USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 38
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Mr. Cleveland served as deputy tax asses- sor under three successive incumbents, Tom Flournoy, E. E. Miller and J. M. Gary. He then became chief of the office himself, being nominated at the primary by only two major- ity and elected in the fall of 1916 as the suc- cessor of Mr. Gary. Mr. Cleveland was re- elected in 1918, and in December, 1920, retired from the office, being succeeded by Mr. Evans. His official administration was marked by many improvements in the methods of han- dling the office affairs, and an utmost efficiency at all times in the service between the office and the taxpayers. It was also a period marked by imposing increase in county assessed valua- tions. These valuations when he became a deputy were approximately thirteen million dollars, and when he retired from office they were nearly twenty-three million dollars.
Mr. Cleveland grew up in a democratic home, has been loyal to that party, and the influence of Baptist parents has also made him a member of the Baptist Church, with which Mrs. Cleveland is also affiliated. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World, and Mrs. Cleveland is a Rebekah.
On December 19, 1886, Mr. Cleveland mar- ried Mrs. Minda Robertson, who was born in Muhlenberg County. Kentucky, October 20. 1866, youngest of the thirteen children of Francis W. and Patsy (Dockins) Burge. Her parents were both natives of Tennessee, and in January, 1882, the Burge family came to Texas and settled at Mckinney, where Mr. Burge followed farming and the carpenter's trade. In January, 1886, he removed to Den- ton, where he and his wife spent their last years. There were eleven children reared by Mr. and Mrs. Burge: Thomas, of Denton ; Sarah, wife of William Shelton, of Oak Cliff ;
Martha, wife of W. H. Cates, of Scullin, Okla- homa; William Hardin, who died in Ken- tucky; John P., of Wirth, Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary Balderson, of Denison, Texas; Joel W., of McMan, Oklahoma; Louisa, who died in Denton County, the wife of J. H. Cook ; Mrs. Ellen Shultz, of Norman, Oklahoma; Lucy, widow of J. C. Reese, of Amarillo; and Mrs. Cleveland. The first husband of Mrs. Cleve- land was Charles C. Robertson, of Mckinney. Mrs. Cleveland has a daughter, Elsie May, who has two children by a former marriage. Lorena and Nina Nolen, and she is now the wife of George Honeycutt, of Washington, District of Columbia.
ALEXANDER STEPHENS GARRETT, M.D. An accomplished and successful physician and surgeon, Dr. Garrett has practiced medicine in the country west of Fort Worth for over a quarter of a century, most of his service hav- ing been given in Parker County.
Dr. Garrett is a man of achievement who qualified for a professional career after a youth of adversity and struggle. He was born near Palmetto, in Campbell County, Georgia, May 3, 1861, son of Lemuel and Martha (Cash) Garrett, the former a native of South Carolina and the latter of Georgia. His father became a Confederate soldier, was captured and died in a Savannah, Georgia, prison, when his youngest child, Alexander Stephens, was an infant and the mother was left with five other children. all small. She did a noble part by her family and of the five sons all became professional men, three of them lawyers and two physicians.
Alexander Stephens Garrett found his early strength and labors required on the home farm, and could attend only a few short sessions of school. In 1879, before he was nineteen years of age, he married Medora Kidd, also a native of Campbell County, Georgia, and two months his junior. By mutual helpfulness and hope- fulness they solved the problems of the future, and after his marriage Doctor Garrett was graduated from high school and subsequently entered Atlanta Medical College, now the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons of Atlanta, from which he was graduated in 1890. For a year or so he practiced at his native town of Palmetto, but in 1892 came to Texas and after two years settled at Palo Pinto, where he had a good practice for about eight years. He then moved to Springtown, in Parker County. and since 1918 his home and professional head- quarters have been at Weatherford. He has
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served as both City and County Health Officer, but is now only Acting County Health Officer. While always busy in his profession. Doctor Garrett has also exercised an active influence in politics, and at one time was candidate for Congress on the prohibition party ticket and for years has been a staunch advocate of pro- hibition. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations and is affiliated with the Masonic order and Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
Doctor Garrett has five living children. His oldest son, Herbert S., born in April, 1881. has achieved a high position as a Texas lawyer and is attorney for the Texas Oil Company. Jewell Garrett is superintendent of musical instruction in the public schools of Weather- ford. George W. is statistician for the Orient Railway Company. The two younger children are James A., at Texas Christian University, and Blanche, the latter the wife of H. H. How- ard, of Abilene, Texas.
N. O. MONROE is president and manager of the N. O. Monroe Realty Company, the oldest exclusive real estate firm in Wichita Falls. Its service has been a direct auxiliary to the tre- mendous commercial development and expan- sion in Wichita Falls and surrounding terri- tory during the past decade. The energizer and mainspring of the business, Mr. Monroe, is closely allied with the substantial conserva- tive business interests of his community, but he is also known as a man of great originality in his methods, and is regarded by his asso- ciates as a genius in real estate.
Mr. Monroe is a native of Tennessee and came to Texas about a quarter of a century ago, when he was seven years old. His father. N. R. Monroe, on coming to Texas went into the Panhandle country and engaged in the cat- tle business in Donley County. Some years later the family removed to Roger Mills County in Northwest Oklahoma, where N. R. Monroe continued his association with cattle raising.
N. O. Monroe grew up on a cattle ranch and learned the practical details of the cattle business. In 1910 he came to Wichita Falls, and with his brother, L. M. Monroe, estab- lished the Monroe Brothers Realty Company. They opened their quarters in the "Land- mark" office building at Seventh and Indiana streets. For the past four years the firm has been on the second floor of the First National Bank Building. L. M. Monroe retired in 1915,
and since then the business has been conducted as the N. O. Monroe Realty Company.
In the opinion of men competent to judge this organization has been an important factor in preparing Wichita Falls for its tremendous expansion in business and population during recent years. The organization is one com- petent to handle large affairs, involving actual development work as well as the ordinary routine of real estate transactions. Many of the larger transactions in and around Wichita Falls have been handled through the N. O. Monroe Realty Company, including the sale of some valuable parcels of land to outside capital. Mr. Monroe's organization furnished the selling agency for the group of individual homes costing over half a million dollars erected by the Wichita Falls Lumber and Building Company during 1919. This was one of the largest contributions to the building program imposed by necessity upon this youth- ful city of fifty thousand people.
Mr. Monroe as a citizen is one of the ener- getic, generous and public spirited men of Wichita Falls. He is a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce, and on the Board of Directors of the Wichita Club, one of the twelve members of the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army of Northwest Texas, and during the war neglected much of his business routine to throw himself with characteristic energy into the various drives for Liberty Bonds and other war causes. He is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner and also an Elk. Mr. Monroe has also been fortunate in his home life. His wife was formerly Miss Effie E. Kellum, of Shack- elford County, Texas.
CHARLES R. PAGE is a veteran merchant of Mansfield and as a business man and citizen has been identified with that community forty years. He has prospered in his own affairs and has given generously of his time and means to furthering community causes. The confi- dence in which he is held is well indicated by his present position as mayor.
Mr. Page was born in New York State, June 6, 1851, and that state was also the birth- place of his parents, Calvin W. and Lois (Miller) Page. His father was born near Albany. Charles R. Page was the oldest of nine children. He was reared and educated in New York and Pennsylvania and was a young man of twenty-three when he came to Texas in 1874. His first location was at Dal- las, but shortly afterward he moved to John-
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son Station, thence to Arlington, where he was in the livery business about six years, and in 1880 came to the town of Mansfield. Since that year he has been in business as a mer- chant without interruption and was one of the oldest merchants from the standpoint of con- tinuous experience in Tarrant County.
In October, 1880, Mr. Page married Miss Georgie Maclin, who was born in Brazoria County, Texas, daughter of J. D. and Georgia (Newson) Maclin.
Mr. Page while serving as alderman was appointed to fill a vacancy as mayor and has since been twice elected and has administered the affairs of the municipality with great credit and efficiency for eight years. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and Knights of Pythias and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
ANDREW E. WANT is a citizen whose vigor- ous and resourceful individuality has con- tributed definitely to the commercial prestige and general civic prosperity and advancement of Fort Worth, where he is president of the wholesale grocery corporation of A. E. Want & Company, one of the leading concerns of this order in this section of the Lone Star State.
Andrew Edwin Want was born in the City of Memphis, Tennessee, on the 12th of Febru- ary, 1859, and is a son of Walter and Susan (Harris) Want, the former of whom was born in the section of the Dominion of Canada that was formerly designated as Canada West, and the latter of whom was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, where their marriage was solemnized. The father died during the war in Desarc, Arkansas, and the mother died in Fort Worth, December 27, 1908. Of the ten children, Andrew E. of this review is now the only survivor. Andrew E. Want acquired his youthful education in the schools of his native state, and he was fifteen years of age when he became a resident of Fort Worth, where his splendid advancement in the business world has been won entirely through his own ability and well ordered endeavors. His first work in this city was in selling copies of the Fort Worth Democrat, of which Captain Paddock was then the editor. Shortly before his twenty- first birthday anniversary, in 1880, Mr. Want married, and he then entered the employ of Charles B. Daggett, August 1, 1881, at a salary of nine dollars a week. The youthful benedict was animated by a goodly ambition and deter- mination, which, as coupled with his ability
and effective service, soon won him advance- ment in connection with the wholesale grocery business of Mr. Daggett. On the 1st of Janu- ary, 1882, he was appointed general manager of Mr. Daggett's business, and he retained this responsible executive position until 1886. On the 1st of January of that year he, with Charles E. Ryan, purchased the business of Mr. Dag- gett, almost entirely on credit, and in the following March John O. Talbott was admitted to partnership in the business, the firm title of Talbott, Want & Company being adopted at this time. Under this title the business was continued until May 1, 1890, when Mr. Tal- bott retired. Samuel C. Jackson and George R. Clayton became associated with Mr. Want in the conducting of the wholesale grocery busi- ness that has since been successfully continued under the title of A. E. Want & Company. The business was incorporated in 1890 and Mr. Want has since continued as president of the company. He has been a resourceful force in the development and upbuilding of the large and substantial business of this company, which has a modern establishment of the best equipment and service, and which gives em- ployment to an average force of about seventy persons.
In 1898 the Nash Hardware Company, which had been founded in 1872 and which originally conducted a retail hardware busi- ness, was reorganized and expanded its func- tions by entering the wholesale field. At the reorganization Charles E. Nash became presi- dent of the company and Mr. Want, as a sub- stantial stockholder, assumed the office of vice president, the directorate of the company in- cluding also Samuel C. Jackson and George R. Clayton. In 1912 Messrs. Jackson and Clay- ton sold their interest in this business to the president and vice president of the company, and thereafter Mr. Nash continued as presi- dent of the company until his death, in Sep- tember, 1918, when Mr. Want became his suc- cessor. He continued as chief executive of the Nash Hardware Company until the 1st of January, 1920, when he resigned in favor of Arthur Hodson, who had been with the busi- ness since he was a lad of twelve years and who is giving loyal and effective service as its executive head.
On the 1st of May, 1890, the wholesale grocery business of A. E. Want & Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $20,000, and with the splendid expansion of the enterprise the capital has been gradually in- creased until the capital and surplus are repre-
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sented in the sum of $362,500 in the autumn of 1920. The Nash Hardware Company was incorporated in 1898 and its original capital stock of $20,000 is today replaced by an aggre- gate capital and surplus of $435,000. Mr. Want has an attractive home at 610 Fifth Avenue, also an attractive country home nine miles distant from Fort Worth, and there he finds recreation and pleasure during the major part of the time when his attention is not demanded in connection with his large and im- portant business interests in the city.
On the 20th of January, 1880, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Want to Miss Jennie Sherrod. She is the popular mistress of their beautiful city and rural home.
HARRY PENNINGTON. The position of prominence and influence that has been gained by Mr. Pennington in connection with the great oil-producing industry in Texas is spe- cially gratifying to note by reason of the fact that he is a native son of the Lone Star State and a scion of a family whose name has been identified with Texas history since 1835. His paternal great-grandfather, Stephen Penning- ton, came from Virginia to Texas in the year above mentioned, and he transported his family and limited supply of household effects by means of carts drawn by oxen. It thus was no stately cavalcade that marked the arrival of this sterling pioneer of pioneers, who estab- lished his frontier home in the locality that became Washington County at the time when Texas became an independent Republic. He was one of the signers of the Texas Declara- tion of Independence and was a soldier in the command of Gen. Sam Houston in the historic battle of San Jacinto. He was a citizen of prominence and influence in the early period of Texan history, and was a resident of Washington County at the time of his death. His son, Elijah, grandfather of the subject of this review, represented Texas as a soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, as did also Capt. John Morgan, the maternal grand- father, who had previously served as captain of Texas troops in the Mexican war, and was a gallant officer in the Confederate service.
Harry Pennington, who is now vice presi- dent and general manager of the Manhattan Oil Company, and also of the ajunct organ- ization, the Crude Oil Marketing Company, with headquarters at Wichita Falls, was born in old Washington County. Texas, and is a son of Asa and Martha Perry ( Morgan) Pen- nington. He received his youthful education
in the public schools of his native state, and was a young man when he became associated with the oil business, soon after oil had been discovered in the southern part of Texas. For several years subsequent to 1902 he was in the oil-producing business in the fields about Beau- mont, Sour Lake and Batson's Prairie. While still engaged in this enterprise he left the oil fields to finish his education. He entered the great University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which he was graduated in the department of mechanical engineering as a member of the class of 1905. In the year 1908 he became associated with the engineering department of the Texas Company, with headquarters in the City of Houston, and for a number of years he was chief of the mechanical engineering department of this great corporation.
His experience and technical ability enabled Mr. Pennington to discern clearly the great possibilities in connection with oil-production in the Wichita Falls district, and in 1918 he came to Wichita Falls and established himself in business as an independent oil operator. In this connection he made a remarkable rec- ord and achieved noteworthy financial success. He drilled the famous Gray Gander well, the first well in block 88 in the Northwest Exten- sion of the Burkburnett field. His No. 1 well in this field made for him a quarter of a mil- lion dollars, and after the property had earned this amount he sold the well for $425,000. Several other wells drilled and exploited by him proved of comparatively successful .pro- ductiveness and returned large profits.
In July, 1920, Mr. Pennington became vice president and general manager of the Man- hattan Oil Company, which corporation has as adjunct organizations the Crude Oil Market- ing Company and the American Oil & Tank Line Company, with refineries at Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas, and at Cleveland, Ohio, and which controls and operates an ex- tensive line of steel tank cars, as well as an adequate pipe line system. The Crude Oil Marketing Company has extensive pipe lines and oil production enterprise in the oil fields of Northwest Texas, besides which it com- pleted and placed in operation in the summer of 1920 a large and modern refinery, which is: one of the most important in Wichita County and which has an output capacity of 3,000 bar- rels daily. As an authority on the various methods of well drilling, Mr. Pennington re- cently contributed a timely and valuable series of newspaper articles on "The Hydraulic Rotary System of Drilling Oil Wells," and
He He Haggard
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these articles attracted wide attention and favorable comment throughout the oil-produc- ing districts of Texas and Oklahoma.
Mr. Pennington is an active member of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, the local Golf and Country Club, and the University. Club of Houston.
He married Miss Mary Ellen Christian, daughter of the late J. R. Christian, of Hous- ton, who was general freight agent for the Southern Pacific Railway. Mr. and Mrs. Pen- nington have one son, Harry, Jr.
H. H. HAGGARD. In the brief period since the bringing in of the first oil gusher in the Burkburnett field in Wichita County, one of the most prominent and successful operators and producers has been H. H. Haggard, whose name everyone identified with the oil indus- try in that region associates with a remarkable degree of foresight and enterprise in securing valuable leases and in developments that have brought him and his partners a large share of the wealth flowing from oil wells.
Mr. Haggard has spent most of his life in Texas but was born in Murray County, Georgia, in 1885. His parents removed to Texas and settled in McLennan County when he was six years of age, and he lived in that county and in Hill County until 1903. Follow- ing that for three years he was in Fort Worth, and in 1906 located at Henrietta, Texas. He married a daughter of W. H. Chilson, a prom- inent Henrietta capitalist, and he and Mr. Chil- son were associated in their early investments in the oil territory.
It was in the latter part of July, 1918, that the memorable discovery was made of the first oil gusher in the Burkburnett field. On the day this well was brought in Mr. Haggard began his operations as an oil man in the dis- trict. He and his associates purchased 1,600 acres of land in fee, in what is now known as the K. M. A. field in Wichita County. They paid $40,000 for this land. A short time later Mr. Haggard bought leases for an additional 1,300 acres adjoining, in what later became known as the Lockridge pool. To these hold- ings Mr. Haggard and associates acquired about 300 acres of leases rich in possible oil production. Subsequent developments have amply proved the wisdom of his choice, and he has disposed of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lease rights, but still re- tains much of the original leaseholds, espe- cially in Blocks 41 and 55 in the K. M. A.
district. The shallow production developed in this field has been exceedingly profitable.
Following his ventures in the K. M. A. field Mr. Haggard and associates went into the northwest extension of the Burkburnett field and secured profitable production in the Lanier tract and subsequently in Blocks 96 and 98 of the Morgan tract of the northwest extension. Mr. Haggard still owns leases in that section.
Since coming to Wichita Falls he has de- voted all his time, study and energy to oil production, and is widely known as an expert authority on drilling and conservation of oil resources. He is an advocate of adequate leg- islation by state and Federal government to conserve such resources.
He is an influential member of the Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. Haggard was formerly Miss Blanche Chilson. Their three children are William Howard, John Chilson and Nancy Catherine.
ANDREW JACKSON DUKES. The older com- munity of Mansfield, in Tarrant County, honors Andrew Jackson Dukes as its oldest living resident. He has been there through all the remarkable changes in the community, the state and nation, for over fifty-five years, since the conclusion of the war between the states, in which he was a Confederate soldier. His name and enterprise have been associated with much of the commercial activitiy of Mansfield and there is abundant reasons for the high honor in which his name is held.
Mr. Dukes was born at Independence, Mis- souri, April 11, 1841, and has attained the age of four score. His parents were Robert Sher- rod and Martha (Hall) Dukes, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Tennessee, from which state they moved to Missouri and were pioneers in the western part of that state. Of their nine children seven reached mature years, and passed the age of three score and ten. Three of the family are still living, An- drew J. being the only one now in Texas.
His boyhood was spent in Missouri, where he benefited from the meager opportunities of such schools as were maintained in that day. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army un- der General Price and was all through the war as a private except for one year as a prisoner.
In 1865 Mr. Dukes came to Texas and direct to Mansfield. For several years he was on a farm, clerked in stores, and was actively associated in business at different times with A. J. Brown and J. Howard Wright, the banker. He was in the hardware business
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under the firm name of Dukes & Poe. He still furnishes the capital and is a silent part- ner in a grocery business. Mr. Dukes has acquired much property during his long resi- dence at Mansfield, including farms, and is a stockholder in the First National Bank.
In 1872 he married Martha V. Boydstun. She died thirty years later in 1902, the mother of three children : Mattie L., who died in 1894 the wife of W. S. Poe; Leonidas, of Mansfield; and Roberta, wife of J. M. Rich- ardson, of Shreveport, Louisiana.
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY LIPSCOMB, an honored Confederate soldier and veteran business man and resident of Grapevine, has been identified with North Texas for sixty years.
He was born in Carroll County, Mississippi, February 24, 1842, son of Dr. D. M. and M. H. (Scrivner) Lipscomb, the former a native of Louisa County, Virginia, and the lat- ter of Franklin County, Tennessee. The family came to Texas in 1861 and Dr. D. M. Lipscomb was the pioneer physician of Grape- vine, where he continued busy with a large country practice until his death in 1885. The mother died in 1901 at the age of eighty-four. They reared ten children, five of whom are still living.
Joseph P. Lipscomb was nineteen years of age when he came to Texas. Soon afterward he volunteered in the Seventh Texas Infantry as a private and was in service until captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. For several months he was confined in the Federal prison at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and after being ex- changed rejoined the service. In 1863 he was wounded in the battle of Raymond, Missis- sippi, and was subsequently furloughed and did not again rejoin his command.
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