USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2 > Part 10
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In 1888, Mr. Hagaman came to Ranger as principal of the public schools. As a teacher he was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. He brought to the State ideas and ideals of the purpose of education and how school should prepare boys and girls for their greatest achievements. That his ideals and methods were right is proven by the fact that the great number of boys and girls who acquired most
of their education under his guidance, have mad. good in their various lines as farmers, teachers, do .. tors, business men and railroad men.
In 1892, he located permanently in Ranger, ar . went into the hardware and farm implement business and for about seven years, supplied most of the trad .. in these commodities. Selling out his business, I .. turned his attention to the land and cattle business To the development of this business Mr. Hagama- spent about eighteen years. His ranch and farr east of Ranger was one of the best equipped ars most modern in this section of the country.
In October, 1917, the Texas Pacific Coal & O .. Company brought in their discovery oil well west (.' Ranger. The history of Ranger and Eastland Count. was changed as if by a fairy hand. One of the first wells of the field was drilled on Mr. Hagaman's land. However, as an agressive business man, Mr. Haga- man was not satisfied with his royalties but has in- vested in many enterprises, among them, the loca: refinery business. He also built and now operates the city water works. The lake that supplies the city impounds about half a billion gallons of water and is one of the largest in West Texas.
Of the fifteen thousand people now in Ranger only a few hundred are of the original people. Private capital could be counted on to supply the needs of the oil industry, but it required co-operation and com- munity spirit to direct and supply the needs of a municipality that grew over night. Improvements had to be made in a hurry. Schools had to be pro- vided for the thousands of children who came. Sani- tary measures to prevent an epidemic of disease had to be enforced; a police department had to be organ- ized; a water supply brought to the city. Housing problems had to be solved.
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In such emergency there was no time to wait for the slow process of state law in issuing bonds.
Every public spirited and patriotic citizen con- sidered it his duty to help finance such necessary measures by private contributions and loans through the banks until bonds could be issued, approved and sold. At various times, Mr. Hagaman advanced large sums of money from his own funds for carry- ing on these improvements. At other times, he lent his credit to the city until bonds could be sold. This was an act of enlightened public spirit extreme- ly rare in the history of American communities.
By a special election Mr. Hagaman became Mayor. February 1919, and in April was elected for the regu- lar term of two years. Practically all of the im- provements of this remarkable oil city have taken place during his administration. Within less than two years, Ranger has acquired an extensive sewerage system, water system, side-walks and street paving, electric lights, organized police de- partment and sanitary department and health de- partinent. Through individual effort and largely at his own expense. he secured the right-of-way for the Wichita Falls, Ranger and Ft. Worth Railway. extending from Dublin through Ranger to Wichita Falls, a distance of about one hundred and twenty iniles.
Mr. Hagaman has been chairman of the Good Roads Committee and has been largely instrumental in fostering the movement for the $1.500,000.00 bond issue for roads in Eastland County. This amount will be supplemented by about $100.000.00 Federal and State aid. He was also one of the committee to help lay out the road system and construction work
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on which is now being carried on in all parts of the county.
The period of deflation and hard times that fol- lowed in the wake of inflation and speculation tried men's souls as they were never tried before. In that period a greater amount of co-operation and com- munity spirit was required than during the period of inflation. Perhaps Ranger was more sorely tried :han most places. With many of her business, school and church buildings only partly furnished and her street paving program only partially completed with only part of the bonds sold and no market for the rest, and with bank failures impending, how things were to be carried on was a problem. Only the most perfect co-operation of all the citizens, the spirit of "keep on a' keepin' on," made such accomplish- ment possible. It was done. And today, with the lifting of the clouds of financial distress, Ranger is a well built city with visions of greater things to be, and those citizens who bore the brunt of the burden reaping the reward of ennobled character which comes only to those who have mastered life. During this time Mr. Hagaman devoted practically all of his time and best efforts to the welfare of the city he was serving and the community owes him a debt of gratitude for his unselfish spirit.
For many years Mr. Hagaman has served as a member of the school board, and is now giving his time and efforts in the planning and erection of the new high school building. At a banquet given in honor of Mr. Hagaman when he was first elected Mayor, he said "If I can be instrumental in helping to make your city a city of homes where you can be happy; a city of schools, where your children may have advantage of the best schools and the most modern methods of education; a city of churches, where every man, woman and child can worship God; a city with clean play-houses and clean plays, where you and your children may have your amuse- ments; a city with paved streets and electric lights; a city with water and sewerage systems; a city with good hotels and good business houses; a city safe to live in, safe from the dangers of diseases that lurk in unsanitary premises and safe from the out- laws who lurk in places of sin; a city where your wife and my wife, your child and my child will be safe at any time; in fact, a city of happy homes where people will be content to live-if I can help to do this I shall be happy."
The brief history of Ranger in which Mr. Haga- man has played such a conspicuous part might well prove one of the romances of Texas History.
Mr. Hagaman is an active member of the order of Ilks, is a 32 degree Mason and a Shriner. He is a member of the Methodist Church and a Rotarian.
On June 24, 1890, Mr. Hagaman married Miss Emma Whittington, a native Texan and well nigh a native of Ranger. She was a graduate of Peabody Normal College and one of Mr. Hagaman's former pupils, whom he considers has made good in every way-as a wife, mother, and home-maker-one who Max always taken an active part in school and church work, child welfare and club work, and devoted much :me to civic development. They have three children, Leslie H., a graduate in Civil Engineering from Tevas A. & M. College, who served as a Lieutenant .. the 212th Engineers during the war: Ruth, who a graduate of Missouri University, now doing to t-graduate work; and Fred W., a student in ' hemical Engineering at the State University of Texas.
Mr. Hagaman considers his family his greatest success, and that ones family and friends constitutes Olles greatest asset for success and happiness.
M
H. SMITH, Capitalist, Financier and Edu- cator, is well known throughout Western Texas for his career of usefulness in com- mercial and educational circles.
M. H. Smith was born at Carbon, Texas, a few miles from Ranger. His father, C. C. Smith, now of Plainview, Texas, came from Alabama to the Lone Star State in 1877; the mother, Addie R. (Mann) Smith, is a native of Nebraska. The public school system of Eastland County prepared M. H. Smith for his university work which latter was provided by the University of Texas. Mr. Smith then began as a school teacher and until 1919, he was a leader in educational work in Western Texas. In 1919, he resigned the superintendency of the Eastland County School System to devote all of his energies to his oil and banking interests. He owns an extensive hog ranch at Plainview, Texas, and has valuable oil hold- ings in various proven fields. He is one of the Trustees of the Board of Education for the City of Ranger where he resides.
On August 11, 1913, at Gorman, Texas, Miss Betty Fears Walker, daughter of Reverend J. E. Walker of Gorman, became the bride of Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith is an enthusiastic Mason, being a member of both the Scottish and York Rites; he is also an Elk.
In the commercial life and in the civic welfare of his city, Mr. Smith will have no small part. His being an educator and philanthropist at heart, to- gether with his business ability of considerable means, combine to make him one of the foremost citizens of Ranger and he and his interests will render invaluable services to the West.
LYDE H. LOWRY is one of the aggressive insurance men of North Texas, being par- ticularly well known in the Burkburnett and Mexia oil districts and central Texas. The development that has come to the northwest during the last few years is unprecedented and the expan- sion in citizenship, business and the discovery of the wealth of natural resources are factors that have combined to make that district one of the most desirable for the insurance business. Much is to be insured and buildings and men are fastly coming into this territory so that for many years to come the north and central Texas will be a leader in all commercial lines.
Mr. Lowry is a native of Texas, having been born at Bridgeport in this state in 1896. His father is A. H. Lowry, a planter, of one of the most dis- tinguished families of Mississippi, who immigrated to Texas in 1870; in 1916 he moved to Oklahoma. His mother is Ollie Nobles Lowry. The public schools of the Lone Star State have given Mr. Lowry their best and from them he answered the call to arms, enlisting in July, 1917, with the Motor Transport, at Camp Mabry at Austin, Texas. He received his discharge on December 7, 1918. From the army Mr. Lowry went to Wichita Falls with Cravens & Company, an insurance organization and after one year with that firm he helped form the firm of Lowry, Finch & Belcher for insurance; six months later he withdrew from that organization to go to Burkburnett and take up the insurance busi- ness for himself, forming at that time the C. H. Lowry & Co. organization. Later, when oil was discovered at Mexia, he moved to that section ..
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
F. KELSEY, oil operator with offices in the First National Bank Building, Fort Worth, came to Fort Worth in 1917 from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and went with the Prairie Oil and Gas Company, having charge of the land department, with headquarters at Eastland.
April, 1918, he withdrew from the Prairie Oil and Gas Company and went into business for him- self, later assisting in the organization of the Mook-Texas Company, now a big producing com- pany and making good. Mr. Kelsey withdrew from the Mook-Texas Company in 1920, and is now operating alone. He has considerable acreage in Texas, Louisiana and Kansas and expects to do drilling at an early date.
His entry into the oil business dates back to 1907 when he went to Oklahoma and engaged in buying leases, drilling, etc.
Ile is a native of Dayton, Ohio, where he was born October 13, 1883, and where his father, Chas. E. Kelsey, operated one of the largest flour mills in that country. He attended the schools of Dayton and finished his education at the Ada University.
Mr. Kelsey was married at Springboro, Ohio, October 23, 1906, to Miss Ina May McCabe, member of a leading Ohio family. They reside at 1124 Harley Avenue.
Mr. Kelsey is a member of the Fort Worth Club, the Rivercrest Country Club and the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.
He believes in the present and future of Fort Worth. The city's close proximity to the oil fields of the state, he says, will make it one of the most important cities in the state, and the leading rail- road center of the Southwest.
PAT POPE, well known independent oil operator, came to Wichita Falls in Octo- ber, 1917, and has been a prominent figure in the oil development of the past few years in Wichita and adjoining counties. He deals ex- tensively in leases and production and has drilled about twenty successful producing wells. He is now drilling wild-cat tests on the Musgrave farm and another on the Cooper farm. Leases owned and controlled by Mr. Pope are located in the Burk- burnett, Northwest Extension, Kemp-Munger-Allen and other fields.
Besides his personal holdings, Mr. Pope is asso- ciated with C. E. Steward in the Steward-Pope Syndicate which is planning an extensive develop- ment program on property jointly owned by the partners. Both are experienced oil men and the an- nouncement of their plans is expected to awaken re- newed interest in oil circle in this section.
Mr. Pope is a native of Arkansas and was born at Scarcy, December 25, 1879. He is a son of H. M. Pope who was a well known figure in Arkansas for many years. He was educated in the public schools of Arkansas and at an early age entered the world of business.
For several years he was connected with the Pope Piano Company at Little Rock, Mr. Pope and his two brothers owning the business. After leaving Little Rock Mr. Pope conducted a piano store and music house at Vernon, Texas, for two years before com- ing to Wichita Falls.
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On May 26, 1901, Mr. Pope was married at Little Rock to Miss Ruth Carroll, member of a well known Arkansas family. They have two children, Carroll
Read and Maxine Pope. The family resides at 1802 Eleventh Street.
Enterprising and energetic, Mr. Pope has met with success in his various business enterprises and has been particularly successful in his oil ventures. He is a member of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Com- merce, keenly interested in all movements for the betterment of the city and optimistic regarding its future. He regards the oil industry in Texas as only in its infancy and confidently looks forward to the opening of many additional fields.
LIFFORD MOOERS, soldier, lawyer and practical mining and oil man, secretary and trustee of the Texanna Production Com- pany, 1801 F. & M. Bank Building, came to Fort Worth on April 7, 1918 and engaged in the oil business and in the spring of 1919 participated in the organization of the Texanna which has a capital ization of three million dollars and already has four- teen producing wells. The company's operations are principally in Stephens, Wichita. Comanche and Eastland counties, but it has some holdings in the proven Oklahoma fields also. In December, 1920, Mr. Mooers secured a 25 year franchise from the city of Burkburnett to furnish that city for do- mestice and industrial purposes. He organized the Burkburnett Gas Co., of which he is president, to handle the above business.
Mr. Mooers is a native of California and was born in Shasta County in that state on May 3, 1889, as son of F. A. and Edith (Carter) Mooers. His grandfather, Dr. J. E. Mooers, came to California in an ox wagon during the gold rush of 1849. The early education of Mr. Mocers was received in the public schools of California and at the Broadway high school in Seattle where he graduated in 1907. He then studied at the University of Washington and graduated with the degree of bachelor of laws in 1912. Mr. Mooers was married at Seattle, November 21, 1919, to Miss Rose McDonnell, member of a prominent Washington family.
Mr. Mooers, has been successfully engaged in min- ing in Alaska and was a member of the law firm of Leehey, Ray and Mooers with offices at Seattle. Washington, and Seward, Alaska. He still retains a connection with Maurice D. Leehey with offices at 620 Alaska Building, Seattle.
During the war Mr. Mooers enlisted in the air service and was commissioned a lieutenant and A. S. A. pilot August 21, 1918. He was stationed at various flying fields and discharged February 4. 1919, at Taliaferro Field, Fort Worth.
Mr. Mooers is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, American Legion and the Arctic Brotherhood. He holds membership in the University Club at Tacoma, Washington, and is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Ile is a great Fort Worth booster and predicts a bright future for the Panther City and surrounding territory.
ONY BRIGNARDELLO, formerly vice-pres- ident and manager of the Liberty Grain Company, grain dealers, 313 N. Walton street, now handling hay and grain in car lots with office corner of Pacific and Pearl streets. came to Dallas in 1916 from Memphis, Tenn., and associated with Sid Pulliam, president of the Liberty Grain Company in 1917. He sold out his interest in The Liberty Grain Company in 1920 and established
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¿ . present business at the corner of Pacific and Pearl streets.
Before coming to Dallas Mr. Brignardello was manager of the W. J. Lemp business in Memphis for :on years and represented the concern in Dallas one year. After leaving school he engaged in the res- taurant business for several years. While living in Memphis, he served one year as license collector for the city and Shelby county.
Mr. Brignardello was born in Memphis, Tenn., July 21, 1873, son of D. and Louise (Buzolare) Brignardello, both natives of Genoa, Italy. His. father is dead and his mother is now living in Italy. H, attended the public schools of Memphis, Tenn., and was married in Kansas City in 1916 to Miss Viola Hutton, now dead. Two children, Lorena and Corine, were born of this union, and the father and daughters live at 3503 Worth street. He is affilia- :od with the Elks and is a wide awake booster for Dallas, a city, he says, that hath foundations, and one that is sure to become the most important com- mercial, manufacturing and industrial center in the whole southwest.
ARRY SIGEL, active in investments and oil production, with offices in the Boger Build- ing, Dallas, must be classed with the finan- ciers and capitalists of his city who are active not only in their immediate vicinities but in developing sections rich in natural resources in the Lone Star State. He has attractive holdings in nearly every proven oil field of Texas and large interests in civic enterprises also, as he is a ranking officer in some of Dallas' leading religious and edu- cational institutions.
Harry Sigel was born on August 28, 1879, in the city of Vilna, of Poland, then a province of the mighty Russia, but today a free government. The institutions of Poland provided the educational ad- vantages of young Sigel and the first twenty-six years of his life were spent in his native land. In 1905 he yielded to the call of America and the Lone Star State and made his first residence at Dallas with which he has ever since been identified. For thirteen years he engaged in the liquor business and developed a wholesale mail order business which was widely known in the Southwest. When the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States went into effect in 1917, Mr. Sigel turned his energies to the oil business and has met with success in that realm. The oil de- velopments and investments made by him have proven to be ninety per cent successful.
On December 3, 1912, romance prevailed and Miss Rae Wolf became the bride of Mr. Sigel. Sidney, Dorris and Louis are their three children and the family residence, one of the most elegant the city of Dallas affords, costing more than $50,000, is on the corner of Atlanta Street and South Boulevard.
Mr. Sigel is one of the most active of men in the civic welfares of Dallas. He is a member of the B'nai B'rith and also belongs to the order of Elks. He was instrumental in purchasing the Elks' Club building from the Elks' Lodge and organizing a social club, of which he is president, which owns i" its headquarters the former Elks' building. He " a director in the Dallas County State Bank and vice-president of the congregation of Shaareth I rael and was one of the leaders in building the new Synagogue at Park Avenue and Aiken Street. He is instrumental in the maintenance of a Free
Educational Hebrew School that is rendering in- valuable service to the many of the Hebrew race in Dallas. Mr. Sigel owns the Waldorf Hotel, the Texan Hotel and much other property in the city of Dallas. In Wichita Falls he owns a business build- ing and throughout the state he has much farm land.
If classified by his activities and services, Mr. Sigel is more than a Dallas man: he is a Texas char- acter.
O. BURNSIDE was born in Smith County, Texas, July 20, 1884, attended the public schools of Rains County, graduated from the Point, Texas, High School in 1900, and then took a business course at Draughon's College in Fort Worth. His father, S. N. Burnside, was a farmer and merchant and came to Texas in 1866. After finishing school Mr. Burnside spent eight years at Point, Texas, where for five years he was a book- keeper; the last three years he was in the mercantile and cotton business for himself. In 1912 he was elected County and District Clerk of Rains county, and moved to Emory, the county seat. He served until the expiration of his term in 1916 and then went to Tyler, Texas, where he was city circulator for the Tyler Tribune and the Dallas News. In May, 1919, he came to Dallas and assisted in the organiza- tion of an oil company. He was married in 1906 to Miss Holland, daughter of D. A. Holland, a planter of Anderson county, and they have one child, Melvin.
Mr. Burnside declares that Dallas is the most wonderful city in the South, and that it has jumped far ahead in the past four years, starting a growth that will make it a city of half a million in the next ten years.
OY M. PITNER, of the firm of Pitner and Adams F. & M. Bank Building, Fort Worth, although doing a general accounting busi- ness, specializes on income tax returns, audits, systems and investigations. Public account- ing is today recognized as taking a most important part in the commercial world. And the men who have practically grown up in the business along private lines are the ones most likely to be success- ful when serving the public in general. Mr. Pitner's experience dates back to the year of his majority when he entered the employ of Swift & Company, each year seeing him hold positions of greater re- sponsibility. From 1909 to 1915 he was district auditor for Swift && Company in Norfolk, Va., cover- ing Baltimore, Washington, Virginia and North Carolina. In 1915 he moved to Texas, establishing himself in business in Fort Worth. where an ex- perience of many years, and an infinite capacity for hard work, have spelled success.
Georgia claims Mr. Pitner as a native son. C. L. Pitner, his father, and Martha Colbert Pitner, were Georgians also, born in Athens as was Mr. Pitner the son. The value of the extension courses of our universities cannot be over-estimated. After com- pleting the high school of Athens, Ga., Mr. Pitner took the accounting course of La Salle University of Chicago and his success as an accountant speaks well not only of Mr. Pitner himself but for the efficiency of the extension course he mastered.
Miss Maude Guthrie, of Fort Worth, became Mr. Pitner's bride in 1211. Mr. and Mrs. Pitner and their two sons, Roy M., Jr., and Craton Guthrie Pitner, reside at 2228 Fairmount.
Mr. Pitner is an Elk and is a member of the Lions and Kiwanis Clubs. He is a Presbyterian.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
LBERT ELLIS, formerly a resident of Dal- las, but since August, 1920, actively identi- fied with the commercial and civic activities of Wichita Falls, is secretary-treasurer of the Congressional Oil Corporation, 525 American National Bank Building. Mr. Ellis removed to Wichita Falls in August, 1920, and since that time has been very successful in the oil game and re- cently has organized the Ellis Advertising Agency and the Advertising Sales Company. He is an ex- perienced and capable advertising man and sales manager, having had a number of years' experience in both lines.
The Congressional Oil Corporation has been very successful in its operations and has over 7,000 acres of leases distributed in various sections of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi. It has some valuable holdings in the Northwest Extension of the Burkburnett field and production in blocks 88 and 96. Other officers of the company are B. H. Taylor, of Burkburnett, president, and F. L. McCoy, Denver, Colorado, vice-president. The company was organized March 11, 1920.
Mr. Ellis is a native of California and was born at Oakland in 1878, a son of James W. Ellis, now deceased, who came to America from his native Scotland in 1867. The younger Ellis was educated in the public schools of California and began his business career as a newspaper man in which he continued for twenty years or more. He worked on some of the largest papers of the Pacific Coast, among which was the Hearst service, and then went East where for many years he continued with the Hearst organization. In 1917 he became connected with the Campbell-Stone Baking Company, a large concern having branches all over the United States, and was manager of the Dallas branch for three years.
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