Miss Blanche Maxey. She was born in Missouri but was reared and educated in the public schools of Denver. Her father, Warren Maxey, was for many years engaged in school work in Missouri and Colorado.
ORAL A. JONES, thirty-five years old, has lived in the Wichita Falls community almost from his earliest recollections, was educated in the city and has been for fifteen years a hard working young banker, beginning as office boy in the institution, the great City National Bank of Commerce, of which he is now senior assistant cashier.
Mr. Jones was born at Adamsville, McNairy County, Tennessee, June 13, 1886, a son of Dr. A. A. and Lucy (Cleveland) Jones. His father was a graduate in medicine from Van- derbilt University. He gave up a good prac- tice in his home town in Tennessee to come to Texas to benefit his wife's health. The family moved from Tennessee in 1890, established a home at Allendale in Wichita County and moved to Wichita Falls in 1900. Dr. Jones was in active practice until his death in 1913.
Oral A. Jones was graduated from the Wichita Falls High School in 1905, and on the the 25th of June, 1906, was made a utility clerk in the City National Bank. Both he and his brother, Lester Jones, who is now cashier of the Wichita State Bank and Trust Company, have shown decided abilities and their earnestness has brought them substan- tial honors and promotions in banking circles. Oral Jones had reached the post of assistant cashier in the City National Bank when that
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and the National Bank of Commerce were consolidated in the spring of 1920, and with the larger institution, whose resources of twenty-five million dollars make it one of the biggest banks in the Southwest, he has served as senior assistant cashier.
Besides his position and financial interests in this bank he has other business affairs con- necting him prominently with the oil industry of Wichita County. He is second vice presi- dent of the Aldine Oil Corporation, a half million dollar producing oil company. An- other very substantial interest is the owner- ship of a fine farm twelve miles southwest of Wichita Falls. This farm is within the scope of the great irrigation project now in course of construction in the Wichita Valley.
Mr. Jones is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a member and sec- retary and treasurer of the Board of Stew- ards of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has served as treasurer of the Wichita County Republican Committee.
Mr. Jones has enjoyed some distinctive honors in the Masonic Order. He took his first degrees in early manhood, was made a Knight Templar in 1919, and in 1920 achieved the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He was a member of the novice class appli- cants for membership in the Mystic Shrine in the new Maskat Temple instituted at Wichita Falls August 31, 1920. His friends brought him forward as a candidate for the three thousand dollar diamond ring to be pre- sented to the most popular Shriner at the institution of the new Temple, and over a number of other aspirants for the honor he was chosen, having received the endorsement and support of a large number of the most prominent and leading Masons in Texas.
On October 10, 1910, Mr. Jones married Miss Laura Bessie Jackson, a native of Car- rollton, Dallas County, Texas. They have one son, Oral A. Jones, Jr.
WILLIAM MILLER KERR. The Kerr family came to Texas and established their home in Cooke County in the centennial year of 1876, just about the close of the reconstruction era in Texas, and when progress and development in North Texas were striking a permanent gait. Through a period of forty-five years William Miller Kerr, popularly known as "Uncle Miller," has been identified with the farm enterprise and the good citizenship of the section around Era in Cooke County.
He was born in Blount County, Tennessee. December 7, 1840. The Kerrs were a promi- nent family in old Virginia. They subse- quently became early settlers in Tennessee. His grandfather, Jesse Kerr, married Miss Sallie Miller, and their sons were McLin, John, William, Claiborn and David, and their daughters were Mrs. Sallie Wilson, Mrs. Betsy Wilson and Polly who married a Mr. Thompson.
Of these David Kerr, father of William Miller Kerr, was a man of rather liberal edu- cation and spent his active life as a farmer .. His first wife was Martha Henry, and their children were: Mary, who married Eli More- lock and died in Tennessee; Sallie, who be- came the wife of H. H. H. Hambright, and both died at Rome, Texas ; James McLin, who was a Confederate soldier under General Johnston and is now a retired farmer at De- catur, Texas; and William Miller, of Era. The second wife of David Kerr was Betsy Tulloch, and of their ten children only one is now living, Miss Jane, of Era, Texas. John A. F., a farmer near Valley View, died July, 1921.
William Miller Kerr acquired his education in the country schools of his native state. In 1863, as a young man, he entered the army of the Confederacy, joining Captain Barry's bat- tery of light artillery. He was with that bat- tery a few months in Alabama, and left the army when he found a man to take his place. He then resumed farming in Tennessee, and followed that work until he came to Texas. He came to Texas accompanying his mother and other members of the family. His father, David Kerr, had already come to Texas and had secured as his location a tract of land two miles east of Era in Cooke County. The family came to the state by railroad, unload- ing their goods at Dallas and driving overland to Cooke County. The Kerr home was one of the old improved ones around Era, and David Kerr and wife lived there the rest of their days.
William Miller Kerr has never married. His home has been with some of the family, chiefly with his brother Jesse and his sister Jane. He has a farm adjoining the old home- stead, and devotes its hundred and thirty-five acres to both cotton and grain crops.
Mr. Kerr grew up in a home of democratic principles in politics, while the family faith was that of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He cast his first vote for John C. Breckenridge and also voted for Jefferson
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Davis for president of the Confederate states. In 1864 he supported General Mcclellan as the democratic candidate against Lincoln. He has never participated in politics beyond vot- ing, but his character and influence in the com- munity have always been those of an upright and conscientious citizen and a useful worker.
FRANK J. WREN is one of the prominent young lawyers of Fort Worth, and his leading interests as a lawyer since his admission to the bar has been corporation and railroad prac- tice. He is junior member of the firm Lee, Lomax & Wren, attorneys for the Santa Fe Railway Company at Fort Worth.
Mr. Wren was born at Galveston, Texas. March 12, 1891. a son of P. S. and Mattie (Campbell) Wren. His father was a native of Richmond, Virginia. His mother is still living at Galveston, at the age of sixty-eight. Of their seven children all but one reached mature years, Frank J. being the youngest.
When he was twelve years of age Frank J. Wren came to Fort Worth and he grew up in the home of Mr. Lee, now head of the law firm of Lee, Lomax & Wren. While at Fort Worth he attended the Polytechnic College, also the University of Texas and the Univers- ity of Michigan. He acquired a thorough and liberal education, and while in college was a member of several fraternities. Mr. Wren was admitted to the bar in 1913, and prac- ticed at Fort Worth and at Ardmore, Okla- homa, for a brief time. Then, returning to his native city of Galveston, he was associated with the firm of Terrey, Cavin & Mills, gen- eral attorneys for the Santa Fe Railway Com- pany. He was appointed assistant attorney for this railroad, and in December. 1919, re- turned to Fort Worth and became a member of the law firm above noted.
Mr. Wren married Miss Willie Lewis, of Fort Worth, in 1917. He is a member of the Fort Worth Club and active in Masonry.
A. DAVENPORT has been a business man in West Texas since early manhood, and his en- terprise was attracted to the marvelous new city of Ranger almost at the beginning of its growth and expansion. He is active head of the chief hardware establishment in the city, and has also allied himself with other public spirited men in solving the many problems due to rapid civic growth and expansion.
He was born in Tom Green County, Texas, son of Joe and Fannie (Wilson) Davenport. His father, a native of Gonzales County.
Texas, was prominent in the cattle industry for many years. His operations were in Tom Green County for many years, but in the early '80s he moved to Poolville in Parker County, where he lived between thirty-five and forty years. It was in Poolville that A. Davenport was reared and educated. As a young man he engaged in the hardware busi- ness at Weatherford, and in 1903 removed to Thurber in Palo Pinto County, where for sev- eral years he was manager of the hardware department of the Texas Pacific Mining & Mercantile Company.
On arriving at Ranger May 7, 1918, Mr. Davenport put his resources in the automobile and garage business. He built and operated Ranger Garage No. 1 and Garage No. 2, with a total floor space of 28,000 feet. It was with difficulty that he kept the facilities of his plant adequate to meet the tremendously heavy de- mands caused by the oil boom. After a little more than a year he discontinued the automo- bile business and organized and established, in November, 1919. the A. Davenport Hardware Company, a corporation of which he is man- ager. Its home is in a handsome new brick structure on North Austin Street and the business is established on a most successful basis.
Ever since coming to Ranger Mr. Daven- port has given his serious consideration to civic problems, and has supplied some of the intelligent planning and efforts that have been required by the emergencies of a community growing from less than a thousand to more than twenty thousand people in a year or two. The city was incorporated in February, 1919, and at the first city election in April Mr. Dav- enport was elected a member of the first Board of City Commissioners under the commission form of government. He is commissioner of fire and police. To him the city owes its well equipped and efficient fire department. Many compliments have been paid upon the equip- ment and personnel of the department, de- clared by experts to be equal to that of many cities much larger and of course much older than Ranger. In effecting these results Mr. Davenport, at considerable sacrifice of time and money, made trips to New Orleans, El Paso and to even more distant cities to inquire into the management and equipment of mod- ern fire departments. While at the sacrifice of his own private business he has expended so much energy on his own department, he is like- wise allied with all organizations and groups
9.11. Jurns M.D.
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of individuals working for the common wel- fare of Ranger.
He is a member of the Rotary Club and the Masonic order. He married Miss Louie A. Garner, a native of Mississippi.
J. M. GIVENS, M. D. Throughout his career as a physician and surgeon at Fort Worth Doctor Givens has sought opportunities constantly to improve his knowledge and technique, and his earnest devotion to his vo- cation has enabled him to realize some of the best ambitions for service to humanity.
Doctor Givens was born October 4, 1876, at Texarkana, Arkansas, son of W. D. and Elizabeth (Smith) Givens. His mother is now living, at the age of seventy-six, at Merit, Texas. W. D. Givens was born at Memphis, Tennessee, and on account of his youth ran away from home to get accepted as a soldier in the Confederate army. After the war he followed the business of a contractor until his death in 1882.
One of a family of seven children, five living, J. M. Givens remained on the home farm in Hunt County, Texas, until he was eighteen. He acquired his early education in the public schools. On leaving the farm he came to Fort Worth and entered the service of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company. part of the time working in the shops and also being a fireman between Fort Worth and Baird. In 1899 he left the railroad to enter Fort Worth University, and later resumed his studies in the medical department of the University, where he graduated in 1906. He then began his work as a general practitioner, and in 1908 specialized in office practice and surgery. He was visiting surgeon at All Saints and St. Joseph's Hospitals, and during 1908-10 was assistant to Dr. F. D. Thompson. In 1907 he completed one post-graduate course in New York, and in 1909 attended the New York Polyclinic School.
Doctor Givens was reared a Methodist, and is an independent in politics. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic Order, Moslah Temple of the Mystic Shrine and for ten years has been affiliated with the Elks.
On March 4, 1912, he married Miss Grace Francise Wallace, daughter of W. T. Wallace of Fort Forth. Her people came from Ten- nessee, and she finished her education in Bel- ton, Texas. After her father's death she managed his business and since her marriage has taken an active part in church and wel-
farc work. Dr. and Mrs. Givens have an adopted daughter.
COL. ROBERT D. GORDON came to East- land and entered business life and oil produc- tion after he left the regular army, with which he was identified almost continuously for a period of twenty years, including service in the Philippines at the beginning and finally as a member of the General Staff at Washington.
Colonel Gordon was born in Prussia, Ger- many, in 1882, and in 1899 came to America with his parents. They lived at Atlanta, Georgia, where he received his education. Leaving the South, he went to the Pacific Coast and was in San Francisco, where in 1902 he enlisted as a private in the 3rd Nebraska Volunteers for service in the Philip- pines. While in the Philippines he was trans- ferred to the 11th Infantry, Regular army, subsequently joined the Philippine Scouts, with the rank of lieutenant, and his period of service over he returned to the United States and for four years was in civilian life in Wyo- ming. He then returned to the Philippines, rejoined the Philippine Scouts, and subse- quently re-entered the Regular army. After being returned to the United States he was on duty at many posts and was on the Mexican border in 1916 when Columbus, New Mexico, was raided by Villa. Shortly afterward he was sent to Tucson, Arizona, as military in- structor in the University of Arizona.
During the early months of the war with Germany Colonel Gordon was transferred to Governor's Island, New York, where he was in the Quarermaster's department with the rank of captain. He was next sent to Fort Ontario, New York, as commanding officer, and in May, 1918, sailed for France, where he served on the General Staff with the rank of major. Before the war ended he was sent back to the United States and stationed at Camp Custer, Michigan, as assistant chief of staff. Being relieved from those duties, he was called to the War College at Washington and given duties with the General Staff as instructor, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Gordon finally resigned from the army in December, 1918. His resignation was ac- cepted over strong protest from the General Staff, who insisted that he remain, and some very splendid compliments were paid his abil- ity, efficiency and high character.
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