CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: JOHN H. REAGAN, SCHOOL TEACHER--THE STATESMAN.-  Smith County, TX 

***************************************************************** 
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

Submitted by Doris Peirce - ginlu@home.com 
27 October 2001 
***************************************************************** 
TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

JOHN H. REAGAN - SCHOOL TEACHER--THE STATESMAN.

Mrs. H. M. Durst, one of the pioneer settlers of  Texas, recently said:  
"The first time I ever saw Mr. Reagan was before the 40's.  We were 
living near Nacogdoches.  He first came to our home just from a 
surveying trip, and was dressed in buckskin.  He asked my husband 
just before dinner time not to seat him  with his family, as he did 
not wish to be presented to ladies in that garb.  Mr. Durst had a 
side table fixed for him and he ate while the family were eating.  
That request made a favorable impression on me, and while he was 
eating silently at his sidetable I observed him closely and was 
pleased with his demeanor.  Roughing it on the prairie had, of 
course, bronzed his face, and given him the unkept look of the 
frontiersman, but underneath all that was the air of a gentleman.  
Surveying was his profession, but when out of work he would farm. 
 One year he made a corn crop near us, and when the harvest time 
came he sold it to Mr. Durst.  Usually he drove the wagon and 
delivered the load himself, but one day sent a man in his place, 
and wrote Mr. Durst a note.  Mr. Durst brought the note to me, 
saying:  'This man is a scholar.  There's not an error in this 
note.  Now, we want a teacher for our children.  I believe Mr. 
Reagan will do.'  An agreement was soon made and the young 
surveyor put away his compass and was tutor in our family for four 
years."  While a guest in Judge Reagan's home a few years since the 
alluded to these statements, and he remarked:  "My writing that note 
to Colonel Durst was a turning point in my life.  While a tutor in 
the family I became acquainted with the leading men of the State; I 
listened to their talks, I became fond of studying the philosophy of 
government.  I also studied law.  Colonel Durst was large hearted, 
intelligent and wealthy.  He entertained my guests.  I had access to 
his library, and I was a diligent student.  Yes, in the home of 
Colonel John Durst I secured my first steppingstone in public life." 
Hon. Bruno Durst, at one time a member of the legislature of Texas, 
and now residing near Centerville, Texas, was one of Judge Reagan's 
pupils.  He says: "I was an idle boy and Mr. Reagan had hard work to 
get me to study at all.  I wanted to be on a horse galloping over 
the prairies, or hunting with my gun and dogs.  He did not believe 
in harsh treatment toward his pupils, but used persuasive and 
incentive to study.  One day he said to me: 'Bruno, you are a young 
lad now, and have ample opportunity and time to make a man of 
yourself.  Why do you not try to do so?  Go to work and study.  You 
know my school days are over.  It's late in life for me to study 
books, and yet you see me studying them every day.  I am determined 
to climb up in life, and you may live to see me in the congress of 
the United States.'"  How much higher than his goal Judge Reagan 
climbed.  Carlyle's sarcastic pen wrote of our Washington:  "America 
has its George, the surveyor."  Braddock called Washington  "a Yankee 
Buckskin."  The West had its Buckskin Surveyor in the person of John 
H. Reagan, well known in the Confederate cabinet, and since as 
congressman and senator from Texas.  Judge Reagan is much honored in 
Texas.

Mary R. Lesesne.      Houston Post.