USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 44
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Mr. Nichols has been in the contracting busi- ness on his own account since 1909. Most of
his business has been contracting on municipal work. He handled some large contracts in various cities of Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma and Kansas, and in 1918 came to Wichita Falls. Here he took a government contract, a war measure, for the building of thirty miles of pipe line connecting the gas fields at Petrolia with the government's helium plant at Fort Worth.
Probably the greatest municipal sewerage contract ever undertaken and carried out in Texas is the one now being handled by Mr. Nichols' organization. Early in 1920 he began this work of building the new sewerage sys- tem for Greater Wichita Falls. When it is finished it will give Wichita Falls sewerage facilities for a city of two hundred thousand. The contract is for an estimated expenditure of $700,000. The work involves the laying of sewerage mains from thirty-nine inches in diameter to six-inch laterals, over a total length of thirty-six miles.
The equipment accumulated by Mr. Nichols for this work constitutes one of the most mod- ern and expensive outfits. He has four large trench digging machines of the latest type, built to his own specifications by the Bucyrus, Buckeye and Austin concerns. The Bucyrus machine alone cost something over $30,000, and the entire equipment represents an invest- ment of $116,000. While this machinery per- mits of economical and rapid handling of the excavation work, Mr. Nichols also has a labor payroll of between 125 and 150 men per week.
Mr. Nichols is looked upon as one of Wichita Falls' progressive and enterprising young business men. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Wichita Club, and is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner. At Colorado Springs, in 1909, he married Miss Bernice Brown, of Caney. Mrs. Nichols is the daughter of a mixed blood Osage Indian chief. They have two sons. Charley Brown and Billy.
BURTON A. STAYTON is one of the few men prominent in the business life of Wichita Falls who can claim that city as the place of their nativity. He was reared and educated there, began his career with a local bank, but for the past five years has been actively iden- tified with the management of one of the lead- ing furniture houses of North Texas.
Mr. Stayton was born in Wichita Falls in 1891, son of Robert B. and Susan (Andes) Stayton, still residents of the city. His father came to Wichita Falls in 1887. about the time
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the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway was completed to Wichita Falls, and for the greater part of the time since that date has been a passenger conductor over this pioneer North- west Texas Railway.
Burton A. Stayton graduated from the Wichita Falls High School in 1910, and at once took a clerkship in the City National Bank. In that old and honored financial insti- tution he made himself useful and eventually was promoted to teller. Resigning as teller, he went into the furniture business as member of the Freear Furniture Company on January 1, 1915. This is a high class, modern furni- ture house occupying a splendid building erected for the purpose at the northeast corner of Ninth and Scott streets. It is one of the best furniture stores in Texas, and the firm stands high in the commercial and financial world, and is one of the real business land- marks in Wichita Falls.
Mr. Stayton is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a thirty-second degree Scot- tish Rite Mason and Shriner. Prominent in the affairs of the First Baptist Church, he is a member of its Finance Committee, having in charge the financing of the new church which is being constructed at a cost of over a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Stayton married Miss Anne Freear, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Freear. Her father is senior mem- ber of the Freear Furniture Company.
An interesting tribute to Mr. Stayton's posi- tion as a merchant of Wichita Falls was given when he was elected president of the Wichita Falls Retail Merchants Association for the year 1921. This organization, with a member- ship of nearly two hundred, is one of great power and influence, and has a constructive program that makes it an important factor in the commercial destiny of the city.
THOMAS S. MOON. From a most modest inception Mr. Moon has developed one of the substantial and important business enterprises of the City of Cleburne, Johnson County. where he is senior member of the firm of Moon & Crum, dealers in Ford automobiles and tractors and all kinds of farm implements. He has been a resident of Texas since young manhood and has here found opportunity to so direct his vigorous activities as to achieve marked success and a reputation that places him among the representative business men of Cleburne, even as he is one of its most loyal and progressive citizens.
Thomas Staples Moon was born in Clay County, Alabama, May 19, 1883, and is a son of Jacob W. and Mary Jane (Strickland) Moon, the former a native of Georgia and the latter of Alabama. Jacob W. Moon enlisted for service in the Confederate Army in the closing period of the Civil war, but did not enter active service, as the conflict between the North and the South ended shortly after- ward. After his marriage he continued his residence in Alabama until he came with his family to Texas and engaged in farm enter- prise in Hill County, where he still resides and maintains his home at Hillsboro. His wife passed away in 1897. They became the par- ents of eleven children, and concerning those of the number who are now living, the follow- ing brief data are available : Prof. Allen J. is a teacher of Latin and Greek in McMasters University, in the City of Toronto, Canada : David H. has charge of the department of automobile parts in the large and well equipped establishment of Moon & Crum, of which his brother, Thomas S., of this sketch, is the senior member ; Nora is the wife of J. W. Phil- lips, of Pecos, Texas; Zaida is the wife of P. E. Reeves, of Iago, this state: Silas, a resident of Hillsboro, is there associated with the Shear Wholesale Grocery Company : Thomas S., of this sketch, was next in order of birth ; Emory is a salesman for the Patter- son Motor Company, at Hillsboro: Dr. Ernest is a surgeon in the Scott and White sanitarium at Temple; Mrs. Annie Mckeever resides at Moody, Texas, and Naomi is the wife of James Pritchett. cashier of the Farmers Bank of Hillsboro.
Thomas S. Moon had not yet attained to his legal majority at the time when he came with his parents to Hill County, Texas, his previous educational advantages having been limited and his practical experience having been gained on an Alabama farm. He assisted his father in the work of the farm in Texas and after becoming of age he returned to Alabama and completed a two years' course in Howard College, at Birmingham, his eldest brother having been at that time a teacher in this institution. After his return to Texas Mr. Moon continued his active association with farm enterprise until 1910, when he initiated his connection with the automobile business bv taking a Ford sales contract covering Collin County, his operations later being extended into Hill County and finally his success having gained to him the sales contract for Bosque County. At Hillsboro he erected a brick
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building and equipped the same as a garage and business headquarters. There he remained until 1916, when he removed to Cleburne, in which city he has since continued his remark- ably successful activities as a representative of the Ford automobiles and Fordson tractors. In February, 1920, he admitted to partner- ship in his business J. B. Crum, who is proving a valued coadjutor. The firm of Moon & Crum leased the building in which headquar- ters are maintained for their automobile and implement business, this building having a frontage of 105 feet and a depth of 90 feet.
Mr. Moon began his work as a salesman for the Ford cars upon capital which he borrowed to advance the required contract deposit of $300. His confidence in the Ford product made his work easy after he had worn off his initial embarrassment in his new field of enter- prise, and his demonstrations of the Ford efficiency caused his business to expand rapidly. At first it was but incidental for him to make a trip of twenty-five miles for the purpose of demonstrating his car, and sales were made almost entirely to persons who knew nothing of automobiles. The salesman who could make his car negotiate the deepest sandbed and climb the steepest hill "on high" was usually the winner of the sale, and from 1910 to 1912 work of this type engaged the attention of Mr. Moon. Advertising was then, as now, a valuable element in promoting sales, but the period of personal demonstration has now passed.
Since his removal to Cleburne Mr. Moon has not circumscribed his activities and inter- ests in his own business, but has shown him- self progressive and liberal as a citizen. The vear 1921 finds him serving his second term as a member of the city council, and he has incidentally been called upon to act as mayor pro tem. As a member of the council he gave his influence in support of the measure that raised the rendition of taxes from $7,400,000 to $12,500,000, and with the lowering of taxes from $2.25 on the $100 to $1.60. The munici- pal administration with which he is thus identified has also done an effective piece of work, in the graveling of six miles of the city's streets. He is also serving his second term as a director of the Cleburne Chamber of Commerce, through the medium of which progressive institution was put through a two million dollar issue of bonds for road improve- ments, a work in which he played a conspicu- ous part. In May, 1920, Mr. Moon was made president of the Rotary Club of Cleburne, and
during his incumbency of one year the average attendance of members at the club meetings was increased from thirty-two to seventy-nine per cent. Within his regime the club carried the largest representation of members to the international convention of Rotarians at Atlantic City, and also the largest delegation ever sent from Cleburne to the conference of the Paris (Texas) district, in 1921. He has been chairman of the board of trustees of the Cleburne Young Men's Christian Association for two years, and in the spring of 1921 he took prominent part in the vigorous campaign which added 500 names to the membership rolls of the association. He has been an earnest worker in and supporter of the United Charities of Cleburne, through the medium of which organization a splendid service has been given in relieving suffering and distress among the needy and unfortunate of Cleburne. He has no predilection for so-called practical poli- tics, and his two elections to the city council were compassed without his consent to can- didacy. In national affairs he supports the democratic party, but in local politics he votes for men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, regardless of party lines.
At Hillsboro, Texas, on the 1st of April, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moon to Miss Ethel Worthy, who was born in Clay County, Alabama, but reared in Hill County, Texas, where her brother, W. H. Worthy, established the family home when she was a child, she having been reared on her brother's farm near Hillsboro, and her mar- riage having occurred on this homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Moon have two children, Thomas S., Jr., and Ethel Ray. Fraternally, Mr. Moon is a York Rite Mason and a mem- ber of Moslah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
CHARLES G. MANUEL. There is no line of business which has not prospered at Wichita Falls during its days of remarkable growth, but in nothing has the spirit of the times been more clearly and forcibly reflected than in the expansion of the "Record News," the city's leading newspaper, of which Charles G. Man- uel is vice president and general manager and the active factor in its development.
Charles G. Manuel is a young man, enthus- iastic and full of vim. He was born at San Jose, Mason County, Illinois, in 1883, a son of B. E. and Elizabeth (Guthrie) Manuel. This family is of Spanish origin, but was es- tablished in America about the middle of the
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seventeenth century, and is one of the oldest in the country. Charles G. Manuel was reared at San Jose, and there attended the public schools. In June, 1900, he came to Texas and, locating at Fort Worth, began working for the Fort Worth "Telegram," which is now the "Star Telegram." Although but a youth, he had already had experience in newspaper work, and had learned the printer's trade. Mr. Manuel rose rapidly in the mechanical depart- ment of the "Telegram," and later left it to engage with the Fort Worth "Record," the morning paper of that city, and for several years was in charge of its mechanical depart- ment. He remained at Fort Worth until the first part of 1919, when he went to Ranger, . Texas, then one of the most flourishing towns of the newly opened oil fields of central Texas, and organized the Ranger "Daily Times," con- tinuing in charge of that organ until January 1, 1920, when he came to Wichita Falls to take active charge of the Wichita Falls "Record News" as vice president and general manager. Although but a recent addition to Wichita Falls, Mr. Manuel has connected himself with the Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations, and also retains his membership in the West Texas Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Manuel was married to Miss Fleta Briggs, who was born in Minier, Illinois, and they have one son, Briggs Manuel.
On August 11, 1919, the first copy of the "Record News" was issued by a small plant comprising four linotype machines, an old style flat bed press, a few cases of type and other meagre equipment, and the maximum output of the press was supposed to be 4,000, but the usual number printed ran nearer to 1,500. Ten men were employed in the plant and one man did all of the writing.
Today twenty-six men are required in the modern mechanical plant, which has five $5,000 linotype machines, a complete stereo- typing outfit, comprising a double steam table, huge melting pot, routers, casting boxes, saws and other accessories. A giant electric motor and six smaller motors are used to supply the power. The "Record News" is today run off on a modern Hoe press, which can turn out 35,000 sixteen-page papers per hour, or more than 500 per minute.
The "Record News" employs eight men in its editorial department, in addition to a num- ber of correspondents in every big town in this vicinity, including Burkburnett, Electra, Iowa Park, Vernon, Seymour, Stamford, Has- kell, Hamlin, Graham, Grandfield, Devol and
all of the smaller cities in the territory. In addition to the usual local stories and features a resume is taken from 30,000 words of Asso- ciated Press dispatches, and a corps of state correspondents, a Washington correpondent and a New York City correspondent furnish the telegraph news.
Associated with Mr. Manuel in the publica- tion of the "Record News" is Mr. Hugh Nu- gent Fitzgerald as president of the "Record News" Company and its editor-in-chief. Mr. Fitzgerald, in his more than thirty years in the newspaper business in Texas, has been asso- ciated as editor-in-chief with only three other newspapers, starting first with the Dallas "News," then with the Dallas "Times-Herald" and last, before coming to Wichita Falls, the Fort Worth "Record." Mr. Fitzgerald is known not only throughout the whole of Texas as a brilliant writer and editor but his fame is nation wide.
In addition to caring for the news and fea- tures of a metropolitan daily, the "Record News" has given its aid in every way possible to help with publicity in the countless drives, educational campaigns and charitable, patri- otic, and religious philanthropic efforts of the city.
In the effort to give Wichita Falls a metro- politan morning newspaper worthy of the city, Mr. Manuel has gathered a force of men who are almost without exception possessed of con- siderable experience on papers of the largest cities of the South, Middle West and East.
Everyone in the editorial and advertising department has had experience on the larger city papers. The heads of the departments have had training both in executive positions and repertorial or advertising work on the biggest of newspapers, and are fully qualified to give the best of service.
Norris Ewing, advertising manager, was with the advertising department of the Nash- ville "Tennessean and American," was adver- tising manager of the Augusta "Herald," and for two years was director of advertising for The Pure Food Products Demonstrators. During eighteen months he was connected with the firm of Cone, Lorenzen & Woodman of New York City, special representatives of newspapers on national advertising contracts. He came to Ranger, Texas, as advertising manager of the Ranger "News," and left that city to accept his present position in January, 1920.
The "Record News" has gained 1,300 per- cent in twelve months. Considering that
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Wichita Falls, one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, gained 388.8 percent in ten years, the increase in this journal is amaz- ing.
The original plant was located on Seventh Street, in a small building. Today the plant occupies a much larger two-story building on Tenth Street, with an annex built in the rear, and a big storage wareroom is also used.
Such a growth, remarkable in every way, could not have been brought about merely through the influx of population and capital, large as it has been. The experienced knowl- edge, enthusiasm and energy of the men who saw the opening and were capable of realiz- ing upon it were necessary, and to them, and especially to Mr. Manuel, is the credit due. Mr. Manuel is more than a far-sighted, exper- ienced business man, for he possesses those qualities which enable him to inspire others with some of his own spirit and get from them a whole-hearted co-operation which is bringing forth results which are gaining the commendation of the newspaper world and the gratitude of the people of Wichita Falls, who appreciate the fact that they have an or- gan to represent their interests and city which' compares very favorably with those of cities many times the size of the "Wonder City" of the Southwest. .
WALLACE P. MARTIN, M. D. His service in the medical corps during the World war having brought him duties in Texas, Doctor Martin has remained in the state since his honorable discharge, and has gained splendid professional success and reputation in the noted oil town of Burkburnett.
Doctor Martin was born near Evansville. Indiana, in 1886, a son of Robert Perry and Daphne (Allen) Martin. His parents were natives of Indiana, and his father served as a Union soldier in the Civil war. Doctor Mar- tin when a boy went to Fresno, California. with his sister's family. He attended the pub- lic schools of that city, was also a student in the Medical Department of the University of Stanford at Palo Alto, California, and in the intervals of his education acquired some prac- tical experience as an oil well driller in the oil fields of California. He prepared for his profession in the Medical Department of the University of Southern California at Los An- geles, where he was graduated in 1915. He then served as an interne at Sacramento, prac- ticed for about eight months in Placerville,
and was then engaged in his profession at Fresno until he entered the army.
Doctor Martin received a commission in the Medical Reserve Corps, attended the Medical Officers Training Camp at Fort Riley, Kansas, and was assigned to regular duty at Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas, with the Eighteenth Division. He was there during the remaining period of the war and for several months afterward, receiving his honorable dis- charge in 1919.
Doctor Martin soon afterward selected as his home and place of practice Burkburnett in Wichita County. He has since discharged faithfully the arduous duties of a physician and surgeon in a crowded boom town, and the community has duly appreciated his skill and his work. In the summer of 1920 he and Doctor Steen closed the contract for the con- struction of a modern hospital in Burkburnett, an institution that is designed to supply a pressing need of the city. The hospital was constructed after the army evacuation hospi- tal type, to cost approximately twenty thou- sand dollars. It has twenty beds, and an equipment of X-Ray and modern surgical ap- paratus. The septic tanks, a feature of the sanitary arrangement, are installed after the plans drawn by the State Board of Engineers. This hospital is modeled closely after the army hospital that was built at Call Field, Wichita Falls. Primarily it is a private hospital to take care of the medical and surgical cases of Doctor Martin and Doctor Steen, though so far as practical all facilities will be employed to make it available for emergency and charity patients and for the accommodation of other doctors.
Doctor Martin married Miss Camille Tripp. She is a native of Kansas but was reared in California. They have one daughter, Marcella Frances. Fraternally Doctor Martin is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. !
HENRY HOBBS. Oil men in the Southwest recognize in Henry Hobbs one of the out- standing figures in the business, an operator whose efforts have been attended with an al- most magical degree of success, his name being prominently associated as one of the owners of the famous Texas Chief Oil Well and as one of the successful producers in the Burk- burnett field.
Mr. Hobbs, who for several years has been a resident of Wichita Falls, had previously been a successful cattle man in Western Texas,
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and he represents one of the pioneer families that have produced the best blood and energy for building up the West and developing its resources.
He was born in Stephens County, Texas, in 1884, son of W. M. and Sarah (Harris) Hobbs. His father, a native of Georgia, was a child when the family came to Texas in the '50s and settled in Palo Pinto County. That region was then a portion of the real frontier, inhabited largely by Indians, who subsequently became hostile. The Hobbs family located in the Keechi country of Palo Pinto County. W. M. Hobbs in the early '70s moved his fam- ily to Stephens County, adjoining Palo Pinto on the west. They located in the northeast part of the county, on the famous Black ranch. This ranch was founded by the late Henry Black, with whom W. M. Hobbs was a partner in the cattle business for many years. In 1895 the Hobbs family moved still further west, to a ranch in Motley County, of which Matador is the county seat.
Henry Hobbs was eleven years of age when the family went to Motley County. He had grown up in a district whose inhabitants were almost entirely concerned with the activities of the ranch and range. In such an environment he acquired his education and from earliest boyhood knew how to ride and went through all the processes of acquiring an education fit- ting him for his duties as a rancher. Business ability was almost a talent with him, and thus equipped he became a factor in ranching and financial operations in Texas before he was grown, and continued along that line until early in 1918, when, sensing the opportunities for profitable operation in the oil business, he moved to Wichita Falls.
Mr. Hobbs and his associates organized and financed the Texas Chief Oil Company. On May 27, 1919, they brought in the famous Texas Chief oil well, which started with an initial production of over three thousand bar- rels a day. It kept flowing at that rate for several months, and even now, two years later, it is still producing, though now on the pump. The profits on this well have been at the rate of 525 per cent on the original cost and invest- ment up to date. Mr. Hobbs subsequently or- ganized the Texas Chief Oil Company of Dela- ware, a corporation which pays its stockholders a regular dividend of 11/2 per cent a month.
Mr. Hobbs is president of the Hobbs Oil Company. This is the holding company for the Texas Chief Oil Company of Delaware. The chairman of the board of the Texas Chief
Company is former Governor C. N. Haskell of Oklahoma, now of New York. Governor Haskell, as is well known, is one of the leading oil men in the country, and has from ten to fifteen million dollars invested in the oil in- dustry in Oklahoma and Texas. The Texas Chief well is located in Block 97 of the Red River Valley lands. The prestige of Mr. Hobbs and his associates is not derived alto- gether from the remarkable success of the Texas Chief well. He has extensive drilling operations in the field west of Burkburnett, and those with the most casual knowledge of oil operations will appreciate the remarkable showing that out of fifty-four wells drilled and owned by his company only one has proved a dry hole.
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