Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 328 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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282
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
tent to live at home, however harsh the social and
political institutions, or meager the opportunities of
acquiring financial independence, and that it is the
aspiring, active, energetic, able and liberty-loving
young men who go across seas, mountains and
deserts to improve their fortunes, and that America
owes as much to the latter class of her citizenship
as to any other for the wonderful
progress she has made over other nations. This
truth is amply demonstrated by tile lives of such
men as Leon Blum. His ventures, being carefully
watched and managed, he largely increased his
capital at Richmond and, having now become
thoroughly acquainted with the people and requirements
of trade in the new country, felt the need
of a basis to operate from that would enable him
to extend his transactions and, accordingly, moved
to Galveston in 1869. He became at once the
largest importer of dry goods in Texas, supplying
the merchants of this and adjoining States, receiving
in return, immense shipments of cotton and
developing an export trade in that staple. He has
invested largely in lands in Texas, and engaged in
cultivating them with considerable profit. He has
been a liberal contributor to every worthy public,
and many private, enterprises, giving liberally of
his time and means. His faith in the future of
Galveston and Texas is strong and abiding and he
has shown it by his works, few men having made
larger investments in realty and in enterprises
of a permanent nature. His business has grown
from year to year until for many years past he
has ranked among the foremost and wealthiest
of the merchants and financiers of the Southwest.
The firm of Leon surgeons with hearts as gentle as a woman's,
and rich men, who have earned their riches, who
have performed noble acts of charity. Such men,
and such alone, are really deserving of respect and
among such the subject of this biographical notice
deserves a worthy place. He has never been unmindful
of the merits of the deserving but unsuccessful,
nor deaf to the appeals of the unfortunate,
for he has been a liberal giver from his store to the
worthy and a generous friend to those in distress,
irrespective of their religion or nationality. His
private charities have been innumerable and are of
almost daily occurrence. To such benevolent
institutions as the Baylor Orphan Home it has been
a pleasure to him to make contributions and, being
an ardent advocate of popular education, he.has
donated large sums for school purposes. While he
has spent money with a lavish hand in these directions,
his good deeds have always been quietly
performed, and never preceded by a fanfare of
trumpets or prompted by a desire to excite commendation.
What he has done, has been done because
he earnestly desired to lighten burdens
bowing fellow-beings in sorrow to the dust, and to
make the world brighter and better as far as in him
lay. In personal appearance he is of the Saxon
type. He is five feet eleven inches in height, with
fair complexion and bluish-gray eyes. His physique
is well proportioned and he is what one may call a
fine-looking man. He has been identified with
Texas for more than forty-one years. He landed
on our shores well-nigh penniless and friendless and
with scarcely any knowledge of the country. The
difficulties that confronted him would have proven
insurmountable to a man of ordinary mold. He
made opportunity his slave, not his master. He
made a high position in the business and social
community and the acquisition of wealth objective
points, but honor and truth his guides. He determined
not to sustain defeat, but at the same time
not to accept success except upon the terms he
prescribed to Fortune, viz., that it should come to
him because he deserved it.
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A history of pioneers in Texas and their confrontations with local American Indians.
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/328/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.