I REMOVE TO WAXAHACHIE AND GO INTO BUSINESS THERE.
As heretofore stated, I had spent several years of my boyhood in
Waxahachie, during the fifties, and became attached to its people
because of their great interest in me, on account of my being an orphan.
I felt ever grateful. Furthermore I recognized the value of the rich
lands of Ellis County and territory tributary thereto, and I decided to
make Waxahachie my permanent home.
Arriving at Ennis, one of its shipping depots, I took stage for
Waxahachie, where I rented a storehouse belonging to Judge McMillan, and
employed his son, N. A., as bookkeeper and salesman in the house. The
two-story building next to the Getzendaner & Ferris Bank, was the most
modern store building in the town and young Mr. McMillan, one of the
most popular and best posted men on the Ellis County farmer, I could
find, having been in business with his father in this house for several
years, moving there from Alabama.
To give the reader a fair idea of the condition existing, I found the
old set of merchants, who were doing business there before the war,
still adhering to old-time methods, selling goods on twelve months’ time
and charging about twenty-five per cent more for same than the towns of
Ennis or Palmer, which were selling altogether for cash. These towns
were doing a more lucrative business than Waxahachie. Not a house in
Waxahachie would buy a bale of cotton for cash, thereby turning the
cotton market over to the towns of Ennis and Palmer. The stage driver
that carried me back to Ennis had money sent by a lady at Waxahachie, to
buy a dozen spools of thread at Ennis, where spool thread was selling at
75 cents a dozen and Waxahachie charging a dollar a dozen.
This encouraged me in the belief that Waxahachie was a good place to
start in again, as I expected to do business altogether for cash and buy
cotton for cash, as cotton always controlled business.
Having bought goods almost exclusively in New Orleans, except a few
purchases in St. Louis and Galveston, I found that Galveston was about
as good market as the others and, on account of its nearness, adopted a
plan of buying goods often, in smaller quantities and ordering them as
they were needed, which always gave me a fresh stock of goods and proved
very satisfactory.
While engaged in buying my first stock for Waxahachie, at the house of
P. J. Willis & Brother at Galveston, I met a Mr. Joe Farley, who was one
of the traveling credit men for the house, and was also a partner in the
house of Clift & Farley of Waxahachie. He came to me, saying that he
understood I was buying a stock for Waxahachie and wanted to tell me
that I could not find a more undesirable place to begin a new business,
as he had decided to reduce prices materially, to a point that would not
leave any profit. I thanked him for the information and especially for
his resolution to reduce prices, which I told him I intended to do, and
would much prefer his saving me the unpleasant duty. Farley, however,
never carried out his threat until after I had started my business and
forced them to do so. I also forced them to buy cotton for cash, thereby
making Waxahachie a cotton market.
On my return to Rusk, I immediately packed whatever stock of goods I had
left and shipped to Waxahachie, then moved my family over there and went
to housekeeping in a rented house. I next proceeded to Galveston, where
I arranged with Mr. Willis to give me an open account of twelve or
fifteen thousand dollars, on which I made remittances every week and
continued to order goods almost every week, which always gave me fresh
stock and proved very satisfactory to Willis, as well as myself, and
very attractive to the public.
I now commenced the purchase of cotton for cash. I was a good judge of
cotton classification, and being very careful in keeping posted on the
course of the market, especially Galveston, and cotton being in transit
only a short time, I was enabled to handle cotton without any great
risk, besides I made shipments altogether to Cannon & Company. Mr.
Cannon, as heretofore stated, was an old friend before the war, for whom
I had kept books and worked in his sales department at Hempstead. In
entering the cotton market and paying cash, the old mossback business
element of the town sat around in front of their stores, smoking and
whittling goods boxes, making all manner of predictions that that fellow
wouldn’t last long—I would soon get out of money and “bust.”
I bought cotton from farmers over about Bristol, on the Trinity, on the
other side of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, paid them cash, and
75 cents a bale to haul it back to Ennis, then they would turn around
and spend the money with me for goods and return home happy and
contented.
About this time we had the Grangers, a strong farmers’ organization, who
had decided to concentrate their business at one house. They had a
general meeting of the county organization at Waxahachie, and sent a
committee, inviting me into this meeting, when I was requested to make
them a proposition to handle all of their business on a basis of ten per
cent profit. Not wishing to take advantage of my competitors, I
persuaded them not to make such an arrangement, as it would not prove
satisfactory, especially to their families, being restricted by contract
on this basis to buy only at one house. Entering into a full detail of
the objections, I persuaded them that it would not be to their interest
to make such a contract and induced them to drop it.
While I could have made a great deal of money out of this proposition, I
preferred to take no advantage of my business neighbors, thereby
incurring petty jealousies and enmity, having in view the building of a
tap railroad to connect with the Houston & Texas Central, and it was of
the greatest importance for me to retain the friendship and the
confidence of the old business element, who were the only men in the
county of any great financial ability.