USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 68
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Claude C. Will
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1901. During the period of the war between the states he was detailed the first three years to operate a public shop to repair farm tools and other implements required to maintain agriculture. The last year of the war he served under Major Cook in General Johns- ton's army and was in several engagements. including the Grisselville fight and others around Macon. He was not wounded, but the service told on his health and incapacitated him for the resumption of civil duties for sev- eral years after the war. Altogether he lived a quiet life, had no desire for political office, voted as a democrat, and away from business and home his leading interest was the Metho- dist Church.
Reuben Bell married Easter Jane McCol- lum, who was born in Habersham County, Georgia, July 20, 1827, and died February 22, 1892. Her father, William McCollum, was of Irish descent, while the Bells were an English family. Reuben Bell and wife had three children: William J., who preceded his brother to Cooke County, Texas, and died at Gainesville, where he left a family. The daughter Zipporah Amelia died in Milton County, Georgia, January 27, 1918, the wife of George M. Turner. The youngest is Albert Marion Bell.
Though his early youth was spent in war and reconstruction times, Albert M. Bell by application and industry made good use of his limited educational opportunities. The educa- tion of his youth has been supplemented by broad experience in his mature years. For eight years he taught in country schools in Milton and Forsyth counties, Georgia. He followed this work by a number of years as a farmer in Milton County, where he remained until he came to Texas. He had been inter- ested in Texas opportunities for some time, probably due to the presence of his brother in the State, and in January, 1895, he arrived in Cooke County and settled on a farm nine miles northwest of Gainesville. For fourteen years he steadily pursued the vocation of agri- culture, after which he turned his farm over to a tenant and, moving to Gainesville, engaged in the hotel business. For two years he con- tributed to the comfort of the traveling pub- lic and when he abandoned the role of land- lord he exchanged his farm for city property in Gainesville. This property included a wagon yard which he has since conducted and also a general meat business.
His sole activity in politics has been voting as a democrat, though he has from time to
time taken an active interest in and given the benefit of his judgment and experience to public matters. While on the farm he was a trustee of School District No. 77 and was also one of the factors in building the Wolf Ridge Presbyterian Church. For a time he was elder of that church. In the spring of 1920 he was elected to the City Council of Gainesville, representing the Third Ward as the successor of Alderman G. W. Wayland.
On December 27, 1873, Mr. Bell married Miss Kittie Webb. She was born in Milton County, Georgia, March 22, 1855, a daughter of Jesse and Emily (Moore) Webb. The Webbs were of Irish stock and a family of farmers. Four of Mrs. Bell's brothers were in the Confederate service and one of them died while in the army. Her grandfather Webb settled in Georgia before the Cherokee Indians were removed to their reservation in Indian Territory. The children of Jesse Webb and wife were as follows: William, who was a Confederate soldier and who died during the war; John, who was wounded in that war, and spent his subsequent life as a farmer in Georgia; Sallie, who became the wife of William Slayden and settled in Alabama ; Clint W., who went through the war, was a farmer and merchant in Georgia, and late in life moved to Texas and is now living at Mineral Wells; David, who was the fourth Confederate soldier of the family, became a farmer, was also associated with his brother Clint in merchandising at Sheltonville and Newtown, Georgia, and died near Jackson- ville, Alabama; Caroline, who died in Milton county, wife of Thomas Matthews; Bob Ann, who died near Alpharata, Georgia, in 1919, wife of Marshall Morton; Mrs. Bell is next in age of the children; Robert, who was last heard from at Portales, New Mexico ; Calvin, who died at Atlanta, Georgia ; and James, who died near Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Mr. and Mrs. Bell have an interesting fam- ily of children and grandchildren. The oldest is Julius M., a farmer northwest of Gaines- ville, married Ella Coursey, and his children are Gideon DeCoursey, Lennie and Glennie, twins, Aaron, Leoti, Christine and Ophelia. twins, Albert and Alline, twins, and Ora Ellen. an extarordinary family group comprising three sets of twins, and all the children are splendid examples of physical health. Mr. Bell's second child is Anna, wife of John Biffle, of Gainesville, and they have three children, Albert, Leta and Leroy. Miss Ella Bell was married to R. M. Ballew and died
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at Gainesville March 28, 1920, survived by three children, Buron, Thomas Gordon and Minnie Adine. The next in the family is Homer A., a resident of Gainesville, married Annie Fields and has two children, Lucile and Cleo. Ila Bell became the wife of Leroy O'Brien, a farmer in the Sivells Bend com- munity of Cooke County, and they have two children, Weldon and Mildred. The youngest of the family, Minnie Lee, died June 6, 1912. in young womanhood.
HON. WILLIAM PETIT SEBASTIAN, who for more than forty-five years has been actively . engaged as a legal practitioner. has during the greater portion of that period been a lead- ing figure in public affairs in the several com- munities in which he has lived, and since Jan- uary, 1877, has been actively connected with Breckenridge. As a member of the Upper House of the Texas State Assembly his public service has been of great value to his con- stituents. Although his convictions as an old-line democrat and his fearless independ- ence of both speech and action have some- times brought him into conflict with leaders of his party, his sturdy adherence to what he has felt was right and just has raised him in public estimation. Personally he is a liberal- minded, wholesouled and popular man, his geniality of manner adding a special charm to a clear mind and a broad legal and states- manship ability.
Senator Sebastian was born in Saint Francis County, Missouri, November 28, 1852, a son of Edwin C. and Artemissa Elizabeth ( Petit) Sebastian, and brother of Dr. J. P. Sebastian. a physician and surgeon of Williamsville, Mis- souri. Edwin C. Sebastian was for years en- gaged in farming his homestead near Liberty- ville. Saint Francis County, Missouri, but he died in Madison County. Missouri, during the eighty-first year of his life. His wife passed away when seventy-six years old.
Growing up in his native county. Senator Sebastian attended its public schools and then prepared himself for the practice of law, being admitted to the bar at Ironton, Missouri, in 1875. Immediately thereafter he went to Boulder, Colorado, at which time the present state was still a territory. While residing at Boulder Senator Sebastian participated in the election which adopted the constitution under which Colorado was admitted as a state into the Federal Union. In December, 1876, he returned to Missouri, and in the following January came to Breckenridge, where he has
since resided with the exception of. the three years between 1885 and 1888, during the first administration of President Cleveland, when . he took temporary official residence at Cisco in order to discharge the duties pertaining to the office of deputy revenue collector, to which he was appointed.
Since coming to Stephens County Senator Sebastian has attended nearly every state con- vention of his party, as well as those of his county and district, and in September, 1898. was nominated on his party ticket at the dis- trict convention held at Colorado City, Texas, to represent the Twenty-eighth Senatorial District. In the ensuing campaign he was opposed by two candidates, one of whom, a populist, received 4,965, and the other, a republican. receiving 910 votes, while. the returns gave him 8,652, or a majority of 2,777 over both opponents. During the four years he served in the Senate Senator Sebastian was connected with some very important and con- structive legislation and was ever to be found supporting the principles for which he has always waged an unceasing battle. Until 1920 he was an enthusiastic Democrat, but during that year he found he could not subscribe to the platform of his party and so aligned him- self with the American party under the lead- ership of James E. Ferguson. That his new affiliation was doomed to defeat has not dis- mayed him, and he still hopes to see the day when those who believe with him in what he holds to be the indestructible principles of the democratic party, state rights, the rule of the majority, a strict construction of the consti- tution and the laws enacted thereunder. and "equal rights for all and special privileges to none," as originally formed by Jefferson, ex- emplified by Jackson and advocated by Cleve- 'land, will be triumphant.
Senator Sebastian has been twice married, first to Miss Jennie Porter. a daughter of the late James Porter, of Cisco. Texas, who died in 1890, leaving two sons, namely : Temple B., who is an official of the Farmers and Mer- chants Bank of Fort Worth, Texas: and James C. In 1894 Senator Sebastian was married to Mrs. Anna B. Hutchins, of Aus- tin, Texas, a widow with two sons, namely : J. A. Hutchins, who is legal advisor for the general land office at Austin, Texas; and W. K. Hutchins, who is a resident of Breck- enridge, Texas. The Christian Church holds his membership. Fraternally he belongs to the Masons, in which order he has been raised through the Chapter, and to the Odd Fellows.
H.V. bastians
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He is a man remarkable for his flaming sin- cerity, his fearless resourcefulness in every emergency, and his willingness to stand back of the principles for which he is always pre- pared to sacrifice much that they may be vin- dicated. Such men as he are rare and when once discovered are not permitted to retire from the public eye, for their aid is con- stantly in requisition by those who know them and appreciate their manifold capabilities.
JOHN B. KEITH. It has always been a dis- puted question how far temperament goes in the determination of personal destiny, but it is an accepted fact that where education, train- ing and experience run parallel with individual inclination, the combination is irresistible in its impetus. Neither does it require keen ob- servation to recognize intellectual temperament when the general personality is large and strong. For years before John B. Keith com- menced his ascent from bench to bench, it was generally admitted both by his fellow practitioners and the judges before whom he conducted his cases that although successful as an advocate he was even more eminent as a counselor, that he possessed in marked de- gree the judicial temperament.
The present occupant of the bench of the Twenty-ninth Judicial District of Texas is one of the distinguished residents of Stephen- ville and was born on the farm owned by his father in Hood County, Texas, October 1, 1862, a son of Abner Keith, who left Ten- nessee for Texas in 1859, and made his pio- neer stop in Hood County. There he took up farming and stockraising, handling cattle and sheep, to which he gave close attention. His personal interests were all that he looked after for he had no ambition to acquire pub- lic honors, and he died on the farm where he had settled upon coming to the State, in November. 1904. During the war between the North and the South, as one of the men on the border, he was selected to aid in pre- venting an invasion of Texas, and did not enter the Confederate service, although in thorough sympathy with the Southern cause.
Abner Keith possessed a fair education, was one of the old type Southerner, and owned a slave who is still living and a resident of Granbury, Texas. Kindly in disposition, he was neighborly in thought and deed and lived up to the creed of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the teachings of the Masonic fraternity, to both of which organ- izations he belonged. The democratic ticket
always received his loyal support. In every way he measured up to the highest standards of a Christian gentleman and won and held the confidence and respect of his fellow citi- zens.
After coming to Texas Abner Keith was married in Hood County to Miss Emma Hensley, a Georgia lady, and a daughter of Mack Hensley, who was a farmer and one of the early settlers of Hood County. Mrs. Keith died in April, 1921, when seventy-nine years of age. She and her husband had the following children to live to maturity: John Buckner, whose name heads this review ; William H., who is a resident of Abilene, Texas; Mollie, who married J. R. Randle of Acton, Texas; Abner T., who resides at Granbury, Texas; Belle, who is Mrs. Kim- berling of Clebourne, Texas; and Cora, who is the wife of Frank Hudson of Granbury, Texas.
John B. Keith was reared on the home farm and was identified with a portion of its work until he was eighteen years of age. Up to that time the common schools afforded him his only educational advantages, but then, the family moving to Granbury for the purpose of allowing the children to attend its schools, he went through Granbury College, where he had the good fortune to be under the precep- torship of E. S. Switzer, then president of the college and one of the leading educators of Texas in those days. After completing his collegiate training the young man began the study of law in the office of Judge B. M. Estes of Granbury.
Mr. Keith was fortunate in his selection of a preceptor in the law for Judge Estes was an interesting character and a man of learn- ing and fine points. After properly preparing himself Mr. Keith was admitted to the bar by Judge C. K. Bell, and he then formed a part- nership with Judge Estes, the new firm being Estes & Keith, this association continuing for about three years. Severing these relations Mr. Keith formed others with John T. Hiner, the latter of whom is now connected with one of the strong legal firms of Fort Worth. Until Mr. Keith's removal to Stephenville, two years later, this partnership continued and the two were associated with some important cases.
Coming to Stephenville, Mr. Keith asso- ciated himself in partnership with J. T. Daniel, ex-district attorney of this district. and Daniel & Keith continued to be one of the strong combinations of Erath County for a number of years. Later Mr. Keith formed
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a partnership with Lee Riddle, who has also been district attorney, and this association continued until Mr. Keith was elected county judge of Erath County. During the period these two gentlemen were associated together they carried on a large civil and criminal prac- tice, largely on the defense. For four years Judge Keith served as judge of Erath County and then returned to his law practice in which he continued until 1916, when he was ap- pointed district judge by Governor Ferguson as a successor of Judge F. J. Oxford. He has been twice elected to this office, the last time without opposition.
Judge Keith began his political life as a democrat, casting his first presidential ballot for Grover Cleveland, and he has supported the candidates of his party in every national election since. He followed the fortunes of Woodrow Wilson from 1912 to the finish and was one of the first men of Erath County to espouse the ex-President's cause.
Early in the history of his connection with Stephenville Judge Keith began to display his interest in educational matters and for several vears served as one of the trustees of the John Carlton College. Subsequently he be- came a trustee of the Stephenville public schools and was serving as such when the new, modern high school building was erected. He. educated his only child very liberally at the McIlhany Academy and the John Carlton College.
On April 15, 1890, Judge Keith was mar- ried at Granbury, Texas, to Miss Ida Dysart, born at Meridian, Texas, a daughter of Thomas J. Dysart, who brought his family from Missouri to Texas, where he became a leading farmer and stockman. Mrs. Keith was educated under Professor Switzer of Granbury College, and was then engaged in teaching, following that calling until her mar- riage. Judge and Mrs. Keith have one son, Fred, who is a garage man of Stephenville. He married Miss Myrtle Patton, and they have a son, Fred Patton Keith.
Judge Keith possesses marked individuality and originality. His opinions are neither in- herited nor acquired from others, but are the result of his own careful and conscientious investigation and deliberation. As a lawyer he was distinguished for clearness of percep- tion, tireless industry and keen discrimination. His success on the bench is no less marked than his success at the bar. He seems to have an intuitive knowledge of the common law and is one of its intense admirers. His opin-
ions are regarded by the profession as models of judicial soundness and at the same time he evinces in them the keenest consideration for the equity of the case, and even extends to the guilty every encouragement and aid not in violation of the principles of justice. In private life as in public office, Judge Keith is always the same reliable, honorable man- affable, yet firm in maintaining what he re- gards as right. His pledge is never secured except upon the most carefully examined grounds, but once obtained is immovable. His charity is broad and warm, and it is the uni- versal verdict that he never weighed an act of his life in the scale of sinister policy.
GEORGE W. ARMSTRONG, whose name has been associated with some of the large under- takings in the industrial affairs of the South- west, is an old-time resident of Fort Worth and one of that city's ablest men of affairs.
His career is the more interesting because he is a native Texan, and represents a family of historic importance in the State. He was born in Jasper County, near the southeastern border, on January 26, 1866, son of Rev. R. C. and M. M. (Smyth) Armstrong. His father was a minister of the Methodist Con- ference. His grandfather, George W. Smyth, was a leading figure among the Texans of the Revolutionary and early State period. He located and placed the boundary line between Texas and New Mexico, and was one of Texas' first land commissioners. He was a member of various conventions held in the stormy days of the late republic and just prior to the admission of Texas to the Union. He and John H. Reagan were the first congress- men from the State.
Judge Armstrong acquired a fair education in Marvin College and the Texas University, graduating with the degree of bachelor of law. He began practicing law in Ennis in 1886, at the age of twenty years. In 1888 he removed to Fort Worth, and soon there- after formed a partnership with Judge R. W. Flournoy, under the firm name of Armstrong & Flournoy. In 1894 he was elected county judge, holding that office four years. He then resumed private practice in 1898, in partner- ship with W. A. Hanger, under the firm name of Armstrong & Hanger. Soon after the organization of this firm Judge Armstrong made the race for Congress against the Hon. O. W. Gillispie, and was defeated. At about the same time Mr. Hanger was elected to the State Senate. In 1900, following his defeat,
Ул. Ю. Алилиния
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Judge Armstrong abandoned the practice of law and the game of politics and engaged in the oil and banking business in the Beaumont district.
He organized the First National Bank of Sour Lake, of which he was president, and subsequently bought out his stockholders and converted the bank into a private bank under the name of Geo. W. Armstrong & Company. He established private banks also at Batson, Saratoga, and Humble, and acquired a one- third interest in the Stockyards National Bank of Fort Worth, and was made its president. In the year 1908, following the panic of 1907, he sold his private banks to R. S. Sterling, now president of the Humble Oil & Refining Company and sold his stock in the Stockyards National Bank to Armour & Company. He then became active in other lines of industry in which he was interested. He was made president of the Texas Rolling Mill Company, now the George W. Armstrong & Company, Inc., and also of the cotton exporting firm of Hubbell-Slack & Company, of Houston, now Weatherford-Crump & Company, and also of the Consumers Light & Heating Com- pany, of Fort Worth, now the Fort Worth Gas Company, and also of the Horseshoe Ranch Company of Hickory, Oklahoma, since liquidated, but which at that time was the largest ranch in the State of Oklahoma.
The predominant characteristics of Judge Armstrong's career and character are adven- ture and development. He is a natural born pioneer. He finds his pleasure in construc- tive work and values money only as it may be useful to that end. He drilled the first deep oil well at Petrolia, proving that oil and gas could be found at a lower depth than 300 feet. There had been for some years small shallow wells, from 200 to 300 feet, that pro- duced daily from two to three barrels per well of high grade oil. Judge Armstrong leased all of these wells, built a pipe line to the railroad and loading racks, and after doing so made a lease with the property own- ers covering all oil at a lower depth than 500 feet. At 1,500 feet he brought in a 75-barrel well which caused further development in the field and which no doubt influenced the drill- ing of the Waggoner well at Electra and the development of the West Texas oil fields. To this development is, directly due the fact that Fort Worth and other cities now enjoy nat- ural gas.
Judge Armstrong participated in the nego- tiations which resulted in the building of the
pipe line of the Lone Star Gas Company to Fort Worth, which resulted in the organization of the Fort Worth Gas Company, of which he was its first president, and which resulted also in the organization of the Fort Worth Power & Light Company and the establish- ment of its mammoth plant in the City of Fort Worth. He was one of the Nutt Syndicate, having an equal interest with the other syndi- cate members, which organized the Fort Worth Power & Light Company and subsequently organized the Texas Power & Light Company.
Judge Armstrong is the author of the oil and gas conservation law and is the joint author with the Hon. Ben Cox of Abilene of the law giving the Railroad Commission jurisdiction to fix and regulate the charges and business of gas transporting and distrib- uting companies. As a member of the plat- form committee of the State Democratic Con- vention he had these measures made platform demands of the party. He followed this up by going to Austin and working with the legis- lature for their enactment. The oil and gas conservation bill was enacted by the Legisla- ture as he wrote it without any change. The Lone Star Gas Company bitterly opposed the adoption of the gas pipe line bill and it failed of passage until the fight was taken up by the mayors of the State, headed by Mayor Wozencraft of Dallas.
At this time Judge Armstrong is engaged in the development of the Sligo Ranch at Natchez, Mississippi, and the iron, steel and oil well supply manufacturing plant of George W. Armstrong & Company, Inc., of Fort Worth. With the completion of these un- dertakings he proposes to retire from active enterprise. The Sligo Ranch is a mammoth stock farm comprising twenty-three old plan- tations on the Homochitto and Mississippi rivers near Natchez, Mississippi. He is now chairman of the Drainage Board which is undertaking to open up the mouth of the Homochitto River in order to prevent the overflows which cover a part of the very fer- tile valley of this river. He was formerly chairman of the Levee Board of the Trinity River which constructed the levee that pro- tects the valley between Fort Worth and North Fort Worth.
He plans to add to his present iron and steel mill electric furnaces to turn out elec- tric steel for shapes, angles, bars, cotton ties, sucker rods and small sizes of pipe; and to add to his oil well supply department both a gray iron and steel castings foundry. His
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company is owned entirely by himself and his employes.
Judge Armstrong was formerly president of the Associated Industries of Texas and was later president of the Texas Chamber of Com- merce. He was the first president of this organization, which is now the largest and most powerful State Chamber of Commerce in the United States. He resigned this posi- tion because he was unable to devote the nec- essary time to it. He was succeeded by J. S. Cullinan of Houston, Texas, who is now its president.
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