Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1914-06-12
FROM PLOUGHBoY
TO CHIEF JUSTICE.
Being the Life Story of a Poor Boy
Who Has Won the Fight Against
Hardssips and Adversely.
From Chickasha Express.

From Chickasha Express.
From a ploughboy on frontier
homestead in Texas, thirty miles
from railroad. to the youngest
chief justice of the. supreme court
IN the country, is the remarkable
and rapid ascent of the proverbiaI
ladder of fame," accomplished by
Samuel W. Hayes of Chickasha.
Hayes is an excellent example OF
I, the self-made young men OF the west
who have fought a successful battle
against hardships and adversely.
His attainments thus far in life fur
nish the essence of one of the most
romantic stories of commercial cue
cess on record.
In humble home at Huntsville,
Madison county, Ark Samuel w.
Hayes was born OF pool but honest
parents. Whom he was but three or
four years Of age his parents moved
to Jack county, Texas, where they
settled on a homestead, thirty miles
from a railroad in what was then
the wild frontier OF the Lone Star
state. The trip from Arkansas was
made overland in wagons. Upon the
homestead a log cabin was builded.
The timbered. lands were cleared and
/, hcme established. Here young
Hayes labored with his father on
the farm, sharing in all the hard
ships of pioneer life in a tipabered
country.
While working on the farm during
his fourteenth year, Hayes, met with
an accident which resulted in a
broken arm. Unable to continue
his work. the boy-wept to live with
an uncle until his recovery, During
bis visit there was placed in his
hands the biography OF Henry w.
Grady. The youth read 1t with in
terest and received the inspiration
that made him yearn for & unlver-
sity education.
Disclosing his ambition to his nm
clio, wsc was then county clerk OF
the county, he secured a promise
from him that II young Hayes would
return home and work hard, to pre-
pare himself to enter the university,
the means would in some way be
lprotided. With the meagre training
obtainable in the little country
school house, 1t was discouraging
task. But the boy was determined
and in the two years that followed
he prepared himself with such thor
oughness in the ungraded school
near his fathers farm, where one
teacher taught all subjects from
lprmer to trigonometry, that on his
sixteenth birthday he entered the
lUn!ras sity OF Virgiuta.
This tuition was made possible
by the generosity of his uncle,
whose loan was secured by young
Hayes promissory note and an
assignment OF an insurance policy
on the boys life. Hayes attended
the university for two years, but on
account of the expense and the In
debtedness incurred. he felt himself
unable to remain until he could com
iplete his course, and returned Ia
| Texas. where he taught school fol
three years.
In June, 1896, In his twenty-firsi
Fyear young Hayes. with a youths
ambition to advance. ventured from
the old Texas homestead and locat.
ed in the then Indian Territory. al
the little town OF Ryan. Here he
engaged in teaching school and cor,
tinued in this profession for thres
years.
From his early youth It wau his
ambition to become a lawyer While
teaching school he had been devot
ing his spare moments to the study
Of law for several years, and wal
Adve