USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2 > Part 12
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S TANLEY MCGREGOR, City National Bank Building, Wichita Falls, has the distinction of beginning the oil business at the very bottom, working for others, but when he had learned every phase of this new industry first hand by personal experience and study, had the sense to cut loose as an independent man and today is making a name for himself among the most active developers in one of Texas' richest oil fields.
Mr. McGregor is a native of Colorado. He was born at Antonito in that state, on July 6, 1826. His parents are Wm. C. and Lottie Beers McGregor. After completing the elementary schools of his state, young MeGregor took a full university course in the University of Colorado. He at once came to Texas, locating at Wichita Falls in 1917, as a field inanager for an oil company of Colorado. He con- tinued with the company for ten months after ar- riving in the Lone Star State and then severed con- nections with all others and began as his own man to do business for himself. He has been operating in Wichita County ever since and he owns an at- tractive interest in a dozen producing properties. He also owns two standard and one rotary rig for drilling purposes and employs fifteen or twenty men continuously.
In 1919, two years after coming to Texas, Mr. McGregor went back to his native state, to his home town, for Miss Marieta Crowl, who became his bride. They have a daughter, Marieta Marguerite. The family resides at 1303 Polk Street. Mr. McGregor was a Beta Theta Pi at the University and is a member of the Wichita Club.
As one whose only choice of profession has been from the first the oil industry, as one who has learned by personal experience all the ins and outs of the business, youthful and aggressive as well as able in talent, Mr. McGregor is already a big success and will be heard from through the coming years in his business.
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S. PRATT, president of the Texas United Oil Company, of Dallas, and of the Wichita Engle Oil Company, Dallas, before coming to this city some two years ago was en- gaged in the oil business in the states of Wyoming and Kansas. Before that time he was engaged in the real estate business in the state of Washington. Mr. Pratt organized both of the oil companies named above and has been responsible for the many accom- plishments of those concerns in the Texas fields. The Texas United Oil Company was organized on July 8, 1919, with a capital stock of one million dollars, which since that time has been increased to five million. It has a number of producing wells in
Wichita County and at the present time owns oil leases throughout the state. At the close of the first six months of its life the company paid cash divi- dends of thirteen per cent and since that time has paid a stock dividend of six per cent. The Wichita Engle Oil Company is an organization with a capital stoek of eighty-five thousand dollars and at this date has paid one cash dividend of ten per cent. It owns wells located at Burkburnett and Iowa Park. besides numerous lease holdings in other Texas oil pools.
An Englishman by birth, W. S. Pratt was born at the city of Northamptonshire, England, on the 10th day of March, 1883. His father, T. R. Pratt, was a large land owner in that country and was well known in real estate circles. Mr. Pratt, the subject of this sketch, received his educational training at the Ton- dridge School, which is located at Kent, England. When, at the age of nineteen, he moved to Calgary, Canada, where he was engaged in the real estate business for the next succeeding eight years. In 1910 he moved to Vancouver, where he remained for one year, after which he went to Seattle, Washing- ton. For the next seven years he was engaged in the real estate business there and acquired large holdings in land. In 1915, becoming interested in the oil game, he moved to Wyoming, where he began to learn the tricks of his new profession. Later he moved to Kansas and in 1919 came to this city.
E. GIVENS. Among the substantial business enterprises of Petrolia, Texas, that of the W. E. Givens Company, owned by W. E. Givens, occupies a prominent place. The business was established by Mr. Givens in February, 1920, occupies a floor space of 25 x 90 feet, and carries a complete line of general merchandise, dry goods, groceries, shoes, furniture, etc. Four sales- men are employed.
Mr. Givens was formerly a farmer in Montague county, Texas, and later was engaged in the oil leasing business in the Petrolia field, and he has been prominently identified with the growth of that section ever since locating in it, and is considered one of the substantial business men of his section and interested actively in its greater development. He was born at Bowie, Montague county, in 1891. and attended the public schools near his home. His father, N. B. Givens, was a farmer and came from Georgia.
Miss Ruby Mabry, daughter of J. A. Mabry, a resident of Petrolia, engaged in farming, became the wife of Mr. Givens at Bowie, Texas, in 1913, and they are the parents of three children, Mabel. Roy and Christian. Mr. Givens is a York Rite Mason and belongs to Maskat Temple Shrine at Wichita Falls, in which City he is well known and has a large circle of friends.
ELIX C. WATKINS. Alternating between the cotton ginning and lumber business for a number of years has been the practice of Felix C. Watkins, manager of the Petrolia Gin Company of Petrolia, Texas, a corporation whose officers are Frank Kell, president; J. P. Burrus. vice-president, and Geo. Dashmer, secretary-treasur- er. Mr. Watkins took charge in July, 1920. and has a capacity for ginning thirty-five bales a day. It is the only cotton gin in a radius of about five miles. Seed is shipped to mills at Wichita Falls. Six men are employed by the enterprise.
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Mr. Watkins has always been in the lumber and cotton business, alternating according to the time of the year. He began with the E. E. Jeanes Lumn- beer Company and was with the company four years, leaving them to go with the T. W. Jeanes Lumber Company, with whom he remained five years. The next four years were spent in the service of the Sabine Lumber Company. In the fall of every year, however, he leaves the lumber yard for the cotton gin, with E. E. Jeanes Gin Co., returning to lumber when the ginning season is over. At one time Mr. Watkins was in the employ of the J. H. Kirby Lum- ber Company.
Mr. Watkins is a native of San Augustine, Texas, born in 1883. His father, C. C. Watkins, is a native of Texas and is a planter. He was born in San Augustine county and lived there continuously until 1918, when he moved to Clay county. Mr. Watkins' mother, Ida (Click) Watkins, is also a native of Texas. He was educated in a private school at San Augustine, and married in Sabine county, Texas, in 1908, to Miss Eva Harris, daughter of A. P. Harris, a retired farmer and merchant of Sabine county. They have two interesting daughters, Gladys and Tommie, and live at Petrolia.
ULIUS HI. PEARLSTONE, president of Pearlstone Mill and Elevator Company, Hickory and Mayes Streets, Dallas, holds a conspicuous place among the leading man- ufacturers of the state. Mr. Pearlstone has been in the grain business for eleven years, and for the past two years at the head of an extensive and growing concern in Dallas. Other partners of this firm be- sides Mr. Pearlstone are Hyman Pearlstone, vice- president of the Boren-Stewart Company of Dallas and vice-president of the First National Bank of Palestine, and Tucker Royall, another prominent business man of Palestine who is president of the Royall National Bank and the Royall Loan and In- surance Company, both of Palestine.
Mr. Pearlstone came to Dallas in 1918 and or- ganized and put into operation the Pearlstone Mill and Elevator Company. The concern manufactures corn chops used for feed, and corn meal for human consumption. The grain elevators have a capacity of 150,000 bushels and handle annually close to 2,000,000 bushels of grain, principally oats. Twenty employees are kept busy continuously attending to the details of buying and shipping grain to Texas markets.
Born at Buffalo, Texas, April 21, 1888, Mr. Pearl- stone received his education in the public schools of that place. His parents, Barney and Lena Hart Pearlstone, were among the early settlers of Texas and still reside in the old family homestead at Buf- falo where the elder Pearlstone has been in the general mercantile business for over forty-four years. In 1909, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Pearl- stone went into business for himself, establishing a grain company in Palestine, gradually building it up until it was one of the largest concerns of its kind in that section. The advantages of a city from a manufacturing standpoint eventually brought Mr. Pearlstone to Dallas where he initiated the organiza- tion of his present company. After a year the busi- hess had grown to such an extent that he sold out the grain elevator at Palestine in order to devote his whole time to the Dallas plant. Mr. Pearlstone is director of the Numsen-Ash Grocery Company
of Longview, the Pearlstone Grocery Company of Palestine and one of the directors of the Guaranty Bank and Trust Company of Dallas. Formerly he was also a director of the First National Bank of Palestine.
His marriage to Miss Eva Landan took place in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Pearlstone have two children. Ben Irving and Julius II., Jr., and own a home at 2603 Forrest Avenue. He is a member of the Colum- bian Club, the City Club, Lakewood Country Club, is a 32d degree Mason and a Shriner of the Gal- veston El Mina Temple.
CECIL ADKINS, Vice-President of the wholesale grocery business of Adkins- Polk Company, 519 North Hawkins street, is a man thoroughly conversant with all the details of the grocery business. Associated with him are two other men who also know the line, W. A. Polk, who manages the branch house at 345 West 15th street, Fort Worth, and T. C. Wag- ner, secretary and treasurer of the firm. The parent house and general offices are in Dallas under the direct supervision of Mr. Adkins and to which he gives much time and thought. Their building con- sists of a main floor 90x250 feet and a large mezza- nine floor which accommodates large quantities of goods. They employ forty men in the Dallas house and twenty-five in Fort Worth. The firm was es- tablished in Dallas in 1907 as the Adkins Grocery Company, but in three years it was found necessary to enlarge their space to take care of the rapidly growing business, so in 1910 it was incorporated as the Adkins-Polk Company with a capitalization of $75,000.00, but is now increased to $600,000.00.
Mr. Adkins is a native Texan, being born in Lam- pasas, August 24th, 1883, of J. M. and Mary (Da- vidson) Adkins. They came to this state in the early eighties and J. M. Adkins became a prominent at- torney of Lampasas. A. Cecil Adkins attended the public schools of Lampasas and on finishing the course there went to that substantial Methodist insti- tution, the Southwestern University at Georgetown. In 1902 he came to Dallas and began work for MeDougle Craig Company wholesale grocers, as salesman and remained with them five years during which time he gave them excellent service and at the same time became thoroughly familiar with the grocery business in all its branches. In 1907 he severed his connection with this firm to launch an enterprise of his own with the results as before stated.
Mr. Adkins owns one of the best equipped ranches in Knox county, composed of 6000 acres where he raises grain and cattle of the better grade.
In 1906 he was married to Miss Mary Moore Chap- man, who passed away in 1912, and of this union there were no children. In 1914 in Sulphur Springs he married Miss Agnes Henderson and they have two children, Cecil Robert and Virginia.
Mr. Adkins is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, which from a civic standpoint is consid- ered the most worth-while organization in Dallas. Mr. Adkins is also a member of the Lions' Club and of the Dallas Polo Association. In his religious be- lief he is a Methodist and is affiliated with Grace Methodist Church, corner of Haskell and Junius streets, while his home is in convenient distance. being located at 5714 Swiss Avenue in Munger Place. Mr. Adkins votes the Democratic ticket anc is a consistent politician and estimable citizen.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS
HILLIP W. CUNNINGHAM, Burkburnett, is the senior member of the drilling firm of MeDarman & Cunningham, drilling con- tractors and independent operators. The firm now has three strings of tools at work and also has an interest in five producing wells. They also have a full complement of fishing tools, star rigs and cable equipment. At present they are operating in the Northwest Extension of the Burk- burnett pool. Mr. MeDarman resides at Ardmore.
Mr. Cunningham has drilled and cleaned out more than twenty-five wells in the original Burkburnett townsite field and has had splendid success.
A native of Pennsylvania, he was born at Mount Alton, March 28, 1872, a son of Charles H. and Louise L. (Gates) Cunningham. He attended the public schools of Mckeon County and his birth- place being only fourteen miles from the historic old Bradford oil fields it was but natural that he should early in life turn his attention and energies to the oil industry.
He entered the oil game at the age of 18 years and worked for several years in the fields of Penn- sylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Kansas and Oklahoma. He was with the Bartley and Shules Producing Company for seven years and with another concern for twelve years. In 1910 he began business for himself as a drilling contractor and in 1915 came west as superintendent for Westheimer and Daube. In 1917 he formed a partnership with C. R. McDorman and drilled five wells in the Fox field, coming to Burkburnett in 1918.
In 1896 Mr. Cunningham was married at Mount Alton to Miss Eva Woodruff, of Orlean, New York. They have three girls and one boy, Marion, the eldest, now Mrs. Preston Johnson of Burkburnett; Alice, Edna Geneva, who died in September, 1921, and Charles L.
Mr. Cunningham is a 32d degree Mason, a mem- ber of Maskat Temple Shrine and of the Chamber of Commerce at Burkburnett. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
LMER ELLSWORTH OSMAN, consulting oil operator, 217 Commerce Building, came to Wichita Falls in March, 1919. He was formerly engineer for the Parker Washing- ton Paving Company of Kansas City, Mo., and was later identified with the Globe Oil Company of Tulsa. Okla., for several years, representing them in Okla- homa, Wyoming and Texas, being general super- intendent for the company when he left their serv- ice. He was also with the Tex-la-homa Company for some time.
Mr. Osman makes a specialty of examining and furnishing practical information on leases, produc- tion, equipment and machinery; gives data and advice on exchanges, market conditions and how to get better results from holdings. He was the first man to take up this line of work and he has followed it successfully for a number of years. His ex- perience in the oil business has ably qualified him for this class of work. He was formerly general manager for the Burk-Burnett Petrolia Syndicate, which sold out for $750,000 recently.
Mr. Osman conies from Illinois, born at Effingham, in 1871. His parents were James A. Osman and Judith Brown Osman, and he attended the schools of his home town. He married Miss Katherine Wise- man and they have one son, Alvin L. Osman, an engineer in Kansas City.
He is a 32nd degree Mason and Shriner and belong. to the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, co- operating with the organization in its work of pro- moting the welfare of the city and section contiguous. He is an experienced oil man, acquainted with condi- tions in the industry all over the country and a strong believer in the coming greatness of Texas as the oil center of the country. He is equally confident that Wichita Falls will become one of the leading cities of Texas in the next decade.
DWARD KLEIN, manager and part owner of the Manhattan Clothier, 304 Main Street, Burkburnett, as an enterprising young mer- chant has made himself one of the leading citizens of a city that hums with business and smiles with thrift. Everything that a being needs-or wants-in "Ready-to-wear" and shoes-Mr. Klein can supply him or her and is doing an attractive part of the business of his city in his line. The Man- hattan of Burkburnett was started in 1919 by Mr. Klein and his partner, Sam Goldstein, who resides in Oklahoma. As the stock of $35,000 is attractive and of high quality, it meets with a rapid exchange and the business runs into thousands every week.
Mr. Klein is a native of New York City where he was born on May 7, 1897. His father is I. Klein. The public and high schools of Brooklyn, New York, gave the youth his theoretical education and imme- diately upon graduation he began his practical train- ing by beginning as assistant cashier and bookkeeper of the Metropolitan Tobacco Company of New York. Here he remained for three years, mastering every phase of the cash and record system of a big firm. In 1914 he came to Oklahoma, locating at Chandler where he began work for his brother-in-law, Mr. Goldstein, in the mercantile business. During the seven years as a dry goods man Mr. Klein has made a rapid progress, beginning at the bottom and today enjoying the position of half owner and manager of a leading business.
In January of 1920, Mr. Klein and Miss Pauline Aranson, of New York City, were united in marriage at Brooklyn, N. Y. They now have residence at 304 Main Street, Burkburnett. Mr. Klein is a good mixer and finds time in addition to directing his per- sonal interests to enter into the social and civic life of his city. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Owls and the Chamber of Commerce, Scottish Rite, 32d degree Shriner.
Youthful and energetic, progressive and directing a splendid business, Mr. Klein is successful to an attractive degree. In the bigger development of the future which his city and part of the state are entering into, Mr. Klein will have an active part and will be reckoned with as a merchant whose in- terests are enlarging with the years.
M. ALEXANDER, partner and manager in the Alexander Lumber Co., at the corner of Second and B Avenue, Burkburnett, is supplying with building materials and ac- cessories one of the most rapidly developing cities and areas in the state of Texas. The West is a new West; what a little over a year ago were villages with no traffic except as farmers came in and whose hotel accommodations were summed up in one country inn are today cities of scores of thousands, a dozen first class hotels and with streets crowded with traffic of commerce. This growth in- evitably has called for vast building activity; homes have been built for the thousands, offices erected
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and the lumber industry in northwest Texas has perhaps the busiest hum of activity of any section in the state. In the lumber and building supplies thus called for the firm of Mr. Alexander's has had a large part to supply. This corporation also owns the Hoo-Hoo Oil Company which has an attractive daily production, one well being in the yard back of the office. The lumber business was started by Mr. Alexander at Burkburnett in 1913, though his or- ganization dates back to 1907 and has yards in other cities; the Burkburnett ground space is 150 feet by 150 feet and from this establishment an immense business is being carried on. Paints and varnishes and every builder's need is kept in stock.
Mr. Alexander was born in Macon County, of Ten- nessee in 1871. His father, J. T. Alexander has been deceased for twenty-eight years. The public schools of Augusta and Butler counties of the state of Kansas gave him his education as in boyhood the family moved to that state. After completing school, Mr. Alexander began farming in Butler County, Kansas, and there remained until 1905; he then entered the lumber business at Amarillo, Texas, for one year and then moved his business to Randlett, Okla. In 1913 he opened the present business in Burkburnett which in business activity ranks with the leading yards of Texas. In 1919 he drilled a well in the back part of the yards held by the lumber company and at a depth of 1,650 feet he brought in an attractive production. He owns considerable oil stock in Wichita County.
In 1895, in Butler County, Kansas, Miss Reid be- came the bride of Mr. Alexander; they have one son, John M. Alexander, age twenty-four, who is identi- fied with the firm. The family residence is at 2608 Ninth Street, Wichita Falls.
Mr. Alexander is a Scottish Rite Mason to the 32d degree and is a Shriner at the Maskat Temple; he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce at both Wichita Falls and at Burkburnett, and is a steward in the Floral Heights Methodist Church at Wichita Falls. He will have an active part in the big future of his section of the state as he is prominently identified with their present-day activities.
LENN R. KINCAID, manager of the Burk- burnett Dry Goods Company, Main Street, Burkburnett, handles everything that a human being needs (or wants) to wear, whether it is silk, wool, cotton or leather-a prince of merchantmen in a fast-growing section of the state. To be a leader in any realm bespeaks much; it means personality, it means persistence, it means business ability-all of which Mr. Kincaid has in good proportions. Associated with him as members of the Burkburnett Dry Goods Company are J. I. Staley, F. Covington, J. Covington and L. L. Kin- caid. Three stores are owned: the "Burkburnett Dry Goods Co." and Staley & Covington" at Burk- burnett, and "Staley & Covington" at Granfield. A quarter of a million dollars' worth of stock is carried in the Burkburnett stores alone, where fifteen employees are kept constantly engaged. In 1918 the company as it is now organized, was effected; W. W. Viles Co. was its forerunner prior to that date.
Mr. Kineaid comes from Missouri, city of Boliver, where he was born on March 9, 1894. His parents were C. II. Kincaid and Minnie Wilcox Kincaid, who early in their family life migrated to Okla- homa and to Missouri, so that it is the school system
of these last two named states that gave the sub ject of this sketch his education. In 1912 Mr. Kin. caid came to Burkburnett, his first arrival in th Lone Star State with the purpose of staying. H entered the employ of his uncle, W. W. Viles, wh was in the dry goods business and with whom, il 1916, he bought an interest. It was this firm tha was merged into the present organization in 1918 as the Burkburnett Dry Goods Company, and tha now has three extensive establishments. The stoc] of the older firm was greatly increased, its life in vigorated by taking on the new form, and in it present activity it is a chief business house in al immense section.
Mr. Kincaid is not only an able director of hi own personal interests, but he is one of the bes champions of Burkburnett's welfare. Since hi adoption of this city as his home nine years ago, h has thoroughly identified himself with its ever: interest; he is public-spirited and has the gift o leadership combined with it. He is a "bachelor, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason witl membership in Dallas, and a Shriner of the Maska Temple. He is a member of the Burkburnett Cham ber of Commerce and of the Methodist Church of hi city. He is a leader among men engaged in th activity of merchandising.
A. GARNER, owner of the Garner Electri. Company, 310 Avenue C., Burkburnett, : one of the largest electrical supply men i western or northwestern Texas. The organ zation was established in 1917, handling electrica supplies, fixtures and oil well motors. Motors rang ing from one horse-power to seventy-five horse-powe are kept in immediate stock, and the Garner Electr Company does the installation service, also repa work. A circuit of more than three hundred motors & work in the oil fields is under the upkeep of th Garner Electric Company. Five employees ar retained in constant service. The harnessing ( electricity for work is one of the greatest achiev ments of civilization, a utilization that is already in stalled or else is being installed in every phase activity of the commercial world. The introductic of electrical equipment for oil well territory in c operations is one of the most progressive and effe tive moves of today.
Mr. Garner is a native of Texas; he was born Collin County, in 1889. His father, J. J. Garner, native of Tennessee, is an active farmer in Tex: for many years. The school system of Oklahon gave the youth his education. In 1908, at the as of nineteen, Mr. Garner began the electrical busine and since that date he has been busy in Texas al Oklahoma in all electrical lines. Until starting h present-day business at Burkburnett, he had alwa: worked on a salary. He owns besides his busine activities interests in the oil production of the Bur burnett Fields.
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