USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 4
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JAMES D. LEEPER has been identified with the lumber business in North Texas forty years, and for a third of a century his home and business headquarters have been at Gaines- ville. He is active head of several of the large lumber organizations doing business in Texas and Oklahoma, and ever since coming to Texas has been associated with some of the most prominent men in this line.
Mr. Leeper was born in Chillicothe, Mis- souri, had a public school education, and in 1881. as a young man, came from that locality to Texas. From that year until 1885 he was at Denison, connected with the lumber busi- ness of Waples, Lingo & Company. He learned the business under such master minds as Waples and Lingo, and in later years became one of their ablest lieutenants and business associates. From 1885 until 1887 Mr. Leeper was in business at Coleman, Texas. and in the latter year established his home at Gainesville. where he has remained for a third of a century.
At Gainesville he was associated with Waples. Painter & Company, and has been with that organization continuously. It is now the Waples-Painter Lumber Company. of which Mr. Leeper is president. He is presi- dent of three other extensive lumber organ- izations. One of them is the Leeper-Curd Lumber Company at Fort Worth, which main- tains a chain of yards in a number of Texas towns and cities. He is also president of the
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lumber concern of J. B. Wilson & Company. of Sherman, and is president of the Leeper Brothers Lumber Company of Oklahoma City.
Mr. Leeper was reared a democrat, cast his first presidential vote in that body, but in 1896 withdrew on account of the silver issue, and has since been a republican. At Denison, Texas, in 1885, he married Miss Nettie Ben- nett, who was born in Grayson County, Texas, a daughter of W. M. Bennett.
JUDGE ROBERT BRUCE YOUNG, judge of the Forty-eighth Judicial District, has been a resi- dent of Fort Worth and one of the leading members of the bar of that city since 1906.
A native Texan, he was born at Bonham, in Fannin County, May 30, 1874, a son of M. J. B. and Mary (Dale) Young. His father, a Kentuckian by birth, was reared in Missouri, and from that place joined the Confederate army, serving all through the war and coming out with the rank of major. About the close of the war, in 1865, he located at Bonham, Texas, and was one of the active merchants of that city until his death, at the age of seventy-seven. His wife, who died in Texas when about sixty-two years of age. was born in Missouri, daughter of J. B. Dale. Her father was a member of the Missouri Legisla- ture at the outbreak of the war. and soon joined the Confederate army, serving under Generals Price and Shelby. Following the war he engaged in the cattle business at Bonham and Henrietta, Texas.
Second in a family of four children, Robert Bruce Young spent his boyhood days at Bon- ham, attended the common schools there, and later entered Transylvania University at Lex- ington, Kentucky, the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Alleghany Moun- tains. He continued his studies there, and about 1894 began the reading of law at Bon- ham and was admitted to the bar in 1895. Judge Young is a man of broad scholarship and in twenty-five years has achieved a dis- tinctive place in his profession. He practiced law at Bonham and became well known in all the courts of northeastern Texas until 1906. when he removed to Fort Worth. Here he formed a partnership with Tom Bradley, under the name of Bradley & Young, and was soon made assistant county attorney. Later he practiced with Judge R. E. L. Roy until Mr. Young was appointed judge of the Forty- eighth District Court and subsequently was twice elected to the bench without opposition.
In 1898 he married Miss Adolyne Richard-
son, of Oklahoma City. They have two chil- dren, Robert B., Jr., and Jeannette. Judge Young is a member of the Fort Worth Club and the Kappa Alpha college fraternity. His son Robert graduated from Princeton Uni- versity in 1920 and is now a student of law at Texas University.
WILLIAM ARTHUR POLK. The Adkins-Polk Company, wholesale grocers of Fort Worth, is one of the most successful organizations of its kind in Texas. The president of the Fort Worth Company is William Arthur Polk, who knows the grocery business through practically a life-long experience. He learned it in that difficult school of apprenticeship, a country store in central Texas, and has earned every successive advancement by his own efficiency and ability.
Mr. Polk was born at Dresden in Navarro County, Texas, December 17. 1875, a son of William A. and Martha J. ( Moseley) Polk. He comes of a family of distinguished Amer- ican name and connections. He is descended from Robert Polk, a native of Ireland, who settled in the Carolinas in Colonial times. His great-great-grandfather, Ezekiel Polk, was a native of North Carolina, was a member of the Colonial Legislature at the beginning of the war for independence, and was one of the signers of the famous Mecklenburg Declara- tion of Independence. which antedated the Declaration of 1776. His son. William Polk. was born at Mecklenburg, North Carolina. The grandfather of the Fort Worth merchant was Thomas Polk. a native of Maury County. Tennessee. Thomas Polk was a first cousin of James K. Polk, the Tennessean who was president of the United States. William A. Polk. father of the Fort Worth merchant, was born in Lawrence County, Missouri, February 14. 1853, but spent the greater part of his life in Texas and died in 1906. His wife was born near Memphis, Tennessee. and died in 1920. Of their eight children one died in in- fancy and six are still living. William A. being the fifth in age.
William Arthur Polk grew up at Corsicana. Texas, was educated in the public schools there and subsequently in the Agricultural and Mechanical College. His first employment in the grocery business was with the S. A. Pace Grocery Company at Corsicana. He was ship- Ding clerk and in other departments of the business for four years For about one vear he acquired some valuable knowledge and ex- perience as an employe of the Corsicana Bank.
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On leaving the bank he became one of the organizers of the Fortson-Polk Grocery Com- pany of Corsicana, but sold his interest in that concern after three years and removed to Dallas, where with A. C. Adkins he organized the Adkins-Polk Grocery Company. In 1917 Mr. Polk established the Fort Worth house of the Adkins-Polk Grocery Company, of which he is president. He still retains his interests in the Dallas house, and together these organ- izations supply a large part of the groceries to the retail trade for many miles around Dallas and Fort Worth.
Mr. Polk is a member of the Fort Worth Club, is a Mason and a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
FRANK D. JONES, ex-city claim agent of Fort Worth, has been identified with the politics and business affairs of that city for a long period of years.
His father was the late Jesse Jones, one of the best known pioneers in Tarrant County. He established a home in Tarrant County dur- ing the fifties, coming from Asheville, North Carolina. When the war came on he raised a company and was first lieutenant of the organ- ization in the Confederate Army. For forty years he was successfully engaged in merchan- dising in Fort Worth and vicinity, and in that capacity became known all over Tarrant County and for his public spirit and leadership was one of the well known and prominent men of North Texas. At one time he served as mayor pro tem of Fort Worth. He lived to the age of eighty and was always a devout member of the Methodist Church. His wife was Lizzie Bradley.
Frank D. Tones was born in Tarrant County. January 3. 1866, being the second in a family of four children. He was reared and educated in Mansfield. in Tarrant County, and as a boy satisfied a love of adventure by running away from home and spending some three years on the Western plains among the Indians. For nine vears he was in the grocery business at Fort Worth and subsequently became a travel- ing representative of several different firms and had business relations all over the South. In 1895 Mr. Jones was elected for a term of four years as asse sor and collector of Fort Worth, and held that office at the same time that Captain Paddock was mavor. Mr. Jones for many years has done an extensive business as a trader and dealer in land He as appointed to his present office as city claim agent April 16. 1917.
In 1887 he married Miss Quinta Farmer. She was the mother of two children, the only survivor being Irene, wife of E. C. Cox, of Dallas. In 1917 Mr. Jones married for his present wife Alice Moser.
JOSEPH M. WEAVER, president of the East- land Board of City Commissioners, and one of the leading oil operators of Texas, is one of the three men responsible for the States Oil Corporation, which is the leading factor in the oil development of the Central West Texas oil fields. He is a man of large for- tune and varied interests, and while occupied by them, always finds the time to devote care and attention to civic matters at Eastland.
The birth of Joseph M. Weaver occurred at Moundsville, West Virginia, May 24, 1882. He is a son of Vinton A. and Virginia ( Mar- tin) Weaver. After attending the schools of Moundsville Mr. Weaver became a student of the Episcopal High School at Alexandria. Virginia, from whence he went to the Colum- bus, Ohio, High School, and then to Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio. While attending the latter institution he acquired distinction as a football player and a knowledge of the game that enabled him to assume the duties of coach for the football team of Wesleyan Uni- versity. of Buckhannon. West Virginia. dur- ing the year following his completion of his college course.
Mr. Weaver acquired his first business experience in the employ of Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company at Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, leaving this concern to go with the American Tobacco Company at Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. Conditions favoring the enter- prise, he later went into a mercantile business at the latter city as partner of J. G. McCaskey. which he continued to operate when in 1909 he entered the oil industry, in which he achieved such a great measure of success that it has continued to be his life work.
The associates of Mr. Weaver in his initial oil venture were J. G. McCaskey. L. H. Wentz. W. H. McFadden and E. W. Marland. these five being associated together in the 101 Ranch Oil Company. They drilled their first well on the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch. southeast of Ponca City, Kay County. Oklahoma. Later Mr. Weaver was associated with the South- western Oil Company, McCaskey & Wentz, trustees, of Blackwell, Oklahoma. During the years which followed Mr. Weaver developed in importance and knowledge of oil values, and in 1917 entered the Central West Texas oil
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fields, with headquarters at Eastland. Here he began drilling operations in combination with Messrs. McCaskey & Wentz, the three being the sponsors for the States Oil Corpora- tion, the West Texas Oil Corporation and the Duquesne Oil Corporation, all of which are incorporated under the laws of Delaware. The drilling enterprises and oil productions of the States Corporation are principally in Eastland County, and the other concerns have some interests in this same county. During the early part of 1921 the West Texas Company is drilling in Midland County, Texas, while the Duquesne Company is drilling a wildcat well in Culberson County, Texas.
Mr. Weaver has been honored, although comparatively a newcomer to Eastland, by election to the office of president of the Board of City Commissioners, which is the governing body of Eastland, and is carrying on the work of the municipality through a competent and expert city manager. Eastland has become noted for a city government of the first rank. Not only is Mr. Weaver one of the most successful oil men in Texas, and a millionaire, having made a fortune in the oil fields, but he has other interests, among them being those connected with the First State Bank of East- land, of which he is now a director. The States Oil Corporation, whose headquarters are at Eastland, is constantly engaged in drill- ing a large number of wells in this vicinity, and its interests here form one of the substantial industrial resources of the city.
Joseph M. Weaver was married to Miss Virginia Beall, of Brook County, West Vir- ginia, a daughter of Cornelius and Virginia (Burley) Beall, and they have three children, namely: Virginia Beall, Ruth Josephine and Louisiana Beall, the last two being twins. Mr. Weaver belongs to the Eastland Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club of Fort Worth, the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Field Club, the Pittsburgh Athletic Associa- tion Club, the Fort Henry Club of Wheeling. West Virginia ; the Spruce Creek Rod and Gun Club of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the Beta Theta Pi Greek letter college fraternity. Fraternally he is a Mason and Elk. While an unusual measure of success has attended Mr. Weaver, he has not attained to his pres- ent prosperity through chance. His progress has been sure and steady, directed as it has been by a keen judgment and thorough knowl- edge of conditions. He is a man who would have reached a commanding position in any
line of business he selected, for he possesses the qualities which enable a man to rise above his fellows and become a leader, and with them he has others which win for him the warm and sincere friendship of men of standing. Essen- tially a public spirited man, Mr. Weaver is generously devoting a fair measure of his means to develop his city and support its vari- ous charitable and benevolent institutions. His great mental resourcefulness, his courage and ingenuity have enabled him to reach surprising and big achievements in lines which loom large with economic problems, and have given him the place in the community to which his talents entitles him. Through his various connections he has reached the understanding of the public directly and surely. He holds his friends to good account and likes to have them about him, but if he does not feel that their associa- tion with him will work out for the good of the majority he will not let personal considera- tions sway him, and in this way protects the interests of those who confide in him. How- ever, as his influence is an inspiration for activ- ities of the best sort. he is able to give to others the impulse toward worthy effort, and has developed many who might without this stimu- lus have remained in the ranks of the unsuc- cessful.
THE STATES OIL CORPORATION. One of the principal organizations of capital and men en- gaged in the development of the oil territory of Eastland and Stephens counties is the States Oil Corporation, incorporated in June, 1917, by the present officials of the corpora- tion, J. G. McCaskey, of Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania ; L. H. Wentz, of Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Joseph M. Weaver, of Eastland, who then comprised a partnership. Associated with them in taking the leases was J. W. Lynch of Fort Worth. The leases in these fields had been acquired in February and March, 1917. prior to the drilling of the McCleskey No. 1, the discovery well for Eastland County. Par- rack, No. 1. six miles north of Eastland although not an oil well until January, 1919, was located and arrangements made by the McCaskey, Weaver & Wentz partnership to drill it prior to the discovery of oil in East- land County.
The corporation has drilled approximately one hundred and fifty wells on its leases of about eighteen thousand acres in Eastland and Stephens counties, mainly north of Eastland. The most profitable wells have been brought in in the 1,900-foot sand. This corporation has
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approximately ten thousand acres north of Eastland, one of the largest blocks owned by one corporation or association of individuals in this district. It is estimated that the cor- poration has invested upwards of six million dollars in buildings, equipment and for drilling and production operations. Two companies allied with the States Oil Corporation are the Duquesne Oil Corporation and the West Texas Oil Corporation. The former has some pro- duction in Eastland County and owns leases to many thousands of acres in Culberson and far Western Texas, also holdings in Young County, Texas, and Stephens County, Okla- homa. The West Texas Oil Corporation owns a large acreage in Midland County and royalty interests in Eastland County.
The firm of McCaskey, Weaver & Wentz was first associated in the oil business in 1909 at Ponca, Oklahoma. With E. W. Mar- land and W. H. McFadden, of the Marland Oil Company, they leased the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, and they drilled the discovery well of Kay County, Oklahoma, under the name of the 101 Ranch Oil Company. The same group of men subsequently acquired a large block of leases near Blackwell, Oklahoma, but shortly before the discovery of oil on those leases Mar- land and McFadden sold their interests. McCaskey & Wentz are still trustees of the production work on the Blackwell leases. The combined oil production of the McCaskey, Weaver & Wentz interests at this time in Okla- homa and Texas is more than four thousand barrels per day.
J. G. McCaskey, of the States Oil Corpora- tion, is a native of Pittsburgh and until 1908 was in the merchant brokerage business in that city, where he still retains his home and other interests. He is a member of the Masonic and Elks Lodges, River Crest Country Club of Fort Worth, Fort Worth Club, Duquesne Club, Pittsburgh Athletic Association and Pittsburgh Field Club. He married Mary Ashford, of Pittsburgh, and they have a family of three sons and two daughters.
L. H. Wentz, the second member of the corporation, is also a Pittsburgh man and is a bachelor. He was in business at Pittsburgh until 1908, and since then has given his time exclusively to the oil industry. He resides at Ponca City, and is a thirty-second degree Mason.
The career of Joseph M. Weaver, who is one of the live and public spirited citizens of East- land, as well as an official of the States Oil Corporation. is told in the preceding sketch.
PETER JENKINS. The skill and experience of Peter Jenkins as a clothing manufacturer, his resourcefulness as a business organizer and executive, have given Fort Worth new pres- tige in the commercial field, where he is founder and active manager of the United States Overall Company and also general man- ager of the Stripling-Jenkins Company.
Mr. Jenkins was born abroad, in 1877, and came to America in 1897, at the age of twenty. For several years he was connected with cloth- ing factories in New York City, but in 1905 moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and from there came to Fort Worth in 1910. Mr. Jenkins began his business career in Fort Worth prac- tically as a one-man enterprise. He had a little room, employed one man, his capital com- prised only $250, and he operated one machine for making the garments. In ten years the business has grown and developed until it now occupies 20,000 square feet of floor space in a re-inforced concrete, fireproof building, with 250 people employed, 200 machines in opera- tion, and a capital stock of $150,000. All this refers to the Stripling-Jenkins Company, of which Mr. Jenkins is vice president, secretary and general manager. The overall factory was established in June, 1918, with twenty-five machines, while today 100 machines are in operation and plans are now ready to be put into execution for the erection of a complete new factory building. Mr. Jenkins is vice president and general manager of the overall company.
He is active in Fort Worth business and civic affairs, being a member of the Fort Worth Club, the Rotary Club, Ad Club, Elks Club, and in Masonry is affiliated with Lodge No. 148, with Dallas Consistory of the Scot- tish Rite, and with the Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
LEE C. WOOD. From railroader to oil pro- ducer and hotel proprietor, Lee C. Wood is a young business man of Wichita Falls who has made his career a progressive one, with changes for the better based on his growing efficiency and experience. For several years past his has been a widely known name in oil circles of Northern Texas.
Mr. Wood was born at Corsicana, Texas. in 1885, a son of W. L. and Mary (O'Neal) Wood. His father, a native of Alabama, was for many years a prosperous farmer in the rich agricultural region near Corsicana.
P. duthing
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After obtaining his education in local schools Lee C. Wood accepted the first opportunity to do railroad work. For a number of years he held responsible places in the train service and in the transportation department of the Texas & Pacific, the International & Great Northern and the Fort Worth & Denver City Railways. For a time his headquarters were at Shreve- port, Louisiana. Returning to Texas in 1903, he lived for several years in Fort Worth, and first came to Wichita Falls in 1914. During the period of the war with Germany he was yardmaster of the combined railroads at Wichita Falls for the United States Railway Administration.
Alert for business opportunity and with the enterprise typical of railway men, he employed his surplus capital and his influence to engage in the oil business. He was an operator and organizer of several successful oil companies in drilling enterprises. But his chief work in that direction began with the bringing in of the discovery well at Burkburnett in the summer of 1918. Since then he has had a prominent part in the development of that oil district. His oil enterprises are carried on under the name of the Lee C. Wood Company, with offices in the Commerce Building in Wichita Falls.
In 1920 Mr. Wood was instrumental in giv- ing Wichita Falls one of its finest small hotels. He equipped at a large expense the new Wood Hotel at 909 Scott Avenue, and since it was opened, in September its reputation has extended as one of the best small hotels in the state. The furniture, equipment and con- veniences are of the highest order. The furni- ture is of new mahogany and American walnut and was brought direct from the furniture fac- tory at Paris, Texas.
Mr. Wood married Miss Lula Truman, of Fort Worth, daughter of J. C. Truman, one of the successful business men of that city. To their marriage were born two daughters. Anna Lee and Marie Bell.
OLIVER H. Ross has been identified with Northwest Texas for most of the years of his active manhood. From a store clerk he has raised himself to the position of an independ- ent merchant, and for a number of years past has been active head and sole proprietor of one of the most prosperous piano houses of Fort Worth.
Mr. Ross was born in Mississippi, March 18, 1872. His father, Rev, Waddy Ross, was a
Methodist minister and also a farmer and stockman. He was born in North Carolina. Of his five children two are still living. Oliver being the third in age.
Oliver H. Ross acquired a country school education in Mississippi. When he was seven- teen years of age he went to work at wages of sixteen and two-thirds dollars a month. Even then he was looking to the future, and at the end of one year had saved eighty dollars from his earnings. Subsequently he was book- keeper in a general store, and acquired by this varied experience a thorough fundamental knowledge of merchandising.
When Mr. Ross came to Texas he located at Waco, where for six months he was connected with an abstract business, then with a mercan- tile house for several months. From Waco he went to Taylor and clerked in a dry goods store there for two years. Besides his accumu- lating experience and the commercial credit he was acquiring by his industry and char- acter he was also carefully saving his money. and with a small capital began as a jewelry merchant. From Taylor he went to Waxa- hachie and was in the jewelry business for ten years.
In 1903 Mr. Ross organized a company to engage in the piano business, and for a num- ber of years past has been active head of the Ross & Heyer Company, though he is now sole owner of this business. It has a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, and while the first year's sales totaled thirty-two thousand dollars, the annual turnover is now approxi- mately two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
Mr. Ross is an active citizen of Fort Worth as well as a good business man. He is a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church, the Fort Worth Club, the River Crest Country Club and is a democrat in politics. On August 9, 1909, he married Miss Edith Robbins. Mrs. Ross was liberally educated in the classics and in music, and for a number of years has done some talented work as a mezzo-soprano singer. Mr. and Mrs. Ross have a daughter, June, born in June, 1916.
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