Charles Shelton Vidor, biography c. 1910
[Historical Review of South-East Texas]
 
 
 
 
  Source: Hardy, Dermont H. and Ingham S. Roberts, eds. "Charles Shelton Vidor”, The Historical Review of South-East Texas. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1910. Vol. II, pp. 775-776.
 
     
     
 

CHARLES SHELTON VIDOR is a member of the Miller & V idor Lumber Company, one of the largest firms in the southeast Texas lumber regions. Besides being one of the principal stockholders in this company, he is vice president of the Miller & Vidor Sawmill Company, vice-president of the Beaumont Sawmill Company, vice president of the Orange Sawmill Company, and president of the Peach River Railroad lines, also being a heavy stockholder in these companies.

He was born at Galveston, November 12, 1866. The name Vidor has been associated with the larger business interests of this city for more than half a century. Charles Vidor, his father, was one of the first cotton factors at this gulf port, the firm of Wolston, Wells & Vidor having stood high in the list of business concerns in the Galveston of ante-bellum times. Charles Vidor was a native of Budapest, Hungary, and located at Galveston about 1855. During the war he served as captain of Company L, First Texas Regiment, in Hood’s brigade, and was in service all through the war. His death in 1904 closed the career of one of the men who had been prominently identified with the early commerce and upbuilding of Galveston. Anna (Walters) Vidor (the mother of C. S. Vidor), was a native of Virginia, daughter of Capt. John Walters, a sea captain, and she is still living in Galveston.

Charles S. Vidor, after an education in the private schools of the state, entered his father's office, where he received his early business training. At the time of the failure of the Leon & H. Blum wholesale dry goods firm he assisted their assignee, Mr. B. Adoue, in settling the affairs of the company, and then became manager of the Galveston Bagging Mills. This was an important industry before the great disaster of 1900. In that storm a number of the operatives were killed, and as the industry requires especially trained and skilled labor, the mills were permanently closed, owing to the time and expense that would be involved in recruiting a new force. Since 1900 Mr. Vidor has been associated with Mr. A. W. Miller in the various lumber enterprises that go under their name.

Mr. Vidor is a member of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and the Galveston Business League, and is one of the active leaders in progressive citizenship. He is independent in politics, a member of the Episcopal church, and affiliates with the United Commercial Travelers, the Woodmen of the World, and the Hoo Hoo’s. He was the last commanding officer of the old Galveston Artillery Company, being its commander at the last encampment it attended in Austin. Mr. Vidor married, in 1893, Miss Kate Wallis, daughter of John C. Wallis, who established the firm of Wallis, Landes & Company. Their children are: King Wallis Vidor and Catherine Anne Vidor.

 
     
     
     
  [top]  
 
 
 
 
Text and images were digitized and proofread from the original source documents by Murry Hammond. Contact Murry for all corrections and contributions of new material.