Dallas County, TX - Biographies - W.O. Connor ************************************************************************ This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Dorman Holub Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ John Henry Brown's History of Dallas County, 1892, pp. 471-472 W.O. CONNOR, one of the leading businessmen and manager of the wholesale department of the Sanger Bros. establishment, was born at Hamburg, Hardin county, Tenn., October 9, 1852. His parents were William J. and Julia C. (Hymes) Connor, both natives of South Carolina. The father died when our subject was quite young. He came from a noted family of the South. One uncle is a prominent banker in Charleston, South Carolina; another, W. G., is a Methodist Episcopal minister at Waco, is president of the college at that city, and has been for years. The father was a successful merchant of Hamburg, Tennessee, Corinth, Mississippi, and Madison, Arkansas. He was a man of good business qualifications and was successful in the different enterprises in which he engaged. His life was an exemplary one, and he was noted for his honesty and business integrity. He died in the year 1860, at Memphis, Tennessee. The mother is still living, having retained her faculties to the advanced age of nearly seventy. She is a member of a very distinguished family of South Carolina, and some of her relatives now reside in New Orleans and are engaged in the sugar-refining business. From early girl- hood she had been identified with the Method- First Episcopal Church, South, in all its inter-ests. These parents had four children, namely: ¥ Ella Virginia, wife of John M. Vines of Jefferson, Texas, who died when she was 34, leaving two children, Murphey, the Marion County Attorney, the youngest man elected to that office in Texas; and Philip, a resident of Dallas; ¥ W. C., Mayor of Dallas; ¥ our subject and ¥ L. Meyers, whose wife was Miss Cornelius. He is in the drug business, having graduated in pharmacy, and, as a recog-nition of his efficiency and ability, has been appointed Chemist for the State of Texas. W. O. Connor, owing to the death of his father, was thrown at an early age upon his own resources. He came with the family to Texas, settling in Paris, in 1861, where, as a boy, he assisted on the farm until 1866, when, at the early age of fourteen, he began clerking in the dry goods store of Clark & Bryan. He remained with them about six years and then went into business for himself, in the dry-goods line, at Dallas, Texas, in which he remained five years, until 1872, when he connected himself with Connor &Walker, in the same business, and remained with them three years. Since 1878 he has been connected in business relations with Sanger Brothers, first as traveling salesman in the wholesale dry goods department, remaining in that capacity for three years; since that time he has been occupying his present position, having been in it for eleven years. Such continuous service speaks well for the employed and the employer. Only one who possessed a manly character and, was duly informed could have inspired such confidence; a faithful service only could have secured its continuance. He was thrown upon his own resources at the time that other boys were receiving their education. But there is no teacher like experience, and our subject has educated himself in that hardest of schools, adversity, having emerged from it able and ready to cope with whatever fate throws in his way. This gentleman was married the first time, to Miss Hattie Crowdus, daughter of J. W. Crowdus, and she bore hi m two children, one of whom died in infancy; the other, Eugene C., is a pupil in Fort Hope Trinity College, Ontario. Mrs. Connor died in 1878, aged twenty-two, having been a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His second marriage occurred in 1882, to Miss Lulu J. Mays, daughter of Enoch G. Mays, of Dallas, Texas, and she also bore him two children: Ottis Lee and Brevard Mays. Mrs. Connor is a worthy member of the Episcopal Church Mr. Connor takes little interest in politics, but votes the Democratic ticket. In all positions he has filled he has proved himself capable, faithful and honest.