Early Life and Political Ties
He was born unto John Thomas and Sarah (Payne) Kirby on November 16, 1860 in Tyler County. First taught to read & write by his mother, his formal education later on was limited to rural schools and one semester at Southwestern University, Georgetown where he studied law. With the influence of state senator Samuel Bronson Cooper, he would serve as a clerk in the Texas Senate from 1882-1884. During his clerkship he married Lelia Stewart of Woodville. He would practice law for four years before moving to Houston to join the law firm of Hobby and Lanier.
In 1887 with Cooper's influence, Kirby would provide legal services to a group of investors from Boston, Massachusetts. With their financial backing, the east Texas timberland would be harvested for lumber under the name Texas Pine Land Association. This business alone provided Kirby with a small fortune. In 1893 he partnered with a lawyer named Nathaniel D. Silsbee, an investor from Boston. These two, along with an investor named Ellington Pratt would establish the Gulf, Beaumont and Kansas City Railroad from Beaumont to San Augustine. Upon the railroad's completion, Kirby sold it to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway which would extend its line to the new lumber processing site at Silsbee, the town named after the investor. The sale of the railroad yielded a high profit for Kirby. It was at this location in 1900 that the Kirby Lumber Company would be established. This business would be the largest lumber producer in the south, with Kirby controlling 300,000 acres (1200 km²) of timberland. At its peak between 1910 and 1920, it had some 16,500 employees and included twelve operating mills and five logging camps.
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