USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
Judge Rust married Miss Olive Irene Bridges, of Johnson County. Their five chil- dren are named Irene, Clifford B .. Robert Lee. Willena and Jack.
DAN J. CARITHERS. While the oil industry receives much attention from investors and operators in and about Wichita Falls, this is not the only industry worthy of consideration. There are a number of legitimate business concerns which have been built up to large proportions that play an important part in the development of this region, and one of them is that of the Holliday Creamery Com- pany, ice cream manufacturers, practically owned by Dan J. Carithers, one of the self- made, self-reliant men of exas.
Dan J. Carithers was born at Arkadelphia, Alabama, in 1875, a son of J. D. and Louise (Hill) Carithers. J. D. Carithers was born in Gregg County, Texas, in 1838, a son of J. S. Carithers, who came to this state from his native one of Tennessee in 1837, about a year after Texas achieved its independence, and settled in Gregg County, in East Texas, where he was one of the pioneers. During the war between the states J. D. Carithers served as a soldier in the celebrated Terry's Texas Rangers, having grown up in the Lone Star State. Following the termination of the war, however, he located in Alabama, where he continued to live for a number of years. Sub- sequently he returned to Texas, and is now residing at Wichita Falls.
The boyhood and youth of Dan J. Carithers were spent at Birmingham and Athens, Ala-
bama, and at the latter place he was a student of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. In 1888 he came to Texas, and some time thereafter entered the North Texas State Normal College at Denton, from which he was graduated in 1903. In early youth he had entered the railroad service and worked himself up to be a locomotive engineer, and it was with money he thus earned that he was able to pay for his educational courses. After his graduation in 1903 he taught school for two years, and then, in 1905, came to Wichita Falls and for five years was a loco- motive engineer working out of this city on the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad.
Mr. Carithers terminated his railroad career of his own volition in 1910, and founded the Holliday Creamery Company, of which he is president and practically sole owner. Begin- ning on a small scale, manufacturing ice cream for a limited number of customers, he has gradually expanded his business and has built up one of the principal industrial plants of Wichita Falls. He has a first-class and thoroughly modern ice cream plant on Austin Street, near Sixth Street, which has a capacity of 2,000 gallons of ice cream per day. The trade includes Wichita Falls and a large outside territory. About twenty-five persons are given constant employment. This plant distributes about $60,000 annually to the sur- rounding country for milk and cream pur- chased, and this ready market for these com- modities has greatly stimulated the dairy in- terests in this region. Mr. Carithers has in- vested something like $80,000 actual cash in his plant, but the good name and extensive patronage has of course a potential value far in excess of that amount.
Not only has he successfully developed this large industrial plant, but he has done his full duty as an intelligent and conscientious citizen, and co-operates with the Chamber of Com- merce, the University Club and other bodies for civic betterment. He is a York and Scot- tish Rite Mason and a Shriner. In January, 1921, Mr. Carithers made an initial subscrip- tion of $1,000 to the fund designed to give aid to local men and women desiring to secure a university education. Having experienced the hardships attendant upon securing such a training, he desires to make more easy the way of others actuated by the ambition for self-improvement, and it is believed that his generosity will be a strong lever to induce others to follow his example. This fund is
astice
681
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
.being raised by the University Club, and is to be controlled by it. This is but one of the many benefactions of Mr. Carithers, for his heart far outruns his purse, man of large means though he is, but the majority of his gifts are never brought before the public.
Mr. Carithers was married to Miss S. Adri- enne Truly, of Eastland, Texas, a daughter of Judge R. B. Truly, of that city, a dis- tinguished member of the bar and a pioneer citizen of Eastland County. On her mother's side Mrs. Carithers is related to the Johnson family, who were also pioneers of Eastland County.
JUDGE EDWARD A. HILL. Eastland County was a comparatively new section when Judge Hill began practice there more than thirty years ago. His career as a lawyer and citizen has been an impressive one, not only from the standpoint of the abilities he has directed into his profession, but also the very useful influ- ence he has exercised in every department of civic and community life.
His birth occurred on a farm in Weakley County, Tennessee, in 1866, his parents being John G. and Martha Ann (Beard) Hill. He was a small boy when his father died, and, the oldest son in the family, he was looked upon to shoulder serious responsibilities in advance of his years. He followed the plow early and late on the old homestead. His edu- cation was derived partly from the common schools, but the best part of it was acquired by private instruction and the training of his mother, a woman of noble character, practical judgment and strong inherent ability. Few men have struggled through more privations and against greater hardships to success. He has followed the simple but excellent plan of doing the duty that lay nearest him and striv- ing to measure up to the honorable principles of simple justice in his relations with his fellow men, whether through his official position or as a private citizen. A very prominent lawyer of the district when asked by a visiting attorney what kind of judge presided, replied, "A fairer judge never occupied the bench."
.
Judge Hill arrived in Eastland in 1885, and began the study of law in the office of Daven- port & Conner. He was admitted to the bar in Eastland in 1888, and the same year was elected county attorney, being then only twenty- two. He was re-elected in 1890, and voluntarily resigned in 1892 to resume his law pracice. In 1906 he was elected county judge, serving con- tinuously as such for eight years and again
voluntarily retiring. He then applied himself to an important volume of general practice. He was elected mayor, and served in that office until 1919.
Early in 1919 a new judicial district, the Eighty-eighth, was formed, comprised solely of Eastland County. It was the duty of the Governor, pending a regular election, to appoint an incumbent for the bench. There were several applicants for the place. How- ever, influential members of the bar strongly urged the office for Judge Hill, and though he was not an applicant, Governor Hobby appointed him for the place. In the regular July, 1920, primaries he was nominated and elected in November, 1920, for the regular term of four years. Judge Hill is a man of broad views and liberal thought, a high-minded gentleman with a spotless personal and official record.
Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Pythias and an Elk. In 1892 he married Miss Elizabeth Evans, daughter of the late Dr. Evans of Eastland County. She died about a year after their marriage. Decem- ber 25, 1902, he married Mamie Parvin, oldest daughter of Major and Mrs. C. F. Parvin, of Eastland.
DR. JAMES P. BLOUNT. During a long life engaged in the practice of medicine, in fiance and politics in Denton County Dr. Blount has left a wide distribution of achievements and benefits that will make him a memorable figure in that part of North Texas as long as the history of the past half century is re- called.
Dr., Blount was born in Carroll County, Mississippi, March 11, 1849, a son of Judge J. M. and Sophie (Caudle) Blount. 'His father, Jesse M. Blount, was a native of Alabama, in boyhood was taken to Mississippi, and after reaching manhood became a planter near Carrollton. He was a near neighbor of J. Z. George, later a prominent figure in the United States Senate. Judge Blount in 1857 brought his family to Texas, conveying them in an ox wagon. His slaves formed the bulk of his wealth, and when they were freed during the war he had practically nothing left. He was one of the real pioneers of Denton County. There were few other settlers, and he assisted in laying out the town of Denton and was instrumental in securing its choice as the county seat. Always a stanch democrat, he was elected county treasurer of Denton County and then county
682
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
judge, or chief justice, as the office was then called, and served so a dozen years. At the close of the war he was elected a member of the State Senate. During 1866 he was re- moved by the military of the Federal gov- ernment along with Governor Throckmorton and all the Legislature, on the alleged ground that he was an obstructionist to reconstruc- tion. That incident practically removed Judge Blount from politics. He was an able advo- cate of his political convictions, and was an enthusiastic Confederate. Although he did not take the field as a soldier, his oldest son was killed at the battle of Elk Creek, and his son, Dr. Blount, was preparing to take up arms when the war ended. Some three years after the war Judge Blount engaged in mer- chandising at Denton, and earned a good living for his family and created a wide popularity for himself as a citizen. In later years he was practically an invalid, and he died February 22, 1899. He was active in church affairs and master and treasurer of the Masonic Lodge for twenty years. His home was used as the lodgeroom before the body had a regular hall. His wife died Feb- ruary 12, 1869. They were the parents of three sons and nine daughters, eight of whom grew up. Among the daughters were the wife of Rev. J. C. Smith, who died at Keller, Texas : Mrs. C. W. Geers, whose husband was once editor of the Denton Monitor and is now living at Tishomingo, Oklahoma; the wife of Dr. G. W. Hughes, who died at Denton; and Mrs. Alvin C. Owsley, of Denton, mother of Alvin M. Owsley, a lieutenant colonel in the World war and assistant attorney general of Texas.
James P. Blount was about eight years old when he came to Denton County, and his edu- cation was finished in the common schools. Through the poverty of the family brought on by the war he resorted to manual labor as a means of support until he could qualify himself for his chosen profession. He read medicine under his brother-in-law, Dr. Hughes, and subsequently took examination before the medical board. He began practice, and never found time to complete his medical education. Being licensed by the state board, he began a general practice and also opened a drug store and was both physician and druggist for about fifteen years. Out of his profession and business he accumulated some capital, and then became interested in banking. He was elected president of the First National Bank
of Denton and served a year, until he re- signed. In 1892 he helped organize the Denton County National Bank, and was elected and served as its first president for twenty years. He gave close attention to the work of the bank, and the confining nature of his duties told on his health so that he was obliged to resign. Still later he resumed banking as president of the First Guaranty State Bank, and was active in its affairs for two years, until his health made it imperative that he desist from strenuous pursuits.
Dr. Blount's first active connection with politics came when he was elected to repre- sent the Twenty-first District in the Lower House, of the Texas Legislature. Though quiet and unassuming during his service, he accomplished some things worth while in the two years, and that service satisfied his am- bition for legislative work. Of five bills in- troduced by him three became laws. His favorite bill, which failed of passage, was one amending the law so as to permit the invest- ment of school funds in other securities than state and national bonds. He had the satis- faction in later years of seeing such a meas- ure enacted. He was active in the House in promoting the "fence-cutting act," to protect settlers out on the range against fence cutting and intimidation and threats of the stockmen. The bill provided a penalty of fine and im- prisonment in the county jail for any inter- ference with the vested rights of the settlers. Dr. Blount found his inspiration for this bill in a speech delivered in the House by his col- league, Judge Browning, afterward lieutenant governor of Texas. The bill was introduced, went through the committees, was passed by both branches and approved by the governor in a single day, setting a record for legislative speed. Dr. Blount also introduced a bill pro- viding for the reformation of the conduct of state asylums, including the separation of black and white inmates.
Denton is particularly indebted to Dr. Blount for his strenuous efforts in securing the location of both the North Texas Normal School and the College of Industrial Arts. He was chairman of the committee which had charge of the work of securing the latter in- stitution. Against fourteen competitors for the honor of the location and against a for- midable combination of other towns already having state schools, he and his committee won the College of Industrial Arts by the sheer merit of their proposal and the open and
R.L. L
683
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
honorable way in which they presented their claim. Dr. Blount has always been a stanch advocate of higher education, believing it im- possible to afford too much intellectual train- ing for the youth of the land.
Dr. Blount has been a Mason since 1876, is a member of the Lodge, Royal Arch Chap- ter and Knights Templar Commandery and is a past master, past high priest, and for two years was deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge.
In April, 1869, Dr. Blount married Miss Jessie Kearby, a sister of the late Jerome Kearby, the distinguished political leader of Texas, and also a sister of Senator J. G. Kearby of Wills Point. Mrs. Blount was born in Arkansas, a daughter of Judge E. P. Kearby, and she died June 28, 1900. Her three children are James G., of Dallas, Eva, Mrs. Robert H. Hoffman, of Houston, and William Jerome, of Fort Worth. On Sep- tember 26, 1910, Dr. Blount married Mrs. K. D .. Fritzlen, who came to Texas from Ohio, being a daughter of Dr. Davis of Day- ton, Ohio. Her first husband, Mr. Fritzlen, was at one time a merchant at Denton. Dr. Blount is a member of the Baptist Church, his wife being a member of the Presbyterian Church.
ROBERT QUINCY LEE, who has lived in West Texas thirty years, first at Caddo, in Stephens County, and latterly at Cisco, in Eastland County, has been one of the big constructive men in the development of this country. He has been a cattle rancher, banker, railroad builder, and has set an example of initiative and public spirit that has a far-reaching bene- fit not. to be estimated in any terms of his personal worth.
Mr. Lee was born in Tate County, Missis- sippi, in 1869, a son of J. A. and Mary (San- didge) Lee. Some of his enterprising qualities are probably derived from his maternal grand- father, J. Q. Sandidge, one of Fort Worth's most prominent pioneers. J. Q. Sandidge was one of the men of Fort Worth who in 1876 insured the completion of the Texas & Pacific Railroad to that city. J. A. Lee was born in Mississippi and was a descendant of the Lee family of Virginia.
The Lees moved to Fort Worth in 1886, when Robert Q. was seventeen years of age. He came to manhood in that city, but in 1891, at the age of twenty-two, came to West Texas, locating at Caddo, in Stephens County, the center of what has for many years been a
prosperous agricultural and cattle district. At Caddo he was a cattle raiser and also a mer- chant, but in 1913 moved to Cisco, in East- land County. This community has received the full benefit of his broad experience and abil- ities as a business man. He has always been a leader in the development of the city and section.
His efforts have been especially notable since the great oil boom in 1917, with the conse- quent growth and expansion of Eastland and Stephens counties. Mr. Lee is president of the Cisco Banking Company, not incorporated. one of the largest and strongest banks in West Texas. This bank. occupies its own building. a modern five-story office structure. Mr. Lee is also owner of much city and country prop- erty.
Doubtless his secure fame will rest in his prominent connection and leadership in the building of the Cisco & Northeastern Railway. This road was financed and built entirely by local capital, headed by Mr. Lee, his promi- nent associates being Walter Ray, William Reagan and Judge J. J. Butts. Following a meeting held in Cisco in December, 1918, a surveying crew was immediately put in the field, and on August 1, 1919, a contract was let for the building of the road. It was com- pleted and put in operation to Leeray (a new town named for Mr. Lee and Mr. Ray) on April 5, 1920, and was continued to Brecken- ridge in October, 1920. This is a line of twenty-eight miles of first-class road bed, laid with new steel, and extends to the very heart of Texas' greatest oil field. It not only taps the great petroleum resources at Leeray and other points, but passes through a rich agri- cultural district that assures it a permanent and profitable traffic. The road already has exhibited remarkable earning powers, a great volume of transportation awaiting the opera- tion of the first trains. The road has the best of connections and reciprocal relations with the Texas & Pacific and Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railways at Cisco. Altogether, the en- terprise has conferred a vast benefit upon this section of the country and is one for which Mr. Lee justly receives the highest praise.
Mr. Lee is a member of the Baptist Church. He married Miss Clara E. Lee, of Memphis, Tennessee, and their five children are Robert S., Julia, Ada, Edward and Quincy.
ABNEY B. IVEY, county clerk of Denton County, has spent most of his life in the city
684
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
of Denton, and the family is one of the best known in that section of the state.
Mr. Ivey's grandfather, Curtis Ivey, was of English ancestry, represented in the Revo- lutionary war. The Iveys were among the first settlers in Alabama, and Curtis Ivey moved from that state to Louisiana, where he became a planter. His son, Ben C. Ivey, was born in Red River Parish, Louisiana, in 1857, grew up on the plantation, acquired a good education, and came to Texas for the benefit of his health. He was one of the active business men of Denton for thirty years, and was active until his death, at the age of forty-seven. He lived a private life, though public spirited in all his relations, and was a steward in the Methodist Church. Ben C. Ivey married Adelia Brown, who is still living at Denton. She was born at Roanoke, Vir- ginia, not far from the birthplace of President Wilson, and as a girl she heard Mr. Wilson's father preach. William Brown. her father. was a merchant at Roanoke. While visiting in Louisiana Adelia Brown met and married Mr. Ivey. Her only sister is Mrs. E. P. Clark, of Coushatta, Louisiana. The children of Ben C. Ivey and wife were: Abney M. ; Mrs. J. Weston Hall, of Portland, Oregon ; Walter C., who died unmarried at the age of thirty- one: and Ben C., Jr., a law student at Port- land.
Abney B. Ivev was born at Coushatta, Red River Parish, Louisiana, February 6, 1882. and was four years of age when his parents moved to Denton County. Texas. He grew up in the county seat, had the advantages of the public schools there. also attended the North Texas Normal and finished a commer- cial course in the Metropolitan Business Col- lege at Dallas. He completed his education at the age of nineteen. and he found his first opportunities to get into a business career as bookkeeper and office man at Benton, Louisi- ana. under his uncle. W. E. Ivev. He re- mained there. busy with his duties, nine vears. and during that time had charge of all his uncle's bookkeeping in the store and the plan- tation.
Mr. Ivey returned to Texas in the spring of 1910, and while recuperating his health he did some business as a local collector. There he became deputy to County Clerk Oscar T. Button and served four vears, be- ginning in November, 1910. Roy Mavs then appointed him deputy, and he served through-
out the term of Mr. Mays. In 1918 Mr. Ivey became a candidate for county clerk. The first primary vote was undecided and at the second primary he defeated Carl McReynolds, an ex-service man of the war. Mr. Ivey took office in December of that year, and in 1920 was again nominated at the primaries and elected practically without opposition.
Mr. Ivey eagerly volunteered his services in the World war and entered the First Officers Training Camp at Leon Springs in 1917. After two months he was rejected on account of defective eyesight. The following year he again volunteered, feeling that the government needed his clerical ability, but he was again rejected for defective vision. While not en- rolled in the army, Mr. Ivey did an important part at home in addition to his routine duties as clerk, aiding in the recording of the actions of the draft board and filling out question- naires for prospective soldiers. He is now serving his second term as a director of the Chamber of Commerce of Denton.
On October 26, 1919, at Denton, Mr. Ivey married Miss Audrey Leverett, daughter of T. W. and Mary (Glasscock) Leverett. Her mother is still living at Denton. T. W. Lev- erett was a pioneer Texan, coming to this state from Mississippi, and lived at Denton for many years. In the Leverett family were six children: Mrs. Joe Reed, Mrs. Ollie Camp, Mrs. Abney B. Ivey, Walter S., Miss Mary and Miss Sarah Leverett. Mrs. Ivey was educated in the public schools, in St. Mary's College, at Dallas, and in the College of Industrial Arts at Denton, and has taken an active part in the civic improvements of Denton. She is a steward of the Methodist Church, to which she and Mr. Ivey belong.
WILLIAM HENRY GREENWOOD, sole owner of the W. H. Greenwood Land Company, Dan Waggoner Building, in Fort Worth, has built up a splendid business and one that makes him widely and favorably known in . Texas real estate circles.
The beginning of his career at Fort Worth was on a most limited scale. He arrived in the city in October, 1909, and soon went to work as a real estate salesman. He reached Fort Worth with a total cash capital of $12.50. Out of this he made an initial payment of $10 for the purchase of a town lot, and that was his first real estate transaction in the city and from that as a beginning he has extended his interests and developed the organization now
Jauch. hay
685
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
known as the W. H. Greenwood Land Com- pany.
Mr. Greenwood has been a resident of Texas most of his life, but was born in Overton County, Tennessee, July 29, 1883. His parents, also natives of Tennessee, were Jefferson Y. and Mary Luticia (Click) Green- wood, who came to Texas with their family in 1885, locating on a farm near Honey Grove. William H. Greenwood was reared in Eastern Texas, attended public and private schools, and for a time was a student in Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas. In achieving his ambition for a lib- eral education he had to pay his own way and for one year he acted as representative of the International Correspondence School, with headquarters at Amarillo, Texas. From the means thus acquired he was able to con- tinue his education in Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee. Soon afterward he came to Fort Worth and entered upon his real business career.
Mr. Greenwood is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Civitan Club, Salesmanship Club, the Glen Garden Country Club, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Elks.
March 16, 1911, he married Miss Lenora Pritchett, daughter of B. J. and Fannie (Trim- ble) Pritchett. The two sons of their marriage are Daniel Jefferson and Edward Weldon Greenwood.
JOHN W. WRAY was born in Beaver, Penn- sylvania, January 8, 1852. When he was thir- teen years of age his parents migrated to Randolph County, Missouri. He was educated at Wabash College. Indiana, class of 1877 ; studied law at the Iowa State University, class of 1879; was admitted to the bar of Missouri, and immediately after migrated to Texas. located at Fort Griffin ( Shackelford County). Fort Griffin was then a Government post, a trading point of great commercial importance for buffalo hunters and cattlemen, and was one of the supply points for the movement of cattle northerly over the western trail. Its volume of business was large, and out of it grew considerable opportunity for the success- ful practice of law, both civil and criminal. While located at Fort Griffin, Mr. Wray mar- ried Miss Charlotte J. Baird, a daughter of Dr. Baird, post surgeon.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.