COLONEL ROBERT T. MILNER 

The following bio was taken from page 309 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission. 

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster 

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas 

Colonel Milner’s family lived several miles east of Henderson on a large farm near the Richard Brown place.  The Milners and the Browns were close friends and neighbors.  Other families in this area who were friends and neighbors were: The Stones, Youngs, Yandles, Crows, Mosses, Craigs, Fites, Osbornes, Wylies, Durans, Pooveys, Orrs and others.

 Colonel Milner, “Bob”, and Richard McKee (Mack) Brown were chums and devoted friends from early childhood.  They worked, played and went to school together.  They entered Texas A & M College the year it opened.  Bob remained in school until he graduated.  Mack returned home and became a schoolteacher in his native Rusk County.

 After Bob finished at A & M College, he returned to Henderson and built his home (where Texas Baptist Institute now stands) and in 1881 bought the “Henderson Times,” a weekly newspaper, which he owned for twenty-five years.  His newspaper office was a small frame building in the southwest corner of the lot of the James Whitfield Hotel on North Marshall Street in Henderson.

 After Colonel Milner sold the “Henderson Times”, he served three terms in the Texas Legislature and was Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He introduced the bill creating the Commissioner of Agriculture of Texas and was the first man to serve in that office.  Today, 1981, his chum Mack Brown’s great-nephew, Reagan Brown, is serving in that office.

 After serving in state government, Colonel Milner was president of Texas A & M College from 1908-1913.  There is a dorm on the campus of the University that bears the name Milner Hall.  It was during his presidency that the A & M Department of Agriculture was strengthened.  Dr. Kyle was the head of this department, and he and Milner helped the Extension Service grow during these years.

 After his return to Henderson, Bob Milner, together with his friends, Mack Brown, Bob Gould, George Smith and Luther Evans would meet on Sunday afternoons and have a feast on current events.  All five men were exceedingly well-informed, Mack Brown read the “Congressional Record’ from cover to cover every day.  He had a remarkable memory.  The four friends listened to Mack’s report and then had lengthy discussions.

 Bob Milner and his wife, Mary L. Hawkins, had five children, four grew to adulthood.  They were: Tabitha, who organized Henderson Camp Fire organization, operated a flower shop, and was noted for her poetry; R.T. Milner, Jr., who was principal of Henderson High School in the 1920’s and continued to teach until his death in the 1960’s; Yancey and Drinkard.

 Bob Milner was an excellent writer.  He frequently made his articles in the local papers personal, and his greatest joy was relating his boyhood experiences.

 Colonel R.T. Milner, one of the most outstanding citizens produced in Rusk County, was a statesman who gave of himself and his talents to his county, to the state of Texas, and to the nation.

 Submitted by Leland Watkins