USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
Colonel Gordon came to Eastland, Texas, in January, 1919. This town had attracted his attention through being the center of the
474
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
great oil fields of central West Texas. He has become a merchant, being owner of the Hub Clothing Company, operating the finest store in the city. He has also gone in for production and development work in the oil territory, being president of one of the leading producing firms in East- land County, the Okeh Oil Company. Colonel Gordon was the first president of the East- land Chamber of Commerce. He is a thirty- second degree Mason and Shriner and an Elk.
CON J. O'CONNOR has been a member of the Stephens County bar for the past five years, is a former county attorney, and is one of the young men whose attainments and achieve- ments lend distinction to the bar of West Texas.
He was born at Myra in Cooke County, Texas, in 1892, a son of Thomas J. and Ellen (Culbertson) O'Connor. His parents have lived at Dallas since 1895, when they removed from Cooke County. Con J. O'Connor was reared and acquired his literary education in Dallas, and subsequently attended the famous law school of Cumberland University at Leb- anon, Tennessee. He was graduated there with the LL.B. degree in 1914, and in the same year began practice at Dallas. For a brief time he was member of the firm O'Con- nor & Earnest, and then was in partnership with Dwight Lewelling under the firm name of Lewelling & O'Connor.
Mr. O'Connor removed to Breckenridge in September, 1916. Soon afterward he was honored with election as county attorney, and filled that office four years, until December, 1920. He was in charge of this office through- out the period of America's participation in the World war and during the oil boom, which brought additional burdens to all the public functions in Stephens County, and he left the office with a very enviable record to his credit. He is well established in a large general prac- tice of law, and his position in the profession and his citizenship is well assured. Mr. O'Con- nor is a member of the Delta Sigma Phi col- lege fraternity and the Loyal Order of Moose.
He married Miss Vida Chesley. Her father, John E. Chesley, is one of the old and promi- nent citizens of Stephens County, a prosper- ous banker and stockman in the southwest portion. The Chesleys are one of the best known families in this section of Texas.
RUFUS B. WEST, M. D. Thirty years of continuous practice in Fort Worth gives Dr.
West rank among the oldest physicians and surgeons in that city. His has been a busy career, and he has been an interested witness of the great growth and development of this metropolis of Northwest Texas.
Dr. West was born at Lislesville in Anson County, North Carolina, September 15, 1858, a son of Hampton and Jane (Mecham) West, his father a native of Alabama and his mother of North Carolina. When Dr. West was about nine years of age he went to Holmes County, Mississippi, and later to Tennessee. He finished his education in the Jackson dis- trict school in Tennessee, and from there took his advanced literary and medical education in Vanderbilt University at Nashville, graduating M. D. in 1882. He began practice at Hart- man, Arkansas, and was there seven years,. coming to Fort Worth in 1890. He is a member of the Tarrant County and Texas State Medical societies, and has lent the in- fluence of his name and effort to many move- ments for the advancement of his home city. For eight years he was chief medical officer for Tarrant County, and for fourteen years was a member of the faculty of Fort Worth Medical College.
In 1882 Dr. West married Miss M. A. Perkins. In 1898 he married Lutie E. Haven- hill. He has one daughter. Miss Mary West.
JOHN EDGAR WALLACE is one of the oldest men in the service of the Waples-Platter Grocer Company, one of the largest whole- sale grocery firms in the Southwest. Mr. Wallace for many years has had the manage- ment of the financial end of the business as auditor and cashier.
He was born at Atlanta, Georgia, Novem- ber 24, 1858, son of John R. Wallace. His father was born in Tennessee, enlisted at Gal- latin. Tennessee, for service in the Mexican war, and after the close of that struggle became a California gold miner. He subse- quently located at Atlanta, Georgia, and finally came to Texas. He married Elizabeth McLin, who was born at Xenia, Illinois, in 1828. Her father, Rev. J. A. McLin, was a Tennessean and was sent as a missionary of his church to Illinois. Elizabeth Wallace died at the age of seventy-two and John R. Wallace at sixty- six. Of their eleven children all but one grew to mature years.
The fourth in age, John Edgar Wallace graduated from the high school at Atlanta, Georgia, and at the age of seventeen came to Texas. He succeeded his father in the hard-
JEwallace.
475
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
ware business at Sherman, but in 1891 became identified with what is now the Waples- Platter Grocer Company as bookkeeper in the office of the original firm at Denison. In 1894 he came to Fort Worth, and for a quar- ter of a century has been auditor and cashier of this successful concern.
In 1886 Mr. Wallace married Nellie Smith Phillips, a native of Lockport, New York, and daughter of Mortimore W. Phillips. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace have one son, Ted Wallace, a prominent Fort Worth business man.
In 1886, during the strike on the Missouri Pacific Railway. Mr. Wallace was called out with the Militia to keep order and was first lieutenant of his company. Altogether he was with the State Militia for about seven years. He has been for many years a member and deep student of Masonry. He is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He is past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, a member of the Elks and the Travelers Protective Associa- tion. He has also served as junior warden of the Episcopal Church.
ELLIS H. BOYD is one of the leaders in the automobile industry of Fort Worth, a member of the firm Cooke-Boyd Motor Company, the exclusive sales agents over this territory for the Dodge Brothers car.
Mr. Boyd was born in Fort Worth, July 2, 1885, youngest of the four children of Newton H. and Mary Elizabeth (Allen) Boyd, the former a native of Jackson, Mississippi, and the latter of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His parents came to Texas in 1883, locating at Fort Worth. Newton Boyd was an employe of the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company for many years, and died at the age of sixty-three, being survived by his widow and all his chil- dren.
Ellis H. Boyd grew up in Fort Worth, at- tended the high school, and after leaving school had a long and active experience of about fourteen years with the retail grocery business and the wholesale produce business, and in those lines earned a substantial reputa- tion for commercial ability and integrity. He has been identified with the automobile busi- ness since 1915, at first with S. C. Webb, while in 1916 he formed a partnership with W. S. Cooke, under the name Cooke-Boyd Motor Company. This firm in 1920 built a three-story structure 80x100 feet at Second and Taylor streets, regarded as one of the best
equipped motor sales establishments in the state.
In 1913 Mr. Boyd married Miss Ivie Lee, daughter of John G. Lee, of Brownwood, Texas. They have two children, Ellis H., Jr., and Priscilla Rea. Mr. Boyd is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and a member of the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Com- merce, and is secretary of the Fort Worth Auto Trades Association. A native son of Fort Worth, knowing the city during the period of its early rise to commercial promi- nence, he has always been aligned with its pro- gressive interests and is one of its real men of enterprise.
JOHN W. ESTES. The success he has won in the law profession in recent years has earned for John W. Estes a distinctive place in the affairs of Fort Worth. He attained membership in the profession only after many years of struggle in self advancement, since his boyhood was one of comparative poverty and he had no one to help him but himself.
Mr. Estes was born in Marshall County, Kentucky, July 23, 1872, son of John Wesley and Amanda (Luter) Estes, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Robin- son County, Tennessee. Both parents are now deceased. John W. is the youngest of a family of four sons and one daughter, all still living except the oldest son.
When John W. Estes was eighteen months old his father died, and as soon as his age and strength permitted he was working in the fields. Only a few months each winter were spent in district school. Thus his early life was bounded by hard labor and by lack of advantages. As a young man he sought other opportunities and came to Texas in February, 1895. His first home was at Kennedale in Tarrant County, where he found employment in a brickyard during the summer and con- tinued his education there, attending school in the winter. After a course in the State Normal School at Denton he began teaching, and taught and attended Normal School alter- nately for a period of eight years. In the meantime he also took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar at Dallas Sep- tember 25, 1911. In 1910 he was appointed chief deputy sheriff under Bill Rea, and held that office four years. Then, in 1914, he gave all his time to the practice of law, and enjoys a large clientage and a successful position at the Fort Worth bar. His offices are in the
476
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Burkburnett building. Mr. Estes is also in- terested in local politics. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and has been affili- ated with that order since 1900.
In 1900 he married Miss Winnie Chorn, of Mansfield, Texas. They have two daughters and three sons, named Edward Carlisle, Irene, Homer T., Alice and Jimmie Chorn.
FRANCIS W. TOWNSEND. While there has been much diversity to the business career of Francis W. Townsend, his record on the whole is one of unvaried success in every re- lationship. He is an old timer in West Texas, having grown up from early boyhood in Erath County. He was in business nearly forty years, chiefly as a merchant, and for twenty years has been a highly esteemed citizen of the town of Gorman in Eastland County.
Mr. Townsend was born at Lawton, Michi- gan. in 1866, son of A. WV. and Mary (Weaver) Townsend, now deceased. His father was of Mayflower stock, also of Penn- sylvania Quaker ancestry, was born in Ohio. lived in Michigan for a number of years, and in 1876 came from Glenwood, that state, to Texas, settling in Erath County, about twelve miles from Dublin, at the point which later became known as Lingleville. This section of Texas was then a real frontier community. Comanche Indians had made their last raid in that vicinity in 1875, and the Townsends showed the hardihood of real pioneers in ven- turing into a country where much of the talk was of Indian depredations.
The late A. W. Townsend deserves more than passing distinction for the contribution he has made to the Texas livestock industry. He brought some of the first blooded stock into the state where the longhorns had reigned supreme. His stock, brought from the best blood of New England, included registered Durham bulls, Berkshire hogs and Merino sheep. When the Townsends came to Texas they traveled by railroad as far as Fort Worth, which was then the terminus of the Texas & Pacific, and thence they journeyed overland to Erath County. The community in which they settled was made notable in 1880 when the first barbed wire fence in the state was built on the Scarboro pasture between Lingle- ville and Dublin.
In 1882 the family removed to Dublin, where A. W. Townsend engaged in the mer- cantile business, under the firm name of A. W. Townsend & Son, his associate being his son
Francis. The latter continued with the firm until about 1890. Francis Townsend, was about ten years of age when he came to Texas. He had attended the common schools of Michigan, and his education after coming to this state was chiefly one of practical contact with affairs. In 1890 he engaged in the lumber business for himself in Dublin. but subsequently sold his yards to the R. B. Spencer Lumber company of Waco, and that was the first of that company's famous lumber yards. As a result of somewhat impaired health Mr. Townsend spent three years at Corpus Christi on the Gulf Coast, and in 1900 located permanently at Gorman in Eastland County. Here he founded the firm of Town- send, Oldham & Company, general merchants, and continued the active head of that growing and prospering concern until 1916, when the business was merged with the firm of Higgin- botham Brothers & Company, with Mr. Town- send continuing as manager until October, 1920. At that date he retired from active business life, having given many years to the careful supervision of his affairs, but retiring when he had the prospect of many years ahead of him. Mr. Townsend among other property owns five fine farms in the region of Gorman, and has some valuable oil production interests in the Eastland County fields. He is a member of the Christian Church.
His first wife was Miss Pearl Oldham, of Dublin. In 1903 he married Miss Lucy M. Yates. Mr. Townsend's three children, all by his first marriage, are: Clara Belle, wife of J. W. Cockrill, Royal F. and Azro Earl Town- send.
MATTHEW H. HAGAMAN. A record of Eastland County published a few years ago scarcely made mention of the Village of Ranger. It was. a community center for a farming and ranching district, and only two or three hundred dollars a year were required for the upkeep of its municipal facilities. Then came petroleum, a great flood of popu- lation, a forest of oil rigs, the spread of build- ing construction in every direction, and in two or three brief years a city in size and business. For the solution of the tremendous problems involved it was fortunate that Ran- ger had a group of real business men and public spirited citizens to take the responsibil- ities of leadership.
One of these, now mayor of the city, was Matthew H. Hagaman, who by reason of
477
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
nearly thirty years residence might be con- sidered a pioneer of Ranger. Mr. Hagaman was born in Johnson County in East Tennes- see in 1861. His father was a native of Watauga County in the beautiful mountainous western section of North Carolina, subse- quently moved to Johnson County, Tennessee, and died when his son Matthew was a child. The latter spent part of his boyhood in his native county, and also lived with an uncle in Watauga County, North Carolina, where he attended school. He also attended Globe Academy at Caldwell, North Carolina, and Grant and Moore's University at Chattanooga. His education was an adequate preparation for the profession of teaching. He was a schoolmaster for several years, both while attending college and afterwards. Mr. Haga- man came to Texas in 1887, locating in the eastern part of the state, in Hunt County, where he taught school a year. It was in the role of a teacher that he was first known in the county, where he taught for three years.
On locating at Ranger in 1892 he went into the business of agricultural implements and hardware, and supplied most of the trade in those commodities over this district for about nine years. Selling out his store, he turned his attention to the land and cattle business, and had every reason to be satisfied with his efforts as a rancher. He devoted his time and energies to that industry for about eighteen years. His ranch east of Ranger was in the scope of the oil drilling operations which began in the fall of 1917. His land has pro- duced a large amount of the petroleum taken out of the Ranger field. Mr. Hagaman as an aggressive buisness man was not satisfied merely with his royalties, but has been a pro- ducer, has handled leases, has invested in the local refinery industry, and has gone in for many promotion enterprises. With his care- ful, prudent manner of doing business and his skill in business affairs he has succeeded in a most gratifying manner, and is one of the wealthy and substantial men of this very wealthy community. He is a director of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Ranger.
It is estimated that seventeen thousand people are congregated at and near Ranger. All but a few hundred of those are new comers, attracted here within the past few years. Private capital and initiative could be counted upon to supply the facilities required in the oil industry, but something like cooper- ation and community spirit had to direct and supply the facilities of a municipality that
grew over night. Such improvements were made in a hurry, and there was no time to take advantage of the slow process involved in legislation under state law for issuing bonds. In that emergency every public spir- ited and high minded citizen took the respons- ibility on themselves to finance improvements through their individual contributions and through the banks. Mr. Hagaman advanced about sixty thousand dollars of his own funds for the purpose. This was an act dictated by an enlightened public spirit and extremely rare in the history of American communities anywhere. By a special election to fill the vacancy he became mayor in February, 1919, and in April was elected for the regular term of two years. Practically all the great im- provements and developments of the remark- able oil city have taken place under his admin- istration. Within less than two years Ranger acquired an extensive sewerage system, water supply, sidewalks and street paving, electric lighting, organization of an efficient police department and health department, and the organization of a sanitary and health depart- ment. Through individual effort and at his own expense he secured the right of way for the Wichita Falls, Ranger and Fort Worth Railroad, running from Wichita Falls to Dub- lin, and through Ranger. He has been chair- man of the Good Roads Committee and attended the first meeting of the Eastland good roads movement. This movement was responsible for the issuing of $4,500,000 bonds, supplemented by $200,000 given by the Government to build the system of roads throughout Eastland County. Mr. Hagaman was also one of the committee that laid out the road system throughout the county, which at this writing ( fall, 1921) is more than half built. Mayor Hagaman has devoted practi- cally his entire time and his best efforts to the Government, and the community owes and acknowledged a debt of gratitude for this unselfish spirit. The problems involved are not merely those of planning and providing financially for physical improvements, but also include the regulation of the unrestrained human element, the undesirables and criminals who always flock to a new boom town. The brief history of Ranger in which Mr. Haga- man has taken such a conspicuous part might well prove one of the romances of Texas his- tory.
Mr. Hagaman is an active member of the Elks and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He is a member
478
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
and trustee of the Methodist Church. He married Miss Emma Whittington, who was born near Marlin, Texas, and is a graduate of the Peabody Normal Institute of Nashville, Tennessee. They have three children. Les- lie is a graduate in engineering from the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College ; Miss Ruth is now a student in the University of Missouri; Fred, the youngest, is attending the Kemper Military College in Missouri.
JESSE J. WALDEN. The South Western Engraving Company has gained rank as one of the leading industries of Fort Worth, and its growth and success is the substantial re- flection of the energy and executive ability of Jesse J. Walden, owner.
Mr. Walden is a native of . Yell County, Arkansas, his birth occurring August 24, 1888, and he is the second youngest in a family of five sons and four daughters born to James H. and Mary L. (Adams) Walden, natives of Georgia and Arkansas, respectively. He was but ten years of age when his parents died, and he was brought to Osceola, Hill County, Texas, making his home with an older, married sister. Supplementing his early educational training acquired in the public schools, he enrolled as a student in the Tyler Commercial College, at Tyler, Texas, where he completed the course in bookkeeping and stenography and graduated in November, 1904. Returning to Osceola, he accepted a position with the First State Bank, where he performed the duties of general bookkeeper and accountant, cashier, etc., as is common in the banks of the smaller towns, receiving for his service the sum of $10 per month. Later he went to Itasca, Texas, where for a time he was engaged in the postal service.
In September, 1909, he came to Fort Worth and accepted a position with the Reimers En- graving Company, and in October, 1912, ac- quired ownership of the South Western En- graving Company, which under his directing genius has been materially enlarged and the scope of its activities extended until it has become one of the leading concerns of its kind in the entire southwest. maintaining a corps of seven traveling salesmen, covering eight states. The company has specialized in the publication of school annuals, and other similar productions requiring a high grade of engravings and color press work.
In 1919 Mr. Walden married Miss Myrtle Faye Scott, of Fort Worth, and they have two sons, Jesse J .. Jr .. and Benton Thomas.
Mr. Walden is a member of the Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth, and has taken active part in the work and welfare of the Y. M. C. A., in which he has served as a director. He is a member of the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Glen Garden Country Club. He is also a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite and a Knight Templar Mason.
JESSE THOMAS PEMBERTON, president of the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank of Fort Worth, is one of the most prominent and astute financiers of Tarrant County, if not of the state. During his long and intimate association with the banking business his name has become known as syonoymous with up- rightness, dependability and conservative policies. Under his wise and capable direc- tion his bank has taken its place among the leading concerns of this class in northeastern Texas.
Mr. Pemberton was born at Sedalia, Mis- souri, February 3, 1866, a son of J. M. and Mary J. (Lennox) Pemberton, natives of Kentucky and Missouri, respectively. They became the parents of four children, three of whom reached maturity, of whom Jesse Thomas was the second child and son. When he was still a child the family moved to Texas and located in El Paso County, now Runnels County, but later returned to Warrensburg, Missouri, where he attended the Missouri State Normal School. completing his studies in 1887, when he was twenty-one years of age.
At that date he came back to Texas and for a time was engaged in merchandising and banking at Midland, this state, where for twenty years. he was a forceful figure in the development of that locality. In 1909 Mr. Pemberton came to Fort Worth to accept the office of the vice presidency of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, and discharged its duties so ably and acceptably that in January, 1920, he was elected its president. In addition to his connection with the banking interests of the city he is financially identified with several of the leading commercial estab- lishments of Fort Worth, and is a man of ample means and practical ideas.
In 1887 he was united in marriage with Anna Moseley, and they have nine children, namely : Cecil A., Ara M., Jessie V., George R., Clara May, Guy L., Jesse Thomas, Ro- wena and R. I. For several years Mr. Pem- berton has been a member of the Baptist
479
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Church, and he is now serving as trustee of the Baptist Seminary. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner and also a member of the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club.
Since coming to Fort Worth Mr. Pember- ton has been connected with a number of its leading concerns in one way or the other, just as he was at Midland, and among other things assisted in organizing the Fort Worth Life Insurance Company. His remarkable business ability is natural. Although he learned the fundamentals of commercial life at a busi- ness college, the grasp he has always had of the various problems brought up for his solu- tion could not be taught in any institution. His keen insight into conditions enables him to act wisely in the conservation of his de- positors money, and his example is followed by the same and conservative men of the city and county, who recognize the fact that they can depend upon his judgment, especially in matters of business and finance.
VIRGIL H. SHEPHERD. Long before Wichita Falls became an oil metropolis Virgil H. Shepherd was one of the young business men of growing influence and prominence in the city's affairs in connection with the lumber industry. The lumber and woodworking in- dustry has been the object of his effort and study since early boyhood, and he has never sought experience or business connections out- side that field, in which he has made a pro- nounced success.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.