New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 2, Part 96

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1262

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Mr. Babin was married at Beaumont, in 1892, to Miss Lucy Alice Holst, daughter of Oscar Holst, a general merchant of this city. They make their home at 1053 Sabine Pass Avenue. Mr. Babin is a member of the Rotary Club, the Beaumont Club, Country Club and fraternally is a Red Man, and a Knight of Columbus. As a citizen Mr. Babin has given his attention to the highest development of his community, particularly to those things that have to do with the upbuilding and beautification of Beaumont, and few men have done more in this line than he.

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MEN OF TEXAS

DWARD E. EASTHAM, for upwards of three decades one of the leading plumbing and heating contractors of Beaumont, is a business man of sound and constructive policies, and has done much for the industrial and civic advancement of the city. He operates his large plumbing and heating contracting business under his own name and his office display and stock rooms at 356 Fannin Street is housed in a building owned by him. His stock is one of the largest in the city, and is complete in every detail. Mr. Eastham finds his display rooms of distinct advantage, enabling his customers to make selections with greater ease. His business was established in 1894, since which time it has met with a continued growth, and it is the largest in the city. A general plumbing and heating contract business is handled, with special attention to the larger installations. His business is well organized and has none of the haphazard methods that have undermined many plumbing busi- nesses. In Beaumont he has been a leader in the work of educating the public to a proper realiza- tion of the importance of correct plumbing, and its relations to public health, and his work in this field has been far reaching. He makes of plumbing an exact science, and is well qualified to speak with authority on any questions concerning plumbing and heating problems and installations. While a large part of the business handled by Mr. Eastham is in Beaumont, he does not limit his territory to this city and has executed many important outside con- tracts. Among the important installations he has re- cently completed are the plumbing and heating in the Hotel Beaumont, the San Jacinto Life Building, the Steadman Fruit Company Building, where he also installed the refrigerating plant, the high school building at Orange, and others. He has also made the heating and plumbing installations in the schools and churches of Beaumont, and has for many years given special attention to this class of work.

Mr. Eastham was born at Mansfield, Louisiana, the fourteenth of August, 1871, the son of J. H. and Eliza Pergues Eastham. The family removed to Texas in 1874, going first to San Marcos and later coming to Beaumont, where the elder Mr. East- ham was a tinner and plumber for many years. He also served as mayor of Beaumont, from 1896 to 1902, administering the municipal affairs with a characteristic energy and making many improve- ments of a public nature. As a boy, Edward E. East- ham attended the public schools of San Marcos, Texas, and after leaving school went with his father, learning the plumbing and tinning craft under him. When the elder Mr. Eastham retired, in 1894, he took over the business, and has since operated it.

Mr. Eastham was married at Beaumont, in 1904, to Miss Lillie Moore, a native of Dallas. Mr. and Mrs. Eastham live at 1910 Park Avenue, where they have a very attractive home, and are the par- ents of one child, Mrs. Gertrude Adkisson. Mr. East- ham is a member of the Beaumont Club, and the Beaumont Country Club, and fraternally is an Elk, a Red Man and a Mason, York and Scottish Rites, and a member of El Mina Temple Shrine at Galves- ton. Mr. Eastham was for twenty-seven years chief of the Beaumont Fire Department and has been largely instrumental in the advancement of this de- partment. The first ten years that he served the

department was a volunteer department, but due to his untiring work for better fire protection, the de- partment was made a paid one, and a force of men maintained regularly. Since, he has been active in building up the force, and Beaumont can now point with pride to one of the best fire departments in the state. Mr. Eastham has also been active in various business enterprises, and is interested in a number of concerns here, and owns city property. He is vice president of the Neches Finance Corporation, a director of the Beaumont Brick Company and a director in the Hotel Beaumont Operating Company. He is one of the substantial residents of this city who have taken part in its upbuilding.

P. DECKER of Beaumont, Texas, has spent the entire business life in the various branches of the saw mill industry and allied lines. Mr. Decker is superintendent of the International Creosoting and Construction Company, which was established in this city in 1898, and has been enlarged several times in order to have room for the increasing business, until it is now one of the largest plants of its kind in the Southwest. The International Creosoting and Construction Company, which has its main office in Galveston, Texas, is for the treating of pine timber, such as telegraph and telephone poles, piling, bridge timbers and all classes of timber to be used on the outside or in ex- posed places. The plant covers nine acres of ground on the bayou, where they have a large waterfront and are wonderfully located for shipping. They also have a long railroad trackage, as their ground is long strips along the bayou. An average of fifty people are employed at the plant, and thousands of feet of timber are handled daily. Mr. Decker as a young man started his career in a saw mill at Car- son, Louisiana, where he remained until coming to Beaumont in 1913, where he entered the employ of the present company as checker in the yards, and during the following year was made superintendent of the large plant at Beaumont, Texas, which has continued to grow under his management until it is now known throughout the country to the people who use the products of such an industry.

Mr. Decker was born at Peoria, Illinois, on July 22nd, 1884. His parents were both natives of that state and well known in Peoria and vicinity, and highly esteemed. His education was obtained in the public schools of his native city.

Mr. Decker was married at Beaumont on May 21st, 1922, to Mrs. Fannie Ethel White Gaines, a native of Arkansas, but was brought to the Lone Star State by her parents as a child, and was reared and educated in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Decker reside at 1018 Liberty Street. Mr. Decker is a mem- ber of the Scottish Rite body of the Masonic order, and is a Shriner of El Mina Temple, Galveston, and is also a Knight Templar of the Beaumont Com- mandery. His affiliation with the A. F. and A. M. is with the Blue Lodge of Beaumont. He is a mem- ber of the Young Men's Business League of Beau- mont and is active in this organization. Mr. Decker is optomistic as to the future of Beaumont and Southeast Texas, and believes that this portion of the country is entering into an era of great busi- ness prosperity along all lines. He is an earnest worker for the advancement and progress of the city of his adoption, and is ambitious for his city and his company, and never loses an opportunity to speak

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NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

a good word in behalf of both. He has made a host of friends in this city, and is popular in both the business and social circles of Beaumont.

OHN DAVID BIRDWELL, well known lum- berman and business man, has been identi- fied with the commercial and manufacturing interests of Beaumont for the past fifteen years and is one of the best known citizens of this fast growing Southeast Texas city. Mr. Birdwell is secretary and treasurer of the Gulf Manufac- turing and Lumber Company, located at North and Gulf Streets, and was one of the organizers of the concern when the business was established in 1916. Other officers of the company at this time are W. M. Clapp, president, and H. B. Oxford, vice president.

Commencing in a modest way in 1916, the Gulf Manufacturing and Lumber Company in its eight years of existence has grown and expanded until it is today the largest concern of its kind in this portion of the state. It does a general wholesale and retail lumber business and has an exceptionally fine and modern, well equipped plant, prepared to handle the best grade of mill work. An extensive department is devoted to the manufacture of show cases and interior store fixtures. This plant fur- nished much of the interior work of the Hotel Beau- mont and the San Jacinto Life Insurance Company Building.

The plant is located on a tract of three acres lying along the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Rail- way and does an annual business running into mil- lions of board feet of lumber. A total of forty men are employed in the various departments and the annual payroll runs into many thousands of dollars.

A native of Texas, Mr. Birdwell was born in Nacogdoches County, on September 23, 1886, a son of J. P. and Cordelia Birdwell. His boyhood was spent on a farm and he attended the public and high shcools in Nacogdoches and later took a com- mercial course at a business college. He has work- ed in every branch of the lumber business and knows it from every angle. Before removing to Beaumont he had worked in saw mills and was thoroughly posted in the manufacture of lumber. This detailed knowledge of the business has proven invaluable in the development of the sales end.

In 1912 Mr. Birdwell was married at Beaumont to Miss Arthur McFarland, daughter of John Mc- Farland, well known Beaumont merchant and bus- iness man. Mr. and Mrs. Birdwell are the parents of three children-Mary Elizabeth, John David, Jr., and William Mack. The family home is at 2278 Liberty Street.

Besides his lumber business Mr. Birdwell is inter- ested in various other enterprises, including the Texas Laundry Company, of which he is vice pres- ident, and the Jefferson Drug Company, of which he is a director.

Mr. Birdwell takes an active interest in civic affairs and is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Rotary Club and the Round Table Club, of which he is president. He is a communicant of the First Methodist Church and a member of its board of stewards.

An active and energetic business man, Mr. Bird- well combines with executive ability a splendid per- sonality that has aided in no small degree in the development of his business.

S. REED, JR., president of the T. S. Reed Grocery Company, Main and Fannin Streets, is one of the best known of the younger business men of Beaumont and for many years has been an outstanding figure in the wholesale grocery business of Southeast Texas and Western Louisiana. He has been connected with the large wholesale grocery house established Jan- uary 1st, 1900, by his father, for nearly a quarter of a century, beginning his career with the opening of the business here on January 1, 1900.

From a modest beginning nearly twenty-five years ago the T. S. Reed Grocery Company has enjoyed a steady and substantial growth until today it is the oldest and largest concern of this kind in Beau- mont. Its large establishment at Main and Fannin Streets has sixty-five thousand square feet of floor space and ample switching facilities aid materially in the handling of both inbound and outbound freight.

A large cold storage plant is maintained and the company owns and operates its own coffee roasting plant. Besides staple groceries the company has a large business in fruits and produce.

The expansion of the company during the quarter of a century it has been in existence has necessitated the opening of branch houses at various places where stocks are concentrated for the purpose of affording faster and better service to the trade. Branches of the company are now maintained at Oakdale and DeRidder, Louisiana, and at Port Arthur, Nacog- doches, Jasper and Hemphill, Texas. It has a cap- ital and surplus of $1,000,000.00. T. N. Whitehurst is secretary and treasurer of the company.

RS. E. O. WEISSINGER for more than a decade has been one of the leading business women of Beaumont, and is one of the best known and most successful women florists in the Lone Star State. Mrs. Weissinger is the owner of the Beaumont Floral Company and Gift Shop, a business she established in this city in 1911, in a small way, and which she has developed along progressive lines, until it is a business of which Beaumont is justly proud. As a florist she has been successful. She has one of the largest green- houses in the city. Mrs. Weissinger cuts more than five thousand roses daily from her stock, and has more than half an acre under glass. She sells cut flowers, ferns and palms and caters to the highest class of trade. Since opening the downtown office, at 301 Orleans Street, Mrs. Weissinger has met the demand for gifts and novelties through the opening of a gift shop in connection with the floral busi- ness, and has one of the most expensive stocks of any gift shop in the state.

Mrs. Weissinger was born in Texas, daughter of Dr. James R. Oldham, one of the old and prom- inent residents of the state.

Mrs. Weissinger came to Beaumont in 1911 and began the growing of flowers in a small way, in a greenhouse at her home, where she has continued to reside. She has given horticulure her entire in- terest and has become one of the best known women in the state engaged in the floral business. Her suc- cess in this work has been entirely through her own efforts and her intense interest in her business, and Beaumont is justly proud of her achievement in the business world.

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MEN OF TEXAS

ENRY FRANK TRIPLETT has for around two decades held a place as one of the most prominent and successful educators at Beaumont, and is known and valued as an enthusiastic and progressive representative of the pedagogic profession in the Lone Star State. Mr. Triplett held the position of superintendent of the Beaumont public schools for a period of sixteen years, during that time building up a public school system that is recognized as one of the finest in the state, and stressing educational ideals that are the ripened result of many years spent in educational work. Since resigning as superintendent, Mr. Trip- lett has continued his interest in educational ad- vancement, serving as chairman of the County Board of School Trustees. He has also written a number of articles of educational and literary importance, a sociologie novel and a community civics. His new history of Texas is at once interesting as well as authoritative and is an important addition to his- torical documents concerning the state. While pri- marily an educator, Mr. Triplett has taken a deep interest in business activities in a general way, and is well informed along general business lines, show- ing in this field the same discrimination and ability that has marked his career as an educator. He owns much city property at Beaumont, and several thou- sand acres of land in this section of the state. Mr. Triplett has for many years taken a constructive interest in politics, and since his resignation as superintendent of the public schools at Beaumont, he has definitely turned his attention to this field of activity. The high esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens and his unusual qualifications for the office have recently resulted in his election to the state Senate from this district by a large vote, and he is dispatching the duties this office involves with the same enthusiasm and devotion to the best interests of his community that distinguished his eductional work. Just prior to his election to this of- fice, he figured as the candidate in the mayoralty race as the result of a situation unprecedented in the history of local politics.

Mr. Triplett was born in Lowden County, Vir- ginia, the fifth of January, 1854, the son of Thomas Mason Triplett, a farmer of that state and well known director of musical conventions, and Viana Reed (Silcott) Triplett. He received his early in- struction in the public schools of Virginia, and after completing his high school work entered the Mis- souri Teachers College, where he was a student for four years, taking the B. S. D. degree from that institution. He later took special work at the Uni- versity of Missouri and the Medical College of Il- linois, after which he went to Fort Worth Univer- sity where he took his master degree in science in 1903, having had the bachelor degree conferred on him in 1900. He then entered educational work, be- coming superintendent of the schools at Beaumont in 1903, and holding that position until 1919. He had previously, from 1893 until 1903, held the posi- tion of superintendent of the public schools of Ennis.

Mr. Triplett was married in Missouri, in 1882, to Miss Amanda Virginia Wheeler, daughter of John- son Wheeler, a farmer, stock raiser and land owner of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Triplett reside at 593 Pennsylvania Avenue, and have four children, Mrs. Lena Milam, Mrs. Marion Brock, Mrs. Ray C. Pin- ney, and Mason F. Triplett. The family attend the

Methodist Church, where Mr. Triplett has been on the board of stewards for many years. He is a direc- tor of the City National Bank and of the San Ja- cinto Life Insurance Company. He is prominently identified with Masonic work, and is a thirty-third degree Mason and Knight Templar and a member of El Mina Temple Shrine at Galveston. He is a mem- ber of the Lions Club, of which he is a past pres- ident, and is a member of the Texas State Teachers Association, of which he is a past president and has served for twelve years on the excutive board and also a member of the National Educators Associa- tion. His educational activities have brought him a recognition that is more than local, and his prestige in this field is a distinct asset to the city wherein he resides.

ARRISON W. POTTER, one of the honored pioneers of Jefferson County, and for more than half a century a resident of Beaumont, who has contributed constructively to every forward movement, has been particularly active in the development of the timber resources of this section and is one of the real pioneers in the lumber business in the Lone Star State. Mr. Potter came to Beaumont in 1860, a young man, bringing with him an enthusiastic outlook on life and an energy and business ability which resulted in a business success far above the average. In the then unde- veloped timber resources of Southeast Texas he saw the nucleus of a great industry and one which was materially to affect the prosperity of this sec- tion, and set to work to develop this resource, lay- ing the foundation of one of the largest lumber businesses of the early days. During the years which have followed he has watched the lumber industry develop, until the state produces more than a billion and a half feet of lumber annually, and has watched Beaumont develop with the industry until it has become one of the best known inland ports in the country through which a large part of the timber produced in the state passes. In all this development Mr. Potter has taken a prominent and interested part. While Beaumont has claimed him as a citizen the influence of his activities in the lumber industry has been felt throughout the timber belt of Southeast Texas, and he is generally regarded as one of the vanguard of sturdy pioneers, who have made the industry what it is today.

Harrison W. Potter is a native of New York State, born in Wayne County, the second day of December, 1836, the son of Woodruff Potter, a farmer and land owner of that state. Mr. Potter spent his boy- hood in Wayne County, on his father's farm, and attended the schools near his home. At the age of nineteen he left New York, going to Wisconsin in 1855, where he spent the next five years engaged in farming. In 1860 he became attracted to Texas, which at that time was making a wide appeal to the adventurous and ambitious young men of the nation, as a country which offered a great future. The result was that he came to Beaumont in the same year, and in partnership with Mark Wiess, established a saw mill here which they continued to operate until the Civil War intervened. In March, 1862, Mr. Potter enlisted in the Confederate Army, joining a company recruited in the southeast part of the state, and saw service until the close of the war, when he was discharged in 1865, ranking as corporal. He served in Captain Geo. W. O'Brien's

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NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

Company of Company E, 21st Texas Regiment. After the war he returned to Beaumont and shortly established, with his associates, the Reliance Lum- ber Company, which he operated until 1900, when he disposed of his lumber interests to William Wiess. The Reliance Lumber Company was established in a small way, and under the guidance of Mr. Potter kept pace with the development of Beaumont, until at the time of its sale it was one of the largest and best organized lumber businesses in this locality. Since 1900 Mr. Potter has not re-entered business in an active way, but has continued to take an interest in the development of Beaumont, and in activities of a civic nature.

On November 11, 1896, Mr. Potter was united in marriage with Miss Alice E. Cate, a native of Wis- consin. Both families of Mr. and Mrs. Potter date back in this country to 1630. Mrs. Potter is a mem- ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the First Methodist Church.

Mr. Potter makes his home at 958 Calder Avenue, which has for many years been the family home, and is an honored member of the Masonic lodge, and for years has served as a member of the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church. Al- though nearing his ninetieth birthday, he retains all his faculties, and is active as most men some twenty years his junior. He is one of the oldest residents of Beaumont and this city can boast no truer, more generous, citizen than this splendid man, who has given so generously of his time and means for the development of its resources. It is given to few men to live through and take part in more vital times in the life of a community, and he has accounted well for himself in the world, and his life is an inspiration to all who know him.

ANNING TILLERY, pioneer rice farmer of the Lone Star State, whose quarter of a century of progressive association with the development of this industry has done much to forward rice growing in the coastal district, has spent two decades in Jefferson County, and has been a resident of Beaumont for the greater part of this time, contributing to the advancement of this city. Mr. Tillery has one of the best improved rice farms in Jefferson County, owning one thousand acres of rice land, over six hundred acres of which is cul- tivated each year. He gives his exclusive attention to this crop, and is, without question, one of the most successful rice farmers in this part of the state. Mr. Tillery himself supervises all farming opera- tions, and with his expert knowledge of rice culture, his farm is one of the most carefully and scien- tifically managed in Jefferson County, and he is considered a real authority on all questions concern- ing the growing of this product.

Manning Tillery was born at Centerville, Mis- sissippi, the seventeenth of July, 1878, the son of D. W. and Martha Tillery. His father, for many years a druggist in Mississippi, died the twelfth of December, 1923, at the age of eighty-four years. Mr. Tillery was educated in the schools of his na- tive state, and after leaving school worked in a gen- eral mercantile store, and later in a drug store in that state. He came to Texas the seventeenth of December, 1899, locating first in Chambers County, where he engaged in rice farming for four years, after which he came to Jefferson County, continu-

ing as an exclusive rice farmer.

Mr. Tillery was married at Galveston, Texas, the sixteenth of December, 1903, to Miss Veda Davison, of Clinton, Missouri, and the daughter of W. M. Dav- ison, who now makes his home in California. Mr. and Mrs. Tillery have made their home in Beaumont for around a decade and a half residing at 2020 Franklin Street. They have five children, Manning Eugene, at Texas A. and M. College, Katherine, An- nette, Lillian and Margaret. Mr. Tillery is a mem- ber of the Beaumont Country Club and the Neches Club and is a director of the Texas National Bank. Thoroughly familiar with the most progressive agri- cultural methods, as applied to rice growing, Mr. Tillery has taken a leading part in the development of this industry, and is widely known for his activ- ities in this field.

EVI HOMER MABRY, business man and manufacturer, has been a resident of Beau- mont for more than two decades, having come to this city some twenty-four years ago when Beaumont was experiencing the first thrill of a real oil boom in Texas. After engag- ing in various lines of work for a number of years, Mabry brothers established the Mabry Manufactur- ing and Lumber Company some five years ago, and L. H. Mabry became vice president and general manager of the company. C. A. Mabry is presi- dent.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 2, Part 96

Author: Davis, Ellis A. Publication date: 1926 Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?] Number of Pages: 1262

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1262