Sam Rayburn, born in 1882 in Sumner, Texas, was the son of a farmer and the grandson of slaves. With his siblings, he became one of twelve children in a large family. Sam attended elementary school in Fannin County before moving on to the high school in Bonham. He became involved in politics early on, when he joined the Democratic Party at age sixteen
At seventeen, Sam married Dixie Lee Williams (in 1902), and the two had two daughters (1902-1903) before getting divorced in 1907. His career would take him just across the Red River into Louisiana, where he served his first term in the Louisiana House of Representatives (1911-1913). His second term lasted just one term, with Rayburn losing his bid for re-election after he became embroiled in a scandal over his role in distributing patronage jobs to political supporters.
After leaving office, Rayburn decided to move to Texas permanently. He found work as general manager of the National Live Stock Company in Beaumont, Texas. The job proved to be short-lived when Rayburn started his own business venture after getting involved with the oil industry.
He founded the Rayburn Bank & Trust Company on April 23, 1917. The bank thrived until 1926 when it was attacked by financial panic that resulted from the stock market crash that year. The following year, Rayburn moved on again to Texas Agricultural Industries Corporation where he served as general manager until it collapsed in 1930 after failing to find an investment partner.
A new investment opportunity soon arose for Rayburn when he took interest with a plan involving new technologies related to oil exploration and production. This led him to again invest heavily into oil properties throughout Texas during this time period until his company began letting go of some of its properties during this time period because it could not meet its liabilities due to insufficient cash flow. This led him to borrow money from another bank for more funding for operations while he sought investors to purchase properties at a lower price than what had been contracted prior to closing their accounts because of lack of profits.
This transaction had become known as the "Rayburn Scandal" due to its controversy surrounding his business practices at this point period of time due to his attempts at hiding information regarding the state of his bank's finances from potential investors so they wouldn't realize how bad things were at this point period of time due to low profitability operations since loans were being paid back slowly which led him to incur even more debt than before as
Poverty only tries men's souls. It is loneliness that breaks the heart.Sam Rayburn
Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a good carpenter to build one.Sam Rayburn
Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time.Sam Rayburn
