USA > Texas > The encyclopedia of Texas, V.2 > Part 6
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Mr. Avery is a native of Alabama, was born at Gerard January 8, 1869, a son of N. and Katherine ( Baxley) Avery. His father was formerly in the mercantile business at Gerard, but sold out and re- moved with his family to Texas in 1873, settling at Pleasant Hill in Milam County. It was in the public schools at Pleasant Hill that young Avery received his preliminary education, later attending a Normal School for teachers at Cameron, Texas.
From 1891 to 1905 he was engaged in the mercan- tile business at Tyler, selling out in 1905 and ac- cepting a position as travelling salesman for Padgitt Brothers of Dallas. He continued in this work until 1907 when he entered the lumber business at Tyler, which he conducted until his removal to Dallas.
On June 25, 1902 he was married to Miss Mamie Bean, daughter of Fred Bean, well known planter and Texas politician. They have two children, Geo. W. Jr., aged 16, first lieutenant in the cadet corps of Oak Cliff High School and who will graduate this year; and Fred B., 11 years of age.
Mr. Avery is a firm believer in the future of Texas and Dallas in particular. He is a great booster for Dallas and never loses sight of an opportunity to pre- sent the city's many advantages from a commercial and industrial standpoint. He is an enthusiastic ad- vocate of more and better schools and for ten years has been preaching the doctrine of better pay for teachers. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has been connected with the order for twenty years.
HOMAS W. GRIFFITHS, manager of Grif- fiths and Company, retail lumber, 918 South Lamar, controls one of the largest lumber industries in this part of the state. Mr. Griffiths has shown excellent judgment in his man- agement of the company and has been rewarded by rapid and continued growth of his firm.
This company was established by Mr. Griffiths' father, the late Thos. W. Griffiths, Sr., originally the firm had been Griffiths and Cowser, with Thos. W. Griffiths, Sr., and A. R. Cowser, proprietors. In 1896 this partnership was dissolved and two years later Mr. Griffiths re-established the firm as his own, and operated it until his death in 1919. The senior Mr. Griffiths had come to Dallas from Bryan, Texas, in 1880.
Griffiths and Company is a retail lumber corpora- tion, handling hardware, sash, doors, paints, lime, cement and every kind of building material. The lumber yard covers three and one-half acres and carries 3,000,000 feet of lumber in stock, which is supplied to Dallas trade. Hardwoods shipped to all parts of the state. About fifteen people are em- ployed in the office and yards. Mr. Griffiths, besides managing this enormous business, is also a director of the Continental Savings and Building Association, the American Life Insurance Company, and the American Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the Re- public Fire Insurance Company and the Southwest- ern Life and Insurance Company.
Born at Bryan, Texas, on May 25, 1882, Mr. Grif- fiths was the son of Thos. W. Griffiths, Sr., and Eliza A. Cowser Griffiths. The family moved to
Dallas in 1883, and Mr. Griffiths entered the Dallas public schools and later attended A. and M. College at Bryan, taking a mechanical engineering course, and receiving his B. S. degree in 1900. That same year he entered the lumber business with his father, starting as roustabout. Promotion after promotion came to him as the result of his splendid work, and finally in 1910 he was put in charge of the entire business.
He was married in 1909 to Miss Eva Lavine, of Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths have two chil- dren, Thos. W., III, eight years of age, and Evelyn Lavine. Their home is at 2621 Mckinney Avenue.
Mr. Griffiths is a member of the Dallas Country Club, the City Club, Dallas Club, Rotary Club, Dallas Hunting and Fishing Club, Automobile Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Retail Credit Men's Association. He is not only a successful business man, but is popular socially, and known as a splen- did type of citizen.
OSEPH B. MARTIN, manager of Jones Lumber Company, 2514 Commerce Street, is one of the most widely known and liked lumbermen of the state. Mr. Martin has been with this company for twenty years, starting with them at Corsicana. Later, his duties took him to Brownwood, and in 1904 he came to Dallas in the interest of the firm.
The Jones Lumber Company, which is one of the cldest lumber firms in the state, maintains two lum- ber yards in Dallas, and covers a space approximately 294 by 170 feet square. A stock of from two to three million feet of lumber is carried, and consists of doors, sashes, windows and all building supplies, together with hardware equipments. The Jones Lumber Company has recently sold its interests to Higganbotham-Bartlett Lumber Company.
Born in Waxahachie, Texas, on August 4, 1878, Mr. Martin was the son of Joseph A. Martin and Anna Bell Martin, his mother's people being very old settlers of Texas, having lived in Ellis County since '42. He received his education in the schools of Waxahachie and Sherman, supplementing this by a year of law at the University of Texas. After leaving school he engaged in the lumber business at Corsicana, entering the firm of M. T. Jones Lum- ber Company and has been with the Jones interests ever since, gradually working his way up until at present he is the manager of this firm.
His marriage to Miss Annie L. Houser was cele- brated in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have four chil- dren, Margaret, Joseph B. Jr., William Houser and James Timmons. Their home is at 5507 Ross Ave- nue.
Mr. Martin is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, and has been a member of the Methodist Church of the city for many years.
BORGAN M. MAYFIELD, Elm and T. & P. Railroad, a lumber and building material dealer, is one of the largest dealers in lum- ber and building materials in Dallas and maintains an immense stock in the yards located at Elm Street and the Texas and Pacific Railway, this location being admirably suited for the handling of a large volume of business. An architectural depart- ment maintained by Mr. Mayfield furnishes building plans and renders valuable assistance in the planning and designing of homes and other buildings. A strong financial department assists in financing the construction of homes and M. M. Mayfield has been
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an important factor in the development of the spirit of home owning in Dallas.
The present business was organized by Mr. May- field in 1917, succeeding to the business of the J. S. Mayfield Lumber Company of which he has been president for twenty years. The J. S. Mayfield Lum- ber Company was incorporated in 1897 shortly after the death of J. S. Mayfield, who established the busi- ness in 1873 at Sherman and Dallas under the name of Cameron and Mayfield. Two years later Mr. May- field purchased the interest of Wm. Cameron at Dallas, continued the business and in the name of J. S. Mayfield. In 1882 he sold out his Dallas interests and removed to Wichita Falls at the time the Denver Road was being built, maintaining general headquarters there and operating retail lum- ber yards along the line of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway from Henrietta to the Texas State line. Returning to Dallas in 1889 Mr. Mayfield again engaged in business here and continued until his death in 1897.
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Morgan M. Mayfield is the son of J. S. and Susan Gertrude (Morgan) Mayfield and was born in Dallas in 1878. He was educated in the schools of Dallas and attended the Bingham School at Asheville, North Carolina. He began business as a boy with his father and has always engaged in the lumber busi- ness. In 1906 he was married to Miss Freeda Schoellkopf, daughter of G. H. Schoellkopf. They reside at 2600 Maple Avenue.
Mr. Mayfield's mother was the daughter of Richard Morgan who came to Dallas in 1875, and who died here in 1889, and a sister of the late Judge Richard Morgan Jr., well known jurist who came to Dallas in 1872. Mrs. Mayfield was born in Savanah, Georgia and came to Dallas to live in 1874 and died here in 1913. He has two sisters residing here, Miriam, now Mrs. H. C. Bramley, and Beatrice, now Mrs. W. S. Atkins. An aunt, Miss M. M. Morgan, was one of the founders and is still con- nected with the Hockaday School for girls.
Always taking a keen interest in civic affairs, Mr. Mayfield is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Country Club, City Club and the Auto- mobile Club.
W. McDONALD, president of Halmack Oil Co., successors of the Hallock-Whaley in- terests, oil operators, with offices in the American Exchange Bank Building, is not a recent convert to the oil industry but has literally grown up "under the shadow of a derrick" and dur- ing an active contact with all phases of the work covering a period of more than thirty years he has acquired such a thorough and detailed knowledge of the business that he is today a master of the situation without a peer.
The Halmack Oil Co. is the outcome of an oil pro- ducing partnership whose directors are W. W. Mc- Donald, chairman; Nathan Adams, T. A. Bywater, S. B. Perkins, H. H. Halleck. Rosser J. Coke, F .. J. Tholl of Dallas, and H. J. Halley of Chicago. It was organized in June, 1919, with a paid up capital of $1,500,000. The company has operated in Erath, Coleman, Stephens, Young, Baylor, Throckmorton, Archer, Montague and Wichita counties of Texas, and Cotton County of Oklahoma, including an area of approximately 21,000 acres. The company has drilled over twenty wells in oil producing districts.
Mr. MeDonald was born November 18, 1871, at Titusville, Pennsylvania, a town in the heart of the
Pennsylvania out district. His father, William B. McDonald, was an oil man of Oil Creek, Pennsyl- vania. His mother was Elizabeth Morris McDonald. According to Mr. McDonald's own statement he grew up under the shadow of oil derricks and it. is not surprising that at an early age he began work in the oil fields. His first employment was as a tool dresser. In 1886 he went to Ohio and began work with the Ohio Oil Company as a "roust-about." For twenty-four years he remained with the Ohio Oil Company, being thirteen years in Ohio and nine years in Illinois. He then became general manager ef the Mid-Kansas Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Ohio Oil Company. Following this he was gen- eral superintendent of the Ohio Oil Company in Illinois from which position he resigned in 1919 to take the position which he now holds.
Mr. McDonald was married on May 7, 1899, to Miss Myrtle G. Bell and to them five children were born, Earl 1)., Lee F., Ruth M., Kenneth and Martha. Their home is at 3921 Gillon Avenue.
Mr. McDonald is a Mason and a member of the Elks Lodge. Through his connection with the Mid- Continental Oil & Gas Association he has done much to further the development of the oil industry in Texas. It would be difficult to find a man who has so fully mastered every principle of oil producing or one who has meant more to the industry to which he has devoted his life.
B. McKINNEY, president of the North Texas Gas Company, has been engaged in the gas business for the past twelve years. The North Texas Gas Company is a distributor of gas only, securing its supply from the Lone Star Gas Company, and was organized in 1908. At the present time it supplies gas to the following Texas cities: Corsicana, Electra, Byers, Petrolia, Wichita Falls, Bellevue, Alvord, Sunset, Bowie, Decatur, Bridgeport, Sherman, Denison, Whitesboro, Denton, McKinney, Cleburne, Waxahachie, Ennis and Hills- boro.
Born at Cotulla, La Salle County, Texas, on Jan- uary 19th, 1885, C. B. Mckinney is a son of Captain C. B. Mckinney who was a member of the Texas Rangers and serving as sheriff of La Salle County when he met his death in 1886. Mr. Mckinney of this sketch received his early education in the public schools at Eagle Pass and Marfa, Texas, graduating from the high school of the latter place in 1902. After leaving school he was employed as a money guard by the Wells-Fargo Express Company and was later a messenger from Mexico City to Torreon. Mexico. After spending two and one-half years in Mexico he went to Cuba, where he was employed in construction work on the Cuba Eastern Railroad which was being constructed from Guatanama Bay to the city of San Luis. After spending one year in this work he then became superintendent of the La Maya Valley Land & Improvement Co., a sugar plantation, where he remained for a year and a half, returning to this country in the early part of 1909. Landing at Galveston, he began work there in the gas business and for three years served as super- intendent of the Gulf Coast Gas Company. Jan- uary 1, 1915, he was made general manager of the North Texas Gas Company and four years later was appointed president of that concern, which position he has held since that time. Mr. Mckinney is also vice-president of the Terrell Electric Light Company and president of the South Central Gas Association.
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On October 21, 1908, Mr. Mckinney married Miss Charlotte Lege and they are the parents of three children: William B., Charlotte and Charles B. Mc- Kinney, Jr.
In fraternal orders Mr. Mckinney is a member of the Forth Worth Shrine and the Knights Templar. He also has menibership in the American Gas Asso- ciation, the Natural Gas Association of America and the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, and is known throughout the state as an authority on gas and its problems.
D FOY of the American Sales Book Co. Dallas. In the State of Texas Ed Foy and the American Sales Book Company, Ltd., are synonymous terms, for the very simple reason that wherever the selling, billing, shipping and buying systems of the American Sales Book Company are used, and that is by practically every business concern of any consequence in the State, Ed Foy is well known, for he is the man responsible for the distribution of the American Sales Book Com- pany's products throughout the State.
Mr. Foy's connection with the company dates back to the year 1890, at which time he was put in charge of the company's business in several states. Later, however, he was given the exclusive sales agency for the State of Texas, and the business is now operated under the name of the "Ed Foy Agency," with ofices at 130312 Elm street. Mr. Foy personally introduced the checking and billing system now being used by the largest Dallas concerns, including Sanger Brothers, A. Harris, Titche-Goettinger, Neiman-Mar- cus, W. A. Green & Co., Goldsmith Dry Goods Co., and similar concerns all over Texas. He is an un- disputed leader in his line.
When he was 10 years old tales of "the wild and wooly west" lured the boy to leave his home and parents, and for four years he travelled all over the west on horse back. Tiring of his nomadic life he returned to Waco and entered Baylor University, where he was later graduated from the commercial department. He then went to Brownwood, Texas, and organized the commercial department of Howard Payne College, remaining there one year. He then tried the shoe business in Fort Worth for six months, and in 1890 made his present connection.
In addition to his interests with the American Sales Book Company, Mr. Foy is president of Foy's Neighborhood Theatres, Inc., now operating five splendid movie houses in Dallas, and it is his inten- tion to increase the number to eight as soon as loca- tions in desirable neighborhoods can be secured. His son, Edward Foy, Jr., is general manager of the motion picture enterprises.
Mr. Foy was married November 3, 1895, to. Miss Hattie Clemmons of Marshall, Texas, whose father was a well known minister at Marshall for Thirty Years, also president of the First National Bank of Longview, Texas. The Foy home has been blessed with five children, Edward, Jr., Mrs. Geo. I. Dorman, Mrs. O. E. Long, James, a student at Terrell school,
and Howell, and the family church affiliation is with the Gaston Avenue Baptist Church.
Mr. Foy has always been actively identified with all agencies seeking to promote the growth and wel- fare of Dallas. Under the old aldermanic system of city government he served one term as city coun- cilman, elected in 1900. He is now a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Open Shop Association. Dallas, he believes, has the most wonderful future of any city in the United States, and Texas, he de- clares, is the greatest State in the Union.
LARENCE H. MANSFIELD, Manager of the advertising and sales promotion department of the Texas-Oklahoma Phonograph Com- pany is numbered among the progressive business men of the younger generation of Dallas, and one of the leaders in the music trade and actively interested in the advancement of music in the South- west.
C. H. Mansfield is a native of Texas, born in Tyler in 1892, son of F. S. Mansfield, who was well known in that city, being identified in the Wholesale Machinery business.
His maternal grandfather, Richard B. Hubbard, served as Governor of Texas and later as United States Minister to Japan. During the administration of Grover Cleveland, he signed the first treaty be- tween Japan and the United States. Among the pioneer politicians, Governor Hubbard held a place of outstanding prominence.
Shortly after graduating from the Tyler High School, Mr. Mansfield took a position with the Tri- State Talking Machine Company of El Paso and re- mained with them for three years. In April 1917, he came to Dallas to take charge of the Edison Shop, which position he held until becoming identified with
He was born in Greenville, Texas, November 3, 1871, and came to Dallas January 3, 1890. His . the Texas-Oklahoma Phonograph Company. During father, Dr. J. M. Foy, was a native of Mississippi his residence in Dallas, Mr. Mansfield has taken an active part in civic activities and to his untiring ef- forts and loyal suppe t, is due most of the credit of the success of Dallas' three Music Day celebrations, the music memory contests held in the public schools and the musie festival of May, 1921. and came to Texas just after the civil war. He practiced medicine at Greenville and other Texas towns, and at the time of his death, 1905, was a resi- dent of Dallas. Mr. Foy's mother was a native of Texas and before her marriage was a Miss Pink Haynes.
He served as first president of the Dallas Music Industries and is a member of the Kiwanis and Athletic Club, the Ad League and the Episcopal Church.
Mr. Mansfield was united in marriage with Miss McIvyn Barnat in El Paso, Jan. 25th, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Mansfield have one son, Frederick, and reside at 440212 Worth Street.
HOMAS NEILLY, of Dallas, district man- ager for P. F. Collier & Son, has witnessed, during his twenty years of association with the firm, the business of his house grow to the position of one of the largest publishing houses of the United States. No village or hainlet today but knows the name of P. F. Collier & Son, established in 1879. To keep up with their interests which are extensive both in subject-matter and in geographical distribution, there are thirty-one branch offices. Of the output of this publishing house, "The Harvard Classics" and "Collier's Week- ly" are best known. "The Harvard Classics," the selection of books made by President Elliott of Harvard University as containing the best of litera- ture of all ages and a familiarity with which he Estimates will make any one educated, are known by people of culture everywhere. "Collier's Weekly" is one of the best reviews of the world's news in
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pictorial form to be found any where. That it sup- plies a demand genuine and widespread is proven by its subscription list which takes it into one million and one hundred thousand homes every week.
In his twelve years of business operation in Dal- las, Mr. Neilly has won a host of personal friends as well as a multitude of patrons. His progressive- ness and efficiency are most surely shown by the fact that P. F. Collier & Son have made him one of their right hand men in the development of their business for more than a score of years.
AMES HENRY HILL, secretary and treas- urer of the State Refining Association, An- drews Building, brought to his present position a varied and valuable experience secured in a number of enterprises in the South and West, which has been no small factor in the develop- ment of the firm with which he is connected.
The State Refining Association was established in June, 1919, the original organizers being Sheron Bonner, F. B. Horton, P. B. Arrington and Mr. Hill. The construction work was begun in September of that year and the marketing department was estab- lished January 1, 1920 They are refiners of gaso- line, kerosene and pure oil, all of which products they market. The firm operates under the Declara- tion of Trust and has stockholders in every state in the union with three exceptions and also in Canada and Mexico. There are few more extensive refining enterprises in America.
Mr. Hill was born at Excelsior Springs, Missouri, in 1885. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. James M. Hill, were natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, respect- ively. After completing his education at the Uni- versity of Missouri, Mr. Hill took a position with the Brown Investment Company of Kansas City. He later became interested in a retail credit com- pany in Atlanta, Georgia. From Atlanta he came to Dallas in 1915 and established the Hill Reporting Bureau. This place he left in 1919 to become secre- tary and treasurer of the State Refining Company. During the recent war he rendered valuable service as a member of the Military Entertainment Service, operating under the Commission on Training Camp Activities.
Mr. Hill is unmarried and lives at 4914 Worth Street. He is a Mason of the Georgia Lodge Num- ber 96 and is a Shriner with the Yaarab Temple of Atlanta. He has taken an active part in the social and commercial organization of Dallas and is a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and is a director of the Automobile Country Club. During his five years residence he has formed a large ac- quaintance and is held in high esteem by a large group of friends.
A. MCCULLOUGH, oil operator of Texas and Oklahoma, has been engaged in the oil busi- ness in these states for the past several years and has been successful in his under- takings. Before that time he was a citizen of Paris, * Texas, where he was engaged in the mercantile and hardware business for a period covering fifteen years. Mr. Mccullough and his company is interest- ed in many valuable leases in the Mid-Continent Fields that will be developed from time to time. Mr. Mccullough became interested in the oil business some seven years ago and since that time has mastered the many intricacies of the business, in-
cluding both production and refining.
Born in Collin County, Texas, on the 25th day of February, 1875, W. A. Mccullough is a son of J. W. and Sarah L. (Burns) Mccullough, the former having come to this state in 1870 while the latter was a native daughter. The younger Mr. Mccullough re- ceived his early educational training in the public schools of his native country, which was supple- mented by a course of training at the Metropolitan Business College at Dallas. After graduating at that school he moved to Wylie, Texas, where he be- came engaged in the mercantile business; later he moved to Snyder and still later to Paris, where he continued his business activities. For the past fif- teen years, he has been interested in both Dallas and Paris, having lived and done business in the latter place for over twenty years. In 1915 he be- came interested in oil and went to Wichita Falls. Ranger and other Texas fields where he owns exten- sive interests. Soon after leaving Paris he came to Dallas and opened offices here, later removing to Muskogee, Oklahoma.
On December 18th, 1898, Mr. Mccullough married Miss Ella E. McCullah, daughter of J. S. McCullah, a farmer and business man of Collin County. Mr. and Mrs. McCullough are the parents of three chil- dren: Thelma and Verna, both of whom are students at Martha Washington Seminary at Washington, D. C., and Clenn Mccullough who is now attending the high school at Paris, Texas. Mr. Mccullough has his home at Paris and while in Dallas resides at the Southland Hotel.
In fraternal orders Mr. Mccullough is a member of the Masons at Paris; a member of the Knights of Pythias at Dallas and a member of the Odd Fellows.
RTHUR P. DYER, formerly a journalist with some of Texas' leading dailies, is today making good in the oil industry which activity he has taken up but recently. After securing some real first hand experience in the Stephens County oil fields, Mr. Dyer became identi- fied with the sales department of the Oriental Oil Company of Dallas, and has been made sales man- ager.
Arthur P. Dyer was born at Houston, Texas, Octo- ber 2, 1891. His parents were Alfred S. Dyer, an insurance man of Houston, and Sallie Bell (Hadley) Dyer. The Houston school system, long famed as perhaps Texas' best, provided the youth with his schooling. Two years were then spent in the Uni- versity of Texas, 1909-1911. He started his busi- ness career in his home city with the Industrial Cot- ton Oil & Houston Packing Company. In 1914 he came to Dallas where he has been associated with business interests since. His first affiliation was with the Evening Journal and then with The Dallas News with which he was one of the most active re- porters from 1914 until 1917. From 1917 until 1919, he served as manager of the Dallas Automobile Club.
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