New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 76

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

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A native Texan, Mr. Carter was born in Polk County, January 24th, 1887. W. T. Carter, Sr., during his lifetime was one of the leading citizens of Houston and in the lumber circles of the State. His father, J. J. Carter, came to Texas in 1849 and settled in Cherokee County; the family was an old Southern family. J. J. Carter was senior cap- tain Hubbard's Regiment, and made a fine record during the Civil War. W. T. Carter, Sr., made a reputation as a great saw mill man and lumberman. He built, with his brother, E. A. Carter, the first steel saw mill ever built in Texas. At the age of seventeen years, without funds or financial as- sistance, he entered the saw mill business. Being unable to pay his laboring men in money, he ex- changed with them lumber for their labor and these men helped him to build his first saw mill. This mill was located two miles west of Trinity and was operated in 1873 and 1874. It was moved several times to other locations. W. T. Carter, Jr., attended the public and high schools, and later the University of Chicago, and in 1908 began his business career in Houston, where he is connected with many of the commercial interests. He is a director of the Union National Bank, a director in the Guardian Trust Company, vice president and director of the A. L. Carter Lumber Company of Beaumont, Texas, and president of the Carter In- vestment Company. His brother, A. L. Carter, is president of the A. L. Carter Lumber Company of Beaumont, Texas, which was organized in 1916, and is vice president of the Union National Bank. Mr. Carter was married in Houston November 29th, 1910, to Miss Lillian Neuhaus, a native of the Lone Star State and a daughter of J. V. Neuhaus, pres- ident of the South Texas Grain Company and a director of the South Texas Commercial National Bank. They have two children: W. T. Carter III. and Victor N. Carter. Mr. Carter is a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity of Chicago Univer- sity, Houston Country, Houston, Lumbermans and the University Clubs.

425

MEN OF TEXAS

UDGE WILLIAM WRIGHT MOORE, an honored resident of Houston, and one of the ablest members of the Texas bar, has attained noteworthy prominence in corpora- tion practice. He was made general attorney for the Fidelity Trust Company of Houston in 1918, and succeeded the late Judge James L. Autry in 1920 as general counsel. The legal department of the Fidel- ity Trust Company of Houston represents the Ga- lena-Signal Oil Company (of Texas), the Republic Car Company, and associated interests. In 1923 he was made president of Fidelity Trust Company of Houston, and elected a director in the American Republics Corporation (of Delaware).

Like many other self-reliant men, who have been successful, Judge Moore's efforts to obtain an edu- cation were not confined to the classroom. From the time of his father's death, when he was twelve years of age, until he was twenty, Judge Moore was denied the opportunity to attend school. At the age of nineteen he procured work in a railroad bridge gang, and from his earnings he saved sufficient funds to defray his expenses for a school term in order to equip himself to realize his ambition to become a lawyer. The following year he spent in a boarding school in Smith County; and then for a period he attended Sam Houston Teachers College. From this schooling and by teaching several years, he acquired his early education. He studied law, and in 1895 was admitted to the bar. He began the prac- tice of law at Henderson, Texas, and was elected County Judge of Rusk County in 1902, holding that office until 1906. In 1906 he was presidential elec- tor from the Eighth Congressional District. He con- tinued the practice of law at Henderson, Texas, from 1906 until 1909, at which time he moved to Dalhart, Texas. He was recognized as the leading lawyer of that section of the state, and during his stay at Dalhart served as attorney for the Rock Island and the Fort Worth and Denver Railroads in the North Panhandle district, as well as for the First National Bank of Dalhart, other banks and mercantile houses. In the latter part of 1914 he was appointed assistant to Judge Hiram Glass of Aus- tin, Texas, general counsel for all of the railroads of Texas. In 1915 he severed this connection, and became associated with the late Judge James L. Autry of Houston.

Judge Moore was born in Rusk County, Texas, the ninth of May, 1872. He is the son of the late Simp- son Moore, a Confederate soldier and a farmer of that county, who came to Texas from Mississippi in 1847, and Martha Morris Moore, also deceased, who was a slaveholder before the Civil War and whose family came to Texas from Alabama in 1849. Judge Moore was married at Rusk, Texas, the fifth of December, 1895, to Miss Mattie Weaver, a native of Cook County, Texas, and a daughter of S. E. Weaver, a ranchman and a Confederate soldier who came to Texas from Georgia in 1866. Judge and Mrs. Moore have a family of three children; the old- est, William Wright, Jr., who is a member of the legal department of Fidelity Trust Company of Houston; a second son, Weaver, during his college days a star football player at the University of Texas, and now assistant attorney general of Texas, and a third son, Henry.

Judge Moore is a member of the American, Texas and Harris County Bar associations, the Houston

Country Club, the River Oaks Country Club, the Houston Club, Knights Templar and Arabia Temple Shrine. He attends the Presbyterian Church.

A. TAFT, General Manager of the Texas and Louisiana District of the American Railway Express Company, is a veteran in this business, having to his credit more than two scores of years in the Express Company's service. The several express companies doing busi- ness in Texas were consolidated by the Government during the war; this consolidation made permanent and charter issued July 1, 1918. The Houston office located at 414 Southern Pacific Building is the main office of the American Railway Express Company for Texas and Louisiana, and more than three hun- dred and fifty employees are out of the Houston office. The general offices of the American Rail- way Express Company were opened in Houston in 1920.

Mr. Taft was born in New York State September 5, 1858. His father, E. P. Taft, also a native of New York State, entered the Civil War from that State and lost his life during this struggle between the States. Mr. Taft's education was obtained in the public schools of New York State.

The desire to see the great State of Texas brought Mr. Taft here for the first time in 1877 and he be- came engaged in the sheep and cattle ranching in- dustry in the Western portion of the state, where he remained for three years. In 1880, he went to Iowa and entered the employ of the Wells Fargo Express Company as messenger in Iowa and Nebraska, and remained in this and other positions for a period of ten years. In 1890 the Express Company sent him to Fort Worth, Texas, as agent, and then route agent, which position he held for a short time, when he was made Assistant Superintendent at Houston. After a short time he was made Superintendent and then General Superintendent of the Southern department, with offices in Houston. When the American Railway Express Company was organized he was made General Manager of the ter- ritory embracing Texas and Louisiana, with head- quarters in Houston. Mr. Taft is interested in various enterprises in Houston, and is a Director in the State National Bank and is a Trustee of the Hermann Hospital Estate.

Mr. Taft was married in New York State in 1880 to Miss Caroline E. Swart, a native of New York State and a member of a prominent family. They have four children, Edward Reed Taft, of Portland, Oregon, who has two children; Elizabeth, now the wife of Dr. F. R. Williams, of Massachusetts; Robert N. Taft, of Sweetwater, Texas, and Lieutenant Don- ald H. Taft, U. S. A. Marines, since April, 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Taft reside at 2316 Hopkins Street. In fraternal and social organizations, Mr. Taft is a member of the A. F. and A. M., of Temple Blue Lodge, and a 32nd degree Scottish Rite of this order, and a Shriner of Arabia Temple, also the Elks Club and the Houston Country Club. He is a member of the standing committee of the Episcopal Dio- cese and a Vestryman of Trinity Church. He is also a member of the Old Trail Drivers Association, hav- ing made two trips from San Antonio to Dodge City, Kansas, and having carried mail from San An- tonio to Laredo, Texas, before the days of railroads. Mr. Taft is active in all movements having as their object the civic improvement of Houston, and the progress and advancement of his adopted city.

426

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

A. THANHEISER, although a comparative- ly recent addition to the business frater- nity of Houston, has entered into the spirit of the South Texas Metropolis, and has been a factor in building up a profitable business. Mr. Thanheiser is the President of the Southwestern Construction Company, which was organized in 1922 with a capital stock of $50,000.00. They do general building and railroad construction work. They have completed a warehouse and wharf for Alexander Sprunt and Son and a warehouse for the Houston Compress Company, also a cement plant for the Texas Portland Cement Company. Mr. Thanheiser came to Houston in November, 1922, from Youngs- town, Ohio, and since this business was organized, they have secured a great amount of work, and their business is increasing all the time. The office of the Southwestern Construction Company is located at 420 West Building, and Mr. L. F. Lonnbladh, ex- Chief Engineer for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, is the Vice-President.

A native Texan, Mr. Thanheiser was born at Fay- etteville, Fayette County, November 3, 1881. His father, A. T. Thanheiser, banker, farmer and stock- man, lives at Sealy, Texas, and was born in the Lone Star State. A. T. Thanheiser's father came to Texas in 1854 from Austria. Mr. Thanheiser's mother was Miss Agnes Vetter, also a native of Fayette County, and whose ancestors came to Amer- ica in 1850 and settled in New York State. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Fayette County and later attended the A. and M. College, and graduated from this institution in the class of 1901 with the B. S. degree. During the same year in which he graduated from college, Mr. Thanheiser started his business career with the Southern Pacific Railroad and remained with this road until 1913, and during this period he was rod- man, assistant engineer, engineer and superinten- dent, and was located at El Paso and Houston. From 1913 to 1916 he was chief engineer of maintenance and division superintendent of the Missouri, Kan- sas and Texas Railroad and was located at Dallas and Smithville respectively. From 1916 to 1922, Mr. Thanheiser was consulting and construction engi- neer at Youngstown, Ohio, and while there did work for Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Brier Hill Steel Company, Pennsylvania Railroad, Erie Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, A. M. Byers and Company and many other large concerns there. During the time spent at Youngstown, Ohio, Mr. Thanheiser built the railway terminals, /bridges, power plants, viaducts, mill and office buildings. Mr. Thanheiser has many interests in Texas, and is President of the Sealy Cotton Company, who are cotton merchants, ice manufacturers and engaged in the light and power business. He is largely inter- ested in a cattle ranch in Waller County, which is owned by the immediate family, and is stocked with one thousand head of fine Brahma cattle.

Mr. Thanheiser was married in Houston, January 14, 1920, to Miss Adele Lindeman, a native Texan, and a member of a prominent family of Brenham, being the daughter of O. A. Lindeman, who was a pioneer. merchant of Washington County, but is now retired. They have one son, C. A. Thanheiser, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Thanheiser reside at 802 McGowen Avenue. Mr. Thanheiser is a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason, with membership in Dallas, and a mem-

ber of the Arabia Temple Shrine, Houston. He is a consistent member of the Episcopal Church. He is a booster for Houston and South Texas.

RNEST A. TUCKER has in the several years of his residence in Houston established the reputation of an engineer of more than average attainments, directing the activities of the Houston Port Commission in a manner that reflects much credit on his name. Mr. Tucker is chief engineer of the Houston Port Commission, and maintains his offices at the court house. He has charge of all the construction work of the Hous- ton Port Commission, planning and supervising the construction of all wharves, warehouses, docks, rail- roads and other building activities on the ship chan- nel. There is at the present time much activity in this work, four million dollars in bonds has been issued and sold for furthering the work of the Commission. Much of this will be spent in the con- struction of the wharves and railroad facilities, while around a million dollars will be expended in the construction of a grain elevator. All of this will be done under the supervision of Mr. Tucker. He is well equipped for his profession, and has under his direction a complete drafting and field department.

Ernest A. Tucker was born at Dover, New Hamp- shire, the fifth of June, 1892, son of Eugene S. and Lucy Benjamin Hale Tucker, the father a factor in the shoe manufacturing industry in that state. Mr. Tucker was entered in the public schools as a boy, and graduated from the high school at Lynn, Mas- sachusetts. He entered Valparaiso University, at Valparaiso, Indiana, where he took the C. E. degree three years later, in 1914. He then went to Cham- paigne, Illinois, with H. C. Howard, a building con- tractor, doing engineering work for one year. This was followed by a year in the engineering depart- ment of Stone and Webster, at Boston, and a year with the Morgan Engineering Company, in the en- gineering department, at Canton, Ohio. A period of military service intervened and Mr. Tucker spent some time in the Air Service Ground School at the Boston Institute of Technology, later going to var- ious training camps in the United States and Can- ada. He was commissioned lieutenant in April, 1918, and until September of the same year was an in- structor in flying. He then went overseas, taking advanced training in France, returning to America in February, 1919, and was discharged on his arrival. Reentering the business world, he became associated with Hess and Skinner, of Dallas, Texas, for one year, after which he came to Houston and for a year and a half with with the Humble Oil and Re- fining Company. He then became chief engineer for the Houston Port Commission, a position entail- ing heavy responsibiliteitd which he now holds.

Mr. Tucker was married at Dallas, Texas, in 1919, to Miss Mary Margaret Putman, daughter of the late Charles Putman, wholesale druggist at Dal- las, Texas, and Laura V. Carruthers Putman. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker have an attractive home in Hous- ton, at 3707 Graustark Street, and are popular mem- bers of their representative social set. Mr. Tucker is a Mason, York Rite, and a member of the Hous- ton Engineers Club. He has made many friends in Houston who appreciate his many fine qualities and predict for him a career that will reflect credit on his city.

429

MEN OF TEXAS

W. LOCKETT, attorney and counselor at law, with offices at 523 Binz Building, is looked upon as one of the leaders of the legal profession in South Texas and has been engaged in the practice of law in Houston for more than twenty-five years. During the time Mr. Lockett has practiced law in Houston he has appeared as counselor in some of the most import- ant litigation originating in the courts of this sec- tion and is known as an able pleader and an expert in civil law, particularly as it applies to land titles and probate procedure. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and has followed his profession in Hous- ton since that time. In 1923 he was elected pres- ident of the Harris County Bar Association and during his entire practice has always taken active interest in the work of the association and has been especially active in his efforts to bring about a high ethical standard of practice among the courts of Harris County.

After being admitted to the bar Mr. Lockett be- came a member of the law firm of Stewart, Stew- art and Lockett and after the death of Col. Stewart in 1895 the firm name remained the same until its dissolution in 1908. At that time Judge Lockett formed a partnership with John Archer Read which continued until the election of Judge Read to the position of district judge of Harris County in 1912. Since that time Mr. Lockett has practiced alone, confining his attention entirely to civil matters.

Mr. Lockett was born in Wythe County, Virginia, on January 17th, 1869. He is a son of James W. and Sarah Virginia (Shepherd) Lockett, both mem- bers of old Virginia families. His father was a business man, farmer and merchant and with his family removed to Huntsville, Texas, in the early seventies. It was in Huntsville that Mr. Lockett received his education, and after leaving school studied law under former Congressman Stewart, at Houston, later becoming associated with him as a partner.

On September 9, 1897, Mr. Lockett was married at Houston to Miss Ida Warner, daughter of B. R. Warner, a native of Alabama, now deceased. Mr. Warner was formerly city secretary of Houston, secretary of the Houston Cotton Exchange, and was for a number of years managing editor of the Houston Post. Mr. and Mrs. Lockett have one daughter, Annie Beth, now Mrs. Otis Van De Mark.

For a number of years Mr. Lockett was attorney for the late Geo. H. Hermann, founder of the Her- mann Memorial Hospital in Houston, and since his death has been the attorney for the Hermann Es- tate. He handled the famous tax suit growing out of the efforts of the State of Texas to collect some $450,000.00 in taxes from the estate. This suit, which has attracted widespread attention among attor- neys and tax experts, was carried to the Supreme Court of Texas on appeal early in 1923.

Besides the Hermann interests, Mr. Lockett has represented, and still does, many of the large prop- erty holders and business interests of Houston. He is attorney for and a director of the Tel-Electric Company of Houston and the Black Hardware Com- pany, a large wholesale concern, of Galveston, and represents Binz and Settegast and many other im- portant concerns.

Mr. Lockett takes an active interest in civic af- fairs and is a member of Texas Lodge No. 1 of the

Knights of Pythias, and of the State Bar Associa- tion and Houston Bar Association. He also is a member of the Houston Country Club and the Hous- ton Club.

YRUS W. SCOTT has for more than a de- cade been one of a group of manufacturers who have taken a leading part in shaping commercial activities at Houston, along in- dustrial lines, and he has during this time built up a manufacturing enterprise that ranks as one of the leading industries of South Texas. The Cyrus W. Scott Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, of which Mr. Scott is President, was established and incorporated in 1907, and has met with a steady, con- sistent growth, the business at the present time being incorporated for one and a half million dol- lars. The Cyrus W. Scott Manufacturing Company, Inc., operates one of the largest overall and pants factories in the Lone Star State, the two factories at Houston employing five hundred people, and with twenty salesmen on the road. They manufacture Scott's Level Best Overalls and Scott's Year-Wear Pants, each bearing a six months guarantee. The Houston factory is located at 701 Rusk Avenue, and has fifty thousand square feet of floor space. The trade territory includes the entire State of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. A factory is also in operation at Louisville, Ken- tucky, under the same name, and manufacturing the same product. Here three hundred operatives are employed with twenty salesmen on the road and selling throughout a wide territory. This extensive business has been developed in a scant sixteen years, when the factory was first put in operation with a force of fifteen employees in the plant, and one salesman on the road. This remarkable growth is the result of a firm belief of Mr. Scott that the Lone Star State is the best in the world and that no product is too good for the citizens of this State. Every garment of Scott manufacture is the best that can be turned out, and an increasing demand for Scott's Level Best Overalls and Scott's Year- Wear Pants point to a future of even greater ex- pansion. Associated with Mr. Scott are D. E. Ouzts, Vice-President and Treasurer, and J. K. Harrison, Secretary, and C. L. Garst, Director and Manager of Manufacturing. Mr. Scott is a Director of the Second National Bank of Houston, and the First Texas Joint Stock Land Bank.

Cyrus W. Scott was born in Gilford County, North Carolina, son of W. T. Scott, a native of that State, and a planter there during his life time, and Cather- ine Caffey Scott, also a North Carolinian, both of whom were of Scotch ancestry. Mr. Scott received his education in the schools of his native State, later attending Sommerfield College. After leaving school he was for a few years engaged in salesmanship. This was followed by twenty years as a tobacco salesman on the road for large tobacco companies, the past few years of which he was sales manager for the entire Southwest. It was during this period that he became impressed with the future the Lone Star State offered the manufacturer, and the plans for the opening of his plant took shape, followed closely by the actuality.

Mr. Scott was married to Miss Annie Cahn, a native of Mississippi. The Scott home in Houston, at 705 Avondale Avenue, is one of the attractive residences of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have two children, Spencer Jerome and Morin Montagu.

430

J. W. LOCKETT

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

HARLES P. SHEARN, pioneer of the Lone Star State, and for half a century asso- ciated with the progress of Houston, is one of the veteran grain men of South Texas, and was one of the first to become interested in the future of this enterprise in which he has built up an extensive business. Mr. Shearn established his first grain business in 1885, starting on a mod- est scale. In 1898 he incorporated the South Texas Grain Company, and has since been president of this business, now one of the largest industries of its kind in the state. The South Texas Grain Com- pany operates both a wholesale and retail busi- ness, the plant of the company at 803 North San Jacinto, providing storage for three hundred thou- sand bushels of grain. They handle all kinds of grain, cotton and meal, rice bran, rice polish, all kinds of hay, corn, chops, meal, crushed oats, chicken feed, sweet and dry stock foods. The South Texas Grain Co. also puts on the market an extensive out- put of its own brand of grains and specially pre- pared feeds, the "Egaday" chicken feed, "S. T." stock feed, "4" sweet feed, "So-Tex" stock and dairy feed, "Tip-Top" cornmeal and grits. They have in the plant on San Jacinto Street, about twen- ty thousand square feet of floorage, and employ sixty men. In addition, they have an elevator at Winter and Sawyer Streets, on the Southern Pacific tracks, where they store immense quantities of grain. They also have an alfalfa mill, a corn shel- ler, and hay barns in connection with the eleva- tor. The trade territory covers the Southern, South- western and Eastern part of the State, and Lou- isiana, and also some export trade. The officers of the South Texas Grain Company, Inc., are: Charles P. Shearn, president, J. V. Neuhaus, vice- president, Charles P. Shearn, Jr., secretary, and L. L. Neuhaus, treasurer.

Mr. Shearn has devoted his time not alone to the development of this extensive business, but has interested himself in the progress of his city, many of his business interests having a direct influence on civic development. Mr. Shearn has the first certificate of stock ever issued in the Houston Ship Channel, in the early seventies. Seventeen years of his business life he devoted to the banking busi- ness, making his influence felt in the financial world. He is Past Director of the Carnegie Library, and of the Cotton Exchange. In the early nineties he took a constructive interest in public affairs, and served a term as alderman, then one term on the Board of Public Works, and eight years on the school board.

Mr. Shearn was born at LaGrange, Texas, the seventh of February, 1856, son of John Shearn, veteran mercantile and transportation man, and first president of the Houston Ship Channel, and in the early seventies president and general manager of the Houston Direct Navigation Company. His mother, prior to her marriage, was Miss Katherine McAshan. Mr. Shearn was educated in the Houston schools.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 76

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