USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 48
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Mr. Bachman married Miss Mary T. Lutt- rell, daughter of Dr. J. M. Luttrell, of Min- eral Wells. Her maternal grandfather was the late Tom S. Richards, who drilled the original Star well at Mineral Wells.
J. C. WARD. From the time he located at Wichita Falls in 1882 J. C. Ward has been one of the enterprising and far-sighted men of this locality, helping generously in every good cause calculated to assist in the upbuilding of the city. At the time of his arrival the railroad was not completed to Wichita Falls and he was among the pioneer business men here, first engaging in merchandising. For twenty years he conducted a store at the corner of Ohio and Sixth streets, and he built up a large general trade, both locally and over a wide expanse of territory, with the great cattle ranches to the west, south and southwest of Wichita Falls. This trade came to him by wagon teams until the building of the railroad, and he was the most popular merchant and friend
of the old-time cattlemen and cowboys, all of whom held him in the highest esteem and ac- corded him their fullest confidence.
In later years Mr. Ward was occupied with handling his own property and investments. While conducting his mercantile establishment he was also occupied with building operations and erected the building at the corner of Ohio and Eighth streets, in 1884, that was one of the first high-class buildings to be put up in the city, and for years it was occupied by the National Bank of Commerce. The store building he occupied for so long was also erected by him, and in 1911 he built the pres- ent Ward Building on Eighth, adjoining the National Bank of Commerce on the west.
Mr. Ward is a Southerner, both by birth and residence, as he was born at New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1854, a son of Patrick Ward. When he was a child his parents moved from New Orleans to Kentucky, and still later to Missouri, so that all of his life has been spent south of the Mason and Dixon line, and he has all of the delightful characteristics of the Southern gentleman.
Mr. Ward was married to Miss Amie Estelle Coon, who was born in Illinois and was brought by her parents to Arcadia, Missouri, in young childhood and was reared in the home of her maternal grandparents. She was there educated and grew to womanhood, and was married in Arcadia to Mr. Ward December 10, 1885. They have three children, namely : Joseph Eugene, William Byron and Mrs. Nel- lie Grace Blankenship.
The two sons made enviable and patriotic records in the World war. The elder, Joseph Eugene, was graduated in civil engineering from the University of Texas in the spring of 1917, and immediately thereafter enlisted. He was the first to receive instruction in the avia- tion school at Kelly Field, Texas, and from there he was sent to Austin, where he was assigned to duty, and for nine months was an instructor in aeronautic engineering, which in- cluded everything connected with the construc- tion, equipment and manipulation on the ground of aeroplanes, except flying. He was highly commended for this work by his superior officers, who credited him with being a skilled engineer and an expert on flying machines and motors. Subsequently, desiring to get into active military service, he became transfered to Camp Lee, Virginia, and Camp Humphrey, Virginia, and was at the latter camp when the armistice was signed.
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The second son, William Byron, was a stu- dent in the Georgia School of Technology when the United States declared war with Ger- many, and, like his brother, he immediately volunteered his services to his Government, enlisting in the navy. He went into training at the Great Lakes Naval Training School, Chicago, Illinois, where later he was assigned to duty as an electrical engineer, like his brother, being a technical expert. Near the close of the war he was assigned to duty in charge of the motors on a submarine chaser on the New England coast, and was in this service when the armistice was signed.
During the years he has lived at Wichita Falls Mr. Ward has witnessed changes which are almost phenomenal and unbelievable, and has taken a very constructive part in bringing them about. His wealth is now considerable, but it has come to him through his own efforts and wise investments, and he is generous in his sharing of it with those in need and in dona- tions to churches, schools and public improve- ments. He is very proud of Wichita Falls, and the city is equally proud of him, one of its most successful pioneers and one of the build- ers of the community.
C. C. CABINESS. The conditions in the newly opened oil fields of the Southwest are entirely different from those prevailing in other sec- tions of the country, where business is in a more normal state, and they require a steady hand at the helm of the financial institutions to prevent an inflation which could not help but react disastrously to the people and the region. The men at the head of the banks in the dis- trict influenced by the Burkburnett fields have recognized this and have bent their energies and used their knowledge to prevent any un- reasonable speculation. One of the towering figures in the financial history of his times and locality is C. C. Cabiness, active vice pres- ident of the Security National Bank of Wich- ita Falls, who is one of the strongest financiers and experienced bankers in the state and a man whose wisdom and sagacity is unques- tioned.
Mr. Cabiness was born in Houston County. Texas, in 1884, but when he was seven years old his parents moved to Iowa Park, Wichita County, where he was reared and attended school. At the age of seventeen years he went to Oklahoma, and, so able was he, in a year he was made general manager of the leading store in a town in that state. His banking career was inaugurated when he accepted a
position as bookkeeper of the First National Bank of Sayre, Oklahoma, and within eighteen months he was promoted to be assistant cashier. After a few years he was elected active vice president of the First National Bank at Erick, Oklahoma, and made of it one of the leading money making banks of that part of the state. On January 1, 1918, he came to Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas, the most famous oil producing town in the state, and took charge of the First National Bank as its active vice president. He was acting in that capacity during the great boom days, a very trying condition from a banker's stand- point. The deposits of the bank grew from $500,000 to $1,500,000 in six weeks, and dur- ing this period the bank paid dividends to its stockholders up to 30 per cent. Mr. Cabiness is a man of strong personality, and cannot be unduly influenced. He takes the stand he is certain is right and sticks to it. Perhaps it is due to his influence and strength of purpose more than to anything else that finances were kept on so firm a basis as they were during a time when men's usually good common sense were threatened by such remarkable conditions.
The record Mr. Cabiness made in the First National Bank of Burkburnett attracted uni- versal attention, and when he and J. I. Staley, the well-known oil man and banker, organized the Security National Bank of Wichita Falls the new institution had a following begore the doors were opened for business July 1, 1920, with a capital of $400,000 and surplus of $100,- 000. The bank is located in the Morgan Build- ing, which was redecorated and refinished for housing this institution. The officials of the bank are: J. I. Staley, president; C. C. Cabiness, active vice president; J. W. Mc- Reynolds, active vice president ; W. M. Priddy, vice president; J. A. Richold, vice president ; N. M. Clifford, cashier ; H. H. Cotner, first assistant cashier ; and M. R. Ellis, assistant cashier.
While it was known that a large amount of business would be transacted by the Security National Bank, the first day's deposits broke all records and were an astonishment to every- one, they being $1,573,642.21 on the opening day. While the first day's business was phenomenally large, the bank has continued to operate upon a scale commensurate with its initial performance, and backed as it is by the wealthiest and most substantial oil men in this part of the state, and officered by men of superior ability and standing, the Security Na-
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tional bids fair to become the leading institu- tion of its kind in the Southwest.
Mr. Cabiness was married to Miss Lucile Tyler, and they have a daughter, Florence Kathryn Cabiness. Mr. Cabiness is one of the typical products of his times and state. While he is intensely alert to secure legitimate busi- ness, he will not consider any projects which are not thoroughly sound, nor will he coun- tenance the making of loans upon any but the best of security. Wichita Falls has no better friend in all of its plans for the development of a Greater Wonder City than he, but he must be convinced of the reasonableness and sound- ness of each and every one before he will place upon it the stamp of his approval, and in this way the taxpayers' interests are safe- guarded and an extravagant expenditure of the people's money prevented. Those who have not had the careful training in finance which has fallen to Mr. Cabiness' share are not always able to see the fallacy of schemes which read well on paper but will not work out in a practical manner, and it is a fortunate thing for the city that it has a man in an authorita- tive position to exercise and enforce a wise supervision over its finances.
JOHN G. CULBERTSON is president of the Wichita Motors Company of Wichita Falls, judicial center of Wichita County, Texas. This mere statement is barren of definite signifi- cance, but when one has gained a specific knowledge of the story of achievement that is involved then the significance rises to stately proportions, and both the man and the city in which he has wrought appear in a real glory of industrial accomplishment. Well was justi- fied the title, "The Romance of Industry,". which appeared as the caption of a most inter- esting article published in the Dallas Times- Herald of July 13, 1919, and while the pre- scribed limitations of this review and this pub- lication prevent indulgence in generous quota- tions from the article mentioned, it is but con- sistent that a few pertinent excerpts be made to voice the really wonderful industrial achievement of John G. Culbertson :
"Somewhat over eight years ago J. G. Cul- bertson, with a vision that has all the canny and uncanny qualities that are inbred in the Scottish line, saw what the future held in store for automotive powered vehicles given over to the prosaic service of bearing the burdens of mankind. In those days the automobile indus- try had largely been concentrated in develop- ing vehicles that would carry men on pleasure
bent in relative ease and would come back once the halfway point of a journey's end was reached. Motor trucks, in other words, nearly nine years ago were largely made of the same stuff that dreams are made of. *
* But * Culbertson had his dream. This was his vision. He was stout of heart and his zeal was the enthusiasm of a soul aflame. He did not wish to conquer a narrow strip of trade ground. He wanted to girdle the very globe; he wanted to lighten the burdens of the beasts of travel. to economize the efforts of those who make the commerce of the world revolve. And he knew that a mistake as to location for a fac- tory to turn out trucks that would accomplish these things would be as great a misfortune as to turn out a truck that would not do these things.
"He interested those two gigantic country- builders, J. A. Kemp and Frank Kell, of Wichita Falls, in his vision. And they listened and they caught his thoughts ; and they poured their money into the enterprise with the money Culbertson had. And the Wichita Motor Company was organized. Ground was broken for the factory, a force of skilled work- men was gathered, and plans were laid upon a secure foundation for the fulfillment of the dreams that were born of courage.
"And Culbertson was right. Those who were the first to jeer are now those who are most amazed. It is no longer a cry of derision, of 'You can't do it!' It is the petitioning cry of 'How did you do it?' For Wichita trucks are today the burden-bearers of sixty-eight coun- tries of this globe-sixty-eight countries out- side of the United States. And the Wichita Motors Company is one of the oldest com- panies engaged exclusively in the manufactur- ing of commercial motor-driven vehicles in the world. From a capacity of twenty-five trucks a year, the output of the Wichita Falls fac- tory has grown until it is now counted by the thousands of trucks. And these trucks, like the booming guns of Great Britain, greet the rising sun at every longitude.
"And so in a growing volume the trade of the Wichita Motor Company is day by day reaching farther and farther into regions re- mote and through the golden bands of ethical business the growing City of Wichita Falls is being bound to the utmost ends of the earth. And how has this business been obtained? First by building a dependable truck that is as nearly fool-proof as it is possible to build --- by putting into that truck material that is wear- resisting to the last obtainable degree ; by mak-
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ing one that is simple in construction. economical in upkeep and in operation-and so the first Wichita truck sold in those distant lands has always been one that has turned evangel and brought to Wichita Falls repeat orders.
"But the big thing, after all, is the vision, the courage that inspired the launching of this enterprise and the man who read the signs of the times with a world's perspective. This is the cornerstone and the capstone. The right idea, launched at the right time and at the right place, contains the required elements whence comes success. Simple, isn't it? But that is the secret of the Wichita Motor Company and the Wichita trucks."
It is extraneous to the province of this pub- lication to enter into details concerning the inception and development of the gigantic industry which has been built up by Mr. Cul- bertson and his associates, but the foregoing quotations offer a complete epitome of the record of success-at least to the person whose vision enabled him to "read between the lines." It is sufficient to say that this industry has done far more than any other one agency to give to Wichita Falls a name and place in the world's commerce and that all honor is due to the men who have made this possible. Since the foregoing article was written the corporate name of the Wichita Falls Motor Company has been changed to the Wichita Motors Company.
John G. Culbertson was born at Knox. Clarion County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1883, and his youth thus renders more re- markable the great work he has wrought since he established his home at Wichita Falls. He was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, and in 1906 was graduated from the Pennsyl- vania State College. Thereafter he was iden- tified with mechanical engineering and plant construction work in various sections of the Union until the year 1910, when he came to Wichita Falls and became the founder and builder of the great industrial enterprise of which adequate mention has been made in preceding paragraphs and of which he has continued as the executive head. It may be stated that the trucks of the Wichita Motors Company are now exported to eighty-three for- eign countries, that the plant of Wichita Falls manufactures four thousand trucks annually. while the adjunct manufactory at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has an annual production of three thousand trucks.
Evidence of his high position as one of the. leaders of industry in the Southwest came to
Mr. Culbertson in two ways during 1920. In December he was one of the convention of bankers, farmers and industrial leaders at Chi- cago who voted to organize an American billion dollar corporation under the Federal Reserve Act and the Edge Law to promote the coun- try's foreign trade. Mr. Culbertson was hon- ored by being placed on the committee to organize the corporation.
In July the republican party of Texas selected Mr. Culbertson as its nominee for gov- ernor, and he accepted the responsibility, made an unusually effective campaign over the state, and received a large vote that was as much a compliment to himself as to his party. The Wichita Falls Record-News, commenting upon his nomination, said: "Another thing the selection of Culbertson as the standard bearer of the republican party in Texas does is to draw attention to the fact that Wichita Falls is an industrial city of the first class as well as an oil center. Culbertson is a business suc- cess. Many do not know it, but Wichita trucks are today in use in eighty-three foreign coun- tries of the world, the widest distribution of any motor truck made anywhere in the world. The nomination of Culbertson is a tribute to the industrial progress of this city. Wichita Falls owes something to those who have come here and have helped make this city as well as to those who will come here in the future."
Mr. Culbertson well merits classification as one of America's representative captains of in- dustry, and fame and fortune attend him in the period of comparative youth. He is a member of the National Foreign Trade Coun- cil, whose personnel comprises the leading manufacturers and exporters of the United States ; he holds membership also in the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Advertising Clubs of Texas, the Texas Cham- ber of Commerce and the Wichita Falls Cham- ber of Commerce. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and he is affiliated also with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. In his home city he holds membership in the Rotarian Club, the' Wichita Club, the Golf and Country Club, and in the City of Dallas he is a member of the Dallas Athletic Club and the Dallas City Club, while the City of Fort Worth records him as a popular member of the Fort Worth Club. The name of Mr. Culbertson is still enrolled on the list of eligible bachelors of the Lone Star State.
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MOJ Christensen
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J. V. C. T. CHRISTENSEN. Thirteen years ago Wichita Falls had a small iron working shop and foundry established and operated by two men, J. V. C. T. Christensen and his ap- prentice, William A. Huber. The history of the business gives a notable example of enter- prise and growth from small things to large, and an institution that has made itself a part of the rapidly expanding community and has prospered and increased in proportion to the development of Wichita Falls from a country town of say two thousand to one of the larger cities of Texas.
The business is known as the Wichita Falls Foundry and Machine Company, of which Mr. Christensen is president. He has had almost a life-long experience as a machinist and foundryman. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1865, and learned the machinist's trade in his native city. He has been in America since 1894, a period of 27 years, and has the American attitude as well as the typ- ical American enterprise and progressiveness. His first employment was in the machine shops of the Illinois Central Railroad at McComb City, Mississippi. Later he was machinist foreman in the railroad shops at New Orleans and also in a cotton oil mill at Meridian, Mississippi. Mr. Christensen came from Meridian to Houston, Texas, and for four years was in the shops of the Southern Pacific Railway Company in that city. It was at Houston that he undertook his first inde- pendent enterprise, establishing what was known as the Houston Iron Works. Leaving that city, he established and operated for two years the Nacogdoches Iron Works at Nacog- doches in Eastern Texas.
This is a brief outline of his working rec- ord up to the time he located at Wichita Falls in 1907. While he and his assistant, Mr. Huber, were able to take care of all the busi- ness that came to their shop for several months, there has ensued a steady growth reflected from year to year in increased pay rolls, equipment and enlarging demand for the products, until now the Wichita Falls Foun- dry and Machine Company is a substantial and important unit in Texas industries. Over fifty men are employed and the pay roll runs between seventeen hundred and eighteen hun- dred dollars a week. In 1919 the volume of business ran over a quarter of a million dollars.
It is a matter of special interest to note that William A. Huber, who was Mr. Christen- sen's partner in 1907, has been steadily asso- ciated with the business from the beginning,
and is now secretary and treasurer of the company. After six months as a partner Mr. Cecil became vice president of the company.
The plant and shops of the company are on Barwise Street, at the corner of Kentucky, and the company has a large amount of space for its yards and shops. The output is all classes of foundry work, brass castings, gray iron castings, and special castings of every nature demanded by the custom trade. Much of the business of the company is with railroads, manufacturing brasses, brake shoes, car and engine parts. The brass foundry is conceded to be one of the best equipped establishments of its kind in the South. Mr. Christensen is himself the patentee of the brake shoe mantı- factured in the plant which belongs to the Wichita Falls Foundry Machine Company. The brass foundry has an average of about five thousand pounds of brass castings per day and the cast iron foundry has a production of from five to six tons per day, while the iron foundry and machine shops are also equipped with the best and most modern machinery. The equipment gives them facilities for ful- filling the needs of various industries, and they make castings and parts for automobiles, oil well drilling outfits, and do general machine and repair work.
Mr. Christensen, Mr. Huber and Mr. Cecil have been instrumental in giving Wichita Falls an important industry, and have always proved most public spirited citizens of the community. They are members of the Cham- ber of Commerce and other organizations.
RALPH O. HARVEY. While Mr. Harvey is a resident of Wichita Falls, and has some suc- cessful associations with the oil industry cen- tered in that city. he came to Texas fifteen vears ago primarily as a cotton man, and his chief business today is as a cotton buyer and cotton exporter. Wichita Falls credits him with being one of its livest and most enter- prising citizens.
He was born in Centerville. Appanoose County, Iowa, in 1881. His parents were Samuel L. and Alice ( Osborn) Harvey. His mother is still living. Samuel L. Harvey was an Iowa newspaper publisher and editor. At the first opening of Oklahoma Territory in 1889 he moved to El Reno, and for a number of years was identified with the life and affairs of that territory.
It was in El Reno that Ralph O. Harvey acquired his early education. He learned teleg- raphy, became an operator, and through teleg-
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raphy acquired his first interest in the cotton business. His ambition in those years was to become a cotton buyer. As a cotton buyer he came to Texas in 1905, and bought cotton with Honey Grove as his headquarters and also at various points in West Texas. About 1908 he came to Northwest Texas, and has been a resident of Wichita Falls since 1912. His has been an unusually successful and prominent career as a cotton man. One of the leading cotton exporters of Texas today, he holds a membership on the New Orleans Cotton Ex- change.
Good fortune has followed him in other lines of business. He reached Wichita Falls about the time of the first discovery of oil and gas in this section of the state, and has been more or less interested financially in the different fields, and with the great boom in petroleum beginning in 1910 he has taken a prominent part. His ventures and investments have been directed by a rare sagacity and have brought him large returns.
A young man of wealth, of undeniable pub- lic spirit, Mr. Harvey has co-operated with that splendid personnel which has made Wichita Falls one of the most progressive of modern cities and has enabled it to take advan- tage of the great growth in population and wealth brought about through the oil develop- ment. Among other important business con- nections he is vice president of the City Na- tional Bank of Commerce, a bank that now has resources of over $20,000,000.
A great many citizens who know him merely as a successful business man know him better for the efforts he has expended in behalf of wholesome sport and recreation. Mr. Harvey is president of the Wichita Falls Baseball Club. In 1920 Wichita Falls became one of the teams in the Texas League. Mr. Harvey is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Maskat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wichita Falls, and belongs to the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce and the Wichita Falls Club.
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