The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 228
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
that was open five months in the year. He learned the meaning
of hard work by doing chores at home when he was small. As his
strength and stature grew, he worked on the farm and in the
country store at twenty-five cents a day to help his father support
a growing family, as six other children came to his home.
Melvin had one advantage over Abe Lincoln in that he had
the influence of a happy, well-ordered home, where the main
book was the family Bible, where honesty, courage, and self-denial
were taught, and where ambition was encouraged. Although life
was simple, and luxuries non-existent, the family's daily needs
were supplied, and the verities of life instilled.
As ambition moved him to action, he rode over to the county
seat where he studied for a teacher's certificate, and at the same
time studied Blackstone's commentaries, which he had borrowed
from an ex-Confederate officer who was a prominent lawyer in the
community. When he obtained his teacher's certificate, he took a
job as teacher in the Leatherwood Creek school, at a salary of
thirty dollars a month for a five month period. He still worked
after hours in a store.
In school he had been active as a debater; therefore, when a
preacher began campaigning for William McKinley, the local
Democrats put up Melvin to champion William Jennings Bryan
in the strenuous campaign of 1896. There were no neutrals in
that year following the panic of 1892 when prices for farm prod-
ucts were depressingly low. Free coinage of silver at the ratio of
sixteen to one, or adherence to the gold standard were the issues
of the day.
Two years later, at the age of twenty, Traylor became restless
and decided to heed the suggestion of friends and relatives who
had moved to Texas to try his luck there. He rode his pony to
the county seat, fifteen miles away, then took a stage over the
thirty miles to Campbellsville, where he boarded the first train
he had ever ridden. His trip took him to Hillsboro, Texas.
Melvin's move did not make any sudden advance in his for-
tunes. Instead, he started at the same level as in his home section,
as a clerk in George Patterson's grocery store, at a salary of twenty
dollars a month. To save two dollars a week room rent, he joined
the fire company, which gave him a place to sleep free. He was228
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/268/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.