JESSE J. NUNNALLY, present city auditor of Fort Worth, has been in various capacities connected with the administration of city and county affairs here for more than twenty years, and is one of the most popular and efficient public officials in Tarrant county and the city of Fort Worth. He has achieved a high degree of self-attained success in life, and from a farmer boy has reached a position of great esteem among his fellow citizens.
He was born in November, 1858, in Barren county, Kentucky, being a son of B. P. and Clara (Holloway) Nunnally. His grandfather was brought by his parents to Barren county in 1817, among the pioneers, and he followed farming nearly all his active career, and now lives in Metcalfe county, Kentucky, a venerable old citizen. The mother is deceased.
Mr. Nunnally was brought up on the Kentucky homestead, and farming is an occupation to which he was inured from early years. He got his education in his native county, and at the age of eighteen began teaching school. He continued this for several terms, and in 1881, when twenty-three years old, he came to Tarrant county, Texas. In the spring of that year he taught the old Watson school near Arlington, completing a three months’ term. On the first day of August the following he was introduced to a long official career in the county by beginning work as a clerk in the office of County Clerk John F. Swayne, of Fort Worth. He remained in that office almost continuously until July 1, 1889, and following that he served four years as deputy tax collector under Frank Hovencamp. On December 15, 1896, he was appointed city auditor to fill a vacancy, and on April 8 of the following year was elected to this office at the regular city election, and has been re-elected for each subsequent term.
Mr. Nunnally has affiliated with the Knights of Pythias for a number of years, and is past chancellor commander of Queen City Lodge of that order. He was married at Sulphur Springs, Texas, to Miss Fannie Becton, whose father, Dr. E. P. Becton, of that city, was a prominent man and was for several years superintendent of the State Asylum for the Blind at Austin, and who had come to Texas in 1841, in the days of the republic. Mr. and Mrs. Nunnally have three children, Dorothy, Fru and Jesse J., Jr.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 186.