J. LEN JACKSONJ. LEN JACKSON is one of the best known business men of North Texas, especially in and about Wichita Falls, where he at present has his residence and his principal interests. He is a fine type of the young and successful man of affairs, and when he and his brother located in this city some dozen years ago they had only a most modest amount of capital. Their enterprises developed at a most remarkable rate, and this part of the country has received a great impetus from their efforts. Mr. Jackson now confines his attentions mainly to oil well operating and similar capitalistic ventures, and his energy and enterprise have been demonstrated effectively many times in the past few years. Mr. Jackson is a native son of this state, and his mother, who is still living, was also born and reared in the state of Texas. He was born in Dallas county in 1868, being a son of Frank and Lizzie (Hunter) Jackson. His father was born in Devonshire, England, at Barnes Farm, where was the ancestral home for several generations back. In 1848 he accompanied the entire family on their migration to the United States, and with his brother George Jackson settled at what was known as Peters' Colony in the northern part of Dallas county, Texas. The father still lives on the same place where he settled so many years ago, only a short time after the Lone Star state was admitted to the Union. The family were among the first settlers in Dallas county, and at that time the country was entirely new and unsettled. There were just two stores in what is now the metropolitan city of Dallas, and from this may be seen how long and close has been the identification of the Jackson name with northern Texas. Frank Jackson has successfully followed farming all his life, and is a prominent citizen of Dallas county. He and his wife are both living, and they were married after he came to Texas. Mr. J. Len Jackson was reared on his father's farm and lived at home until he was twenty-three years old. At that time he went to Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, that place then being a typical cowboy town, and he was for some time employed in the large DeBardelem general merchandise establishment, which sold supplies to cattlemen for hundreds of miles around. In the latter part of 1891 he came to Wichita Falls, and with his brother, H. B. Jackson, founded the Wichita Falls Implement Company. These young men had only three hundred dollars apiece at the beginning of this enterprise, but their business fitted in so well with the conditions of the country and their progress was so permanent and rapid when they sold out the establishment in August, 1903, to W. A. McCutcheon and associates, there was a record of an annual business done amounting to two hundred thousand dollars. The brothers through his line of trade were brought into close touch with the agricultural interests of this part of the state, and as their business reflected the growing prosperity of the country so they likewise did much for the upbuilding of the territory reached by their custom. Mr. Jackson at present has large interests in this portion of the state, including valuable real estate in Wichita Falls and adjacent county, but he devotes most of his attention to oil development. He has lands in Clay county oil fields, and the wells already sunk give as bright prospects as any in the state. He and his brother are also together in this enterprise, and carry on business under the name of the Wichita Falls Oil Company. They are developing new wells at the time, and these from the town of Petrolia on the new Wichita Falls and Oklahoma Railroad. Mr. Jackson married Miss Florence Griggs, a member of a Collin county family. They have three children, Mabelle, Bernice and J. L., Jr. B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West
Texas, Vol. II (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), p. 217. |
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