- Fred Stovall
Fred Alonzo Stovall (
September 17 1882 –October 8 1958 )Inote|Photograph of gravestone|grave was the founder of an oil drilling company and theNegro League baseball team theMonroe Monarchs .Born one of four brothers in
Dallas ,Texas to J.H. Stovall and Frances (nee Giard), he attended local public schools. At the age of 19, in 1901, he went to the oil fields of South Texas and joined a drilling outfit operating atSpindle Top near Beaumont. For fourteen years he worked for Bob Allison ofShreveport, Louisiana before setting up on his own account inMonroe, Louisiana in 1917. With no capital, the Stovall Drilling Company was fragile at first, but he developed it into one of the largest drilling contractors in the Southwest USA. He owned and operated the J.M. Supply Company (a machine shop with extensive repair facilities), and the Tiger Factory and Machine Works of Monroe. He also co-founded Commercial Transportation, Inc. to operate a fleet of tugs and barges on theOuachita River . He was assisted in his businesses by two of his three brothers.On
October 21 1907 he married Fay Wherry (March 10 1885–June 19 1966) ofRusk, Texas with whom he had two sons, Earl and J C. Both sons joined their father in his business ventures.In the late 1920s, Stovall built a recreation complex for the Monroe black people because he felt it appropriate to offer free facilities to the people who helped him earn his living. The complex included a basepall park, a swimming pool and a dance pavilion.Inote|Peterson p. 122|Peterson122 He subsequently supported the formation of the Monroe Monarchs baseball team and in 1932 he organized the foundation of the
Negro Southern League of five professional black teams.References
* [http://www.monroemonarchs.org/fredpic.jpgPhotograph of gravestone at "monroemonarchs.org"] . Retrieved
July 24 2005.
* [http://www.monroemonarchs.org/photo_album_fred_stovall.html "Eastern Louisiana Business Guide" (1937) pp. 585-6.]
*Peterson, Robert W. "Only The Ball Was White", (New York: Prentice-Hall Englewood-Cliffs, 1970)
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