Robert L. Horton, the only one of his family to locate in Nevada, received his education in his native city, and in 1850 crossed the plains to California, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail butcher business in Auburn, Placer county. He there met with good success, but, lured to Austin, Nevada, by the great mining excitement of 1864, he in that year came to this lively young mining town. Previous to his removal here he had heen engaged in the general produce business in San Francisco for a year, and after his arrival in Austin he opened a general merchandise store, having been one of the early and successful merchants of the town. He continued this business up to the time of his death, which occurred in May, 1897, in his sixty-sixth year.

Mr. Horton was a life-long Republican, and on its ticket was elected a member of the state assembly and later as state comptroller, to which latter important office he gave his best efforts for four years, his business experience and excellent judgment making him eminently fitted for that office of honor and trust. In his fraternal relations Mr. Horton was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Masonic fraternity, in which he received all the degrees in the York and Scottish Rites up to and including the thirty-second degree, and was one of the most earnest workers in the order. He was one of the organizers of the Odd Fellows at Austin, thus becoming a charter member of the order. In his religious faith he was a Presbyterian, and as a citizen, neighbor, husband and father was loved and honored, his having been an upright and noble manhood.

The marriage of Mr. Horton was celebrated in 1866, when Miss Elinor Curtis became his wife. She is a native of Wisconsin, but was reared and educated in Sacramento, California. Her father, John Curtis, was a native of England, but became one of the early settlers of Wisconsin and was a member of the Episcopal church. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Horton was blessed with two children: Marjorie H., now the wife of Dr. J. J. Henderson, of San Francisco, and Robert M., who with his mother is managing their large mercantile business at Battle Mountain and was also deputy state comptroller during the incumbency of his father in that office at the capital of the state. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Horton, aided by her son, took up the management of the business, but in 1901 disposed of their interests in Austin and removed to Battle Mountain, here purchasing the large store which she has conducted so successfully up to the present time. The main building is sixty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, is filled with a well selected and well arranged stock of general merchandise, and in addition they have several large warehouses and an oil and powder house located several miles out of the town. Their extensive patronage extends throughout the surrounding country for many miles in every direction, and the postoffice is located in their store, Mr. Sterret, one of the salesmen, being the present postmaster.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904