New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 104

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1416

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E. CONNELL, president of the First Na- tional Bank of Fort Worth, is among the leading capitalists of Texas. He has con- trolling interest in the First National Bank of Midland and is interested in twenty-five other banks of Texas. He is big also as a rancher; he has a ranch of 65,000 acres in Garza County, another of 30,000 acres in Ectar County and thou- sands of cattle.

Mr. Connell was born at Belton, Texas, on April 12, 1858. His parents, Wm. Connell and Umisa Wills Connell, were among the earliest settlers of the Lone Star State. In early boyhood, Brown County became the home of young Connell and from that date he has been a westerner. At the age of twenty-three he began the cattle business which he has developed to such large proportions today; for about seven years he was also in the mercantile business in the West, and in 1888 he began the profession of banking in which he is a leader today. His start in this calling was at Midland, Texas, where he was manager of a private bank. Two years later he organized the First National Bank of Midland, was made cashier and remained with this bank for eight years. In 1898 he came as cashier to the First National Bank of Fort Worth, which had been nationalized in 1877, but established before that date as a private bank by Capt. M. B. Lloyd, under the name of Lloyd, Markler & Company, and of which Captain Lloyd was president until his death in 1912. Mr. Connell was soon made a vice president of the bank, and in 1912 was chosen as president of the institution. Its capitalization is $1,000,000, with a surplus of $600,000.

In 1881, at Comanche, Texas, Miss Hattie Milliken of Brazos County, became the bride of Mr. Connell. They have six children: Clyde C., Giles W., Allen B., Molly, who is now Mrs. Paul Spinning; Nell, who is Mrs. I. N. McCrary, and Blanche who is now Mrs. Ted Wallace. The Connell residence is at 1216 Elizabeth Boulevard. Mr. Connell is a Mason. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce of his city, to the Rivercrest Country Club and the Temple Club. He is a Baptist. Mr. Connell is at the front in two professions-as stockman and as banker.

OBERT ELLISON HARDING. Ambition and determination, coupled with strict at- tention to business and devotion to duty, are the characteristics which have marked the successful business career of Robert Ellison Harding, vice president of the Fort Worth National Bank, whose connection with the institution dates back to 1897, when he began as a messenger boy with the bank.

Prior to his connection with the bank he was a student in the public school of Fort Worth, and during the six years he was employed as messenger boy, he continued his studies when off duty. He attended the University of Texas for three years.

From messenger boy Mr. Harding was promoted to the clerical department of the bank and served as teller until 1908, when he was made assistant cashier. In 1914 he was elevated to the vice presi- dency and at the time this is written he is rounding out his twenty-third year with the institution.

Mr. Harding was born in Paris, Tenn., in 1883, and came with his father, Noah Harding, to Fort Worth in the same year, Mr. Harding engaging in the banking business.

638

K.m. Van Zandh

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

OYAL ANDREW FERRIS, for more than twenty years president of the American Exchange National Bank, holds the distinc- tion of being the oldest banker of promi- nence in the City of Dallas and is one of the chief factors in American high finance. As first officer of one of the strongest banking institutions in the Southwest, Mr. Ferris has not only safeguarded the interests of thousands of depositors, but he has stood for years as a solid rock of financial integrity thus doing his full share to furnish that necessary com- mercial element known as "credit" upon which such a large per cent of all business is being conducted. It is now recognized that the security of a bank de- pends not so much upon the strength of its vaults as upon the trustworthiness of its officers and it is upon the sterling character of men like Royal A. Ferris that Texas prosperity has been based and her future development depends rather than upon her fertile acres and her gushing oil wells.

Mr. Ferris is a native Texan, born in Jefferson, August 8, 1851. His father, J. W. Ferris, was a native of New York State and came to Texas in 1846. He was a lawyer of great versatility, the editor of a newspaper and represented his district in the legislature. Mr. Ferris' mother, Martha (Crowe) Ferris, was a native of Kentucky, Floydsburg being her home.

When their son was only three years old the Ferris family moved to Waxahachie, where they re- mained until the boy was grown. Mr. Ferris re- ceived his early education from the public schools of Waxahachie and having finished this course he attended, for one year, the Kentucky Military Acad- emy, at Frankfort, Kentucky.

When nineteen years old Mr. Ferris had his bank- ing experience as a clerk in a private banking house in Waxahachie, known as Ferris & Getzendaner, of which his father was the senior member. Four years later the firm was changed to Getzendaner & Ferris, young Ferris becoming a member. In 1884 this firm organized the Citizen's National Bank of Waxahachie and succeeded to the business.

Mr. Ferris was active in the upbuilding of this section of Texas, being instrumental in building into Waxahachie the Waxahachie Tap railroad, now part of the Houston & Texas Central R. R. Mr. Getzen- daner and Mr. Ferris were partners in the Mark, Latimer & Co., bankers of Ennis, the first bank in the city.

In 1884 Mr. Ferris came to Dallas to accept a position as cashier of the Exchange Bank, which was a State bank. Three years later the bank was nationalized by Mr. Ferris and he was elected as one of its vice presidents, Col. Jno. M. Simpson being the president. Here occurs the only interrup- tion in his banking career when he accepted the presidency of the Dallas Consolidated Street Car Company and was for several years its executive head. In 1898 he was recalled to succeed Col. Simp- son as president of the National Exchange Bank. Later several banks were absorbed and in 1905 this bank absorbed the business of the American Na- tional Bank and the name was changed to the Amer- ican Exchange National Bank. Of this consolidated bank, thus made one of the most substantial in the South, Mr. Ferris remained the president until 1920, when he retired from the duties of executive, serv- ing a total of 50 years as a banker in Texas.

In 1884 Mr. Ferris was married to Miss Lula Brown, daughter of John T. Brown of Georgia. Mrs. Ferris died one year after marriage.

In October, 1894, Mr. Ferris was married to Miss Mary Brown, daughter of Rev. Chas. E. Brown, a distinguished Methodist minister. Their only child, Royal A., Jr., is married and lives in the city. He is identified with the Packard Motor Co. The Ferris home is at 3420 St. John's Drive.

In keeping with his intense interest in the develop- ment of Texas, Mr. Ferris assisted in the organiza- tion of the Dallas State Fair and remains one of its directors. He is a charter member of the Dallas Club, a member of the local Knights of Pythias Lodge and of the Waxahachie Lodge of Odd Fellows.

Having witnessed the almost astonishing growth of his native State for more than half a century and that not as a mere onlooker but as an active participant, it is not strange that Mr. Ferris' words of counsel should carry a peculiar weight and his opinions be received with unusual deference. Emi- nently successful, philanthropic and habitually genial, Mr. Ferris is able to look back over a well spent life in which his justly merited prosperity has been generously used to serve the common cause of social welfare and betterment.

OBERT H. STEWART, ex-president of the City National Bank, during his residence in Dallas of more than thirty years, has not only been a witness but an active partici- pant in that remarkable growth which his adopted city has experienced.

Mr. Stewart was born in Prince William County, Virginia, November 17, 1854. His parents, Charles T. and Elizabeth Boyd Stewart, were among the sub- stantial citizens of the "Old Dominion." He was educated in the public schools of Washington, D. C., and in Georgetown Academy. When he was seven- teen years old, Mr. Stewart came to Texas and spent his first six months in Tyler. From there he went to Galveston where he remained for eight years. From Galveston he went to Belton and in company with Mr. B. N. Boren, who was to become a close friend and business partner, he established the First National Bank of Belton. He remained for some years as cashier of the bank and left it to go into the wholesale grocery business. In 1887 he came to Dallas where he and Mr. Boren established the Boren-Stewart Wholesale Grocery Company, widely known throughout the Southwest. In 1909 he sold his grocery interests and assisted in the organization of the Trinity National Bank of which he became vice president. In 1909 the business of this bank was absorbed by the City National Bank and Mr. Stewart became vice president of the consolidated bank. In 1912 he was elected to the presidency of this new bank, which by the merger was made one of the strongest in the city, in which responsible position he remained until he retired in January, 1921. He still holds a directorship in the City National Bank. On April 5, 1893, Mr. Stewart was married to Mrs. Ada Rauch Clark. There are five children, Earl, Louise, Robert H., Jr., Charles J. and Edward Boyd. The Stewart residence is at 3707 Gaston Avenue.

In addition to his many and exacting business duties, Mr. Stewart has borne his full share of the responsibilities as a citizen of this community. He is a member of the City Club, the Dallas and Lake- wood Country clubs and of the W. O. W. Lodge.

641

MEN OF TEXAS

OL. C. C. SLAUGHTER. Out of the spirit of the pioneers of yesterday, men of loyal devotion, energy and progressiveness, has emerged the Lone Star State of today with its immense activities. To these builders of yester- day, who laid foundations, is due much of the suc- cess of the present and future eras. In the list of capable pioneers of the State, no name stands out with greater prominence and none is more worthy of honorable mention, not simply as one of the makers of Texas, but as a leading spirit of the Southwest than is the name of Col. C. C. Slaughter, deceased since January 25, 1919. He was known and esteemed by three generations as king of cattlemen, finan- cier and Christian philanthropist.

Christopher Columbus Slaughter was born in Sa- bine County, Texas, February 9, 1837, and has the distinction of being the first child of American parentage born in the Republic of Texas. His father, George Webb Slaughter, native of Mississippi, a graduate of Bush College, was an itinerant Baptist minister and used by General Sam Houston as courier and chief of scouts. The mother was Sara (Mason) Slaughter of Alabama, daughter of Jno. Mason and related to J. Y. Mason of Mason and Dixon Line fame. As a youth, he was brought up under careful moral tutelage and imbibed the price- less influence of good home surroundings. His busi- ness career began with his buying interest in his father's herd of cattle for $520, which sum he had cleared as the result of a three months trading tour made in an ox wagon. From that humble beginning came the greatest individual land owner of the world, a pillar in many financial institutions of the Southwest and the founder and endower, to the ex- tent of over a million dollars, of Christian colleges and benevolent enterprises. For two years in the earlier days, he and his father were leaders in the mercantile business in Palo Pinto, buying goods in New York on their trips to the big markets and bringing them to Texas where they were greatly needed. In 1873 he, with associates, organized the City National Bank of Dallas, having definitely chosen Dallas as his residence in the early '70's. Later he served the City National Bank as presi- dent. In 1884 he aided in launching the American National Bank, which later was consolidated with the National Exchange Bank and then became known as the American Exchange National Bank, one of the strongest financial institutions in the South. He was first vice president of this bank until his death. While in the days that Dallas was a village, Col. Slaughter says he could have purchased for $500 the block on which now stands the City Na- tional Bank, it was not until about 1900 that he began to invest extensively in Dallas realty hold- ings; these today are extensive, chief among which is the seven-story office building known by his name.

Col. Slaughter was the greatest promoter and or- ganizer the cattle business has ever had. It was he who initiated the move that replaced the poor- bred, long-horn with blooded animals. In 1897 he bought 2,000 fine Herefords. Two years later, he purchased Ancient Briton and later Sir Bredwell,

the famous Hereford bull, for $5,000 at public auction in Kansas City. This was a record price for a bull at public auction at that time, and among Col. Slaughter's competitors in bidding was Mr. Armour. Sir Bredwell made history in many stock shows of the Southwest after coming to Texas. The value of good breeding in the earlier days was hardly appreciated, and it is to Col. C. C. Slaughter that the Southwest is indebted for better stock for not only a higher grade began to roam his thousands of acres, but his influence and example were followed by many other cattlemen later. Colonel Slaughter was an organizer of the Cattlemen's Association of Texas, the largest in the world and which has con- tributed immeasurably to the welfare of the in- dustry. Without an association, Texas would never have reached her pre-eminence in this realm. The range inspectors distributed over the district by the association were cattle and brand experts trained on the ranches. They knew at sight the 6,000 brands of the members of their organizations and brands of others as well. Through their vigilance thieving or carelessness with the lasso and branding iron has been greatly diminished and thousands of cattle, horses and mules of the members of the associa- tion have been recovered each year, and hundreds of hides of Texas cattle that were stolen in Texas and butchered in Mexico.

In 1861, Cynthia A. Jowell of Palo Pinto, Texas, and Col. Slaughter were united in marriage. Of this union five children were born: George M., Minnie, Dela, Robert Lee and Edgar Slaughter. His first wife having died in 1876, Col. Slaughter married Miss Carrie Averill, daughter of Reverend Alexander M. Averill, well known to Texas, the West and the New England States, as a minister of great learning and ability. C. C., Jr., Alex A., Carrie R., and Nellie L., are their children. The family residence is at 3506 Worth Street. He is survived by his widow, four sons, named above and his daughters, now Mrs. Geo. T. Veal, Mrs. G. G. Wright, Mrs. John H. Dean and Mrs. Ira P. DeLoache, all of Dallas.

Col. Slaughter has been pronounced the greatest Christian plilanthropist the State of Texas has ever known. His life motto was voiced in a prayer that he prayed often, that the Master give him a hand to get and a heart to give. His Creator granted that prayer; he came to own 500,000 acres of land and more cattle have been sold from his ranches than from the rest of Texas. On the other hand, he de- vised the correlated school system of the Baptist denomination of today, with a score of junior col- leges and academies led by Baylor University, the oldest educational institution of the Southwest, and the life of which was saved by his gifts; the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium was his creation; hun- dreds of men and women in the State today are in- debted to him for their education. Thus through men and institutions, "he being dead yet speaketh." Through his sons and daughters not only is the family name perpetuated but the characteristics of this mighty Texan and they will be prominent among the chief citizens of Texas for the coming genera- tion as was the father from the days of the republic.

642

CCSlaughter

& achamp.

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

A. KEMP, whether viewed as banker, capitalist, merchant, railway builder or as a philanthropist, is a star of the first mag- nitude. President of the City National Bank of Commerce, founder of a wholesale grocery business now known as Blair-Hughes of Wichita Falls and Dallas, but of which he is an active di- rector to this day, builder of the Wichita Falls & Southern R. R. of the Wichita Falls & Northwestern R. R., and loved by everybody in a city which proudly calls him "our chief citizen," the genius of J. A. Kemp pervades everything in Wichita Falls. He is president of the Wichita Falls Traction Company, chairman of the board of directors of the Wichita Falls Motor Company, a chief builder of the Kemp Hotel a one-and-a-quarter million dollar structure, the Kemp Apartments, the City National Bank Building, vice president of Blair-Hughes Wholesale Grocery Co., formerly a director of the Great South- ern Life Insurance Co., and a member of the board of regents of the University of Texas.

Mr. Kemp is a native Texan, born at Clifton, on July 31, 1861. His father, W. T. Kemp, came from Tennessee in the pioneer days; his mother, Mrs. Emma Stinnett Kemp, was a Missourian. Young Kemp was educated in the schools of his home town and since has taken many courses in the university of experience which acknowledges him as one of her most able graduates. In 1883 Wichita Falls be- came the home of this leader of men. He first en- gaged in the mercantile business out of which has grown one of the largest Texas wholesale grocery concerns of today. In 1892 he became president of the City National Bank which had been organ- ized the year before. In the more than a score of years that have since passed, Mr. Kemp has found expression for his ability and usefulness in the various offices he holds today. He is interested in oil developments and especially the gigantic irri- gation project which will place 150,000 acres of land near his city under irrigation and furnish an adequate supply of water for the City of Wichita Falls no matter how large a city it may become. The realization of this aim will easily bring 100,000 people to make their permanent homes in Texas' young giant city.

At Clifton, Texas, in 1882, Miss Flora Anderson, of Clifton, daughter of Captain Allen Anderson, became the bride of Mr. Kemp. To them have been born four daughters and one son: Mrs. W. N. Maer, Mrs. W. S. Langford, Mrs. A. B. Boothe and one daughter died after reaching her majority, and Joseph A. Kemp, Jr., who is now in the Hill School of Pottstown, Penn., preparing for Princeton Uni- versity. The home residence is at 906 Grant Street.

Mr. Kemp is a Mason, a thirty-second degree man, K. C. C. H., Dallas Consistory, a 'member of the Wichita Club and of the Wichita Golf and Country Club

In the marvelous strides that Wichita Falls has made in the last decade which is calling the attention of all the States to it, J. A. Kemp has been an im- portant factor. He and his influence will be a power through the development of the next genera- tion. Viewed from his talent and ability and his "great heart," for which people everywhere love him, J. A. Kemp is not simply a Texas character, he is one of the big men of the South and of the U. S. A.

P. LANGFORD, president of the City National Bank of Commerce, director and stockholder in eleven other banks in North Texas and in Oklahoma, and formerly as a member of the firm of Staley, Langford & Chenault, Wichita Falls, which owns already one hundred pro- ducing wells-is a leading capitalist and financier among centers of big business. As one who has been in his city for thirty-five years, as one active in leadership in every good cause, Mr. Langford is easily one of the first citizens in rank in Wichita Falls.

Mr. Langford was born in South Carolina, at New- berry, on October 24, 1861. His parents were Asa Langford and Sarah Sawyer Langford. Newberry College, at his home town, gave the youth his univer- sity education and then he began his business career as a bookkeeper in a store. For two years he re- mained with this connection. In 1888, he was elected county treasurer and served in this capacity for eight consecutive years. At the expiration of this unusual term of service, he became cashier of the City National Bank, at Wichita Falls, in 1910, he was made active vice president, and when in 1920 his in- stitution combined with the National Bank of Com- merce, he was made active vice president of the new institution known as the City National Bank of Com- merce, and in January, 1822, he was unanimously chosen as president of the bank. Besides his Wichita interests, Mr. Langford is a director of the First State Bank of Electra, the First State Bank of New Castle, the First National Bank of Burk Burnett, the First State Bank of Harrold, and is a stockholder in the Continental Bank of Petrolia, the First National Bank of Byers, the First State Bank at Decatur, the First National Bank of Lamesa, Texas, the Tillman County Bank of Grand- field and the First State Bank of Devol, Oklahoma. The firm of Staley, Langford & Chenault, of which Mr. Langford was a partner, brought in over one hundred producing wells that render him an enor- mous daily output. The properties owned by this firm was recently sold for $5,000,000. He is also part owner of the American Refining Company. He is also a director of the American Refining Co., of Wichita Falls.

Mr. Langford was always optimistic as to the development of oil fields around Wichita Falls and has done as much as any other man toward develop- ments.

In 1904, at Huntsville, Texas, Miss Lulu Hyatt be- came the bride of Mr. Langford. They have three children: P. P., Jr., Benjamin H. and Sarah Eliza- beth. The family resides at 900 Burnett Stareet. Mr. Langford is a Knight Templar and a Shriner of the Maskat Temple. He is a Knight of Pythias, a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the Wichita Club, Wichita Country Club and the Rod and Gun Club, and by church affiliation a Methodist.

W. SNIDER, vice president of the City National Bank, capitalist and oil operator, has been a resident of Wichita Falls since 1910, and is one of the real big men who have contributed so materially to the growth and development of the city. He has been engaged in the banking business about twenty years and is generally considered a man of extraordinary busi- ness ability and judgment, and his career has been one of splendid successes.

645

MEN OF TEXAS

E DWARD ROTAN. The subject of this sketch was born in Tennessee in 1844. He was educated in the common schools of that state, and in April, 1861, enlisted in the Confederate Army, a private in Company K of the 16th Tennessee Infantry, Wright's Brigade, Cheat- ham's Division of the Army of Tennessee. Serving one year as a private, he was promoted to a lieu- tenant and in that capacity, remained with the same company until the close of the war, surrendering with Johnston at Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 26th, 1865, having given four years and two weeks of uninterrupted service to the Southern cause.

During this term of service, he, with his regi- ment, participated in the battles of Cheat Moun- tain and Sewell Mountain, under General Robert E. Lee, in West Virginia, served with General Beaure- gard in Tennessee and Georgia, with Bragg in Ten- nessee and Kentucky, with Joseph E. Johnston in Tennessee and Georgia, with Hood in Tennessee and again with Johnston in North Carolina. He saw service in the major engagements at Corinth, Mis- sissippi; Perryville, Kentucky; Murfreesboro, Ten- nessee; Chickamauga, Tennessee; Dalton, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia, and Franklin, Tennessee, besides participating in many lesser battles. He was wounded at Perryville, Kentucky, and left for dead on the battlefield. The sixteenth Tennessee Regi- ment of Infantry lost, killed and wounded, from twenty-five to forty per cent of its full strength in each of the engagements of Perryville, Murfreesboro or Stone River, Chickamauga and Franklin. Mr. Rotan was continuously with this regiment, and lost no time save when he was wounded.

At the close of the war between the States, Mr. Rotan returned to his home in Tennessee, living there until the summer of 1866, when he removed to Texas. He settled in Waco in the spring of 1867 and has resided here continuously since that time. Teaching a small country school until 1870, he then became associated with Mr. W. R. Kellum in a general merchandise establishment in Waco, under the firm name of Kellum & Rotan. Upon the death of Mr. Kellum in 1890, the business was reorganized and incorporated under the name of Rotan Gro- cery Company. Surrendering active control of this business in 1892, Mr. Rotan became president of the First National Bank of Waco, serving in that capacity until 1920, an unbroken period of twenty- eight years. He is now chairman of the board of directors of this bank.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 104

Author: Davis, Ellis A. Publication date: 1926 Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?] Number of Pages: 1416

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1416