JACK SANDERS

The following bio was taken from page 381 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, Rusk County TX Coordinator

John A. Sanders, son of Jack Sanders, was seventeen when he enlisted in the Confederate Army in Company C of the 15^th Texas Cavalry. He fought at Elkhorn, Corinth, Richmond, Kentucky, Murfreesboro, and Chicamauga. At the last named battle, he was captured.

After the war, John Sanders participated in farming and the mercantile business. He died at Pine Hill, April 3, 1921.

Arthur M. Sanders, son of John Sanders, was born on the old Sander’s homestead near Pine Hill, on October 15, 1869. At the age of nine, an accident at a cotton gin deprived him of his right arm; and while this changed the character of his activities, it did not stunt the extent of his achievements and may actually have proved a stimulus to his career.

Arthur Sanders played a major part in the business activities of Pine Hill and vicinity. He was a student in country schools, but he finished his schooling at Keechi Academy in Louisiana. Beginning at the age of seventeen, he taught in country schools in the vicinity of Pine Hill. Several years later, he opened a store in Pine Hill under the name of A.M. Sanders, his stock being worth one thousand dollars. By 1913 he had replaced several buildings and now had a large brick structure in the new townsite.

Important as his mercantile accomplishments were, they were not chief in importance. The profits of his store he invested in land until he owned 5,000 acres and about fifty buildings of various descriptions. Three thousand acres were under cultivation—1,500 acres in cotton and 1,500 acres in corn. He also owned one-third of the stock in the State Bank of Pine Hill, two-thirds stock in the Pine Hill Mercantile Company and one half interest in the Rusk Drug Company.

Arthur Sanders was an active member of the Methodist Church and yearly tithed his income to the cause of Christian work.

On December 22, 1889, A.M. Sanders married Ada C. Kirksey. To this marriage eleven children were born. Three died in infancy. The other children were Gilbert, Vern, Herman, Ray, Drennon, Annie, Addie, and Artie.

Arthur Sanders and his family moved to Ulvade, Texas about 1915 and entered the Drug and Dairy business. After several years, the family moved back to the old homestead at Pine Hill and Arthur Sanders went into the mercantile business in Henderson.

No other man in this part of East Texas had as much energy and influence or helped as many people as did Arthur Sanders. Tragedy struck in his early fifties. He had a stroke and died at the age of fifty-four on June 18, 1923 and was laid to rest in the Pine Hill Cemetery.

Submitted by Allen Sanders.