USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1 > Part 71
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Moore-DeGrazier Company was established in 1908. At this time the Praetorian building was in course of construction and the firm moved into its rooms before the structure was finished. They oc- cupy the entire second floor of this building and the adjoining building. This company is a wholesale house only, handling jewelry, watches and diamonds, in fact a complete line of jewelry merchandise used in retail stores. Their territory includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico and a part of Louisiana. Three men are kept on the road, and 15 people are employed in the local house. A con- stantly increasing trade has demanded enlargement from time to time and more employes to handle the business. During 1919 the volume of business con- ducted was double that of 1918, and the present year will see a substantial increase over that.
A native of Texas, Mr. DeGrazier was born on August 27, 1878 in Kaufman County, near Dallas, and reared in this city, attending the schools of Dal- las. In 1898, when he was twenty years of age, he entered the jewelry house of Shuttle Brothers and Lewis, remaining with them until 1908. During the years spent with this concern he was an earnest and conscientious student of every phase of the business and was frequently promoted to greater responsibil- ity, until when he resigned his position with them he was one of the executives, having been appointed secretary and treasurer. He left the company to es- tablish his own business.
Mr. DeGrazier is a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar, Shrine, Hella Temple, and a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the Ad League, the Rotary Club. Dallas Automobile Club, Dallas Athletic Club, City Club, Texas Chamber of Com- merce, Board of Appeals, Commercialized Amuse- ments, Dallas Wholesale Merchants Association, Wholesale Credit Men's Association, National Whole- sale Jewelers Association and the Boneheads.
lle takes a keen and active interest in civic affairs, is popular in all circles, and looked on as a leader. Hle firmly believes in the future of his eity and pre- dicts wonderful things for Texas, whose wealth is just becoming known to the outside world.
L. NORSWORTHY, president of the C. L. Norsworthy Company, wholesale jewelers, 1420 Commerce Street, Dallas, has devoted his entire business career to the mastery of the jewelry business and for the past twenty-one years has carried on that line of business activity in this city. He organized the company of which he is how the president in 1912 and since that time has been largely instrumental for its phenomenal growth and development. The company was capitalized at forty thousand dollars and at the present time are engaged in the wholesale jewelry trade exclusively. The home of the concern, which is located at 1420 Commerce Street, has a floor space covering eight thousand square feet and eleven people are employed to care for the local trade. The company does not limit its activities to Texas alone but also has agencies in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas and at the present time employs three traveling sales- men.
Born at Huntsville, Texas, on the 8th of Septem- ber, 1881, C. L. Norsworthy is a son of T. W. and Lucy (Wardlaw) Norsworthy. The father came to this state soon after the Civil War and settled in Harris County, while the mother was a native of Mississippi. Mr. Norsworthy received his early edu- cational training in the public schools of his native city, being a graduate of its high school in 1898. In the following year he moved to Dallas, where he began his business career with the firm of Morgan and Hawley, wholesale jewelers. He worked in the various departments of that concern for the next succeeding four years, after which time he went into the jewelry business for himself. He managed this company until 1911 and in the following year organ- ized the Norsworthy Company, of which he is now the president. Having learned the jewelry trade in the hard school of experience, Mr. Norsworthy has not only mastered it but he is a novice in that line of business activity.
The marriage of Mr. Norsworthy to Miss Emma Schoellkopf, daughter of G. H. Schoellkopf, of this city, was solemnized here and they are the parents of two children, C. L., junior, and George Henry Norsworthy. The Norsworthy home is located at 4912 Swiss Avenue, Dallas.
In fraternal affiliations, Mr. Norsworthy is a thirty-second degree Mason, Hella Temple Shriner .. and also has membership in the City Club, the Cham- ber of Commerce, the Dallas Automobile Club and the Credit Men's Association. In politics he is a Democrat.
In the career of Mr. Norsworthy we have a vivid example of the self-made man; a man who started from the bottom and worked up to the top; a man who takes an active interest in the civic affairs of this city and a man of which she may justly be proud to number among her citizens.
AX GOETTINGER, vice-president of the Titche-Goettinger Company, Elm and Ervay. is connected with an establishment which has done more than its share to make Dallas the chief retail dry goods and clothing center of the Southwest.
The history of the Titche-Goettinger Company. covering a period of almost twenty years has been closely associated with its home city in its growth and ever widening patronage. It began its existence in 1902 in a fifty by ninety foot store at Elm and Murphy streets under the joint ownership and
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management of Mr. Goettinger and Mr. Ed Titche who remains as president of the firm. In 1904, when the Wilson Building was completed the business was transferred to its new location where it has since re- mained.
Three floors of the main building are occupied and in 1912 the annex was completed with twelve floors and a basement. In all there is a floor space of ap- proximately 120,000 square feet. The firm was incorporated in 1902 with a capital stock of $150,000 which was raised in 1912 to $250,000 and again in 1916 to $400,000. The present business has a surplus and capital of over a million dollars. The number of employees ranges from 550 to 700 according to the seasons of the year. An idea of the remarkable growth of the firm may be gained by the fact that in 1920 its valuation was more than twenty times that with which it was begun seventeen years before. Plans are being made not only for an additional ware house but also for beautifying the present location.
Mr. Goettinger was born in Berlin, Germany, May 11, 1862. In 1871 he came with his parents, Maurice and Julia Goettinger, nee Floto, to New York City where he attended the public schools and became familiar with American customs and ideals. In 1877 the family moved to Galveston where they remained for ten years. In 1887 Mr. Goettinger came to Dallas and helped open the business of Fellman, Grumbach and Harris. This firm was succeeded in 1891 by the A. Harris Company with whom Mr. Goettinger remained until 1902 when, together with Mr. Titche, he established the present house of Titche-Goettinger Co.
In 1887 Mr. Goettinger was married to Miss Mamie Ulmen of Milwaukee, Wis., since deceased. There are no children. The Goettinger residence is at 3611 Gaston Ave.
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It would be difficult to estimate the value of the contribution which the institution with which Mr. Goettinger is associated has made to the commercial life of the city of Dallas not the least element of which is the standard of courteous and satisfactory service which it has set. Such a business is living evidence of the genuine integrity of the men who direct it. Mr. Goettinger is a member of the Praetorian Club, the Columbian Club of Dallas, The Southern Travelers of New York and the Metropolis Club of New York City. His church affiliation is with the Congregation Emanuel of Dallas.
OL DREYFUS, vice-president and manager of Dreyfus & Son, "At the Center of Dallas Activities," Main and Murphy, dealers in men's and boys' clothing, has come to fill a large place in Dallas circles, not only as a success- ful business man but also as a man who has the community welfare at heart and as a public spirited citizen.
The Dreyfus Clothing Store, in which Mr. Dreyfus is associated with his father, Gerard Dreyfus, who is president of the firm, was established in 1912 with a capital stock of $60,000 which, in 1919, was in- creased to $200,000. These figures alone would in- dicate the remarkable growth which the business has enjoyed but a better proof of its prosperity is the steadily increasing number of its satisfied patrons. In a city which is comparatively new, it becomes the task of such stores as the Dreyfus establishment to set the pace and fix the standards in the retail
clothing business and for the high plane upon which the Dreyfus concern has been pitched, the city of Dallas should be profoundly thankful. A hundred employes are used and an annual business of one and a quarter million dollars is done. A stock valued at more than $350,000 is carried. Its claim of being "at the center of Dallas activities" is not an over- statement and from whatever angle the traveler ap- proaches the city of Dallas the excellency of Dreyfus clothes is heralded by artistic bill-boards.
Mr. Dreyfus is not a late arrival in Dallas, having been born there on August 12, 1885, and was edu- cated in the public and high schools of his home city. His father, Gerard Dreyfus, was for twenty- nine years with the E. M. Kahn Company, and at the time of establishing his own business he had one-third interest in the company. His mother was Julia Hurst. Immediately upon leaving school in 1900 Mr. Dreyfus took a position with the E. M. Kahn Company where he remained for twelve years. His naturally keen aptitude for business was culti- vated and when his father decided to begin business for himself the son, then only twenty-seven, was thoroughly equipped to become its vice-president and manager. This position he has since retained with increasing success and efficiency.
Every man has his hobbies and perhaps the most noticeable to which Mr. Dreyfus is subject is his love for fine cars and for introducing innovations in the store. One of his latest fads of the type last mentioned is "Barber Bill" with his kiddies barber shop and hobby-horses for barber chairs. To an unusual degree he has shown himself interested in all worthy causes pertaining to municipal welfare and contributes liberally to such enterprises. He is a member of the City Club, the Columbian Club, the Elks, the Lakewood Country Club and has his church a filiation with the Temple Emanuel. Prosperity justly merited and unselfishly used makes Mr. Drey- fus a favorite among a host of friends.
US ROOS, president of the Gus Roos Com- pany, dealers in men's clothing, furnishings and hats, is at the helm of an enterprise whose increasing growth and popularity gives ample proof that it is meeting a permanent demand.
The Gus Roos store was established in 1912 by Louis Schwarz and Mr. Roos as Schwarz and Roos. In 1915 Mr. Schwarz died, leaving Mr. Roos in sole charge and the name of the establishment was changed to Gus Roos Company. The store which it occupies is fifty feet by a hundred feet with one floor and basement. In. 1915 the business was in- corporated for $30,000. A stock of up-to-date men's clothes and furnishings, valued at from seventy-five to a hundred thousand dollars, is carried. Fifteen employes are used and no pains have been spared to make the representation of goods the most trust- worthy and the service the most efficient possible. Special emphasis has been given to the hat line which has resulted in a hat trade second to none in the South, in proportion to the stock invested.
Mr. Roos was born in Alsace Lorraine on Septem- ber 21, 1875. His parents belonged to the substantial farming class of that province. Both were French and his father, Joseph Roos, fought under Napoleon III in the war of 1870. Young Gus, lured by the re- ports of commercial advantages in America, came to this side in 1892 and found his way at once to
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pallas. His first employment was with E. M. Kahn & Co., in which place he remained for ten years. He slowed no principle of business to escape his notice and his naturally keen business insight was con- .tantly enlarged. In 1903 he took a position with Itche-Goettinger as buyer in the nien's department. ยก! ere his preparation for the active management of a business was completed and in 1912 he helped in the establishment of the present firm.
In 1901 Mr. Roos was married to Miss Selma Gradwohl of Dallas. With their only child, Alice, they live in their home at 1833 Forrest Avenue.
A business such as the Gus Roos Company is does not spring up over night nor can it be the result of any policy except that of high class service furnishing a reliable line of goods. Mr. Roos' long experience as a buyer enables him to take a com- prehensive view of the entire clothing market, thus eliminating unwise purchases and his careful study of the American taste makes it possible for him to meet the demands of every occasion. In addition to his close application to his particular enterprise Mr. Roos has made his influence felt as a citizen. He is a Shriner, a member of the Columbian Club, the Auto Club. His church affiliation is with the Temple Emanuel. "For value received" the city of Dallas has come to place upon Gus Roos the estimate of high merit as a successful business man and a loyal, public-spirited citizen.
L. BENSON and C. L. SEMANS, president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the Benson-Semans Company, 1217-19 Main Street, established this modern clothing and gents' furnishing store on September 7, 1920, open- ing one of the classiest retail establishments of its kind in the South. The store is the result of several months' intensive study and planning, and it was evident on the opening day that the results had ex- ceeded even the most sanguine expectations of the enthusiastic young men whose vision and business ability made such an establishment possible. Asso- ciated with these two men as stockholders and active department heads are Al B. Steinau, Frank Cope- land, Jr., and Otto Schmidt, each of long experience in his particular department. The store carries a comprehensive line of the highest grade, nationally advertised men's wearing apparel, including the well known Hart, Schaffner and Marx clothing, John B. Stetson hats and are exclusive agents for Dobb's Fifth Avenue hats and Manhattan shirts. Accessory lines are of the same high grade and it is the avowed intention of the proprietors to make this the leading clothing store of Dallas. New and modern fixtures, walnut window backs and a comprehensive decorating and lighting scheme make the store one of more than ordinary attractiveness.
C. L. Benson, head of the establishment, was born at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, September 2, 1886, a son of J. and Bronna Benson. He was educated in the public schools. For twenty years he was engaged in the clothing and men's furnishing business at Shreveport with his father and brothers and is re- garded as an expert in every detail of retail mer- chandising. For nine years he was manager of Dreyfus and Son in Dallas. In 1917 Mr. Benson was married in New York City to Miss Sybil Lowenberg. daughter of P. Lowenberg. They reside at 1408 Forest Avenue. Mr. Benson is a member of the B. P. O. E., Lakewood Country Club, Columbian Club and Temple Emanu El.
C. L. Semans is a native of Iowa and was born at Des Moines, December 2, 1888, a son of J. M. and Rena (Nelson) Semans. His father was a well known Iowa business man, owning retail jewelry stores in Iowa.
Educated in the public and high schools of Des Moines, Mr. Semans later attended Highland Park Academy and then entered the commercial world. He was associated with Rothchilds and Son in Kansas City and after removing to Dallas was connected with E. M. Kahn and Company for nine years. He knows the hat industry and enjoys the respect and confidence of his business associates and all who know him.
On March 6, 1911, he was married at Kansas City to Miss Mary Elizabeth Schroeder, daughter of C. Schroeder, well known business man of Des Moines, Iowa. They reside at 607 East Eighth Street.
The Benson-Semans Company, although launched in the latter part of 1920, has already achieved an enviable position in retail clothing circles. It was launched as a new store, new merchandise and new ideas and is living up to the pre-opening announce- ments of its plans. It occupies a three-story build- ing fifty by one hundred feet and has 32 employees besides the partners who are actively interested in the business.
AMES M. MORONEY found his opportunity in his father's business, the Moroney Hard- ware Co., at 1113-1209 Patterson Avenue. He entered the business when he left col- lege in 1915, and now, at the age of twenty-seven ne is president of the company which has a capital stock of $500,000.
The company is one of the pioneer business or- ganizations of the city. It was founded in 1875 by James Moroney, who came to Dallas from Ireland in the seventies. Ten years later, in 1885, the busi- ness was incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000. In 1918 the capital stock was increased to half a million dollars -- an increase of 900 per cent in thirty-three years.
The Moroney Hardware Company carries on ex- clusively an extensive wholesale business with North Texas as its territory. The plant consists of a two- story building, 175x200 feet, on Patterson Street, with 100x100, three stories, making a total floor space of about 100,000 square feet.
Mr. Moroney is a native of Dallas, born here on July, 10, 1891, the son of James Moroney and Lenora McQueen Moroney. To Dallas, also, belongs the credit of his education, in part at least. He at- tended the University of Dallas, finishing his educa- tion at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. One of the most popular leaders in the younger so- ciety set, in 1917, he married Miss Maidie Dealey, the daughter of Mr. George B. Dealey, president of the A. H. Belo Company publications, which com- prise the Dallas News, the Dallas Journal, and the Semi-Weekly Farm News.
The Moroney home, at 3653 Maplewod Avenue, in Highland Park, is one of the most charming in the city. Mr. Moroney's two little girls, Mary Elizabeth and Jean, give to it the atmosphere of a real home.
Mr. Moroney is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the City Club, the University Club, the Dallas Country Club and one of the livest members of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
A young man of proven leadership in business, society and civic affairs, Mr. Maroney is one of the most forward-looking citizens of Dallas.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
ILLIAM C. HIXSON, proprietor of Wm. C. Hixson Company, laboratory furniture and apparatus, 1610 Bryan Street, has had an interesting career that has carried him around the world. Mr. Hixson's personal attributes and his qualities of leadership have fitted him for the high places in life, and were it not for the fact that a business career is necessary to financial inde- pendence, he would probably have spent his days in the diplomatic circles of foreign capitols.
Mr. Hixson began his present business in 1905, by selling school furniture throughout the state. He has furnished lockers and equipment to schools, col- leges, Y. M. C. A.'s, large hotels, banks, and big corporations and manufacturing institutions in every part of Texas. He carries a picturesque and extensive line of laboratory apparatus, including the many intricate devices employed by modern scientific methods that seem so complex to the un- initiated, and handles everything in the way of gym- nasium and playground equipment, being the repre- sentative of the three world-famous manufacturers of apparatus and equipment: Kewaunee Manufac- turing Company, the Fred Medart Manufacturing Company, and the Central Scientific Company. He has not only met with marked success in his work, but has been able, through his knowledge of ad- vanced methods, to render to the schools and colleges of Texas an appreciable service.
Mr. Hixson was born in Webster County, Georgia, near Preston, on March 14, 1869. His parents, John O. and Martha T. Hixson, were old residents of Webster County, their families being among the first to settle in Georgia. When he was nine months old his family moved to Union Springs, Alabama, where his boyhood was spent. After finishing the public school course in Union Springs he entered the University at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was graduated with honors from this institution, re- ceiving -his A. B. degree in 1890 and the degree of Master of Arts in 1892. The following two years he taught in Clarborne College at Homer, Louisiana, coming to Texas at the end of that time and accept- ing the principalship of the high school at Long- view. While here he received the appointment of United States Marshal and later acting consul and vice-consul to China. The day before sailing for the Orient he was married to Miss Pearl Rivers Howard, a Texas girl and daughter of J. C. Howard, of Long- view. Diplomatic services kept him in Foo Chow, China, for three years, or until the expiration of Cleveland's administration, when he returned to the United States and became head of the English department of the high school at Waco, and then principal of the school. After four years he was appointed chief clerk of the state department of education at Austin. His present work, rather than a digression, is an outgrowth of his years of work in educational capacities, and his personal observa- tion of the needs of schools and colleges.
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When Wilson's election ushered in another Demo- cratic administration, friends and admirers of Mr. Hixson urged him to accept a portfolio for the United States Government as consul to some for- eign locality, but he declined, being already well established and feeling that it would entail too many sacrifices.
Mr. and Mrs. Hixson have three children, Daphne (now Mrs. W. B. Curtis, of Tuskegee, Alabama), William C., Jr., who is attending the University of
Texas, and Jack Howard. Their home is at 2810 South Boulevard.
Mr. Hixson is a Knight of Pythias, a Delta Kappa Epsilon, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Traveler's Protective Association, D. O. O. K., and the Baptist Church.
E. HALABY, 115 Field Street, is an artist. His particular line is interior decorating, and examples of his art can be seen in a number of the fine homes of Dallas and Fort Worth, and throughout the South.
Mr. Halaby is a native of Syria, the original honte of the Hebrews, the Hittites, the Phenicians and other nations connected with Old Testament history; the country where Abraham dwelt; where the Hebrew kingdom was established and where David and Solomon reigned, and that portion of it known as Palestine drew the attention of the world because it was the land in which Jesus Christ lived and in which Christianity was founded. His birthplace was Akka, a city and seaport lying at the foot of Mount Carmel, his entry into the world being recorded March 17, 1880. His father, Elias Halaby, was a a man of prominence in this Syrian city, being treas- urer of Akka. His mother was a native of Egypt. and before her marriage was Miss Almas Mallouk.
When Mr. Halaby was 8 years old his parents came to the United States and settled in New York, where the elder Mr. Halaby engaged in newspaper work. The son entered the public schools of the city and all went well until the death of his father.
Mr. Halaby was 14 years old when his father died, and the death of his parent made it necessary for him to withdraw from school and go to work. He took up interior decorating and continued in the profession until 1891, when he went to South Amer- ica and engaged in mercantile and gold mining busi- ness. Returning to the United States in 1898, he went back to New York but remained there only a short while, going to New Orleans, where he spent two years. He came to Dallas in 1910 and some of his best work in interior decorating and home furnishing has been done in Dallas homes.
He is the owner of the largest line of Oriental rugs in Texas, his stock being carried at Fakes Furniture Company, Fort Worth.
In 1918 Mr. Halaby went into the oil business and was interested in the organization of several com- panies. He now owns about 40 to 50 barrels of production per day. Although successful in his oil activities, Mr. Halaby loved his profession too well to abandon it, and he is now getting back into deco- rative work. He is prepared to furnish homes com- pletely and correctly, making a specialty of ex- clusive residences.
Mr. Halaby is married and lives at 3529 Beverly Drive, Highland Park. His wife, Laura (Wilkins) Halaby, is a native of Graham, Texas, the daughter of W. T. Wilkins, a deceased ranchman. They were married in Dallas, July 5, 1914, and have one son, N. E. Jr. Mr. Halaby is a 32d degree Mason and belongs to Dallas Consistory No. 2, and Hella Temple Shrine; he is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce, the Auto Club, Cedar Crest Country Club, the Dallas Athletic Club and the Dallas Art Asso- ciation. He worships at the Christian Science Church.
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