The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 102

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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Mr. Read was born in North Carolina on March 26, 1882. His father, M. C. Read, was a Virginian. As the Read family moved to Florida while D. B. was still a boy, the public schools of that most southern state gave him his education. He then began an affiliation with construction work in which he attained high efficiency, himself building the larger type of office buildings, school houses and residences. After reaching success in this calling, he came to Texas to investigate the oil business. He chose Wichita Falls, in 1913, as the center of greatest oil activity for the future, after a careful study of all Texas oil fields. From that date he has resided there and been among the leading busi- ness men of that city. Mr. Read has had confi- dence in his city which is evidenced by his extensive investments in real estate.

In 1910, at Tampa, Florida, Mr. Read married Miss Mabel Jones; they have one child, Shelby, age ten, and the family residence is at 2010 Tenth Street. Mr. Read is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Central Presbyterian Church.

As one who in 1913 chose Wichita Falls as the leading Texas oil center for the future, Mr. Read showed rare foresight, and today every Texas city concedes that the claim to the future is unsurpassed as to Wichita Falls and equaled in forecast by an exceeding few. In this big future, Mr. Read will have an attractive part.

KARL SIMMONS was a native of Minne- sota. He was born at Red Wing. May 17th. 1883, a son of T. K. Simmons, well known banker of Red Wing. He was educated in the public schools of Minnesota but for the past sixteen years he has lived in various parts of the Southwest,

devoting his time principally to the oil industry in which he has achieved a marked degree of success. He has always worked as an independent operator and has never promoted or been connected with the formation of a speculative company.

On December 28, 1916, Mr. Simmons was married to Miss Blanch Kerr, daughter of Dr. N. C. Kerr, a well known Nebraska physician. They have one daughter, Katherine.

Believing implicity in the unlimited oil resources of Texas, Mr. Simmons expects to see the present development go forward and new fields opened as the enterprising pioneers of the oil industry back their faith with their money. Dallas he believes to be one of the finest cities in the country and an especially good place in which to live.

Mr. Simmons is a member of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association and actively interested in any movement for the betterment of the business at large and the stabilizing of values.

R. J. W. GREENWOOD, of Dallas, Fort Worth and Wichita Falls, is an extensive operator in seven of the richest oil fields of Texas, Northwest field, Texhoma, Iowa Park, K. M. A., Holliday, Range and Erath Counties and Mexia, resides in Dallas, has offices in Wichita Falls and Dallas, and has the further distinction of having his name inseparably interwoven with the life history of a Texas town, Memphis, which he helped organize and where he is founder of some of the city's leading institutions. He operates in the name of J. W. Greenwood and Company, of which he is president as well as president and vice-president of several other companies.

Tennessee is the native state of Dr. Greenwood, where he was born at Overland County in 1873, his father, J. Y. Greenwood, was a farmer. As the parents came to Texas while their son was very small, schools of the Lone Star State gave him his start in education, at Honey Grove, while the Uni- versity of Tennessee gave him his M. D. degree in 1903. Prior to this date the Indian Territory had been the place of his practice, but upon graduation he chiose Texas as his field, went to Panhandle City and Comanche for two years, and then to Memphis, Texas, where he continued for eleven years, helping to organize that thriving city of today. Four im- portant industries of that city owe their beginning to him: He organized the Light Company, the Ice Company, the Brick Yard and the Cotton Oil Mills. At Amarillo, Texas, he organized the Amarillo Life Insurance Company, of which he was made medical director. In 1917 he retired from his practice of medicine and moved to Dallas and began the oil business by buying and selling leases and making a close study of the business and of the oil fields. He was one of the founders of the Burk Pipe Line & Refining Co., of which he was elected president. He later resigned this position but he retains his inter- ests in the company. In addition to his oil interests which are attractive and his municipal projects at Memphis, he has extensive farms in Tarrant, Chil- dress and Hall Counties, and ranches in Hartely and Swisher Counties in the Panhandle where he raises stock, hogs, grain and cotton.

Dr. Greenwood married Miss Fannie Belle Hall, now deceased, they had one daughter, Cleo. Miss Couper Lewis Hudson, a native of Tennessee, became his second wife and they reside at 4526 Munger Avenue, Dallas, Texas.

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Dr. Greenwood is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner at the Hella Temple; he is also a member of the Wichita Club.

Wherever he has resided, he has eminently identi- fied himself with the civic life of the city and as a result he has a host of friends over Texas. He is a success, both as a professional and business man, , and is doing a large part in developing one of the great areas of the state.

Dr. Greenwood helped organize the American Home Life Insurance Company, Commonwealth Cas- ualty Co., and Bankers Trust Co., of Fort Worth. Was one of the promoters and helped organize the Amarillo Life Insurance Company, and East Texas Colonization Co., all of which time he was actively engaged in his profession, and was secretary of the executive committee of the State Tubercular Organi- zation. He was also delegate to the International Congress of Medicine at Washington, D. C., and one of a committee of those who went to New York to the Tubercular exhibit that was shown over Texas under the direction of the medical profession.

ACK PRICE, firm of Price and Miller, gen- eral insurance, Kahn Building, came to Wichita Falls and established the local agency in March, 1919. He does a general insurance business and specializes in oil properties in various sections of Texas. Eight of the strongest old line companies are represented by Mr. Price. Not only does his office write insurance but it renders fire protection and fire prevention to indi- viduals and municipalities. Five people are em- ployed in the Wichita Falls office.

Mr. Price is a native of Oakland, California, and was educated in the public and high schools. He began his business career in the insurance field in Oklahoma City in 1899 and was engaged in business there continuously until coming to Wichita Falls.

Mr. Price is a member of the Masonic lodge and is affiliated with Oklahoma City Blue Lodge No. 276, the Chamber of Commerce and the Golf Club. He is an enthusiastic booster for Wichita Falls, and de- clares it is the best city in the United States.

NO. R. MACHECHNEY, one of the well known insurance men of North and West Texas, a year ago formed the firm of Machechney, Maples & Cooper, taking into partnership A. B. Maples and G. W. Cooper, two other well known insurance men, and the firm in a short time has attained a leading position among the insurance organizations of this section, main- taining offices at 823-25 Commerce Building. The firm handles all lines of the Aetna Insurance Com- pany and covers all of Northwest Texas in its terri- tory with numerous sub-agents located at all im- portant points.

A. B. Maples is also a native of Texas and was born in Bell County in 1876, a son of J. E. Maples, a native of Mississippi and now a resident of Little River, Texas. He was educated in the public schools and the Belton Male Academy at Belton and taught school for a while before entering the service of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. He was in the service of the railway company in various im- portant capacities from 1900 until December 1, 1918. He is a man of progressive business ideals, interested in civic affairs and a staunch booster for Wichita Falls. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Ad League and is a member of the Traffic Com- mittee of the Chamber of Commerce.

In 1903 Mr. Maples was married at Waco to Miss Ida Trice, daughter of G. R. Trice. They have two children, Ridley Carter, seventeen, and Mary Nekayah, five.

G. W. Cooper was born at Catoosa, Catoosa Co. Georgia, in 1886, a son of C. A. Cooper. He was educated in the public schools and attended Pied- mont College where he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He taught school for a year and then for seven years was connected with the Saint Louis & San Francisco Railway. He then was traveling auditor for the Aetna Insurance Company for three years and came to Wichita Falls in 1920, selecting this location because he believed it the best in the entire Southwest.

Mr. Cooper was married at Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1919 to Miss Dora Kline, daughter of C. P. Kline, well known resident of Tulsa. Mr. Cooper is active- ly interested in civic affairs and predicts a wonder- ful future for Wichita Falls.

OHN J. SALLASKA, formerly president of the Big Square Oil Company until the date of its recent sale, is one of the most active oil men in four districts-the Northwest . Extension, Block 77 and Block 88 and Oklahoma fields. Mr. Sallaska is a man that has brought in a handsome production and on the extensive leases he holds he will be busy as an operator for some time to come, with 625 Commerce Building, Wichita Falls, as his headquarters.

Mr. Sallaska is a native Russian and was born in that mighty country which is the giant of today, on September 16, 1878. He, however, heard the call of America as have so many from his country and his life here has been connected with the three states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Today, after com- pleting the public schools of this country in each of the three named states, and as a man trained in American business, Mr. Sallaska is a thoroughbred American. As a farmer, a merchant and an oil operator, he has been busy. Farming was the ex- perience in his earlier days; for eighteen years he was in the hardware business in Oklahoma; today he has been making good as an organizer of busi- company, and one of the active men in Texas' big new industry. He is president of the Burkburnett Oil & Gas Co. and of the Parker Oil & Refining Company he is a vice-president.

Mr. Machechney, senior member of the firm, was born at San Augustine, Texas, in 1865, a son of . ness projects, the president of more than one oil John and Elizabeth (Scurlock) Machechney. He re- ceived his educational training in the public schools of his home town and has spent a life time in the insurance business, being located at Abilene for 23 years before removing to Wichita Falls. Ile regards After a few years' residence in America, at Weatherford, Oklahoma, Miss Lizzie Fost became the bride of Mr. Sallaska. Their residence today is at Corn, Oklahoma. This happy marriage is but another proof of the genuineness of American . democracy as actually held in practice by her native- born. Wichita Falls as the best town in the world and de- clares that its industrial and commercial development has just begun. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a charter mem- ber of the Woodmen of the World, Abilene Camp 136.

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The Northwest field, the scene of Mr. Sallaska's largest activities, is one of the richest oil terri- tories of the United States While Texas has had for years an oil production to her credit, it was not until the discovery of the oil strata of western and northwestern Texas that the Lone Star State began to rank with the foremost in oil output. The im- mense development of this district is for the future -it is only beginning now and as the years come Mr. Sallaska will be an active developer of this territory. He is the type of citizen that America prides in-people of right ideals who deliver the goods.

ILLIAM HOLDEN, capitalist and independ- ent oil operator, with extensive holdings in Wichita County and other portions of the Mid-Continent field. has achieved an en- viable position and become a commanding figure in the oil industry since coming to Wichita Falls in March, 1919. In the two years he has operated in this section, he has accumulated holdings aggregat- ing more than a thousand acres in Wichita County alone and has been remarkably successful in the operation of his properties, owning valuable prop- erties in the Electra, Burkburnett, Northwest Ex- tension, K. M. A. and Duncan fields. Mr. Holden operates alone, owning and developing all his prop- terties individually. He has followed this same plan in his mining operations which have been very extensive in California, Arizona and in British Columbia. He is now developing some valuable iron properties in British Columbia.

A native of Canada, Mr. Holden was born in Ontario, February 7, 1872, a son of Sylvester and Magdalena Holden. He was educated in the public schools of Ontario and in the university of experi- ence and early in life engaged in business for him- self. He went to British Columbia in 1891 and after four years returned to Ontario where he was engaged in the wholesale and retail business until 1897 when he again removed to British Columbia. At this time he engaged in the financial brokerage business and amassed a considerable fortune, de- veloping the largest brokerage establishment in Canada. Retiring from active participation in the business in 1910. Mr. Holden traveled for eight years, covering all of the United States and the greater portion of Europe. His fortune has been invested in business property and in ranches, timber- lands, mining and oil properties.

Probably no man has done more for the upbuild- ing of Vancouver than has Mr. Holden, and in the history and records of British Columbia and Van- couver he is referred to as one of the principal builders. He built the Holden building, a modern office building comprising 200 offices and erected and owns several other business buildings in Van- couver, B. C. His cattle ranch in British Columbia, stocked with blooded Herefords and Shorthorns, comprises thousands of acres and he is also ex- tensively interested in other lands in Canada.

In 1911 Mr. Holden was married in Vancouver to Miss Lillian Elthan Buscombe, a beautiful and attractive woman and a singer of note. Mrs. Holden has studied singing with some of the great masters of America and Europe and possesses a voice of rare sweetness and power. In Wichita Falls Mr. and Mrs. Holden reside at the Kemp Hotel. They have a magnificent residence in Vancouver.

Mr. Holden has done much for the development

of the oil fields of North Texas and Oklahoma. He is intensely interested in civic movements and i. ever ready to give of his time and money to any cause that is progressive and for the betterment of society as a whole. He is an active member of the Wichita Club and the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce and maintains club affiliations in many other cities of the United States and Canada.

HOMAS P. FOSTER is a well known oil operator, both in Texas and Oklahoma fields. Associated with Mr. Foster in some of his Texas activities were E. M. Jarrett and Bernard Haskins. Mr. Foster operates in the Temple White field and also nine miles northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as in many of the lead- ing fields of this section.

Mr. Foster is a native of Ohio; he was born at Manchester of that state on August 23, 1874. His parents were Jerry Foster and Belle Brookover Foster. In 1879 the family moved westward to Missouri where they located at Lee Summit. . The school system of this city gave him his education. For ten years he then mined lead and zinc in the Joplin district. In 1902 he became a locomotive engineer for the Missouri & Pacific Railway. He continued to serve in this capacity until he started the oil business in 1918. From 1908 until 1918 he was with the Iron Mountain division where he still retains his seniority rights as an engineer. In May of 1918 he started to developing oil in Archer County. In July of 1919, he moved his headquarters permanently to Wichita Falls.

In 1904, at Kansas City, Miss Laura D. Huffley became the bride of Mr. Foster. Their residence is at 629 East Ninth Street, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Mr. Foster is a York Rite Mason and a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. His church affiliation is Presbyterian.

ORREST H. MIRACLE, member of the firm of Orr & Miracle, Scollard Building, oil pro- ducers and drillers, was attracted to Texas by her oil developments and brought to the state a detailed knowledge of the business and a fund of valuable information secured in the oil region of the northeast which has been of great worth to the development of the industry in Texas.

The firm of Orr & Miracle was organized in Okla- homa and established its headquarters in Dallas in 1919. Although they hold extensive leases in Stephens, Stonewall and Erath Counties and in the Eastland and Burkburnett fields, they have given much attention to the drilling end of the industry. At one time six drilling outfits, five equipped with cable tools and one with rotary tools, were being used employing about fifty men. The company is owned entirely by Mr. Miracle and Mr. Orr.

Mr. Miracle was born in Monroe County, Ohio. September 20, 1878. His parents were Adam S. and Eliza (Murrey) Miracle. Shortly after .completing his education in the public and high school of New Matamoras, Ohio, he enlisted in Company E of the 7th Ohio Volunteers and served as bugler through- out the Spanish-American war. He then worked for two years in the steel mills of Pittsburg, Pennsyl- Vania. His first experience in the oil business was with the Fisher Oil Co., of Sistersville, West Vir- ginia. He operated through the oil fields of Pennsyl- vania, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan. In 1907 he came to Oklahoma where he was associated with John Roy, a driller of that state. While in Okla-

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" ma he formed a partnership with Mr. Orr of which he is still a member. In 1919 their head- ;arters were removed to Dallas but oil interests , Oklahoma are still retained. During this long sociation with the oil industry Mr. Miracle has An an active driller and as a result there are few aings about oil drilling with which he is not : amiliar.

In 1909 Mr. Miracle was married to Miss Mary Morris. A five year old son, Forrest Jr., is the only wild. Their home is at 3810 Mockingbird Lane, ?i chland Park.

Few men have experienced a more varied career than has Mr. Miracle, but most of his experiences have been of value in the oil business and it would ৳w difficult to find a man who speaks with more authority on matters pertaining to oil than he does. He is a Shriner of the Akdar Temple of Tulsa, Okla- homa, and is a member of the Trinity Commandery of the Tulsa Lodge. With many years of activity set before hini he seems destined to attain even greater prominence in the industry with which he so tong has been associated.

ORMAN R. FERGUSON, manager of the William-Mary Hotel, which is owned by Wm. Viner and operated on the European plan, is one of the most popular young business men in Wichita Falls, knows everybody and is liked by everybody, and declares that Wichita is the fin- est city south of Chicago, in which city he absorbed much of that progressive and snappy spirit which characterizes him. He began his business career as a stock and bond trader, then got into the newspaper business, where he was making good, when Uncle Sam came along and enlisted his services in putting the Kaiser to flight. Selecting the air service in which to do his fighting and flying, in February, 1918, he went to the ground school at Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, as cadet; then to Camp Dick at Dallas, and then to Barron field, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant in January, 1919. On January 21, 1920, he was discharged from the service and came to Wichita Falls, where he was tendered and accepted the management of the Wil- liam-Mary Hotel.

Under his management the hotel has enjoyed a good and profitable business since it opened in April, 1920. It is modern in every respect, has 150 rooms, 15 with private baths, telephones in each room, and a fine dining room. Force of fifty people are on the payroll.

Mr. Ferguson is a native of Chicago, born in 1892, and educated in public and private schools and the University of Chicago. His parents, C. E. and Blanche (Norman) Ferguson, are natives of Illinois. He was married in Chicago in 1916 to Miss Clarice Jolie, a native of that city, and they make their home in the hotel.

S AUL LEBENSON, corner Seventh Street, at Indiana, owner of the popular and well- known Saul's Store of Wichita Falls, is one of the foremost merchantmen in a city of big business, with his up-to-date and attractive dis- play of clothing, ready-to-wear and shoes. Mr. Lebenson has recently moved into his new two story brick building, 75x100 feet, at above address. The building has a basement and mezzanine floor. He is sole owner of the land and building. There are 19 show windows and has more plate glass than any other store in the city, being modern in every re-

spect and one of the leading department stores of Wichita Falls.

Mr. Lebenson is a native of Russia; he was born in that country in 1885, and there he was reared and educated. In 1904 he yielded to the call of America as being the land for his greatest opportunity, and landed in New York City at the age of twenty. From that moment Mr. Lebenson has been a thor- oughbred American; he has identified himself with the commercial life of his adopted country and its ideals are his. He began work in America's leading city on a salary of $3.00 per week studied the states as he worked, and became possessed with the con- viction that Texas afforded the greatest opportuni- ties. Accordingly in 1909, he located at Kirbyville, Texas, and began a business for himself; later he moved to Tyler, Texas, where he pursued the grocery business and then in June, 1914, he began business in Wichita Falls on a small scale which beginning has grown to the present-day attractive proportions.

In 1910, after a year's residence in Texas, Mr. Lebenson returned to New York City for Miss Rosenl- wasser, who became his bride at that time; they have two children-Nathaline, age eight, and Hellen Sylvia, age 4. The family reside at 1601 Grant Street.

Mr. Lebenson is a Mason. He is an unusually talented man in business affairs and he and his establishment will be leaders in the big future of their city.

OM F. NOLAN, Wichita Falls, is among that progressive and active group of men who handle real estate of the big new West; a "new" West because many villages of a year ago are today cities with a dozen hotels, paved streets and above twenty thousand population. Land values have always been rated as the "real" values of a district, and the lands of western and north- western Texas both from the view-point of their wealth in natural resources and in their agricultural aspects are today pre-eminently among the best land values in the Lone Star State. It is at the heart of this district that Mr. Nolan is active. Not only does he handle both city and farm business but also oil leases. Recently Mr. Nolan transferred his interests temporarily to Mexia.

Mr. Nolan is a native of Georgia. His father, a Georgian, died when Tom F. was only five years of age; otherwise his childhood and boyhood were not signalized by anything out of the ordinary. The Georgia schools gave him their best and upon enter- ing young manhood, he heard the call of the Lone Star State and came westward. His first experience was as a salesman on the road over his new state for a number of years and then he located at Plain- view, Texas, where for six years he was in the auto- mobile business. In February, 1919, he moved his headquarters to Wichita Falls and then began his present business in which he has been a success. Like many other Texans, Mr. Nolan believes Wichita Falls is the best city of its size in the United States. He is a booster of all the civic movements which so admirably characterize this coming city.

On February 7, 1920, at Wichita Falls, Miss Iona Adamson, a Texan and a graduate of the University of Texas, became the bride of Mr. Nolan.

Mr. Nolan is a member of the Chamber of Com- meree of his city and of the Wichita Club. He is well known to the civic life of his city as well as to its affairs of commerce and together with the men

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of vision and progress is helping to usher in the big tomorrow of his part of the state which will surpass even the big business and successes of today.

AMES CECIL HAYNES, well known oil man and head of the Haynes-Cannon Drilling Syndicate, came to Wichita Falls in Jan- uary, 1918, and has been actively connected with the oil development of this section since that time. He is associated in the Drilling Syndicate with A. R. Cannon and the firm maintains offices at 704-5 Commerce Building.

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 102

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