Gene Krane

Jack Hightower’s collection combines three of his main interests: books, politics, and Freemasonry. As for his love of books, Hightower* said that might be genetic. “My father prized his books and read a lot. As a young man, I remember asking for books when it was time for gift-giving.” He continued, “One of the first ones I asked for and received was Our Presidents at a Glance.” Over the years, that love of books has grown, and Hightower estimates that he has now gathered hundreds. His collection has grown so large, in fact, that his wife, Colleen, says that he belongs to the book-of-the-day club. Either the author or the subject has signed many of the volumes that Hightower has in his library.

Ill. Jack E. Hightower, SGIG in Texas, has a passion for collecting books on Freemasonry and politics.

So if the love of books was in his blood, could one assume that the interest in politics was also genetic? “I’m less sure of that,” laughed Hightower, who was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1952, the Texas Senate in 1964, and who served five successive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, after first winning in 1974. As he offered a story to explain his love of politics, Hightower pointed to a photograph of a handsome man on the wall: “While I was in Congress, my daughter became curious about her eligibility in a historical organization, so I told her I’d do some research. I went into some old papers that had belonged to my father,” Hightower said. “I found a handwritten letter addressed to a woman I knew as his aunt, signed by a man who described himself as her uncle. The letter told about his grandfather who had been a member of Congress. Well, that just stopped me cold and opened my eyes wide! Even though my father often shared stories of our family, I had never heard that I had an ancestor who was a member of Congress.” Hightower was able to discover that his congressional relative was Richard Stanford, who represented an area of North Carolina from 1796-1816; his photograph now hangs proudly in Hightower’s office.

“ I found out that Stanford succeeded his father-in-law, who was my fourth great-grandfather, a member of the Third Congress that met in Philadelphia. So all these years I’ve been in politics, and I’ve never known I had that in my background. So maybe politics is genetic too!”
Hightower’s love of books and politics converged in 1953 when he was in the Texas

Legislature. While visiting an Austin bookstore, he came across a book that was signed “E.M. Pease” (Texas Governor 1853-1857, 1867-1869). “I paid $10 for it, thought that was pretty interesting, and from that point on started looking for other signed books,” said Hightower.

Richard Stanford, Member of Congress from North Carolina, 1796 to 1816, is an example of the Hightower family tradition of political service.

Today, his gubernatorial collection of more than 20 books includes volumes signed by, among others, O.M. Roberts (Governor 1879-1883); Richard Coke (Governor 1874-1876); and the current state leader Rick Perry. Another book is from the library of Governor James S. Hogg (1891-1895) when he practiced in Tyler, Texas.

Full of stories that a long career in politics brings, Hightower told how another prized book from his Governor’s collection was acquired: “When I was in Congress, we lived in the north Texas town of Vernon, and I returned there from Washington every weekend. One Saturday, I saw a large crowd gathered in front of an old house, and knowing that the elderly couple that lived there had recently died, I figured that there was an estate sale in progress. After parking the car, I walked up, and the auctioneer was selling boxes of books. I greeted someone at that moment with the wave of my hand, and the next thing I knew, the auctioneer says, “Sold to Congressman Hightower for $1!” Everyone laughed, and for a dollar, I figured I’d go along with the joke.

“ So I took my box home and began to unload it, discovering that it was filled with old Reader’s Digest magazines. At the bottom of the box, though, I found an old, thick book; the covers were gone, but the spine was there. I opened it up and found it was a Government Printing House Publication from the 1880s about the U.S. territories. Across the top of the front page was written, “J.W. Throckmorton,” whom I knew to be a Texas Governor. Well, I slapped that page on my copier machine and sent the copy down to the state library to determine if the signature were authentic, and it was. So for a dollar, quite by incredible luck, I had acquired the one item in that estate sale that was of interest to me, a signed book by Texas Governor J.W. Throckmorton.”

Among the historical signed books in Ill. Hightower’s collection are volumes bearing the signatures of Abraham Lincoln and William Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner in Illinois.

While his signed books are the centerpiece of his collection, his Presidential signed books are probably his favorites. Thirty-one of those volumes contain the signatures of the men who have led this country, including some of whom Hightower has worked alongside of in Washington, D.C. “I’ve been lucky through the opportunities that my career has afforded me to obtain books that were inscribed to me by many Presidents, including Johnson, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Reagan, and both Presidents Bush.”

Hightower, Sovereign Grand Inspector General for the Scottish Rite in Texas, followed his father into the Masonic Fraternity. His book collection includes a shelf of signed Masonic titles including one signed by Albert Pike. “My Lincoln collection alone probably numbers close to 200,” says Hightower. “I am a great admirer of President Lincoln, and my pursuit has not been an effort to collect the books that Lincoln owned, but the books about Lincoln that I want.” One of Hightower’s most prized possessions in that grouping is a book signed by Lincoln’s grandson, who died when he was about 17, and who was the last male progeny of the President. Also included in that collection is another book signed by William H. Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner in Springfield, Illinois.

One of the treasures in Ill. Hightower’s collection is a book signed by Texas Governor J. W. Throckmorton.

In room after room, Hightower displays works signed by other national and international figures: Winston Churchill, Indira Ghandi, John Glenn, Mikhail Gorbachev, General John J. Pershing, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, to name a few. Explaining his interest in signed books, Hightower says, “If you have an autograph of a person on a card or a piece of stationery, it will eventually fade, but when the signature is inside a book, it’s always protected. Besides, I like knowing that at one time or another, the person who signed the book held it in his hands. This gives us a chance today to touch history.”

Gene Krane
is editor of HERITAGE magazine, the publication of the Texas Historical Foundation. To subscribe to HERITAGE, contact Texas Historical Foundation at P.O. Box 50314, Austin, TX 78763, phone 512-453-2154, fax 512-453-2164, or email: thfonline.org

*Jack E. Hightower, 33°, elected SGIG in Texas in 2002, was Grand Master of Texas in 1972, was awarded the Sam Houston Medal by the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1995, and is a Life Member of the Research Society. He presently serves on the Board of Trustees, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, and the Texas Scottish Rite Educational Foundation. Elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1952 and the Texas Senate in 1964, where he served 10 years, Ill. Hightower was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and served five successive terms. After this national public service, he returned to Texas to serve as First Assistant Attorney General and as a Justice of the Supreme Court, the latter from 1988 to 1996. The above article is reprinted with permission from HERITAGE (Winter 2003), a publication of the Texas Historical Foundation.