At this time I was caught with a remnant winter stock and, in order to keep up my business and to arrange for a spring and summer stock of goods with no money to buy, I decided best to proceed to St. Louis and submit a statement of my condition to my creditors. This statement showed an indebtedness, as stated, of about ninety-four hundred dollars, and assets, about fifteen or sixteen thousand. These assets consisted largely of East Texas accounts, a balance of my old Rusk business, a winter stock of goods and a few acres of land in East Texas that could not be sold for more than a dollar an acre. At that time, everything I had in business was unavailable.
The object of my St. Louis trip was to get an extension of my indebtedness until the next winter. The largest part of my indebtedness was with L. Cannon & Company of Galveston, cotton commission merchants, who were satisfied with any arrangement I made for an extension. The next largest creditor was Samuel C. Davis & Company, St. Louis, whom I owed a balance on open account of about eight or nine hundred dollars. After submitting them my statement, the manager, whose name I have forgotten, told me that I was not entitled to an extension and they were not in favor of granting it unless the balance all agreed, but if they all granted an extension, that they were willing to do so, but would not sell me any more goods. They explained to me that upon a review of my assets, I would not be able to pay more than thirty or thirty-five cents on the dollar, and if I succeeded in compromising on that basis, they were willing to sell me again, on their regular terms, any reasonable amount and would consider my credit unimpaired. I told the gentlemen that I would never compromise, as it was considered disgraceful in Texas.
I next went to see the house of Hamilton & Brown, who were then in their infancy in their business, but were considered one of the rising shoe houses in St. Louis.
On presenting my statement their judgment was the same as Samuel C. Davis & Company: that I was not entitled to an extension and to continue in business, having to ask further credit, my only course would be to compromise, say thirty cents on the dollar. I owed these people little less than two hundred dollars, a small balance of a considerable account. I told them I would never compromise, when one of the gentlemen said, “You are working with a millstone around your neck and we want to put you on your feet. If you don’t compromise before you leave St. Louis, we will send your account to an attorney at Waxahachie, with instructions to sue.” I said, “If you do, I will make an assignment and quit business, and in doing so you can take the coat off my back—you will never find me behind a valuable Texas homestead.” In connection with this I will state that after a two weeks’ stay in St. Louis, trying to persuade these people to meet my proposition, I heard from my friend Cannon in Galveston, who offered to let me have money to settle with the St. Louis creditors on the basis of thirty-five cents. I finally gave it up and on my return home found the Hamilton & Brown account in the hands of Judge Rainey for collection with order to bring suit, and I immediately made an assignment in the Bankruptcy Court at Tyler, thereby protecting all of my creditors.
When the United States Marshal came and took possession of my assets he persuaded me, for the protection of my family, to retain two hundred acres of land in Cherokee County, which at the time could not have been sold for more than a dollar an acre, for which I had paid two dollars and seventy-five cents an acre. This land I traded for a few town lots in Waxahachie, on one of which I built an humble little home the next year and out of the balance realized about three hundred dollars.
It is hardly necessary to say that my business failure proved very discouraging at the time and caused the breaking down of my general health. My jealous competitors in business continued to refer to it, claiming that it was injuring the prospect of the building of the road, the presidency of which I finally concluded to resign.
Considering that several of these men were the richest of any men in the community and that I had sacrificed my all to build up their interest in connection with the town, I felt that it was one of the most unjust and worst cases of persecution without cause a man ever had to submit to, but I determined to outgrow it and ignore these foolish people’s work against me.
Recurring to my visit in St. Louis where, as stated, I spent a couple of weeks: I stopped at a private boarding house, where I formed the acquaintance of a business gentleman, who, with his wife, had a room next to mine and in a few days invited me to visit their cotton exchange, which invitation I accepted. I, of course, had not told him of my financial embarrassment, but had made him acquainted with my railroad enterprise.
At the cotton exchange I was shown a great deal of attention by some of the members present and especially Mr. J. W. Paramore, the president. When about ready to depart Mr. Paramore extended me an invitation to join him in a visit to his compresses, saying that he had a horse and buggy at the door, waiting. I accepted his invitation.. On our drive out to the compresses, he gave me his history in connection with the business, saying that he came to St. Louis from Nashville, Tennessee, with seventy thousand dollars in cash and decided that St. Louis ought to be made a cotton market. For this purpose he met some of the leading business men and suggested the building of a large compress and asked them to take stock, which they considered a huge joke and readily turned down his proposition. He then concluded to undertake the building of a compress by himself, which he did, meeting with great success the first season. These same men whom he tried to induce to take stock with him, came to him and begged for stock, with the proposition to enlarge the plant, which he did and had made it a great success the second year. The enlarged plant enabled him to pay a handsome dividend. After showing me around his compresses and expressing himself much interested in Texas cotton shipments, I finally suggested to him the idea of getting up an excursion of a number of his business friends who were interested to know about Texas conditions and resources, to visit Waxahachie, where I was anxious to show him our little railroad enterprise and especially our rich land in this black land district.
Meeting with him again upon another occasion I again urged him by all means to get up this excursion, satisfied that he and his friends would find it interesting and profitable, and having no doubt but they would succeed in opening business relations. I found he was much interested and he became somewhat enthusiastic on the proposed visit, promising me that he would certainly do so.