New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 98

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

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Dr. Butler was born at Edgefield, South Carolina, the eleventh of March, 1874, the son of Pierce M. Butler, Jr., a cotton planter of Louisiana, to which State he removed from South Carolina, and Cath- erine (Goode) Butler. His father, Pierce M. Butler, Sr., was prominent in political circles of South Car- olina, and at one time governor of that State. Pierce M. Butler M, Sr., the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, is well known in Texas history, for he organized the Palmette Regiment in South Caro- lina and brought them to Texas to fight for its independence from Mexico. Colonel Butler was col- onel of the regiment and was killed in this war. His widow was the recipient of a sword as a memo- rial to this service from the State of Texas. The Butler family also received grants of land in Harris and Cook Counties. As a boy J. D. Butler attended the schools near his home, later entering Vanderbilt University, where he went three years, after which he went to the University of New York and Belle- view Hospital, where he graduated with the M. D. degree in 1894. He practiced medicine and surgery in the East for a time, and was surgeon on some of the larger ships going from the United States to Europe. In 1897 he came to Orange, Texas, where he established a fine practice, and remained there until 1905. In that year he gave up his med- ical practice and went in the lumber business, in which he has since engaged. Dr. Butler has taken an important part in developing the lumber re- sources in the region around Beaumont, and owns large lumber interests here at the present time, holding timber lands, and owning lumber mills. He also has invested heavily in ranch lands, and is a large cattle owner, and has holdings in the various oil fields. Mr. Butler is also financially interested in many of the leading business enterprises at Beau- mont, particularly in wholesale lines, and is a leader in all commercial advancement.

Dr. Butler was married at Orange in 1899, to Miss Cleora Gilmer, and has two children: Nelda, now Mrs. C. P. Bordages of Austin, and Jewel. Dr. Butler belongs to the Beaumont Country Club, the Neches Club, and the Port Arthur Tarpon Club, one of the finest fishing clubs in this part of the country. He is an enthusiastic fisherman and hunter, and finds relaxation from his business responsibilities in these sports. Fraternally he is a Mason, Scottish Rite, and a member of El Mina Temple Shrine at Galveston. For several years he has served as an officer and director of such business concerns as the Guaranty Bank and Trust Company, Phelan- Josey Grocery Company, and the Norvell Wilder Hardware Company. Dr. Butler has for many years headed every movement for the industrial growth of Beaumont, seeing in this city the logical location for industrial concerns wishing to locate in this section of the State and has done much to secure new business life for the city.

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S. ABERCROMBIE is known to practically all the big oil companies of South Texas and the Gulf Coast, where for the past four- teen years he has been engaged in drilling oil wells for the oil companies operating in the South Texas fields. Mr. Abercrombie is an oil well con- tract driller, and confines his work to rotary drilling. and is credited with having drilled some of the best wells in the Gulf Coast section. He is considered one of the best men in his line in South Texas, hav- ing drilled many wells under very difficult condi- tions. Mr. Abercrombie is regarded as an expert along many lines, and his services in extreme cases have been sought by many of th big oil com- panies. Among his achievements which required the quick action and knowledge of an expert was the capping and closing of the Sweet Sixteen well at Goose Creek, that at the time was running wild and seemed impossible to control. This well came in as an unexpected gusher, and was saved by Mr. Abercrombie. At Hull he drilled a 2900-foot well for R. L. Young, against a 750-pound pressure. This is a drilling feat that has probably never before been accomplished. He personally owns producing leases at Stratton Ridge and West Columbia, with a production of upward from one hundred and twenty- five barrels per day and has operated in these fields for a number of years. Mr. Abercrombie keeps six rotary rigs busy in the Coastal and South Texas fields. He organized and is president of the Cam- eron Iron Works, which manufacture oil field sup- plies, and specialize in fishing tools and build the well known Cameron Iron Works Blowout Preventer. Seven people are employed in this plant. This blow- out preventer is being successfully used in Mexico when bringing in the big wells there. Mr. Aber- crombie came to Houston in 1906 from Fort Bend County, and today has well appointed offices at 206-8 Rodgers Building. He owns the business, makes all contracts, and has an average of seventy- five men on his payrolls.

A native Texan, Mr. Abercrombie was born at Huntsville July 7th, 1891. His father, J. B. Aber- crombie (deceased) was one of the pioneer settlers of Texas, coming to the Lone Star State from Ala- bama in 1850. He settled in Walker County where he was an extensive land owner and was for a num- ber of years connected with the penitentiary system of Texas. His mother was Miss Lena Wood, a native Texan and a member of a well known Montgomery County family. Mr. Abercrombie's education was obtained in the public schools of Huntsville.

When seventeen years of age, Mr. Abercrombie went to seek his fortune in the oil fields, and chose as the beginning of his oprations Cypress, Texas, and wildcatting as the line in which to begin. This was in 1909 and he has been engaged practically all the time since in contract drilling. His next field of endeavor and experience was at Port Neches where he drilled three wells for the late John W. Gates. At this time Mr. Abercrombie was in the employ of his cousin, Charles Abercrombie, a contract driller. From 1917 to 1920 Mr. Abercrombie was with the Crown Oil and Refining Company; first as field manager and later as superintendent of pro- duction, and during this same period and in the same capacities, he was employed by the Atlantic Oil and Producing Company and the Gulf Coast Oil Corpora- tion. In 1920 Mr. Abercrombie entered the oil well

contracting business for himself and has had as many as seventeen rigs in operation at one time. Mr. Abercrombie is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and other civic and social organizations. He has at all times participated in a most substantial manner in all moves and enterprises that had for their object the upbuilding of the community and its citizenship.

ILLIAM P. KENWORTHY is an American representative of C. E. Kenworthy and Company, cotton merchants and exporters, with offices in Memphis, Tennessee, and sell to all countries where American cotton is used. The Houston office is located in the Cotton Ex- change Building. The company was organized in Liverpool, England, years ago, under another name, and in 1920 changed to Kenworthy and Company, and later to C. E. Kenworthy and Company, and is owned and conducted by Mr. Kenworthy and his brother, C. E. Kenworthy, of Liverpool. This firm has had an office in Houston for more than twenty years under various names, and they export about 15,000 bales of cotton annually, the greater part of which is through the Port of Houston. Mr. Ken- worthy came to Houston in 1907 and was associated with the business here until several years ago when he returned to England and to Memphis.

A native of England, Mr. Kenworthy was born at Liverpool, on September 20th, 1883. His father, George Kenworthy, also a native of Liverpool, was one of the prominent cotton men of England and for a period of almost sixty years was engaged in the buying of cotton in Egypt, and was known as one of the most expert cotton buyers in the entire country, where his judgment on this staple was frequently sought in various parts of the world. He never came to America, but confined his activ- ities to England and Egypt. His mother was Miss Lola Wood, a native of Liverpool and a member of one of the best known families of England. His education was obtained in the Burkenhead School of Liverpool, and after finishing school, Mr. Ken- worthy came to America and traveled for many years and visited all the Southern offices, which at that time the company maintained throughout the country. Mr. Kenworthy, during the World War, enlisted in the British navy, where he was a lieutenant, and served in this branch of the service from 1915 to 1918, and was in Atlanta during the greater part of this period. During 1919 and 1920 he was associated with Q. A. Johnson and Com- pany as a partner in the cotton business, where he was successful and during the latter part of 1920 became identified with his present company.

Mr. Kenworthy was married in Memphis, Ten- nessee, in 1914, to Miss Elizabeth Shephard, a native of that city and a daughter of S. J. Shephard, a well known banker of Memphis. They have two children-William P. Kenworthy, Jr., and Shephard. Mr. Kenworthy is a member of various cotton ex- changes, and during his residence in Houston was a member of the Houston Country Club, and the Episcopal Church, Mr. Kenworthy has an intimate knowledge of cotton, its cultivation, gathering and preparation for the market, which gives him an added advantage in carrying on his business suc- cessfully. His close application to cotton and the cotton industry has made him an authority and he is so considered by those who have business dealings with him.

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OY B. NICHOLS, postmaster in charge of the Houston postoffice, is well known to the citizenship of Houston where prior to receiving the appointment to the office of postmaster had been for many years engaged in the real estate business. Mr. Nichols was appointed to the place of postmaster by President Harding to succeed T. W. House, and it is the consensus of opinion with Houstonians that no wiser choice could have been made than in the person of pleasant, genial, fair, business-like, forceful Roy B. Nichols; he is exceedingly popular with all classes. Since becoming postmaster Mr. Nichols has secured the co-operation of the business public in conducting the postoffice in the matter of early mailing and many other ways. In his efforts, he has the utmost co-operation of the postoffice employees, which num- ber three hundred and fifty. At one time Mr. Nichols took through the postoffice two hundred school teachers and at other times, vast numbers of school children in order to somewhat familiarize them with the workings of a big postoffice, of which very few people outside of employees, are familiar. Houston has by far the finest postoffice building in the state, which covers an entire block in the heart of the city. The building was completed and occupied in 1911, and is now overcrowded to the extent that seventy-five men work in the basement, and parcel post mail is sorted on the lawn. An appropriation, through Congress to make enlarge- ments in order to relieve this condition is expected soon. As an illustration of the wonderful, almost unparalleled growth of the business of the Houston postoffice; in 1916 the gross receipts amounted to $340,566.00 and in 1923 the gross receipts were $1,363,108.58.

A native of Kansas, Mr. Nichols was born at Seneca, in 1883. His parents, I. Jay Nichols and E. Rowena Nichols, were natives of Sandusky County, Ohio. They removed to Houston in 1892 and Mr. Nichols entered the real estate business with office in the old Perry Building on Congress Avenue. Young Nichols was ten years of age when his parents came to Houston, where he attended the Longfellow School.

Mr. Nichols has had a wide and varied business career, which began as a boy when he was em- ployed by Judd Mortimer Lewis, at that time man- ager and sterotyper for the A. N. Kellogg News- paper Company, which has since been succeeded in the field by the Western Newspaper Union; he also delivered newspapers. His first regular job, after leaving school, came in 1898 when he was employed by the J. J. Pastoriza Printing and Lith- ographing Company; after this he was for a short time employed in a jewelry establishment. In 1901 Mr. Nichols went into the Houston Postoffice as a distributor, at a salary of $500.00 per year. In 1903 he became clerk in charge of the night force in the postoffice. He held this position until March, 1907, when he resigned in order to enter the real estate business with his father at 100912 Congress Avenue. In October, 1909, Mr. Nichols was ap- pointed real estate officer of the Bankers Trust Company, but in 1910 he returned to independent real estate operations, and took offices at 2021/2 Main Street. During the period of eleven years that he was engaged in the real estate business, he erected more than eighty houses in Houston. Most of these houses were of the modern type for

salaried people, which he sold to them on the easy payment plan. Mr. Nichols has been closely con- nected with the commercial interests and the polit- ical issues of Houston for many years. During the past ten years he has been county chairman of the Harris County Executive Committee, and dur- ing the greater part of that period he was chairman of the 8th Congressional District and a member of the Republican State Executive Committee. He was also a delegate to the 1916 and 1920 Republican National Conventions. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols reside at 1209 Dennis Avenue. They have two children- Caroline Rowena, ten years of age, and William Eugene, aged six years. Mrs. Nichols is active in Y. W. C. A. work, and deeply interested in her hus- band's career, and enthusiastic as to his success. Mr. Nichols is a member of the Knights of Pythias, with membership in Texas Lodge No. 1, of which he is past chancellor. He is also a member of B. P. O. E., Houston Lodge No. 151. He is enthus- iastic in regard to the postoffice at Houston, and works incessantly for the betterment of all depart- ments, in which he succeeded in bringing up the efficiency and has established a record as post- master in Houston. Mr. Nichols has always been active in the business, social and general community life of Houston and gives liberally of his time to all projects tending to the welfare and advancement of his city. He is an advocate of efficiency, prompt- ness and punctuality, and no detail is too small to receive his close personal attention, and any em- ployee, regardless of how minor their position may be, can always secure an audience with him.

AMES M. HOGAN, veteran in the printing industry at Houston, and a native Houston- ian, has been engaged in this important in- dustry for more than three decades, and for upwards of a decade and a half has operated one of the representative commercial printeries of the city. Mr. Hogan established the Hogan Printing Company, of which he is the sole proprietor, in 1909, and since that time has engaged in a general com- mercial printing business, building up a large and prosperous business. Mr. Hogan does all kinds of commercial printing, his work issuing from a modernly equipped plant, where eight expert em- ployees assist him. The plant is located at 1405 Liberty Avenue and occupies a modern building with twenty-five by one hundred feet of floor space.

Mr. Hogan was born at Houston in 1876, son of Z. T. and Sophia McGowan Hogan, his father a pio- neer resident of this city, who died here more than thirty years ago. Mr. Hogan was educated in the public schools of Houston, and after leaving school went in the printing shop of Dealy and Baker, one of the pioneer printing firms of Houston. He re- mained with this firm for more than twenty years, resigning to go into business for himself.

Mr. Hogan was married at Houston, the twenty- fifth of July, 1899, to Miss Lillie Clara Armandary, a native of New Iberia, Louisiana. They have one son, S. T. Hogan, who is with his father in the printing business. The family reside at 404 Sul Ross Avenue. Mr. Hogan has been a Mason since 1907, member of Gray Lodge No. 329, Knights Templar, Com- mandery No. 2, Eighteenth Degree Scottish Rite and a member of Arabia Temple Shrine. He has been a Woodman of the World for the past twenty-seven years and is well known in fraternal organizations.

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OE D. HUGHES for many years has been a factor in the development of the various oil fields of Texas and adjoining States, on account of the important service he has rendered in building up one of the largest oil field teaming contracting businesses in the country, and since he came to Houston a number of years ago to establish his headquarters here, he has been held in high esteem for his co-operation with oil men here in the development of the Coastal fields. Mr. Hughes is the owner of the teaming contracting business operated under his name, as Joe D. Hughes, Teaming Contractor. This business was established during the early days of the Corsicana shallow oil boom in 1896, and has continued to grow and pros- per since that time, giving to the oil fields of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma a teaming con- tracting service at once large enough to care for all teaming demands without delay, and at the same time giving a personal service and understanding of oil field needs that has been no small factor in the success of the business. Mr. Hughes owns around six hundred head of stock, with adequate equipment to handle any size contract. A force of around three hundred employees, is also kept busy, the majority of these being experienced oil field men. Mr. Hughes handles all classes of oil field hauling and teaming work, and since establishing his busi- ness has done much of the pipe line work all over Texas. He has branch offices and equipment in all the fields of the State, and also in some of the fields of Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, the business he has established being the oldest oil field teaming contracting business in the oil fields of the South, and the largest teaming contracting business in the oil fields of the entire country. Mr. Hughes has had his headquarters at Houston for a number of years, directing his operations from here. He has his offices in the West Building, where all execu- tive matters are cared for.

To enumerate the list of jobs successfully handled by Mr. Hughes in the past thirty years would re- quire many pages, and would in fact read like a history of the oil development in the Southwest. The magnitude of the work of which he is capable and the facility in which he can complete a job is evi- denced by a contract recently completed. He had the contract to string the pipe from the Big Lake field in Reagan County to Houston, some six hundred miles. This required two hundred teams and thirty trucks and was completed in about 90 days. In 1924 he had the contract to string the pipe from Sour Lake to Lufkin, some one hundred and ten miles. He does work for the leading oil companies and has been on the payroll of the Gulf Company contin- uously since 1901. He has a small turnover in labor because he treats his men well, and because he con- ducts a boarding camp on all jobs and serves good meals.

Joe D. Hughes was born in Kentucky, the twenty- seventh of May, 1876, the son of R. E. Hughes, also a native of that State, who came to Texas in 1881 and began in the teaming contracting business, op- erating all over Texas and laying out townsites, handling railroad work, road work, and freighting. Later the elder Mr. Hughes came to Corsicana, when the first oil fields were discovered in Texas, and was active in oil field teaming contracting work. Joe D. Hughes was educated in the schools of Navarro

County, and as a boy began with his father in this business, they being the first men in Texas to en- gage in the oil field teaming contracting line. Since that time Mr. Hughes has operated in every field in the State, gradually adding to his equipment and extending his facilities. Mr. Hughes has managed this contracting business on an efficient and busi- ness like basis, and has not only become known as an expert in this line, but has established the reputa- tion of a business man of discernment and an execu- tive unusually equipped to handle men and large endeavors.

Joe D. Hughes was married at Corsicana, Texas, in September, 1899, to Miss Allee Maddox, a native of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have made their home in Houston since Mr. Hughes has transferred his headquarers here, and have found this as desir- able a residence city as it is a business center. While Mr. Hughes is not affiliated with clubs and lodges, finding the demands of his business too exacting, he takes a deep interest in all that concerns the welfare and advancement of Houston along com- mercial and industrial lines, and is in every way a public spirited citizen. He is generous in his con- tributions to various philanthropic causes, and is one of those men whose support can be counted upon when the future of Houston is at stake.

AMES A. FOLEY, pioneer merchant and citizen of Houston, has contributed much to the making of this city a commercial cen- ter. During his active career he was identi- fied with several of the leading retail stores of this city.

Mr. Foley was born in Ireland, in 1873, but his education was obtained mostly in the public schools of Houston. He was brought to the United States when eleven years of age, by his uncle, William L. Foley, the pioneer merchant of Houston. He began work in his uncle's store as a cash boy, and served in almost every capacity in the store up to the posi- tion of manager of the men's department. In 1900, he left the store of his uncle, and with his brother, Pat C. Foley, opened the department store known as Foley Brothers, which business they continued until 1917, when they sold this establishment to Robert I. Cohen, expecting to retire from active business pursuits. After spending one year at Min- eral Wells and regaining his health, Mr. Foley again entered the business world, associated with his son, Thomas C., and opened a men's furnishings store in the Rice Hotel building. This store he conducted for several years. Since retiring from this business he has not engaged in active pursuits.

Mr. Foley was married, in Houston, in 1898, to Miss Carrie Clay, a native Houstonian, and a daugh- ter of Adam Clay, a pioneer dry goods merchant and early settler of Houston. They have four chil- dren, Thomas C., Albert, Carrie Mae and James A., Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Foley reside at 4102 Caroline Street. Mr. Foley is one of the founders of the Knights of Columbus Lodge of Houston, and it was through his untiring efforts that the lodge was lo- cated in Houston. Mr. Foley is also a member of the B. P. O. E. and the Houston Country Club. Character, perseverance, foresight and the willing- ness to meet any emergency requiring service, with- out regard to profit, have been dominant factors in the success achieved by Mr. Foley in Houston, where he is regarded as one of the city's most progressive and public-spirited citizens.

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G. BURCHFIELD is one of those real estate men of purpose who take the lead in civic development and since establishing his business headquarters at Houston in 1906 has given special attention to deals involving a large amount of capital and the development and sale of industrial property. Mr. Burchfield is a member of the firm of W. G. Burchfield and Brother, a partnership composed of himself and his brother, R. O. Burchfield, and maintaining offices in the Kress Building. Mr. Burchfield is especially in- terested in industrial sites in the channel district, and has correctly mapped out this property, keeping in close touch with the developments of the various interests here and the activities of the Chamber of Commerce, the Harbor Board and other organiza- tions taking active part in the development of the district. He is familiar with all facts concerning this area. The map of this area prepared in Mr. Burchfield's office is accepted as standard.

Mr. Burchfield came to Houston from Galveston in 1906, the following year going into the real estate business. In that year he sold to J. R. Cheek the Magnolia Park property, his first deal of impor- tance, and the forerunner of many such transactions. He also sold to Mr. Cheek the Manchester property, where the flour mills and cement plant are now lo- cated. In 1909 he sold to the city of Houston the first unit of the city wharf property and in 1908 and 1909 he sold forty acres to the Houston Belt and Terminal Railroad, of which R. H. Baker was then president, and forty acres to the city of Houston for new units to the city wharf. In 1912 he developed and sold the townsite property adjoining the Fidel- ity Chemical Plants, an addition known as the Fidel- ity Subdivision. Two years later, in 1914, he took charge of the development of the Port Houston and Clinton townsites, adjoining the Southern Pacific property, placing these two additions on the market. In 1916 he sold the Hoffman site, that is now occu- pied by the Houston Terminal Oil Refinery, owned by Robert R. Kelly, at Port Houston. During the four years following he was involved in a number of important transactions, but due to the interven- tion of the war was not actively developing indus- trial property. In 1920 he organized the Universal Land Company, buying five hundred and thirty- eight acres of land, eighty acres of which had water frontage, and assisted in building up this addition, known as Universal City. With Keen and Woolf he got together the land for the Light and Power Com- pany improvements in the channel, an area of one hundred and fifty-three acres, with eight hundred feet of water frontage.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 98

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