CHAPTER XXXIV
My Later Business Experiences.
The Rev. Charles E. Brown had the business management of this college from the beginning to the end and displayed business capacity and indomitable persistence that impressed me with the idea that he would make a good business man. He came to me, asking for employment, saying that he wanted to enter commerce, that he had a number of children to educate and the pulpit did not support his family as he wished. He wanted to give his children as good an education as anybody else’s children, and for this reason he wanted to go to work in business, offering to work for me for fifty dollars per month, in the sales department, until he was worth more.
Being sadly in need of assistance, I told Brown that I believed he had the ability to make good in the machinery business and if he proved the man that I was needing, I would give him a third interest in the profits of the business.
After a short time I found that I was not mistaken in the man and voluntarily raised his compensation to one-half interest of the profits in the business. Our business prospered and grew to a point that it was necessary for us to move to Dallas, which we did, where our business continued to grow and was considered, after a couple of years, the leading machinery house in the city, except that of R. V. Tompkins.
Owing to some misapprehension on Brown’s part, (brought about by a statement of his oldest boy, whom he had employed in the business against my advice), differences arose which we were unable to reconcile and it was deemed best, under the circumstances, that we separate.
Having made him a liberal offer of ten thousand dollars for his interest in the business, besides the cancellation of his account, which amounted to six or seven thousand dollars and had his refusal to sell out, I then decided to sell out to him, provided he could induce a certain W. J. Clark, who was reputed worth a hundred thousand dollars, to join him in the purchase, which he succeeded in doing. I then sold out to Clark & Brown for a nominal sum, without taking a dollar out of the business until all debts were paid, taking their note for the purchase price. They paid all debts when due and then paid me.
On the dissolution of our firm and my sale to Clark & Brown, I notified all creditors that Clark & Brown were obligated to pay one hundred cents on the dollar promptly when due and if they failed to receive their money on that basis, to notify me promptly, as I was in position to make them do so. Never receiving any notice from any creditor that their matters were unsettled, I had every reason to believe Brown & Clark’s statement that they had settled all indebtedness.
After a rest of several months I had a proposition made me by Mr. C. A. Keating, President of the Keating Implement & Machine Company, to take the management of their machinery department, succeeding in that position Colonel John G. Hunter and John Young, both excellent business men.
I expected to take stock in the Keating Implement & Machinery Company, but finally decided not to do so and simply worked on salary, commencing the first year with a salary of sixteen hundred and fifty dollars, when at the close of the season, Mr. Keating voluntarily paid me two thousand, then the next season raised my salary to twenty-five hundred. After my connection with the house for eleven years, the last three years of the time receiving thirty-six hundred dollars, I voluntarily resigned, under the protest of Mr. C. A. Keating. After I severed my connection with the house, they quit the machinery business, except threshers and some other goods that were not included in my department.
After severing my connection with the Keating Implement & Machine Company I went into business again, for my own account, on very limited capital and in a few years again built up a large machinery business, finally discontinuing cotton gin machinery, in which I was largely instrumental in inducing the Pratt Cotton Gin Company to enter the field with a complete system, which I assisted in developing.
On the formation of the Continental Gin Company, which took over the plants of four or five others, including my Pratt factory, I decided to drop gin machinery and confine my business to larger and high duty plants, in which I succeeded to my entire satisfaction. My success in this business was somewhat phenomenal. As heretofore stated, I was not an educated practical engineer, but in the organization of this new business I was careful to hunt up the record of every machine and its factory before its adoption, taking great care to get hold of the best and I don’t think I ever made a mistake, as many of my customers repeated their orders, after having tried and used the machines.
Among the list of my machinery I would mention the American Diesel Engine, which was just being introduced in the United States and was largely owned by Mr. Adolphus Busch.
I was persuaded to take hold of the introduction of this engine through a promise of Colonel Meyer, who undertook its introduction in this country, with his headquarters in New York, and who had known me for fifteen or twenty years, in connection with his Heine boiler business, which I had been handling and continued to handle.
Relying on his promise that if I would undertake the introduction of the engine, that I should continue to handle it exclusively in the Southwestern territory, and believing that on account of its enormous economy it would ultimately supplant all steam machinery, I did not hesitate to put my whole efforts and influence into the work of its introduction.
After putting about five years of the best labor of my latter years into its establishment, and just at a time when I felt I was going to realize something handsome out of the business, my health gave way to an extent that forced me to quit business altogether, never having had a real vacation and rest in forty-three years.
In winding up the history of my business career I regret to have to record that throughout the whole of it I was always the victim of misplaced confidence, never realizing any of the men I had associated with me would ever do me a wrong, in which I was nearly always mistaken.
I am able to say that I had associated with me men whom I trained in several lines of business, in fact, assisted in starting them, and some of them have attained great success, a number of them now occupying high positions. One of the wealthiest manufacturers in Dallas is a man whom I took up on the street, hunting work. It was largely through a kind, friendly feeling, I took hold of him and taught him the cotton gin machinery business. He proved one of the best salesmen I had and, as stated, is now the president of the largest manufacturing cotton gin machinery in the South. Another one of my old clerks in the mercantile business, is today the president of a big trust company, commanding a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars a year. While I refer to this case with a good deal of pride, I am frank to say that he is in no way indebted to me especially for his rise in the world, but only to his natural ability as a business man and his own personal efforts and energy.
Among the many young men that I took into my business, first and last, and taught and trained them in business, I recall one case, especially, that of James Summers, who came to me, among a number of young men, then going to school at the Rusk Masonic Institute, and begged me to teach him business. Most of the young men, immediately after the close of the war, thought that the mercantile business would be about the easiest and most pleasant to engage in, hence these many applications, among whom I would mention ex-Governor James Hogg, who was then a boy of about eighteen or twenty, going to school. I recall my answer to him: “Now, Jim, if you want to be a slave all your life, get behind this counter and go to work, but if you will take my advice, go out on a farm, develop your muscles and make a man of yourself.” He answered, “I expect to do that, Mr. Graber. I am going to make a man of myself,” which he certainly did, but not in mercantile pursuits.
To give the reader a better appreciation of the character of James E. Summers: When he came and asked me to teach him business his father was the keeper of a saloon and a horse racer, and I had understood, had whipped Jim at one time to make him ride a horse race for him; besides the old man was very profane and his conduct as stated. Jim’s nature and disposition revolted at it, though Jim had a noble Christian mother, whose disposition he, no doubt, inherited by nature, which, in connection with her teachings, made him the grand character that he proved to be.
Although I did not need any assistance at the time he asked for a position, which was about 1870, I decided to take hold of him and teach him all I knew about business, which proved a great pleasure to me, because he was always ready to receive instruction and profit by my advice. I soon made a bookkeeper out of him and I am prepared to say that I was rewarded for any salary I paid him and any time devoted to his instruction through his great success as a business man and his full appreciation of my efforts in his behalf, the knowledge of which I gained through several mutual friends, whom he told that he was indebted to Mr. Graber for what he was and everything he had.
After removing to Waxahachie, Jim married a daughter of a Doctor Francis, who could not bear the separation from her mother and family and, therefore, I advised him to go back to Rusk and get some of his farmer friends, of whom he had many, to advance him means to go into business for himself. This he did, and as soon as started, having the confidence and good will of all the people in Cherokee County, he soon did the leading business in the place and died about ten years ago, mourned by all that knew him, leaving an estate worth over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which was most extraordinary, considering the character of the town of Rusk and country surrounding it.
Having said this much in connection with my business career, I deem it unnecessary to enter into further details, as it would no doubt, prove irksome to the reader and I merely said as much to show that I always felt interested in worthy characters that I had associated with me in business, never caring much for a great accumulation of wealth, until it was too late.
Had I made the accumulation of money my main object, I no doubt could have been among the rich men of Dallas, the most of whom accumulated their fortunes in speculative channels. Had I engaged in speculative channels in real estate, I would certainly have made money and had the good judgment to quit before it was too late, wherein many of my friends and acquaintances failed.
My business always outgrew the amount of my capital and as a result I always owed the banks and other creditors and it was a fixed principle with me as long as I owed a dollar, that nothing I had really belonged to me and therefore I had no moral right to take money out of my business to put into speculative channels in real estate.
Before closing my business record in Dallas, I must pay a deserved tribute to L. Rector Cabell, who entered my service to study and learn machinery. I am able to say, although young and without business experience, he soon proved himself efficient in cotton gin machinery, and one of the most loyal and honest men in my employ, carefully guarding my business interests—just like his honored father, General W. L. Cabell, and devoted sister, Mrs. Kate Cabell Muse, in behalf of the U. C. V. organization. After leaving my service, Rector accepted a position with the engineering department in Havana, Cuba, where he has been engaged since, and is now receiving a handsome salary.