USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 71
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DAN WAGGONER. Among the earlier set- tlers of Northwest Texas who were instru- mental in converting its waste places, the home of the Indian and buffalo, into the productive domain of the ranchman and farmer, none occupied a more prominent place than Dan Waggoner. Certainly there are none who profited more greatly in the accumulation of this world's goods than he, and none who is remembered with more regard and respect by those who were benefited by his enterprise and initiative and his effective efforts as a business builder.
Dan Waggoner was born in the State of Tennessee in 1828. About the time he at- tained his majority he moved to Missouri and after a brief residence there came to Texas,
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settling in Hopkins County. In that county he married Miss' Nancy Moore, who died in Hopkins County. From Hopkins Dan Wag- goner went to Wise County and he regarded that as his permanent home until his death on the 5th day of December, 1905. His only child by his first marriage is W. T. Waggoner, now a resident of Fort Worth.
His accumulation of wild lands when they were cheap is an evidence of his vision and far-sighted business ability. His first pur- chase was a small tract near Bridgeport, a few miles west of the town of Decatur. This was followed soon after by the purchase of a still larger tract six miles east of the town. Other accumulations followed as the years rolled around in the counties of Wichita. Willbarger, Baylor, Knox and Foard, until the total em- braced about 6,000 acres. This was the largest individual holding in the State except- ing the King ranch in Nueces and adjoining counties.
When his son, W. T. Waggoner, attained his majority he was taken into full partner- ship under the name of Dan Waggoner & Son. That firm name continues today. hav- ing been in existence nearly half a century. Their first venture, aside from ranching, was the establishment of the First National Bank of Decatur, one of the most solid and profit- able financial institutions of the State. The vast Waggoner , interests, including ranches and cattle. oil development and holdings, the largest aggregate of property interests and business in the northwest portion of Texas, is still conducted under the name of D. Wag- goner & Son. No greater tribute to the love of a son for a father was ever manifested than that of which this firm name is symbol.
The first wife of Dan Waggoner died about 1852. He subsequently married Miss Ann Halsell, of one of the most prominent families of Wise County. Mrs. Ann Wag- goner is still living, one of the highly respected women of Fort Worth. She is a very liberal contributor to the educational institutions of the Methodist Church, of which she is a de- voted member.
JOHN GRAVES WAPLES. Not merely one city but the entire Southwest recognizes in the name Waples a significance synonymous with the highest degree of commercial success and enterprise. For many years the Waples- Platter Company has been one of the largest wholesale grocery concerns in the South and West, and it was the good fortune of the city
of Fort Worth to claim John Graves Waples as a resident and city builder for many years.
Mr. Waples was born at Chillicothe, Mis- souri, April 28, 1848, son of E. B. and Nancy (Graves) Waples. His father was a native of the State of Delaware. His mother was born in Missouri of Kentucky ancestry, her grandfather having fought as a soldier under Gen. Anthony Wayne in the Indian and Revo- lutionary wars.
John G. Waples, the oldest of nine children. was well educated, attending Missouri State University, and graduated in law at the Uni- versity of Michigan in 1874. After two and a half years of practice at St. Louis, Missouri, he perhaps realized that his real talents were in constructive commercial lines. Seeking opportunities in a newer country, he located at Denison, Texas, in 1876. Here he soon became prominent in the lumber business and was one of the founders of the great and widely extended Burton-Lingo Lumber Com- pany, and was president of that corporation for seven years. While at Denison he became interested in the wholesale grocery business and in Denison was originated the firm of Waples-Platter, which succeeded the firm of Hanna-Platter. Mr. Waples, on removing to Fort Worth, bought the Fort Worth Whole- sale Grocery, and re-established it as the Waples-Platter Wholesale Grocery Company. This business is now represented by two large plants, one at Fort Worth and one at Dallas. and by numerous branch houses all over the Southwest.
The honored head of this commercial es- tablishment for many years died January 3. 1912, after achieving the best rewards of com- mercial success and leaving a name of the highest commercial honor.
In 1861 he married Miss May Richards. daughter of J. F. and Martha ( Harrelson ) Richards. Mrs. Waples was born at Leaven- worth, Kansas, and completed her education in one of the most exclusive girls schools in the Middle West. Monticello Seminary, at Godfrey, Illinois. Mrs. Waples, whose home is at 1430 Tucker Street, Fort Worth. has one daughter. Helen, wife of L. H. McKee.
SIDNEY MARTIN. The late Sidney Martin was for years one of the prominent business men of Fort Worth, and his name was associ- ated with much of the earlier history of this region. He came to Texas during the for- mative period of the state and after a success-
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ful career at Galveston moved to Fort Worth. and here he rounded out his useful life.
Born in North Carolina April 25, 1828, he had the misfortune to lose his parents when a baby and was reared by an older brother. Like so many young men, he sought in the West opportunities he did not find in his native State, and first lived at Hope, Arizona, but then came to Texas and for twenty-one years was connected with the firm of P. J. Willis Brothers Mercantile Company, and gained a thorough and intimate knowledge of the mercantile business. Coming to Fort Worth, he formed a partnership with B. C. Evans, one of the early merchants of this city, and they did a flourishing business, taking cattle oftentimes in payment for their goods. In a few years Mr. Evans bought his inter- est in the store, paying him $100,000 for his share, all of it in cash. Mr. Martin then organized the Martin-Brown Mercantile Com- pany, with Joseph H. Brown as his partner, and he continued to be the president of this concern until his death which occurred August 3, 1903. Well known in Masonry, he was a Knight Templar and attained to the thirty- second degree in the Consistory. For many years he gave the Christian Church an earnest and generous support as a conscientious mem- ber and died firm in its faith.
Sidney Martin was married to Mrs. Julia Andrews, the widow of a Mr. Andrews of Galveston, Texas. Prior to her first mar- riage she was Miss Julia Steele, and was born in Ray County, Missouri, but was brought by her parents to Texas when nine years of age. Soon after their arrival in the State Mr. and Mrs. Steel died, leaving six daughters and one son. Mrs. Martin was reared in Montgomery County, Texas, and there she received her educational training. Mr. and Mrs. Martin had one daughter, Ger- trude, who is the wife of James Harrison of Fort Worth, and they have three children, namely : Sidney M., William M. and Charles Culbertson.
When Mrs. Martin came to Texas things were very different from what they are today and she has witnessed remarkable changes at Fort Worth. Having lived in the Lone Star State almost all her life, she is very loyal to it and to Fort Worth, where her husband played so important a part in the commercial history. Her grandchildren are growing up under different conditions from those which surrounded their grandparents, but Mrs. Mar- tin will be satisfied if they develop the fine
qualities of their maternal grandfather, the sturdy independence, the flaming sincerity and the clean-handed policy of doing business which made his spoken word as good as the written bond of another.
JENNIE SCOTT SCHEUBER ( Mrs. Charles Scheuber) for twenty years has been librarian of the Carnegie Library at Fort Worth and for an even longer period has been prominent among Texas women in broadening the scope of women's opportunities and working for improved standards of education and culture.
Mrs. Scheuber is a native of Plaquemine, Louisiana, daughter of Maurice and Louise (Imler) Scott. She was educated in private schools and under tutors and on November 17, 1881, at Fort Worth, was married to Mr. Charles Scheuber. Mr. Scheuber was a whole- sale merchant, active in business, civic and political affairs of the city and state, and Fort Worth lost a splendid citizen in his death in March, 1895. Mrs. Scheuber has one child. Francis Ball Scheuber.
Mrs. Scheuber for many years has been active in literary clubs and women's organ- izations, and after the death of Mr. Scheuber she prepared herself for the profession of librarian at the Amherst Library School. Amhurst, Massachusetts, and the Medford Public Library, Medford, Massachusetts. She organized the Carnegie Public Library in 1901 and since that date has served as librarian. She was also active in establishing the Fort Worth Museum of Art, whose home is in the Public Library building. During the Euro- pean war she was active in providing library service at Camp Bowie and assisted in estab- lishing the A. L. A. library at Camp Bowie. She served on the executive committees of the Red Cross and War Workers campaigns and was a member of the Y. W. C. A. Am. War Committee and of the Fort Worth Fed- eration of Women's Clubs Canteen Committee.
Her many important services and interest- ing activities are suggested in her membership and official work in the following organiza- tions : President of the Texas Library Asso- ciation, 1904-05; vice president American Federation of Arts. 1910-17: secretary El Paso Literary Society, 1877-80; secretary Women's Organization for the Texas Spring Palace, 1889-90; literary director Women's Wednesday Club, 1890-94 ; vice president As- sociated Charities, 1890-95; vice president Fort Worth Public Library Association, 1892- 98; vice president Oakwood Cemeteries. 1915 :
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member of the executive committee of the Park League, 1910-12; chairman civic com- mittee of Fort Worth Federation of Women's Clubs, 1912-19; chairman Flower Garden Competition, 1910-1918; secretary Fort Worth Art Association, 1910; chairman Fort Worth Free Baby Hospital, 1919; member American Library Association, Texas Library Associa- tion, American Federation of Arts, Fort Worth Art Association, Fort Worth Feder- ation of Women's Clubs, League of Women Voters, Girls Protective League, Fort Worth Welfare Association, Tarrant County Humane Society, Y. W. C. A., and the Assembly. She was a member of the Fort Worth Playground Committee in 1913-15. Mrs. Scheuber is a democrat, has been especially active in work for equal suffrage, was a member of the ex- ecutive committee of the Fort Worth Equal Suffrage Association and League of Women Voters, and was a delegate to the State demo- cratic conventions of 1918 and 1920
CHARLES MONROE POWELL is a member of the Wilson-Powell Brokerage Company, wholesale grocery brokers and manufactur- ers' agents. Both men have been connected with Fort Worth business interests for sev- eral years and established their partnership to utilize the splendid position of this city as one of the great distributing points of the Southwest, and the volume of business they have transacted shows that their judgment was well placed.
Of this firm Mr. Powell is a native Texan, born at Alvord in Wise County, February 2, 1896, son of F. M. and Lucey E. (Howard) Powell. His father, a native of Tennessee, moved from there to Alabama, thence to Wise County, Texas, and in early life was a farmer and mechanic. In Tennessee and Alabama he lived on a small farm near a village and he supplemented the income of a farm by doing all kinds of mechanical work, including building wagons, spinning wheels, and the routine of the village blacksmith. He was the type of that all-around mechanic, able and willing to perform essential service, a type that is now practically extinct. After going to Wise County, Texas, he busied himself with his farm, making a hobby of stock rais- ing. He died in 1897. He was an interested member of the Baptist Church. Of his ten children, five now living, Charles Monroe is the youngest.
Charles Monroe Powell received his educa- tion in the public schools of Wise County and
made good use of his limited opportunities there. He also attended Drauchons Practical Business College at Dallas, Texas, and leaving that kept books and did stenographic work for a small concern in Dallas. For about two years he was similarly employed in that city and in 1917 moved to Fort Worth. There he was engaged principally in Government work, being connected with the Live Stock Bureau in the capacity of chief clerk in the office, and also making daily market reports of conditions generally at the Fort Worth market. In the summer of 1918 Mr. Powell answered the call to the colors and served in the adjutant general's department located at Camp Travis, San Antonio, until the signing of the armistice. After receiving his dis- charge at San Antonio he returned to Fort Worth and resumed his work with the civil branch of the Government. In May, 1919. he became connected with Armour & Com- pany in the capacity of assistant sales man- ager in one of their departments. This posi- tion required travel over practically all of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.
He resigned from Armour & Company about January 10, 1921, and has since been in the brokerage business as an associate of D. E. Wilson. The Wilson-Powell Broker- age Company deals largely with wholesale and retail merchants, not only in the South- west but over the entire United States and Canada. One of their important lines is acting as manufacturers' agent for the Liquid Red Ball Solder Products, manufactured at Fort Worth. They also do a general brokerage business on articles manufactured in and out of the State, handling the sales of manufac- turers from other states who are extending their business into Texas.
Mr. Powell is affiliated with Polytechnic Lodge No. 925, Free & Accepted Masons, is a thirty-second degree Mason in Dallas Con- sistory of the Scottish Rite, and is a member of Moslah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Fort Worth. He is independent in politics. His church home is the Baptist. June 16. 1917, at Fort Worth, he married Miss Mollie Spear, who was educated in the grammar and high schools of Fort Worth. She is a daugh- ter of J. E. Spear of that city.
The other members of this brokerage com- pany, comprising two of the able young busi- ness men of Fort Worth, is D. E. Wilson. He was born November 20, 1896, at York, Nebraska, where he was educated in the gram- mar and high schools and attended a business
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college there. After school he became a sales- man and acted with various sales organizations in Kansas City and Omaha, and later became connected with Armour & Company, packers. For several years he was sales manager of a department for this company and in April, 1919, moved to Fort Worth. He continued his connection with Armour & Company until he resigned to enter the brokerage busi- ness. Mr. Wilson is a member of Polytechnic Lodge No. 925. Free & Accepted Masons.
HON. W. V. DUNNAM. Another example of the increasing assumption of the promi- nent responsibilities in professional life and public leadership by young men is the case of W. V. Dunnam, a young man of thirty years who has served in the State Legislature and is county and district attorney for East- land County.
Mr. Dunnam was born at Bartlett in Bell County, Texas, February 15, 1891, a son of F. P. and Mary ( Prather) Dunnam. He at- tended the common and high schools of Bart- lett, and then took a correspondence course from the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, finishing in the agricultural course in 1908. During the next ten years he was occupied with several lines of work, and in 1916, while temporarily a resident of Coryell County, was elected to the Thirty-fifth Legis- lature. He was the youngest member in that session. His legislative experience brought him substantial honors, the chief perhaps being as author of the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, providing for protection of American soldiers and sailors against litiga- tion during their service in the war with Ger- many. This was the first act of the kind to be passed in any state.
In the meantime Mr. Dunnam was giving all possible time to the study of law at home and through the Sprague Correspondence School of Law. He was admitted to the bar and began practice at Gorman in Eastland County in 1918. In the regular July primaries of the democratic party in July, 1920, he re- ceived the nomination for county attorney of Eastland County and was elected in Novem- ber, beginning his official duties in December. As county attorney and also as district at- torney he has already shown a vigor and de- termination to discharge his responsibilities that meet the commendation of all the best citizens of the county. His assistant attor- neys are M. Mccullough, Claude C. Wild and W. J. Barnes. Mr. Mccullough is a law part-
ner of Mr. Dunnam in the general practice they have built up at Eastland.
Mr. Dunnam is a member of the Metho- dist Church and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows. In October, 1919, he married Miss Verna Woods, who was born and reared in Eastland.
THOMAS MONTGOMERY was born in Spring Garden, Cherokee County, Alabama, on the 18th day of February, 1847. He was the son of James Montgomery and Elizabeth Jane Ingram. He had four brothers, John, James. William and Joseph, and one sister, Mary Frances. His brother James was killed at the battle of Atlanta on the 28th day of July, 1864, while in the service of his country. John lives at Rome, Georgia, and William and Joseph at Fort Worth. Texas. The sister died some years ago.
Having entered the army at a very early age the opportunities of Thomas Montgomery for an education were very limited. At the close of the war he attended school at Cave Spring, Georgia, for one year. He migrated to Arkansas in 1868 and was employed as a clerk in a general merchandise store where he remained for two years. In 1870 he went to Shreveport, Louisiana, and was employed in a dry goods store for two years after which he removed to Marshall, Texas, and engaged in merchandising on his own account for about seven years. He then moved to Fort Worth and in connection with his brother William opened a retail grocery store, one of the largest in the city at that time. The business was con- ducted under the firm name of Montgomery & Company for fourteen years with financial success.
In 1883 they disposed of the grocery busi- ness and engaged in cattle raising. This was in the days of "Free Grass" and large capital was not so essential. But the expense of con- ducting the business was increased by reason of the large number of men required to "ride the lines" and keep the herds from straying. The ranch was located in Dickens County and consisted of about twenty-four hundred head of cattle. The firm of Montgomery & Com- pany was dissolved in 1890 and that of Mont- gomery & Tisdall formed, of which A: J. Tis- dall was the junior member. It continued for about ten years when it was dissolved by the death of Mr. Tisdall, and Mr. Montgomery purchased the interest of Tisdall from his widow and moved the cattle to Blanco Canyon,
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Crosby County. He purchased fourteen sec- tions of land and reducing the numbers of the herd and increasing the quality has built up one of the best herds in that section. He now has about one thousand head of high grade cattle. All the bulls are thoroughbred regis- tered animals and the cows are eligible to reg- istration. The business has been a success from its inception and has been profitable.
In addition to the cattle business Mr. Mont- gomery has large interests in several of the substantial banks in the section where he lives. He is the first vice president of the First Na- tional Bank of Floydada and is interested in the Spur National Bank of Spur and the Third National Bank of Plainview. He is the largest owner of Real Estate in the town of Floydada.
He entered the Confederate army when in his 'teens and was a member of Company G. Twelfth Alabama Cavalry, Hagan's Brigade. Allen's Division, Wheeler's Corps. Army of Tennessee. He surrendered at the close of hostilities at Goldsboro, North Carolina. He has been a member of the staff of the Com- mander of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the United Confederate Veterans and at present is on the staff of the Commander-in- Chief of the Organization of Confederate Veterans. He has never missed a reunion and asserts he never intends to miss one. He carries into the discharge of his duties as a staff officer the same zeal and earnestness that has made his business career a success. He is a Mason of high rank having attained the thirty-second degree in this order and is a Shriner. He has been a member of the Texas Cattle Raisers' Association since he engaged in the cattle business.
Mr. Montgomery was married on Novem- ber 2. 1875, to Miss Lettie M. Ector, the daugh- ter of Gen. M. D. Ector of Marshall, Texas. She died on December 28, 1886. They had but one child, a daughter who was named "Tommie" for her father. She now lives in the City of New York, the wife of W. W. Johnson.
Mr. Montgomery is regarded as a very con- servative business man whose word is as good as his bond wherever he is known. Financial panics and money stringency have no terrors for him, as he is not a "plunger" and can ob- tain all the money he needs for the conduct of his business on all occasions and under all circumstances. Of unassuming and unpreten- tious manner, the friends he has are bound to him as with hooks of steel. His genial dis-
position justifies his friends in saluting him as "Tom" and thus he is greeted on all occa- sions and in, every company.
HENRY MALVERN MARKS. Though death came to him at the comparatively early age of fifty-five, Henry Malvern Marks had given abundantly of his energies and abilities to business, philanthropy and other good causes during his residence at Fort Worth, where he was held in the highest esteem and where his memory will long be cherished.
He was born at New Orleans. August 4, 1865, son of I. N. Marks. He was educated in the public schools of his native city and acquired his early training as a railroad man while employed in a New Orleans railroad office. Mr. Marks removed to Texas in 1904 and bought a home at Stop 9 on the Inter- urban. For a time he was cashier of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, and later became general agent at Fort Worth for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. During the World war, Mr. Marks was general secretary of the Fort Worth Y. M. C. A. Subsequently he promoted and owned a large part of the stock in the corporation which was building a flour mill at Fort Worth, an enterprise still unfin- ished when Mr. Marks passed away.
Mr. Marks seeking restoration of health spent several months in Colorado where he died August 29, 1920.
September 22, 1898, he married Carrie Agatha Rice of New Orleans, where she was born and educated. Her parents, Augustus and Caroline (Doll) Rice, were natives of Cincinnati. Mr. Marks is survived by two sons and two daughters: Mabel Lillian, wife of Louis van Landingham of Lone Oak. Texas ; Carrie Louis, a high school graduate at home with her mother: H. M., Jr .. and Howard H., both at Fort Worth.
JOHN R. BILYEU accomplished an admir- able and valuable service in giving to Wichita Falls, the striving metropolis of the oil-pro- ducing region of Northwest Texas, a business college that effectively supplements the vigor- ous commercial and industrial activities of this section of the state. At the time of his death he was sole owner and president of the National School of Business, an institution which occupies well appointed quarters in the Kemp & Culbertson building. just south of the Wichita Falls postoffice, and which is of the best modern standard in equipment. gen- eral facilities and constructive service. In an
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announcement recently issued appear the fol- lowing significant and well justified state- ments : "We have looked forward to the needs of Wichita Falls and have placed this school on an equal with the progress of the city. We are thoroughly equipped with mod- ern office appliances, and are prepared to give a thorough business training."
Mr. Bilyeu was born in Cowley County, Kansas, in 1886, and two years later his father was one of the great throng that made the spirited race for homesteads in the section of Oklahoma then opened for settlement. The family home was established near Stillwater. that state, and there John R. Bilyeu was reared on the home farm, his early educational ad- vantages having been those of the rural schools and this training having been effec- tively supplemented by a course of study in the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Stillwater. After leaving this in- stitution Mr. Bilyeu devoted four years to suc- cessful teaching in the public schools of Okla- homa, and he then turned his attention to simi- lar service in the domain of commercial edu- cation, with which he has been actively identi- fied since 1912. He was for three years a teacher in business colleges in Nebraska and one year in Alabama. In 1916 he came to Texas and took a position as a teacher in the National Business College, of which success- ful institution he later became manager. In the spring of 1920 he acquired the entire own- ership of this school, and in the following July, upon its removal to its present fine quar- ters, he changed the title to its present form, the National School of Business. The school occupies the entire second floor of the new and modern Kemp & Culbertson building, on Ohio Avenue, and the only institution of the kind in Wichita Falls, and in general facil- ities and service it is also on a parity with the leading business colleges of the country. The school cannot fail to prove of enduring and ever increasing value in the thriving city which is the center of the great oil producing indus- try in this section of Texas and, perhaps, the wealthiest city of the same relative population to be found in the entire United States. Miss Geneva Wisdom is principal of the college and all other instructors have been chosen by reason of their admirable equipment for serv- ice in the departments to which they are as- signed. Mr. Bilyeu always took a loyal inter- est in all that concerned the welfare and prog- ress of his home city and was a member of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce.
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