USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 65
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Mr. and Mrs. Senter have two daughters : Bessielu, born February 17, 1906, and Avis Elizabeth, born April 23, 1912. Both are natives of Alvarado and are now students in the Fort Worth public schools.
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JAMES L. MCCONKEY. While Wichita Falls as a modern city is the mecca for oil men, a substantial nucleus of citizens belongs to the older element who came here when the town was primarily the center of a rich and rapidly developing agricultural region. Though a resident of Wichita County for over thirty years, James L. McConkey has never to an important extent become inter- ested in oil production and is today what he has always been-a very successful farmer and stockman, a vocation which has entirely satisfied his inclinations and ambitions. Mr. McConkey, moreover, is one of the very prominent men in Texas in farmers' move- ments and is well known for his participation in organizations to better agricultural condi- tions generally.
He was born in Wright County, Missouri, in 1866, grew upon a farm, and while de- voted to the practical side of agriculture and stock husbandry has always been a student of those broader economic conditions affecting people who make their home and have their work in the country. Mr. McConkey came to Wichita County in 1888. His farm and stock ranch is one of the best in the rich valley of the Wichita River, located on Hol- liday Creek, fifteen miles southwest of Wich- ita Falls. He continued his residence on the farm until a few years ago, when, to give his children the superior school and other facilities of a large community, he moved to Wichita Falls. He still retains the active management of his farm and stock ranch.
He was a pioneer of this section of the State in farmers' organizations. For many years he has lent his active co-operation and forceful influence to the success of such movements. At present he is vice president of the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of Texas, and was formerly president of the Wichita Valley district branch of the association. While he is a more than ordinary success in spite of the adverse influences affecting the economic welfare of the farmer in earlier years, Mr. McConkey has long realized that these adverse conditions are not justified and that the cure for them lies in organization and co-operation. Like other practical men in the movement, Mr. McCon- key is willing to proceed slowly, working at one thing at a time, and the primary problem now confronting him and his associates in- volves a question of marketing and the best means of bringing about a system of dispos- ing of farm products that wili achieve equi-
table results to the farmer and to the consumer as well, necessitating better distribution facil- ities and less tribute to the middleman.
Mr. McConkey is a very prominent member of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce and has given much thought and study to the present great project to irrigate the Wichita Valley.
Mr. McConkey married Miss Anna Nail of Arkansas. They have a son eighteen years old who is a splendid example of sturdy young Americanism. He graduated in 1920 from the Wichita Falls High School, was a football star and all-around athlete in high school and is now continuing his education in the Uni- versity of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
HERSHAL V. CALDWELL. The Caldwell family have been identified with Stephens County for a quarter of a century. As a family they have been ranchers, property owners, business men and lawyers. Of this family Hershal V. Caldwell has been a rancher and real estate man and has been first and foremost in all the remarkable developments connected with the constructive upbuilding of Breckenridge as one of the remarkable oil cities of the Southwest.
He was born in Palo Pinto County, Texas. in 1877, son of James Samuel and Janie (Mott) Caldwell. His father, a native of Missouri, came to Texas in 1876, was a pio- neer of Palo Pinto County, and in 1896 re- moved with his family to Stephens County. locating on a ranch four and a half miles from Breckenridge, the county seat. Still later he moved into the town of Breckenridge and lived there until his death in 1913.
Hershal V. Caldwell was educated in Palo Pinto County and after moving to Stephens County helped operate the home ranch until 1918. In that year he moved to Breckenridge, and as owner, capitalist and broker has been prominently associated with the general real estate business. Much of his work in that line has been truly constructive, resulting in the development of unimproved acreage. Hic business reached big proportions after the oil boom struck Breckenridge, changing it almost over night from a small county seat town to a city of nearly ten thousand population. Mr. Caldwell in addition to his extensive business is a member of the Board of City Commis- sioners and anything connected with the wel- fare of the community has a first call upon his interest.
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His brother, Clifford M. Caldwell was for many years a leading lawyer of Breckenridge. He is now one of the most extensive oil oper- ators in the Breckenridge field, being a part- ner of B. S. Walker in the operations of the Walker-Caldwell Syndicate.
Hershal Caldwell married Miss Stella Davis. Her father, the late S. D. (Rock House) Davis was a pioneer in the northern part of Stephens County. a prominent rancher. and one of the best known and best loved citizens of that section. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have two children, Raymond and Billy.
P. M. DEVITT has been a resident of Fort Worth for over a quarter of a century, and has handled a large amount of capital in various enterprises, though he has considered himself practically retired from business since he left the livestock industry, which he prose- cuted successfully in pioneer times in West Texas.
Mr. DeVitt was born at Cleveland, Ohio, November 5, 1856. His parents, David M. and Elizabeth H. (Pyfer) DeVitt were natives of Maryland, his mother of Baltimore. P. M. DeVitt, older of two sons, was reared and educated at Washington, D. C., and came to Texas in 1877 when he was twenty-one years of age. He was engaged in the cattle and sheep business in McCulloch County, and about 1882 moved his herds and flocks to the plains country in Howard and Midland counties. He was one of the leading sheep men of his day and at one time had 25,000 sheep on the range. He acquired most of his capital in that business, and has always been of a speculative turn of mind, ready to buy or put capital into any property or en- terprise which commends itself to his judg- ment. Mr. DeVitt moved to Fort Worth in 1893, and at different times has figured in some important real estate deals in and around the city. He is a member of the Elks Lodge.
In 1876 he married Miss Jessie M. Farr of Washington, D. C. They are the parents of three children: Estelle, wife of H. H. Harrison of Miami, Florida; Roland, who lives at Fort Worth ; and Miss Ruth.
WILLIAM WATKINS MOORES. Prominently identified with the history of Erath County, and a distinguished member of the bar, Judge William Watkins Moores is easily one of the most important figures at Stephenville, where he has resided for so many years. He was
born in Marengo County, Alabama, near the village of Dayton, July 11, 1845, a son .of Dr. William B. and Nancy ( Gordon) Moores, and grandson of William Moores and John Gordon, the latter having been born near Gor- (lonsville, fifty miles from Nashville, Tennes- see. William Moores was a farmer, a slave- owner, and a man of ample means. He is buried in the acre of land reserved by the Moores family for burial purposes near New Middleton, Tennessee. Doctor Moores was one of three sons and four daughters born to him and his wife.
Dr. William B. Moores was born in Smith County, Tennessee, in 1806, and his wife was born in the same county in 1808. He died in 1868, and is buried at Fairfield, Texas, and his wife died in 1864. Their children were as follows: Alice, who was the widow of Dr. Robert Adams, died at Stephenville; and Judge William Watkins Moores, whose name heads this review. Doctor Moores was the only member of his family to identify him- self with Texas.
In 1853 Doctor Moores brought his family to Texas, he being one of five heads of fam- ilies making up a little party of six wagons coming to the State for permanent settlement. The Moores had with them their numerous slaves, as did the other families, and those who formed this caravan were: Doctor Gray- son, Doctor Blackman, Mr. McConico and Mr. Cook, besides the Moores, and all settled in Freestone County. Fairfield was the trad- ing point and there Doctor Moores located. He purchased land in the vicinity of Fair- fleld and engaged in farming instead of resum- ing the practice of medicine which had for- merly occupied him while living in Tennessee. After he had moved to Alabama he was a farmer and was closely identified with the political life of that state, spending ten years in the Alabama Legislature. After coming to Texas he continued his political activities and was a member of the Texas Legislature for many years prior to the war between the North and the South, representing the whig party in that body. While serving as such he had as an associate Jack Hamilton, who later became a radical and governor of Texas. and this acquaintance enabled him to assist some of his Freestone County neighbors dur- ing the reconstruction period. A movement was on foot to confiscate the property of all ex- Confederates whose property amounted to more than $20,000. Those coming under this class in Freestone County appealed to Doctor
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Moores to help them, and he took the matter up with Governor Hamilton and the latter brought such pressure to bear with the Fed- eral authorities that the proposed heavy burden was not imposed.
When the Moores family came to Texas, Hansboro Bell was governor of the state and he was succeeded by E. M. Pease, and Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin were United States Senators. Doctor Moores continued his activities as before stated and was recog- nized as a leader of the whig party in his part of the State. When that party went out of existence he became a democrat and con- tinued to represent 'his district in the State Assembly. He was a man of wide experience in public speaking and acquired all of the fine points in effective address. Not only on politics, but on educational matters, and upon all occasions when real eloquence was desired. he was called upon to be a speaker, and he always acquitted himself well and presented his subject to the satisfaction of his hearers and to the welfare of the matter under discus- sion. He was president of the board of trus- tees of the Fairfield Female College, one of the old educational institutions to attain to prominence in Texas prior to the war, and he held that position until his death. Greatly interested in religious work, he was long iden- tified with the Methodist denomination, to which he gave liberally, and he was equally generous in his donations to the Cumberland Presbyterians, to which his wife belonged. and to other churches, for he believed that all were sincere and doing a good and worthy work. Clergymen of all denominations were made welcome at his home and there was a standing invitation for them to come there whenever in the neighborhood. Upon one occasion six of the Cumberland Presbyterian ministers stopped with him while the presby- tery was in session, and for some years he insisted in having the pastors of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church at Fairfield live with him. Doctor Moores was one of the moving spirits in the action which resulted in having Freestone contribute $50,000 toward a fund to induce the Houston & Texas Railroad to come within eighteen miles of Fairfield instead of passing through the region thirty miles distant. Many years have passed since Doctor Moores died, but the good he accomplished lives on, and many of the institutions of today of which the people of his former home are so proud, owe their existence to the initial efforts he made in behalf of proper develop-
ment of the resources and possibilities of the great region in which he always took so deep a pride.
Judge Moores grew up amid a wonderful home atmosphere and was given excellent educational advantages by his wise and watch- ful father. During the early part of the war between the North and South he was a student in Waco, Texas, but in 1863 he followed the bent of his youthful enthusiasm and enlisted in the Confederate service, although his father had been opposed to secession, and wrote and spoke to the effect that the South could not hope to succeed because of its lack of proper equipment as compared to the superb resources of the North. The lad, however, fired with local pride, joined the Second Texas Cavalry and was under Captain Reed and Colonel Pyron. He saw service principally in the fields in Texas, and came out of the army April 23, 1865, without being wounded.
The war being ended, the young soldier returned to Waco University, presided over by Dr. Rufus Burleson, and there spent a year. Going from there to Washington Col- lege, he spent two years under the charge of Gen. Robert E. Lee. While in that institu- tion he was urged to secure an autographed photograph of General Lee. The adoring young soldier bought a dozen photographs of his hero and boldly asked the general to sign them all. Good naturedly he did so and one of these photographs is one of Judge Moores' cherished possessions.
While a student in Washington College Judge Moores was an associate of some men who later attained to distinction, among them being J. Harvey McCreary, later attorney general of Texas; Columbus Garrett, chief justice of the Fifth Court of Civil Appeals of Texas; Seth Shepard, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia : and W. L. Prather, president of the University of Texas for five years prior to his death. Leaving Washington College, Judge Moores entered the law department of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and was graduated therefrom in 1869. He then re- turned to Fairfield, was granted a temporary license to practice in 1870 by the district judge of Freestone County, and acquired a permanent one from the Supreme Court of Texas in 1872.
Judge Moores located at Fairfield, where he had lived since 1853, and remained there until July 10, 1880, when he moved to Ste- phenville, and here he has been identified with
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the practice of the law ever since that date. For a quarter of a century he practiced both civil and criminal law but then abandoned the latter and has since then devoted himself to civil cases. During the first decade of his practice here land litigation was prominent and important, and titles to large bodies of it were litigated with Judge Moores as a part to the suit in many instances, but in the hun- dreds of cases with which he was connected. in but one did he go behind the patent, and this time he attacked successfully the issuing of the transfer of the certificate upon which a patent was issued and the court declared it fraudulent and void.
During his vigorous years he was very active in politics, and has always been a democrat. In 1886 he was elected county judge of Erath County and served as such for two years. He has never identified him- self with any church, although he is con- vinced of the great service religious organiza- tions render a community in making good citi- zens and maintaining a proper moral standard and he has always contributed generously of his means to their support. In 1870 he was made a Mason in Fairfield County and not only belongs to the Blue Lodge but the Chap- ter as well.
On November 23, 1870, Judge Moores was married at Fairfield, Texas, to Miss Julia Adams, a daughter of Dr. Robert Adams, who came to Texas from Edenton, Georgia. It was in this vicinity that Mrs. Moores was a schoolmate of the celebrated author of the "Brer Rabbit" stories. Mrs. Moores is a teacher of the Wesley Bible Class and holds a life membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. For two years she was president of the Twentieth Century Club of Stephenville. in which she holds an honorary life member- ship. The occasion of the golden wedding anniversary of Judge and Mrs. Moores was made memorable by a number of their friends and at that time a delightful surprise was given Mrs. Moores by the dedication to her of a memorial window. Both Judge and Mrs. Moores are held in the highest esteem and affection by all who know them and his fel- low citizens take a great pride in the record he has made both as a man and lawyer.
RICHARD WILLIAM KINDEL. In Northwest Texas Weatherford is one of the older cities, and of its business men of the past half cen- tury the dean is Richard William Kindel, the pioneer druggist. Of his early contempo-
raries and associates in business in Weather- ford not one is now living or active and his experiences comprise an important part of the commercial history of Weatherford.
Mr. Kindel was born in Tennessee August 19, 1847, son of T. J. and Eliza Jane (Gant) Kindel, also natives of the same state. Oldest of eleven children, Richard W. Kindel grew up on his father's farm and acquired a good education in high schools and in the Clifton Masonic Academy. In 1868 he started for Texas, landing at Galveston in July, and then proceeded north, the old Texas Central Rail- road running trains only as far as Bryan, from which point he traveled by stage and other conveyances the rest of the journey to Weatherford .. Arriving July 11th of the same year, which was still within the danger zone of Indian raids, he went to work for the pioneer druggist William B. Miller. About a year later he formed a partnership with Jim Cox in the drug and grocery business at Stephenville, Texas. Still later he was a partner of Dr. M. S. Crow at the same place, but sold his interests to Dr. Crow in 1873 and returning to Weatherford engaged in the drug business for himself in 1874. He con- ducted the leading establishment of its kind for over twenty years. From 1896 for five years he was in the lumber business, after which he resumed his former line. Mr. Kindel in 1906 organized the Kindel-Clark Drug Company at Fort Worth, but in 1907 sold his interests and the business is now conducted as the Maxwell Clark Drug Company. For the past fourteen years Mr. Kindel has con- tinued in the drug business at Weatherford. He has been associated with other business enterprises in the city and at one time was vice president of the Citizens National Bank. He also organized the Castor Oil Company, the first business of its kind in Texas.
Mr. Kindel married in 1871 Miss S. F. Allison, daughter of Col. R. D. Allison. For his present wife he married Miss M. P. Wil- liams, daughter of W. S. Williams of Itasca, Texas. Mr. Kindel has six living children by his first marriage. He is a prominent Mason and Knight of Pythias, and has long been active in the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
J. F. DRESING, JR. The war brought Mr. Dresing to Fort Worth and when he left the aviation service at Caruthers' Field he had become so well satisfied with the city and
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its opportunities that he located here perma- nently and is now one of the prominent younger men in the stock and bond brokerage business.
John Frederick Dresing was born at New- port, Kentucky, March 24, 1892, son of John F. and Alice (Skelton) Dresing. His people were a well known family in that Ohio River city of Kentucky. Mr. Dresing grew up at Newport, attended the grammar and high schools, and in 1915 he graduated LL.B. from the Cincinnati Law School. As a lawyer he practiced his profession for two years in Kentucky and Ohio, being a member of the bars of both states.
He left a promising professional career to join the army, and on August 25, 1917, en- tered the second Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison. He received a first lieutenant's commission and in November was transferred to the aviation branch. His first assignment was at Mineola, New York, but on February 1, 1918, he was assigned to duty as instructor at Caruther's Field at Fort Worth. He continued there until his hon- orable discharge on October 27, 1919. Since the war Mr. Dresing has become a member of the stock and bond brokerage firm of Steele & Company at Fort Worth with head- quarters in the Dan Waggoner Building. Mr. Dresing is affiliated with South Side Lodge No. 1114, Free & Accepted Masons, at Fort Worth.
At the famous "Little Church Around the Corner" in New York City, December 24, 1917, he married Miss Katheryn Voige of Kentucky. They have a daughter, Dorothy Jean, born June 20. 1921.
EVERET JASPER PARRENT, now living retired at Fort Worth, is an honored ex-Confederate soldier who served with Hood's famous Texas Brigade, and for more than half a century has participated as a citizen and substantial worker in the affairs of this State.
Mr. Parrent was born in Aberdeen, Mis- sissippi, November 22, 1841, a son of Chaun- cey and Rowena (Crocker) Parrent. His father was a native of Schenectady, New York, while his mother was born in the Laur- ens district of South Carolina. They were married at Aberdeen, Mississippi, October 22, 1839, and became the parents of six sons and two daughters, six of whom reached mature years. Everet J. was the second child. Two of his brothers were Confederate soldiers, one
losing his life at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. December 31, 1861.
In 1849 the Parrent family left Mississippi and moved to Louisiana, and in that State Everet J. Parrent was reared from the age of eight. He lived at New Orleans and at- tended the schools of that city. He first came to Texas in 1859, when eighteen years of age. Landing at Galveston, he traveled over most of the settled and some of the unsettled dis- tricts of Texas, making his journeys with ponies and by stage. While he was at San Antonio he cast his vote for secession. After- ward he enlisted in the company commanded by Captain Tobin, father of Sheriff Tobin of San Antonio. He was on duty for twelve months at old Fort Chadbourne in Western Texas. After being mustered out at Freder- icksburg he returned to San Antonio and then re-enlisted, this time becoming a member of Company D, 4th Texas Regiment, in Hood's Brigade, Longstreet's Corps, Army Northern Virginia. With this command he served until the close of the war in 1865. After the war he was in Louisiana about a year and during that time was a member of the local organiza- tion of Ku Klux. Starting for Texas again, on reaching Galveston he was arrested by the military authorities, taken back to New Or- leans, but after being cleared of the charges against him returned to Texas.
From 1869 to 1874 Mr. Parrent was ac- tively identified with some organizations of law and order primarily to stamp out the outlaw gangs of horse thieves that were a scourge to many of the border counties. Mr. Parrent located at Waco in 1871 and his busi- ness then and for many years afterward, until he retired, was as a carpenter. He was a skilled mechanic and assisted in the construc- tion of many buildings in Waco and else- where over the State. About 1900 he removed to Dallas and two years later came to Fort Worth, where he continued his work as a car- penter until he retired. He is a member of Robert E. Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans.
Mr. Parrent married Missouri E. Sparks. Her father, William F. Sparks, was a Texas pioneer, having come here when Texas was a republic. He served both in the Mexican war and in the war between the states. Mr. Parrent has three sons and two daughters living, Richard W., William H., Thomas W., Virginia and Nellie. Richard is connected with the Fort Worth Record.
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E. M. (BUD) DAGGETT. Up to within a few months of his death, which occurred June 14, 1921, Col. Bud Daggett went about his business at the stockyards and in the finan- cial district of Fort Worth with hardly im- paired energies, giving scarcely a hint of the life of exertion and strenuous experience he had lived. His vitality was the envy of many a younger man. He was a pioneer, a son of pioneers, and exemplified all the hardy qualities of one the most conspicuous families of early Texas. He bore the same Christian name as his uncle, Capt. E. M. Daggett, one of the real founders of Fort Worth, who gave the land for the building of the Fort Worth Union Station. Practically from the time Fort Worth was founded as a military outpost on the frontier, members of the Daggett family have lived in and around the village, and Captain Daggett had several brothers who came here about the same time.
One of them was Charles B. Daggett, father of the late Bud Daggett. Charles B. Daggett was born in Canada near Niagara Falls and at the time of the War of 1812 his father due to his American sympathies left Canada and his property was confiscated by the British. The United States Govern- ment recognizing his services as a volunteer gave him other lands in Indiana, where the Daggetts settled about 1820. They lived about twenty years in the vicinity of Terre Haute, and then in the fall of 1839 the family started for Texas and early the next spring located in Shelby County. It was in Shelby County, Texas, that Bud Daggett was born January 22. 1850. His mother was Mary A. Ferguson. His maternal grandfather, Maj. Isaac Ferguson, had been a soldier in the Black Hawk Indian war and was with the invading army under General Scott in the war with Mexico, and was buried in the City of Mexico with a United States flag draped around him. The Daggett brothers had a prominent part in the war between the mod- erators and regulators in East Texas, a sub- ject discussed in all Texas histories. The Daggetts were on the side of the regulators. Capt. Ephraim M., Charles and Henry were all in this local civil war. E. M. Daggett and his brother Charles were officers under Colonel Hayes in the Texas Cavalry during the Mexican war. Charles Daggett served as a first lieutenant, and was with the troops which embarked on a vessel at the mouth of
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