USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 56
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Something should also be said of his build- ing work in the city, particularly the erection of the two-story business and office Friberg Building on Ohio Avenue. The lot on which this was built cost at that time eight thousand dollars and the building about twenty thousand dollars, and today the property is worth con- siderably more than a hundred thousand dollars. His farm holdings have likewise increased in value in corresponding measure.
Mr. Friberg is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is active in civic affairs and is a Knight Templar Mason. He married Miss Annie Bard, of Illinois. Their fine family of nine children are: Avery, George, Floyd, Alfred, Mrs. Ethel Bryan, Mrs. Alpha Sim- mons, Mrs. Estelle Karrenbrock and Miss Net- tie and Miss Edmotine.
SUMNER BACON. This is one of the most illustrious names of the pioneer annals of Texas. He well earned his place with "those who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever." Texas had not heard the word of God as it came from the mouth of a Protestant preacher when he came within its borders. The few settlers along the eastern line of the Mexican province and up and down the fringe of settlement from Nacogo- doches to Red River came to know him and respect his calling and believe in his conse- crated life. Many who at first fought his de- signs afterwards succumbed to his preaching and a sin-sick region was started toward God by this unpolished scion of the frontier.
Sumner Bacon's name is synonymous with righteousness and his spirit is sealed upon the high peaks of heaven. His conversion was so thorough "down upon his knees in a closet under the stairway," at Fayetteville, Arkansas, while a protracted meeting was in progress, that he felt the call to preach the Gospel some- what as Paul did, and without any other prep- aration than divine inspiration he announced his purpose and began his work. His Arkan- sas audiences came to hear him from curiosity. His had been a wicked youth and all wished to hear one so suddenly cleansed of sin. His candidacy for the ministry was somewhat un- welcome, even by the preacher who converted him, since he was so uncouth in manner and dress and so unpromising of results as the agent of the Lord. But "he would preach" and nothing could deter him from his deter- mination. He sought authority from the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church in Arkansas, was twice refused a license, but announced a meet- ing, which his pastor attended, and proceeded to call sinners to account. Overcome by his presence in the pulpit, he became so confused and so incoherent in his utterances that his old pastor, partly through pity and partly through disgust, arose and said, "Young man, you'd better go to Texas," which was consid- ered the last word in sin-soaked lands. Smart- ing under the rebuke, the young man blurted out "I'll be damned if I don't," and the next morning he packed his belonging and started on his long and dangerous journey to this region. For the moment he forgot his vows. his mind burdened by the failure he had made in his first effort to preach, and the profanity he had so recently discarded reasserted itself in the answer to the preacher's advice.
On reaching Texas he got the people to- gether in groves, in log cabins and in front of stores and talked to them more forcefully and convincingly than they had ever been preached to before. He seemed inspired by the spirit of the Holy Ghost and hardened sinners abandoned their old haunts and their old associates and joined hands with the re- generated souls. His followers built an arbor near McMahan's Church in Sabine County, under which he preached. Opposition made itself manifest as he won converts from the ranks of gamblers and racehorse men, and plots were made to get rid of him. He was warned of the presence of mischief makers, but he was in the pulpit when they came and he asked them to hear him through and give him a fair chance to prove his right to be
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there. Then, instead of carrying out their murderous determination, they sought his par- don and during the series of meetings forty sinners were converted and baptized. On another occasion he was waylaid and assaulted by enemies and thought to be dead, but after recovering consciousness he asked his assail- ants to permit him to pray before they slew him and in this prayer he brought them to tears and they declared they could not kill so devout a man.
Sumner Bacon had no regular ecclesiastical authority to preach until 1835, when, at Alex- andria, Louisiana, as Mr. McDonald relates, he was ordained by the New Presbytery of the Cumberland Church. The proceeding was irregular and the minutes were made to say that the act should not be taken as a prece- dent for the future. Without being a church builder. Sumner Bacon was a forceful and convincing preacher with an inspiration born of heaven. He possessed the moral courage to defend his convictions, and his application of the Gospel to the practical things of life and his zeal in presenting his cause won him a place among the great men in the religious affairs of his time. His preaching covered a period of only fourteen years but it laid the foundation for Christian organization in Texas. With propriety he can be termed the father of the Cumberland Church in the Southwest.
Sumner Bacon was born at Auburn, Massa- chusetts, January 22, 1790, son of John and Mollie Bacon, and he had a brother and two sisters. This is an old Colonial family of New England and the first American ancestor was Michael Bacon, who came from Colches- ter, England, in 1640, with three sons and a daughter and settled at Dedham, Massa- chusetts. Two hundred and eighty-four Bacons were soldiers of the Revolutionary war from Massachusetts alone. It is said that Sumner's father possessed great intelligence and much natural ability and has a splendid memory. Sumner Bacon was well educated for the time and was specially strong in mathematics, a family trait. He abandoned the old home about the time he came of age and none of the family ever heard of him again. He was a spare, thin, young man in physical characteristics. For a dozen years after he left home there is no record of his wanderings. He reached Fayetteville, Arkan- sas, about 1825. He had an honorable dis- charge from the Regular Army and may have been a soldier in the War of 1812. While in
Missouri he joined a surveying party and left that state to go to Arkansas. His venerable son, now living at Denton, states that he ar- rived in Texas in 1832 and the same informant places the scene of his ordination at Spring Hill. Tennessee, instead of in Louisiana.
Sumner Bacon after several years in Texas visited Tennessee and in January, 1836, mar- ried Elizabeth McCarall at the home of Rev. James Porter at Spring Hill. She was from Orange, North Carolina. and was a cousin of Rev. Mr. Porter. Sumner Bacon brought his wife to Texas on horseback and left her at the home of Rev. James McMahan and then hurried on to join the Texas army during the war for Texas separation from Mexico. He was with Houston's forces until after the battle of San Jacinto, and then resumed his church work. Two years later he purchased land in San Augustine County and maintained a home there to the end.
Sumner Bacon in January, 1844, made a trip to North Texas to preach to some Ten- nesseans who had settled near the site of Denison. During the journey he took cold, followed by pneumonia, which terminated his life on the 24th of January of that year.
At his home in East Texas the first Pres- bytery of Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized November 27, 1837, the three ministers present being Sumner Bacon, Mitch- ell Smith and Amos Roark. Rev. Mr. Bacon was chosen moderator and Rev. Mr. Smith clerk. At this meeting one of Texas' noted preachers, R. O. Watkins, after relating the experience of his conversion, was received as a candidate for ministerial honors under the care of the Presbytery and he was licensed the next year and ordained in 1840. This Presbytery recommended the strict observance of the Sab- bath Day, pronounced against the manufac- ture, sale and use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, resolved the Presbytery into a home missionary society for Texas, encouraged the establishment of a religious paper for Texas and invited the various benevolent institutions of the United States to send their literature into the Republic of Texas in aid of the efforts of its three preachers to Christianize the young nation. The records of the meeting show that its three ministers received as salaries sums ranging from $3.30 a year to $31 a year, be- sides many useful gifts, and the neighbors largely carried on the work of improvement and cultivation of the preachers' farms in their absence.
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The first synod of the Cumberland Pres- byterian Church met at the camp ground near Nacogdoches in October, 1843. The ministers present were Sumner Bacon, James McDon- ald, Milton Moore, Robert Gilgerson, R. O. Watkins, John C. Barnett and Sam Corley, while the elders present were J. C. McCain, John Polk and John Watkins.
Rev. Sumner Bacon was the father of a son and twin daughters. The son is John Bacon of Denton. The only living daughter is Mrs. Mollie Thomas, of Justin, Texas.
John Bacon, of Denton, is one of the few living sons of pioneer Texans who came dur- ing the Mexican era. He was born in San Augustine County, Texas, June 2, 1838. He was six years old when his father died and he lived there with his widowed mother and sisters until January, 1856. His early life was spent on a farm and in that vicinity he attended country schools, which he declares were not inferior to the rural schools or the grades of the town schools of today. In 1862, in early manhood, he entered the Confederate service as a member of Captain Russell's Company E of the 24th Texas Dismounted Infantry, commanded by Colonel Alexander, and was in the service of the Southland until the end of the war.
John Bacon acquired a professional educa- tion by actual experience with surveying par- ties and engineers and with the practical work he did as a surveyor for many years. Though now retired, he holds a lifetime license from the Texas Land Survey Board to make sur- veys in accordance with the provisions of the statutes of the State. Following the war he was farmer, clerk and cowboy until 1872. In August of that year he joined a surveying party, locating the Texas & Pacific Railway from Texarkana westward. This work con- tinued until the Jay Cooke failure precipitated the panic of 1873. John Bacon, in June, 1873, came to Denton, and that city has been his home now for nearly half a century. He was at the time in the service of the Land Department of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company and assisted" in surveying all its lands in Denton County. Later he resumed work for the company in 1879 and was with its land department until 1892.
On February 4, 1874, John Bacon mar- ried Miss Susan E. Pace, of Fannin County. He brought his wife to Denton, and she was conspicuous among the useful women of that community until her death, as the result of an automobile accident a few years ago. Six
children were born to their marriage. Those surviving are Mrs. D. B. Wolf, of Dallas; an unmarried daughter who is in the offices of the American Steel and Wire Company of Dallas ; S. D. Bacon, assistant chief engineer of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway Company, who was recently married; and Mrs. Frank D. Thomas, of Lone Wolf, Okla- homa.
E. T. AMBLER. The entire state of Texas has been the field for the business adventure of E. T. Ambler, the well known Fort Worth business man. Mr. Ambler is an acknowl- edged authority on Texas lands, both from productive and investment standpoints. He has lived in the State for half a century and through his prominent outside financial con- nections has been the means of promoting de- velopment in this State.
Mr. Ambler was born at Danbury, Connec- ticut, February 27, 1850. He had a public school education and was a very young Con- necticut Yankee when he came to Texas in 1866. Mr. Ambler in 1870 began a career as a traveling salesman, representing a New York City hardware firm. In 1883 he became asso- ciated with the Oliver & Roberts Wire Com- pany of Pittsburgh as their Southern man- ager. His work in opening up a new terri- tory and satisfying the requirements of wire fencing for Texas ranchers brought him into association with another man, historically identified with the very beginning of the wire fence era in Texas, the late John W. Gates of the United States Steel Corporation. His acquaintance and association with Mr. Gates was perhaps the most influential connection of his business experience. Through the in- fluence of Mr. Gates he acquired some con- siderable holdings in the steel industry, later the United States Steel Corporation. At an opportune time he sold these interests, and the proceeds he invested in one of the largest ranching properties in West Texas, a body of 115,000 acres in Lynn and Garza counties. His associates in this field were John T. Lof- ton and C. O. Edwards.
Mr. Ambler sold his share of the lands and cattle in 1906 to C. W Post, the. great Battle Creek breakfast food manufacturer. At that time Mr. Ambler located at Fort Worth and has since continued his business as an invest- ment broker and dealer in land and real estate securities.
Mr. Ambler is a highly esteemed business man of Fort Worth and since taking up his
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home in that city has given much time and thought to church affairs. For ten years he was a member of the vestry of St. Andrews Episcopal Church, resigning that post on Jan- uary 1, 1918. and has since been a member of the Rector's Advisory Committee. Mr. Am- bler married Miss Maidie Wynn of Fort Worth. Their daughter Grace is the wife of Sam B. Cantey, a prominent Fort Worth lawyer.
GEORGE W. HILL. While many of the new- comers in the rich and populous new oil center of Eliasville know George W. Hill as a local citizen who has shared liberally in the wealth of oil discoveries, there are few old-timers whose residence in that section of the state antedates his. He began stock ranching in that region during the seventies, when the nearest railroad town was Fort Worth, and he acquired a competence for all his needs as a farmer and stockman years before the pres- ence of oil was suspected anywhere in his neighborhood.
George W. Hill was born in Pontotoc County, Mississippi. in 1854, and two years later, in 1856, his parents Tom H. and Amanda (Randall) Hill, also native Mississippians, moved to Texas. They went to the very verge of civilized settlement, in fact located in real Indian country, in Parker County, at what was known as Big Valley, on the Kickapoo, about fourteen miles south of Weatherford. Tom Hill became conspicuous among the pioneers of that section, was a popular stockman, and he lived on friendly terms with the Indians, who did not become hostile and troublesome until the time of the Civil war and the years fol- lowing.
It was in such an environment that George W. Hill grew to manhood, and his early train- ing was that typical of the frontier, with few school advantages, but with every opportunity to develop hardihood and courage. Through the exercise of those faculties required of a cowboy and practical ranch hand it was in 1876, when he was twenty-two years of age, that Mr. Hill transferred his interests from Parker County to the extreme northern part of Stephens County, four miles above the town of Eliasville. In that locality his work as a farmer and stock raiser was done. His land, ideally adapted for stock farming, con- sists of about thirteen hundred acres. His intelligent management made it return ample profits as a farm and ranch, but a year or so ago it also attracted the attention of practical
oil men, and at this time six producing wells are on the Hill ranch, and the production of oil has greatly augmented the wealth of Mr. Hill and family.
In 1920 he built a fine home in Eliasville, where he now resides with his family. He is a member of the Masonic order, and his family attend the Methodist Church. Mr. Hill married Miss Amanda Goodall. Their nine children are named J. W., S. R., Mrs. Ollie Smith, Mrs. Laura Smith, Mrs. Mollie Mat- thews, C. T., Mrs. Ada Kretley. Henry and Roy.
DANIEL DAVIS. No one man has played a more important part in the development of Sanger than has Daniel Davis, a stationary and locomotive engineer by profession and a jeweler by occupation. He has the leading jewelry establishment of this part of Denton County and the distinction of having furnished the city with its present waterworks as well as promoted many other measures of a pro- gressive character.
Daniel Davis was born at Arlington, Illinois, December 1, 1863, a son of Martin Davis, who was born in Ireland but came to the United States when a small boy and was reared at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Ar- lington, Illinois. He was married in the latter town to Miss Mary Dana, of Irish ancestry, although born in this country. Their chil- dren were three in number, but Daniel Davis is the only survivor, as his two sisters, maiden ladies, died in Iowa, where for some years they had been school teachers. During the war between the North and the South Martin Davis enlisted in defense of the Union, in Company D, Fifty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry. At the battle of Franklin, Ten- nessee, he was unfortunate enough to be cap- tured and, confined at Andersonville, suffered many privations, but was exchanged in time to rejoin his regiment and participate in the closing campaigns which resulted in the defeat of the Confederacy. He was a man of lib- eral education and ideas, and throughout his life was a student and reader, especially dur- ing his last years, for he lived to be eighty years old. In politics he was a republican. He was a Catholic. Mrs. Davis outlived her husband four years and then she, too, passed away.
Daniel Davis attended the common schools of Marshalltown, Iowa, where he was taken by his parents when he was six years old, and later he took a correspondence course in
Mr and Mrs G. W. Still
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steam engineering and electrical science with the Scranton Correspondence School, from which he received a diploma, completing the latter course after he had settled at Sanger. His father was a tinner by trade, and Mr. Davis acquired a working knowledge of it and worked as a journeyman at the trade, but not liking it, he went with the Lenox Machine Shop in Marshalltown, Iowa, as a helper. Once more he found the work un- congenial, and left, and for six months was a wiper in the shops of the Iowa Central Rail- road Company, following which he was made a fireman and finally an engineer. During his more than twelve years as a railroad man he was with the Iowa Central, the Santa Fe, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul, the Frisco out of Newburg, Missouri, the Soo out of Fargo, North Dakota, to Minot, completing his experience in this line of work on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific from Chickasha, Oklahoma, to Caldwell, Kansas. When he abandoned railroad work he took up that of a stationary engineer. Going into Colorado, he spent three years in the Moun- tain State, the first one as a "drifter," after which he settled down at Denver as chief en- gineer of the Grant Smelting Company, owners of the largest smelting works in the West, leaving that concern to go to Topeka, Kansas, where he continued to work as a stationary engineer.
Mr. Davis was at Topeka when war was declared with Spain. As a son of a Union veteran, he felt he could not remain inactive when his country called him, and he enlisted in Company C, Twentieth Kansas Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Brown and Col. Fred Funston. His command was sent first to the Presidio, San Francisco, California, and from thence to Manila, and he was present when the first Philippine outbreak occurred, Febru- ary 4, 1899, and was with his regiment during all of its service up to the Bag Bag, including the three days' fight on the Semone River. Mr. Davis accompanied his regiment back to Manila, where he left the regiment, which was returned home, and he was placed on guard duty with the Tenth United States Regulars in and about Manila, and was sent into the country where disturbances occasion- ally occurred. He remained on the island until in February, 1900, when he sailed for San Francisco with the Tenth Regulars, and was discharged soon after landing. Although
given transportation to the city of his enlist- ment, he did not use it, preferring to go to Colorado, where he obtained employment as a stationary engineer at Fort Morgan.
The conditions at Fort Morgan did not exactly suit the young returned soldier, and he decided to try his fortunes in Texas. He went to Dallas and Fort Worth, looking for a suitable opening for one of his calling, but found none to his liking, and so came on to Sanger, where he arrived December 28, 1902. The outlook was not encouraging. The place had only 900 inhabitants, and the buildings were all constructed of wood, but, fortunately for the future city, Mr. Davis decided to locate here permanently, and, realizing that there was no opening for a stationary engi- neer, with the resourcefulness which is one of his salient characteristics, he created one for himself in another line. A skilled mechanic, he ventured his all and opened a jewelry shop, which line of business had then no represen- tative, although one had tried and failed several years before. From then on Mr. Davis has commanded the patronage of the people of Sanger and its vicinity, and has had no competitor worth mentioning. He opened his shop in Doctor Bowers' drug store, which site is now occupied by a moving picture house, and there remained until the com- pletion of the Sanger Pharmacy Building in 1905, to which he then moved. This building was erected by Dr. J. C. Rice, and was first occupied by Sullivan & Kay, druggists, who were succeeded by W. H. Gaston, and still later by the Sanger Pharmacy. During all of these changes Mr. Davis has occupied the front of the building, and is still to be found there.
He was impressed with the need of an ade- quate water supply for the city, and never ceased urging the erection of a proper water plant upon the citizens. Finally, in 1904, he took the matter in hand personally and bought the primitive plant owned by Thatcher & Hen- derson. They owned a shallow well, a wind- mill pump and a Fairbanks pumping engine. For this plant Mr. Davis paid $1,000, and immediately began enlarging the mains. He put in a 15-horsepower Stover engine, an 8x8 Ingersoll air compressor and a Myers Bulldog pump. In 1908 the Bulldog was dispensed with and a centrifugal pump was installed. About 1910 the old wooden tower fell, and the present steel tower and wooden tank were built, the 900-barrel tank being located on the
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Davidson lot. The bottom of the tank was four feet higher than the highest point in the town. On November 1. 1919, the pumping plant was destroyed by fire, and a new one was placed in operation December 23, 1919. by the installation of a Fairbanks-Morse oil engine, a Sargent and Rand air compressor, with an American centrifugal pump No. 11/2. This . increased the daily capacity from an original daily consumption of 1,000 gallons to 23,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. The erection of the new engine house fol- lowed the other improvements in 1921, at a cost of $1,500. The system covers the entire city, and more than 81,000 feet of mains are required to serve the 1,500 inhabitants with water.
Mr. Davis was first married at Burr Oak, Kansas, to Miss Carrie Wade, who was born and reared at Janesville, Wisconsin. Two chil- dren were born of this marriage, Walter and Thomas, both of whom died in childhood. The present Mrs. Davis was Miss Lizzie Thatcher before her marriage. She is a native of Georgia, but was brought to Texas as a child. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have one daughter, Ruby, who is attending the graded schools of Sanger. Mr. Davis belongs to Sanger Lodge, A. F. and A. M., has been an Odd Fellow since he reached his majority, and is a Knight of Pythias and Woodman of the World. He cast his first presidential vote for the candi- date of the republican party, but since coming to Texas has been a democrat. A man of initiative, resourcefulness and courage, Mr. Davis has proven the architect of his own for- tune and that of his adopted city. He heads the progressive element at Sanger and is bend- ing every effort to awaken the people to the necessity for further improvements so as to keep the city abreast of others in this region.
P. C. SANDERS is one of the able and out- standing lawyers of West Texas, has been identified with the Palo Pinto bar for over ten years, and has been a resident of Texas since 1904.
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