The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 100

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau
Number of Pages: 1204

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Bowie and was commissioned Captain. He was pro- moted to the rank of Major in March of 1919 and discharged in September of the same year. He can .. direct to Wichita Falls, December 10, 1919, as dis- trict representative of the White Oil Company of New York City.

In 1901, at St. Louis, Mr. Fuller married Miss Ber- tha Wickenden of that city. They now have residence at the Brook Manor, Wichita Falls. Mr. Fuller is a Mason, a Shriner of the Maskat Temple, a W. O. W .. a director of the Wichita Club and of the Chamber of Commerce. His church affiliation is Episcopal.

As a man of keen business judgment which the Government saw fit to use as finance officer for Canıp Bowie, expending $22,000,000.00 in that capac- ity, and in the disposal of the immense post-war salvaging, as one celebrated for his dispatch-as transportation agent for the 36th Division he secured the best record for quickness of moves of any other transportation agent in the U. S., as representative for a strong and able oil corporation in the capacity of district representative, Mr. Fuller will do his share in the oil industry of Texas, and that share is a large one.

B. CORLETT, First National Bank Build- ing, Wichita Falls, as manager of the Land and Leasing Department of the North Texas district of the Texas Company, is directing one of the most vital divisions of oil activity of one of the most able companies in the Lone Star State. His work is foundation work; before any wells can be brought in, oil territory must be brought into the possession of a developer, either by ownership or by lease. By his work he de- termines the where of all activities for the future of his company, and thus has in a very large sense its success in his direction. Though it is the be- ginning work, the success of his department is es- sential to success in every phase of activity that follows. For such a position, Mr. Corlett is well fitted, experienced for years in the business, and he is one of the most active and successful men operat- ing in his line in his part of the state.

Mr. Corlett was born at Farmersburg, in Clayton County, Iowa, on November 23, 1861. His parents were John E. and Catherine Crawford Corlett. They came to the state of Iowa from New York state. Iowa public schools provided W. B. Corlett's educa- tion. He first engaged in farming and stock raising, even before coming to Texas. In 1895 he yielded to the call of the Lone Star State and located in Clay County, north of Henrietta, where he pursued the business of farming and stock raising. In 1905 he went into the real estate business in Henrietta; in 1907 he began the oil business with the Corsicana Petroleum Company, with which he remained for two years. In 1909 he became affiliated with the Producers' Oil Company which later was merged with the Texas Company. With the Texas Company he started in the land department and located in Henrietta as lease man, under Frank Cullinan, and since 1915 he has had charge of the land department of his company on everything north of Waco. More recently he has been directing only the North Texas division.

On December 3, 1885, Mr. Corlett married Miss Idella Carty, of Iowa. They have four children: Williard Irving Corlett is located at Minneapolis, Florence Jeanette is now Mrs. T. C. Moss, of Dallas; Ross Harold is in the oil business at Wichita Falls,

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while Mattie Ruth is still at home. The family residence is at 1316 Ninth Street.

Mr. Corlett is a Shriner and a Knight Templar; he is a member of the K. of P., of the W. O. W. and of the Elks, and of the Wichita Country Club as well. His church affiliation is Methodist. As a man whose work is one of the most important in oil development, Mr. Corlett is playing an import- ant part.

ENRY FORD, oil operator and president of the Henry Ford Oil Company, is active in Wichita County fields as well as in other oil centers. While oil was discovered in the territory of Wichita Falls years back, yet it was not until a few years ago that the present era of big development and immense fortunes began. It is in the heart of just this territory that the Henry Ford Oil Company has its holdings and is making its developments. The company operates principally in the Northwest Territory of Burkburnett, and in one Texhoma field. Mr. Ford also has valuable hold- ings in Mexia.

Mr. Ford was born at Bowie, Texas, on April 9, 1881. His parents are Griffin Ford, county judge of Montague County from 1888 to 1890, and Fannie Dawson Ford. The Bowie public school system gave Mr. Ford his education and for his business career he started in the real estate and loan business at Sayre, Oklahoma, where he continued for sixteen years. In 1919 he camnc to Wichita Falls where he organized the company he now directs as presi- dent and began operating in oil.

In 1900, at his home town, Mr. Ford married Miss Ada Huff, a Bowie girl. They have two children, Henry E., who is associated with the Security Na- tional Bank at Wichita Falls, and Ruby Pearl. Mr. Ford belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and by church affiliation he is a Baptist.

AMES L. McCONKEY is an honored and reputed citizen of Wichita Falls, having been identified with many of the leading financial and business institutions of that city for many years.

Mr. McConkey was born at Hartville, Missouri, on June 8, 1866. His parents were Sidney Edward McConkey and Sarah C. Black McConkey. Missouri gave the youth his education. In 1888, appreciating the advantages offered by the Lone Star State, he came to Fort Worth. For two years he kept books for the D. J. Calkins Grain House. He then bought a farm and for the next twenty years he farmed in Holiday Valley, above Lake Wichita. For ten years he threshed grain on the present site of Lake Wichita. He and Mr. Ford introduced the first steam thresher into Archer County. About 1910 he moved into Wichita Falls, retained his farm and stock ranch and bought and sold cattle. Four years later the Farmers' Cotton Oil Company organized and Mr. McConkey became its president. He has been a leader in various business interests of the city. He was an originator and is a director of the Wichita State Bank & Trust Company; he is vice-president and a director of the MeClendon Oil Company; he is secretary-treasurer and a director of the Ford-Mc- Conkey Oil Company.

In 1894, in Archer County, Miss Anna Nail, of Arkansas, became the bride of Mr. McConkey. Mabel, deceased at the age of thirteen, and Homer now twenty years of age, are their two children. The family residence is at 1512 Thirteenth Street.

Mr. McConkey is vice-president of the State Farmers' Union and chairman of the Board of Farm- ers' Exchange, located at Houston. He is a W. O. W. and a Presbyterian. He is a leader and in a large way spokesman for one of the big industries of his section, the agricultural .interests.

EORGE DASHNER, secretary and general manager of the Wichita Falls Cotton Oil Company, Inc., Wichita Falls, is one of the directing officials of one of the best gin and cotton oil concerns that has plants throughout northwestern Texas and compares favorably with any like organization in the state. Associated with Mr. Dashner in official capacity are Frank Kell, president, and J. Perry Burris, vice-president. The organization has twelve gins with a daily capacity of forty bales each that well take care of the terri- tory inscribed by a radius of sixty miles around Wichita Falls. in every way; the plant at Wichita Falls cover a half block, has a ginning capacity of forty bales a day and a mill capacity of eighty tons a day. Forty employees are with the Wichita estab- lishment, seventy-five with the other twelve plants over the country. 7,700 bales of cotton were ginned in 1919, while the total of 1920 reached 10,000.

Mr. Dashner was born in Choctaw County, Missis- sippi, 1869. - His father, G. H. Dashner, is a retired farmer, age eighty-two, living at Dallas; he came to Texas in 1876. The public schools of Hunt County gave Mr. Dashner his education and he then started his business career as a bookkeeper in a cotton oil establishment at Wolfe City, Texas. Here he served until 1903 when he went to Ardmore, Okla., in the same business, and later to Chickasha of the same state. From this location he was called to his present work as secretary and general manager of. the Wichita Falls Cotton Oil Company in September, 1919. The Wichita firm was established in 1907 by other than its directors and owners of today; it took on its present personnel of directors and own- ers in 1919.

In 1893, in Hunt County, Mr. Dashner married Miss Lucy Benge, a native of Hunt County. Her father, R. P. Benge, a farmer, is deceased. They have four children: Miss Nellie, one of the best high school teachers in the state, in the Wichita high school faculty, Mrs. Lucile (Dashner) Heffner, whose husband is of the U. S. Army as first lieu- tenant. George, Jr., and his sister, Miss Frances, both in school. The Dashner residence is at 1808 Huff Avenue. Mr. Dashner is a Royal Arch Mason of Wolfe City, and a member of the Elks at Wichita Falls; his church affiliation is Presbyterian.

Wichita Falls has one of the greatest agricultural territories to back her that any city of the South enjoys. For Mr. Dashner and his interest there is an immense future and a great service will be rendered by them to their part of the state.

B ERT BRODAY, Bob Waggoner Building, Wichita Falls, manager of the Wichita de- partment of the Humble Oil & Refining Company, as one who has been in the oil business for twenty years and learned every detail of it by personal experience from tool dressing on up to the management of big interests, is one of the leading managers in an immense Texas industry today.

Mr. Broday is a native of Ohio and began the oil business in that state. In 1900 he went West and worked in the oil fields of Kansas, Oklahoma and

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Texas, back and forth. In 1912, he located at Wichita Falls and began operating independently. In January of 1917 he became associated with the Humble Oil & Refining Company whose interests he now directs in one of the most prolific oil terri- tories of the country.

Mr. Broday is a Mason, a Shriner of the Maskat Temple.

M. GRISWOLD, City National Bank Build- ings, Wichita Falls, president of the Gris- wold Oil Company, through his company owns over fifty producing wells and a num- ber of rigs and one spudder. The company has several hundred acres of leases proven and semi-proven leases in the Wichita County Fields. Several wells are being put down at the present Associated with Mr. Griswold as officials of the company are Eugene Christian of New York, vice president, and Eugene F. Griswold, secretary, treasurer and field manager.

The company has recently developed an area known as the Burnett Loyd lease 31/2 miles Southeast of Electra in which they have brought in 5 big wells ranging from 300 to 600 barrels daily. There are eight proven sands on four of which they have pro- ducing wells.

Mr. Griswold was born in Tennessee, at McMinn- ville, on October 27, 1866. His parents were Norman W. Griswold and Eliza (Smallman) Griswold. Ten- nessee public schools gave him his education. He began his business career in that state as a traveling salesman. Later he took up the hotel business, and in 1906, appreciating the advantage offered by the Lone Star State, he came to Texas in 1906 and en- tered the hotel business here. In Weatherford and Mineral Wells he owned hotels. In 1910, he gave these up in order to locate at San Antonio, Texas, as State Agent of the Merchants Life Insurance Com- pany. Later he moved to Waco, still as State Man- ager of the company he had started with at San Antonio, but in the fall of 1915 this company failed to come up with its contract with Mr. Griswold, he resigned, sued them for breach of contract and se- cured judgment for $25,000. It was then, in 1916, that he came to Wichita Falls and began operating in oil.

In 1886, at MeMinnville, Tenn., Mr. Griswold mar- ried Miss Allene Faulkner, daughter of a prominent cotton mill man of that state. This was the climax of a romance that began in publie school days. They have one son-Eugene F., secretary, treasurer and field manager of the Griswold Oil Company. The family residence is at 1722 Huff Avenue.

Mr. Griswold is a Mason, a member of the Wichita Club, the University Club and of the Christian church. Operating in one of the surest oil fields of Texas with over fifty wells already to the credit of his management and with new ones arriving, Mr. Griswold is one of the successful oil men of Texas.

L. RAHL, independent oil producer, 712 City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, has not been engaged in the oil business for as long a period as some other of the well known oil men of West Texas, but it is doubtful if anyone has had a more varied experience in the in- dustry than he has. He has run pumps, worked as tool dresser and driller, scout, and, in fact, in every field capacity known to the oil fraternity. And in each of these positions he made good, satisfying his employers and his own conscience which always de-

manded that he give a full measure of service for each day's pay received.

When Mr. Rahl determined to enter the oil business on his own account, he brought to his operations a fund of experience that has proven more valuable perhaps than a large financial capital. His intimate knowledge of all details of field work has enabled him to grasp many opportunities that might not have been apparent to a man not thoroughly experienced in such matters. He now has a good deal of valuable production, some in Block 96 of the Burkburnett pool and also in the Duncan, Oklahoma, field. His first experience in the oil game was in the Ramming field. He later went to Ranger and Eastland and then to Wichita Falls.

Mr. Rahl is a native of Texas and was born in Bosque county in 1886. He is a son of J. E. and Fannie (Wright) Rahl. His father was for many years a well known merchant of Bosque county and is now deceased. His mother was a native of Tennessee and came to Texas when a young girl.

After receiving his education in the public and private schools Mr. Rahl began his life's work in the cattle business in Bosque and Hamilton counties, later going to Arizona where he engaged in mining for five years. He then entered the oil business and has been especially successful.

Mr. Rahl is interested in various properties and with J. W. Farabee owns the Wichita Theatre, the leading show house of this section of Texas.

In 1912 Mr. Rahl was married in Wichita Falls to Miss Della Oaks, a native of Missouri. They have one daughter, Olive Jane. Their home is at 2014 Elizabeth street.

Mr. Rahl is a thirty-second degree Mason, a mem- ber of Maskat Temple and of the Scottish Rite bodies and the Elks. He is active in various civic enter- prises and an earnest and consistent booster for Wichita Falls.

EACH A. LASELLE, member of the firm of Carter, Nance and Laselle, independent oil operators, room one of the Jones-Kennedy Building, 619 Seventh Street, came to Wichita Falls in August, 1918, and has been an active figure in the oil development of this section since that time. His firm has drilled three success- ful producers at Burkburnett and is extensively in- terested in various properties in other fields of North and Central West Texas. Across the river in Okla- homa they have 2,500 acres and two hundred acres are held under lease in Wichita County. At Presidio in very promising territory they have a total of thirty thousand acres under lease.

Mr. Laselle is personally interested in the Na- tional Oil and Gas Company and is president of the Burkburnett General Oil Company, an organization dealing in production, leases and various other phases of the oil industry. Each of the companies has been a success.

Prior to engaging in the oil business, Mr. Laselle was an active mining engineer for fifteen years, operating in Wyoming, California, Washington and British Columbia. He owns the China Creek Hy- draulic Mining Company and the Nugget Gulch Min- ing Company but has closed down both properties on account of the shortage and high price of labor. He expects to complete the development of both as soon as conditions have returned to normal.

On April 11, 1907, Mr. Laselle was married in New York City to Miss Theodore Evelyn Mason.

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member of a well known Connecticut family. They tave one son, Beach A., Jr.

Mr. Laselle is a native of Vermont and was eorn at St. Albans, July 11, 1870, a son of Arthur Laselle. He was educated in the public schools and the St. Albans high school.

A man of keen and discriminating judgment, Mr. LaSelle sees a bright future for the oil industry in Texas and expects to see Wichita Falls continue the ·markable growth of the past three years.

Mr. Laselle is a member of the American Insti- tute of Mining Engineers and the Camp Fire Club of America.

DWARD D. DAVENPORT, City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, oil operator, president and manager of the Inter-Ocean Oil Company, trustee of the Buckeye Petrol- om Company, also of the Southwestern Petroleum Company and is right at the center of the immense activities that have come to Wichita Falls and the West in its new era of prosperity and gigantie growth.

Mr. Davenport comes from Oregon originally. He was born at La Grande of that state, on April 29, 1880. His parents were Daniel Davenport and Abigail Dunton Davenport. The youth was educated first in the public schools of his state and then in the University of Oregon. He began his business career by becoming attached to a manufacturing concern after his university training, in Portland, and worked at this business for four years. In 1904 he began the oil business at Batson, Texas. He was there for two years, then in 1906 went to Kansas City where he continued the oil business. In 1918 he came to Wichita Falls.

At Kansas City, in 1909, Mr. Davenport married Miss June Norman of that city. Her father, Joseph L. Norman, was a leader in that city and has served as president of the Kansas City Board of Education for the last fifteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport have residence at 1715 Eighth Street. He is a member of the Kansas City Athletic Club, of the Wichita Club, the Wichita Golf Club and Glen Garden Club of Fort Worth. His church affiliation is Presbyterian.

With a big and strong company that already has brought in and owns a number of producing wells, and with hundreds of acres of proven land awaiting their continued development, Mr. Davenport will be one of the leaders in the Texas oil world for Svars to come.

1. 1 B ERNARD HOSKINS, Wichita Falls, secre- tary-treasurer of the Red Burk Oil Com- pany, brought in the first oil well the state of Wyoming ever had and is now among the most aggressive developers of the new fields of Texas. But Mr. Hoskins is a man of big business in other realms; he has served for years with The Globe and The Post of Washington, D. C., was for some time with the Guggenheim Syndicate, with headquarters at the American capital and at Paris, France, at which latter place he interested foreign capital in Wyoming as an oil field-though at that time there was not an oil well in that state-organ- zed the Franco-Wyoming Oil Company. drilled the discovery well on Salt Creek which started the state of Wyoming in the oil business. Associated with Mr. Hoskins in official capacity is E. M. Jarrett, president of the Red Burk Oil Company. This or-

ganization is operating principally in the Temple- White field, Wichita County, Texas, and in some of the Oklahoma fields. The Beggs field has also witnessed their activity and from the three scenes of their activity they receive a splendid production which is increasing daily as they continue their operation on leases held. The company was organ- ized in May of 1918.

Mr. Hoskins is a native of Massachusetts, having been born at Boston, March 19, 1885. His father, M. B. Hoskins, was active in the manufacturing business of that state, his mother was Alberta (Curtis) Hoskins. The schools of Boston, including Boston College, gave the youth his education. He began newspaper work in which he has been emi- nently successful as noted above and which, indi- rectly, led into the oil business as it was as a result of his French newspaper work that the Wyoming initial well was brought in by Mr. Hoskins. From that day he has been at the forefront among de- velopers in this industry.

In 1911, at Washington, D. C., Miss Helen Perman became the bride of Mr. Hoskins. They have a daughter, Dorothy, and the family residence is at 1404 Kemp Boulevard.

Mr. Hoskins' war service was with the aviation service of America, in which he was a first lieutenant in command of the 83rd Squadron, he was stationed at Fort Meyer, Camp Mead, Camp Custer, Camp Lewis and at the Vancouver Barracks. He was with the Forest Division of the air service in the Wash- ington and Oregon woods, cutting spruce for air- planes. It was from this service that he received his discharge at the end of the war.

Mr. Hoskins is of the younger generation who have already arrived to a place with the older men of business because of unusual leadership, ability and success. He and his interests, already having achieved much in the oil world, will be heard from as leaders in the generation to come.

UDGE SAMUEL J. BARNETT, newspaper- man and Judge, has had a place among the most enterprising citizens of Dallas, his adopted city, since 1895. For more than a decade connected with the great Dallas News enter- prise and for the last sixteen years active in legal service as county clerk and judge, he is known and esteemed by a host of friends.

Mr. Barnett is a native of Georgia. He was born in the city of Dalton, on May 24, 1878. His father is James Barnett, his mother Mary (Edmondson) Barnett, both living. In 1888 the family answered the call of the Lone Star State and located in Dallas where they have since resided. Accordingly, young Barnett was educated in the school system of Dallas. He then entered the employ of The Dallas News where for eleven years he was one of the most active men of the Circulation Department. In 1906 he an- nounced himself candidate for County Clerk for Dallas County and he was elected. For eight years he served the public in this capacity efficiently. In 1914. he was candidate for the judgeship of precinct one and he was elected. He has been re-elected three times and is candidate for the fourth term. His ability, his experience, his sympathy and under- standing are appreciated by his acquaintances and by those who meet him in his professional career.

On June the 12th, 1919, romance prevailed and Miss Vernon Mckinstrey became the wife of Judge Barnett.

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E D PETERSON, general superintendent in Texas for the Kansas and Gulf Oil Com- pany, with headquarters at Wichita Falls and Burkburnett, began his oil career in Pennsylvania in 1891 with the Union Oil Company with which he was identified for five years. In 1893 he went to the Ohio fields where he was with the Ohio Oil Company until 1897. He went to the West Virginia fields for a year and then returned to Ohio and came to Texas following the opening of the famous Spindletop field in 1902, becoming asso- ciated with Bill Meadows, John O'Neil and other old timers well known to the oil fraternity of the early days. He operated extensively in the coastal fields, drilling a number of wells at Humble and Goose Creek. He spent a year in the Mexican fields where he served as superintendent of different companies. Mr. Peterson was born at Triumph Hill, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the oil fields, on March 29, 1875, a son of Charles and Mary Peterson. His father was a well known Pennsylvania oil man and the younger Peterson grew up in an atmosphere redolent of the oil industry. He was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania and early in life became engaged in the oil business,

In 1908 he was married at Houston to Miss Ida Belle Kane. They have two children, Harriet and Edward, Jr.

Mr. Peterson is a 32d degree Mason, Consistory No. 2, Dallas, and a Shriner of Maskat Temple, Wichita Falls, holding a life membership in each. Mr. Peterson has been Texas superintendent for the Kansas and Gulf for four years, coming to Wichita Falls to assume his present position in 1918. Mr. Peterson is thoroughly eficient in handling standard as well as rotary tools and probably one of the best informed men in the Mid-Continent fields in both drilling and production.

OHN ONEIL, oil operator, American Na- tional Bank Building, Wichita Falls, multi- millionaire, is a pioneer in the oil business. There is not a Texas oil field today but has known Mr. Oneil's development and in each of them he has met with the biggest type of success. Operat- ing alone or with his brother, H. A. Oneil, at Burk- burnett, as Oneil & Oneil, he has brought in wells in the northwest fields, in Blocks Nos. 74. 75, 96 and 97, and the townsite at Burkburnett, also in Electra, Goose Creek, Sour Lake, Humble and Beaumont, Texas, and in the Glen pool in Oklahoma: He has an interest in a large number of producing wells and an extensive area of leases.

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 100

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau Number of Pages: 1204

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau
Number of Pages: 1204