USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1 > Part 91
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Born at Marlborough, Massachusetts, in the year 1870, E. D. Balcom is a son of S. E. Balcom, a prominent citizen of Marlborough. He received his early educational training in Nova Scotia and when fourteen years of age came to Nebraska where he began farming. A few years later in 1889 he moved to New Mexico, locating at Eddy with the Pecos Irrigation and Improvement Co., and from 1889 to 1898 was with this company, being promoted to the position of chief Engineer and General Manager of the Hogerman Irrigation and Improvement Com- pany, a subsidiary Corporation. This position lie held until 1906. While there he was engaged in irrigation work and for fifteen years devoted his time to overcoming the natural elements of that country. In 1906 he moved to Texas, locating in the Toyah Valley, where he developed and placed in cultivation some ten thousand acres of barren land. This land, which before irrigation, was considered as worthless, raised from two to three bales of cot- ton per acre after Mr. Balcom had instituted his ir- rigation plans. For twelve years time Mr. Bat- com served as secretary and treasurer and general manager of the Toyah Valley Live Stock Company and he deserves the credit for the development of this vast portion of Texas territory.
In July 1918 Mr. Balcom joined the army receiving the rank of 1st. Lieutenant in Quartermaster Depart- ment, serving at Camp Alexander.
In 1907 Mr. Balcom married Miss Emma Ream, of Illinois, and they are the parents of two children, Misses Thelma and Imogene Balcom. In civic or- ganizations Mr. Balcom is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Automobile Country Club and the Officer's Club of Dallas.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
HOMAS M. DEES, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Republic National Bank and Trust Company of Dallas, and Presi- dent of the Hog Creek Oil Company of New Mexico, with offices at 500 Guaranty Bank Building, Dallas, has been active in the financial and business affairs of this city for the past twenty-five years. He was one of the organizers of the Hog Creek Oil Company, which was one of the pioneer oil concerns in the Desdemona fields and at the present time has a charter from the state of New Mexico to do busi- ness in that state. Mr. Dees is also one of the or- ganizers of the Guaranty State Bank and Trust Company and has devoted a large portion of his time to its ever growing business.
Born at Moss Point, Miss., January 24, 1873, Thom- as M. Dees is a son of M. A. Dees, a pioneer lumber man of that state. His primary education was re- ceived in the public schools of his native city and in 1889 he became a student of the University of Texas, where he pursued his studies for the following two years. In 1895 he moved to Dallas and was associa- ted with the Oriental Hotel Association. Three years later he moved to Midlothian and began a mer- cantile business, which he still own's and operates. While there he was president of the Citizens Lumber Company, the Midlothian Mercantile Company and the Farmers Guaranty State Bank. He also ac- quired large tracts of farm lands in Ellis county and at the present time owns approximately two thousand acres of agricultural land in Cameron County, eighteen-hundred acres of which is in irri- gation. He returned to Dallas in 1917 and soon thereafter organized the Hog Creek Oil Company of Texas. This was one of the most successful small oil companies of this state, selling its stock in 1919 for six million dollars and paying for each one hun- dred dollar par value stock in the company ten thous- and dollars. He also organized the Guaranty State Bank and Trust Company of this city and has manip- ulated several large real estate deals, such as the building of the Dallas Athletic Club. At the present time Mr. Dees is president of the Tom Dees Company of Texas and the company has leased one hundred thousand acres of land in that state for drilling pur- poses.
In 1899 Mr. Dees married Miss Mattie Hawkins, a daughter of John W. Hawkins a Midlothian farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Dees are the parents of four children, Thelma, Wacil, Tom,Jr., and Gladys.
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A business man of the larger caliber, a philanthro- pist and a friend to all deserving movements, and ac- tive developer of the resources of our great common- wealth, Mr. Dees has attained his mark of high dis- tinction in the business development of our city and state.
B. AIKEN, oil operator, with offices in the Western Indemnity Building, Dallas, has been actively engaged in the oil business for the past thirteen years. A native Texan, he was born in Hood County on the 19th day of Aug- ust, 1883. He is a son of W. J. Aiken, who came to this state in 1866 and for a number of years was a prominent cattleman. The younger Mr. Aiken re- ceived his early educational training in the public schools at Weatherford, Texas, and after graduation there attended the Baylor University, at Waco, for his higher training. After leaving school Mr. Aiken
returned to his father's ranch and for the nert seven years was engaged in the cattle business. In 190> he became interested in oil and since that time has devoted his entire time to that line of business ac- tivity. He first began in Texas fields but later be- came interested in the Louisiana, Kansas and Ken- tucky oil fields. In 1919 he returned to Texas, loca- ting in Dallas. While in Dallas Mr. Aiken has his residence at the Adolphus Hotel.
In fraternal orders Mr. Aiken has membership in Masons at Hood county, Texas, and in the Elks, at Weatherford. He is a firm believer in the future greatness of the City of Dallas and in all instances has been a fervent booster for its supremacy.
W. BROWN, president of Brown and Com- pany, Incorporated Oil Producers, 1307 Great Southern Life Building, Dallas, has been engaged in the oil business in the Texas fields for the past ten years. As the presi- dent of this company he has gained recognition in oil circles and his unusual success in this field is attributed to his judgment in the production line. Brown and Company was organized in 1917 and its officers now are as follows: W. W. Brown, presi- dent; Orville Thorpe, vice-president; W. W. Carter, secretary and treasurer; C. C. Slaughter, A. M. Matson, Reece S. Allen, directors. Besides having a number of producing wells in Stephens and Wichita Counties this concern also owns leases on thousands of acres of land in other proven fields. In North and West Texas it has drilled several wells and all have turned in oil in varying quantities. It has leases on several thousand acres of land in Coleman, Wichita, Wise and Parker counties.
Born at the city of Vernon, Wilbarger County, Texas, on the first of February, 1889, W. W. Brown is a son of W. W. Brown, Sr., who was a Texas pioneer and banker of Electra, Wichita County, Texas. His early educational training was secured by attendance at the public schools of his native eity, which was supplemented by a course of training at Grayson College. Upon leaving school he began work with the Waggoner National Bank of Vernon. Later he was transferred to the Waggoner National Bank of Fort Worth and in 1910 organized the First National Bank of Electra. He also organized the Guaranty State Bank of Avoca and the Lueders State Bank of Lueders, and the Guaranty State Bank at Breckenridge. In 1911 he began the oil business in the Electra field and since that time has always been actively identified with that activity. For the next seven years he was engaged in securing leases and oil properties and by 1917 had accumulated a large number of oil leases, which he placed in the W. W. Brown Company, Incorporated, which he or- ganized in that year.
On January 4, 1921, Mr. Brown completed the or- ganization of the Brown Petroleum Corporation of Delaware, with main offices in New York City. This company will be the holding company of various oil properties in the mid-continent oil fields. The capi- tal stock being 200,000 shares authorized.
On September 3, 1911, Mr. Brown married Miss Ferguson, daughter of W. S. Ferguson, a large land owner of Missouri, and they are the parents of one child, Miss Jacqueline Brown. Mr. Brown has membership in the Dallas Country Club, in the City Club and a number of other local civic organizations.
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MEN OF TEXAS
C. PARKER, oil operator, is a big man in city of big mien. Mr. Parker is well known for distinguished service rendered the com- monwealth as a Christian minister, pastor- ing during the last twenty years, some of the most progressive churches in several sections, and, be- cause of his unusual activity on behalf of the civic as well as religious welfare of every community in which he has lived, Mr. Parker has the distinction of having served as secretary of various Chambers of Commerce and as the mayor of Midland, Texas.
Mr. Parker is a native Texan, he was born on June 30, 1876, at Bazzette, in Navarro County, Texas. His parents, Henry Jordan Parker and Charlotte Temple Parker, came to Texas in 1849. Johnson College of Knoxville, Tenn., and Randolph College at Lancaster, Texas, gave him the best avail- able education of his day. He then began his active career as a Christian minister in which capacity he has served for more than twenty years. While a minister at Waxahachie, Texas, he also served as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and at Mid- land, Texas, he was not only a pastor but was chosen mayor of the city. His interest has been for rural welfare of his sections of the state as well as for civic righteousness and beauty and help better rural conditions, in 1913-14 he served as government farm demonstrator along with his Christian work. The result is that Mr. Parker for many years has been one of the most effective men in appealing to the best interests of a people by identifying himself with those interests and in an immense territory he is universally known and esteemed.
On June 30, 1900, at Dallas, Texas, Miss Annette C. Lynch, from Selma, Alabama, became the bride of Mr. Parker, they have three children, Morris W., now at Texas Christian University, Alane E., age twelve, and Forrest Rupert, age ten. The family has residence at 3528 Beverly Drive, Dallas. Mr. Parker is a member of the Odd Fellows and Wood- men and is a Shriner at Hella Temple. He is a philanthropist known to the colleges and univer- sities of the state and by the twenty or more young men and women he has been keeping in college.
Whether A. C. Parker is viewed as a man of busi- ness, a minister, or philanthropist, he is one of the big men of the state and will have a large part in its future just as he is so eminently identified with its present.
B. GREGORY, general manager of the New Domain Oil & Gas Company, which is owned by the South Penn. Oil Company, a sub- sidiary of the Standard, came to Dallas in January, 1918, and assumed the management of this company, which owns production in Kentucky and Texas and thousands of acres of leases in various counties in Texas. A branch office is maintained at Cisco, Texas, and drilling operations are being car- ried on in Eastland, Stephens and Young Counties.
Mr. Gregory is an oil operator with many years' experience in the great oil fields of the United States, and for the past forty years he has worked in prac- tically all departments of the departments of the business in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Texas. He was engaged in extensive operations in Oklahoma where he built a refinery and a casing head gas plant, which he sold. He was superintend- ent for the South Pennsylvania Oil Company for sixteen years, and was vice-president and general manager of the Muskogee Refinery at Muskogee for
three years, and president of the Crown Pipe Line Company of Muskogee. His home is now in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Gregory was born in England in 1861, and came to the United States with his parents when a child, and his father becoming an American citizen by naturalization, made the son an American citizen also.
Mr. Gregory was married August 8, 1883, to Miss Emma E. Sopher, of Centretown, Mercer County, Penn., and they have three children, Cassie (Mrs. S. M. Robertson), Wm. Walter, assistant purchasing agent for Cosden and Co., Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Vera Irene. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar and Shriner belonging to the Consistory at Wheeling, West Virginia. He is also a member of the B. P. O. Elks Lodge No. 198, Park- ersburg, W. Va., and an associate member of the American Petroleum Institute. He is greatly in- terested in Dallas-thinks it is a wonderful city with a great future. The oil possibilities of the state, he says, have barely been scratched, and continued de- velopment will bring great wealth and thousands of progressive people to the state.
HEARON BONNER, president of the State Refining Association, and senior member of the Bonner Loan and Investment Company of this city, has for the past fifteen years been actively engaged in Dallas business affairs. He is exceptionally well known as an examiner of titles to land and as a member of the Bonner Loan and Investment Company is considered as an authority in that line of business affairs. The State Refining Association was organized in June of 1919 and has recently erected its plant just west of the city limits of Dallas. The plant covers twenty acres of ground and has a capacity of fifteen hundred barrels per day.
A native of Tennessee, Shearon Bonner was born at the Village of Troy on November 24, 1881. Soon thereafter his family moved to Texas, locating at Decatur, and it was there that he received his early education. He graduated from the Dallas High School in 1899 and four years later received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas. He then began the study of law at Cumber- land University, where he received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1906. He then returned to Dallas and began the practice of his profession, which he continued until 1910 at which time he began to specialize in the making of farm mortgages. Soon thereafter the Bonner Loan and Investment Com- pany was organized and since that time Mr. Bonner has examined over five thousand abstracts and is today recognized as an authority in that line of legal work. His company now does a yearly business of about a million dollars and probably does the largest farm mortgage business of any firm in this city. In 1919 the State Refining Association was organized and Mr. Bonner has devoted a great part of his time to its activities.
In February, 1919, Mr. Bonner married Miss Ella Brown, daughter of F. O. Brown, a contractor and builder of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Bonner are the parents of two children, Francis Sue and Shearon Bonner, Junior.
In fraternal affiliation Mr. Bonner is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon College Fraternity. He also has membership in the Ad League, the Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Automobile Club, the City Club and the Lakewood Country Club ..
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
EDGAR PEW, vice-president of the Sun Company, American Exchange National Bank Building experienced oil operator, is considered easily one of the best posted men engaged in the oil industry in the Mid-Continent field. His experience in the business dates back to 1886 when he became connected with the Peoples Natural Gas Company, remaining with this concern until 1896 when he became identified with the Sun Oil Company. He had charge of the company's refining business at Toledo from 1896 until 1901 when he came to Texas as general agent of the newly organized Sun Company.
The Sun Company was organized in 1901 by J. N. Pew, an uncle of J. Edgar Pew, at Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania. The original capitalization was two million dollars which has since been increased to six . million eight hundred thousand dollars. J. Howard Pew is now president of the company which is one of the largest of the so-called independent group of cil operators. The Pews are among the oldest operators of the Pennsylvania field and organized their present company primarily to handle their Texas business after this state came into prominence as an oil producer twenty years ago. The company operates in all of the South Texas fields, in Louisiana and in Oklahoma where its business is conducted through the Twin States Oil Company, of which J. Edgar Pew is president. Refineries are located at Marcus Hook, Pa., Toledo, Ohio, and Yale, Okla- homa. The Sun company also owns and operates the Sun Ship Building Corporation at Chester, Pa. Be- sides its fleet of tank steamers, the company owns and operates 1,200 railroad tank cars and has 150 miles of pipe line. The production is approximately ten thousand barrels. The producing end of the business in the Mid-Continent, Texas and Louisiana fields is under the direction of J. Edgar Pew, with headquarters at Dallas, Texas.
After remaining with the Sun company from its organization until 1913, Mr. Pew operated independ- ently in the Tulsa fields until 1914 when he became manager of the Carter Oil Company which was owned by the Standard of New Jersey. He remained with this concern until 1918 when he returned to the Sun company as vice-president. It was in that year that he came to Dallas and established his residence in a beautiful home at 3032 Stratford Avenue, High- land Park.
Besides his connection with the Sun company, Mr. Pew is president and director of the Twin States Oil Company of Oklahoma; president and director of the Sun Pipe Line Company of Texas; a director of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, and a director of the American Exchange National Bank of Dallas.
RED M. LEGE, Jr., operator in oil and gas properties, as vice-president of the North Texas Gas Company, ofces at 509-10 Scol- lard Building, Dallas, Texas, with the North Texas Gas Company, is a well known Texan, whose business operations in the oil and natural gas busi- ness affect many homes in Northern, Central and Western Texas. The North Texas Gas Company, in the oil and natural gas business, distributes natural gas to twenty cities and towns in north and central Texas.
Corpus Christi, Texas, was the birthplace of Mr. Lege, on October 29th, 1881. His parents, Fred M. and Matilda Kappke Lege, are both native Texans.
The public schools of Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas, gave the youth his early education. As his life work, Mr. Lege entered the public utility business, which he has faithfully followed for the past twenty-six years. In 1914 he embarked into the natural gas and oil business, continuing his connections with the public utility industry. For three years he served as vice-president and general manager of the Lone Star Gas Company and during the first year of his con- nection with this company, the Lone Star entered the oil business in connection with its natural gas pipe line business. During the past twenty-six years, Mr. Lege has, by personal experience, become a master in the public utility and oil and gas business, and today is one of Texas' pioneers. He is president of the Galveston Gas Company, Galveston, Texas, Terrell Electric Light Company, Terrell, and of the Calvert Water, Ice and Electric Light Company, Cal- vert, Texas, and is a director in other companies.
Miss Natalie Mayer of Austin, was united in mar- riage to Mr. Lege at her home city on October 16, 1907. Marion Natalie, Elva Sealy, Shirley Rose and Fred M. Lege, III., are their children. The family residence is in Munger Place, 5302 Swiss Avenue.
Mr. Lege is a Mason of both the Scottish and York Rites, with membership in the Harmony Blue Lodge No. 6 of Galveston and is a Shriner with member- ship in the El Mina Temple, Galveston. The City Club of Dallas, the Dallas Country Club and the Automobile Club have laid claim to this prominent citizen's membership. He is a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce, and his church affiliation is Epis- copal.
Mr. Lege has dedicated his life to the public utility and oil and gas business and is one of the most able men in his field.
OL. T. H. BARTON, oil operator, has been connected with the industry since January. 1919, buying and selling leases principally. and expects to do some drilling on a few scattered tracts he has in North and Central Texas fields. He has holdings in the various Texas fields. Prior to coming to Dallas in 1912 Col. Barton was in the wholesale lumber business in East Texas, where he operated the Barton Lumber Company. He is a native of the State, born at Marlin. Falls County, in September, 1881. His grand father, L. B. Barton, was one of the founders of that county and its first county clerk. His father, T. K. Barton, was a merchant in Marlin for many years. He attended the public schools of Marlin and finished his educa- tion at the A. & M. College.
Col. Barton is a veteran of the late war, in which he served with distinction, entering as captain of the 141st Infantry and quitting the service as Colonel of the Fifth Texas Cavalry, to which he was appointed in June, 1918, and which commission he still holds. His marriage to Miss Weatherford. a native of Falls County, was consummated January 15, 1905, and they have two fine sons, Clark N., aged 13 years, and Thomas K., aged 11 years, and the family resides at 815 Elizabeth street, Oak Cliff. Col. Barton is a member of the higher bodies of the Masonic order and the Mystic Shrine. He predicts that the Southwest will become the richest section of the United States and that Dallas will be the great hub of the section. He expresses the opinion that continued development for oil will make the State the greatest producer in the Union.
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MEN OF TEXAS
LPHON' E. BOGER, president of the A. E. Boger Oil Company, 611 Great Southern Life Building, Dallas, directs attractive holdings and production in some of the richest oil fields of Texas, acquired previous to recent booms but sharing the immense develop- ment of the last few years. Associated with hin in the firm organization is L. R. Boger, Jr. Hold- ings are in the K. M. A., the Kauger and North- west Fields, it is he who drilled the Boger wells of these districts, that bring in attractive daily tribute. While Texas has to her credit oil for many years, yet Pennsylvania and many other states have led her in this industry until the recent development of the rich fields of the northwest and west in the Lone Star State. These territories have fastly brought Texas to the front among Uncle Sam's oil producers in the last few years-and that develop- ment is just started. In what has been done, the Boger interests have had a good part and will be active in the immense development of the future. Mr. Boger owns the Boger Building at Dallas.
Texas claims the entire life-history of Mr. Boger. He was born at Vernon and there and in the terri- tory to its southeast his activities have been spent thus far. T. R. Boger and Lura (Eggleston) Boger, both deceased, were his parents. After Wichita Falls schools had given him their best, Mr. Boger entered T. C. U. from which he graduated. As a business career, he began the oil business and has continued with it. The fields of Wichita and Okla- homa are scenes of his operation.
At El Paso, Texas, Miss Olive McConnell became the bride of Mr. Boger. Juanita is their daughter and the family residence is at 3632 Maplewood, Dallas, and Biltmore Hotel, New York City.
Mr. Boger is a member of the D. C. Club, the City Club, and of the Bankers' Club of New York. Wherever he has been, from the Panhandle of Texas to which he is a native, through the oil fields to which he is devoting his energies, to the metropolis -whether Dallas or New York City his present resident home-Mr. Boger has identified himself with big business and with the civic life and interests of the people. No section of the United States has before it a surer claim to the future than does the territory in which the A. E. Boger Oil Co. is operat- ing and in that development the Boger interests will have a big part.
EORGE L. CROFFORD, oil operator, 226 Slaughter Building, Dallas, has been a citi- zen of this city for the past twenty-seven years and is especially well known for the active part he has taken in construction and building activities. Although he has abandoned that line of business activity for the past few years he is still remembered as a member of one of the largest con- struction companies of this city. For the past few years Mr. Crofford has devoted his energies to the oil business and the company that he now heads owns valuable oil properties throughout Northern Texas. The Texas and Inter-State Petroleum Company. which he organized, capitalized at one million dol- lars, having a number of producing wells in the Burkburnett field besides having leases on over fifteen thousand acres of oil land throughout the state, was recently sold to the Buffalo Producing & Refining Co.
A native son of Mississippi, George L. Crofford was born in the year 1881 and is a son of George L.
Crofford, who was associated with the Blankenship and Blake Manufacturing Company of this city. He received his early education in the public schools of his native state and at the age of thirteen years came to Dallas where he finished his education. He began his first business experience in the building line, being a member of the firm of Cobb and Crof- ford, contractors and builders. This firm built the majority of the homes now located in Oak Lawn, a portion of the Dallas residence district, and are often referred to as the builders of that section of our city. They also built from four to five hun- dred of the fine residences of Munger Place and Highland Park. In 1912 the firm began to special- ize in the building of apartment houses and many of the finest ones now located in Dallas were planned and constructed by them. The firm has recently recommenced its business and at the present time is constructing a number of houses in Highland Park. In 1917 Mr. Crofford became interested in the oil business and since that time has devoted the major portion of his time to that line of activity.
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