The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-26
FOUR TEXAS WOMEN
 OF GREAT ABILITY They Are Widows But They Are Help to the State THREE IN SAN ANTONIO One of the Widows Is the "Onion Queen. of Texas While the Others
 Are Adding to the Fortunes
 Left By Husbands
THREE IN SAN ANTONIO

San Antonio, Tex, December 25.- | Special. )-In the new development Of the southwest, a development that has | been likened to the dramatic growth of the east, women are playing a prom fnont part. To three Texas widows belongs much of the credit of the great CT growth of San Antonio. and another Texas widow has done much to estab- fish the onion industry, which brought the growers in her district, that of Laredo, more than s1.o00.000 in profits this year. These four widows, 1t is conservatively estimated, are worth at least $10,000,o00, and they have been potential factors in the growth of the city and section. Out of their fortunes they have constructed great hotels and office buildings and perfected estates that are rapidly growing in wealth.
 These four widows are Mrs. Roxana Gunter, Mrs. G. Bedell Moore, Mrs. Elizabeth Kampmann and the Texas Onion Queen," Mrs. Edwarts Callahan Dodd. They all were wives of wealthy cattlemen, whose deaths occurred just prior to the era of development that has been producing such activity in great results, both in city and country. Mrs. Gunter was the wife of the late Jot Gunter, the sale of whose great cat tie ranches for farming purposes made his widow one of the wealthiest women in the south. This was also the case With Mrs. Moore. The faith of their husbands in the future of San Antonio. a city they had always made their headquarters, was transmitted to their widows. They found themselves direc- tors in banks and various industrial concerns, by virtue of the stock they held as the heirs. Fortunately their as- sumption of these responsibilities came at a time when the search for land was at it's height. It is due to the shrewd business sense each displayed that these original fortunes have been more than doubled.
 Mrs. Gunter, with L. J. Hart, the bus mess associate and financial adviser of her husband. within little more than a year has erected two buildings on Houston street representing more than $1,5o0,000 expenditure, and which are monuments to her husband. They are the million-dollar Gunter hotel and the Gunter office building, both eight stories in height and among the best constructed and most imposing edifices in the south. In the hotel hangs a magnificent oil painting of MT. Gunter, the only portrait in the large lobby. Mrs. Moore has just completed the Bedell building, a third of a million
 dollar property adjoining the Moore building, one of the large office struc- lures on Houston street. Mrs. Ramp mann is at the head of an estate own ing the Menger hotel. the Kempmann building and other properties. In ad- dition to their business investments, they are always ready and generous In their investments in broad and practi- cal lines of charity aiding in many en- terprises for the betterment of San Antonio's poor. It is said that no wor- thy applicant is ever turned away empty-handed.
 Mrs. Dodd has justly earned her title of "The Onion Queen" Her farm is one of the most highly productive and | well IQdnhReQ plOptIllto dL 4@di toOs II | adjoins the town and embraces 650 acres. The majority of the acres is devoted to the different varieties of Bermuda onions, and Mrs. Dodd was the first onion grower in. the southwest to prove the success of the culture of the
 red Bermuda onion in this section. The farm possesses the advantage of bor-
 doring upon the Rio Grande from which
 an unlimited supply of water may be
 obtained at all times for irrigating purposes. This is due to her foresight, for she was one of the first to harness the Rio Grande and install modern pumping station. The electric pump Ing station stands well above high water mark, and Is securely protected from impossible overflows. The pump has capacity of $500 gallons of water minute The flow of water passes through $500 feet of 14-inch wooden Leading from this reservoir are three open ditches and one sheet iron Hume
 the latter being 2750 feet long. The motor at the pumping station is 13s horsepower. The pump is set In a con- crete well 37 feet deep and 13 feet ir | diameter. This irrigating plant planned by Mrs. Dodd, brings In a handsome annual revenue from furn- ishing water to other farms in addition | to her famous place.
 The touch of the woman's hand and heart Is seen in the residences for
 employees and laborers. They are neal
 and comfortable cottages. far above the
 average farm houses. The farm has telephone connection with the city oi
 Laredo and is in reality a suburban
 place where all the conveniences ol
 town may be enjoyed. She has erected
 large warehouse affording ample
 storage room for onions. As an illus
 tration of the abundant production oi
 which the farm is capable, Mrs. Dodt
 obtained off of less than three acrss | takg cratas of RarmtIda ontopa