Edward R. Kone

Edward Reeves Kone (March 15, 1848 – January 30, 1933) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat, he served as Texas Agriculture Commissioner from August 1908 to 1914.

Born in Montgomery County, Texas, Kone worked as a lawyer and served as Hays County Judge for multiple years. He was the second Texas Agriculture Commissioner, with his efforts keeping the office from termination. A conservative, he opposed Reconstruction and counteracted it by disenfranchising African Americans in Texas.

Early life and education Kone was born on March 15, 1848, in Montgomery County, Texas, the eldest of ten children born to Samuel Reid Kone and Rebecca Sylvira (née Pitts) Kone. When he was born, he weighed ten pounds and, according to the San Antonio Express-News, his father said Kone had the ugliest face that he ever saw. He was originally named Edwin. He was renamed Edward Reeves, being named for two of his uncles: a maternal uncle named Edward Pitts and a paternal uncle named Reeves Kone. His father was a carpenter who went on to fight in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, dying of illness shortly after the war ended. His mother died in May 1910.

Kone grew up on a farm in Stringtown, where his family moved to . He studied law at the Coronal Institute, under William Oscar Hutchison.

Kone served three terms as Agriculture Commissioner, losing his re-election in 1914. From 1914 to 1920, he served as Assistant Commissioner, under successor Fred Davis.

Views

"We had to find some way to end the 'carpetbagger' rule, and it was the superstition of the negroes that presented us with our opprotunity. We made up for the list of disenfranchised citizens by scaring the 'darkies' away from the polls, and carried that election. I would like to emphasize that the Ku Klux Klan was started that we might have a rest from the lot who controlled the government, and when this was done we disorganized, for the Klan had served its purpose." — Kone on organizing the Ku Klux Klan in Texas, 1926. He opposed northerner leadership of Texas during Reconstruction.

Within agriculture policy, Kone supported small farmers and cooperated with the Texas branch of the National Farmers Union. He also supported the conservation of Texas' natural resources.

Kone died on January 30, 1933, aged 84, in Austin, from illness. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery. In 1984, his house, the Kone-Cliett House, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.