men and I do not hesitate to say that intellectually Mr. Hearne was the superior of many and the equal of any of them. Beyond any man I ever knew was he gifted with a rich and saving common sense. Greatness is associated in the popular mind with success in war, in statesmanship, or in letter. A successful business career requires for it achievement the possession and exercise of as great talent as any calling. Watt and Arkwright were as great intellectually as Napoleon and Wellington. For nearly sixty years Mr. Hearne resided in Texas. He commenced life with no advantages of wealth or position. When the Civil War broke out, he had accumulated a large estate. When ruin overtook the cause which he espoused, all the accumulations of years of toil and unceasing activity were swept away. Undaunted by the disaster, he began the battle again, and in a few years had regained all that he had lost and added largely to it. He was one of those rare men who hived wisdom with the years, and when he had passed beyond threescore and ten, he still hopefully faced the future, and repined not over the faded glories of the past. It is not appropriate at this time, nor is the public interested in the recital of the great triumphs won by him in a long life of ceaseless and many-sided activity. He was a successful planter where failures were common. We was a safe and prudent banker, and no man ever lost a dollar under his management. His ability was equal to any career, and in whatever enterprise he embarked he always scored a victory. Mr. Hearne had a singularly open and candid mind. He was loyal always to the truth. A man of more robust integrity never lived. No man, living or dead, was ever intentionally wronged by him. He could at all times look back upon his life with honest pride. His was no holiday existence. Manfully and heroically he fought out life's battle under his great Captain's eye. No matter how thick disasters might crowd upon him, he never shirked, he never quailed. In every crisis he was true to himself, to his country, and to his God. He was of good old Anglo-Saxon stock. He was a direct descendant of that Captain Hearne who charged with Cromwell at Marston Moor and Naseby, and in the thick gloom of the morn of the 3rd of Sept., 1651 was one of those who broke like a tornado on the Scotch army at Dunbar, and heard Old Noll say in the words of the Psalmist, 'Let God arise and his enemies shall be scattered.' Mr. Hearne
Thanks to Carol Ealey for transcribing this page.
Copyright (c) 1999, 2007 Brian Cragun.