The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 63

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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A native of Texas, Mr. Crutcher was born in Calla- han County on January 6, 1880. His father was Geo. W. Crutcher, a native of Kentucky, who came to Texas in 1878 and located in Dallas. Later he moved to Callahan County where he taught school, return- ing to Dallas in 1882. For several terms he served as mayor of East Dallas, and was also the head of a real estate firm of Crutcher Brothers, which con- cern was very active in the upbuilding of East Dal-

las. At present the elder Mr. Crutcher is engaged in the oil business at Eastland. His mother was daughter of Judge Adam Lawrence, judge of East- land County.

Mr. Crutcher was educated in the Dallas public schools and upon graduating, entered the railroad business. His first employment was in the general offices of the Texas and Pacific Railway. When he left them after seven years he had worked his way up in the traffic department. In 1903 he entered the employ of Trezevant and Cochran, general in- surance agents, and in two years time was ap- pointed special agent and adjuster for them. After remaining with this firm for six years, Mr. Crutcher went with the Continental Insurance Company of New York, and later with the Insurance Company of North America, then in 1915 he established his Dallas Insurance Agency.

On October 1, 1920, Mr. Crutcher sold his local agency to Cochran, Houseman and Horton and for a period of time prior to the organization of Wassell- Crutcher Company, he devoted his time to the gen- eral insurance business.

Mr. Crutcher has one son, Harry W., Jr., attend- ing school in Dallas. He is prominent in fraternal circles, being a charter member of Keystone Blue Lodge No. 1143, member of the Scottish Rite bodies, K. C. C. H. and the York Rite bodies. He is a member of the Hella Temple Shrine, Hella Temple Patrol, and is active in the Kiwanis Club (and former secretary of that body), the Automobile Club, Dallas Athletic Club, the Ad League and the Chamber of Commerce. He believes that the great- est opportunities in the world are in Texas, and that Dallas has a great future as the metropolis of the Southwest.

P. CUNNINGHAM, general insurance agent for the Aetna Life Insurance Company, ac- cidental and liability department, Great Southern Life Building, operates one of the largest insurance businesses of the city. Mr. Cun- ningham is agent for all casualty and surety lines of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, The Aetna Casualty and Surety Company and the Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford. His territory in- cludes the city of Dallas and all local business is transacted out of this office. Mr. Cunningham writes all forms of casualty, surety and fire insurance, everything in fact except life insurance. He is the representative of the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, which handles fire and automobile in- surance. In 1919 business had increased 100 per cent over the previous year, and 1920 business in- creased at the same ratio. 1

A native of Texas, he was born in Collins County, at Celina, on September 25, 1885. His father, S. M. Cunningham, came to Texas from Tennessee, pur- chasing a farm in Collins county in 1875. His mother, who was Miss Mary Kirkpatrick, was also a native Tennessean. He was educated in the public schools of Dallas, completing his schooling at Add- Ran University at Waco, which has since become the Texas Christian University at Fort Worth. Dur- ing the three years after his graduation he was en- gaged in the telephone business. Promotion was rapid and in 1907 he was made manager of the Beaumont Telephone Exchange, and the following year became traffic manager for the Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Company in Arkansas. In

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". he came to Dallas to enter the insurance busi- He formed an association with E. Dick . aughter and C. H. Verschoyle, general agents for . ... Aetna Company, and in 1910 bought Mr. Slaugh- ?‹:'s interest, and for the next two years the com- any was known as the C. H. Verschoyle Company. This became, in 1912, Verschoyle and Cunningham, · maining a partnership until 1917 when Mr. Cun- "ghan took over the entire business himself and relinquished all territory except the Dallas district.

He was married on the 22nd of September, 1910, ' Miss Mary Jane Odom, of Arkansas, daughter John S. Odom, prominent contractor of that state. '1r. and Mrs. Cunningham have two children, A. P., Jr., and John Sidney. The Cunningham home is situ- sted at the east end of Oram Avenue, on beautiful Manger Hill.

Mr. Cunningham is a member of Dallas Consistory No. 2, Pentagon Blue Lodge, Hella Temple Shrine, City Club, and the Chamber of Commerce. He is president of the Dallas Insurance Exchange, di- rector of the Dallas County State Bank, and vice- president of the Guaranty and Security Company, president of the Automotive Finance Co., and has for several years been qualified as a member of the Aetna Club of Hartford. Mr. Cunningham possesses qualities of leadership and a compelling personality which have been factors in his success. He believes that Texas is only in its infancy as yet and that Dallas as the geographical and commercial center is destined for a metropolis.

M. BACON, Manager of the Bankers Life Company of Des Moines, Iowa, with offices in the American Exchange Bank Building, has experienced a somewhat varied career every step of which seemed to be preparatory to the work which he is now doing. His standing in the insurance world is not surpassed in Texas nor scarce- ly in the United States.

The Bankers Life Company was introduced into Texas by Mr. Bacon in 1908 and its growth since that time has been remarkable. The Dallas office has the general agency for all of Texas with the exception of the San Antonio district. Branch offices are maintained at Houston for Southern Texas and at Ft. Worth for West Texas. Fifty salesmen are in this territory and $10,000,000 worth of insurance annually are written. Ten people are required to handle the business of this office which includes a loan department where loans are made on farm lands exclusively. Of the sixty general agencies in the United States operating in thirty- one states the Dallas office has led them all since 1915. It has more than thirty million dollars of business in force in Texas since.

Mr. Bacon was born in Carroll County, Mississippi, June 2, 1873. His father, James A. Bacon, was in the mercantile business in Mississippi for a number of years and came to Texas in 1912 where he died six years later. His mother, Florence (Hunter) Bacon, was of a Mississippi family and now lives in Dallas. Mr. Bacon attended the Public Schools of his native state but an early age he left school to begin work. His first regular employment was in a blacksmith shop at $15 a month but even at this meager wage he saved some money and returned to school. He later went into a store for his uncle where he remained for two years and at the age of nineteen he went

into business for himself in a hardware store. In 1899 he came to Greenville, Texas, and bought out a mercantile business there which he ran for eight years. In 1908 he went into the insurance business with the Bankers Life Company. He brought the company into Texas and became their youngest general agent and the only general agent who had not worked with them before being appointed to the place.

On April 2, 1902, Mr. Bacon was married to Miss Elizabeth Upthegrove, daughter of Col. Daniel Upthegrove, formerly a prominent attorney of Greenville, Texas. To them four daughters were born, Billy Betsy, twin sisters, Dell and Francies, and Elizabeth. Their home is at 3625 Beverley Drive, Highland Park.

In 1914 Mr. Bacon was elected as a director of the M. K. & T. Railroad. He has taken an active interest in the social and commercial organizations of Dallas, being a member of the City Club, the Dallas Country Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and First Presby- terian Church. For eight consecutive years he was a member of the State Democratic Executive Com- mittee. His career is an example of a man who has risen from an unimportant place to one of unusual prominence.

ILLIAM IRVING ADDISON, of the Insur- ance firm, W. I. Addison & Company, Great Southern Life building, has devoted his entire business career to the insur- ance business and is at the head of a firm which is not only one of the oldest insurance agencies but one of the oldest business activities in Dallas.

The firm W. I. Addison & Company was organized in 1881 by W. I. Addison, Sr., father of the present Mr. Addison, and has partaken to the fullest extent of the growth of its home city. In 1910, at the death of the elder Mr. Addison, his son who had been in the office for two years took complete charge of the bus- iness and has been able to more than maintain the firm's standing as an insurance agency. Some of the strongest insurance companies in America and Great Britain are represented, including the National Fire Insurance Co., the Firemans fund, the Cale- donia Fire Insurance Co., of Scotland, the Commer- cial Union of London, the Milwaukee Mechanics, the Franklin Fire Insurance Company and the Lloyds' Plates Glass Company of New York. The business of the firm has been doubled during the last year.

Mr. Addison was born in Dallas, February 11, 1885, and was educated in the Public and High Schools of his home city. His father, W. I. Addison. Sr., came to Texas from Mississippi in 1870 and dur- ing his long residence in Dallas, became one of her best known citizens. He took a prominent place in Church affairs and was for fifteen years Superin- tendent of the Sunday School of the First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff. He was also interested in problems of civic advancement. Mrs. Addison was formerly Miss Lydia Davis and was a native of Mis- souri. Having finished his High School course, Mr. Addison entered his father's office in 190S and two years later, following his fathers death, he assumed full charge. In 1912, he built a two story brick business building at 201 East Tenth street which is now occupied by a garage and lodge room on the second floor.

On July 22, 1908, Mr. Addison was married to Miss

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Emma C. Dallas, who is a descendant of the Vice- President for whom the city of Dallas was named. Her father, E. W. Dallas, is retired and lives on a farm near Grand Prairie, Texas. To Mr. and Mrs. Addison four children have been born, William Dallas, Carl Irving and twin daughters, Marguerite and Elizabeth. The Addison home is at 309 South Willomet Street.

Having been reared in Dallas and in active busi- ness there for more than ten years, it is not sur- prising that Mr. Addison enjoys a wide acquaintance among which he numbers a host of close, personal friends. He is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce and of the Oak Cliff Commercial Club. The growth of the firm of which he is the head speaks eloquently for his business efficiency and being. a comparatively young man it seems almost certain that much greater advances are yet in store for him.

ROSS R. SCRUGGS, of Gross R. Scruggs and Company, Insurance Building, has been an influential figure in business circles of Dallas and the Southwest for twenty years. The Gross R. Scruggs and Company handle fire insurance exclusively, and represents the following companies: Westchester Fire Insurance Company of New York, Delaware Underwriters, Camden Fire Assurance Association of New Jersey, Allamania Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Agricultural Insurance Company of Watertown, New York, and the Equitable Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Providence, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Fire In- surance Co. of Providence, R. I., and the National Fire Insurance Co. of Paris, France. Forty people are employed by Mr. Scruggs in the Dallas office, while nine special agents are covering their territory which consists of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The annual volume of business amounts to $2,000,000 net. Two new companies have just been added to their list, and during the first months of 1919 the business had increased fifty per cent over corresponding months of the previous year.

In 1911 Mr. Scruggs erected his own building, a one-story structure, all of which was occupied by his firm. The following year four stories were added and the building became the Insurance Exchange. In 1915 he added three more stories, making it an eight story building, and in 1920 has had three ad- ditional stories erected, which completes the struc- ture. The building, which is situated at the corner of Jackson and Browder Streets is now a fifty by one hundred foot structure, eleven stories high, and constructed of reinforced concrete, a new material when this was built, and the first of its kind to be erected in Dallas.

A native of Texas, Mr. Scruggs was born in Cal- vert, Robertson County, on January 1, 1869. His father was Major James B. Scruggs, who came to Texas as manager of the commissary department of the Southern Army. After the war he was a con- tractor, and came to Dallas as contractor for the Texas and Pacific Railway Company. He also estab- lished an implement business here, known as the Mitchell and Scruggs Company, and was a well known business man in this section. His mother was Mary B. Dial Scruggs, born in Texas, but of a Carolina family. After a preliminary education in private schools Mr. Scruggs entered the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. Upon graduating he engaged for a time in various lines of business, finally settling on the insurance business as offer-

ing the best opportunity. He established his own company in 1900 and has since devoted his entire. time to it. Mr. Scruggs is also a director of the City National Bank.

On November 18, 1890, he was married to Miss Marian Price, daughter of Robert S. Price, Dallas business man, and formerly of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Scruggs have two children, Mrs. Raymond P. Caruth and Stuart B. Scruggs, the latter an ensign in the United States Navy, and during the war, in charge of all construction work at Brest.

Mr. Scruggs is a member of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, Texas Chamber of Commerce, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Country Club, City Club and First Presbyterian Church. In speaking of the possibilities of Dallas, Mr. Scruggs expressed his belief that the city will double its population in five years, and that all of Texas is to experience remarkable growth when the immenseness of its resources are realized.

L. DAVIS, superintendent of the American Central Life Insurance Company, of Indian- apolis, Ind., Praetorian Building, is one of the foremost insurance men of the South- west. Mr. Davis came to Dallas on May 28, 1911, and opened up the American Central Life Insurance Company office, the first one that this company had ever established in Texas. With the entire state as territory and eighty-five agents in the field, Mr. Davis has established a record for the production of new business. The company has more than $10,- 000,000 in force in the state today and is leading many of the large insurance companies' by a wide margin. During 1919 the volume of business amounted to $3,500,000 and 1920 over six and a half million.

Born in McDonough County, Illinois, on June 4, 1862, Mr. Davis is the son of J. P. Davis, a native of Ohio, and Sarah Harrabin Davis, who was born in Egbeth, England. When he was a child his father was engaged in farming, but abandoned this and moved to Hiawatha, Kansas, in 1873, and went into the loan and mortgage business. He is president of the Davis-Wellcome Mortgage Company, of Topeka, Kansas, a corporation which handles loans for the Prudential Life Insurance Company, and is the larg- est loan company in the West. The annual volume of business of this concern amounts to $7,500,000. The elder Mr. Davis has also served in the State Legislature of Kansas.

Mr. Davis attended the Hiawatha High School in 1880 and spent one year in Highland University at Highland, Kansas. Upon leaving school he was. for a short time, engaged in farming, following this by four years in railway service. In 1886 he went into the home office of the Kansas Mutual Life Insur- ance Company of Topeka, and remained with this firm for fourteen years. From 1900 to 1911 he was associated with the following well-known insurance companies: Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Washington Life Insurance Company of New York, National United States of America Company of Chicago and Kansas City Life Insurance Company. For four years he was in Oklahoma City as general agent for the State of Oklahoma, leaving there to establish his present office in Dallas.

Mr. Davis' only son, Glenn D. Davis, is supervisor for the Southwestern Department of the American Central Life Insurance Company. The Davis home is at 3816 Mockingbird Lane, Highland Park.

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- سيط ببساط بسكك سـ شيف

MEN OF TEXAS

Mr. Davis is a member of the Dallas Country Club at the Chamber of Commerce. He affirms that nditions in Texas are getting better all the time; sat Dallas' future never looked brighter, and the ware South is just coming into its heritage.

ILLIAM ARNOLD DIFFEY, state manager of the Capitol Life Insurance Company of Colorado, with offices at 604 Wilson Build- ing is a live wire worker who has probably , ha more insurance in the state than any other man. :: r. Diffey is personally responsible for the enor- a.ous growth of his company in Texas and the steady crease which it maintains.

Mr. Diffey began his work with the Capitol Life Insurance Company in 1910, and was made state manager of Texas in July of that year. Branch ifices have been established in Houston, El Paso, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and other smaller towns, making a total of thirty offices in all. Forty writers of insurance are distributed over Texas territory and the annual amount of insurance written for this ¿tate alone amounts to the vast sum of $10,000,000 annually, and this is increasing each year. This company also has $1,000,000 loaned in Texas. Mr. Diffey built up the organization in this state and with the exception of the El Paso office, all the of- fices are under his direct supervision.

Mr. Diffey was born in Ellis County on November 16, 1879. His father, James P. Diffey, was a farm- er of that section who had come to Texas in '71. His mother was Mary Williams Diffey, a native of Louisiana. When he was five years old his parents moved to Dallas and he received his education in the public schools of the city. Upon leaving school he went to work for the Mosher Manufactur- ing Company. He remained with this firm for sev- enteen years, working in various capacities and re- ceiving promotion after promotion. He was hold- ing a responsible place in the ornamental depart- ment when he left the concern to take up life in- surance.

Mr. Diffey was married to Miss Julia L. Anderson of Dallas in 1900, the wedding being solemnized in this city. They have six children; W. A., Jr., Mau- rine, Marion, Julia, Francis A., and Eva Rose. The family home is at 4419 Ross Avenue.

He is a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason, and Past Master of the Washington Lodge of Masons in Dal- las, a Hella Temple Shriner, and does much active work in the Scottish Rite fraternity. He is also :. member of the Lakewood Country Club.

HARLES GORDON CAIN, agency director for the National Life Association of Des Moines, 815 Wilson Building, is a native of Gwinnette County, Georgia, born April 2, 1.68, the son of John Cain, a Georgia farmer. His mother was Sarah Brownlee, and his education was acquired in the public schools of the county in which he was born. He was married at Florala, Ala., Jan- uary, 1906, to Miss Julia Gilmore, of Alabama, and they have four children, Dorothy, Gordon, Frances and Welden. The family home is at 1900 West Tenth Street, Oak Cliff.

Mr. Cain came to Dallas from Memphis, Tenn., in 1215. Prior to entering into the insurance business he was engaged in the mercantile business in Georgia, starting in the business when he was 18 years old. His entry into the insurance business dates back to 1894, when he took up life insurance

and was connected with the New York Life in Georgia and Alabama. In 1902 he went with the Pacific Mutual of California and remained with them until 1910, working in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennes- see and Missouri as superintendent of agents. In 1910 he went with the Bankers' Life in Arkansas and Texas and was director of the Texas agencies until 1917, when he made his present connection. For one year he had complete charge of all agents in twenty states, his title being agency director, but October 1, 1918, he gave this position up and became agency director for Texas and Arkansas. He has 175 writers in the two states and is doing about $10,000,000 per year out of his office. When he took charge of this office two and a half years ago, the territory did only $2,500,000 per year.

A. GREEN, senior member of the firm A. A. Green & Son, Life Insurance Agents, with offices in the American Exchange National Bank Building, is not only a pioneer of the insurance business in Texas but holds the unique dis- tinction of being the only general agent west of the Allegheny Mountains who was a general agency when he first became one.

The firm A. A. Green & Son are managers for the whole of Texas for the Manhattan Life Insur- ance Company of New York. When the "Robertson Law" was enacted, requiring all insurance companies operating in Texas to invest a certain per cent of their reserve in the state, all the New York Life Insurance Companies withdrew except the Manhat- tan, which is today the only New York Life Insur- ance Company operating in Texas. Its record for prompt and reliable service has made it one of the strongest in the United States. It is represented in Texas by more than three hundred agents and in 1919 the premiums amounted to approximately $4,000,000. In 1920 they exceeded $7,000,000. The company has in force in Texas a total of over $15,000,000 in insurance. The Green Agency deals only in life insurance and in addition to Mr. Green and his son, A. A., Jr., who is a junior member of the firm, there are six employees in the office.

Mr. Green was born in New Orleans, April 17, 1858. His parents were Abram A. and Caroline (Maury) Green. When he was only sixteen years of age he left home and went to St. Louis. His edu- cation was gained largely from the school of life and experience but his continued success indicated that the lessons were well learned. In 1879 he came to Texas and located first at Gainesville and later at Fort Worth. In 1895 he came to Dallas to take charge of the Manhattan Agency which he has since held.

In 1883 Mr. Green was married to Miss Sophie Stone, of Gainsville. Their only daughter is the wife of Col. Clifford Jones, of the U. S. Coast Artil- lery, on the General Staff at Washington, D. C., and the son, A. A., Jr., after leaving Princeton Univer- sity in 1914, entered the insurance business with his father. Mr. A. A. Green, Jr., is very popular among club and social orders of Dallas and is stepping into his father's footsteps in the insurance world and is upholding the high standard of efficiency and popu- larity that his father has set. The Green home is at 1815 St. John's Drive, Highland Park.

Mr. Green is a member of the Dallas Country Club and the City Club. During his long residence in Texas he has become widely known throughout the state and is the center of a large circle of friends.

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D ANIEL S. HARSTON, sheriff of Dallas County, came to Dallas County in 1886, and with his parents settled near Grand Prairie, where he attended the rural schools. When a young man he engaged in farming and later went into the mercantile business, which he followed for fourteen years. In 1918 he was elected sheriff of Dallas County for the two-year term, and having made such a splendid record he was re-elected to the office without opposition in 1920. During his first term in office the prohibition laws, State and Na- tional, went into effect, and criminality has de- creased 60 per cent. Where he formerly had from 300 to 350 prisoners behind the bars, he now has about 100.

Mr. Harston is interested in farming and also in the gravel business.

Mr. Harston was born in Kentucky, April 9, 1876, his parents being J. L. U. and Munford (Stovall) Harston. He was married September 11, 1898, to Miss Mattie B. Curry, and they have three boys and six girls. His eldest son, Jay, was among the hun- dreds of thousands of young men of the country who enlisted in the service of the United States army during the war with Germany and her allies.

Mr. Harston is one of the best known and most popular officers of the law in Texas. He is big hearted, genial and sympathetic, but withal, a stickler for duty. Democracy with him is a passion and he always votes the straight Democratic ticket, and will go a long ways to perform a service for his party. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, in which lodge he has filled all chairs, the Auto Club, T. P. A., Mutual Club and Chamber of Commerce. He is as strong for Texas and Dallas as he is for the Democratic party, and that is saying a great deal. Texas, he declares, is the biggest and grandest spot in the universe, and Dallas is the brightest spot in the state.

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 63

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