It was a necessity at the time and did splendid service. They made it hot for the Carpetbaggers and Skallawags and the negroes were made to see that these renegades were not their masters. It often required heroic action to bring about a reaction, but the Ku Klux were equal to the emergency. The present generation will never realize what the South went through in those bitter days of reconstruction, and maybe it is best to forget. Ala. This was a cross roads store, supported entirely by a farming class of people, away off to itself, and as my partner and myself were both inexperienced in business we thought that if we could succeed anywhere it would be here where we had no competition.
Reform is now a considerable village with brick stores and a railroad.
I soon grew tired of this mercantile venture, simply because I knew so little about it. I was actually embarrassed by my ignorance, and sold to my partner and left for Texas to try farming. I had an older brother, Samuel Paul, there. He with his wife and four children were living on a farm which had been bought by my father before the war. It was situated on the Colorado River, near La Grange, Fayette County.