New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 18

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

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Dallas Hall, the Main Class Room and Administration Building at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, One of the Leading Educational Institutions of the South

cent modern high school buildings, with an attend- ance of 5,500 students. Last year among the cities of the United States of similar size, Dallas stood fourth in the nation in its ratio of high school at- tendance, being surpassed only by Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California, all of these being towns that have no large negro or foreign popula- tion.

The rapid growth of the city of Dallas has taxed the department of education to its utmost to keep adequate facilities for instruction of the rapidly increasing roll of students. The city has responded to the demand for larger quarters and additional school houses have been erected to give housing facilities to the rapid growing additions, and schools are provided in easy access to nearly every section of the city.

To house these public schools Dallas has a perma- nent investment of about $11,000,000 and expends annually for their maintenance nearly $2,000,000 and employs more than a thousand teachers.

During the same decade the board of education have held steadfastly to the policy of giving every child in school a full day at school, in a room not overcrowded and have been successful in avoiding the necessity of half-day sessions and overcrowded

high schools attend college after leaving the public schools. Approximately 2,000 high school boys each year are given military instruction, uniforms and equipment by the United States government through army officers detailed to the Dallas high schools. The board of education operates more than 30 school cafeterias and lunch rooms, in which lunches of high quality are served at actual cost to the children.

Another noteworthy feature of the Dallas schools is the detailed attention that is given in the ele- mentary schools, to accuracy in numbers, to correct- ness in spelling, to the hearing and appreciation of good music and to good penmanship. Last year there were more than 9,000 children in the elemen- tary schools of Dallas whose handwriting was suffi- ciently good to meet official approval under the recognized writing standards used in the best school systems in the United States; while the unusual achievement of the Dallas school children in musical appreciation of high class music and in music mem- ory contests has won national recognition. In all these details of elementary instruction the most care- ful statistics are kept of the quality of the work of the children in order that it may be compared with the best standards obtainable in the United States.

STATE FAIR OF TEXAS By W. H. STRATTON

D ALLAS is the home of the State Fair of Texas, the grounds of which are located within the city and have an appraised value of over $2,000,000. This is the largest fair of its kind in the United States, being approached in the Western Hemisphere only by the an- nual fair of Toronto, Canada. The annual attendance ap- proximates 1,000,000 persons. Its profits are used in mak- ing improvements, or for stimulating manufacturing, agriculture and stock raising.

The splendid spirit of co- operation, developed so ef- fectively among all of our people while we were en- gaged in the world war, is concretely exemplified by the efficient efforts of eminent live stock breed- ers, agriculturalists, artists, scientists, industrial and commercial experts, from all sections of our great state, men whose names alone are a guarantee that the fair will always keep up to the splendid standard of past achievement and in fact surpass it each year.

Golden grain from fertile fields, luscious fruits from fragrant orchards, succulent vegetables from well-kept gardens, lowing herds of fattened cattle, magnificent thoroughbred horses, and all the other faithful, lowly friends of man, as well as riches from the marts of trade, modern creations of the inventive wizard's brain, the wonders of science, the beauties of art-in a word, our Twentieth Century Texas civilization, is" typified, glorified, visualized at the State Fair of Texas.

Just as "Uncle Sam" believes that "all work and no play makes the Yank a dull boy," so we believe that recreation and amusement are similarly es-

Entrance to Texas State Fair Grounds, Dallas, Texas

The Adolphus Hotel and Annex, Dallas, Texas' Largest Hostelry- R. B. Ellifritz, Managing Director

sential for civilian welfare. Therefore clean, wholesome, high-grade entertainment features are always found at the fair. Entrancing music, wonderful feats of skill and daring, dazzling spectacular displays-a very pano- rama of world progress greets the eye and delights the ear of the multitudes who attend this wonderful exposition each year.

The Texan has one great opportunity each year to secure "visualized vocational instruc- tion" upon the many subjects of practical use on the farm, ranch, in the orchard, the vineyard or in the garden; to rub elbows with friends and neighbors from far and wide, to find relaxation and to enjoy entertain- ment on a scale in keeping with the wonderful development of today.

The Texas State Fair has become a perma- nent institution. It is a gathering place for large numbers of Texans, who each year make their pilgrimage to Dallas to enjoy the en- tertainment, to get acquainted with each other or to renew old friendships. The management of the fair never fails to provide something new, attractive and out of the ordinary.

HISTORY OF TEXAS BANKING By JUDGE W. F. RAMSEY Federal Reserve Agent

T HE history of banking in Texas is both pe- culiar and interesting. In the early history of the state most of the banks were unincorporated private insti- tutions. Some of these were without any considerable ex- perience or adequate capital. Others were controlled by men of large vision and ex- perience and a few of them exist this day.

In the early history of the state, banks were incor- porated under the authority of our laws with very large and unusual powers. A few of these charters still exist, and one or two of our large banks are still operat- ing under their authority. There had been experi- enced such a lack of success in incorporated state banks, that under the constitution of 1875 the organi- zation of banks under the state charter was abso- lutely prohibited. The result was, of course, that the only banks in existence for many years were those granted under the authority of the old laws, private banks and those chartered under the authority of the National Bank Act. For a long time, no national bank could be chartered with a capital of less than $50,000. Considering the newness of the state and the sparseness of its population, the National Bank- ing System in this state for a long time did not flourish, as it has done since. The minimum amount of capital required for national banks was a severe handicap for a small community. Further con- sideration and discussion finally developed an in- telligent public opinion which found expression in a constitutional amendment, duly voted by the people, authorizing the creation of state banks. Conform- ing with this amendment, the legislature of the state passed, about 1905, a comprehensive law authorizing the organization and regulating the con- duct or operation of state banks. A little later a law was passed, guaranteeing non-interest bearing deposits in state banks and making provision for the creation and collection of a guaranty fund which was deemed to be sufficient to make ample provision for the payment of deposits in such state banks as might fail. While stoutly opposed in many quarters, the guaranty of deposits feature of the state bank law had succeeded and endured to this day, and it is approved not only by a great many bankers, but by a large body of intelligent public opinion generally.

The rapid growth in the state since 1905, and the fact that state banks could be organized with a mini- mum capital of $10,000, at once had the effect of encouraging the establishment of many state banks all over the state. Other features of the law, among others the authority to lend a greater portion of capital and surplus than the National Bank Act per- mitted, induced the establishment of many fairly large banks in most of the larger cities and more important towns of the state. The same growth, prosperity and increase in population have also brought about the establishment and organization of many national banks. This result was particularly

encouraged by the reduction of the minimum capital required in the organization of national banks to $25,000.

In a general way, it could be safely said that we have a sound, safe and workable banking law in this state, and it is every where conceded that the man- agement and supervision of these banks of the State Banking Board and Commissioner of Banking has been of the highest order and intelligence. The virtues and merits of the National Banking Act and the vigor and vigilance of the supervision of these banks is known to all men.

The best opinion in this state is that there is ample need for both national and state banks, that there is no necessary conflict between them, but there is and should be only an attitude of generous competition between the two systems.

The growth in number and increase in resources of banks, both state and national, is but an ex- emplification and evidence of the growth, develop- ment and prosperity of the state. There are today in operation in this state 549 national banks, with a combined capital and surplus account of $94,366,000 and with deposits of $572,106,000. There are im actual operation in the state 923 state banks, with a- combined capital and surplus of $50,379,541, and combined deposits of $238,920,170. It will thus be seen that there are, altogether, 1,472 banks in the state, and combined capital and surplus of all banks, state and national, amounts to $144,745,541, and their combined deposits amount to the sum of $811,026,170.

These figures take no account of the capital and' surplus or the deposits of the private banks in suc-

The Federal Reserve Bank Building, Dallas, Built in 1920

cessful operation in the state. Any statement as to. these figures applying to private banks would be a mere estimate, but I think it a fair approximation of the facts to say that the capital of the private. banks in this state would exceed $5,000,000, and that their deposits would probably go well beyond $25,000,000.

MEXIA, THE CENTRAL TEXAS OIL CITY By MEXIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

M EXIA, is situated in Central Texas, seventy- five miles South of Dallas on the Southern Pacific and T. B. V. Railroads. It is the ; bbing center for Central Texas Oil Fields. More han thirty large supply houses and Tank Companies, vith big warehouse facilities are located here. Four State Highways enter the city from different direc- tions. The city is amply supplied with schools, churches and public utilities, including electric lights, sewerage, telephone, telegraph, express company, etc., and are being extended to keep pace with the un- paralleled growth of the city. There are three banks brimming over with deposits to take care of the financial situation and ample hotel facilities to house the permanent residents as well as taking care of the transients.

The average rainfall in Mexia is about thirty inches, mean temperature sixty-five degrees, eleva- tion five hundred feet. The city has a Commission form of Government. It also has municipal water works, sewerage system, Public Library, City Hall, Chamber of Commerce, five Newspapers and Periodi- cals, First Class Hospital as well as an Emergency Hospital, and rapidly increased the office facili- ties with a number of modern brick office buildings.

The City has an enterprising and progressive popu- lation to join together in the promotion of every activity for the welfare and upbuilding of a modern city.

Mexia has made good as an oil city. In the fall of 1921, when the newspapers all over the United States began publishing stories of 25,000-barrel gushers at Mexia, railway agents began to sell tickets to the new center of excitement and the established population of 3,482 grew almost over night to nearly 35,000. Conservative estimates today place the number of people at 11,000.

Emerging from the first effects of being over- whelmed, the city is now working out a develop- ment of civic improvements and public service insti- tutions to care for its new citizens. Included in the public works are several miles of street paving; a $250,000 high school building to supplement the four schools already established; a federal post office building; an extremely new and adequate water and sewerage system; a sanitary organization, police and law enforcing body second to none, as well as many other radical changes in the right direction.

The oil field two miles west of the city produces around 100,000 barrels of high grade crude oil every day. Pay rolls due to this development bring approximately $400,000 a week to the city. Seven

pipe lines now carry the oil away. A number of refineries are now operating. More than fifty wildcat test wells are going down in the county to prove up additional territory in addition to the twenty square miles already in the producing column.

Thirty-two lumber yards and more than thirty supply houses and tank companies supply drilling operations covering an area of several counties in

Mexia's Depot. The Crowds of Automobiles and People are Indicative of the Busy Condition of this Thriving Oil Center

central east Texas. Four large wholesale grocery con- cerns operate in Mexia, owning fine brick buildings. Every large oil company on the continent is in- terested in Mexia. Since the beginning of develop- ments, Mexia has built several nice hotels, one three story $100,000 hostelry now being owned by J. K. Hughes, one of the biggest independent operators in the field.

Mexia is situated on three railroads, one being a trunk line, the Southern Pacific. Two state high- ways cross Mexia, the county having just completed a two million dollar road building program when oil was discovered at Mexia. The county is one of the leading agricultural and stock raising counties in the State. Mexia being a well developed market for all kinds of products.

"Make Mexia a Better Place in Which to Live," has been the slogan of the Chamber of Commerce since it began to function as the representative com- mercial organization of the new oil field city some years ago. All the citizens are working and planning. The various civic bodies and city government are united in this move and real results can be seen at Mexia, where the citizenship is building a clean oil city.

Mexia has many attractions to commend itself for a city in which to permanently reside. Civic and municipal improvements are rapidly making it a more desirable place for a home.

A Group of Oil Wells just West of Mexia in an Area of Derricks Nine Miles in Length

TEXAS CROPS AND ACREAGE By EDWARD M. JOHNSTON, Statistician, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture

T O gain an understanding of any business a statistical base is fundamental. Figures are needed to tell a story as it can be told in no other way. Agriculture is no exception to this rule. The primary value of such a review is comparative, and gives the relationship, one to the other, of the several items which combine to make what is spoken of collectively as agricultural wealth.

In the space allowed, only a brief resume of the agricultural importance of the state can be given. Texas, with approximately 168,000,000 acres within its borders, not only ranks as first in size of the several states but is, usually, the first in rank in the value of its agricultural products which vary from $750,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 annually, depend- ing, largely, upon the real value of the staple crop of cotton, and seldom, if ever, ranking lower than second or third when giving way to Iowa or Illinois in this particular.

Of the total area of the state it is important to remember that less than one-fifth is utilized in the production of farm crops; over 70 per cent being devoted to range and pasture purposes. The im- portant staple crops of the state are limited to

Prize Brahma Cattle From a Southern Texas Herd

some six or eight in number. An average year finds the state with approximately 25,000,000 acres under cultivation. Roughly, this is occupied by the following crops in about the following proportions: 11,000,000 acres to cotton, 6,000,000 acres to corn, 2,000,000 acres to wheat, 2,000,000 acres to oats, 2,000,000 acres to grain sorghums, with the balance taken up in some twenty minor crops.

With four and one-half billions as the value of its farm property Texas is exceeded only by Illinois, over half its farms are operated by tenants, one- fifth of its farms are operated by negroes and half of its farms are free of mortgage.

Texas is the leading range state, both as to area and the number of livestock grazed. It is, preemi- nently, a great breeding ground and such will it ever remain. In normal times it has some 6,000,000 head of range cattle, some 3,000,000 head of sheep and almost as many goats. It leads in wool pro- duction with some 20,000,000 pounds annually and its mohair production is fully a third of that amount.

The state is second only to Louisiana in rice pro- duction, second only to Oklahoma in broomcorn production, it is first in the production of grain

sorghums, grows more Bermuda onions than any other state, ranks fourth in peanut production, with over 200,000 stands of bees it takes first rank, it has half a million turkeys or twice as many as the next nearest state in importance, which is Missouri. It is also the premier pecan state and produces, in the great staple cotton, over one-third of the cotton crop of the entire United States.

The purpose of this article is to give at a glance the outstanding features only that those unfamiliar with the state may readily gain some idea of its relative position among the other states of the Union. Statistics has a two-fold purpose to serve. One is to give positive information and, secondly, comparative. Its end and aim is not alone to esti- mate the area of a given crop down to the last acre nor wool production to its last pound, though approximate accuracy is, however, vital but it has a comparative value in showing the shift in crops from year to year, the trend of production and a relationship that obtains in succeeding years. The lessons to be read from statistical data are, then, relative as well as absolute and comparative as well as positive.

A stranger traveling through the state from the east might suppose the most important crop to be rice; if he entered from the north he might believe it to be wheat and oats; if entering from the pan- handle it might appear to be grain sorghums and some wheat and cotton, and if he entered from the west he might suppose that the whole state is given over to range and pasture purposes.

It is important to bear in mind the state's posi- tion, agriculturally, is maintained on but a small percentage of its total area while in Illinois and Iowa nearly 90 per cent of the state's total area is farmed intensively, that though there are vast areas which both can and will be brought under the plow yet this relative proportion of range and farm lands will always obtain as it is today and that the state, which is almost 70 per cent rural in population will long continue to be a great agri- cultural state.

In range and diversity of crops grown it holds first rank. From an almost sub-tropical valley in the south which produces abundantly both trucks and citrus fruits it ranges a thousand miles north- ward to where winter wheat and other hardy cereals alone will thrive. It divides itself, naturally, into five great subdivisions.

The picture which the mention of Texas should bring to mind is that of its vast area only a small part is farmed, that its staple crops are few and rank as follows: cotton, corn, oats, wheat, and grain sorghums which on a total of some 25,000,000 acres cotton occupies nearly half, corn a fourth, and the others share alike. That cotton is the state's first crop, that in corn production the state is often third, that in cattle, sheep and goats and their products, the state leads all others, that it has the greatest number of mules of any state and that though a great range state yet its diversity of crops is such and its expanse so great that it excells in many minor crops, many fruits and some native nuts.

FT WORTH COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS By FORT WORTH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

F ORT WORTH is brimming with wealth and prosperity. She has absorbed thousands of dis- charged officers and men from the military camps and flying fields of Texas. Her population has recently been enhanced by many other thousands of newcomers, at- tracted first by the vast oil develop- ment in the adjoining territory, and later by the greatly stimulated com- mercial activity attending the oil development.

Since shortly after the establish- ment of the military post known as Fort Worth in 1849, the city had been famed as the Capital of the Cow Country and this she will remain. Fort Worth distributes more food than any city of her size in the coun- try. She is the grain and milling center of the Southwest, with an elevator capacity of 5,000,000 bushels.

From 1900 to 1910, according to the Federal census, Fort Worth gained 174 per cent in population. She is growing faster today than any time in her history. The increases in population is from 3,000 to 5,000 per month and she has a present population of 150,000.

A building era almost unprecedented in Texas, is upon Fort Worth. The great territory of West Texas, to which she is the gateway, is teeming with wealth and is increasing in population at a greater rate than any similar area in the country. Nor is this wealth coming solely from oil development. Never in its history has West Texas had more abund- ant crops than in the past few years.

Farms are being improved. Roads are being built and new railway projects are being launched.

Fort Worth is the transportation center of the Southwest and her iron arms reach out to all the areas in Central, North Central and West Texas where the oil development is under way. She has

Residence District Around Rivercrest Country Club, Taken from the Club House

eleven railroads with seventeen outlets, which give her direct communication with all the new producing fields.

Five hundred oil companies maintain offices in Fort Worth. Ten refineries are in operation and several under construction. With the completion of these she will have a refining capacity of 75,000 barrels daily. Projects are on foot to bring to Fort Worth from the great gas wells that have been opened in West Texas, an additional supply of natural gas. This fuel, in competition with the al- most unlimited amount of fuel oil furnished by her refineries will give Fort Worth the cheapest fuel in the country.

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Fort Worth, Looking North on Main Street from Tenth. The Texas Hotel in Center on Right. F. & M. Bank Building on the Left

Her water sup- ply is obtained from Lake Worth, which is fourteen miles long, two miles wide and has a capacity of thir- ty billion gallons. The lake abounds in fish. Hundreds of power boats, row boats and canoes ply its water. At the municipal bath- ing beach throngs of citizens and vis- itors from all parts of Texas find re- laxation during the summer.

Fort Worth is the third largest packing center in the country, and the second largest horse and mule

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

market. One and a half million head of live stock are slaughtered annually. From the plains of West Texas and New Mexico and from Old Mexico, come to Fort Worth, long trains loaded with cattle. From these plains come hundreds of trains loaded with grain. Fort Worth mills have a daily capacity of 2,000 barrels of wheat flour and an equal amount of corn products.

Five large wholesale grocery houses in Fort Worth including one of the largest in the country. A roll- ing mill employs 700 men. A Fort Worth furniture factory is the largest in the South. The Fort Worth Power and Light Company's plant is the largest in the Southwest. She has twelve banks and trust companies, one of which, the National Bank of Com- merce, has recently been chartered with a capital of $1,000,000. Her bank deposits are more than $80,- 000,000 and bank clearings are increasing each year.

The growth of the city is indicated by tremendous increase in the bank clearings, the building permits and the post office receipts.

Building permits in 1917 amounted to $1,790,612. In 1918 they amounted to $2,267,887. On September 1, 1919, the permits had exceeded $9,000,000. Per- mits for the month of August were in excess of $3,000,000. In 1920 and 1921 the building permits were far above normal.

Post office receipts show steady growth. They have doubled in five years.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 18

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