John Henry Kirby
Wikipedia
Born: November 16, 1860
Died: November 9, 1940
Married: Lelia Stewart
Children: Bessie Mae Kirby Stewart, John Henry Kirby II
John Henry Kirby owned Camp Arodasi on Upper Saranac Lake from 1920 to 1947; he called it Dixie Pines. He founded Kirby Lumber Company, along with many other interests.was a businessman whose ventures made him the largest lumber manufacturer in Texas and the Southern United States. In addition to serving two terms in the Texas Legislature, he also established the Kirby Petroleum Company. He was known by his business peers as "The Prince of the Pines" and "The Father of Industrial Texas". Kirbyville, Texas in Jasper County is named after him.
Kirby established a railroad in 1896 from Beaumont, Texas, 100 miles north through the piney woods to be able to transport lumber products to Sabine Pass, Port Bolivar and the connecting Houston rails. He built or purchased and operated seventeen producing lumber mills in east Texas and their short line railroads, between 1900 and the mid-1950s. He had interest in the oil field exploration in the Beaumont and east Texas areas.
Kirby was well known for his opposition to labor unions. He also saw Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan for the working class as a threat to American tradition. He helped co-found the Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution which used both anti-Semitic and anti-black rhetoric in its lobbying against the reelection of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He contributed money and effort to other anti-New Deal and pro-segregation organizations..
Mr. Kirby and his wife had one child, Bessie Mae. In November of 1906 in Houston, she married a man named James Schuyler Stewart from Amsterdam, Montgomery county, New York; he was born in New York State in June of 1878. He and his family were in some sort of textile manufacturing or importing business (perhaps the rug business, as Mohawk Carpets are located there). He made several trips to Cuba, probably buying textiles. He died in the fall of 1911 before his second children were born in February 1912.
