Peveril Ozroe Settle Sr. (1889-1969)

From the 1970 Texas State Bar Journal.

    In possession of a truly unusual name, Fort Worth, Texas attorney Peveril Ozroe Settle Sr. was a practitioner of law for over fifty years, and late in his life was elected as the Mayor of Westover Hills, Texas, serving a decade in that office. Although few sources could be located detailing his life, a small obituary for him published in the 1970 Texas State Bar Journal helped to furnish a good majority of the information contained herein.

    Peveril O. Settle was the son of Robert Hannibal (1865-1946) and Tennessee Oxford Settle (1867-1961), being born in Stephenville, Texas on Valentine's Day 1889. He attended public schools and went on to enroll at the University of Texas, graduating from that institution's Law School in the class of 1914. On September 17, 1917, he married Helen Hetzler in New Orleans, Louisiana, and later had two sons, Peveril O. Settle Jr. (1918-1995) and R. Daniel Settle. Following his marriage Settle signed on for service in the First World War, being a member of a field artillery unit in the U.S. Army.

   Following his army service Settle established a law practice in Houston, operating here from until 1926, being a member of the law firm of Kennerly, Williams, Lee, and Hill. Sometime later he left this firm and became engaged as counsel in the law department of the Gulf Production Company, the Gulf Refining Company, and the Gulf Pipeline Company. In 1930 Settle became the legal department head of the Gulf Oil Corporation and was later transferred to that corporation's general office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Texas Bar Journal notes that "he was elected secretary and associate general counsel for Gulf and its major subsidiaries."

   In 1954 Settle retired from the Gulf Corporation and returned to Texas to practice law. In 1958 he was elected as the mayor of the small suburban community of Westover Hills, Texas, and continued to serve in this capacity until a year before his death. A member of both the Tarrant County and American Bar Associations, Settle was also a parishioner at the First Presbyterian Church. Peveril O. Settle died at age 80 on Christmas Day 1969 and was survived by his wife and two sons. Helen Hetzler Settle survived her husband by a decade, and following her death at age 93 in 1979 was interred alongside Peveril at the Greenwood Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Fort Worth, Texas.