Texas History Minute

Texas has been known for producing colorful, larger-than-life business figures That has been found in a variety of industries

Perhaps one of the most unusual was hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, whose multi-billion dollar hotel chain began in Texas by accident

Dr. Ken Bridges

Conrad Hilton was born in what was then the New Mexico Territory on Christmas Day, 1887 He was one of eight children His father was a Norwegian immigrant and businessman who taught his son how to run a business His father ran a small general store and eventually converted it into a small hotel

He was very ambitious as a young man He briefly attended two small New Mexico colleges When New Mexico became a state in 1912, he was elected to the first session of the new state’s House of Representatives He served in the army during World War I and returned determined to be a successful banker, seeking a small bank to buy outright He located a bank in Cisco, Texas, not far from Abilene The bank purchase fell through, so Hilton bought the local hotel instead With oilfield workers streaming into the small town, the hotel was an overwhelming success

Hilton started buying more hotels

By 1924, he built a new hotel in Dallas, the fourteen-story Dallas Hilton, which he completed for more than $1 3 million (or $19 4 million in 2019 dollars) In Dallas, he also settled down and married Mary Barron, with whom he would have three sons He continued to expand, building new hotels in Abilene and Waco in the late 1920s

However, the road to success was not smooth In 1929, Hilton built his next hotel, the San Angelo Hilton It was built at a cost of $1 million (nearly $15 million in 2019 dollars). However, the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression caused business travel to evaporate, and the hotel almost became a victim of the Depression.

Hilton had taken out a loan for $385,000 from American Life Insurance Company of Galveston

When Hilton was unable to pay the mortgage, the company foreclosed and forced Hilton into a partnership with them The shotgun marriage dissolved by 1934 amidst a series of lawsuits, and he lost the hotel The experience nearly ruined Hilton just as his hotel empire was beginning His former partners later renamed it the Cactus Hotel and ran it for another thirty years before it was donated to a local hospital and converted to a nursing home Hilton rebounded and kept adding properties

In spite of Hilton's success in the hotel business, his private life was a

Texas-sized soap opera His nineyear marriage to the mother his three young sons ended in divorce in 1934, at a time when divorce was still considered scandalous Hilton became notorious for his string of young girlfriends and drinking In 1942, he married actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. It was Hilton’s second of three marriages It was the second of nine marriages for Gabor The marriage was a storm of trouble from the beginning. The marriage produced a daughter, the longtroubled Francesca Hilton, Gabor’s only child The bitter divorce came in 1946 Hilton would not marry again for thirty years Gabor alleged years later that Hilton assaulted her during the marriage and even had an affair with his eldest son However, she made these allegations years after both men had died and were unable to respond to the charges

In the meantime, his son Nicky Hilton developed a reputation of his own He married actress Elizabeth Taylor in 1950, but the marriage collapsed within a matter of months His drinking and gambling destroyed his marriages and his health before his death in 1969

Hilton moved onward and bought the Stevens Hotel in Chicago at the end of World War II, then the largest hotel in the world He created the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1946 as a holding company for his properties In 1949, he bought New York’s famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel, a hotel that had long since become a landmark and become synonymous with luxury. By this point, his holdings were worth an estimated $100 million (more than $1 06 billion in 2019 dollars) “Successful men keep moving,” he said in an interview. “They make mistakes, but they don’t quit ”

By the 1950s, he brought his son Barron on board as vicepresident The father-son team managed to keep expanding the Hilton Hotel chain around the globe By 1955, they guaranteed that each room would have its own air conditioning, an unheardof luxury at the time In the midst of his rise, he established the Conrad Hilton Foundation, dedicated to alleviating suffering around the world

Hilton died in 1979 at age 91 and was buried in Dallas Even in death, one more scandal erupted surrounding his will Though son Barron had been left in charge of the company, he did not receive any money He sued and eventually was given a large amount of stock in the hotel chain Years later, he announced he would be leaving the bulk of his fortune to the Hilton Foundation, much as his father had done Today, Hilton Worldwide Holdings boasts 5,500 properties in 109 countries and is worth $14 billion

Dr Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He can be reached at

y Holland

Life is filled with ups and downs, joys and heartaches As the passage in Ecclesiastes chapter three mentions, there is a time for many different things, some bad and some good and the longer we live the more clearly we will comprehend what the writer is saying These are lessons learned in the classroom of life which are experienced no matter how much we try to avoid them As we walk through these milestones, we are faced with processing this assortment of emotions until we arrive at some level of understanding or at least a partial acceptance we can live with In verse two we read, “A time to be born, and a time to die” which sounds elementary but actually looms very large within our existence We’ve all held a tiny baby in our arms and have been excited about a lifetime of possibilities and we have also felt the grief and sorrow from those who have passed on These are natural reactions that come from our human emotions, but the Bible presents being born and passing away in a different or should I say, a more spiritual perception A few pages over in Ecclesiastes 7:1, we read, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of ones birth ” The first part is explaining that a good reputation is the most important thing we can have other than our relationship with God The second part is saying that departing this life is better than entering. Many will ask how can passing away be better than being born? This is referring to when a baby arrives in the world, a wise person will realize this infant is getting ready to face many difficulties and hardships However, when a bornagain individual leaves this world, they are being released from suffering and entering into a heaven that is filled with the eternal glories of God’s presence In short, this verse is simply reminding us to not always be so emotional but to be more spiritually minded.

The end of our journey is a subject that many of us avoid intentionally I agree it’s very easy to be in denial with the idea that someday we will say goodbye to this world I’ve watched individuals that are in their nineties and how they respond when asked about selling an old automobile that needs to be restored Many reply they do not want to sell because they believe that one day they will get around to finishing this vision I can understand these things are special to them and an important part of their life We just do not want let go of what we love Others might have barns or warehouses filled with parts and pieces they have collected for many years, but they still refuse to sell even one item I also have a lot of things that I consider important and maybe our “stuff” gives us a sense of security and we just want to be surrounded by it until the very end Whatever reason we do not want to let go, we can be assured the greatest treasures on earth cannot be compared to the amazing realm that awaits God’s children Adrian Rogers once said, “If you want to know how wealthy you are, look around at what you have and see what money cannot buy and death cannot take away from you ”

As a chaplain and minister, I’m often called to the bedside of those who are passing away and I’ve never heard anyone mention their love for material possessions. The conversation is always about facing their destiny, seeking forgiveness, and making sure they are ready to meet God There is an old hymn which declares, “It is well with my soul” and conveys the message about making a sincere connection with our creator in order to find spiritual peace and contentment Hopefully we can agree that if we do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, all is not well The good news is that everyone has a choice to make things right with God today There is nothing preventing you from asking God to save and forgive you except your own decision Anyone can invite the Lord to fill their heart with His presence and when our time comes to depart, we can also joyfully proclaim that all is well with our soul. Read more articles and check

Verse of the Week

Psalm 15:1-3

Guidelines for tackling debt

Hey Taylor - I’m feeling extra motivated to get out of debt and think this year’s my year I want to make sure I don’t get discouraged (I’ve got a long way to go), so I’m wondering if you have any tips that will help me through the process

- Clint

Hey Clint - Glad to hear you’re taking the plunge! When you get to the other side of this, you’ll feel like a hero and wonder why you didn’t start sooner

The right mindset is important for tackling debt, so here are some guidelines that will hopefully keep you on track

Commit to a change in spending

You will spin your wheels and give up way too quickly if you don’t put a freeze on extraneous spending This seems obvious, and yet so many people fail to get out of debt because they can’t stop going out to dinner, taking trips and buying nonessential items Know that you can do without a lot of your monthly expenditures and saving $5 here or there makes a huge difference You can also change your cell phone plan, drop cable, use less water, drive fewer places, etc Any of these changes will help you pay down debt more quickly, and after a month or so you won’t miss whatever it was you used to spend too much money on

Organize your debt It sounds like you have a fair amount of debt and that probably consists of multiple account balances Attacking your debt as one lump sum is like charging up Everest in weighted boots – you’ll pretty much fail before you start You need to look at each account balance, know which ones have the highest interest rates and which can be paid

Living with children

down the fastest Whe the money you owe as battles which you mig to win, you’ll feel mo optimistic about the w process

Be patient As you sai have a long way to go large amounts of debt interest payments, it t bit of time before you results This is why a plan is so important - give yourself a strategy you can stick to that will keep you on course even when your goals seem completely out of reach After a few months of reduced spending and tactical repayments, the difference will be noticeable and each payment will have a little more power. Before long, you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel

A lot of people have success by choosing between a debt snowball and a debt avalanche, and you can read about those strategies at GoFarWithKovarcom Find your method, keep your head up, and sooner than later that debt will be a thing of the past Good luck, Clint!

Taylor Kovar, CEO of Kovar Capital Read more about Taylor at GoFarWithKovar com

Disclaimer: Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein To submit a question to be answered in this column, please send it via email to Question@GoFarWithKovar com, or via USPS to Taylor Kovar, 415 S 1st St, Suite 300, Lufkin, TX 75901

Q: Our 14-yearold (he’s going into the ninth grade at a public high school) has taken up with a bunch of kids that we don’t exactly approve of They have reputations as troublemakers and at least one has already been arrested for shoplifting and had to do some community service The irony is, they all come from families that are highly regarded in the community We haven’t seen any dramatic change in our son’s behavior, but he has become more secretive and has told us he doesn’t want to play sports anymore In the opinion of lots of parents, the kids in question are under-supervised Naturally, we’re concerned about the potential bad influence I want to tell him to find new friends; my husband wants to take a wait-andsee What do you think we should do?

A: I don’t mind taking sides in this; to wit, I agree with your husband

To begin with, it’s completely normal for kids your son’s age to be flexing their independence – it’s all part of preparing for emancipation (which you should be preparing for as well) In the process of establishing emotional distance from parents and family, a certain amount of “secretiveness” is to be expected, no matter the nature of the child’s peer group In and of itself, that’s neither a bad nor a good thing; it’s just the way it is Boys are naturally inclined toward risk-taking If they aren’t provided sufficient opportunities to take risks in relatively safe contexts –wilderness camping experiences, for example – they are more likely to gravitate toward peers and activities that are inappropriate or truly dangerous I witnessed that as a teen and saw the potential for it in my son when he entered adolescence

The young teen boy (and not boys only, by the way) is in danger of making supremely impulsive decisions; his parents, on the other hand, are in danger of reacting such that he becomes more secretive and

Library

older ones had fun with several building challenges

And for high schoolers and adults, there’s a chance for an artistic night out On Tuesdays from 6 to 8, we’re making art with an interactive video On Tuesday, 6/11, we’re painting a geometric landscape with watercolors

Register for the Summer Reading Program, declare your personal weekly reading goal and get prizes each week during June and July perhaps even rebellious Your husband understands that, I’m sure, which is why he doesn’t want to make matters worse by “clamping down” without a good, concrete reason In that regard, I need to point out that something as subjective as “We have a bad feeling about those kids” just doesn’t qualify

I strongly encourage you to trust your husband’s judgement Partly because they don’t have an intimate understanding of boyness, Moms generally tend toward over-protection, even over-reaction in situations of this sort Unless there’s more here than is reflected in your question, I feel confident in saying that your husband will intuitively know the when and how of intervention if intervention becomes warranted.

In the meantime, this is an ideal time of year to enroll your son in some activities – like the wilderness camping experience I mentioned above – that would satisfy his need for risk while at the same time providing adequate supervision and guidance Dad can certainly jump in there by planning summer father-son getaways that involve hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, horseback riding, dirtbiking, and things of that sort

Where your son’s choice of friends is concerned, he’s bound to expand his social sphere when he enters high school in the fall His present choice of running buddies may turn out to be nothing more than a fling For now, just keep your eyes open and be ready to step in and establish controls should it begin to look like he’s about to lose all semblance of common sense Remember that energy you expend worrying will be energy you won’t have when you most need it

Family psychologist John Rosemond: johnrosemond com, parentguru com

John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society

Continued from page 6 you meet your goal Weekly prizes include a free book, coupons for local restaurants (Sonic, Palio’s, and Texas Roadhouse) Each week you meet your goal, your name goes into the drawing for a grand prize For Infants through 4 years, the grand prize is a giant teddy bear The grand prize for each older group (K through 4th grade, 5th through 8th grade, and 9th through Adults) will be a Kindle Fire The Grand Prize Drawing will be on August 1