USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 37
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
Newton Henderson was born in Fannin County, Texas, February 22, 1848. Practi- cally his entire life was spent in Denton County, where he died in 1901. His educa- tional training was of a practical nature and as a young man he began his career as a farmer and stockraiser. Too young to be enrolled as a Confederate soldier, his patriotic impulses caused him to run away from home
560
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
and go to Dallas in an effort to get into the army, but the war closed soon afterward. He played a conspicuous part in Denton County as a farmer and rural developer, and for a number of years did a large business as a cotton buyer. He was a democrat, a member of the Christian Church, and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. Newton Hen- derson married Matilda Reynolds, who was born in the vicinity of Rolla, Missouri, in 1850, daughter of Cornelius C. Reynolds, who brought his family to Texas. Mrs. Newton Henderson died in 1875. Her children were: Parmon J., a farmer near Aubrey; Samuel Carson, whose friends have always known him as "Coon"; Edith J., wife of M. H. Crawford, of Aubrey ; Jasper Newton, a mer- chant at Aubrey, where he died in 1919, leaving a son, Lenn R. The second wife of Newton Henderson was Mary L. Reynolds, sister of his first wife. To this union were born the following children: Ola, Mrs. J. J. Price, of Denton; Stella, wife of W. D. Hodges, of Aubrey ; and Grover Grant, now associated with his brother Samuel C. in busi- ness at Aubrey.
Samuel C. Henderson was a farmer boy until twenty and in the meantime acquired a public school education and a commercial college course at Greenville, Texas. On re- turning home he became a clerk in his father's hardware store, and he and his brother, Par- mon J .. subsequently succeeded to the owner- ship of this business. He bought his brother's interests in 1915. Mr. Henderson has sold goods in the Aubrey commnuity for a great many years and has gained a reputation as a merchant of integrity as well as a citizen of marked public spirit. For eight years he has been an officer in the First Guaranty State Bank and its predecessor, and is president of that successful institution. A stanch advocate of permanent good roads, Mr. Henderson is one of the advisory committee of the County Commissioners in the building of good roads. He is a democrat. has served as party com- mitteeman and attended conventions as a dele- gate in former years. He has filled the chairs of Aubrey Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is treasurer of the Aubrey Bap- tist Church.
In Denton County, January 1, 1899, Mr. Henderson married Miss Lillie M. Hodges. who was born in Denton County. May 5, 1881. one of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hodges. Her father was a Confeder-
ate soldier with an Alabama regiment, was wounded at Missionary Ridge, and after the war came to Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Hender- son have a daughter, Mae, in the class of 1923 in the College of Industrial Arts at Denton.
JOSEPH JOHNSTON TAYLOR. The smiles of fortune were never better bestowed than on Joseph Johnston Taylor of Breckenridge, who now has extensive cares and responsibilities in looking after his property and his oil interests. This good fortune hardly came to him by chance. An old resident of Breckenridge and one of the native sons of Stephens County, he was making steady but sure progress toward a modest prosperity and working hard to de- serve it all as a merchant at Breckenridge, and the oil boom, therefore, did not find him unprepared to take a just share of its rewards.
Mr. Taylor was born at Caddo in Stephens County in 1883, a son of J. P. and Josie (Sanders) Taylor. His .parents are now de- ceased. His father was a native of Illinois, and from that state came to Texas during the '50s, being one of the first settlers at Lan- caster in Dallas County. A few years later he left home to enter the Confederate service in Sixth Texas Cavalry, under General Law- rence Sullivan Ross, afterward distinguished as a governor of Texas. He was three times severely wounded. At the battle of Corinth he was shot through the hips, the bullet going entirely through his body. Nevertheless after a short period in hospital he went back to his regiment on crutches. In subsequent battles he was shot through the scalp and through the arm and in both legs. For all these injuries he was a useful and honored citizen for many vears. After the war he moved with his fam- ily to Western Texas and settled in Caddo, Stephens County, and in 1884 removed to Breckenridge, the county seat. His last years were spent at Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
Joseph Johnston Taylor was taken to Breckenridge when about a year old, grew up there and attended school. Thirty years ago Breckenridge was a remote country commun- ity. It presented few opportunities to an ambitious boy to earn a living. Young Taylor worked with a freighting outfit, clerked in stores, and eventually put his experience and exceedingly modest capital to work as an inde- pendent merchant. For about fifteen years he was in the grocery business at Breckenridge. In a small way but wisely and judiciously he invested his surplus in town and country prop-
J.J. Taylor.
561
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
erty. Thus with the breaking of the oil boom in the early part of 1920 he was in a position to greatly profit thereby, especially from wells brought in on his property.
Mr. Taylor built and is owner of the Taylor Building, a substantial modern two-story brick business block on the corner of Main Street and Rose Avenue. He owns much other val- uable real estate both in the city and country. He has conserved his resources carefully and his acumen as a business man and judge of property has brought him such wealth as to make him one of the substantial men of finance in this rich city and county. He was one of the organizers and vice president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, which later was taken over by the Breckenridge State Bank & Trust Company and is now the Brecken- ridge State Bank, of which he is a stockholder.
Mr. Taylor married Miss Bess Brown, a sister of R. F. Brown, one of the well known citizens of west Texas. They have two chil- dren, Leo and Joel Taylor. The former, now seventeen years of age, is attending college at Dallas.
JAMES ROBERT SANDIDGE was actively iden- tified both with the old and the modern period of Fort Worth's history. He came here over forty years ago, when Fort Worth had only one railroad, and lent his influence and public spirit to every successive advance in the metropolis of Northwest Texas.
Mr. Sandidge was born in Elbert County, Georgia, October 25, 1848, a son of James Madison and Mary ( Pullian) Sandidge. His father was a native of Virginia and his mother was born near Elberton, Georgia. Of a family of eight sons and four daughters but one sur- vives.
James R. Sandidge spent most of his boy- hood in Desoto County in Northern Missis- sippi, acquired a common school education, and was a small boy during the war period. After some mercantile experence and training he arrived at Fort Worth, January 3, 1878. Mr. Sandidge had an intimate memory of all that notable group of men who were the main- spring of Fort Worth's enterprise and com- mercial life of that period. For about a year he was employed as bookkeeper for the firm of Manuel & Sandidge, the junior member of the firm being his uncle, J. Q. Sandidge, who was associated with the men who secured the first railroad into Fort Worth and with other civic movements. James R. Sandidge subse- quently was with the firm of Evans & Martin
until B. C. Evans incorporated the business as the B. C. Evans Company, when he became a stockholder. At the death of his uncle, A. J. Sandidge, of Tyler, Texas, he was named in the will sole executor of the estate, a large property valued at $150,000. He performed the executor's duties without bonds, and had this and many other lines of administrative business under his charge for many years. Mr. Sandidge never married. He was one of the veteran members of the Fort Worth Club, and also a Mason. He not only knew Fort Worth intimately, but employed his means for exten- sive travel and spent much time in Europe as well as in American states and the provinces.
T. LEE PHILLIPS, who was active vice presi- dent of the First Guaranty State Bank of Aubrey before its consolidation, has been closely identified with this prosperous bank- ing institution in Denton County throughout its history. He is an able banker, and a man who has completely realized the responsibilities of a banker and bank to the progress and wel- fare of the community it serves.
Mr. Phillips represents an old-time family of Denton County. His father, Joel Phillips, was a native of Illinois. He had few advan- tages during his youth, and most of his edu- cation he picked up outside of school. However, he was well able to take care of his business affairs, and showed his efficiency in all the emergencies of life. As a youth he joined a party of gold seekers who started across the plains to California. The journey was fraught with many of the hardships inci- dent to shortage of food, and some of the party turned back home. He and the more determined continued and reached their des- tination, where they remained some two years. After a successful mining experience they tried to return east, when the entire accu- mulations of the party were stolen. They then returned to the mines and sought another store of the precious metal. Again they started east for Illinois, their route leading through Texas. Again they were subjected to dangers. and only the exercise of their wits and courage foiled a second attempt at robbery. While going through Northern Texas Joel Phillips became favorably attracted to the region and abandoned the party and settled here perma- nently. His first home was in the vicinity of the present Grapevine, in Tarrant County, but later he moved into Denton County and estab- lished his home in the community of Lloyd, where he remained the rest of his life. He
562
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
was a neighbor of other pioneers, including the Bates, Bells, Zumwalts. Hill and Hicks families. In Denton County Joel Phillips played the part of a stock farmer, was suc- cessful as a business man, but personally is remembered as a reserved and unassuming man who nevertheless contributed of his influ- ence to the building of a righteous community and left an indelible impress upon those who knew him. His old neighbors and friends on meeting for the first time his sons have fre- quently remarked: "If you are just as good a man as your father was, you are all right." He was a Methodist and democrat, and helped establish the first free or public school in his locality and also the church of his faith, the Oak Grove Church, north of Lloyd, being the outgrowth of the original society he helped establish. During the war between the states Joel Phillips was a teamster in the Confederate army. Exposure from that service hastened his death. He died in 1884. He married the daughter of one of the pioneer families of his locality in Denton County, Sarah Jane Hicks, who was born near Bowling Green, Kentucky, daughter of Taylor Hicks, who moved to Den- ton County somewhat later than Joel Phillips and lived in the Zion locality, where he was a farmer and stockman. Sarah J. Hicks ac- quired a meager education as a result of the pioneer environment in which she grew up. She died at the age of about fifty-six. The only two children reared by her are Joel R., a farmer at the old homestead at Lloyd. and Thomas Lee, of Aubrey.
T. Lee Phillips was born at Lloyd, in Den- ton County, November 11, 1882. He attended the common schools there, also the John B. Denton College, and took a short course in the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan. He was away from home attending school from the age of seventeen to twenty-two, and then spent a year on the home farm.
Mr. Phillips had planned a career as a prac- tical farmer, and had no intention of becom- ing a banker when he accepted a temporary clerkship urged upon him by the management of the First National Bank at Aubrey. In a short time his services became so valuable that he was prevailed upon to remain, and was active in the institution and its successor and largely contributed to its success. In 1917 the First National Bank was liquidated and succeeded by the First Guaranty State Bank, with capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, five thousand dollars less than the capital of the National Bank. May 19. 1921. the First
Guaranty State Bank consolidated with the Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Au- brey, with J. R. Phillips as president and active vice president ; T. Lee Phillips, vice president ; W. P. Ratchford, cashier; J. E. Bonar and D. K. Lyles, assistant cashiers.
T. Lee Phillips has grown into the business affairs of the community of Aubrey not only in banking and finance but other matters as well. He has the interests of the schools at heart, as did his father, and is president of the School Board of Aubrey. He was active in organizing and was an officer in the Busi- ness Men's League during its existence. He has an active part with his brother as a farmer, and they have provided a helpful ex- ample in the matter of breeding better grades of live stock, emphasis being placed upon a general purpose animal. They have grown premium hogs exhibited at the Fat Stock Show at Fort Worth. Their hogs are the Poland China and their cattle the Durhams. The bank of which Mr. Phillips is an officer has encour- aged good agriculture by offering prizes for corn and cotton and other farm products. The brothers are stockholders in the Denton Milling Company, the Exchange National Bank of Denton, both are directors of the Denton Milling Company, and Joel Phillips is also a director of the First Guaranty State Bank of Aubrey.
At Fort Worth, July 8, 1910, T. Lee Phil- lips married Miss Florence Alma Barr. She was born in Mississippi, January 4, 1882, and from that state her parents came to Denton County. Her mother, Henrietta (Perkins) Barr, is still living in Denton County. Her children were Marvin; Mrs. Lee Phillips ; Berva, who is the wife of Joel Phillips; Mrs. Gertrude George and Robert Barr. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have had five children, Marjorie Lee, Joel Dewayne (who died when six years old), Thomas Leroy, Mary and Marion. The family are active members of the Methodist Church at Aubrey. Mr. Phillips is a steward of the church and teaches a class of young men and women in the Sunday school. He is a Master Mason.
HOWARD P. SANDIDGE, the efficient and popu- lar assistant cashier of the Forth Worth National Bank, was born at Fort Worth, November 12, 1882, and is a son of Thomas R. and Nannie (Thornton) Sandidge, who were born and reared in the State of Mississippi and who established their home in Fort Worth about the year 1872. Here the father engaged
Edgar Scurry
563
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
in the retail hardware business, and later he became prominently associated with banking enterprises, as one of the progressive business men and influential citizens of Fort Worth, where he and his wife still reside and where he is now living virtually retired.
Howard P. Sandidge, the second in order of birth in a family of eight children, received his youthful education in the public schools of his native city, and he was twenty years of age when, in 1902, he took a clerical position in the office of the Farmers & Mechanics National Bank of Fort Worth. With this institution he continued his association until 1909, when he was chosen assistant cashier of the State National Bank. He retained this position until 1914, since which year he has served, with characteristic efficiency, as assist- ant cashier of the Fort Worth National Bank. He is one of the representative young business men of his native city, and here his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaint- ances. He is a democrat in political allegiance and he and his wife hold membership in the Broadway Baptist Church.
The year 1907 recorded the marriage of Mr. Sandidge to Miss Mary Lee, daughter of John A. Lee, of Fort Worth, and the four chil- dren of this union are: Howard P., Jr., Har- riet Elizabeth, Joseph Clyde and Julia Lee.
JUDGE EDGAR SCURRY, former judge of the 78th Judicial District, is one of the oldest active members of the bar of Wichita Falls, where he has had his home and where he has been active in practice and prominent in public affairs for thirty years.
While his own achievements have brought him distinction and honor, Judge Scurry bears a name that has many historic associations in Texas. The Scurrys are of Scotch-Irish origin. Judge Scurry's grandfather was Tom Scurry, a native of South Carolina who sub- sequently moved to Tennessee. Tom Scurry was a soldier under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812. One of his sons was Richard Scurry, who came to Texas when it was a province of Mexico and was a soldier in General Hous- ton's army at the battle of San Jacinto in April, 1836. A younger brother of Richard Scurry was General William R. Scurry, father of Judge Scurry. General Scurry was born at Gallatin, Tennessee, and arrived in Texas after independence had been achieved, prob- ably during the winter of 1836-37. He also gained distinction in both civil and military
affairs. He served with the rank of colonel in the Texas troops engaged in the Mexican war under General Taylor. Still later, in the war between the states, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, and gave up his life for the cause, being killed in the battle of Saline, Arkansas, April 30, 1864. General William R. Scurry married Janette B. Sutton.
Edgar Scurry was born in Victoria County, Texas, in 1857, and was only seven years of age when his father died. Though the family was an old and honored one, it suffered almost total loss of its fortunes through the ravages of the war and the succeeding period of recon- struction. Hence the boyhood of Edgar Scurry lacked most of those advantages the natural prominence of his family connections would have afforded. He had practically no formal education in those years, and his substantial learning is a result of arduous application and self-direction. He grew up in southern Texas and acquired most of his knowledge of the law in an office at Giddings. He was admitted to the bar there in 1881, began his practice in that town, and subsequently served as county attorney of Lee County.
Judge Scurry identified himself with the bar of Wichita Falls in 1890 and has outlived and outpracticed most of his early contemporaries in this section of the state. The first public honor given him after he came to Wichita County was the office of county judge. He was elected to the 26th session of the Legisla- ture in 1900, and in that session served as a member of the committee on revenue and tax- ation. Governor Colquitt appointed him dis- trict attorney of the 30th Judicial District and subsequently the same governor appointed him judge of the 30th District. At the close of his appointed term he became a candidate in 1916 for judge of the newly created 78th Judicial District. He was elected, and began his first term as judge in January, 1917. His judicial term corresponded to a period of most unusual activity, including the World war, and the remarkable industrial development in growth, all of which presented many impor- tant questions and issues before the District Court. Judge Scurry on the bench and as a lawyer and private citizen has always been recognized as an able, fearless and high- minded gentleman.
As the son of an old soldier he has always taken a deep interest in the affairs of the Confederate veterans and in the preservation of Confederate history, and a proper perpetua- tion of the memory of those who fought for
564
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
the south. He has been a member of the exec- utive council S. C. V. and is at present com- mander of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the S. C. V.
GEORGE R. CLAYTON, vice president of the wholesale grocery house of A. E. Want & Company of Fort Worth, came to this city as a young man of nineteen years, and here his advancement has been gained entirely through his own ability and well directed endeavors, which have so marked his course as to secure to him prestige as one of the representative business men of the city, which is the com- mercial center of this section of the Lone Star commonwealth.
Mr. Clayton was born in Noxubee County, Mississippi, January 7, 1865, and on both the paternal and maternal sides he is a scion of staunch old southern families. His father, George R. Clayton, was born at Athens, Georgia, and his mother, whose maiden name was Laura Johnston, was born in the City of Louisville, Kentucky. He is the younger of the two children, and his sister, Miss Lily B., has been for many years principal of the Latin department of the Senior High School in Fort Worth, in the public schools of which city she became a teacher in 1885. Mr. Clayton was reared principally in the City of Mobile, Ala- bama, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early education. There he remained until he had attained to the age of nineteen years, when he came to Texas and established his residence in Fort Worth. Here he took the position of office boy in the mercantile establishment of Joseph H. Brown, and effec- tive service won him promotion to the position of head bookkeeper and official credit man, of which dual position he continued the incum- bent until 1889.
At this juncture in his career he became associated with Samuel C. Jackson in pur- chasing the interest of Colonel Talbott in the wholesale grocery business of the firm of Tal- bott, Want & Company on the 1st of May, 1890. With this readjustment Messrs. Jack- son and Clayton became members of the firm, in which the other two members were A. E. Want and Charles E. Ryan. With the growth and expansions of the business and as a matter of commercial expediency the interested prin- cipals finally effected incorporation under the present title of A. E. Want & Company, and Mr. Clayton has since continued as an official of this representative corporation as one of the leading stockholders and as a director of
the company. The large and well-equipped wholesale establishment of this company is situated at the corner of Sixteenth and Com- merce streets, and in the employ of the con- cern are about fifty persons, including traveling representatives. The substantial trade of the company extends throughout the territory normally tributary to Fort Worth as a dis- tributing center, and this is emphatically a growing concern, with effective management and well fortified financial control.
Mr. Clayton holds membership in the Fort Worth Club and the River Crest Country Club, and he and his wife hold membership in the First Presbyterian Church, in which he is serving as a trustee.
In September, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clayton to Miss Louise Ward- law, of Shelbyville, Tennessee, and they have two children : Charlotte is the wife of Glen H. Mitchell, of Los Angeles, California; and Laurance is attending Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire.
JOHN H. CLEVELAND has recently completed a full half century of residence at Denton. He became widely known over the entire county through his many years of service as a sales- man for some of the big mercantile firms of Denton. He has now completed thirteen years of duty as deputy or chief tax assessor of the county.
Mr. Cleveland was born in Henry County, Missouri, April 2, 1859. His father, William Henry Cleveland, was a native of Kentucky, and was four years of age when his father, a farmer, moved overland to Missouri and set- tled in Henry County. William H. Cleveland, his brother, and two sisters grew up in that section of Missouri and married there. Wil- liam H. left school with only a limited educa- tion. He married Catherine Holloway. In 1871 they brought their family by team and wagon from Missouri to Texas and settled at Denton, which was then a small town, with the distinction of county seat honors but with only a few wooden stores and dwellings. William H. Cleveland became a merchant, and his name and enterprise were a factor in the commer- cial development of the city for a number of years. After he retired from business he was elected city assessor and collector, filling that. office five years. In the face of advancing age he retired from active affairs and died at Den- ton in 1905, at the age of seventy-four, being survived by his widow two years. Their chil- dren were John H., Mollie, of Denton, and
565
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Tillie, who died at San Diego, California, wife of D. N. Dodson.
John H. Cleveland was twelve years old when he reached Denton. He had attended school in Missouri, and he continued his edu- cation at Denton, but after school hours and during vacations he worked at several occu- pations that offered means of experience and some financial reward. After leaving school he was employed as clerk in the dry goods store of the pioneer merchant, C. A. Williams, and remained there almost eight years. He was also salesman for McClurkan, Blount & Company, and finished his business experience with the prominent Denton firm of Jarrell & Evans.
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.