The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2, Part 34

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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Mr. Culbreath was born in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, on October 25, 1871. His father, S. D. Culbreath, deceased, who had been in business in Dallas. His mother was Sallie B. Jenkins. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools of Dallas but the greater part of his education, and by far the more valuable, began at the age of sixteen when he began work as a clerk with the Crowdus Drug Company. During the sixteen years that he remained with this firm he was not only "learning the game" but he was laying the foundation for that detailed knowledge of his field which he has since manifested and by 1908, when he took a position with the Greiner-Kelly Drug Company, he had been promoted to the place of price man. He remained in this new position for eight years as price man and from there he was called to the place which he now holds as secretary and treasurer of the Texas Drug Company.

In 1900 Mr. Culbreath was married to Miss Cassie Anspaugh, daughter of R. P. Anspaugh, of Dallas. His residence is at 3817 Bowser Street.

Mr. Culbreath's career presents us with another example, not infrequent in the West, of a man who. without the advantages of a higher education has by sheer force of industry and character risen to a high degree of prominence in the business world. While he is in no sense obtrusive as a public man. he is a member of the United Commercial Travelers and of the Episcopal Church. In addition to his success as a business man, Mr. Culbreath may be classed as a public-spirited citizen.

J. DE WOODY, President and General Man- ager of the J. W. Crowdus Drug Company. 1008-14 Commerce Street, wholesale drug- gists, is at the head of the oldest drug con- cern of prominence in Texas and one that has done much to give Dallas its far-reaching reputation as a wholesale center. For more than twenty-three years he has been connected with the Crowdus Company and the growth which it has experienced under his management stands as undeniable proof of his busi- ness efficiency.

The J. W. Crowdus Drug Company was established in 1884 by J. W. Crowdus and has since that time had a steady and healthful development until todas it is one of the largest houses of its kind in the South. It serves a territory including almost the whole of

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MEN OF TEXAS

Texas and parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico. In addition to the twenty-one salesmen who are con- stantly on the road, 140 local employes are used. A complete line of drugs, druggists sundries, talk- ing machines, tobacco, drug store fixtures and soda fountains is carried. The building which is now oc- cupied was erected in 1914 and is owned by the firm. It is 100 feet square with five stories and a basement. . The building to the rear and facing Jackson Street with two stories and a basement has recently been leased which gives a total floor space of 80,000 square feet.

Mr. DeWoody is a native of Pennsylvania. His father, J. P. DeWoody, later moved to Denver, Colo., where he became a well known contractor. Mr. De- Woody's early education was in public schools of Denver and'in the Canon City High School. His College course was taken in the University of Den- ver. In 1896 he took a position with the J. W. Crowdus Drug Company and worked for a number of years in the office and as salesman. In 1910 he became Treasurer of the firm and seven years later, vice-president. In 1918 he was made president, which office he still holds.

In 1893 Mr. DeWoody was married to Miss Flora Henry, daughter of J. H. Henry and grandaughter of J. W. Crowdus, their only child. now Mrs. T. P. Roberts, lives in Dallas. The DeWoody home is at 715 Glendale Avenue.

Mr. DeWoody is a member of the Elks Club, the Rotary Club,the Auto Club and is actively connected with the Chamber of Commerce. During his long residence in Dallas lie has not only attained to high rank in the commercial world but has shown himself to be an optimistic, progressive, public spirited citi- zen.

FRED SCHOELLKOPF, vice-president of the Schoellkopf Company, manufacturers of saddles, harness and collars, at the corner of Jackson and Lamar Streets. This cor- poration, organized in 1872 and incorporated in 1902, today supplies Texas, adjoining states, Cuba and Mexico with its products. Besides, the company is distributor of hardware leather, shoe findings, auto top trimming material. When the company was first organized its activities were in the harness and saddle business only; today the Schoellkopf Com- pany is a mighty factor in three big industries of. the Southwest-the harness business, the shoe in- dustry and auto trimmings products. The in- corporated company has a working capitalization of $1,200,000 which is utilized in the wholesale and job- bing business only.

This firm was organized forty-nine years ago, 1872, by G. H. Schoellkopf, president of the com- pany. The present pay roll includes a force of more than 250.

J. Fred Schoellkopf was born in Dallas in 1880. He was educated in the private schools of this metro- polis and in 1900 he graduated from the Penn Mili- tary College. The year of his graduation marked the beginning of his business career; he at once became associated with his father's business and has worked himself up from a beginner to the present position of leadership. Ile has seen the business make such strides that in the last few years the headquarters have been enlarged until they are nine stories- 100x125 feet, and sending out twenty salesmen all over the country. His business ability has caused

him to be made a leading officer in five other big concerns of a city; a director of the City National Bank, the Dallas Trust and Savings Bank, the Hig- ginbotham-Bailey-Logan Company and president of the Dallas Opera House Association and the Water- man Lumber Company.

In 1904, Mr. Schoellkopf married Miss Bess Wilson of Dallas, daughter of the late J. B. Wilson. They have two sons-J. Fred Jr. and Wilson Schoellkopf. The family has residence at 4317 Gaston Avenue.

Mr. Schoellkopf has many interests in addition to his business. He is an active member of the Dallas Country Club, the City Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary Club. His church affilia- tion is Presbyterian.

The fact that Mr. Schoellkopf is a leading official in five of Dallas' biggest businesses is proof enough that he himself is a man of the larger caliber.

E. MARVIN, owner of Marvin's Drug Store at Main and Akard Streets, Dallas, is prob- ably Texas' largest retail druggist. The Southern Pharmaceutical Journal so rated him in a recent issue of that magazine. At any rate, he is a leader among the Dallas druggists and not only is a big success in his own line but in other activities, business and civic, as well. Mr. Marvin entered the drug business in Dallas in 1905 and has been at his present location, at the hub of the city, Main and Akard streets, for twelve years. During this time he has owned sixteen different drug stores, which have very well covered the town; seven, he says, are the most he ever owned at one time.

Mr. Marvin is a native of Michigan, he was born at Adrian of that state. In 1892 he entered college in Springfield, Mo., where he worked his own way through. He was in this manner getting his book education and practical training at the same time for his spare hours were spent at the A. M. Fink Drug Store. Two years later he entered the employ of Carl Schultz at Monmouth, Illinois, where he con- tinued his plan of combining his education and learn- ing his life work. In 1896 he entered the Chicago College of Pharmacy. Here he made his way by working for C. B. Mead of Berwin, Ill. In 1898, he passed the examination given by the Illinois Board of Pharmacy. He entered the employ of N. Gray Bartlett, formerly professor of chemistry in the Chi- cago College of Pharmacy whose store was at 22nd Street and Indiana Avenue. Later he entered the employ of E. H. Sargent and Company, the largest retail drggists in the city of Chicago at that time. In 1901 he went on the road for Armour & Co. as a salesman for their laboratory products. His ter- ritory was every thing west of Pittsburg from Canada to Mexico. In 1905 he yielded to his heart's. ambition to enter the retail drug business for him- self; it was then that he settled in Dallas and began the successful career that has made him a leader in Texas' foremost city for fifteen years.

Mr. Marvin and his associates have considerable oil holdings, both in leases and in producing wells, about Ranger and Desdemonia. Ile has always been very active in his own city, not only in the promotion of his own interests but for every good interest of Dallas. He is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce and quite a number of clubs and associations, for he is a good mixer and a friend to man. He has been active in philanthropic work. His personality and influence are at the forefront among men of his profession.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

IPHONSO RAGLAND, president of the Metropolitan Business College, located at the corner of Commerce and Saint Paul Streets, came to Dallas from Austin, Texas, in 1899 and has never regretted his removal to Dal- las, which he terms the "Queen City of the South- west." Purchasing the school in 1897, Mr. Ragland operated it for two years before assuming the active management himself and since becoming the direct- ing head of the school has seen the enrollment grow until now more than one thousand students matricu- late there each year.

The present three-story brick building, entirely occupied by the school, was erected by Mr. Ragland in 1904 and owing to the crowded condition some months ago an additional frontage of 50 feet was purchased immediately west of the present location and construction work has begun on an addition to the building which will double its present floor space of 15,000 square feet. The present building is fifty by one hundred feet.

Mr. Ragland is a great believer in Dallas and con siders the outlook here the best of any city in the Southwest. Through the agency of the Metropolitan Business College he has brought many people to Dal- las, numbers of whom have become actively and permanently identified with various commercial and industrial enterprises here. Many prominent busi- ness nien, bankers and financiers throughout Texas and the Southwest today attribute a great measure of their success to the training received at the Metropolitan and hundreds of successful young busi- ness women received their first practical and theo- retical training at this school.

A native Texan, born at Daingerfield, in Morris County, in 1866, Mr. Ragland is very proud of the state of his nativity. His father, A. Ragland, who was born in Texas in 1845, was a successful business man of Daingerfield and the first sheriff of Morris County. The younger Ragland received his early education in the public schools there, later taking special work at Baylor University. He was chief clerk of the State Land Office at Austin prior to re- moving to Dallas.

On August 12, 1891, Mr. Ragland was married to Miss Susie Ragsdale, also a native Texan, and they have three children, Mrs. R. C. McIver and Mrs. P. H. Diggle and Alphonse, Jr., aged 17 years. Mr. Ragland is a vice-president and director of the Se- curity National Bank and a member of the Rotary Club, and the Chamber of Commerce. He is a deacon in the First Baptist Church in which he has been active for twenty-one years. He is intensely inter- ested in civic affairs and always welcomes an op- portunity to lend of his counsel and his resources to any movement looking to the development of Dallas or Texas.

USTIN F. KIMBALL, superintendent of the public schools of Dallas, has attained to one of the highest positions, educationally, in the State of Texas. The chief executive of as extensive an organization as the public schools of a large city requires certain characteristics: scholar- ship, keen business judgment, genius for methodical management, and a sixth sense that leaps ahead of today and plans for tomorrow. Mr. Kimball has all this and more. He is an original thinker, a lover of the artistic, a believer in the ultimate good of the world and in every way an inspiring and cultured gentleman.

With a wealth of experience back of him, M- Kimball came to Dallas in 1914 as superintendent . : public schools. During his administration of ': past six years, the Dallas schools have steadily grown and expanded, and Mr. Kimball is constant !. planning new buildings, better play grounds, bet :. . conditions for teachers, and in fact everything the. will give to the children of Dallas a chance to grow into well developed, healthy, intelligent, thinki :... men and women. There are now three white high schools in Dallas, Forest Avenue, Bryan Street and Oak Cliff. A fourth high school is in course of con- struction and will be known as the North Dallas high school. There is also a colored high school. In all, Dallas possesses forty city schools, two special schools, a school for deaf children and five night schools. One assistant superintendent is employed. eight supervisors, and the number of teachers reaches 733, of whom 128 are high school teachers. There are 35,500 children in the scholastic census, and 32,000 of these are enrolled in the public schools. Any subject which the demand warrants is taught. including business courses, trades and arts, all com- mon school branches, and domestic science. Any subject is taught that twenty pupils will enroll for.

The election of April, 1920, voted $1,500,000 bonds for school needs which is an increase of the mainte- nance tax of 30 cents on the dollar. This insures a $400 increase of salary to each teacher aside from the automatic annual increase, and makes it pos- sible for Dallas to secure only teachers who have University degrees and gilt-edge recommendations.

Much of Mr. Kimball's love for learning is due to his home environments. His father, J. A. Kimball, was a college professor and a minister in the Baptist Church. The elder Kimball came to Texas in 1850, settling in Walker County under pioneer conditions. He married Miss Betty Ford, a young woman of sterling qualities and lovable character. Mr. Kimball was born in Walker County and upon attaining his youth was sent to Mt. Lebanon College, and later to Baylor University where he received his A. B., A. M., and LL. D. degrees. He began teaching in the rural schools of Texas, and taught one year at Mexia, and two at Navasota. From Navasota he went to Temple where he was made superintendent of the city schools, a position which he held for twenty years, building up a remarkable school sys- tem, and when he left to become superintendent of the Dallas schools, leaving behind him a record of earnest labor and rare achievement.

For many years he has held positions at the top of the educational associations of Texas, and has done lecture work in the higher universities. For a long period he was secretary to the State Teachers' Association and has also served as president of that body. During the summer sessions he is in much demand as lecturer at Baylor University, the Texas University and Peabody College for Teachers, Nash- ville, Tenn.

Mr. Kimball was married to Miss Annie Lou Bog- gess, of Waco, the daughter of Prof. Albert Boggess, of Baylor University.

Aside from his educational activities, Mr. Kimball is an active member of many social and civic clubs of the city. He is a Maccabee, a Knight of Pythias. Knight Templar, York and Scottish Rite, and a 32d degree Mason. He is director of the University Club. and holds membership in the Kiwanis, Cedar Crest Country Club, Dallas Athletic Association and the Critic Club.

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MEN OF TEXAS .

G. WOOD, general manager of the Texas Land and Mortgage Company, limited, of London, England, with offices at Field and Commeree streets, Dallas, has followed his avocation in this city since the month of December, 1882. At that time he and C. E. Wellesley opened the first mortgage company ever to operate in this state and for thirty-eight years they have operated one of the largest mortgage companies of this city. The company specializes in the loaning of money on farm lands and to it is due the credit, in a large part, for the present agricultural development of Dallas Coun- ty lands. During the first twenty years of its exist- ence the company loaned thousands of dollars to citi- zens of Dallas for building purposes and in this way greatly aided in the development of this city. The home of the concern is located at the corner of Field and Commerce streets, it being built by the company some twenty-five years ago.

A native of Scotland, A. G. Wood was born at the city of Aberdeen on the 15th day of May, 1857. He received his early educational training in the schools of Aberdeen County, Scotland, and also by individual study. After finishing school he became associated with a local railroad office, where he remained for the next six years, after which time he entered a local law office where he studied law and the mortgage business for seven years. By means of this training he secured a position with a London Mortgage com- pany and he was sent to America with Mr. Wellesley to open up a branch office in the Southern States. They selected Texas and then Dallas and organized the Texas Land and Mortgage Company as a branch of the English concern. Mr. Wellesley served as gen- eral manager of the company until 1902 at which time he was succeeded by Mr. Wood, who has retained that position since that time.

In 1904 Mr. Wood married Miss Jessie Souter, a native of Scotland. His first marriage being in 1883, to Miss Jessie Grant, of Scotland. Mr. Wood has three children by his first marriage, Edward A., who is the resident Engineer for the Dallas Metropolitan Association and who served as a Major of Engineers in the recent war; A. G., Junior, who is in the real estate business with the firm of Williams & Ellis, and Ian M. Wood, who is now a student at the University of Texas. The Wood residence is located at 2616 Maple Avenue, Dallas.

Mr. Wood is a member of a number of local civic organizations, among which might be mentioned the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and the Dallas Country Club.

R OBERT ERNEST VINSON, B. A., B. D., D. D., LL. D., the president of the Uni- versity of Texas since 1916, was born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, November 4, 1876, the son of John and Mary Brice Vinson. His elementary training was received in public schools of his native state and Sherman, Texas, thither his parents had moved while the subject of this sketch was still a lad. He finished high school in 1892 and four years later graduated from Austin College. He then entered the Union Theological Seminary of. Richmond, Va., where he graduated in 1899. In the summer of 1902 he was graduate student in the University of Chicago.

Dr. Vinson's first pastorate was with the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston, West Virginia, from 1899 to 1902. In 1902 he was elected to a professorship in the Austin Theological Seminary

and in 1908 was chosen president of that institution. In 1916 he resigned this place to accept the presi- dency of the University of Texas.

Dr. Vinson married Miss Katherine Kerr, of Sher- man, Texas, and Mary Elizabeth, Helen Rutherford and Katherine Kerr are their three children.

Dr. Vinson is a thirty-second degree Mason, a life member of the Elks' Club, a member of the Rotary Club, as he is also identified with the Town and Gown and the Cosino and University Clubs of Washington, D. C.

A scholar of rare ability, a forceful and pleasing speaker, a man of sound business judgment, Dr. Vinson is eminently fitted for his place as president of the State University and is fastly becoming recog- nized as one of the nation's leading educators.

ILLIAM H. STRATTON. One of the promi- nent figures of the civic and community life of Texas and Dallas is William H. Stratton. secretary of the State Fair of Texas, the great institution of education and recreation located at Dallas and so familiarly known to millions of Texans. Mr. Stratton has for a number of years been at the forefront of the activity, leading to the development of the State Fair, and the realizations of its high aspirations.

William H. Stratton's interest in, and connection with, the State Fair came about in a very natural manner. His father-in-law, Captain Sydney Smith, was among the founders of the institution, and held the position of secretary from 1886 until 1912, the year of his death. Mr. Stratton, for the last four years of this period, served as his assistant, and became familiar with the executive duties connected with its operation. He was selected to the post of secretary to succeed Capt. Smith. During his term the State Fair of Texas has grown from a position among the rank and file of state fairs to the greatest institution of its kind in the world, and the largest permanent fair on the continent. Each year the attendance runs to the million mark, while record- breaking appropriations for premiums bring hun- dreds of livestock and agricultural exhibitors. Be- cause of the great attendance, the State Fair of Texas is also a center of commerce and industry during its season, with thousands of commercial exhibitors.

Mr. Stratton was born in Navasota in 1870, the son of S. T. Stratton, a retired business man now living in Dallas. The family came to Dallas during William H. Stratton's early youth, and he received his schooling at a private institution conducted by the late Professor Grove. He received his early business training at the old Exchange Bank, one of the big financial establishments of Dallas in those days, being headed by the late Col. John N. Simp, son, with Royal A. Ferris as cashier. In 1895 Mr. Stratton and Miss Margaret Smith were married. bringing about a union between two pioneer Texas families. One child was born to them, now Mrs. Isabelle Stratton Weaver, wife of Alfred S. Weaver, of Dallas. Mr. Weaver is a son of J. C. Weaver of Dallas, a prominent business man.

Mr. Stratton is executive ofcer of one of the largest business institutions in Texas, and his post has brought him in touch with many events of an important nature to the state and its development. He is also well known to the nation through his national organization of fair executives, the Inter- national American Association of Fairs and Exposi- tions, of which he was president in 1919.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

OL. WM. L. CRAWFORD, through a career as an active attorney for nearly three score years, forty-five of which were spent in practise before the Dallas Bar of Justice, won distinction as one of the greatest criminal lawyers of the entire South; his methods strictly ethical, no man has been better equipped mentally than he for the difficult tasks undertaken. He had a thorough and profound knowledge of criminal law and combined with this he was an eloquent orator.

Col. Crawford was born near Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky, on January 23, 1839. His parents, Jephtha D. Crawford and Katherine Keiningham Crawford, came to Texas in December of 1843 and located near Jefferson of Cass County. He was educated in Mckenzie Institute which later became Georgetown University. After completing school, he went back to the farm where he was busy until the beginning of the Civil War when he enlisted as a private in the Nineteenth Texas Infantry; in 1862 he was elected captain by his regiment. Later he belonged to General Walker's Division of the Trans- Mississippi Department which was commanded by E. Kirby Smith. At the close of the war he was lieutenant-colonel commanding the Nineteenth Texas Infantry. He was a participant in battles taking place in Louisiana and Arkansas. After the war Col. Crawford began the study of law at home in a log cabin and on Saturday he would go to town to be examined in his progress and guided by David Culberson and Gen. Maybry. Mr. Culberson was a member of congress and was regarded as one of the most able lawyers in the state in his day; he was the father of the present-day Texas Senator Culber- son. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar and began his practise in Jefferson, was joined by his brother, Judge M. L. Crawford and together they constituted the firm of Crawford & Crawford. As Col. Wm. Crawford moved to Dallas on July 7, 1876, and his brother came in 1880, the firm has been continued in Dallas. For many years the firm of Crawford & Crawford, without an exception, did the most busi- ness or the biggest commercial business of any law firm in the city. Although nine-tenths of his cases were of civil nature, yet because of the more than 125 noted cases in criminal courts that Col. Crawford ably handled he was held in the highest esteem as the mightiest man of his time in this realm. For thirty-five years he served as the legal reporter for The Dallas News.

In 1867 Mr. Crawford married Miss Love Alley, deceased since 1873. They had three children: J. D., M. L., and Mrs. Lucy Craycroft.

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2, Part 34

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