USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 41
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After ten years as pastor of the church Doctor Waits was called to become president of the Texas Christian University to succeed Dr. Frederick D. Kershner. Doctor Waits has also served as superintendent of the State Bible School Work and is associate editor of the Courier at Dallas. He is a man of ripe scholarship as well as an able administrator and educator, and has traveled extensively in the Orient and in Europe. For six months in 1912 he sojourned in foreign lands, during which time he visited the site of the seven churches of ancient Asia Minor and toured Europe. Doctor Waits is a democrat, lent his aid to the prohibition movement in Texas and the nation and is a member of the Masonic Order.
May 23, 1898, he married Miss Sarah Wil- son Wooten of Bowling Green, Kentucky. She died in 1912, the mother of one daughter, Mary Elizabeth.
H. BYRON FURR. While one of the wealthy oil men of the Breckenridge section, Mr. Furr is not a newcomer to that region. He has lived in Stephens County thirty years or more, has been one of its staunch and hard working citizens, a very able business man, and had earned prosperity before it came in generous measure.
Mr. Furr was born near Oxford, Missis- sippi, October 27, 1868, son of Allison and Kate (Johnston) Furr. He was reared on his father's Mississippi plantation to the age of twenty, and completed his education in Payne University at Booneville.
Coming to Texas in 1888, Mr. Furr remained for a brief time at Gatesville, and then located at Breckenridge in Stephens County, where he has had his home ever since. For a number of years he was a successful school teacher in this locality, and a number
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of mature men and women gratefully recall . were carried on on a large scale, including the his service in that capacity. About 1895 he engaged in the real estate business, and soon began acquiring town property and ranch lands under his individual ownership. His real estate interests proved the foundation for his subsequent prosperity.
He has been exceedingly fortunate in his transactions since the great oil boom struck Stephens County. He is one of the large owners of production, and this with his other property interests have made him one of the wealthy citizens of the county. Mr. Furr nego- tiated perhaps the largest oil lease in the Breckenridge field, the Dickie lease north of town, involving a sum of $200.000.
Since 1918 Mr. Furr has been vice president of the Guaranty State Bank of Breckenridge. He married in 1895 Miss Florence England. She is a native of Texas, and completed her education in the Mississippi College at Clinton. Mr. and Mrs. Furr have one of the finest homes in Breckenridge. Their two children are Miss Jewel and H. B. Furr, Jr. Mr. Furr has been a member of the Methodist Church for forty years; is one of the trustees of the church at Breckenridge, has been president of the board of stewards for many years, and is a teacher of the Bible class. In politics he is a democrat, and fraternally is a Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
GEORGE C. CLARKE. A resident of Fort Worth a quarter of a century. George C. Clarke has played an influential part in local affairs as a banker and real estate man, and the public owes him a debt particularly for the disinterested service he rendered for many years as a member of the School Board.
Mr. Clarke was born near Fayetteville, Ten- nessee, September 14, 1871, son of James Car- ter and Elizabeth (Allison) Clarke, the for- mer a native of Virginia and the latter of Tennessee. George C. was their only son and there were three daughters.
Mr. Clarke was reared at Nashville, but completed his education in a famous prepara- tory school in middle Tennessee, the "Mul- berry Academy." In 1895 when he came to Texas he located at Fort Worth, and for a time was associated with the Fort Worth Cracker & Candy Company and for several years was Texas representative and state agent for the Union Biscuit Company of St. Louis. From that he entered the real estate field, and for a number of years his operations
promotion of townsites and additions. The last addition he made to Fort Worth's growth and development was in the vicinity of the Baptist Seminary. Mr. Clarke is one of the directors of the Continental Bank of Fort Worth and for four years was vice president of the Cattle Men's Trust Company. He is now vice president of the Broadmere Land Company, which has a paid up capital of $120.000.
Mr. Clarke gave six years of devoted serv- ice to his work as a member of the School Board. During that time eight of the modern school buildings in Fort Worth were con- structed. including the Junior High School. There is a school in the South Tenth Ward named George C. Clarke School. Mr. Clarke shares with Major Van Zandt as being the only living men who have schools named for them in Fort Worth. He is now further serv- ing the interests of the public by having ac- cepted appointment as park commissioner for the city of Fort Worth. Mr. Clarke is a mem- ber of the Elks Club. In December, 1905, he married Miss Fay Clark of Graham, Texas.
ZEB JENKINS. The commercial history of the town of Grapevine in Tarrant County re- volves around and centers in one family name, that of Jenkins. Zeb Jenkins who has lived here practically all his life succeeded to the pioneer business established by his father and in point of years of continuous service is the oldest business man of the place.
Grapevine Spring has been a spot in the geography of North Texas since the country was first thoroughly explored. It is said that President Houston of the Texas Republic negotiated a treaty with the Comanche Indians at Grapevine Spring. The town of Grapevine is four miles west of the spring. The first store on the site, and the only business until after the Civil war, was established bv E. M. Jenkins in 1857. He brought his family to Tarrant County in the spring of that vear, and hauled lumber from East Texas to build his house. He opened a small stock of goods for the needs of the community. E. M. Jenkins was born in North Carolina, was reared in Alabama, and after a brief residence in Louisi- ana established a home at Jefferson in East Texas in 1854. This pioneer business man of Grapevine died in 1878. He married Ellen Dunn, a native of Alabama. Her father. J. C. Dunn, came to Grapevine Prairie about 1851, and lived in a log house which was one
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of the first efforts towards the settlement of this section. Mrs. E. M. Jenkins died in 1872. They were the parents of ten children. eight of whom are still living.
Zeb Jenkins, third in age among the chil- dren, was born at Jefferson, Texas, July 3, 1854, and was five years of age when brought to Grapevine, where he has been satisfied to live, growing up with the community, making his energy and enterprise a factor in its prog- ress, and for nearly half a century has been identified with the business interests of the village. He attended the local schools, worked on the farm, and at the age of nineteen began assisting his father in the store. In the early days he frequently made visits to Galveston to buy goods. After his father's death he took charge of the business, and for a time the firm was Jenkins & Yates. He sold out his interest in the business in 1896. In 1900 he organized the Grapevine National Bank, and was its vice president until 1913. Since then he has resumed merchandising and is owner of the leading mercantile establishment of Grapevine, and also has extensive and val- uable farming interests in the same locality.
Mr. Jenkins has been an influential figure in democratic politics in Tarrant County. He is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. He married Florence Dorris in 1874. Her father was Dr. W. E. Dorris, a pioneer physician of Grapevine. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have one living daughter, Edna May, wife of L. O. Donald of Dallas. Two children are deceased, one who died at the age of twelve and Eli M., who died at the age of eighteen.
S. A. WALL has been a resident of Tarrant County nearly all his life, and his business activities have been devoted to farming and commercial lines in and around Grapevine. He is also a former county commissioner.
Mr. Wall was born in Northern Arkansas May 14, 1870, son of A. B. and Harriet M. (Martin) Wall, both of whom were natives of Georgia. In 1872 the family came to Texas and established a home in Tarrant County, where A. B. Wall developed a farm and where he lived until his death in 1883. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. S. A. Wall is the sixth in a family of eleven children. He was two years old when brought to Tarrant County, grew up on the homestead, was edu- cated in the common schools and the business college at Fort Worth, and as a young man he spent a year in the West. After returning to
ยท Tarrant County he took up farming, and em- ployed his energies to a successful degree in that vocation until 1900. Since then he has been successfully engaged in business at Grapevine.
One of his brother s while serving as a county commissioner died in 1900, and the county judge appointed S. A. Wall to fill out his unexpired term. He has always been in- fluential in local and county affairs, and has been especially helpful in furthering the edu- cational program of Grapevine. For several years he served as chairman of the Grapevine School Board. He is vice president of the Grapevine Home Bank.
In 1892 Mr. Wall married Clara Newton of Tarrant County. She died in 1901 and is sur- vived by two children, Harriet and Bertha. For his second wife Mr. Wall married Ida Rainwater of Dandridge, Tennessee. Her death occurred in 1911, her two surviving children being Pauline and Louise. The pres- ent wife of Mr. Wall is Mamie Austin of Grapevine, and they have one son, Sandy A., Jr. Mr. Wall is an active member of the Baptist Church and is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Wood- men of the World.
DELOS T. BOWLES, who was a lieutenant in the Engineer Corps during the World war, had begun the practice of law prior to his enlist- ment, and most of the time since the war he has been identified with the great oil town of Breckenridge, where his abilities have brought him a very enviable position and extensive practice.
Mr. Bowles was born at Rockwall in Rock- wall County, Texas, September 29, 1891, a son of Harry G. and Rosetta Nancy Jane (Stout) Bowles. His grandfather, Bradford Harrison Bowles, and his brother, Watt Bowles, were among the first settlers and founders of the town of Rockwall. Watt Bowles deeded the land for the Public Square and Court House when Rockwall became the county seat. These pioneers were natives of Illinois and moved to Rockwall County about 1872. Harry G. Bowles was born in Illinois in 1865, but grew up at Rockwall.
During his early life at Rockwall, Delos T. Bowles attended the local schools, also grad- uated from Rockwall College, for a time was a student in the North Texas Normal College at Denton, from which he graduated in 1912, and took both the academic and law courses in the University of Texas. He taught school
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for one year at Anson, Texas, and three years at Hallsville, Texas, of which school he was superintendent. Mr. Bowles was admitted to the bar June 26, 1914, and for nearly three years was engaged in laying the foundation of a professional career in his home community. In July, 1916, he was elected county and dis- trict attorney of Rockwall County.
This office he resigned in 1917 to enter the Fourth Engineers Training Camp at Camp Lee, Virginia, and graduated with a second lieutenant's commission. Mr. Bowles was on duty at Camp Lee and at Washington City and finally at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. After the armistice he received his discharge, and for a time was associated with the widely known Dallas law firm of Thomas, Milam & Touchstone. In April, 1919, he moved to Breckenridge, before the beginning of the great oil development. With the great amount of capital, population and commerce that has centered at Breckenridge during the last two years Mr. Bowles found his abilities in great demand to represent business and industrial interests, particularly in the oil industry. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and be- longs to several other fraternal orders.
WEB ROSE. One of the early families to settle in the section of country around Fort Worth marked by the busy little city of Arling- ton, were the Roses, represented by Web Rose, a native of Arlington, and identified with the city as a merchant and now as a dealer in real estate and lands.
Mr. Rose was born at Arlington, November 25, 1880. His parents, J. P. and Delia (Ditto) Rose came to Texas from Alabama, and es- tablished their home at Arlington when all the country was new. J. P. Rose spent his active life as a farmer and merchant and died at the age of fifty-nine, while his wife passed away at sixty-one. All of their nine children are still living.
Fourth among them, Web Rose was reared and educated at Arlington, and at the age of sixteen began earning his own living as a clerk. At twenty-one he was in business for himself as a grocery merchant, and continued in that line for about nine years. Since then he has handled a large part of the local busi- ness in real estate and lands.
In April, 1917, Mr. Rose married Mattie E. Lvon of Arlington, Mr. Rose is a Mason and Shriner, a member of Moslah Temple at Fort Worth. He is a democrat, takes an ac-
tive part in local political and public affairs, and during the World war was a member of the County Exemption Board.
W. H. ROSE, mayor of Arlington, is the active partner and associate of his brother, Web Rose, in the real estate business in that city.
He was born at Arlington March 29, 1883, fifth among the ten children of J. P. and Delia (Ditto) Rose. His father a native of Mis- sissippi came to Texas about 1875 and built the first store at Arlington and continued as a merchant until his death in March, 1902, at the age of sixty. The maternal grandfather of W. H. Rose was James Ditto, who came to Texas during the Civil war, established a home near the present site of Arlington and had the postoffice half a mile east of there before Arlington was established, and later was postmaster at Arlington until 1895. Mr. Rose's mother was born in Alabama and died in 1912 at the age of sixty-one.
W. H. Rose was reared and educated in Arlington, attended high school, and he and his brother Web were associated in the grocery business and since December 29, 1905, have been in the real estate business. They have not only been brokers in handling property for others, but have made their business a really constructive activity and have built over sixty houses in the city.
W. H. Rose served as commissioner of streets and alleys and for four years a member of the Public School Board, and on April 5, 1919, was elected to his present office as mayor. June 15, 1905, he married Miss Ollie Gibbins of Arlington. They have two chil- dren, Margaret Leslie and Birdie Rose.
MISS ANNA SHELTON, who was born and reared on the Shelton homestead north of Fort Worth, has distinguished herself as a very able business woman and one of the few of her sex to solve the many problems connected with real estate operations and real estate de- velopment. She is also a leader in Fort Worth society and has done much to insure the suc- cess of various philanthropic and charitable enterprises.
Her father was Dr. John Foster Shelton, who was born February 20, 1826, son of James and Elizabeth (Thompson) Shelton of Gallatin, Tennessee. He was educated in Kentucky, graduated from the Medical Col- lege of Louisville, and after practicing several years in Hopkinsville, that state, moved to
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Texas in 1855. He was one of the few edu- cated physicians of North Texas at that time. He practiced for two years in Collin County and in 1857 moved to Tarrant County and settled at what is now North Fort Worth. He was busily engaged answering the calls of an extensive practice that took him all over the country around Fort Worth, but for a number of years he was retired from his pro- fession and engaged in looking after his farm- ing and other interests. He acquired the fine tract of land now included in the Jarvis homestead. He also operated a drug store. Doctor Shelton was the father of two sons and two daughters: John M., now a promi- nent cattleman of Amarillo; Belle Shelton Pendleton of Fort Worth, deceased; James B., deceased ; and Anna.
Miss Anna Shelton was born at the old home just north of the present city of Fort Worth. She attended local schools but for her finishing education was sent to the noted Kentucky institution of which her mother was a graduate, Bethel College, at Hopkinsville. For a number of years Miss Shelton has con- ducted an extensive business in real estate, and has planned and built for sale some of the better type of homes in the city. Her inter- ests have been divided between business and social welfare problems, and her enthusiasm is readily aroused by programs for civic ad- vancement. She is vice president of the Fort Worth Museum of Art, is a member of the Sorosis Club, and has filled various offices and is now treasurer of the Texas Woman's Federation of Clubs.
NORFLET FERRELL PAYNE, proprietor of the leading general fire insurance agency at Cisco, and one of that city's most progressive and social leaders, is the son of a pioneer Texan who was at one time a business associate of General Sam Houston, had an army record during the Cuban and Philippine wars and also in the war with Germany, and his varied experiences have taken him over practically the entire globe.
Mr. Payne was born at Woodland in Free- stone County, Texas, in 1876, a son of Cap- tain James S. and Frances (Ferrell) Payne. His father, who was born at Tuscaloosa, Ala- bama, in 1822, was at Knoxville, Tennessee, when war was declared against Mexico. He at once volunteered as a private, was appointed captain in the American army during the cam- paign in Mexico, and when the war was over he located in Texas. It was then that he
entered the land business at Austin in partner- ship with General Sam Houston, under the firm name of Houston & Payne. Some twelve or fifteen years later, when war broke out between the North and South, he joined a bat- tery under General E. Kirby Smith and was a Confederate soldier throughout the war in the Trans-Mississippi department. Following that struggle he settled on a plantation at Wood- land in Freestone County. The death of this honored old time citizen occurred in 1898.
Norflet Ferrell Payne was educated in the local schools of Freestone County and attended Trinity University at Tehnacana in Limestone County. He was a young man of twenty-two when the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898, and he volunteered in the National Guard of Texas, and went to Cuba in the Q. M. Department. In 1899 he enlisted in the 39th United States Volunteers, and was with that organization in the Philippines dur- ing the insurrection. In 1900 he accompanied the American forces to China during the Boxer rebellion, and from there he went to South Africa.
After leaving the army Mr. Payne returned to the Philippines in 1902 and entered the Insular Civil Service, with which he was iden- tified for thirteen years, during which period he was sent around the globe three times.
After an experience of fifteen years in the far east Mr. Payne returned to the United States in 1915 and engaged in the insurance business at Corsicana, Texas. He did not regard himself as too old for active military duty when America entered the war with Ger- many. In 1918, disposing of his business at Corsicana, he became captain in the Texas National Guard. He helped train the organ- ization preparatory for active service in the National Army. but the armsitice was signed before the call to duty came.
Mr. Payne located at Cisco in April, 1919, and, equipped with a broad general experience, he soon had his fire insurance agency well established, but at the same time has taken an active part in all progressive civic affairs. His activities in behalf of the Chamber of Commerce have been of the greatest value to the city. It was mainly through his enterprise and activity that the Cisco Lodge of Elks, of which he has served two terms as exalted ruler, has built up an organization of over four hundred members and they expect to build a magnificent club house, to be completed in 1921. This beautiful building is to be on ground 100x60 feet, two stories with basement,
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roof garden, and will have every feature of the modern club building. It is to be located at the site of the old Captain Judia residence, at the corner of Fourth Street and Avenue E.
Captain Payne married Miss Ruth Church, of Corsicana, Texas.
GEORGE E. BENNETT was one of the men who gave vitality and enterprise to the indus- trial development of an important district of Western Texas, particularly around Strawn. He was a pioneer brick manufacturer, helped develop coal and other natural resources of Palo Pinto County, and his name deserves to be remembered in connection with the history of these developments.
Mr. Bennett was born in Dayton, Ohio, October 6, 1852, son of Benjamin Gleason and Anna (White) Bennett, his father a na- tive of Connecticut and his mother of Mary- land. George E. Bennett was reared in his native city, attended school there, but at the age of sixteen started out to make his own way in the world. He first went to Missouri and at St. Joseph found employment with James McCord, who later built up one of the largest wholesale houses of that city. Mr. Bennett remained in Missouri and at the age of twenty-two utilized his experience to en- gage in merchandising for himself. Later misfortune overtook him and he lost all he had.
Seeking a new field and new opportunities he came to Texas, landing at Galveston, and soon afterward moved to Dallas. At Dallas he was appointed state sales manager for the McCormick Reaper & Harvester Company, and for six years he was also general man- ager of the Tompkins Implement Company of Dallas.
On leaving Dallas, Mr. Bennett engaged his capital and with other associates began the manufacture of brick at Millsap, Texas. He organized the Acme Pressed Brick Company, and this company was the first in Texas to manufacture a high grade of pressed brick. A little over twenty years ago Mr. Bennett organized a company that bought the business of the American Coal Mining Company, be- came general manager of the new organiza- tion, and gave renewed impetus to the min- ing of the coal resources at Lyra and in other points of Palo Pinto County. Later he or- ganized the Mount Marion Coal Mining Com- pany and became its president. The company at the time of his death was operating a shaft at Strawn. He organized in 1904 the Strawn
Merchandise Company and was its principal stockholder. With these varied enterprises he continued as a brick manufacturer, having a large plant at Lacota.
Mr. Bennett died at Galveston, July 3, 1907. His death occurred while on a business trip to Galveston and he was laid to rest at Fort Worth, where the family lived for several years before going to Strawn. His life was an exemplary one, notable for achievements in business and the reconstruction of success after a period of vicissitude. He was loyal in friendship, and a citizen whose public spirit never failed to make him an ally of every community improvement. He was a thirty- second degree Mason and very active in that order, and was also a member of the Elks.
In 1884 Mr. Bennett married Miss Octavia A. Hendricks, daughter of H. G. Hendricks of Fort Worth. Mr. Bennett was survived by five children, Walter R., Mrs. Annie E. Mar- tin, Hattie L., now Mrs. D. J. Shaughnessy, Dorothy, and Ruth, now Mrs. DeForest Hun- gerford. Mrs. Bennett resides at Fort Worth at 1400 Texas Avenue.
J. B. GOOGINS. Practically from the time Fort Worth became a packing center J. B. Googins has been prominently identified with the plants and the great business that char- acterizes North Fort Worth as an industrial city. Mr. Googins has general charge of Swift and Company's interests at the Fort Worth stock yards and during his residence in Texas has participated actively in many community enterprises at Fort Worth.
He was born in Chicago, January 31, 1874, son of David S. and Ada Jane ( McKoy) Goo- gins. Both parents were born in the state of Maine and the father died in Chicago in 1919 and the mother in 1920.
J. B. Googins, second of six children, was reared and educated in Chicago, attending high school there. Much of his knowledge of the livestock business was acquired in the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, where for some time he was connected with the Chicago Packing Company. His first experience in Texas was at the age of twenty when in 1894 he came to the state and went far out on the frontier in Tom Green County, where he was a line rider for one of the great ranch outfits operat- ing in that section.
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