USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1 > Part 98
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EE FLOWERS, Wichita Falls, oil operator, of the Lee Flowers & Company organiza- tion, extensively engaged in operation in the Northwest Extension field for the last few years where he already has had more than a score of big producers; his activities lately are still being continued chiefly in that territory, though leases are held in Crocker, Hood, and Wilbarger counties and Mexia. Mr. Flowers operates mostly independently though some of his holdings are by the Lee Flowers & Company.
The oil fields of western and northwestern Texas. as perhaps rediscovered a few years ago, are today listed in the greatest oil sections of the United States. While Texas has to her credit oil produc- tion that was profitable before the income of tliese fields, yet not until the recent development in her newer fields was the Lone Star State approaching first rank as an oil producer. This development that has greatly increased Texas' rating in the oil in- dustry is only yet in its beginning, and one of the centers of the new development is where Mr. Flowers and his company are most active today.
Mr. Flowers is a native of Kentucky; he was born at Columbia of that state on June 3, 1893. His father, G. T. Flowers, was a lumberman. After receiving his education in his native state, Mr. Flowers came to Texas to begin his business career, locating at the outset in Wichita Falls, in 1913, where he has made for himself a sure place among her business men. At first he started with the automobile business, was with the Texas Tire and Supply Company for a year, then with the Franklin var, and later for one year with the Flint-Maxwell Hardware Co. In 1915, he began the oil business. In addition to the interests already noted as his, he has holdings with the Western Oil Corporation,
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: Texas Chief Oil Company and the Chenault- Rowe Co.
On December 19, 1917, his war service began, - the aviation work; he was stationed at Call Field : St. Paul, Minn., and later at Mather Field at sacramento, Cal.
Mr. Flowers is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce and very active in the affairs of the Wichita « lub.
JOSEPH A. SWATON, City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, oil operator, trustee, and sales and refining manager for the Uni- form Gasoline & Petroleum Company, as "e who has been superintendent of great oil plants and refineries for twenty-five years and as inventor ! x process by which 25 to 30 per cent more gaso- .. ne can be secured from by-products than before --- .s one of the best efficiency men dealing in oil products today. Any company that has his service s a leader in his department. His refinery is turn- ng out 4,000 barrels a day; it was organized in 1.15, with a capital of $65,000. J. G. Culbertson is president, T. B. Smock, treasurer, and W. H. Stoecker, secretary. Mr. Swatson promoted the company and built the plant, which is located in Burkburnett.
Mr. Swaton was born at Cleveland, Ohio, Decem- ber 18, 1881. His parents were A. A. Swaton and Mary Maresh Swaton. The public schools of his home city gave him his schooling, and then Mr. Swaton began his business career by entering the drug business. In 1895 he decided the oil industry offered better opportunities than the drug business and accordingly he began an association with the Standard Oil Company in his city, but after nine months he left to go with the Canfield Oil Company at Caraopolis. He remained with them for five years. In 1901 he took charge of the manufacture of lubricating oils with the Island Petroleum Co. He served in this capacity for three years and in 1904 entered the employ of the Indian Refining Company, of Georgetown, Ky. In 1908 he changed his headquarters to East St. Louis, where for two more years he had charge of his company's two re- fineries and inspected all oils shipped. In 1910 he resigned his work with the Indian Refining Com- pany and went with the Mid-Continent Oil & Refin- ing Company as superintendent of their plants for two years. In 1913 he took charge of the three refineries of the Consolidated Oil Co. at St. Louis. The General Petroleum Company of Los Angeles took him to California in 1916. He built a crack- ing plant for this company at Vernon, Calif., which 'teures from twenty-five to thirty per cent more gasoline from by-products than does any other Known process. The Federal Government took this intention over for its exclusive use in manufacturing war materials. In 1917 Mr. Swaton began his present affiliation in Texas.
Miss Myrtle Greiner, at Coraopolis, Penn., in 1902, became the bride of Mr. Swaton. They have one child, Norman. The family reside at 1914 West Santa Barbara Street, Los Angeles, Cal. Mr. Swaton :« a Shriner, of the Ainad Temple, Knights Templar and a member of Mississippi Valley Consistory, all of East St. Louis, Ill. His church affiliation is Presbyterian.
As one who is thoroughly informed on refineries and the manufacture of oil products and as inventor of a process that gets more gasoline than any other
known process, Mr. Swaton is a refinery expert and will continue to endeavor to improve the methods of his profession.
JOHN E. LAWLER, oil operator and formerly secretary and general manager of the Prescott-Phoenix Oil and Gas Company, came to Wichita Falls in June, 1920, and assumed the management of this company which was under the control of Senator W. H. Reynolds, of New York City. Mr. Lawler was associated with Senator Reynolds in other enterprises for a number of years and brought to the management of the Prescott-Phoenix a valuable fund of experience gained in other lines.
Mr. Lawler is a native of New York City, born there December 11, 1892, a son of John H. and Jane F. (Gallagher) Lawler. He was educated in the schools of New York City and at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., graduating there with the degree of bachelor of arts in 1914.
Entering the business world he was associated with Julius Kayser and Co., silk dealers, and the Brown-Durrell Company, both of New York City. The latter company is controlled by Senator Rey- nolds, president of the Prescott-Phoenix Oil and Gas Company.
Mr. Lawler entered the army on the outbreak of the war and was commissioned a first lieutenant and assigned to the 157th Infantry, stationed at Camp Kearney, San Diego, California. He sailed for France in July, 1918, and participated in the Argonne offensive. After the armistice he remained in France for some time with the claim service of the reclamation department.
Mr. Lawler is a member of the Knights of Colum- bus.
M. THOMAS KNIGHT, president and or- ganizer of the Arkansas-Texas Company, Wichita Falls and Little Rock, as director of a company with a $2,500,000 capitaliza- tion and with valuable properties in Texas and Arkansas, is one of the progressive leaders of the new era in the oil industry of the Southwest.
A native of Arkansas, Mr. Knight was born at Berea, on May 27, 1886. His parents are James K. Knight and Georgia Gammel Knight. Georgians who settled in Arkansas before the Civil War. The public schools of his native state gave the youth his training. Immediately upon reaching his majority in 1907, young Knight came to Texas and went into the land business. He was at Clovis for four years. then located at Slaton, in Lubbock County in 1911. where he continued the same business there. In 1918, he came to Wichita Falls where from the first he has been classed with the leaders who do and achieve things. In 1919 he organized the company which he directs. Associated with him in the organi- zation were M. L. Caldwell, vice-president, and C. C. Baker, secretary-treasurer. The Arkansas-Texas Company operates in Wichita County and Arkansas fields.
In 1916, at Dallas, Texas, Miss Susie Tally, of Moody, Texas, became the bride of Mr. Knight. They have two children, W. T., Jr., and Mary Sue.
Mr. Knight is a leader in social activities as well as in business. He is a member of the B. P. O. F ... the W. O. W., the Wichita Club and has membership in the Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association. His church affiliation is with the Baptists.
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ATHAN B. CHENAULT, City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, formerly partner in the firm of Staley, Langford & Chenault, also of the Chenault-Rowe Com- pany and the Rowe, Staley & Chenault Company- is one of the biggest operators and holders of oil interests about Wichita Falls today. He is also a director of the City National Bank of Commerce, the American Refining Company, the Lone Star Tool Company and the Chenault Wheat Auto Company. His company have to their credit the biggest prop- erty sale on record in Wichita County, even with single deals running into the millions of dollars, when, in January, 1921, his firm sold to the Kansas & Gulf Company one piece of property, of which they were the sole owners, that had on it already 100 producing wells. These three men, Nathan B. Chenault, J. I. Staley and P. P. Langford, in firm capacity, still associated in this firm.
Mr. Chenault was born in Sumner County, Ten- nessee, on February 22, 1880. His parents were H. Chenault and Sallie Bullock Chenault, and in 1887, when their son was but seven years of age, moved to the Lone Star State, locating in Hill County. The Texas school system, therefore, gave the youth his education. In the meantime, in 1908, the family moved to Wichita County. The elder Chenault erected two business buildings, one located adjoining the City National Bank of Commerce and the other adjoining the First National Bank on Indiana. Here, in 1913, Nathan B. Chenault began the contract business for drilling wells. In 1915, he became associated with Mr. Langford and Mr. Staley, an association that has continued ever since with profit to all. Prior to his contract work in drilling, Mr. Chenault had been a farmer, acquiring 160 acres around Burkburnett. His farm brought in the second producing well in the Burkburnett fields, Smoker No. 1, on other territory being the first. This was on November 20, 1912. About a dozen other producers were brought in on his farm, the oil business in that section of the state not having reached the stage of rapid development which it attained a few years ago and has retained to the present. With the rapid development period this district is now in, Mr. Chenault has been and still is a leader, making the biggest deals of his terri- tory. In addition to his oil and banking interests Mr. Chenault aided in the upbuilding of the city by the erection of the $160,000 Chenault Wheat Build- ing on the corner of Tenth and Burnett Streets and the Chenault Building on Scott Avenue.
In 1914, at Wichita Falls, Miss Edith Aurelia Mathis became the bride of Mr. Chenault. They have two children, Nathan B., Jr., and Phoebe Jane. The family residence is at 2500 Tenth Street. Mr. Chenault is a Knight Templar, a Shriner, a 32d degree Mason and a Maskat Temple; he belongs also to the Elks, the Wichita Club, the Wichita Golf Club and the Rod and Gun Club and the Cham- ber of Commerce. He is active in the social and civic affairs of his city and in its business interests and deals he is at the forefront.
J. McALLISTER, City National Bank Build- ing, Wichita Falls, oil operator, is a pioneer in the oil business of Texas, being one of the very first in this industry in southern Texas, and is famed over the state of Texas because of his immense ranch known as the Goodnight Ranch, where buffalo as well as cattle are raised.
There is scarcely a place in the state that does not know of the Goodnight Ranch because of this unu- sual feature of it. Mr. McCalister, as a partner in the firm of McCalister & Brown, operates in every oil field of Wichita County. He is a partner in th .. association of Adams, Brown & McCalister, as well as being connected with various other individuals and companies. He holds an interest in fifty of the best producing wells of Texas while some Oklahoma wells are his also, besides a large acreage of leases. The Goodnight Ranch, of which he is sole owner, contains 13,000 acres and is stocked with 700 Poled Angus and Hereford cattle of thorough bred stock, and a herd of 200 buffalo; he also has on his ranch eight Elk and twelve deer. The ranch is in Armstrong County, forty miles east of Amarillo.
Mr. McCalister is a native Texan, having been born in Bosque County on June 3, 1875. His father was R. T. McCalister, a farmer, and his mother Mamie Gandy McCalister. The schools of southern Texas gave the book education and the ranches, the big West and the oil business have provided the practical training of this Texan. In 1896 he first began his oil career. He started at $1.25 a day in the Corsicana fields. He personally witnessed the bringing in of the first oil wells of Texas that yielded oil in paying quantities in any part of the state. For five years he was at Spindle Top, Sour Lake, and in the Humble and Batson Fields. In 1907, he came to the Petrolia field where he has been operating as a producer ever since.
In 1904, Mr. McCalister married Miss Elizabeth Sikes of Corsicana. They have five children-two daughters, Janie and Joe Bailey, and three boys, Melbourne, Glen and W. J., Jr. The family residence is at 1822 Lucile Street, Wichita Falls. Mr. McCal- ister is a member of the Elks, of the Wichita Club. the Golf Club, and the Rod and Gun Club. His church affiliation is Methodist.
As a pioneer in the oil business who has been con- nected with the bringing in of the first paying wells of Texas, and as one who has continued in the oil in- dustry to this day, together with his immense hold- ings, Mr. McCalister will continue a prominent fig- ure in the oil business as he has been in the devel- opment of Texas since his boyhood.
ARRY G. GORDON, oil operator of the H. G. Gordon & Company, actively operating in the Breckenridge, Humble and Bull Bayou fields, the latter in Louisiana, is at the heart of the richest oil section of the Southwest and is well known in this section. He has acreage in the middle of the proven section of Breckenridge which is claiming a part of his energy. While Texas has possessed actual oil fields pouring forth a produc- tion for many years, yet until recently she was far down the scale of the oil producing states; many of the eastern and central states surpassed her. But . with the discovery of the immense possibilities of the fields of western and northwestern Texas within the last few years as oil territory, the Lone Star has rapidly advanced in the oil industry until now she is pushing for first in this output.
Mr. Gordon is a native of Texas; he was born at Houston on July 22, 1892. His parents are A. L. Gordon and Ella (Hardy) Gordon, his father a busi- ness man in his city. The splendid school system of this leading Texas city, equipped for a decade with the best endowed university in the South, gave
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tim his education. After schooling, for seven years Mr. Gordon followed the banking business in his stive city, and then entered the oil industry at the me place which he followed there for three years. :: 1918 he came to Wichita Falls where his head- parters were maintained for a time. His Louisiana holdings of semi-proven territory and his Humble kaldings he will develop from branch offices.
Mr. Gordon resides at 1816 Tenth Street, Wichita Falls, during his stay here. He is a member of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce and of the Texas Chamber of Commerce.
HESTER HERBERT ATHERTON, well known engineer and oil man of Fort Worth and Wichita Falls, came to Wichita Falls on November 1, 1919, and participated in the a -organization of the E. M. F. Oil and Refining Company and was then placed in charge of its affairs. The company was organized about the middle of 1919 with a capitalization of one million dollars. Mr. Atherton was one of its principal stock- holders but had not participated actively in the management until the re-organization in November when he was made vice-president and general manager. Upon giving up the active management of the company, Mr. Atherton transferred his head- quarters to Ft. Worth where he resides.
C. H. Atherton is a native of Iowa and was born at Marshalltown in 1877, a son of Judge R. C. and Gertrude (Cole) Atherton. His father was a promi- ent lawyer of Iowa and for thirteen years was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa. Judge Ather- ton aided in building the International and Great Northern Railroad under Herbert Hoxey and founded a school at Drake.
The preliminary education of young Atherton was received in the public and high schools of Des Moines and he then attended the Univesity of Notre Dame, graduating there in 1899 with the degrees of C. E. and M. E. After completing his University train- ing Mr. Atherton became identified with the Des Moines Bridge and Iron Works and for ten years con- ducted a jobbing business in steel in Chicago. He was with the Morova Construction Company of Chicago for five years and during the war was with the Zimmerman Steel Company of Davenport, Iowa, building and changing foundries engaged in war work.
On November 3, 1916, Mr. Atherton was married at Chicago to Miss Florence Carroll, daughter of a well known Chicago family. They maintain their residence at 1931 Fairmount Street, Fort Worth, and Mr. Atherton divides his time between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls.
Mr. Atherton is a Thirty-Second Degree Mason, a member of the Shrine, and is also a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.
C. BARNHART, Wichita Falls, is an active independent operator in the oil fields of Texas as well as a pioneer in the wireless service, where he has made many unusual records and as one of the leading automobile men of Cuba, and then, too, a miner in Arkansas and Missouri where he has considerable holdings and interests. In the oil world he is known as the or- ganizer of the Mangale Oil Company, 1919, through which he is expressing his energies in the oil in- dustry, he also has interest in the Red Burk Oil Company, and a personal interest in ten acres in Oklahoma, near Tulsa, where he is operating as
well as in the Temple-White field out from Wichita Falls. He has charge of the Mangale Ranch where most of the work of the Mangale Oil Company is being conducted. These new fields have already been proven productive and are bringing in handsome tributes; their development is still in the beginning but this beginning is so fruitful that a big future is sure for them.
Mr. Barnhart was born in Tiogo, Texas; his father was C. D. Barnhart, well known in his part of the state. After his common school training, Mr. Barn- hart took technical work in Michigan and in Eng- land and entered the, at that time, new world of wireless telegraphy. He has the distinction of hay- ing put up and operated the first boat equipment of wireless service in the United States; he built the Morro Castle wireless station, and as a trained and expert pioneer in this realm, he has many "first" records to his credit. 'He has been active in rail- road service and for fourteen years, at Havana, Cuba, he had the largest automobile establishment on the island. The zinc deposits of the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri are scenes of his active operation and in these interests he still retains holdings.
In 1896, at Potterly Penn., Miss Farnsworth be- came the bride of Mr. Barnhart. They have one son, Joe, age eleven, who is in school; the family reside at Springfield, Mo.
Mr. Barnhart is a Mason with membership in the Blue Lodge No. 556; he is a good mixer with his fellow men and has a host of friends in ex- tensive territories. As a developer of new fields proven productive by his activity already, he and his organization will be heard from.
UNCAN K. BELL, vice-president and gen- eral manager of the Clifford-Bell Petroleum Company, Bob Waggoner Building, Wichita Falls, with ships of his goods plying every ocean and assignments to all continents is one of the largest wholesale jobbers in every type of finished oil products in the South. The oil fields of western and northwestern Texas are among the largest in the world, ranking with the famed fields of Tampico, Mexico, and Russia. It is the coming in of this territory that rapidly brought the Lone Star State to the forefront among Uncle Sam's territories, though she has had an oil production of long standing. Mr. Bell, Mr. M. A. Bundy, Mr. N. M. Clifford and Mr. G. C. Jehle are officers in the Clifford-Bell Petroleum Company, are right at the heart of this district and are perhaps the leaders in all the Southwest in their sale of the finished oil product. The company was organized in June, 1919.
Mr. Bell is a native of Texas as he was born at Marshall, of this state, in 1887. His father, R. A. Bell, is a railroad engineer of many years seniority in Marshall, Texas. After completing the public school system, Mr. Bell took thorough business courses and then began a career with a railroad company at Texarkana as a stenographer for seven years. At the end of that period he came to Dallas with the M. K. & T. Ry. in whose employ he re- mained for eighteen months. He then moved to Wichita Falls in 1914, with the Fort Worth & Denver and retired from the position of chief clerk with that road on August 1, 1918, to become traffic man- ager with the Lone Star Refining Company. In April, 1919, he severed this connection and two months later his immense business of today was
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established and launched; the organization was in- eorporated on January 22, 1920.
In 1916, at Wiehita Falls, Miss Tempe Thompson became the bride of Mr. Bell, theirs is one of the most substantial of suburban homes about Wichita Falls. Mr. Bell is a Mason, an Elk, a Knight of Pythias, a Woodmen of the World, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Trathe Club. One of the most enterprising men of his progressive city and with a sale that is reaching all markets of the world, he is one of the big men in that Texas city of big men.
G C. JENSEN, oil operator and refinery, presi- dent of the Sunshine State Oil and Refining Company, American National Bank Build- ing, came to Wichita Falls from Oklahoma City in 1917 and founded the above company. Other officials of the company are W. F. Ramming, vice-president; H. M. Larkin, secretary and treas- urer; L. F. Ramming, F. W. Prachel, J. E. Wolf, F. G. Keyes and W. Lancaster. The company owns a modern steel and brick refinery of 2,500 barrel capacity about two miles northwest of Wichita Falls, on the Iowa Park Road. The equip- ment is up-to-date in every respect and a force of about twenty-five workmen are employed. The refinery site is situated on a tract of 150 acres. Most of the company's oil production comes from the Burkburnett and Kemp-Munger-Allen fields, the company owns leases scattered throughout the state. The Sunshine State Oil and Refining Company started on a capital of $300,000 and now has a total of $1,212,056.57 invested.
The Sunshine Pipe Line Company was organized in 1918, and their line runs from their refinery to the Kemp-Munger-Allen field, about 45 miles. The ca- paeity of the line is about 60,000 barrels. The com- pany is a common carrier and was organized with a eapital stock of $100,000. The investment is now $219,707.72. In December, 1920, the Sunshine State Oil and Refining Company purchased the Sunshine Pipe Line Company.
Mr. Jensen formerly owned a ranch in the North- east Panhandle for about six years, prior to moving to Oklahoma, where he spent five or six years on a ranch. He has been in the oil business exclusively since 1902, and formerly operated in Oklahoma and Kansas. He is a director of the Western Refiners Association. He was formerly in the live stock busi- ness in eastern Cawley County, Kansas. From there he went to Payne County, Oklahoma, east of Cushing. There he remained for five years. Then he went to the Northeast Panhandle where he owned three miles of water and the land adjoining and enjoyed the free range. He remained there until 1910, after leaving there he bought the Mabel Grove stock farm in Brown County, Kansas, selling that in 1913 and engaged in the oil business in Oklahoma and moved to Wichita Falls in the spring of 1918 and organized the above companies which were later . consolidated.
Mr. Jensen is also interested in other enterprises, farm lands and has a winter home in Florida.
Mr. Jensen is a native of Denmark, born August 27, 1870. His parents were C. Jensen and Anna Christine Godfreysen Jenson, both of Denmark, and both deceased. He was educated in Denmark and the Manhattan School of Kansas. He was married in Oklahoma City in 1916, to Miss Mary Lutz, and the family residence is located in Kemp Court. Mr. . years and was a highly successful business man.
Jensen has a daughter, Mrs. Wilma Jensen Sulliva: by a former marriage. Her husband is lieutenar. F. S. Sullivan of the U. S. N., in charge of the Gres: Lakes Naval Training Station. During the war h. was in charge of the Matawaska transport ship.
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