The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-09-19
ROBERT S. LOVETT.

Thirty-fve years ago Robert :. Lovett
leaned over the handle of a plough as
he rounded the hill in the topmost fur
row, on his fathers farm near Shep-
herd, Texas, and saw something new,
1t was q work train on q narrow gauge
railroad. The Houston East & West
was being pushed toward Shreveport
from the city of its name through the
deusest part of the piney woods, says
the New York World.
Young Lovett was fascinated. The
next day he went down TO inspect the
locomotive. he saw the men throwing
up the grade and watched them laying
ties and fcrty-pound rails. Immediate
ly he secured employment. Driving d
team when the mud was deep, he was
the sole proprietor of a wagon that
hauled timber5 to The builders. He had
quit the farm where he had spent his
boyhoOd in poverty. His father had
managed TO exc out but a poor exist
ence from the Impoverished soil Of East
Texas and there, during the war, Rob
ert was born.
some day" he exclaimed to his boy
friends who laughed at him because
he was hauling ties for the work, II
own that railroad
No one in a poor country had less
than he, but from that time he kept
10 his goal. He is now president of
the line ne helped with his hands TO
build.
He moved. after the road was built.
to Shepherd, where ne watched the
trains so by. One passed each way
each day, and he was always at the
depot Meanwhile he secured a posi-
ton in the general store of Z. B. smith
at q salary of SO a month and board.
81 L. . L.
DIOyer and drove to the railroad for
freight when it came. Afterwdrd he be
came agent for the Houston East &
West at his home town. All the time
he was educating himself.
He learned to run an engine and
switch cars, but cast that branch of
the business aside after quickly mas
tering #. He was in training for the
business he had chosen when, as a
ploughboy, he first set eyes on an
engine.
but I thought you were going to
run that railroad" Mr.. Smith, his for
mer employer and friend, exclaimed.
"Oh, that's all right" answered the
retiCent youth. 7 will
The people UP the woods believed him
because they had learned to believe
everything he said.
y
first to the freight Office of the same
old railroad. lie was so poor he had
to work while he studied and things
took their natural course. At that time
C 3. UdeH was local agent in HOus-
ton.
II want job!" exclaimed young
Lovett, and the agent believed him.
AS a $40 a month clerk he started his
career in the city. He never forgot the
man who gave him that first position
When. four years ago, r. s. LOvett
was named as president Of the com
bined Houston & Texas Central and
Houston. East & West Texas. he made
the man who gave him his first real
chance c. p. UdeU, treasurer Of the
combined roads.
The way for Lovett from his clerk
shin to presidency Of the railroad he
helDpd build was hard. Working nights
he improved himself until he felt com
petent to study law and gained a place
in the office Of then Congressman
Charles Stewart. He was admitted to
the bar and secured a position again
with the same old railroad. He went
back to Shepherd as country counsel,
irving cattle cases for the company in
Justice courts. He was not an orator
but so great was his power that when
he told the jury how COW was killed.
ne was believed. He attracted atten-
ton from the receivers and was given
a district, moving to Eacogdoches.
There he Strengthened out the tangled
land affairs Of the bankrupt corpora