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.