He arrived in Coryell County, Texas in 1859 and was an early merchant and county official, holding the offices of County Treasurer and County Clerk for many years and owning the J R Saunders mercantile company and private bank.
He became a Mason in 1854 and was the last surviving charter member of Lodge No. 197 A.F. & A.M.

TRIBUTE TO J. R. SAUNDERS

by Joe Sappington
Gatesville Messenger & Star Forum, March 1922

“The death of J. R. Saunders brings sorrow to many hearts and removes from the stage of action not only one of the few remaining pioneers of Gatesville, but its grandest character, and to express my own personal esteem of the man, I shall have to borrow from the pages of England’s immortal bard where he makes Anthony say of the dead Brutus:
“His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up and say to all the world ‘This was a man.’.”

For many years I was employed in the store of Uncle Jim Saunders and while thus employed formed an estimate of the man. He was a man without the least bit of egotism or guile and never assumed a dictatorial attitude with the humblest of his fellow men. In all the years I was in his employment I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone, notwithstanding his confidence in the integrity of man made him the frequent victim of misplaced confidence.

It is in the dark and stormy hours of adversity, when the black clouds of financial disaster hover around him that the true character of a man is known. For many years J. R. Saunders was not only the leading merchant of this county, but its leading banker, and his very name was a synonym for commercial and financial stability. But there came a day of adversity for Uncle Jim, I think it was in 1897, anyhow, it was during one of those severe money panics with which this country used to be afflicted, that the City National Bank of Gatesville, of which he was president, closed its doors; and it is here that I would dwell upon his life, for it was at this period that he rose to the full stature of a man. Up to this time I had known him only in prosperity, but now I was to know him when adversity had laid its heavy hand upon him and stripped him in his old age of all his property. His friends urged him to save some of his property for his family, but he was deaf to every appeal that brought him in contact with his high sense of business honor, and when the crash came he reserved nothing but a bare homestead.

I had occasion to visit him at his home a few days after the bank had closed its doors, and shall never forget how he impressed me. I can not describe the impression he made upon my mind better than to say had I been a sculptor and my ambition had been to depict in marble a human face suffering from extreme anguish, his face would have lent me the highest inspiration. To lose his financial standing was like severing the soul from the [illegible] none but the infinite God [illegible] know the heart anguish he suffered when the murky waters of commercial failure came in billowy waves and dashed to wreck and ruin the work of a life time. But Uncle Jim was never heard to complain or criticise anyone for the failure of the bank.

When I heard that he was dead I went back in memory to childhood’s morn when I thought J. R. Saunders’ store the biggest store in the world.; went back to the time when the name of J. R. Saunders was a Gabralter of financial strength; and then down to that fateful day of financial disaster, and through the unbidden tears I saw a figure, grand and heroic-saw a man bent with the weight of years -giving up without a murmur the accumulation of a lifetime; saw an old man feeble of health facing the problems of life as bravely as ever did soldier face an invading foe.

What a heritage is the life of such a man to his sons and daughters?

Fate decreed that he should not leave them gold and silver, but a heritage of a name untarnished by the vicissitudes of time or fortune.

Uncle Jim has crossed the Great Divide, has gone to the “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” Peace to his ashes and love to his memory.- Joe Sappington, Waco.

James read Saunders was born July 18, 1831, at Statesville, Iredell county, N. C. He came to Texas in 1854 and located at Spring Hill, Navarro county, known now as Dawson, Texas. He moved to Coryell county in 1857, and was married to Miss Nancy A. Baird March 16,1859. He died at the family home in this city on March 9th, 1922. The deceased leaves six children living and one sister, besides a host of relatives and friends to mourn his death. The children are: T. A. Saunders, Gatesville; F. B. Saunders, Dallas; R. L. and H. R. Saunders, Mrs. R. L. Raby and Miss Ora Saunders, Gatesville. His only sister, living is Miss Amanda Saunders, Gatesville. He was the only surviving charter member of the Masonic lodge at this place. He became a Mason in 1854 at Spring Hill.

Mr. Saunders served two terms as County treasurer [four terms, including one from 1860-1865] of this county. No man ever held in a higher degree the love, confidence, and friendship of the people of Coryell county than did Uncle Jim Saunders. We have heard him often called one of the fathers of this country. His hand touched as many lives for the better as any we ever knew.

The funeral took place on Friday morning at 10 o’clock. The entire business interests closed for the hour as a mark of respect and in evidence of the love in which he was held. The services were held at the house and conducted by Rev. T. Edgar Neal. After which interment took place under the auspices and direction of the Masonic lodge. During the service Mr. F. A. Thomson of Temple, president of Thomson Grocery Co., a lifetime friend, paid a beautiful tribute to the memory of Uncle Jim Saunders, and the funeral offerings in such quantity as to cover the grave, were a silent tribute of many hearts that loved him in life and will revere always his memory.”