USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 69
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MOUNT DILLION, one of the extensive farm- ers and land owners of the Clear Creek re- gion of Cooke County, has been familiar with nearly every phase of farm and ranch devel- opment both in North and West Texas for a period of over forty years. The Dillions came to Cooke County when it was still a part of the Indian frontier, and the lives and labors of the family have been continuous fac- tors in the progress and prosperity of this region.
Clint Dillion, father of Mount Dillion, was a native of Tennessee, where his father died comparatively early in life. Clint Dillion was one of four sons. One of his brothers, Joseph. lost his life as a soldier of the Confederate army. Clint was the only member of the fam- ily to establish and rear a family in Texas. During his youth he acquired a limited edu- cation and when the war came on between the North and the South he enlisted and served as a Confederate soldier. Just at the close of the war he brought his family to Texas and settled two miles south of the present home of his son Mount. Here he bought a quar- ter section of land and resolutely remained contending with the adversities of a new coun- try and suffering some financial loss from the stealing of his horses by raiding Indians. He passed through the adverse years for the farmer settlers, busied himself with the grow- ing of grain and prosecution of other affairs. and remained a citizen of the highest standing in that community until his death in 1912. when about seventy-eight years of age. He was one of the early Masons of the locality. had no church membership, and voted as a democrat without special participation in poli- tics. He married Elizabeth Holder, whose father, Spencer Holder, was a farmer and merchant of White County, Tennessee. She died in 1910, when about seventy-two. Of
their two sons Joseph, the older, was acci- dentally killed at the age of ten.
- Mount Dillion, who, therefore, is the only living representative of his parents, came to manhood in the pioneer district of Cooke County. He was a student in the common schools when the terms were short and when school was kept in a log cabin with a puncheon floor. Probably none of the schools in that section of the state had any better equipment of physical facilities, but Mr. Dillion had the inspiration of a thorough teacher and man of the highest character, Jasper B. Wells, now the wealthy land owner, but at that time a struggling young farmer, a former Confed- erate soldier. Mr. Dillion continued at home until passing his majority, helped in the work of the farm and on leaving home went west to the Colorado River country of Texas. There he ran his cattle over the range in Mitchell County, and was there ten years, with profitable results on the whole. In the early days he marketed His stock at Pilot Point in Cooke County until railroads were extended through Western Texas.
His career as a West Texas rancher was closed in 1885, when he returned to Cooke County, and since then his vocation has been steadily that of a farmer. He acquired 500 acres in Cooke County, without improvements and unfenced, and his first home consisted of three rooms, still a part of his larger and more commodious residence. That house rep- resented a great advance over the primitive habitation where he and Mrs. Dillion lived in West Texas. This house was built of willow poles cut along the banks of the Colorado River. It contained one room and the roof was made of ducking sewed together by Mrs. Dillion herself.
In his thirty-five years of operation as a Cooke County farmer Mr. Dillion has grown both grain and stock, and he is at present proprietor of 1.600 acres of combined farm- ing lands and pasture. In all these years he has suffered his share of reverses, but has made good years more than compensate for the bad and has achieved prosperity amply sufficient for all his needs. He has never indulged in politics, votes as a democrat, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church.
In Cooke County August 8, 1880, Mr. Dil- lion married Miss Maggie Holder. She was born in White County, Tennessee, December 12. 1857, and was about three years of age when in 1859 her parents, Joel S. and Char-
H.J. Martin
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lotte (Howard) Holder, came to Texas. Her father was also a native of Tennessee, and was one of the pioneer farmers of North Texas. He fought Indians on the frontier, was a Confederate soldier, and otherwise, like his neighbor Dillion, was content with the role of a private citizen. He died June 9, 1902, when past seventy, and his widow died on the family home near the Dillion farm July 13, 1913, when almost eighty-three. Their children were: Jennie, who married William Chapman and died in Nolan County, Texas ; Samp, who died in this State, leaving a fam- ily; Spencer, a farmer in Cooke County ; Wright, who died in New Mexico ; Almeda, who married Will McConnell and lives in the State of Washington; Mrs. Dillion, next in age ; Zuleka, who died at Hanford, California. wife of Steve Joiner; Joseph, who died in Grayson County, Texas, leaving children ; Josie, who became the wife of Tom Reedy and died in Clay County, Texas; and Bee, the youngest, who died in Cooke County, leaving a family.
Mr. and Mrs. Dillion have been married more than forty years and in their later pros- perity they have the comfort derived from a number of children and grandchildren, some of whom live close by. Their oldest child, Willie, is the wife of Rufus Thurman, at Duke, Oklahoma, and is the mother of Edna. Floy, Elizabeth and Ruth. The second child, Lessie, is the wife of Gus Arnold, of Chilli- cothe, Texas, and has four children, named William Mount, Guy, Kenel, and Ilene. The third, Myrtle, is the wife of John Lawson, of Gainesville, and they also have a family of four, Rena, Wayne, Ennis and Myrtle. Ger- trude, the youngest, is the wife of Peter Wil- lis and lives near the Dillion country home.
NOROS H. MARTIN. Members of the Mar- tin family have been land owners in the farm- ing section of Wichita County for over thirty years, but the first of the family to identify himself actively with the affairs of Wichita Falls is Noros H. Martin, who came here three or four years ago and at once allied himself with all the progressive interests represented in the citizenship co-operated toward the real- ization of the substantial ideals of a great city in one of the greatest oil producing districts of the world.
Mr. Martin, who is president of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, was born at Clarinda, Iowa, in 1883, a son of George E. and Alma (Remington) Martin. His father
became interested in a business way in Wich- ita Falls and surrounding territory as long ago as 1888. A substantial Iowa farmer and busi- ness man, George E. Martin extended his interests after a personal tour of inspection to some of the agricultural lands of Wichita County. He used the influence of his owner- ship of this land to encourage the growing of wheat in Wichita County. He was therefore responsible for the great development of the wheat crop which has long been one of the county's valuable assets. However, George E. Martin never lived in Wichita County, his home having been in Clarinda, Iowa, where he passed away in. 1906.
Noros H. Martin was reared and educated at Clarinda and in 1917 came to Wichita Falls, largely to look after his land interests. He at once identified himself with movements that in two or three years have made Wichita Falls the most notable city in the country for its growth and expansion. His name is prom- inently associated with oil development, both individually and in association with various corporations, and he owns a large amount of production. Mr. Martin is vice president of the Texhoma Oil & Refining Company, which owns and operates a refinery in Wichita Falls, running its own line of tank cars. This com- pany is also one of the largest oil producers in the Wichita field and for some time held first rank in production.
A young man of wealth, of broad business judgment, Mr. Martin was appropriately hon- ored when elected president of the Chamber of Commerce, an organization that is doing a wonderful work in connection with the growth and expansion of the city. He is also a member of the Open Shop Association and is president of the Welfare Council. He is one of the directors of the City National Bank of Commerce and socially is identified with the Elks, Wichita Club and Golf Club. He mar- ried Miss Nellis C. Potts, of Iowa. Their two children are Mildred and Jack.
CAPT. JAMES MILTON CRAVEN, a former officer in the United States army, is well and favorably known in business circles at Fort Worth, where he is president of the Craven Oil and Refining Company. Altogether his career has been one of most interesting activ- ities and worthy achievement.
Captain Craven was born August 18, 1879, in Texas County, Missouri, son of James A. and Mary Elizabeth (Sherrill) Craven, the former of Irish and the latter of English
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ancestry. James A. Craven for many years was a merchant and banker, being associated with several country banks in Missouri. In 1910 on retiring from business he removed to Waco, Texas, where he is still living at the age of seventy-four. He is well known in that community. James A. Craven is the son of a Methodist minister and throughout his own career he has been actively asso- ciated with that church. The Cravens are a family that for several generations have been devoted to the democratic party. James A. Craven is a prominent Mason. Of his eigh- teen children, fourteen are living today.
James Milton Craven was the seventh son of a seventh son. He attended grammar and high school and college in Texas County, Mis- souri, graduating in 1897 with the degree Master of Arts and Bachelor of Philosophy. For about two years he was associated with his father in the general merchandise business in Missouri and then for a year was on the road as a traveling salesman. He left business to enter the regular army and he was in the service seventeen years, rising from the ranks to captain in the Adjutant General's Depart- ment. He resigned this office at the close of the World war. During his army service Captain Craven was stationed at many of the posts throughout the United States and was twice on duty in the Philippines, his total serv- ice in the Far East being four and a half years.
On leaving the army Captain Craven joined some prominent associates in the oil business and in 1919 established his headquarters at Fort Worth, where he organized the Craven Oil and Refining Company. He has been pres- ident from the beginning. The vice president of the company is Capt. Leonard Wood, Jr .. son of the distinguished Gen. Leonard Wood, now governor of the Philippine Islands. The secretary and treasurer is Mr. Lawson Ma- gruder, a prominent attorney of Tampa, Florida.
The Craven Oil & Refining Company has extensive interests as leaseholders and oper- ators in the Sipe Springs field, Desdemona field and Breckenridge fields of North Cen- tral Texas, and they also have extensive hold- ings in the Toyah Basin, in McLennan County, Bosque County, Comanche County and the Panhandle of Texas. These holdings embrace several thousand acres and the company has fourteen producing wells and by its drilling campaign is constantly extending its produc- tion. The headquarters of the company are
in the Neil P. Anderson Building at Fort Worth, while the company also maintains a branch office at Breckenridge.
Captain Craven is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine at Waco, belongs to the Methodist church and is a "dyed in the wool" democrat. June 12, 1913, at Tampa, Florida, he mar- ried Miss Martha Eastman. She was reared and educated in Pennsylvania. Of the two children born to their marriage the survivor is Anna Elizabeth Craven, born July 26, 1914.
GEORGE A. SCALING. Of the many south- western cattle men who have selected Fort Worth as their home, George A. Scaling has the special distinction of being still in the full tide of his extensive activities, which include a ranch in Northern Texas and a business of buying, feeding and marketing that makes him easily one of the prominent figures in the live- stock industry in the Southwest.
Mr. Scaling, who has been actively and con- tinuously associated with the livestock busi- ness in Texas for forty-six years, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, December 18, 1857, son of Samuel and Jane Scaling. His father was a native of England and his mother of Penn- sylvania. Samuel Scaling came to America when a young man.
George A. Scaling was reared and educated in St. Louis, but in 1875, at the age of eigh- teen, came to Texas and located in Kaufman County. At that time when there were few railroads there were scarcely any productive enterprises in all the region of North Texas except livestock. Mr. Scaling got his training in looking after some of the modest herds of old-time Texas cattle in Kaufman County and his interests, growing with the years, suc- cessively took him to Hill County, later to Kent County in West Texas. For many years he handled his stock on the open range and was associated with many of the men whose names are household words in Texas. For a number of years past Mr. Scaling has owned a ranch containing about 22,000 acres in Clay County. His stock is almost altogether cattle and at the present writing he has about 2,500, a number which has not varied materially for a number of years. This Clay County ranch is his breeding and grazing ground and he also has a second farm where he feeds and fattens his stock for the market. He finishes off about 1,200 steers annually. Mr. Scaling has experimented only on a modest scale with pure bloods, and for the most part he buys
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stock feeders and finishes them for the market. His chief market is Fort Worth, though he has also shipped to other centers.
Mr. Scaling has a modern suburban home near Arlington Heights, and he owns consid- erable real estate in and around Fort Worth. In 1882 he married Miss Laura Wilson, a native of Louisiana, though she was reared from childhood in Texas. Their seven chil- dren were all born in Texas and are all still living, named Harry, George W., Agnes, wife of Frank McNeny of Dallas, Edith, wife of Marmaduke Corbyn of Oklahoma City, Gladys, wife of Hugh W. Ewing of Chicago, Mar- garet and Charles.
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JACOB ALEXANDER has been a resident of Cisco just forty years. He joined that com- pany about the time the Texas & Pacific Rail- road was building through West Texas. His location there was an act of faith based not upon what Cisco then was but upon what it might become in the future, and no man has contributed more of his influence and private means to modern development than this pioneer of forty years.
Mr. Alexander was born in Posen, Prus- sia, in 1852. He was just fifteen years of age, had completed common school education when in 1867 he came to America to join two older brothers who had located in West Texas in Palo Pinto County. The Civil war was over but all the country west of Fort Worth was then subject to ravages from Indians. Jacob Alexander attended school at Palo Pinto, the noted private school conducted by Professor Ham Baker. Early in life he became identified with merchandising, first at Waco and later at Meridian in Bosque County. March 7, 1881, Mr. Alexander and his wife establishhed their permanent home at Cisco and for a long period of years he was engaged in the dry goods and cotton business, later took up contracting and building, and erected many of the structures that exemplified both the old and new era of Cisco's development. While now nominally retired from business, he is a very busy man looking after his extensive property interests and owns much valuable real estate both in city and country. In all the years Mr. Alex- ander has proved himself a business man of the highest ideals. In achieving prosperity for himself he has always been regardful of the interests and welfare of others. An inter- esting example of his enlightened vision and public spirit came at the beginning of 1921 when of his own volition he readjusted the
terms of a lease on one of his Cisco properties. reducing the rental of a storeroom by twenty- five per cent, thus exhibiting a willingness to take his own share of losses in the period of readjustment following the war. That act has been characteristic of his entire business career, and accounts for the high esteem in which he is held.
In March, 1881, Mr. Alexander married Miss Julia. Deborah Knowlton. Mrs. Alex- ander who was born in Farmington, Maine. and was educated in the State Normal School of that city, is one of the best known of Texas Women, and has been a cultured and thought- ful leader in her home community and over the state for years. 'Out of her counsel and en- ergy she has contributed much to the success of Mr. Alexander in his business affairs. She is an able writer and newspaper correspond- ent, and since 1901 has been a member of the Texas Woman's Press Association and a former president of the organization. She is a member of the League of American Pen- women of Washington, D. C., and for sev- eral years has been a delegate to its annual conventions and to meetings of various state and national editorial associations. She is serving her twenty-fifth year as secretary of the Rebekah Assembly of Texas, and is one of the supreme delegates of the Woodmen's Circle of Texas.
The one great sorrow of an otherwise ideally happy life for Mr. and Mrs. Alex- ander was the loss of their only son, Clinton Alexander, who died November 5. 1919, as a result of duties and hardships borne by him as a soldier in the war. He was born January 8, 1891, was educated in the public schools of Cisco, Britton's Training School there, and in business college at Tyler. Texas. He had friends among youth and age in his home com- munity, was admired for his personal qualities and his keen business ability, and had made a promising start in business as assistant cashier of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Cisco.
He resigned his post of duty and on July 27, 1917. entered the training school at Camp Blair. Dallas. He was assigned as a musician with the military band of the One Hundred and Thirty-third Field Artillery, Thirty-sixth Division, and went overseas with his command to France in July. 1918. The ship was at- tacked by submarines, bringing the first test of military courage, and for his conduct on that occasion he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm by the French Government and also received other medals from his own
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government. Returning to America he was discharged at Camp Bowie in April, 1919, and soon, afterward resumed his duties with the Farmers & Merchants Bank. However, some of the disabling ill health acquired during his soldier career still continued and in spite of all that medical skill could do he passed away just as life seemed brightest and most hopeful. He was buried with military honors, with im- pressive services in which practically the en- tire community joined, all business houses at Cisco being closed during the hour of the funeral. From the age of fourteen he lived as a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, and was also active fraternally, being affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the World, Homestead- ers, Woodmen Circle, and Rebekahs. His was in truth a death in the service of his country.
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EUGENE ASHE is one of the younger men in the commercial life of Fort Worth, but has made his mark as an electrical engineer and has founded and built up an extensive business in electrical engineering and contracting, with headquarters in the Dan Waggoner Building.
Mr. Ashe was born at Roodhouse, Illinois, November 11, 1883, son of J. F. and Laura ( Pennell) Ashe, representing a prominent family in that section of Illinois. Eugene Ashe acquired a common and high school edu- cation in his home town. He was one of many boys who in the closing years of the nineteenth century found their enthusiasm in the com- paratively new profession of electrical engi- neering and while still in high school he began a special course of study in electricity. On leaving home he went to St. Louis, where practical work and continued study gave him the highest qualifications in his profession. While in St. Louis he was connected with some of the leading companies and among other work he installed the turbines for the Union Electric Light & Power Company.
Mr. Ashe has been a resident of Fort Worth since September, 1906. He has con- tinuously been in the electrical field and in 1907 he established himself in business and in 1913 incorporated the Eugene Ashe Elec- trical Company, representing a complete serv- ice in electrical supplies and contracting.
Mr. Ashe is a member of the Kiwanis and the Civic clubs of Fort Worth and through his business and individuality exerts a prac- tical influence in behalf of the continued ad- vancement and progress of the city. In 1907
he married Miss Virginia Lee Grimes of Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. Ashe is an active member of the Broadway Presby- terian Church.
HON. CATO SELLS. Among Texas men called to Washington during the Wilson ad- ministration, one whose services have been conspicuous, is Hon. Cato Sells, of Clebourne. as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This is a position involving the welfare of many thou- sands of original Americans, and in practi- cally every administration since the office was created the incumbent has been the target for adverse criticism in one way or another. The record of Mr. Sells has notably and justly earned the commendation and approval of all who are sincerely interested in the progress and welfare of the Indian. Mr. Sells is an able lawyer, was a former Federal district attorney in lowa, and has had a wide ex- perience in public and business affairs.
He was born at Vinton, Iowa, a son of George Washington and Elizabeth Catherine ( Hedden) Sells. His father was a native of Ohio and his mother of Kentucky. George W. Sells was also a lawyer by profession. Cato Sells was fourteen years of age when his father died and thereafter he had to fight the battles of life alone. At the age of seventeen he entered Cornell College in lowa, paid his own expenses while in college, and also pro- vided for the education of a younger brother. He received his Master of Arts degree at' Cor- nell College. He studied law privately and after leaving college entered the office of Judge Bishop, at one time chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1884, and immediately became a partner with Judge Bishop. Mr. Sells prac- ticed at LaPorte City and Vinton, Iowa. His first public office was as mayor of LaPorte City. He also served as city attorney, was elected state's attorney in 1891 for Benton County, and was re-elected in 1893. He re- signed to accept the appointment from Presi- dent Cleveland as United States District Attor- ney, and filled that office with creditable dis- tinction from 1894 until 1899. As district attorney Mr. Sells earned a national reputa- tion through the relentless vigor with which he investigated and prosecuted some famous cases. He was personally commended for his work by Attorney General Richard Olney. Mr. Sells was responsible for securing convic- tion in the noted Van Lenven pension fraud cases, probably the most extensive conspiracy
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of the kind. Van Lenven was charged with organizing and directing a pension conspiracy covering three states, implicating numerous applicants for Federal pensions and also medi- cal examiners and other members of pension boards. Through this conspiracy the Govern- ment. was robbed of vast sums. Mr. Sells was three times a delegate to democratic na- tional conventions. He was chairman of the Iowa delegation in the Kansas City Conven- tion of 1900, and permanent chairman of the Democratic State Convention of 1906. Mr. Sells removed to Texas in 1907. locating at Cleburne where he established the Texas State Bank & Trust Company, of which he was president. While a busy lawyer and financier he gave much attention to the promo- tion of organizations for the improvement of Texas agriculture and Texas farmers in gen- eral. He was a leading organizer of the Texas Industrial Congress, and was an active spirit in promoting this and other organizations to secure genuine co-operation between the strictly commercial and agricultural forces of the commonwealth.
Early in 1912 Mr. Sells became active in promoting the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson. He was instrumental in bringing the forty Texas delegates into a solid body committed to the nomination of the New Jersey governor, and the Texas delegation was the unit that practically insured the nomination at the Bal- timore convention. He was elected national committeeman for Texas the same year. Early in his first term President Wilson appointed Mr. Sells as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and he filled that office for eight years. His administration throughout has been sane and constructive. Committed to the principles that the Indian potentially is an American citizen, and possesses all the natural rights pertaining to any other American, he directed the affairs of the Indian Bureau so as to hasten the time when the Indians may properly and justly be admitted into the full rights of American citi- zens, based on their progress in farming, stock raising and other. economic activities. At the same time he has been a staunch friend of the Indian and has rendered powerless many of the individual and corporate agencies who historically have preyed upon the Indian and his property. Mr. Sells did much to change the traditional attitude of the Indian toward the Government. During the World war Indians subscribed for more than twenty-five million dollars in Liberty Bonds, and at least ten thousand entered the army, fully three-
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