History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 442

4433 SHISTORY OF TEXAS.

print, when at a place between Columbia and
Tennessee river we met some of Lee's men,
who told us that Lee had surrendered. We
pushed on intending to join Johnston's army
in North Carolina, but in a few days more
we met some of Johnston's men, who informed
us that Johnston had also surrendered. We
held an informal meeting, at which it was resolved
that we would never surrender, and an
independent organization was immediately
effected for the purpose of fighting our way
through to Mexico. We moved slowly and
cautiously through the mountains of eastern
Kentucky and Tennessee, for we were surrounded
on all sides by Federal soldiers and
sympathizers, until we reached Obie's river
near the Kentucky and Tennessee State line,
where on June 22, 1865, we had a sharp fight.
We were in close quarters, but made our escape.
Finally, however, it became evident
that if we continued as we then were we
would all be killed or captured, so that we
decided to separate, each man to look out for
himself. My horse had been shot from under
me a few days previously and I was afoot. In
this condition I made my way, tramping part
of the time and stealing an occasional ride on
a freight train, to Chattanooga. Armed with
a bogus parol which Major Jones had furnished
me, I went to the Provost Marshal at
Chattanooga and secured transportation home
to Georgia. I used the transportation only to
Marietta, where I stopped off and spent a few
weeks with my grandparents. I reached my
father's house in August, 1865.
6" The following year I made a crop, whih.h
I turned over in the fall to my father, and
taking a clerkship in a store I remained there
until June 8, 1867, when I started for Texas.
I came to this State for the purpose of set-'
tling down and doing something f r myself,
and I was therefore in no hurry to pitch my

tent. After prospecting for several weeks I
finally took up my residence at Davilla, this
county, where I got work in a store, and
there began the career with which the people
of this county are more or less familiar."
This career, to which Mr. Porter refers, is
an exceedingly honorable one, and a brief
mention of it properly belongs to this biography.
After clerking for a time at Davilla
he saved enough from his earnings to engage
in business for himself, which he did at that
place in the fall of 1871. He soon built up
a splendid trade; and when the town of
Taylor in Williamson county was started in
1876 he went there and opened another house,
being one of the first merchants there and
the first one who ever erected a business
house in that place. He conducted these
two establishments until 1880, when he sold
out his business at Taylor, and, moving his
Davilla house to Cameron, there started his
present business.
The mercantile house of R. S. Porter at
Cameron is a well-known establishment in
Milam and adjoining counties. It enjoys
the reputation of being one of the most solid
concerns of that locality. Mr. Porter does a
business varying from $65,000 to $75,000 a
year, and has always done a uniformly large.
and successful business. In the last twentytwo
years .he has sold many thousands of
dollars' worth of goods, having bought, as his
books show, nearly $1,500,000 worth from one
firm. His funds are mostly invested in his
business, but he owns some land and town
property. Quiet and unassuming in manner,
straightforward in his business methods,
prompt in meeting his obligations, econotmical
in expenditures and diligent in all
things, his success has come to him as naturally,
as easily and imperceptibly as the years
have flown by.

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