Intrigue Within Thurber's Inner Workings
by Lea Hart
The W.K. Gordon Center opened to the public November 1,
2002. Since its opening, the museum has received various donations in order to
tell the story of Thurber. On April 8 of 2003, nearly twenty years ago, a call
was received at the W.K. Gordon Center in reference to papers once owned by a
Mr. S Mims. This call led to obtaining
one of the most intriguing collections at the W.K. Gordon Center to date. It
shows that Thurber, usually touted as a place of harmony, was not immune to
internal struggles.
Mr. Shadrach Mims worked in the Texas Pacific Coal Company
as Secretary and as Treasurer for twenty five years, however the files do not
necessarily contain his day to day duties as an employee of the T&P C. Co.
The donated papers are correspondence to S. Mims, largely from Edgar Marston,
and a few from Col R.D. Hunter. Col.
Hunter was the first T&P Coal Co. President and Edgar L. Marston, the
Colonel’s son-in-law, who had been connected with the Texas & Pacific Coal
Company since its origination. It was
believed that Marston took over as President of the company in 1899 when Col.
Hunter retired at Col Hunter’s request. The donated letters, seem to tell a deeper
tale.
The letters in the collection are but one side of a story.
Part of this collection contains both personal and work correspondence, letters
and telegrams, from April to December of 1899. The second half contains tax
documents and legal papers from a banking error regarding mineral rights, and a
most amazing Daily Coal Report from
February 19th of 1912 which reports that mine number 11 yielded the
most coal for the day at 445.45 tons.
The correspondence portion of this collection suggests
company intrigue, something that usually remained well hidden in official
Thurber documents. Once again note that the entirety of this correspondence is
one sided, The W.K. Gordon Center does not have any collection containing
responses to these telegrams or letters from either R.D. Hunter or Edgar
Marston, and there is no knowledge as to if any exist. Therefore, we as
observers can only speculate as to the full goings on that occurred within
these dates.
Here is a brief summary of the numerous documents, the first
of which begins inauspiciously:
…we all know that no man can do his
duty either as President, Vice-President, Secretary, or even mining of Coal if
he allows himself to indulge in whiskey drinking which is the tendency of too
many of our friends.
Edgar
L. Marston, April 15, 1899
Months pass before the next form of correspondence during
which Col. Hunter assumes his office, after recovering from a stroke, without
consulting the Board of Directors, of which they “take exception to.”
The board
of directors also did not approve of Hunter’s choice of assistant or attorney.
Within this same month, Hunter is also trying to sell his 5000 shares of stock
in T & P Coal Co. By August, intrigue is in full swing as a letter from
Marston to Mims quotes,
I have written you another letter,
which you must show in the greatest confidence to the Colonel… Let him read it
in your presence and take the letter and destroy it in his presence so that he
cannot ask to have it to show…
As we have no copy of this, referenced, letter, we can only
assume that it was destroyed, as Marston requested.
Further letters reveal that Marston believes
that Hunter’s attorney and assistant hold a vast amount of sway in Hunter’s
confidence and that he is disregarding the interests of the Board of Directors,
and the stockholders in New York, in favor of his attorney and assistant.
I have your letter of no date,
suggesting that I be careful not to mention your name in any way that would
hazard your present relations to Colonel Hunter. You can depend upon this that
I shall be exceedingly careful, appreciating your position. As Colonel Hunter’s
friend and mine you are in a position to do both of us a service, for you know
Colonel has no better friend than I am and it is your influence that must be
used to counteract the influence of [Hunter’s Attorney] and [Hunter’s
assistant], who I know are for themselves first and the Colonel afterwards.
Edgar
L. Marston, October 20, 1899
The final letter is from October 27, 1899 in which Marston
thanks Mims and asks for a full report, in person, next time Marston is there.
He also states
This places the stock entirely in
the hands of people here in New York who will run the company from this end,
represented there by Gordon and yourself.
The final telegram, and the last of the correspondence, is
dated November 8, 1899. It tells Mims to assist the Assistant General Manager (Hunter’s
assistant) in every way. However it came
about, the year of 1899 concluded with Col. R.D. Hunter retiring and his
son-in-law Edgar L. Marston stepping out of the roll of V.P. and into the role
of President.
After studying the full range of documentation, it is
possible that Edgar Marston, after noticing Hunter’s decline upon resuming his
office, used his position as Hunter’s son-in-law, with the help of Shadrach
Mim’s connection as friend to Hunter, to convince Hunter to retire. It is unknown if Marston, who was
Vice-President at the time of these letters, intended for himself to be
immediately placed in the role of President at the Colonels retirement,
or if the decision was truly made at the Colonel’s request as indicated by most
of our secondary sources. It is obvious,
however, that Hunter’s retirement was felt by Marston and Mims, to be in the
best interests of the Company.
