USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 22
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
Mr. Shepherd is a son of T. B. and Lucy Jane (Scott) Shepherd, also residents of Wichita Falls. His father is a native of Mis- souri and his mother of Collin County, Texas. They were living at Ardmore, in what was then the Chickasaw Nation of Indian Terri- tory, when their son Virgil H. was born in 1885. A few years later they moved to Gaines- ville, Texas, where Virgil Shepherd was reared and educated.
He left school to find employment in lumber yards, and one of his first positions was with the old Cicero Smith lumber firm at Fort Worth. He was there two years, and since 1909 his home has been at Wichita Falls. He located in the city as state representative of the United Sash and Door Company, but traveled for that concern all over Texas. With the organization of the Wichita Falls Sash and Door Company he took an active share in the management and as a stockholder, and for seven and a half years was general manager. VOL. IV-8
In 1919 the Toombs-Shepherd Sash and Door Company was organized as successor of the older business, and Mr. Shepherd became vice president of the new corporation. He sold his interests in this business in July, 1920, but is still in the lumber business as president of the North Side Lumber Company of Wichita Falls.
Mr. Shepherd has worked with other pro- gressive interests in the city for the success of the great program involved in the new wealth and increased population, and is public spirited and active in all civic affairs. He is a member of the Business Council of the Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Wichita Club and the Elks Club. He married Miss Edna Santell, of Birmingham, Alabama, and they have one son, Virgil H., Jr.
JAMES C. WHITE, member of the old and prominent White family of Grimes County, is a young Texas banker, and has become widely known in the oil district of Eastland County as a bank executive. He is now active man- ager of the First Guaranty State Bank of Desdemona.
Mr. White was born at Navasota in Grimes County in 1894, a son of J. C. and Sallie (Brown) White. His mother is still living, and is a descendant of the Lindley family of Scotland, who came to America before the Revolutionary war. The Lindleys became re- lated to the Vanderbilts of New York. The late J. C. White was also born in Grimes County, where for a number of generations the Whites have been extensive planters and prior to the war were slaveowners. The an- cestral seat of the family in that section of the Brazos is known as Whitehall.
James C. White was educated in the public schools of Minnesota and in Austin College of Sherman, Texas. He was still a youth when he began training himself for banking. and spent three years in a bank at North Zulch in Madison County. Later he was with the Guaranty State Bank at Athens, Texas, and then took up executive duties with the First National Bank of Ranger, giving that institution the benefit of his experience and abilities during the height of the great oil boom. He was at Ranger from the summer of 1918 until February, 1920, when he came to Desdemona to take charge of the First Guaranty State Bank in the capacity of vice president and cashier. Here he has continued the good reputation he has built up as a banker of the highest ability.
480
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Mr. White married Miss Elizabeth Keefer, of North Zulch, Madison County. Their two children are Lois and James C., Jr.
DUARD D. WILSON. Of the men of the younger generation who have recognized the opportunities of the great Texas oil fields and have taken advantage of the chances here offered for advancement, one who has made progress in keeping with his abilities is Duard D. Wilson, secretary and treasurer of the Great Texas Oil & Refining Company of Fort Worth. He has been identified with the oil industry for only three years, but during this time has familiarized himself with its every feature. and his connection with several enter- prises has contributed materially toward their prosperity.
Mr. Wilson, unlike many who have made the oil business here their chief interest, is a native Texan, born in Coleman County, November, 27, 1888. His father, D. D. Wil- son, a resident of Fort Worth, is interested in various oil hollings and Fort Worth real es- tate. and since February 14, 1920, has been president of the Great Texas Oil & Refining Company. There were six children in the family. Duard D. being the second in order of birth.
Duard D. Wilson received his education in the public graded and high schools of Santa Ana and Brownwood. Texas, and started to work on August 16, 1916. for the firm of Walker. Smith & Company, wholesale grocers. After one year he left this concern of his own accord and went to Abilene, Texas, where he joined J. M. Radford, also a wholesale grocer. After six months his health failed and he was forced to give up his position, but after a few months, when he had recuperated, he came to Fort Worth, October 5, 1918, and joined the Waples-Platter Grocer Company, with which he continued until January 1, 1919. He resigned to assist in the organization of the Burkburnett-Ranger Oil Company, and was subsequently engaged in the oil brokerage business until he assisted in the organization of the Great Texas Oil & Refining Company, in the capacity of secretary and treasurer. This company, which has offices at 616-17 Dan Waggoner Building, Fort Worth, has operated successfully from the beginning. dealing in proven acreage in the various Texas oil fields. The company owns two mod- ern refineries now nearing completion, one at DeLeon, Texas, and one at Breckenridge, the
combined capacity of which, when completed. will be 4,000 barrels per day.
Mr. Wilson is known as one of the enter- prising and energetic young business men of Fort Worth, and his name has been linked with reliable enterprises, which, with his known integrity, have served to give him standing and reputation. He has a number of social, fraternal and civic interests, and takes an active part in the life of the city.
WV. C. LOWDON has been associated with the young and enterprising business element at Fort Worth for half a dozen years. He is sec- retary-treasurer of the Stafford-Lowdon Com- pany, printers, lithographers and manufactur- ing stationers.
He was born at Abilene, Taylor County, Texas, November 4, 1889, son of James G. and Gertrude Alice (Crane) Lowdon. His parents were natives of New York, and about 1885 came to Texas and established a home at Abilene, where his father became prominent in the cattle industry and in business affairs, serving for a number of years as president of the Abilene National Bank. He died in 1907.
W. C. Lowdon grew up at Abilene, attended the common schools there, and finished his education in the William Penn Charter School at Philadelphia. His school days over, he re- turned to Fort Worth and for several years was employed in the auditor's office of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway Com- pany. About 1910 he and his brother, E. C. Lowdon, went east, bought land in Maryland, and had an interesting experience as farmers in that state four or five years.
In 1913 Mr. Lowdon returned to Fort Worth, and with the Reimers Company ac- quired a practical and technical knowledge of the printing and lithographing business. He was with that concern until the outbreak of the war with Germany, when he enlisted and as a first lieutenant was on duty in the Quar- termaster's Corps at New York City. After getting his honorable discharge he returned to Fort Worth, and in 1919 was associated with the organization of the Stafford-Lowdon Company and has since been its secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Lowdon is a member of the Rotary Club and the Meadowmere Club and is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Eastern Star. In 1920 he married Margaret Jean Logan, of Fort Worth.
481
FORT. WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
JAMES W. OFFUTT has been a resident of Fort Worth for over thirty years, was reared and educated in the city, and has devoted all his mature years to the shoe business.
He was born at Georgetown, Kentucky, March 13, 1880. In 1888, when he was eight years of age, his mother, Mary (Ford) Offutt, came to Fort Worth. He attended the public schools of this city, and as a young man went to work in a local shoe store, learned the shoe business thoroughly, and in 1906 became as- sociated with W. B. Newkirk in the firm of Newkirk & Offutt. This firm now has two stores at 703 Houston Street and at Sixth and Houston streets, and is one of the leading establishments of its kind in Fort Worth.
Mr. Offutt is a member of the Fort Worth Club and the Chamber of Commerce. In 1908 he married Leila Harrison, of Fort Worth.
ASHER J. THOMPSON. While his home is at Stephenville in Erath County, Asher J. Thompson is one of the old time citizens of Desdemona, where his enterprise was effective in promoting the commercial prosperity of the town before the oil boom, and he has been one of the most prominent in the era of the new town since the oil discoveries of 1918. Mr. Thompson is president of the First Guar- antv State Bank of Desdemona.
He was born in Knox County. Tennessee, in 1872. His father, the late A. S. Thompson, who died in 1919, was a native of Connecticut. As a young man he went to Knox County, Tennessee, where he reared his family, and in 1890 came to Texas. For many vears he was a prominent and highly esteemed citizen of Desdemona in Eastland County. A sur- veyor by profession, he surveyed a great deal of land in Central and West Texas, and he also filled the office of justice of the peace.
Asher J. Thompson was educated in Ten- nessee and entered actively upon a business career on coming to Texas. He was in busi- ness in several localities, and at Desdemona he built and operated a cotton gin for seven vears. He was also one of the organizers of the First Guaranty State Bank, and as presi- dent has brought that institution to an enviable position among the stronger banks of West Texas. When the Thompson family came from Tennessee they settled on land just east of Desdemona. On this property Asher T. Thompson had the good fortune to strike oil, the land being in the pathway of the oil de- velopments beginning in 1918. He has since
acquired extensive interests in oil production, refinery and pipe line enterprises, and still owns much valuable property in and around Desdemona. He was one of the organizers and is secretary and treasurer of the Des- demona Oil and Refining Company, which owns and operates one of the large refineries at Burkburnett.
Mr. Thompson married Miss Lizzie Crow- ley, a native of Stephens County, Texas. They have one daughter, Petsey.
JOHN D. McRAE, an attorney-at-law of Eastland and president of the Eastland Cham- ber of Commerce, is one of the most represen- tative men of his profession and citizenship to be found in the rich oil belt of Central West Texas. He is accounted one of the most in- fluential factors in the public and civic affairs of Eastland, and is a thorough Texan, with all the energy, practical ability and resource- fulness which that name implies.
The birth of John D. McRae took place at Mount Holly, Union County, Arkansas, in 1869. He is a son of John M. and Eliza (Dews) McRae, both of whom are now de- ceased. John M. McRae was born in Anson County, North Carolina, a member of one of the fine old families of Scotch ancestry which since the Colonial days have been the very bone and sinew of lower North Carolina. When he was still a child John M. McRae was taken to Union County, Arkansas, by his par- ents, and developed with the course of time into one of the prominent merchants and plant- ers of Mount Holly. During the war between the states he served in the Confederate army. and after the termination of the war he bravely faced changed conditions and took up the burdens of private life. The present governor of Arkansas, Thomas C. McRae, of Union County, is a nephew of this fine old gentleman and a cousin of Attorney John D. McRae.
After attending the public schools of his native county John D. McRae attended Wash- ington and Lee University at Lexington, Vir- . ginia, where he took both the academic and law courses and was graduated in June, 1894. In that same year he came to Texas, and,- locating at Waxahachie, entered upon the practice of his profession. The environment was congenial and for almost a quarter of a century he was engaged in a very large and profitable practice, taking always a prominent and active part in all of the city's affairs and becoming one of the stalwart leaders of the
482
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
best element. In 1918 Mr. McRae moved to Eastland, where he has continued his practice as a law partner of Judge Earl Connor, the two forming one of the strong legal combina- tions of this part of the state. Here, as in Waxahachie, his sterling worth, integral ability and experience in public affairs have caused him to be drawn prominently into matters per- taining to Eastland, and he was further hon- ored, January 14. 1921, when he was elected president of the Eastland Chamber of Com- merce.
Mr. McRae was united in marriage with Miss Mattie Graham, who was born in Ken- tucky. It has long been an accepted fact that where education, training and experience run parallel with individual inclination the combi- nation is irresistible in its impetus, and the associates of Mr. McRae feel that his choice of his profession has been a happy one in that he is so eminently fitted for the work he carries on so successfully. The action of his fellow citizens in placing him at the head of the Chamber of Commerce is gratifying to him, for it places the stamp of approval upon his actions and proves that his efforts not only are appreciated, but that they are of value to others. His ideas on civic matters are very progressive, and he plans to give practical expression to them in his new office.
SAM S. LOSH, whose work in promoting musical activities has had practically a national significance and influence, has been identified with Fort Worth since the period of the World war, when he was at Camp Bowie rep- resenting the War Department Commission on Training Camp Activities in the department of Camp Music.
Mr. Losh was born at Lebo. Perry County. Pennsylvania, October 4, 1884. and is of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, his people on both sides having been identified with Colonial settlement. His parents, Charles S. and Alice (Wagner ) Loch. are now deceased. His father in early life was a farmer and school teacher. and later moved to Hagerstown. Maryland. where for many years he was in the retail piano business.
Third in a family of six children, five liv- ing, Sam S. Losh grew un at Hagerstown. acquired his public school education there, and after graduating from high school was a teacher for two years in the public schools. He comes by his musical gifts naturally and from childhood has shown remarkable talent. At fourteen he was a church organist and
favorite pianist in Hagerstown. He had all the experiences of an enthusiast in the en- vironment of a small community. From this training he emerged with a practical musical knowledge, which, added to his more serious training, including a period of technical edu- cation in the Conservatory of Music at Leip- sic, Germany, has made his work peculiarly valuable in a community sense.
Mr. Losh as an army song leader at Camp Bowie and elsewhere was carrying out a work that has made him one of the pioneers of this country in the development program for the popularizing of community music. He has led community singing in many cities from coast to coast, and he has practically dedicated his life and talents to what might be termed the constructive musical side of American life.
During his residence in Fort Worth he worked for the maintenance of choral sing- ing and church music of a high order. With the assistance of some other progressive musi- cians he has produced several performances of grand opera which have been artistic achievements unexecelled in America. The whole country has been amazed at the pos- sibilities of musical co-operation as shown by Mr. Losh and his associates in this hazardous form of musical effort. He has been man- ager and director of the Apollo Chorus and musical director and organist of the Broadway Presbyterian Church. Mr. Losh is one of the most popular men in the social community. He is a member of the Rotary Club, is a past president of the Lions Club, and is affiliated with the Masons. Knights of Pythias and Elks.
CHARLES GAMER has been a Texas business man for thirty-five years, and has lived at Fort Worth since 1893. For many years he conducted an extensive machine shop, an in- dustry handling pumps, windmills and other machinery. He is now in the wholesale paper business, president and owner of the Gamer Paper Company of Fort Worth.
His success in the world has been a matter of self achievement, since he was left an orphan boy and has been earning his own way from the age of nine or ten years. He was born in Connecticut, January 1. 1859, son of August and Elizabeth Gamer. His parents came from Germany. He was three years old when his father died and seven when his mother passed away, and soon afterward he had to look out for himself. At the age of nine he went to Wisconsin. and lived and
483
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
worked on a farm there until he was nineteen. He then became a railroad section hand, and on coming to Texas in 1886 first located at San Antonio. Here he gained his knowledge of the pump and windmill business as an employe of F. F. Collins. In 1893, on locating at Fort Worth, he engaged in the pump and windmill business, and subsequently amplified his industry to a general machine and repair shop. He sold out this branch of his business in 1918. Some years ago he erected the four- story building in which he is now located. This building has 93,000 square feet of floor space, and it has housed the Gamer Paper Company since 1916. He has an extensive wholesale business in paper, and employs thirty-two people in his plant and business, in- cluding ten traveling salesmen.
Mr. Gamer is recognized as one of Fort Worth's leading business men and citizens. He married in 1900 Miss Lizzie Hogan, and they have one son, Charles Joseph.
JOHN NICHOLS WINTERS is one of Fort Worth's veteran real estate men, and his ex- perience in estimating land values and handling land transactions in North and West Texas covers more than thirty years.
Mr. Winters was born near Rockport, Indiana, November 20, 1858, a son of J. C. and Mary (Brown) Winters. His parents were born in Ohio, his father being of German and his mother of Irish descent. Of their eight children John was the seventh.
He grew up and received his education in Indiana, and was eighteen when he came to Texas, first locating in Sulphur Springs. Mr. Winters for a period of about eight years was engaged in teaching, beginning at Sulphur Springs and continuing at Ballinger and other points in Western Texas. While teaching he began handling real estate at Ballinger, and remained in that section until 1894, when he came to Fort Worth and has since given all his time and energies to this line of business. His specialty is the sale of ranches, and he has handled many large and notable transac- tions in different parts of the state.
Mr. Winters has been a life-long republican, and is an active member of the Magnolia Christian Church at Fort Worth. In 1888 he married Miss Alice Bivins. They have a family of one son and four daughters, Jet C., Oliver, Ona, Ivy and Una.
HENRY DEE PAYNE has been one of the very able men and members of the Fort Worth
bar for the past decade. He is a native Texan, studied law while teaching school, and achieved his early successes as a lawyer in East Texas.
Mr. Payne was born in Kaufman County November 30, 1869, a son of C. A. G. and Fannie (Richards) Payne. His parents were born in Alabama, his father in Jackson and his mother in Lauderdale counties. They were brought to Texas when children, and the father grew up and spent his active life as a farmer. The mother is still living, at the age of seventy-six. Of their four children two died in infancy. The two still living are both lawyers, Will S. - Payne being a member of the Dallas bar.
H. D. Payne, second in age among the chil- dren, lived on his father's farm to the age of twenty. He acquired a common school edu- cation, and at the age of sixteen qualified and taught his first term. He employed all his spare moments in the study of law while teaching, and in 1893 was admitted to the bar. He continued teaching for a time at Stone Point, and began practice at Elmo and also was in practice at Emory, all localities in Northeastern Texas. While at Emory he taught six months and served on the Board of School Examiners. Leaving Emory on March 28, 1896, he located at Grand Saline, where he rapidly built up a large and success- ful practice. On January 15, 1900, Mr. Payne moved to Granbury, and was a member of the bar in Hood County until November 7, 1911, when he came to Fort Worth. He has been active in politics, though practically never as a personal candidate for office. He is affili- ated with the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias and is a charter member of the Woodmen of the World. On May 23, 1895. he married Alice Richardson, of Elmo, Texas. They have four children, Lucile, wife of Luther C. Boyd, Cecil, Mary Bell and Stewart. All the children were born in Texas.
KLEBER V. JENNINGS has been a resident of Fort Worth from the time of his birth, save for the period while he was absent at school, and he is now one of the assistant cashiers of the Fort Worth National Bank. in which representative institution he is ren- dering effective stewardship as a popular exe- cutive. He was born in Fort Worth on the 2d of November, 1879, the eldest of the four children of Hyde and Florence (Van Zandt) Jennings, and the public schools of his native city afforded him his preliminary educational
484
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
discipline. Thereafter he was for two years a student in historic old Phillips Exeter Acad- emy at Exeter. New Hampshire, and for one vear a student in the military institute at Lex- ington, Virginia. After returning to Fort Worth he became bookkeeper in the private banking house of Hunter Phelan, in which institution he was finally advanced to the posi- tion of assistant cashier. In 1908 he assumed a similar position in the Fort Worth National Bank, in which his faithful and efficient serv- ice won for him promotion, his appointment to the position of assistant cashier having been made in February, 1920. In addition to his executive duties with the bank Mr. Jennings is associated with the real estate business in his native city. He holds membership in the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club.
In 1904 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jennings to Miss Cora Daggett, daughter of E. M. Daggett, of Fort Worth, and the four children of this union are: Alice, Florence. Cora and K. V., Jr.
SAMUEL DAVID SHANNON was actively as- sociated with the commercial interests of Fort Worth and North Fort Worth for a period of twenty years or more, and his business ex- perience and wide acquaintance among the citizenship thoroughly qualified him for his present duties as tax assessor of Tarrant County.
Mr. Shannon has spent most of his life in Texas. He was born in Choctaw County, Mississippi, May 15, 1867. His parents, Edward M. and Martha (Henry) Shannon, were also natives of Mississippi and moved to Texas in 1869, locating on a farm near Rox- ton in Lamar County, where they lived out their lives. The mother died at the age of forty-nine and the father at seventy-two. Of their six children Samuel D. was the third, and four reached mature years.
Samuel D. Shannon was two years old when the family came to Texas, and up to the age of twenty he lived on the farm in Lamar County, securing a common school education and by farm work acquiring a phys- ical equipment that has enabled him to carry some of the heavy burdens of his business career. On leaving the farm he came to Fort Worth, and his first employment in the city was in the mattress factory of J. T. Woolray. Later this business was developed as the Fort ยท Worth Furniture Company, and ~Mr. Shan- .: non , remained with. the firm altogether for
about- ten years. For six years he was con- nected with the Ellison Furniture Company, and after the great packing companies built their plants in North Fort Worth he was selected by Swift & Company as division superintendent of the pork department. He continued in the service of Swift & Company for about six years. . Following that he was in the undertaking business at North Fort Worth until 1918, when he was called to the duties of county assessor. By re-election in 1920 he is now in his second term. While in North Fort Worth Mr. Shannon also served as alderman one term, was city judge and for several years trustee of the School Board.
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.