Dennis Call, whose active and prominent life came to an end with the last day of the year 1904, was founder of the Beaumont National Bank, and throughout his residence in that city and as a lumberman in Orange county was influential and public spirited. He was born at Orange, Texas, September 20, 1855. His father, also named Dennis, came from his native Ireland to the United States when a boy, and settled in Orange county, where he was prominent as merchant and banker. He died in Beaumont in 1894. The mother, whose maiden name was Marian Jordan, is still living.

The common schools at Orange and the commercial college at Poughkeepsie, New York, were the educational sources of the youth of Dennis Call, and on returning from school to Orange he joined in his father’s business. At the father’s death the business was discontinued, and then for several years Mr. Call was engaged in the mill and lumber business.
On moving to Beaumont he founded the Beaumont National Bank, and remained its president until his death. His owner ship of extensive pine lands and in large interests in the lumber mills made him a prominent figure in the lumber manufacturing of southeast Texas. As a business man he possessed the executive ability and power as an organizer that are chief factors in success. As a citizen and social unit his charity embraced all that was worthy, and his popularity made his loss felt far beyond the circles of his own family and immediate associates. He was active in civic affairs, usually as a supporter of the Democratic party. After the organization of the American National Oil Company, in which large amounts of stock were subscribed all over the United States, he became convinced that it might not prove a profitable investment and he advertised in the leading papers of the state that anyone who had purchased stock on the strength of his association with the company could return their stock to him and he would pay for it personally, as he wished no one to lose a dollar through him. This cost him over $20,000, but illustrates to a marked degree his sterling honesty of character.

Mr. Call was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, being a Knight Templar and member of the El Mina Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Galveston; he was also a member of Beaumont Lodge, B. P. O. E., and the Hoo-Hoos.

He was married, February 28, 1878, to Miss Ella C. Holland. Her father, J. A. Holland, of Georgia and later of Independence, Texas, was a merchant and banker. Her mother’s maiden name was S. A. Flewellen.