USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1 > Part 70
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Mr. Lang's business ability has been commandeered in other interests, too. He is director of the Equit- able Trust Company, of the Sunlite Lens Co., presi- dent of the Southern Florists Publishing Co., a weekly trades paper for the South and the only one of its kind in the South.
Miss Mamie Schaefer, daughter of Chas. Schaefer, of Cuero, Texas, was united in marriage with Mr. Lang. To them two children were born, Helen, who is now Mrs. George Preston, and Robert, who is at present a student in Leland Stanford University.
A man so prominent in business has a correspond- ing social service to render society. Mr. Lang does
this as a leading Knight among the Elks, as Prae. torian, as a member of each the Chamber of Com- merce, the Rotary Club and the Ad Club, besides be- ing a director of the Automobile Club, a past presi- dent of the Country Club, of the Boy Scouts of this city, a prominent Y. M. C. A. worker and vice-pres- ident of the Mercantile Retail Credit Association.
Mr. Lang has built his business on the love for the beautiful; that Dallas appreciates such a man is shown by the fact that she has made him the owner of the largest retail flower store in the South.
ILLIAM J. LAWTHER, 2543 Elm Street, manufacturer of the Queen of Dixie Brand poultry and cow feed, enjoys the unique dis- tinction of having stepped out of a clerical position in a railway office into the general manager- ship of a firm doing an annual business in excess of a million dollars. Perhaps it didn't amount to that when the step was made, but it amounts to that today, which is the chief consideration.
The grain business is more than a business; it is a game -- a- game as fascinating as it is vacillating -and it takes "game" men to play it. There are rules, to be sure; just as there are rules in fencing, but in the parry and in the thrust there is always the human equation to be taken into consideration- there is always the other fellow playing the game, too. Not every man can possess himself of the open sesame to success in the grain business, and he who plays the winning game well earns the plaudits. William J. Lawther is achieving a signal success dealing in wholesale and retail grain as well as man- ufacturers' products. The service of the company is strictly modern, as deliveries are made to all parts of North Texas. The company manufactures chicken and cow feed, buying the raw product in car load lots.
William J. Lawther was born December 12, 1878, at Brenham, Texas. His father, Robert R. Lawther, founder of the Lawther Grain Company, moved with his family to Dallas in 1885. William J. Lawther received his education in the public schools of Dallas, graduating from the Dallas high school. He attended the University of Texas at Austin during the year of 1896-1897.
Abandoning in that year the project of further literary education, Mr. Lawther enrolled in the school of experience, taking a position in the general office of the Texas & Pacific Railway. Four years later he became general manager of the Lawther Grain Com- pany, and that business grew steadily to its present large proportions under his guidance. He sold his interest in the Lawther Grain Co. to his brother, Joe E. Lawther, in August, 1920, and established his present line of business. Mr. Lawther is also a di- rector of the Dallas Trust & Savings Bank.
His marriage at Austin, July 5, 1905, to Miss Helen Simkins, daughter of Judge W. S. Simkins, professor of law in the University of Texas, was the culmination of a romance begun when Mr. Lawther attended that institution. Mr. and Mrs. Lawther reside at 4823 Gaston Avenue.
Mr. Lawther has many interests in addition to his business, being a Rotarian, a director of the United Charities, an active member of the Chamber of Com- merce and a member of the Lakewood Country Club. He attends St. Matthews Cathedral. The City of Dallas boasts not a few monuments to the energy and enterprise of this man who has played the game and played it successfully.
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N. RODGERS, president and treasurer of the Rodgers-Meyers Furniture Company, 1917-1919 Elm Street, is at the head of the largest, and what has been called the most beautiful, furniture establishment in the state of Texas. Mr. Rodgers came to Dallas from Paris, Texas, in 1912 for the purpose of assisting in the re-organization of the Kaufman- Meyers Furniture Company, of which he and his brother, J. D. Rodgers, had bought a controlling interest, and which was to be incorporated under the name of Rodgers-Meyers Furniture Company. The firm at this time was situ- ated at 1217-19 Elm Street. Mr. Rodgers had spent his life in the furniture business and knew exactly what he wanted in the way of a building that would accommodate and display to the best advantage the quality of goods that he had in mind.
The new building, which was erected according to his plans, and ready for occupancy by August of 1915, was a six story structure with mezzanine and basement, measuring 60 by 200 feet, which gives a total floor space of 90,000 square feet. Furniture, rugs, carpets and draperies are carried, the grade of goods arranged to meet the requirements of every demand. Seventy people are necessary to handle the business, and these have been chosen carefully and are men of wide experince and dscriminating taste. A warehouse is situated at Pacific and Pearl where excess stock is stored.
Born in Paris, Texas, on January 27, 1865, Mr. Rodgers received his education in private schools of that city, and started his business career by enter- ing his father's furniture establishment. His father, J W. Rodgers, was one of the earliest settlers to organize a furniture establishment in Texas and gained a reputation as a keen business man. His mother was Virginia Hatcher Rodgers of an old and aristocratic Virginia family. He was seventeen years ct age when he entered the business in 1882, and in 1891, upon the death of his father, he took com- plete charge of the store, retaining its management until 1910. In 1912 his present business in Dallas was organized, and under his competent manage- ment and advanced ideas it has undergone rapid and gratifying growth until in 1919 the amount of busi- ness transacted for the year amounted to $750,000, and in 1920 the business approached $1,000,000 in volume.
Mr. Rodgers was married on October 5, 1898, to Miss Florence McDonald, daughter of Henry McDon- ald, well-known throughout the state as a lawyer of ability and force who has since moved to Corpus Christi. The wedding was celebrated at Paris, where the couple resided. Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers own a home in Munger Place, 5100 Junius Street.
Mr. Rodgers is a member of the City Plan Com- mission, Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Country Club, Lakewood Country Club, and the City Club, and retains affiliations with fraternal orders in Paris. He has always taken a keen interest in civic affairs and improvements and is the type of citizen that makes it possible for a city to attain a high degree of commercial and aesthetic growth. Besides his connections in the city of Dallas he maintains a deep interest in his home town of Paris and is a director of the City National Bank of that city. Mr. Rodgers is also president of the Rodgers Furniture Company at Texarkana, Texas.
W. HOWERTH, Dallas manager of Factory Division for the Baldwin Piano Company, 1807 Commerce Street, is an enthusiastic booster for his company and believes in its products, pianos and player-pianos, to be fully the equal of any instrument in the world. The trade territory served by the Dallas Division covers Texas and a considerable portion of the Southwest not served by the Saint Louis Division.
Established in 1862 by Dwight H. Baldwin a music teacher, the company has had a remarkable growth. In 1873 Lucien Wulsin was admitted as a partner and the firm was organized as D. H. Baldwin and Com- pany. In 1880 R. A. Johnson became a member of the firm and shortly after his death in 1884, George W. Armstrong, Jr., Clarence Wulsin and A. A. Van Buren were admitted as partners. The original amount of money put into the business by the part- ners was only twenty-seven thousand dollars and now the combined assets of the Baldwin Company aggregate more than nine million dollars.
The new plants under course of construction in Cincinnati are of the most modern factory construc- tion. All the latest mechanical equipment for the making of pianos is being installed and every con- venience possible for the comfort of the employees provided. Besides its modern utility features, the plant will contain handsome architectural features which will make it one of the most beautiful indus- trial plants in the world.
In addition to Baldwin pianos and player-pianos, the Dallas Division handles Medallion phonographs and records. Two traveling salesmen are employed out of the Dallas office to take care of the trade ter- ritory, comprising Texas, parts of Oklahoma, Arkan- sas and all of Louisiana. The building occupied by the Dallas house is 25 by 90 feet and eight people are employed in the office. The local house was opened in 1895 and has been doing an ever increas- ing business since.
The home office of the Baldwin Company is at Cincinnati, and owns and controls five factories at Cincinnati and Chicago, with branch houses and fac- tory divisions in New York, Indianapolis, Saint Louis Louisville, Dallas, Denver and San Francisco. The company's trade extends all over the United States and has a heavy export business to foreign countries in nearly every quarter of the globe.
EN T. STANFORD. The history of the Haverty Furniture Company may be writ- ten in one with that of Ben T. Stanford, its secretary and manager. The others of the firm, Mr. J. J. Haverty, president, and Clarence Haverty, vice-president, reside in Atlanta, Ga. Mr. Stanford's connection with Haverty's began in 1907 with the Rhodes-Haverty Company at Waco; in the same year he was transferred to Fort Worth as manager of the Haverty store there. The Haverty firm in Dallas was established in 1898 and was in- corporated in 1910 with a capital stock of $25,000. Upon the re-organization in 1910 Mr. Stanford was elected to his present position. The business under his supervision has outgrown its present quarters, the three story building on Elm Street, and will soon move its stock into the Moroney Hardware Build- ing, where they will occupy five floors. Their stove department alone covers a space of 50x60 feet and this is an indication of what they use when it is noted the immense stock of furniture, Columbia
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حصاد شارك وابداع.
MEN OF TEXAS
phonographs, rugs, draperies, etc., they carry.
Ben T. Stanford is a native of Waco, Texas, born on July 11, 1872. His parents were M. S. and Ella A. (Twonbly) Stanford, both of widely known Texas families. M. S. Stanford, a merchant, came to Texas in 1865, moving to Gatesville and establishing a mercantile business there in 1882.
Ben T. Stanford received his education in the Gatesville public schools and began his business life as a clerk in a dry goods store there. In 1897 he went to Waco and was employed ten years in the Gold- stein and McGill department store, leaving them to become connected with the Haverty interests.
Mr. Stanford was married at Waco, on May 28, 1899, to Miss Ethel Harton, daughter of Mr. W. H. Harton of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Stanford have five children, Ben T., Jr., John W., Steele, Margaret and Sam. The family make their home in Oak Cliff at 222 South Mont Clair Avenue.
Mr. Stanford is a member of the Masonic order and of the Chamber of Commerce.
RTHUR A. EVERTS, president of the Ar- thur A. Everts ' Co., jewelers, Main and Murphy Streets, Dallas, Texas, is at the head of a jewelry 'establishment which, on account of its genuinely trustworthy service, has come to have a reputation, national in its breadth, and as an indication of his own recognition among his business associates, Mr. Everts has been twice unanimously elected president of the American Na- tional Retail Jewelers' Association.
The Arthur A. Everts jewelry business was started in 1897, and came to its present location in 1910. It occupies two floors of a building 59 by 100 feet and has an equal floor space on the second floor of a building to the rear for its jewelry factory. More of the well known Hallmark jewelry is sold by the Everts company in Dallas than by any one of seven hundred American cities. The most reliable diamond and watch experts available are employed and the stock of diamonds is one of the largest in America. Seventy employes are used with additional help dur- ing the busy seasons.
Mr. Everts is a native of Dallas county. His father, Myron P. Everts, came to Texas in 1849, traveling down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a canal boat to New Orleans and thence overland from Shreveport in Louisiana. His mother was Miss Laura (Oram). Mr. Everts was in early life at- tracted to the jewelry business. At the age of six- teen he began work in the jewelry store of his uncle, J. M. Oram, a jeweler of Dallas, and in order to fit himself fully for his chosen work he mastered four different trades pertaining to it, engraving, watch making, copper and steel plate engraving and copper and steel plate printing. In 1897 he began business for himself with a capital of only $22. With this he bought the Gold Eagle sign which still hangs outside the store. From this rather inauspicious start the Arthur A. Everts Company has grown to its present position of national prominence.
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In 1890 Mr. Everts was married to Miss Christine C. Daugherty of Dallas. To them six children were born, three of them now living, daughter Christine, now Mrs. A. Y. Shields, and two sons, Myron and Frank. The Everts home is at 4024 Worth Street.
In addition to his jewelry interests in Dallas, Mr. Everts has been elected a director of the Hallmark Stores in New York City and is treasurer of the International Christian Missionary Convention. In
his political views he has always supported the Na- tional Prohibition Ticket and was at one time the nominee of that party for lieutenant governor of Texas. For two years he was vice-president of the American National Retail Jewelers' Association and since that time, in 1919, he has twice been chosen as president of the association. He is an active member of the local Chamber of Commerce, is a Shriner of Hella Temple, is a member of the Rotary Club, the Bonehead Club, the Lakewood Country Club and the Ad League. He is a member of the East Dallas Christian Church. During a long, pros- perous career Mr. Everts has gradually built up a large circle of friends and there are today few men who are more widely known in Dallas and Texas or more highly esteemed.
H. SHUTTLES, president of Shuttles Bros. & Lewis, at Jackson and Browder, Whole- sale jewelry dealers, has for nearly a quar- ter of a century been closely identified with the jewelry business in Texas during which time he has established a reputation for reliability which ex- tends to a patronage throughout the Southwest.
Shuttles Bros. & Lewis has in little more than ten years twice outgrown its location and has taken its place as one of the foremost houses of its kind both for volume of business and for reliability, in the South. It was established in 1897 by Mr. Shut- tles in company with his brother, the late W. E. Shuttles, in a building with a floor space of only 300 square feet. In 1910 the firm bought the Whole- sale department of the Linz Brothers Company and operated it for five years. In 1915 this location was found to be too restricted and the present building was secured. Four floors with a floor space of 20,000 square feet are now occupied. A complete line of diamonds, watches, jewelry, silver and glass is carried. A manufacturing department for plati- num and diamond jewelry is maintained. Special at- tention has been given in this department to the making of class pins and rings and the patronage in this particular line is one of the largest in the United States. More than sixty people are employed in- cluding six traveling salesmen who cover all the territory included in the Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which consists of all of Texas and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Mr. Shuttles was born in Greenville, Georgia in 1878. When he was nine years old he left school and with the exception of some courses taken in night schools his formal education ended at that age. Early in life he gave evidence of unusual business aptitudes and his experience in the drug business and later in the dry goods business in Atlanta, Ga., gave him a broad foundation for his later work. At- tracted by the breadth and wonderful opportuni- ties of the West, Mr. Shuttles came to Dallas in 1896 and the following year he helped in the establish- ing of the business with which he has since been con- nected.
In 1900 Mr. Shuttles was married to Miss Florence Blankenship whose father is one of the well known men in the construction business in Dallas. A son, Robert S., who is a student in the Powell University Training School of Dallas and a daughter, Dorothy, complete the family. The Shuttles home is in Highland Park where twelve acres have been re- served for grounds and when fully completed the residence promises to be one of the most attractive in Dallas.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
In keeping with his spirit of advancement in every field, Mr. Shuttles has been very valuable both as a contributor and as a counsellor in the founding of Southern Methodist University. In 1916 he was elected to the Board of Trustees and has given much of his best efforts to the advancement of the cause for which it stands. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the local Y. M. C. A. In ad- dition to his connection with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce he is a member of the Dallas State and National Chambers of Commerce and is director of the Dallas Trust & Savings Bank. He is associated with the City Club and with the Dallas Country Club. He is an active and substantial member of the Highland Park Methodist Church.
In spite of the disadvantage of a limited educa- tion, a defect which by wide and careful reading has largely been overcome. Mr. Shuttles has attained a high degree of success and has come into a place of unusual social prominence. His friends have learned to look for him in the fore-front of every worthy movement for social and civic advancement.
AMES DANIEL RODGERS, vice-president of the Rodgers-Meyers Furniture Company, 1917-19 Elm Street, has been in the furni- ture business all his life and has garnered at: amount of knowledge in this line that acclaims him an authority and an expert. There are few men in the country today who know the furniture business as Mr. Rodgers knows it, having devoted his business years of earnest labor and conscientious study. Other officials of this concern are A. N. Rodgers, a brother, president, and T. F. Vorderkunz, secretary.
When Mr. Rodgers, with his brother, came to Dal- las in 1913 and purchased an interest in the Kauf- man-Meyers Company, Incorporated, which was changed to the name of the Rodgers-Meyers Furni- ture Company. This firm was one of the largest retail furniture houses in the South. The building cccupied by this firm is a 60 by 200 foot structure, consisting of six floors, a basement and mezzanine floor. Complete household furnishings are carried, including draperies, rugs, carpets, linoleum, window shades, and, in fact, every article that goes to make a home complete. These stocks are purchased to ac- commodate the needs of every class, from the work- ing man's modest dwelling to the most artistic and discriminating demands of interior decorators. Mr. Rodger's idea being to furnish complete "homes" from cellar to attic. That his plan has proved most satisfactory to the buying public is evidenced by the rapidly increasing number of sales, necessitating the employment of over seventy employees.
Mr. Rodgers was born in Paris, Texas, December 14, 1862. His parents, James W. and Virginia M. Hatcher Rodgers, were Virginians and members of old and aristocratic families of that state. Early in the fifties the elder Mr. Rodgers came out to Texas, traveling the overland route, and settled at Paris, Texas, where he established one of the very first furniture houses in Texas. The Rodgers were united in marriage by the Rev. R. C. Buckner, lately de- ceased, who established the Buckner Orphanage.
Educated in the schools of Paris, Mr. Rodgers be- gan his business career by entering his father's furniture establishment. In 1879, at the age of 16, he had learned the rudiments of the business so com- pletely that he was sent by his father to take charge of a branch furniture store which the elder Rodgers
had opened up at Sulphur Springs, Texas. He re- mained the successful head of this flourishing firm for eighteen years, building up a splendid busines‹ and repeatedly enlarging stock and floor space. In 1897 he returned to Paris with the old firm and re- mained there fourteen years. About 1911 investiga- tion showed that conditions in Dallas were exception- ally favorable for the establishment of a large furni- ture house. Anticipating the inauguration of an un- precedented building era, Mr. Rodgers, with his brother, came to Dallas to look over the field. The result of the visit was that they bought an interest in the Kaufman-Meyers Company, which name was changed to the Rodgers-Meyers Furniture Co.
His marriage to Miss Gretta Beck, of Sulphur Springs, took place in November of 1892. She was the youngest daughter of Dr. H. H. Beck, a pioneer citizen of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers live at 5000 Rieger Avenue.
Mr. Rodgers is a 32d degree Mason, Knights Templar, Knight of Pythias, and a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
B. PERKINS, president of the Perkins Dry Goods Company, at Commerce and Austin Streets, wholesale dry goods dealers, is at the head of a system of stores which has served more people than any other concern handling a similar line of goods in the Southwest.
The wholesale store was originally established in Greenville, Texas, in 1909, with a capital stock of $50,000 and in 1915 it was reorganized and moved to Dallas where the capital stock was increased to $500,000. In 1918 the capital stock was increased to a million dollars and the following year to a million and a half. These figures indicate the in- creasing prosperity which has attended its first five years in Dallas. The new building which it now occupies is a hundred feet square and has ten stories and a basement. This space is devoted entirely to wholesale goods. In addition to the store there is a factory occupying one floor and the basement of a fifty by two hundred foot building. This factory produces the famous "Dixie King" brand pants and overalls. The wholesale house handles piece goods of all kinds, hosiery, ladies' dresses and coat suits and a complete line of men's furnishings. The terri- tory covered consists of all Texas and parts of Louis- iana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. In addition to the twenty-eight traveling salesmen who are on the road the entire year, there are more than a hundred and seventy local employes. A stock varying from two and a half to three million dollars is carried.
Mr. Perkins is a Texas product, having been born in Lamar county, July 31, 1872. His father, T. A. Perkins, came to Texas from Alabama in the fifties and settled in Lamar County. His mother, who was Elizabeth Hunter, is a native of Tennesse. Mr. Perkins received his early education from the public schools of Montague County. In 1898 he began a retail dry goods store in Kaufman, Texas. With rare business foresight he saw the opportunities for a system of retail dry goods stores in Texas and one by one he began to open such stores in various towns until fourteen had been established, all of which were doing a thriving business. In 1909 he entered the wholesale business and six years later he gave up the management of the retail stores and has since devoted his entire time to the wholesale trade.
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In 1905, Mr. Perkins was married in Alvarado, Texas, to Miss Cherie Wallace of Mansfield, Texas. The two sons, Harry and Willard and a daughter, Virginia are with their parents at their home at 4416 Lakeside in Highland Park,
The idea that a native Texan cannot compete with outsiders in the dry goods business has forever been dispelled by the phenomenal success of S. B. Perkins. llaving acquired a thorough knowledge of the retail business, he carried his experience into the whole- sale line and by close application he has made steady advances in the latter field. Throughout his resi- aence in Dallas he has been actively associated with the Chamber of Commerce and is one of the sub- stantial members of the First Methodist Church.
OHN L. DE GRAZIER, president and treas- urer of the Moore-DeGrazier Company, In- corporated, wholesale jewelry, 2nd floor Praetorian building, heads one of the most extensive wholesale concerns of the South. Mr. De- Grazier has a thorough knowledge of the jewelry business and superior managing proclivities. Un- der his direction the company has experienced un- paralled prosperity.
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