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A history of Texas and Texans, Volume 3
(1914) By
Francis White Johnson, Ernest William Winkler, page 1164 A
HISTORY OF TEXAS
and TEXANS, BY
FRANK W. JOHNSON, A LEADER IN THE TEXAS
REVOLUTION; Edited
and Brought to Date by EUGENE C. BARKER,
Ph. D. PROFESSOR
OF AMERICAN HISTORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF
TEXAS With
the Assistance of ERNEST
WILLIAM WINKLER, M. A. , TEXAS STATE
LIBRARIAN To
which are added Historical, Statistical and
Descriptive Matter pertaining to the important Local Divisions
of the State,
and biographical accounts of the Leaders and Representative Men of the
State in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. VOLUME
III THE
AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CHICAGO AND NEW
YORK 1914 Edward
H. Lingo A
lumber veteran, the oldest and staunchest exponent of the industry in
the state
of Texas, and a man esteemed and admired by a nationwide following of
friends,—is a suggestive manner of describing the position of Edward H.
Lingo
of Denison. Coming to Denison in 1872, more than forty years ago,
partly to
restore his health and partly in search of business opportunities, E.
H. Lingo
found an abundance of both as is attested by the fact that at the age
of
seventy-five he is as hale and rugged as many men twenty years his
junior, and
furthermore he stands and long has stood in the front rank of the
lumber
merchants of the southwest. Edward
H. Lingo was born October 12, 1838, at Millsboro, Delaware, a son of
Levi and
Jane Waples Lingo, both natives of Delaware. His father was a stock
raiser,
and died in 1846. In 1852, the widowed mother moved to Chillicothe,
Missouri,
when her son Edward was fourteen years of age. She died in 1863. Of the
four
children, three sons and a daughter, the only one living is now Mr.
Lingo, of
Denison. As the Lingo name is traced to French ancestry, the maternal
stock is
English. Mr. Lingo has no relatives of the name in Texas except his own
family,
but has a large relationship over the state including the prominent
Waples and
Platter families. The early education of Mr. Lingo was acquired in the public schools of Missouri, with some higher studies in Central College at Fayette, Missouri. While a young man at Chillicothe, he worked in a dry goods store, and at the age of twenty-two went west, overland to California, and remained on the coast for about four years. He fell in with some sharpers, who left him with a bankrupt business while they took away most of his funds, and in a few weeks he was walking the streets of San Francisco in search of a job. The manufacturing company finally offered him seventy-five cents a day as a common laborer, and at the end of three years he had made himself worth a great deal more to the concern, and had a responsible position. In 1866, returning to Missouri, he began his career as a lumberman in that state in 1867. Again reverses met him, and consumed his resources, so that he started in to earn a living by the hard labor entailed in unloading lumber from cars at a lumber yard. This gave him at least an intimate contact with the real material, and he states a fact that is no doubt true, of the majority of men of practical affairs in whatever industry, that a large number of successful Texas lumbermen at the present time started in the business in a similar manner.
The Lingo-Platter House was built in 1914 for E. H. Lingo, president of Burton-Lingo Lumber & Lingo-Leeper Lumber Companies. In May, 1866, at Chillicothe, Missouri, Mr. Lingo married Miss Anna B. Platter. Anna Eliza Platter was born February 4, 1841 near Bainbridge, Ohio. She was the daughter of Andrew Platter. He and his wife are both living and enjoying their beautiful home in Denison located at 1131 West Sears Street.
Lingo-Platter House
Built in 1914 for E. H. Lingo, president of Burton-Lingo Lumber
& Lingo-Leeper Lumber companies. Mr. A. F. Platter, of Dallas, in writing me of his sister, says: "Here is a truly wonderful character. She has mothered the family since the death of her mother. Her brothers and nieces and nephews have found the same welcome in her home as was given to her own children. She has given much of her time for the upbuilding and usefulness of her church, the meetings of which she never denied herself, till the disease which is taking her away from us made her too feeble to attend. She is brave and confident, realizing that she is nearing the end through the shadow, with no regrets other than that she will be missed by those who need her assistance and her love." When Mr. Lingo
came to Texas in 1872, he located at Denison, which had just become a
railroad town and a center of population and industry. There he
organized a co-partnership to do a retail lumber business, the other
member being J. P. Leeper of Richmond, Missouri. As J. P. LEEPER
& COMPANY, the firm prospered and later took a new title as WAPLES,
LINGO & COMPANY. He has been prominent in the lumber business in
Texas ever since, serving for a time as the president of the Texas
Lumbermen's Association. He has also been a great factor in
In
1888 the great firm of BURTON-LINGO COMPANY was organized by Willard
Burton and E. H. Lingo. This has grown and prospered and is
Mr. Lingo had in meantime also organized the lime yard firm of LINGO-LEEPER & COMPANY, at Denison, and from that date began spreading yards all over North Texas and Oklahoma, until more than fifty cities and towns of these two states have had Burton-Lingo branches as important commercial concerns of the community Mr.Lingo also organized the LINGO LUMBER COMPANY at Dallas, which is managed by his son, William M., and which, taken individually, is one of the largest concerns of its kind in North Texas.
In
the great industry which he has helped build up, Mr. Lingo now stands
somewhat in the relation of president emeritus, actively interested An appreciation of Mr. Lingo as a lumberman and citizen was recently published in the Gulf Coast Lumberman, and as all his old associates and others who know anything about his career would readily confirm every statement of that sketch, it is appropriate to quote two or three paragraphs therefrom: "A remarkable man from a variety of viewpoints is Mr. Lingo, one of the original organizers of the Lumberman's Association of Texas, and one of the ex-presidents of the association, he has long been a strong adherent and abettor of that organization and a power in its councils. He is one of the most progressive men in the industry. The many years that have whitened his hair and beard have not yet made him an 'old-timer' from a standpoint of effectiveness. He is for everything that is modern and progressive. He is a favorite with both the young and the old - famous for the virile optimism that makes him a figure of natural prominence in any lumber gathering. A meeting of Texas retail lumberman is flat, stale and unpalatable without Mr. Lingo's presence. He is a leading spirit always, noted for his square dealings and splendid business judgment. "He has seen the Texas lumber industry develop from infancy and chaotic conditions to the third largest and most important industry of the commonwealth. If Mr. Lingo would write the lumber history of Texas it would be a most remarkable volume. He has seen two generations of lumbermen come and go in this state, has been called upon to weather the business and financial storms that have swept over the lumbering Southwest during that time, and has merged from the fire with a fair competence and the best of physical and mental condition to enjoy the fruits of his labors. The average man who spends two generations of time in business and establishes a fortune finds himself incapable of enjoying the fruits of his labor. No so with Mr. Lingo, who is enjoying life to its fullest and continues, and will continue, to give a generous service to the world which knows him."
Mr.
and
Mrs. Lingo have had three children; two living: 1. Cora
Jean Lingo. Graduate of St. Mary's College, Knoxville, Ill. Married
Howard G.
Kelly, who was at the time chief engineer of the Cotton Belt Railway,
and is
now the president of the grand Trunk Railway System of Canada. Both
Mrs. Kelly
and her husband are prominent in social and church circles. 2. Georgia
Lingo. Died in childhood.
The Denison Press
Photographs
David Edwin Platter, A History of the Platter Family from about the Year Sixteen Hundred to the Present Time. Cleveland, Ohio, 1919, p. 69. A History of Texas and Texans, Volume 3 (1914) by Francis White Johnson, Ernest William Winkler, page 1164 Edited and Brought to Date by Eugene C. Barker, Ph.D. Professor of American History, The University of Texas with the assistance of Ernest William Winkler, M.A., Texas State Librarian To which are added Historical, Statistical and Descriptive Matter pertaining to the important Local Divisions of the State, and biographical accounts of the Leaders and Representative Men of the State in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. VOLUME III The American Historical Society, Chicago and New York 1914  Murry Hammond: "Biography of Edward H. Lingo" in: Biographies of Prominent Railroad Officers and Lumbermen, http://www.ttarchive.com/library/Biographies/Lingo-EdwH_HistTexans.html, accessed 21 May 2010. http://www.odessahistory.com/bl1903.htm  Lingo-Leeper, Pottsboro Biography Index Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
