USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1 > Part 97
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Mr. White was born at Hope, Arkansas, on March 28, 1894. His parents are W. H. and Emma May . White. After completing the public school course, Mr. White finished from Ouachita College and then from the Mining College of the University of Arkan- sas. The profession of geologist has always been his from his graduation. In this capacity he has served with the Gulf Refining Company, Mid-West Refining Company of Denver, the Gypsy Oil Com- pany and the Gulf Production Company at Tulsa. Oklahoma. During a period of four years Mr. White was associated with M. J. Munn, chief geolo- . gist of the Gulf Refining Company of Pittsburg ..
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Marca S. allen
MEN OF TEXAS
For some time he served as assistant chief geologist . : the above company, in North Texas, with of- 4:es at Wichita Falls. Realizing the opportunities " this section of Texas he resigned from this . sition in September, 1918, and began operations " his own account first as geologist and later as -dependent operator.
On April 7, 1917, Miss Pansia Neely, a Texas girl, 'came the bride of Mr. White at Throckmorton, Texas. Her father, J. S. Neely, is a cattleman. They have a daughter, Gwendolyn, and the family " side at 1660 Elizabeth Street.
Mr. White is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce of Wichita Falls and is active in every interest nat furthers his city as well as busy in his own activities. As operator and thorough geologist, he 4 doing a good work that will grow with the oil :lustry.
C. PARKS, Bob Waggoner Building, Wichi- ta Falls oil operator, president of the Asso- ciated Oil Company of Texas, is one of the leaders in one of the rich oil fields of the southwest. Associated with him in an official capac- ity, are R. M. Waggoner, vice-president of the com- pany; R. J. Brown, of Henrietta, as secretary, and H. M. Henderson, of Wichita Falls, as treasurer. The Associated Oil Co. of Texas operates in all Wichita County fields, principally in the Burkburnett district, Texhoma and Burk Townsite territory. They also hold attractive leases in various North Texas oil fields. The company has an authorized capitaliza- tion of $5,000,000, $967,000 of which have been issued. July, 1919, was the organization date when the Hapgood, Brown and Parks interests consoli- dated.
Mr. Parks is a native Texan. He was born at Breckenridge on December 8, 1883. His parents, Charles H. Parks, a stockman, and Mary Henrietta Henderson Parks, were among the early settlers of Texas. As they moved to Palo Pinto County while their son was very small, he was educated in the public school system of that county. At the age of seventeen he became telegraph operator with the I'. & P., served in various towns of Texas with this road until in 1909 he came to Henrietta as superin- tendent for the S. W. R. R. and in 1912 he was elected vice-president and general manager. In 1917 lie was appointed receiver for this road and still holds the receivership of a railroad running from Henrietta to Archer City, a distance of thirty miles. He managed the successful campaign of Congress- mian Parish. For the last five years Mr. Parks has been active in oil operations and ten years prior to that he was active in handling leases.
In 1905, at Sweetwater, Texas, Mr. Parks married Miss Rebecca Sloan of that city. They have two boys, Mercer and Asbury. The family has residence at 1823 Lucile Avenue. Mr. Parks is a Knight Templar and a Shriner of the Maskat Temple.
B EN S. MERRILL, American National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, is president of the Golconda Oil Company No. 1, and vice- president of Golconda Oil Company No. 2. The Golconda companies are bringing in wells con- tinuously and are among the most attractive or- vanizations. Associated with Mr. Merrill in the Golconda Oil Company No. 1 as officials are S. L. Conn as vice-president and O. W. Smith, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Merrill's organization is operat- ing in the Northwest Extension, Block 83, and has
an interest in twenty-seven producing wells that roll in a very attractive daily yield. In January, 1919, the Golconda Company began its operation in Wichita County.
Mr. Merrill comes from Illinois. He was born in that state, at Chicago, on December 20, 1873. The Chicago public schools furnished the lad with his education. At the age of twenty-five, in 1898, he began as a salesman on the road for the John U. Farwell Company; his was the Northwest territory until 1911, he was first introduced to Texas by being assigned to southwest territory. He came to Wichita Falls at that time and made his headquarters there for West Texas and New Mexico. He continued this work until starting into the oil business.
Mr. Merrill is a member of the B. P. O. Elks and of the Wichita Golf Club. As one who has had years of experience as a traveling salesman, he is an unusually good mixer and has a host of friends. He is also known to business men over the entire West. By virtue of such training and ability, Mr. Merrill is admirably fitted for his position as presi- dent of the Golconda Oil Company and he and his company are making good. They are both pro- gressive and have already attained success to a very attractive degree. He will be a leader in the oil industry for many years to come.
AROLD C. GRAFA, JR., successful young oil operator and real estate man, member of the firm of Grafa and Hartt, began business in Wichita Falls, January 10, 1919, immediately following the discharge of himself and partner, O. R. Hartt, from the air service of the United States army. The two men were pals in the army, both being in the air service and most of the time in the sanie capacity and with the same outfit. They were discharged on the same day at Call Field and came immediately into Wichita Falls and entered business together. Although they had but limited capital, both men were energetic and ambitious and determined to succeed and the results achieved dur- ing the past several years have more than justified their confidence and determination.
Entering the oil fields adjacent to Wichita Falls, they were very successful in their lease operations and secured production. Their holdings include valuable leases in Wichita and valuable leases in Young, Coryell, and Hardeman counties, and in the new Mexia field. In Oklahoma they also have prop- erties as well as in Louisiana.
Mr. Grafa is a native Texan and was born at Cleburne, September 21, 1892, a son of H. C. and Alice (Witharn) Grafa. His father is a pioneer resident of Cleburne and has been in business there for many years. After attending the public schools and high school at Cleburne, Mr. Grafa entered the University of Texas but left his work there to enter the army. He joined the air service and was com- missioned a lieutenant in the A. S. A. and assigned as instructor at Rockwell Field, North Island, San Diego, California. He was also stationed at Post Field and Call Field.
On October 12, 1918, Mr. Grafa was married at Walters, Oklahoma, to Miss Josephine Tyler, a native of California.
Mr. Grafa is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Scottish Rite bodies and the Wichita Shrine Patrol. He also is a member of the Wichita Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
B. HAMILTON, as president and general manager of the Texhoma Oil and Refining Company, with capitalization of $6,000,000, is head of one of the leading oil businesses
of Texas. Headquarters are at 908-919 City Na- tional Bank Building. It was in May of 1916 that Mr. Hamilton left Dallas for Wichita Falls where he opened up the Texhoma pool. Production at present from this rich find is 3,200 barrels daily for the company's part, and they are drilling many more wells in various north Texas fields. The com- pany has one refinery at Wichita Falls with a daily capacity of 3,000 barrels.
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Mr. Hamilton was born in Coryell County, on November 22, 1887. His father, W. F. Hamilton, was a rancher who now, retired, resides at Fort Worth, Texas. His mother was Sarah Wilson Ham- ilton. Young Hamilton graduated from the Jones- boro high school in 1903; in 1908 he finished from Polytechnic College at Fort Worth, and in 1913 he received his M. A. degree from the University of Texas. Prior to his graduation, he taught school for three years, from 1908-1911. He was with the Fort Worth high school for two years and with the Itasca high school for one year, as mathematics professor and athletic coach in both places. From 1913-1916 he was secretary-treasurer and manager of the Walker-Hamilton Investment Company, of Dallas, Texas, which bought real estate, improved and subdivided and remarketed it. In 1916 he left this business for Wichita Falls where he began the business he has since so ably developed until it is a multi-million organization.
On September 23, 1913, the daughter of Judge A. W. Walker, well known lawyer, judge and oil man, Miss Pearl Walker, became the bride of Mr. Hamilton at Dallas, Texas. To them two children have been born, Wm. Walker and John Martin.
Mr. Hamilton is a Mason, a member of the Wichita Club, of the Wichita Country Club, of the Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Public Health and Sanitation Committee and superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school.
He is also a director of the City National Bank of Commerce and is a member of the Business Council of the Chamber of Commerce.
The unparalleled development of Wichita Falls will continue for three reasons: It is in a great agricultural district, is a distributing point for a vast territory, and one of the greatest oil fields of the United States, Mr. Hamilton being placed at such a center with his organizing and directing ability, with his company not an experiment and backed by millions, is sure to continue as one of the leading oil men of the Southwest territory.
OROS H. MARTIN, City National Bank V ( Building, Wichita Falls, vice-president of the Texhoma Oil and Refining Company, not only is a leader in oil circles but as president of the Chamber of Commerce of his city for 1920 is, by virtue of his position of leadership one of the chief men in the development of Wichita Falls, and his city is conceded to have the greatest claim on the future of any Texas center. This is a big responsibility and honor-and no one better appreciates it and can better measure up to it than Noros H. Martin.
Mr. Martin is an Iowan by birth, having been born at Clarinda, of that state, on March 9, 1883. His parents were George E. Martin, native of New
Jersey, and Alma Remington Martin, a native of Wisconsin. Immediately after a completion of his theoretical education in the Clarinda public schools, the youth, at an age of seventeen, began a career of banking. This beginning was in the Page County State Bank at Clarinda in a clerical capacity. From this humble beginning he worked his way through every intermediate position to the vice-presidency. But Mr. Martin's father owned stock ranches in Wichita and Clay counties, Texas. And as Kipling says, "Thereby hangs a tale." Noros H. Martin came out to Texas to check up on the ranching in- terests of his father and while doing so he realized the big possibilities of the Texas oil industry. He became active at once, in 1917, and has from that date been among the men who do things. He served as president of the Chamber of Commerce of his city in 1920, president of the Wichita Welfare Coun- cil, was county chairman of the United War Work Campaign during the late war, and is vice-president of the Texhoma Oil and Refining Company, a $5,- 000,000 corporation. Associated with him in an of- ficial way is W. B. Hamilton. His company operates in all fields of Wichita County and has its largest holdings in the Texhoma fields. The Texhoma Oil and Refining Company already has over a hundred producing wells with more arriving continually. Mr. Martin has other interests in oil and in cattle ranches in Clay and Wichita counties and is a di- rector in the City National Bank of Commerce, one of the strongest banks in the Southwest.
In 1904, at Clarenda, Iowa, Miss Nellie C. Potts, of that state, became the bride of Mr. Martin. They have two children, Mildred and Jack. The family residence is at 2014 Eleventh Street. Mr. Martin is a member of the B. P. O. E., a member and first president of the Wichita Club, a member of the Golf Club and in church affiliation is a Methodist.
A leader in the biggest civic undertakings of the principal city of Texas, energetic and able as a business man, Mr. Martin is at the forefront in a city of big men.
UY J. BROWN, well known oil operator and business man, with offices at 712-15 City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, has taken an active part in development of oil in the fields of Northwest Texas and in the growth and development of the city of Wichita Falls. Mr. Brown is interested in many companies, among which are McCalister-Brown, McBam Oil Company, Adams Oil Company, Itex Oil Company, Norton & Clins and Adams & Brown, the latter dealing in real estate principally. Mr. Brown's oil operations are principally in the Ramming fields, and he has an interest in sixty producing wells in Wichita County and in four hundred acres of proven oil property in Texas and Oklahoma.
Mr. Brown came to Texas from Fulton, Mo., where he was born on December 23, 1885, and acquired his education in the Texas public schools. His parents were W. C. and Cynthia M. (Renoe) Brown. His first interests were in farming in Wichita County. In 1907 he began his career in the oil profession serving as tool dresser and later as driller. He re- mained with this line for about eight years and in 1915 began contracting, and in 1916 he removed to Wichita Falls where he has continued his activi- ties along the oil line. He is associated with T. P. Adams, and W. J. McCalister, who are both well known business men throughout Texas.
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M.B. Hamilton
nsx martin
MEN OF TEXAS
Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Minnie 1. Ward, a native of Texas. They have three chil- ren, Dorris, Reva Ray, and Wilma. The family come is located at 1616 Tenth Street.
Mr. Brown has witnessed an unusual growth of his adopted city for the past five years and he has ever been interested in and assisted in all matters going to the advancement of Wichita Falls civically and commercially.
EORGE A. WORKS, president of the Texas- Illinois Company, operating in the Kemp- Munger-Allen and Northwest fields of Texas and Duncan, Oklahoma, is interested in about forty wells, and also has an interest in approximately 2,000 acres in Wichita County. He began his operations in the Wichita Falls territory in 1918. He had formerly operated in the Beaumont and Electra fields. His cil field operations were begun at Beaumont in the Spindle Top field, in 1901, where he remained several years. He then left the state for a number of years. Returning in 1909 he located at Vernon. where he operated at Electra for a while. He came to Wichita Falls in 1918 and has been operating here since that date.
He is secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Oil and Gas Company and of the Texas Bankers Oil Company, and is interested in the American Na- tional Bank, the City National Bank and the Farm- ers State Bank, the latter located at Vernon.
Mr. Works is associated with E. P. Hicks, inter- ested in erecting business and office buildings in Vernon and in developing real estate locally.
Mr. Works is a native of Texas, born at Ennis, December 17, 1877. His father, A. M. Works, was one of the earliest settlers near Waxahachie, and his mother was Mary Campbell. His education was acquired at the Ennis public schools.
His first experience in the oil business was se- cured in the office of the Haywood Oil Company at Beaumont, and when he left that firm he engaged in business on his own account and has met with success.
Mr. Works was married at Alton, Ill., in 1915, to Miss Florence Enos, a native of that state, and the union has been blessed by two interesting boys, George A., Jr., and Landon. The family home is at 1605 Buchanan Street, Wichita Falls.
He is a member of the Wichita Club, the Wichita Golf and Country Club, the Vernon Country Club, the Chamber of Commerce and worships at the Episcopal Church.
RANK H. GOHLKE. Wichita Falls, as an in- dependent oil operator and proprietor of the Gohlke Drilling Co., has played a big part in the development of one of the richest oil fields of the world, ranking with the world-famed fields of Mexico and Russia, as in Wichita and Clay Counties he has drilled and had an interest in 100 wells, thirty-seven of which are located in Archer County. He entered the oil business in 1911, when the Electra Field was first brought in and was among the earliest in the Petrolia Field and he helped de- velop the Panther Pool in Archer County. Until 1920, Mr. Gohlke and Chas W. Bean were associated as partners under the firm name of Bean-Gohlke, but since that date Mr. Gohlke has operated alone and independently.
Mr. Gohlke comes from Kentucky, his native state, where he was schooled. In 1908, he answered the call of the Lone Star State and came to Wichita Falls to
organize the Chamber of Commerce of which he was Secretary for eighteen months. Then with Mr. Bean as the Bean-Gohlke Real Estate Company he opened, improved and sold the Floral Heights Addition. As Mr. Bean owned land at Petrolia, they organized the Developers' Oil Company and began drilling; Mr. Gahlke was secretary and later general manager of the company, and Frank Kell was president. The early daily output was 750 barrels for the lease and today, after ten years, the same lease is still pro- ducing. Later they organized the American Oil & Gas Company and brought in one twenty-million- cubic-foot gas well, but in those days there was no market for the gas and the well was abandoned. From that date Mr. Gohlke has been active in all the oil fields of Northwest Texas.
Back to his home state, Kentucky, in the city of Louisville, Mr. Gohlke returned for his bride, Miss Callie Lee Brashear, they now have two children. Bernice B. and Robert Lee, and the family reside at 1612 Tenth Street.
Mr. Gohlke is secretary of the Forest Country Club and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
As a leader in his section from the date of his ar- rival in 1908 as the organizer of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Gohlke has had an active part in all the immense development that has come to that part of the state and he will continue to be a leader in business circles there for many years to come.
ILLIAM R. DUKE, American National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, as vice-president of the Texas Wonder Pools Corporation. which now has six wells pouring in a hand- some daily tribute and leases in all the representa- tive northern Texas fields, is one of the enterprising business men who will be a factor in the great de- velopment of Texas' newest but biggest industry. Sam Sparks is president of the Texas Wonder Pools, Inc., with E. R. Week, of Spokane, E. F. Thompson, Pittsburg, as vice-presidents.
Mr. Duke was born at Stephenson, Alabama, in May of 1880. His parents are W. M. Duke and Sallie Odell Duke. His native state gave him his education. As a youth of nineteen he entered the Spanish-American war in 1899, went to the Philip- pines, remained two years, and, upon his return in 1901, located at Nashville, Tenn. He then began railroading and followed this profession for thirteen years. During this time he was stationed at Nash- ville, then at St. Louis, next in Oklahoma City, later in Caldwell, Kansas, and at El Reno, Okla. He served throughout this period with the exception of two years as yard master and superintendent of terminals. In 1912 he first came to Wichita Falls, Texas, where he rounded out the last two years of his thirteen with the railroad. He then began the life insurance business, which. after three and a half years of experience, he left for the oil business in 1917, with which he has been ever since.
At Nashville, Tennessee, in 1902, Miss Edna Pearl Harper, a Tennessean, became the bride of Mr. Duke. They reside at 1508 Tilden Street. Mr. Duke is a member of the Wichita Club, his church is Christian. He is one of the most progressive and able of Wichita Falls citizens. He was active in many of the war drives, and was the director of advertising for six states in the United War Work campaign. He will be a prominent factor in the immediate great future of his city and territory.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
I. STALEY, City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, is president of the Security National Bank of that city and independent oil operator. The bank was organized by him in 1920, at which time he was made president. His banking experience has been considerable, hav- ing been a director in the First National Bank of Burkburnett and active in it until coming to Wichita Falls. He is also a director of the National Bank of Commerce, of Fort Worth and a director of the F. & M. Bank at Nacona, Texas. But it is prin- cipally as oil operator that Mr. Staley is engaged. He now has a daily production of 700 barrels in Breckenridge and Wichita cunties. In both of these fields he is putting down several wells individually.
Mr. Staley is a native Texan, having been born in Mills County, on June 18, 1888. His father, J. A. Staley, was born in Wise County and is active in the oil business. His mother was Mrs. Alice Blair Staley. Montague County was the place of the youth's education, as regards book learning, while he counts as his most valued training his course in the university of experience.
The firm of Staley, Langford and Chenault was organized in 1915, and drilled 100 producing wells and 15 dry wells, all in Wichita County. They had about 3,500 barrel production and manufactured about 20,000 gallons of gasoline per day. In Jan- uary, 1921, the firm sold their holdings for about $5,000,000 to a Chicago concern.
Activities other than business have laid claim to Mr. Staley. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, of the Dallas Consistory, & member of the Maskat Shrine of Wichita Falls, a member of the Wichita Club, the Wichita Golf Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Staley recently bought a 5,000 acre irrigated ranch in New Mexico which he will use for a summer home. He also leased 50,000 acres for cattle, and expects to have about 3,000 head of Hereford cattle on the ranch.
In 1910 he was married to Miss Delia Hawkins, at Wichita Falls, a native of Wichita Falls. They have three sons, Jim, Jack and Joe. The family has resided in Wichita Falls since 1915.
No city in the United States has a brighter future before it than has Wichita Falls. This future is not of the sensational type, but permanent and sure because of the agricultural backing, its interests as a distributing point and a chief oil center of the Southwest. The two professions of banking and oil operating, therefore, are destined to lead. And Mr. Staley is at the forefront in these two leaders.
A. GARDNER. 250 producing wells in Wichita County, 200 employees under his management, and the development of oil leases of many thousands of acres of proven territory in the same county. keeps J. A. Gardner, 614 Bob Waggoner Building, Wichita Falls, the gen- eral agent for the Wichita district of the Gulf Pro- duction Company, busy and happy. Mr. Gardner has been in the employ of the Gulf Company since 1907, when he began the oil business under their direction and has had practical experience in every phase of the business since.
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Mr. Gardner is a native Texan; he was born at Beaumont, on April 18, 1890. His parents are J. A. Gardner, a pioneer lumberman of East Texas, and Lou Mullens Gardner, whose family was of Waco. Beaumont public schools furnished the youth with
his theoretical education and then practical oil scout- ing, leasing and oil development in Louisiana, South. ern Texas, Mexico and other fields with the Gulf Production is completing his practical training tha: he is cashing in. 1907 marks the beginning of this career; then from 1909 to 1913 he was kept activ .. by his company about Shreveport, La., spent the year of 1913 under their direction at Tampico, came back to Louisiana in 1914 and remained there until 1918, was transferred in February of that year to the Fort Worth office, assisting W. B. Pyron, vice- president, and when Mr. Larkin resigned, he was sent, in March, 1918, to Wichita Falls to take charge of the Wichita County business. This company is not only one of the biggest in Texas from the stand- point of production over the state, but it is also getting as large a share of the production in the Wichita fields as any organization.
Mr. Gardner was married in 1914, at Shreveport, La., to Miss Frances Lynn of that city. Originally she was a Kentuckian. They have a daughter, Nell; the family resides at 1805 Elizabeth Avenue. Mr. Gardner is a Mason to the thirty-second degree, a Shriner of the Maskat Temple, a Knight Templar of Wichita Falls, the Shreveport Consistory, a member of the Wichita Club, the Wichita Golf Club, and a Methodist in church affiliation. As one who from his first beginning in the oil business fourteen years ago has stayed with one big company, and has risen from an inexperienced beginning to a place of di- rectorship and piloting of the company's business in one of its richest districts, Mr. Gardner is of proven ability as one of the really big oil men of Texas.
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