The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2, Part 17

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau
Number of Pages: 1328

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A native of Mississippi, W. S. Cooke was born it. Tate County in the year 1883. He is a son of William L. and Beatrice (Stephenson) Cooke; the father was a livestock dealer and recently retired from his business in Fort Worth. The younger Mr. Cooke received his early education in the public schools of his native state and his higher educa- tional training was secured at the Christian College, of West Tennessee. He then came to Fort Worth and from 1904 to 1906 was engaged in the livestoek business for himself. In 1906 he became a member of the produce firm of Harkrider-Keith-Cooke Com- pany and for the next ten years was active in the produce business. In 1916 he became interested in the automobile business and it was in that year that he organized the Cooke-Boyd Motor Company. He

lias continued in the automobile line since that time and his success has been phenomenal.

In 1913 at Amarillo, Texas, Miss Ella Ozier be- came the bride of Mr. Cooke. Mrs. Cooke is a daughter of John W. Ozier, a cattleman, formerly of Tennessee but now of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Cooke have their home at 2201 Weatherbee Street.

In fraternal orders Mr. Cooke has been very active and is a thirty-second degree Mason, Scottish Rite, a. Knight Templar, an Elk, a member of Moslah Temple and past president of the patrol of that order and potentace of the Shrine. In civic organi- zations he is affiliated with the Rotary Club, the Fort Worth Club, the T. P. A. and the Glen Garden Country Club.

A successful business man, an enthusiastic booster of Fort Worth, a fraternal man of high standing, Mr. Cooke has always wielded a great influence for the betterment of those with whom he comes in contact; his services will always be appreciated by those who are fortunate in being his friends.

DWARD O. THACKSTON, manager of the Fort Worth branch of the Reo-Kenney Com- pany, dealers in Reo touring cars and trucks, 500 West Weatherford Street at Lamar, is one of the best posted automobile men in Fort Worth and has had a wide experience both in the sales and service departments of the automotive industry. The Fort Worth branch of the Reo-Kenney Company was established in March, 1920, and in August Mr. Thackston came here from Dallas to take charge of the business. The Company has a splendid, well equipped service station and a beauti- ful show room occupying a space thirty by one hundred feet. Altogether the company has ten thousand feet of floor space and twenty employees. Territory embraced in the distributor's contract con- trolled by the company is the northern half of Texas and the Fort Worth branch has been regularly ex- ceeding its quota of both cars and trucks.

Mr. Thackston is a native Texan and was born on a ranch near Austin in 1874. He is a son of H. C. and Harriet (Draper) Thackston, pioneer ranch people of Central Texas. Mr. Thackston attended the public schools and the High School at Vernon, Texas, and in 1898 was married at Panhandle, Texas, to Miss Birdie Wright, daughter of T. A. Wright, a native of Georgia who came to Texas in 1897. They have one daughter, Miss Edith, a graduate of the Dallas High School and now a student at Southern University, and one son, Alvin. ten years of age. Mr. Thackston is a Thirty-second Degree Mason and a member of the Dallas Auto- mobile Club.

Beginning his business career as a cowpuncher. Mr. Thackston worked on a ranch for Tom Waggoner at Electra and in Oklahoma for fourteen years and then engaged in the electric supply business in Okla- homa. He came to Fort Worth in 1909 and became identified with the Oakland Company, continuing until 1911 when he went to Dallas as manager of the service department for the Oakland. In 1914 he was made secretary and in 1915 vice-president and general manager of the North Texas Oakland Company, continuing until 1916. He then was made distributor for the Hupmobile and assigned 92 counties in Texas and in the summer of 1917 by ame salesmanager for the Burton-Roundtree Company. In December, 1917, he went with the Maxwell Sales Corporation as distriet supervisor for Northern

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Colorado, Western Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, continuing until January 1, 1918, when he went with the F. I .. Shaw Company at Dallas. In February, 1919, he became identified with the Reo- Kenney Company and in August took charge of the Fort Worth branch.

Mr. Thackston is a man of pleasing personality and wide acquaintance and has achieved splendid success in the automobile world. Since this sketch was written Mr. Thackston has entered the oil busi- ness and spends considerable time in Breckenridge.

RANK D. KEIM, owner and manager of the Excelsior Motor Company, distributors of Studebaker automobiles in three counties, was for a number of years engaged in the oil business, operating in Pennsylvania, West Vir- ginia, Ohio and Illinois. He came to Wichita Falls in 1916 for the purpose of engaging in the oil business, but in 1917 he organized the Dixon-Keim Motor Company, a partnership, and in 1920 he bought the Excelsior Motor Co. He is interested in the Panhandle Refining Company (in production only) and the Burk-Archer-Dome Company, which owns leases in Archer, Wichita and Eastland coun- ties, Texas, and Cotton county Oklahoma.

Mr. Keim's place of business in Wichita Falls is located at 605 Scott Avenue, and occupies a building 100x150 feet, in which are located the of- fices and salesroom, parts department and service station. Thirty employes and four salesmen are engaged, and a very large volume of business is en- joyed by the company, doing about $500,000 an- nually.

Mr. Keim was born in 1878, in Oil City, Pa., where his father, Chas. Keim, was interested in the oil busi- ness as a producer. He was educated in the public schools of Oil City, and married Miss Lena Baird at Franklin, Pa. They have four children, Harold, Lucile, Burdett and Paul, and live at 2101 Ninth Street. He is associated with the Knights of Colum- bus, the Rotary Club, president of Forrest Country Club, the Country Club and the Business Council of the Chamber of Commerce, taking an active interest in each organization. In May, 1920, Mr. Keim was elected president of the Automobile Dealers' Association to serve for the period 1920-1921. He has great faith in the future greatness of his city and never fails to identify himself with all move- ments inaugurated to further advance the interests of the city along all lines.

O. WHEAT, member of the firm of Chenault & Wheat Co., of which E. O. Wheat, N. B. and W. L. Chenault are the other members, is another live wire automobile man of Wichita Falls, proud of his city and county and one of the factors aiding to further its continued growth and advancement along all lines. The firm of Chenault & Wheat Co. was established in 1915, and is located at 1116 Tenth Street, occupying the ground floor, 90x100 feet, of the Chenault Wheat apartments, a very beautiful building. They are distributors for the Winton and Stephens automo- biles and the Cole and Liberty automobiles, and operate at Vernon Texas. A service and parts de- partment is maintained at both Wichita Falls and Vernon, and a force of ten people are employed. At the Wichita Falls office a space of 46x53 feet is devoted to show rooms.

Prior to engaging in the automobile business Mr. Wheat was a lumberman at Norborne, Mo., where

he was manager of the Boger Lumber Company, an : later he was with the W. E. Thomas Lumber Con: pany of Kansas City, and while with this compan he covered the states of Missouri, Oklahoma and :. part of Illinois. When the company established a branch at Burkburnett, Texas, in 1908, Mr. Whes. went there as manager, and sold the lumber for th- first derrick erected in that field. In 1915 he cam. to Wichita Falls and fornied a connection with. Chenault Brothers, and in 1918 his son, E. O. Wheat, was added to the firm.

Mr. Wheat is a native of Carlton, Mo., born in 1868, and educated in the public schools of that town. He was married at Norborne, Mo., in 1891, to Miss Mollie Creel, a native of Missouri, who died in 1901. and in 1907, at Hale, Mo., he was married a second time to Miss Nettie Herbert Rheinhart. He has two sons, E. O. Wheat, in charge of the firm's branch at Vernon, Texas, and E. H. Wheat, secretary-treas. urer of the Flagstaff Lumber Company at Flagstaff. Ariz. He is a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge at Hale, Mo. He is interested in every movement that tends to promote the civic and moral better- ment of his city, and is an enthusiastic booster.

AMES C. LATHAM, vice-president and gen- eral manager of the Scarborough-Latham Company of auto dealers, Dallas, supervises the distribution of the well known makes of Scripps-Booth and Milburn Electric cars for his firm in which he has been a dominant influence since its establishment in 1917.

The Scarborough-Latham Company, whose only other official is its president, J. A. Scarborough, of l'aris, Texas, began operations with a capitalization of $20,000. Their alloted territory for the distribu- tion of the Scripps-Booth covers two-thirds of the entire state while for Milburn Electric they are as- signed forty counties each and handle contracts to distribute cars to about 35 dealers in that territory. The home of the Scarborough-Latham Company is a building of 85 foot frontage and a depth of 150 feet. Here are installed the office and spacious sales- room, the balance of the first floor being occupied by a complete service department with eight em- ployees rendering continuous service. Mr. Latham has had the management of the firm since its in- cipiency and under his efficient direction it has at- tained its present highly satisfactory degree of suc- cess and a volume of business that will aggregate annually the amount of $250.000.

Mr. Latham, a native Texan, was born at Dublin. Texas, March 21, 1887. His father, J. H. Latham, a well known banker and merchant of Dublin, came to Texas from Mississippi at an early date; his mother, Mrs. May Caswell Latham, was from the state of Illinois. After graduating from the public schools of Dublin, Mr. Latham attended Baylor Uni- versity, receiving his A. B. degree there before he was twenty-two years of age. He next attended Yale and at the end of one year took his A. B. from the latter institution, the spring of 1910.

Returning to Texas, he became associated with his father in a mercantile business at Dublin. Sub- sequently he was associated with the Citizens' Na- tional Bank of that town in the capacity of assistant cashier. In 1911 he removed to Dallas to establish a grocery business, remaining there one year, at the end of which he went to Ballinger, Texas, and there conducted successfully, a cotton and grain business for a period of two years. Recognizing Dallas to be

5.36

F. D. Keine

MEN OF TEXAS

"re logical center of distribution for motor com- awiities for that section of the country, he again :. turned here in 1917, became associated with the trow Elkhart Co. of Texas and a few months later ·vame interested and effected the present company : Scarborough-Latham.

On June 12, 1912, Mr. Latham was united in mar- race to Miss Mary Evalyn Barron, daughter of T. A. Farron, a prominent lawyer of Bonham. Texas. Mr. : mal Mrs. Latham make their home at 2915 Forest Avenue. Mr. Latham is identified with the Shriner, Ilella Temple, and the East Dallas Christian Church, and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Dallas Automobile Trades Association. He is an ernest advocate of all measures pertaining to the civic and industrial advancement of Dallas and par- ticularly the maintenance and salvage of existing good roads in this vicinity and an extensive program for multiplying their number.

L. CLINE, Secretary and Treasurer of the Anderson Motor Company at 39 Jennings Street, (corner of 12th) Fort Worth is a native of Texas. He was born in Grayson County in 1886, but later lived in Erath County, where he received his education in the public schools, and moved to Fort Worth in 1909.

Although neither of his parents, J. K. P. Cline and Hattie (McKee) Cline, are natives of Texas, they have lived in the state since 1871. The elder Mr. Cline, a farmer and business man, was a native of Tennessee and Mrs. Cline, claims North Carolina as her mother state.

Prior to his start in the automobile business, Mr. G. L. Cline gathered his experience from various fields of endeavor. In addition to his graded school education, he equipped himself with a commercial college education and first took up mercantile work. He next embraced an opportunity to go into the show business with which he remained for a time traveling over the "road." Following this ex- perience, he accepted a position with the Frisco Railroad where he was employed for eleven years. He has been in his present line since January 2, 1920.

On October 14th 1914, he was married to Miss Marie Hildreath, daughter of V. O. Hildreath, a cattleman in business about fifteen miles west of Fort Worth. Mrs. Cline while a Kentuckian by birth has made Texas her home state practically all her life having moved here from Kentucky with her parents in 1890.

Mr. Cline and his associates are distributors for the Anderson Motor Car in 66 counties in northern and western Texas and local agents for the Dort Motor Car in Fort Worth. There are five employees at their place of business where they have offices, show rooms and service station facilities.

Mr. Cline has a membership in the Automobile Association and the Fort Worth Chamber of Com- merce. He is also enrolled as a member of the Masonic Order and the Elks.

HARLES AUSTIN WHITFIELD, owner of the Whitfield-Holmes Company, dealers in the Holmes air cooled automobiles, 211 Commerce Street, Fort Worth, has, by his superior selling and business ability, established one of the most reliable and popular automobile agencies in this city. The Whitfield-Holmes Company was founded in October of 1919 and since that time has become the distributing center for Holmes cars for seven Texas counties. The Holmes car is equipped

with an air cooled engine of the most improved de- sign; bodies are built on the most modern lines and are constructed to meet the approval of the most divergent tastes. The popularity of the car in this city is ably illustrated by the number that are seen in every day use on Fort Worth thoroughfares

A native son of Texas, Charles Austin Whitfield was born at Henderson, Rusk County, in 1892. He is a son of James and Elizabeth ( Brown) Whitfield, the former being a native of Georgia state, while the latter is a native of this state. The younger Mr. Whitfield received his primary education in the public schools of San Angelo, being a graduate of the high schools of that city. His higher educa- tional training was received at Trinity University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, having received his bachelor of seience de- gree from the latter institution. After his gradua- tion lie accepted employment with the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company, at Dallas, where he was in charge of the traffic department of that concern. After two and one-half years of service with this company he resigned and began his sales- manship career, selling Overland and Willis-Knight automobiles at Wichita Falls. When the United States entered the world war he was among the first to volunteer his services, commissioned second lieutenant in the signal corps of the reserve corps. He was sent to Camp Vail, at Little Silver, New Jersey, and was later transferred to Fort Leaven- worth, Kansas. In 1918 he was sent to France, where he was part of the immense service of supply, where he remained until July, 1919, when he re- turnd to this country, being demobilized from the service in August of the same year. In France he was promoted to first lieutenant. Mr. Whitfield then organized the Whitfield-Holmes Company, in which business he has been engaged since that time.

In fraternal orders Mr. Whitfield is a member of the Masons, the Elks, the Chamber of Commerce, Auto Dealers' Association, the Meadow Mere Club and the Glenn Garden Country Club.

D. CHESTNUT, automobiles and pianos, corner Sixth and Commerce Streets, Fort Worth. Handles McFarland and Stearns- Knight automobiles. High grade pianos. Phones: Lamar 1505; Lamar 3050.

J. BENEKE, owner of the A. J. Beneke Motor Company, Fort Worth, has gained his skill in automobilc mechanics through an experience of several years and is now recognized as an expert in that line of work. He established the A. J. Beneke Motor Company in 1910 and is now the local dealer for Winton, Lexington and Gardner Motor Cars. For the past five years he has had the good fortune of having an expert office manager, Miss Vida Hardoncourt, who first began work with him in 1915. The home of the com- pany is located at 113 Commerce Street, and has a floor space of some ten thousand square feet, which is divided into a show room, offices, service station and a parts department. Besides handling the ears mentioned above the company also does repair work on all makes of cars, six mechanics being employed for this work under the direction of A. J. Ray. The first year of business, 1910, netted the company approximately $2,500, in 1920 this was increased to approximately $60.000. One of the things that has made for the phenomenal success of the company has been the lively atmosphere of business efficiency

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that pervades the home of the company and spurs the employees on to greater goals.

A native of Wisconsin. A. J. Beneke was born at Oshkosh on August 3, 1885. He is a son of Wil- liam Beneke, formerly a Wisconsin farmer who moved to Texas but now deceased. The younger Mr. Beneke secured his early schooling in the public schools of Wisconsin and when his parents moved to Texas in 1895 he began the study of mechanics. The major portion of his knowledge of this subject was secured in Fort Worth and at an early age he began work in a Fort Worth machine shop, where he remained for the next four years. He then accepted a position with the Southwestern Machine Shops and later was connected with the A. J. Ray Automobile Company. In 1910 he decided to open an establish- ment of his own and since that time he has operated and owned the Beneke Motor Company. Mr. Beneke also has large interests in oil leases and stock in Western Texas fields.

The marriage of Mr. Beneke to Miss Ruby Flack, of Mayfield, Kentucky, was solemnized at Fort Worth ir. 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Beneke are the parents of two children, Adolph, Jr., and Elizabeth. In local and state clubs Mr. Beneke has membership in the Fort Worth Auto Dealers' Association and the Texas Auto Dealers' Association.

A man of the type that bubbles with enthusiasm and energy, Mr. Beneke has always been of service to those in need and to those who know him he is "the self-made man."

LOYD WEAVER, owner of the Lloyd Weaver Automobile Company, 814 Travis Street, distributors for the Hudson and Essex automobiles, has one of the largest and finest buildings in the city devoted to the auto- mobile business, and enjoys a volume of business that aggregated three-quarters of a million dollars in 1920. The firm's territory takes in four counties, Wichita, Archer, Wilbarger and Clay, and a corps of twenty-seven clerks, salesmen and mechanics and four traveling salesmen is employed. The business, which was established in September, 1910, occupies three floors, 50x150 feet, including show rooms, parts department and service station.

Mr. Weaver is a young man, thorough-going, pro- gressive and ambitious, and a prominent factor in the business life of his eity. He located in Wichita Falls in 1906 and began working in a grocery store at a salary. After three years in the grocery busi- ness he formed a partnership firm under the name of Schnell & Weaver, and opened up a garage in a building 30x50 feet, employing one mechanic, and later he bought his partner's interest. From this small beginning. he has, by strict application to his business, careful and conservative management, built up one of the best automobile businesses in West Texas. In addition to his automobile inter- ests, he also has large oil and refinery interests, and he has invested heavily in real estate in Wichita Falls which is improving in city lots, and has done some building of houses and will probably soon crect a business building on his close in realty.

Mr. Weaver is a product of Clay County, Texas, born in 1892, the son of W. F. Weaver, who came to Texas in the early seventies and is now a retired citizen of Wichita Falls. He attended the Oklahoma public schools and also a college at Cordell, Okla. In 1914 he was married at Wichita Falls to Miss Frankie Cecil, daughter of O. B. Ceeil, vice-president

of the Wichita Falls Foundry, and with their brigh. and interesting little daughter, Marguerite, mak .. their home at 1708 Grant Street. He is an Elk an : a member of the Wichita Club and Chamber of Com. merce, and takes an active interest in all movement. tending to promote the welfare of his city, which he believes is the best in the state.

UGH WEAVER, partner in the firm of King & Weaver Automobile Company, 1012-1011 Scott Avenue, is a leader among garage men of this city who does also storage, washing and greasing work, keeping eight employees in Constant service in a twenty-four hour service a day. The automobile business has come to be one of the greatest industries of America and taken together with its accessories and service stations it is reach- ing every nook of the nation and in the cities there is hardly a block that does not have an establishment devoted to some phase of this immense business. The territory about Wichita Falls and the city itself is one of the largest and best fields for this activity that the state of Texas affords, due both to the fact that Wichita Falls has as large a wealth per capita as has any city in the Southwest and the fact that the city is one of the most active in the South. Mr. Weaver and his company are at the heart of this activity.

Mr. Weaver was born in Clay County, Texas, in 1887. His father is W. F. Weaver. As the family residence has been at different periods in Texas and Oklahoma alternately, the school system of the two states have made their contribution to the educa- tion of Mr. Weaver. He began in the business world by entering in with his brother, Lloyd Weaver, into the grocery business. After three years in this enterprise, he went with the Taylor-Weaver Grocery Co. for one year, and then with Lloyd Weaver into the automobile business. This affiliation was inter- rupted by the call to arms; Mr. Weaver served as an instructor on carburetors and ignition in 1918, until he received his discharge on December 21st of that year. He then returned to Wichita Falls and again resumed his former business but this time in his own organization.

In December, 1919, Mr. Weaver and Miss Fannie B. McIntyre, a native of Kentucky, were united in marriage; they have residence at 1640 Collins St. Mr. Weaver is identified with the Elks of this city and is active in its civic life as well as a believer in its immense commercial future.

WILLIAM E. BROWN, vice-president of the Nash-MeLarty Motor Company, 2021 Com- merce Street, Dallas, is associated in part- nership with F. E. MeLarty, of Dallas, and conducts the business of distribution of the Nash automobiles and trucks in North Texas. The organi- zation occupies two three story buildings, 50 by 90 feet each. The annual gross volume of business approximates nearly two million dollars in their ter- ritory which includes Northwest and East Texas extending south including Waco. Mr. Brown is pres- ident of the Brown-Mann-Nash Co. of M. S. Kinney, the local Nash dealers for Collin and Rockwall counties. Secretary and treasurer of the Delco Oil Co. and treasurer of the India Tire Company.

Mr. Brown was born near Humansville, Missouri, August 2, 1884, and is the son of Benjamin F. and Iva (Ayres) Brown. In 1903 he began business as assistant cashier in the Exchange Bank of Clark, Missouri, and remained working for that institution

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Royd Heuer.

MEN OF TEXAS

for eleven years. In 1914 he came to Texas and vated in Waco as manager of the automobile de- partment of the Herrick Hardware Company, who were agents for the Buick, and in 1917 he came : Dallas and assumed his present duties.

In 1909 he was married at Rosebud, Texas, to Miss Maymie Cruse of that place. They have four children, Maurice, Elbert, Kenneth and Bernard, and the family now reside at 3422 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas.

Mr. Brown is well pleased with his new surround- ings and he finds the facilities of Dallas particularly well adapted to every business need. He has already gained a wide acquaintance and is an active mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Auto Trades Association and the Dallas Athletic Club.

THOMAS J. CHRISTAL, manager of the Texas-Indiana Truck Company, 1304-6 Young Street, Dallas, associated with P. J. Nalle, local dealer for the Stutz automo- biles, is a citizen of Dallas who was recruited from Austin in 1919 after having made a success of the automobile business in the state capitol for the five years just preceding. In Dallas he conducts the local retail agency for the Indiana trucks, while he con- trols the wholesale distribution of this product for the entire state of Texas east of the Pecos River. At the above address he has a store room 50 by 130 feet which accommodates a sales room, service sta- tion and office. He now employs seven people in his business in Dallas and has appointed twelve local dealers in his territory.

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2, Part 17

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau
Number of Pages: 1328