The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 48

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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In 1884 Mr. Ferris came to Dallas to accept a position as cashier of the Exchange Bank, which was a State Bank. Three years later the bank was nationalized by Mr. Ferris and he was elected as one of its vice-president, Col. Jno. M. Simpson being the president. Here occurs the only interrup- tion in his banking career when he accepted the presidency of the Dallas Consolidated Street Car Company and was for several years its executive head. In 1898 he was recalled to succeed Col. Simp- son as president of the National Exchange Bank. Later several banks were absorbed and in 1905 this bank absorbed the business of the American Na- tional Bank and the name was changed to the Amer- ican Exchange National Bank. Of this consolidated bank, thus made one of the most substantial in the South, Mr. Ferris remained the president until 1920, when he retired from the duties of executive, serv- ing a total of 50 years as a banker in Texas.

In 1884 Mr. Ferris was married to Miss Luis Brown, daughter of John T. Brown of Georgia. Mr- Ferris died one year after marriage.

In October, 1894, Mr. Ferris was married to M ... Mary Brown, daughter of Rev. Chas. E. Brown. .. distinguished Methodist minister. Their only chi !. Royal A., Jr., is married and lives in the city. H. is identified with the Packard Motor Co. The Fer ris home is at 3420 St. John's Drive.

In keeping with his intense interest in the develop. ment of Texas, Mr. Ferris assisted in the organiz .. tion of the Dallas State Fair and remains one of it. directors. He is a charter member of the Dalla .. Club, a member of the local Knights of Pythia, Lodge and of the Waxahachie Lodge of Odd Fellow -

Having witnessed the almost astonishing growth of his native state for more than half a centur; and that not as a mere onlooker but as an active participant, it is not strange that Mr. Ferris' words of counsel should carry a peculiar weight and his opinions be received with unusual deference. Emi- nently successful, philanthropic and habitually genial, Mr. Ferris is able to look back over a well spent life in. which his justly merited prosperity has been generously used to serve the common cause of social welfare and betterment.

OBERT H. STEWART, ex-president of the City National Bank, during his residence in Dallas of more than thirty years, has not only been a witness but an active partici- pant in that remarkable growth which his adopted city has experienced.

Mr. Stewart was born in Prince William County, Virginia, November 17, 1854. His parents, Charles T. and Elizabeth Boyd Stewart, were among the sub- stantial citizens of the "Old Dominion." He was educated in the public schools of Washington, D. C. and in Georgetown Academy. When he was seven- teen years old, Mr. Stewart came to Texas and spent his first six months in Tyler. From there he went to Galveston where he remained for eight years. From Galveston he went to Belton and in company with Mr. B. N. Boren, who was to become a close friend and business partner, he established the First National Bank of Belton. He remained for some years as cashier of the bank and left it to go into the wholesale grocery business. In 1887 he came to Dallas where he and Mr. Boren established the Boren-Stewart Wholesale Grocery Company. widely known thruout the Southwest. In 1909 he sold his grocery interests and assisted in the organization of the Trinity National Bank of which he became vice- president. In 1909 the business of this bank was absorbed by the City National Bank and Mr. Stewart became vice-president of the consolidated bank. In 1912 he was elected to the presidency of this new bank, which by the merger was made one of the strongest in the city, in which responsible position he remained until he retired in January 1921. He still holds a directorship in the City National Bank. On April 5, 1893, Mr. Stewart was married to Mrs. Ada Rauch Clark. There are five children, Earl, Louise, Robert H. Jr., Charles J. and Edward Boyd. The Stewart residence is at 3707 Gaston Avenue.

In addition to his many and exacting business duties, Mr. Stewart has borne his full share of the responsibilities as a citizen of this community. He is a member of the City Club, the Dallas and Lake- wood Country Clubs and of the W. O. W. Lodge.

212

Any alot Forral

MEN OF TEXAS

B. ADOUE, President of the Bank of Com- merce, Dallas, perhaps holds the record among north Texas Bankers in his thirty years of presidency in the bank he today :vets. The Bank of Commerce was founded thirty- iso years ago, in 1889, and D. W. C. Harry was president at that time. Two years later, in 1891, Mr. loue was chosen president, and has completed three :wvades in this service. Banking is everywhere a ; rofession of honor and dignity; it is also one of the dest professions of men, having always existed in · me form, sometimes crude, wherever business to sny extent has been conducted. It is a calling that is :rerefore known to all nations and by them held in +++ same esteem. Mr. Adoue enjoys the reputation of having already had the longest term as president ,{ the same bank than has any of his companions of today. Associated with him is J. B. Adoue as .xe-president of the institution and George Miller as .a-hier. The Bank of Commerce at organization had capital of $100,000.00; this soon was increased to $150,000.00, and today the capital, undivided profit and surplus come to $350,000.00. This constant up- ward trend is indicative of the bank's conservative and steady progress, which has characterized it from the first.

Mr. Adoue is a native of France. He was born at Aurignac. Appreciating the advantages offered by the Western Hemisphere, the family came to Ameri- ca and, after considering the claims of the various states, they chose Texas as the new home. This was in 1867. Thirteen years later, in 1880, Mr. Adoue cast this lot with Dallas as a resident citizen and from that date he has been among the leaders of business in his city. Within two years after his arrival in Dallas he was president of one of her banks and will yet serve in this capacity for many years to come.

Mr. Adoue is an example of what an immigrant may achieve in a new land. He has thoroughly dentified himself with everything American and is indeed an American himself. His thrift, persever- once and toil have met with the same reward that these virtues in one native-born would bring. He is a leading banker in Texas' chief city.

UDGE EDWARD GRAY, president of the Dallas Trust & Savings Bank, president of the Dallas Title & Guaranty Company, pres- ident of the U. S. Bond & Mortgage Com- pany and vice-president of the Texas Harvester Company, has, in recent years, forsaken a successful «gal practise for a banking career. He practised !fore the Texas bar for 35 years and for six years, 1.93-1899, was district judge.

Mr. Gray is a native of Tennessee. He was born on Hickman County of that state, on November 23, :- 60. His father, George Gray, was a farmer, and on the farm Edward Gray learned the deep-down virtues of work, thrift, honesty and perseverance ·hat have characterized his work to this day. Ten- Lessee and Texas gave him his education. . He began the study of law in the offices of some of the most able lawyers of his day and in December of 1881 he was admitted to the bar. For thirty-five years he practised law -- until he was chosen as president of the Dallas Trust and Savings Bank. At the time of the organization of the bank S. J. Hay, a former mayor of Dallas, was president and remained so until his death in 1916. In May of this year, Mr.

Gray, who had previous to this date been promi- nently connected with the bank as its chief coun- sellor, was chosen president.

On December 2, 1884, Miss Jesse Pace became the bride of Mr. Gray. They have one daughter, Beulah, who is now Mrs. Greer M. Taylor.

As the chief executive in three important com- panies, each serving the publie in a different but a related way, Mr. Gray is an important figure in business. The Dallas Trust & Savings Bank, since its organization in 1904, has been an essential in- stitution that has had an active part in the growth and development of Dallas. The U. S. Bond & Mort- gage Company, of which Mr. Gray is president, fills a large place in its realin and is one of the leading companies of its type in Dallas. The Dallas Title & Guaranty Company is performing an indispens- able service in protection to all property buyers. Mr. Gray is thus identified with many of the large business interests of Dallas.

EO. C. EMBRY, college instructor, lawyer and banker, gives an insight to the varied and interesting career of Geo. C. Embry, secretary and manager of the Dallas Morris Plan Company, 107 Field Street, Dallas. Successful to a marked degree in each line of effort, Mr. Embry has brought to his present position a fund of ex- perience and training which, coupled with splendid natural ability, is rapidly placing him in the fore- front of the Dallas men of affairs who are doing so much toward directing the business thought and energy of the city and state as well.

Although becoming identified with the Morris Plan Company only in April, 1920, Mr. Embry has demonstrated that he is a man peculiarly fitted by nature and training for the responsible position of directing head of a large industrial loan company. His connection with the banking interests of Texas began when he assumed the presidency of the Guar- anty State Bank of Groveton. He was later presi- dent of the First National Bank of Lovelady, cashier of the Marfa State Bank of Marfa, and active vice- president of the Gulf State Bank of Houston. He has been a director of a number of other financial institutions of the state and with his brothers, Jacob Embry, controlled a chain of small banks for several years, disposing of his interest in 1918 in order to devote his attention to banking in the larger cities of the state.

For four years, from 1903 to 1907, Mr. Embry was instructor of English at A. & M. College and in 1907-8 held a similar position at the University of Texas. He was educated in the public schools of Waxahachie, at Add Ram College of Lexington. Kentucky, the University of Kentucky and Univer- sity of Texas, receiving the degree of B. L. from the University of Texas in 1903. He was admitted to the bar at Dallas in 1908 and conducted a successful practice at Trinity and Wharton, Texas, until 1917. Mr. Embry is the son of James W. and Martha C. Embry and was born at Lexington, Ky., March 28, 1878. During the year of his birth his parents re- moved to Texas, his father purchasing a large sugar plantation in Texas.

In 1913 Mr. Embry was married at Trinity, Texas, to Miss Nora Frances Orr, of Red Oak, a daughter of Henry G. and Mary Elizabeth Orr. They have two interesting children, Geo. Clark, Jr., and Nora Frances.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

DWIN MORRIS REARDON, president of the American Exchange National Bank, has de- voted the whole of a long and unusually active career to the banking business in consequence of which he has come to the summit of prominence in financial circles of America. His position as first officer of the largest banking in- stitution in Texas, and therefore the chief place of financial influence in the Southwest, is not the re- sult of the workings of chance but is the climax of a long series of upward steps each of which has put its peculiar tests upon his efficiency, his foresight and most of all upon his integrity.

Mr. Reardon was born in Clarion County, Pennsyl- vania, April 4, 1850. His parents were William and Delilah (Hyskell) Reardon. At that day educational standards were quite different from those of the pres- ent and the public schools of his native state furnish- ed him with the educational foundation which has been so substantially built upon through the years of contact with real problems of life. At the age of nineteen he took a position as bank clerk in the First National Bank of Sharon, Penna. In this position he remained for two years and then went with the Sharon Savings Bank as teller. In 1873 he became teller of the Lamberton Bank of Franklin, Pa. Four years later he took the position of cashier and manager of the Turkey Creek City Bank in the Penn- sylvania oil district. After two years in this posi- tion he became cashier and manager of the Duke Center Bank situated in the Bradford Oil Fields. In 1883, attracted by the breadth of the West, he came to Dallas and entered at once into the banking busi- ness. In 1885 he became cashier and later vice-presi- dent of the City National Bank in which he remained for fourteen years. In 1898 he resigned from this position to organize the National Bank of Dallas. Two years later this bank was consolidated with the National Exchange Bank and Mr. Reardon was made vice-president of this bank. This bank later ab- sorbed the business of the American National Bank and the two were consolidated under the name of the American Exchange National Bank, which has now become the strongest bank in Texas. In January, 1918, as a fitting sequel to a long and eventful fi- nancial career, Mr. Reardon was elected to the presi- dency of the institution into whose organization he had put so much of his best effort and of his re- markable resourcefulness. This position he has since held.

Mr. Reardon was twice married; the first time to Miss Mary Beatty of Toledo. To this union a son, Edwin Morris, Jr., who lives in Dallas, was born. The second marriage was in 1913 to Miss Gertrude Williamson of Sharon, Pennsylvania. Their home is at 3104 Maple Avenue.

Mr. Reardon in spite of his numerous and exacting duties has found time to take an active part in enter- prises looking to civic improvement and develop- ment. He has served as treasurer of both fairs and also one of the first directors of the State Fair of Texas. Besides that he has taken a prominent part in political activities. In 1880 he was nominated for the Legislature on the Democratic ticket and a year later he was delegated to the Democratic State Con- vention. His long years of constant connection

with the banking business has given him a wealth of knowledge and ripeness of experience which ha .. made his services almost incalcuable to financial in .. terests in Texas. Although well past the age a: which most men retire from active supervision ( .: large concerns, he is still quite vigorous and his de votion to his work has not diminished. Having a: tained the greatest laurels that the banking profes- sion in the South ean offer, he promises to maintain. himself for some time on the pinnacle of financial prominence which few men have ever reached.

Mr. Reardon is a thirty-third degree, Honorary Scottish Rite Mason, member at Washington, D. C .. He is a member of the Dallas Country Club, Cit; Club, Chamber of Commerce and Hella Temple Shrine.

G EORGE H. PITTMAN, vice-president and formerly cashier of the American Exchange National Bank, has a banking career ex- tending over twenty-eight years with one bank, in which time he has, by personal service. learned every phase of the work connected with one of the greatest financial institutions of Texas and helps direct the same today as an official. The American Exchange National Bank is one of the biggest institutions of its kind in the Southwest.

Mr. Pittman is a native of Missouri, he was born in the city of St. Louis, on October 10, 1868. His parents were Edward F. and Anna (Harrison) Pitt- man. Appreciating the advantages offered by the Lone Star State, in 1877 they moved to Sherman where George H. Pittman received his earlier edu- cation. After completing the city school course, he entered T. C. U., then located at Waco but now at Fort Worth, Texas. In 1887 he came to Dallas where he entered the service of the Texas and Pacific Railway, and with this company he remained for six months. It was not until 1892 that Mr. Pittman found his real calling, banking, and took it up, beginning at the bottom. His first affiliation was with the bank that he helps direct today; he began as a collector. In 1914 he had worked himself up to the position of cashier, and in 1919 he was chosen as vice-president.

In 1902 Mr. Pittman married Miss Harriet Pendell, a Dallas girl. They have two children, Edward Pendell and Georgia. The family reside at 4319 Junius Street.

Mr. Pittman's influence is felt in social activities as well as in business. He is not only a member of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, but a member of the City Club, the Dallas Country Club, of the Press Club and of the Auto Club.

The profession of banking is one of the oldest and at the same time one of the most honorable professions of men. One who is by choice and by native endowment a banker, renders one of the most useful services to his community which service be- comes more indispensable and extensive as a city grows. Dallas is already a big banking center; her future in this realm is immense as she is to the Southwest what Chicago is to the Northwest. Mr. Pittman, an official in one of the biggest banks of Texas, is right at the heart of this service.

214

End Reardon

MEN OF TEXAS

DWARD O. TENISON, chairman of the board of directors of the City National Bank, has a banking record in his home city covering a period of more than forty years Aux which time he has been an active participant the organization and direction of the most sub- al banking institutions of the South.

Mr. Tenison was not born into a place of financial ."gence nor was it "thrust upon him" but by tire- «" industry and diligent application he rose from *« of the most insignificant places in the banking wwwtem to the presidency of one of the most in- *sential financial firms of the Southwest.

Mr. Tenison was born in Felicity, Ohio, on Octo- *: 9, 1864, and came to Dallas as an infant. Ifis esther, John Tenison, was an Irishman by birth; , mother, Mary Elizabeth Tenison, was a native : Illinois. His banking experience began in 1879 when he began work as a messenger with the City Hank. Steadily he climbed through various posi- tras until he became president of the City National Hank, which office he held for eighteen years. In 1.11 he sold out a large interest in the City Na- nal Bank and two years he retired from the presidency. In 1916 he resigned from the chairman- ship of the board of the City National Bank and taxame chairman of the board of the Federal Re- serve Bank. From this position he resigned shortly afterwards and together with his sons he organized the "E. O. Tenison & Sons" Banking House. The following year, 1917, this bank was nationalized as the Tenison National Bank with James C. Teni- son as vice-president and E. H. Tenison, assistant cashier. Due partly to the untimely death of his won, E. H. Tenison, Mr. Tenison retired from the Tenison National Bank and was recalled to the chair- manship of the board of the City National Bank.

In April, 1884, Mr. Tenison was married to Miss Annie McIntyre, of Dallas. Besides the late Ed- ward Hughes, there is one son, James C., and two daughters, Mrs. Cruger T. Smith and Mrs. Dan M. Craddock, both of whom live in Dallas. The Teni- "on home is at 3015 Cedar Springs.

Mr. Tenison is especially noted for his unusual business foresight and for his remarkably safe judgments in financial matters. He is fond of the out-of-doors and frequently recruits his strength by a visit to the woods and streams in the hunting and fishing season. He is a member of the Dallas Country and Golf Club. Simple in his tastes and unassuming in his bearing, Mr. Tenison has at- tracted to himself a large company of deeply devoted friends and is one of Dallas' most highly esteemed citizens.

OUIS A. PIRES, senior director of the City National Bank and chairman of the execu- tive committee, Dallas, has a career that is intimately interwoven with the history and development of Dallas from the days of the. stage roach until the present era when she is already the Chicago of the Southwest. In this process of pass- ing from a village in 1878, when Mr. Pires first came to Dallas, to the present day metropolitan stage there is much of business and romance, and Mr. Pires' life is filled with both.

Madeira Island was the birth-place of Mr. Pires, on March 21, 1811. His father was Manuel Pires. "While a child, the parents of Mr. Pires moved to the Island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, after about " year's residence there, and upon the death of his

parents, he came to the United States with an uncle in about 1850, locating at Jacksonville, Illinois. This city gave the youth his education. He then moved to Chillicothe, Mo., and then to Independence of the same state. In 1861, he enlisted in the Con- federate army and served with the artillery depart- ment through the entire four years. After the siege of Vicksburg, he was connected with the Third Mis- souri Battery. He fought at the battles of Lexing- ton, Mo., Corinth, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Mobile, Baker's Creek-all now famed in our his- tory-besides in many continuous minor campaigns and skirmishes. He was paroled at Meridian, Miss., under General Dick Taylor, and settled, in 1865, at Shreveport, La., where he remained until 1878. He then came to Dallas. He engaged in the insurance business and for a number of years he served as independent insurance adjuster. He then engaged in real estate and banking and has followed those interests to this day. He owns much of the down- town Dallas property.

Mr. Pires has been active in circles social as well as in business. In Dallas society he has been a leader of prominence; he is a member of the Dallas Country Club, the Dallas Club, and is a Mason of the thirty- second degree who has to his credit both the Scot- tish and the York Rites. He is a Shriner.

As one who has rendered a big service to the de- velopment of Dallas through a period of forty-three years, Mr. Pires ranks today with the Dallas finan- ciers, and has large interests in both the real estate and banking industries.

E. MARTIN, loans and investments, Dallas, independent oil operator and former well known Dallas banker, came to Dallas in 1903 from Saint Louis and became con- nected with the Hobson Electric Company, now the Southwest General Electric Company, and was with that concern in various capacities, including depart- ment manager, until 1914, when he became active vice-president of the Citizens Bank and Trust Com- pany. He remained with the banking institution until 1917 when he entered the oil business. He was one of the organizers of the Burkburnett Production Association in 1918. The company was capitalized at $60,000, drilled two splendid wells on the Van Cleve tract at Burk and after paying seventy per- cent in dividends to its stockholders, sold out its hold- ings to a syndicate of Tulsa, Oklahoma, people. Also reorganized the Peerless Oil Company, placed it on a dividend paying basis and sold it. He and associates drilled the second well in Block "88" in the northwest extension of the Burkburnett field. This well was afterward sold to Howard Webber of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Mr. Martin personally holds extensive acreage in the Sipe Springs, Mexia and Wortham fields which he expects to develop.

Mr. Martin was born in Audrain County, Missouri, May 10, 1878, a son of Caleb T. Martin, well known investment banker and farmer. His grandfather was the first settler in that section. Educated in the public and high schols of Saint Louis, he entered the wholesale electrical business and for a short time before coming to Dallas was secretary of the Central Telephone and Electric Company in St. Louis.

Mr. Martin has done much constructive work in Dallas, building many homes, and is a great believer in the future of his city and state. He is a member of the City Club the Chamber of Commerce, Dallas County and Brooks Hollow Golf Clubs.

215

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

A LEXANDER SANGER. merchant and banker, is the chief representative of one of Texas' most illustrious families and is at the head of an enterprise whose history has been more closely interwoven with that of its own state than perhaps any other Texas firm.

Back in the days when Texas was in her infancy, when tribes of wild Indians roamed freely over her western plains and when broad areas in the east showed no trace of the white man's hand this historic concern had its rather inauspicious birth in the little town of Weatherford where in 1858, Isaac Sanger and a Mr. Baum established the first Sanger store in Texas. Instead of the elegantly dressed show- windows displaying all types and models of the latest dress goods and clothing such as one sees today at Elm and Lamar, this pioneer establishment dealt chiefly in coarse cloth, pistols, bowie-knives, hams, plows and saddles. The Civil War, in which Mr. Isaac Sanger participated, interfered with the growth of this business and it was not until 1865 that he and his brother, Lehman, started the Sanger Brothers store at Millican in a one-story frame build- ing forty by seventy-five feet. At that time Millican was the terminus of the H. & T. C. R. R. and as this road pushed its way northward it was followed by the enterprising, far-sighted Sanger brothers who displayed all the adventurous spirit so essential to those pioneer days. Step by step new territory was invaded and while holding firmly to the home base the watchword was "Forward." In rapid succession stores were opened at Bryan, Hearne, Calvert, Kosse, Bremond, Groesbeck, Corsicana and Waco. It was while the house was at Corsicana that Alex. Sanger became a partner. In 1872, when the rail- road finally reached Dallas, Alex. Sanger and his brother Philip began the Dallas house in a two- story brick building on Main Street opposite the

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 48

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