USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 54
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In 1880 John J. Sullivan was married in Denton County to Miss Emily Campbell, a daughter of Hawk Campbell, who came to Texas during the early '60s, from Virginia, where Mrs. Sullivan was born. He was killed in battle while serving as a Confederate sol- Politically Doctor Sullivan is a Democrat, and he cast his first presidential vote for Wil- of Pythias, an Odd Fellow and a Woodman dier, and left the following family: Matilda, who is the wife of Joseph Sullivan; Sallie, ... liam Jennings Bryan in 1908. He is a Knight who married William Beckham; Mary, who .. married Charles Sullivan ; Mrs. John J. Sulli- of the World. In addition to carrying on his van, who was next in order of birth; Richard. who died in Wise County; and Ollie, who be- came Mrs. John Elsasser, died in Idaho. John J. Sullivan and his wife became the par- ents of the following children: Linnie, who is the wife of M. A. Brown, of Denton
private practice and caring for the health of the city, Doctor Sullivan is medical examiner for the Fort Worth and Reserve Loan Insur- ance Companies, and for other concerns, and is, recognized as an honor to his profession and his city.
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GUY O. SHIREY, M. D. Beginning his prac- tice at Fort Worth in 1915, Dr. Shirey was for two years in the Army Medical Service, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Medical Corps, and has since resumed prac- tice at Fort Worth, where he enjoys a position among the foremost specialists in the South- west on eye, ear, nose and throat diseases.
Dr. Shirey was born in Clay County, Arkansas, February 28, 1891, a son of Dr. W. L. and Alice M. (Allen) Shirey. His father, also a native of Arkansas, served as a captain in the Medical Corps during the World war, and is a prominent physician at Texarkana. Guy O. Shirey, only son of his father, was educated in the high school at Foreman, Arkansas, Hendricks College at Conway, Arkansas, and graduated in medi- cine from the University of Tennessee in 1914. He had two years of hospital and clinical ex- perience in New York and Europe, and in 1915 began his practice in Fort Worth. His army service was from 1917, the beginning of America's participation in the World war, until 1919. Dr. Shirey's offices are in the W. T. Waggoner building, Fort Worth.
During the World war Dr. Shirey served with the fighting First Division, American Ex- peditionary Forces, for one year, and the re- mainder of his two years with the American Expeditionary Forces was done with the Third Corps and Second Army. He fought in all the big engagements of the American Army in France, was wounded and gassed several times, and received Croix de Guerre (French) and Distinguished Service Medal (American ). He not only served on the medical staff but in all other departments and filled many vacancies until men of higher rank could be supplied. He was discharged at Camp Dix as a lieutenant colonel of infantry, and known in the Ameri- can Expeditionary Force as the fightingest doctor whoever went to France. At present Dr. Shirey is head (state commander) of the Texas State American Legion. He has served from the bottom up in the Legion of Texas, beginning as post commander at Fort Worth.
WILLIAM T. COLEMAN. While there have been a few conspicuous cases of men who have achieved wealth and success in the pro- duction fields of petroleum in North Texas without knowing anything of the oil industry before they started, the real technical pro- cesses involved in the refining, manufacture and marketing of oil products acknowledge as
masters only men of experience and special talent. One of the latter class is William T. Coleman, president of the Bankers Petroleum and Refining Company of Wichita Falls.
Mr. Coleman, widely known as a refinery expert, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1875, and acquired his early knowledge of the oil business in Philadelphia in 1895, when twenty years of age. Since then a quarter of a century has been devoted to the intensive study, experimentation and work in all the complicated processes attending the manufac- ture and refining of crude petroleum into the hundreds of forms into which the product reaches the commercial market. Mr. Cole- man's experience has been especially thorough in the refining end of the industry.
He was identified with the various stages of oil development westward from the eastern states through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Okla- homa and Texas. He built, equipped and managed many refineries in these various states. He is one of the comparatively few men who might be acknowledged as authori- ties on the building of a refinery, its equip- ment and the supervision of the highly special- ized processes of refining crude oil into kero- sene, gasoline and other products. Many independently built refineries over the country have failed of commercial success because their builders and managers have lacked the specialized knowledge necessary.
Mr. Coleman has been a resident of Wichita Falls since 1918. He took charge of the con- struction and equipment of the refinery of the Bankers Petroleum & Refining Company. This refinery began operations in the summer of 1920. He is president of the company and active manager of the plant. The plant rep- resents the fruition of many of Mr. Coleman's ideas and inventions, and has a new and patented process of refining which the gov- ernment standards as to gravity and other specific qualities of kerosene, gasoline, etc., are reached in less time and at less expense than that under the older processes. More- over, he has introduced a simplification of equipment in this, the twelfth refinery estab- lished at Wichita Falls. During the first month of operation the plant produced over 800 barrels of oil daily, though the nucleus of the plant is two 400-barrel stills as contrasted with batteries of five to ten stills in plants of similar capacity elsewhere. Mr. Coleman was responsible for the introduction of special features allowing of a continuous system of
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operation whereby the normal capacity was greatly increased.
The executive officers of the Bankers Petroleum & Refining Company are W. T. Coleman, president and general manager ; E. T. Renfro, of Fort Worth, vice president ; and L. B. Haines, secretary and treasurer.
JOSEPH MARTIN INMON. After more than half a century of business activity Joseph Martin Inmon has been leading a somewhat retired life in his home at Denton, though he still supervises more or less his extensive ranch and farm interests in the county. His name has been an honored one in this section of Texas ever since the close of the Civil war.
Mr. Inmon was born in Giles County. middle Tennessee, April 23, 1841. His father, Isaac Inmon, was of Irish ancestry, was born in Tennessee, and in Giles County married Miss Nancy H. Faught. The Faughts were of original German stock. Her brother John was a Texas pioneer and reared his family near Brownsville, where he died. The chil- dren of Isaac and Nancy Inmon were: Calvin WV., who was with his brother Joseph as a Confederate soldier and lived at the latter's home, when he died unmarried; Martha Ann. who became the wife of J. A. Carroll and died at Denton ; Sarah F., who died at Denton as Mrs. James Flow; Joseph M .; and I. D., a rancher near Slidel, Texas.
Joseph Martin Inmon grew up on a Ten- nessee farm and had the advantages of the country schools in Weakley County until he was twelve years of age, when the family moved to Missouri, locating at the town of Ozark in Christian County. In that locality he came to manhood, and he was just twenty years of age when the war broke out. He and his brother enlisted during the first year in Company E, under Captain Campbell, State Troops. Later they were enrolled in the Regu- lar Confederate army, and were under General Cooper in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Mr. Inmon was in the battle of Oak Hill, Wilson Creek, in August, 1861, also at Ne- osho, Missouri, and Elkhorn or Pea Ridge, Arkansas. General Price's main army then crossed to the east side of the Mississippi. while General Cooper's command remained in the West, and the Inmon brothers participated in the fighting at Fort Gibson, Indian Terri- tory, on the Canadian River, and the engage- ment at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The war ended with the Inmon brothers at Rock Acad-
emy in the Choctaw Nation, where the troops separated. Mr. Inmon was paroled at Fort Smith in April, 1865, and the brothers then returned to Missouri. but in the same fall the entire family moved to Texas, making the journey overland from Christian County. Isaac Inmon lived but a few years in Pilot Point, where he followed his trade as a car- penter. He died in 1873, at the age of sixty- five. His wife was born in 1809. and died at Denton in 1892.
After a brief experience at farming in Texas Joseph M. Inmon began his career at Pilot Point as a blacksmith, a trade he pursued steadily until 1888. His shop at Pilot Point occupied the present site of the Grady Ryan Garage. When he abandoned his anvil and forge he went to the northwest corner of Den- ton County and took up the cattle business with a farm and ranch southeast of Slidel. Taking a tract of land covered with grass, he developed a productive ranch and raised grain and cotton as well as graded Shorthorn cattle. He also did a business as a cattle dealer and for a number of years was a regular shipper of his own and others' products to the Fort Worth market.
In the Slidel community Mr. Inmon ac- quired 2,750 acres, and before he left there had more than 600 acres under cultivation, with two sets of improvements on the ranch. These improvements marked the ranch con- spicuously on the roadside from Slidel to Denton. With the increasing burden of years, and with a record of more than fifty years of strenuous activity, he retired from the ranch to Denton, where he built an attractive bunga- low home on South Locust Street. Besides looking after his ranch at Slidel he is a stock- holder in the Exchange National Bank at Denton.
While busy with his private affairs Mr. Inmon has not neglected the duties of patri- otism and good citizenship. While at Slidel he was a member of the School Board and at Pilot Point he likewise showed a readiness to support any project for better schools or other institutions connected with the general welfare. This active interest has not been in- consistent with the fact that he has done very little in politics beyond voting his sentiments as a democrat. He cast his first vote for presi- dent for Horatio Seymour in 1868, then for Horace Greeley in 1872, for Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, for Grover Cleveland in 1884 and other party candidates since then. He was reared a Presbyterian, but his spiritual beliefs
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MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH M. INMON
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hardly coincide with the orthodox churches of today.
Mr. Inmon was intense in his loyalty dur- ing the World war and gave generously of his funds in that direction, to Liberty Bonds, Red Cross and other auxiliary war work.
At Pilot Point December 3, 1873, Mr. Inmon married Miss Delia Elmore, who was born in that Texas town. Her father. Jefferson F. Elmore, brought his family to Texas from Missouri. She is the oldest of three surviving children, her brother Gordon being a resident of Pilot Point and her brother Frank a farmer near Clarendon, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Inmon had two children. Roy E. lost his life while helping install an irrigation plant in New Mex- ico, being survived by a wife and two children. . Ona Inmon, the daughter, is the wife of O. S. Gibson, a stockman at Deming, New Mexico.
HON W. J. TOWNSEND. A prominent attor- ney of North Texas at Wichita Falls, Mr. Townsend is widely known as a lawyer all over the state, having achieved distinction in his profession and in public affairs while a resident of East Texas, and he came to Wichita Falls after a service as assistant attorney general of the state.
He was born at Lufkin in Angelina County, Texas, in 1876, and his parents, W. J. and Devilla (Gilliland) Townsend, were also natives of East Texas. Reared at Lufkin, he acquired his education in the common schools there, and then entered the University of Texas, where he took the law course. He re- ceived his law degree with the class of 1899. In his native town of Lufkin he gained his first successes as a lawyer, and his abilities quickly won him honors in public affairs. He served as county attorney and also as county judge of Angelina. For six years he was in the State Senate during the Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth sessions. He represented the Thirteenth Senatorial District, comprising Angelina, Cherokee, Houston, Trinity and Anderson counties. He was one of the busy and hard working senators both on the floor and in committee rooms, and one of the measures that he originated and had passed is the present Texas law on wife abandonment, a model piece of legislation.
Mr. Townsend removed from Lufkin to Austin, and for two years was assistant attor- ney general under Attorney General B. F. Looney and C. M. Cureton. He resigned his office in February, 1920, and came to Wichita
Falls, where he has since been engaged in the practice of law. Judge Townsend has also identified himself in a public-spirited manner with the city of Wichita Falls. He is one of the men who reorganized the Bar Asso- ciation of the city. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and the Wood- men of the World.
Judge Townsend married Miss Zoe Willson. Both her father and grandfather have long been distinguished in Texas judiciary. Her grandfather was the late Judge Sam A. Will- son, a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Her father is Judge S. P. Willson, now chief justice of the Court of Civil Appeals at Texarkana.
BURNICE B. GREEVER . since coming to Wichita Falls in 1916 has become one of the widely known and successful oil operators in North Texas, and a business man whose public spirit is accepted as a matter of course among his associates who are working for the best interests of this metropolis of North Texas. Mr. Greever has an interest in all the country of North and West Texas because it is his native section of the Lone Star State.
He represents one of the real pioneer fam- ilies of Vernon, Wilbarger County, where he was born in 1890, a son of W. W. and Sarah (Wood) Greever. W. W. Greever, who died in March, 1920, was one of the first settlers of Vernon. A native of Tazewell County, Virginia, he moved to Texas in 1883, and for three years lived in Grayson County. It was in 1885 that he followed the route of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway then push- ing through Northwest Texas, and his quest of a new home and new locality ended when he came to what was then known as Eagle . Flat, since the city of Vernon. W. W. Greever began his career as a brick mason, working at day wages. He was a man of ability who had to encounter many trying circumstances and hardships in the early days of Northwest Texas, and he saw the region more than once practically depopulated before the era of per- manent improvement and development set in. He was one of a few who persisted in their struggles, and he not only saw the country become rich and prosperous but shared in that prosperity himself and had the satisfac- tion of rearing and educating his children and achieving a definite place in the business world. From a brickmason he developed an
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extensive business as a contractor and builder, and for a number of years maintained an organization that handled building contracts in many of the towns of Northwest Texas and Southern Oklahoma. He practically built the town of Frederick, Oklahoma. The children of this honored Northwest Texas pioneer besides Burnice B. are three sons and two daughters, H. K. Greever, of Vernon ; C. B. Greever, of Frederick, Oklahoma ; V. M. Greever, of Fort Worth ; Mrs. Effie Piper, of Vernon ; and Mrs. Annie T. Clay, of Wichita Falls.
Burnice B. Greever grew up at Vernon, attended the grammar and high schools there, and completed his education in the Eastman Business College of Poughkeepsie, New York. Since coming to Wichita Falls in 1916 his time and talents have been taken up with interests in oil production in both North Texas and in Oklahoma. He is an operator associated with Charles H. Clark, one of the largest and most successful men in the Oklahoma and Texas fields. Mr. Greever is a business man inspired by the constructive spirit, and takes a keen satisfaction not only in results that benefit him individually but also in his par- ticipation in movements, in co-operating with other young business men, for building up Wichita Falls.
He is a leader in various civic and public welfare movements, is active in the Red Cross and a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Wichita Club, Golf Club and the Masonic and Elks orders. Mr. Greever married Miss Eva Stout. His offices are in the City Na- tional Bank building.
LYTTON RAYMOND TAYLOR was a successful lawyer and man of affairs in Southern New Mexico and at El Paso until he came to Ranger and identified himself with this prom- ising oil metropolis in central West Texas. Here he has handled a wide range of legal interests, and is also successfully identified with practical business and with the forces that are working together in civic betterment and community welfare.
Mr. Taylor was born in Rich Hill. Missouri. in 1885, and soon after his birth his parents. R. H. and Mary (Bowman ) Tavlor, moved to the far West, living for a time in Oregon and other western states, but eventually lo- cating in Las Cruces, New Mexico. R. H. Taylor is still living, with home at Wichita Falls, Texas. Lytton R. Taylor was educated at Las Cruces, graduated from the New Mex- ico Agricultural College in that city. and also
studied law there. Subsequently he entered Columbia University at New York, taking full courses in pleading and evidence. Admitted to the bar at Santa Fe in 1911, he began prac- tice at Las Cruces, and for several years was a member of the law firm of Wade, Taylor & Wade, with offices both a Las Cruces and El Paso. Part of Mr. Taylor's early law ex- perience was gained in El Paso. As a matter of public spirit he acted for some time as sec- retary of the Chamber of Commerce of Las Cruces. During the World war he was food administrator for the southern portion of New Mexico, was ex-officio a member of the State Council of Defense, and gave much of his time to patriotic duties.
Mr. Taylor located at Ranger in the spring of 1919. He had already established through a friend an influential acquaintance with rep- resentative financial and business interests here. He was almost forthwith employed in an important and lucrative general practice. This general practice extended to all the courts. In business affairs he is an associate with his brother, Earl Taylor, under the firm name of Taylor Brothers, Inc., wholesale grocers at Ranger. They have developed a prosperous business at Ranger, and also main- tain a branch house at Breckenridge in Stephens County.
As a lawyer and man of affairs Mr. Taylor was welcomed into the leadership representing the best interests of Ranger in solving the many problems entailed by the unprecedented growth of the city. In the Ranger Chamber of Com- merce he served as chairman of the More Homes or Housing Committee, and through this committee has made some important con- tributions toward ameliorating the acute sit- uation presented by the housing problem. Mr. Taylor is a Mason and a member of the Pres- byterian Church. He married Miss Edna Burke, who was born and reared in Las Cruces. Their two children are Lytton Ray- mond, Jr., and Edna Louise.
P. J. LEA. The history of the oil fields reads like a romance, but it is backed by indisputable facts which make it all the more interesting. The bringing in of a producing well changes conditions entirely practically overnight. About the well a city springs up like magic. If it is in a locality already occupied by a settled community, its growth is phenomenal. The reason is apparent. Not only do pros- pectors surge in, but also those who purpose to meet the immense demand immediately
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created for all of the necessities and many of the luxuries of life. Money is needed for development, and facilities are rquired for the safeguarding of the fortunes which are so rapidly acquired, so that banks of sound char- acter are an absolute necessity. To exert a proper control over commercial and industrial transactions various bodies are organized ; fraternal orders are established ; public utilities are constructed; schools and churches are erected; in fact, the great mechanism of a corporate city is set in motion, requiring the brains and brawn of men of strong personality and unusual caliber. Wichita Falls was not created as a result of an oil boom, but it re- ceived new blood as a result of the discovery of oil in its vicinity, and its growth has chal- lenged admiration from the entire country. From being an average little city in the midst of one of the prosperous cattle regions of the state, it has become the Wonder City of the Southwest, and its boosters claim that it has only begun to expand. Certain it is that within the past few years some of the ablest captains of finance and industry have flocked to it, and every line of endeavor is showing the result of the stimulus given by the oil industry. One of the men who have spent their lives in the development of this exceed- ingly important industry is P. J. Lea a very prominent oil operator.
P. J. Lea was born at Corsicana, Texas, in 1876, a son of P. M. and Lida (Garner) Lea. P. M. Lea is still a resident of Corsicana, and for some years had charge of the waterworks of that city. It will be recalled by those con- versant with the history of the oil industry of that region that P. J. Lea when still a boy noticed oil seeping from the ground from around the pipes of the two water wells that supplied Corsicana with water, which were then under his father's charge. Following this indication pointed out by the observant lad a well was drilled, from which the oil came freely. This well was actually the first one brought in in the Corsicana field which is still producing.
As was but natural after so epoch-making a beginning, P. J. Lea has spent his life in the oil industry. He went to Beaumont at the time of the bringing in of the famous Spindletop well there in 1901, and operated in that field for several years. In February, 1917, he came to Wichita Falls, and has made this city the headquarters for his extensive operations. Mr. Lea is recognized as being
one of the successful of the independent oper- ators in this field today, and is an authority on matters pertaining to the oil industry.
He married Miss Katie Werner, born at Navasota, Texas, and they have three chil- dren, namely : Lida, Preston and Austin. Recognizing the advantage of co-operative action Mr. Lea has allied himself with the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce and as one of its active members is interested in pro- moting various civic enterprises. His con- nection with the First National Bank as a member of its board of directors gives added solidity to that vast financial institution. Mr. Lea has not confined his efforts to mundane affairs but was one of the zealous workers in behalf of the Floral Heights Methodist Episcopal Church and is a member of its board of trustees. As a member of its build- ing committee he rendered valuable service in the movement which crystallized in the the erection of one of the finest church edifices in Texas completed early in 1921 at a cost of $250,000. A successful man upon an exten- sive scale Mr. Lea has not only acquired a fortune but has carried a number of others with him. He is the soul of generosity and his benefactions are many and varied although the greater portion of them are not known to the public. His confidence in Wichita Falls is unlimited and he is proving it by his invest- ments of time and money in various enter- prises and he is proud of the part he has taken in the city since he located here permanently.
JAMES W. CORN. From early boyhood for a period of over fifty years James W. Corn has been identified with that region of North Texas of which Fort Worth is the business metropolis. He grew up on a ranch, and ranching and livestock have been the main and leading interests of his career. Other affairs have engaged his attention and his name is associated with the capitalistic affairs of this section.
Mr. Corn, whose home is at Benbrook. Texas, was born in Franklin County. Ten- nessee, February 14, 1850, son of James S. and Cornelia J. (Allison) Corn. His parents were also born in Tennessee and James S. Corn died when his son James was only four years old. The mother subsequently was married to Mr. Repton and the family moved to Texas in 1858, locating in original John- son County in what is now Hood County. There James W. Corn grew up, gaining only such advances as were supplied by the fron-
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