By Bartee Haile

On Dec. 30, 1847, eleven years after the death of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas’ right-hand man opened the first real bank in independent Texas. 

Samuel May Williams came from a distinguished Rhode Island clan that took root in New England a century before his birth in 1795. A long list of illustrious ancestors included a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a president of Yale College. 

Leaving home at the age of 20, the young wanderer wound up in New Orle...