A history of Texas and Texans, Part 26

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906

USA > Texas > A history of Texas and Texans > Part 26

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Gayle T. Snedecor was largely self-taught, and that was due to the fact that when he was a boy, attending the common schools, the term lasted only about three months each year. In 1898 he began working as a line- man for the Bay City Telephone Company, helping to construet the first telephone line in Bay City, at a time when there was only the courthouse and a few old buildings on the site. Another early occupation was the driving of buggies and mule teams between Wharton and Iago before the railroad was built, and he was also em- ployed on farms, in stores, and elsewhere. That was fol- lowed by six months of hard study at home under the tutoring of an old schoolmaster.

Mr. Snedecor then took a position as bookkeeper on one of the state farms, near Arcola, having charge of the commissary department. That was followed by work in the general merchandise department of the Arcola Sugar Mills, where he remained for five years. He was then bookkeeper for the J. R. Fenn estate, at Duke, and later, in September, 1905, was employed by the Brazoria Irrigation Company of Riceton, for one year. About that time Mr. Snedecor first entered practical politics. A candidate for the office of district clerk of Fort Bend County, his election encountered no opposition. The only interruption to his regular administration of the

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duties of the office was a period of about eight months spent in West Texas in order to recuperate his health. After retiring from his official duties, Mr. Snedecor en- gaged in business for himself for about four years, and has since sold out, and at the present writing is prepar- ing to take up the practice of law. Mr. Snedecor has always been active in Democratic politics, and is at present Democratie chairman of Precinct No. 1. He re- fused an offer upon the part of the people to run him for state senator.

Iu 1906 Mr. Snedecor was united in marriage with Miss Ruby Schmidt of Harris county, daughter of F. J. Schmidt, an old Confederate soldier and a member of Dick Dowling Camp of the Confederate Veterans at Houston. He was once the sole owner of the famous Schmidt Gardens of Galveston, long ago converted to other purposes. To Mr. and Mrs. Snedecor have been born two children, Winona and Juanita, both of whom are living. Mr. Snedecor is a charter member of the Rosenberg Masonie Lodge, and was made a Mason at Richmond, in Morton Lodge, No. 72, A. F. & A. M. He and his wife hold lifetime membership in the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy. Such are the bare facts of biography in regard to the career of Gayle Tar- ver Snedecor. That outline does not reveal the actual personality, and, in order to create a proper estimate of the man as he is, this article will be supplemented with a quotation from a character sketch written by one who has had opportunities to appreciate Mr. Snedecor at close range. This pen sketch is as follows: "The world is all too full of middle-of-the-road, mediocre men; so it is refreshing to find a man who possesses that distinct individuality and strength of mind which mark him as one of that comparatively small band who blaze out the trail, and have been doing so since the world began. Gayle Tarver Snedecor is as clear-cut an individual as a lightning flash; yet he is one of the most unassuming of men. A reader and a deep, bold thinker, his position is always pronounced and definite. A splendid specimen of physical manhood, he has hair the color of the famous house of Hapsburg, but features finer than ever the most aristocratic scion of that great house possessed. To talk with him is a pleasure, as his mind is stored with an amazing knowledge of literature, economics, and political and civic facts, many of them not culled from books, but from direct experience. He quotes readily from the best in the world of hooks, and the man who hopes to argue with him in glittering generalities will soon find himself in deep water; for along with the decided poetic strain in his nature is a most exacting and hard-headed side, which moves him to take nothing for granted and de- mands proof."

JUDGE GORDON RUSSELL, United States Judge of the Eastern District of Texas since 1910, is one whose public service has been of a varied nature, but always in the line of his profession. He is a son of Georgia parents, but was born at Huntsville, Alabama, at the home of his maternal grandfather, Judge James H. Gordon.

Maj. H. A. Russell, the father of Judge Russell, was formerly of Dalton, Georgia, but is now a resident of Atlanta. For many years prior to his removal from Dal- ton he was engaged in mercantile pursuits in that place. The mother of the Judge was Mary E. Gordon. The Gordon family settled in Virginia in the early days of that colony, and from Virginia that portion of the Gor- don family from which Judge Russell was descended moved to North Carolina, and they were there resident during the days of the American Revolution, taking part with the colonists and fighting in the American army at the battle of King's Mountain. From North Carolina two brothers of the Gordon family moved to the state of Georgia. One of these brothers was Zachariah Gordon, the father of the Confederate General, John B. Gordon, and the other brother was Judge James H. Gordon, the grandfather of Judge Russell of this review. Through

his father's family, the Judge is related to the Hardees of Georgia, his paternal grandmother, Caroline Russell, having formerly been Caroline Hardee, a sister of the Coufederate general, William J. Hardee.

Gordon Russell was educated at the Sam Bailey Insti- tute, Griffin, Georgia, and at the Crawford High School, in Dalton, Georgia, finishing with an A. B. degree at the University of Georgia. After his graduation, he read law, at the same time occupying himself with school teaching, and he was admitted to the bar in 1879, while still a minor, and soon thereafter he came to Texas.

Settling in Canton, Van Zandt county, Texas, in 1880, Mr. Russell was elected county judge four years later. He relinquished the office voluntarily after one term of service and resumed the practice of his profession, and in 1888 he moved to Wills Point, Van Zandt county, where he continued in practice until 1895, when he re- moved to Tyler, Smith county. That place continued his home and the center of his professional activities until 1910, when he took up his residence in Sherman, upon election to his present office, and here he still resides.

In 1892 Judge Russell was elected District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial District of Texas, and was re- elected to the office in 1894. While serving his second term as district attorney a vacancy was created in the office of Judge of the District Court by the resignation of Hon. Felix J. McCord, whereupon the governor of the state appointed District Attorney Gordon Russell to fill that vacancy. At the next general election, in 1896, he was elected to the office by the people, and in 1910 was re-elected to the office without opposition. While he was serving his second term as judge of the State Dis- triet Court, he resigned that office to become a member of Congress, having been elected to that body in 1902.

The election of Judge Russell to Congress was pre- ceded by a campaign between himself and Hon. R. C. DeGraffenried which attracted the attention of the entire state. The two rival candidates held a series of joint debates, which were attended by great audiences, and the discussions were characterized by intense vigor and earnestness. The people of the district were greatly wrought up by the campaign and personal feeling ran high. The result of the contest was the election of Judge Russell by a large majority. He was re-elected to con- gress in 1904, in 1906, and again in 1908.

In 1910 a vacancy was made in the office of United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas by the death of Judge David E. Bryant. Judge Russell was at that time serving the term in Congress to which he had been elected. He was not an applicant for the United States Judgeship, but had declared his intention of becoming a candidate for re-election to Congress, and had announced himself to his constituents in an address to that effect. Notwithstanding these facts, President Taft selected him as United States Judge and sent his nomination to the Senate of the United States. The nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and Judge Russell was commissioned by the President as United States Judge of the Eastern District of Texas on June 6, 1910.

Soon after receiving his commission Judge Russell re- signed his seat in Congress and entered actively upon the discharge of the duties of his office of Judge of the United States Court. The oath of office was administered to him by Chief Justice Edward D. White, then Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. and the ceremony occurred at the Department of Justice in Washington, being witnessed by a number of his friends, among them being Postmaster General A. S. Burleson.

During his service in Congress, Judge Russell gave special attention to those questions which were of legal nature, and he was regarded by his fellow members as a reliable and accurate lawyer. He engaged in many of the debates in Congress when legal propositions were under consideration, and attracted attention by the elear-

Thater Gresham

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ness of his statements of the law. After delivering his speech on the Hepburn Rate Bill he was invited to make an address before the bar association at Buffalo, New York. He accepted the invitation, and made an address that was received with favor by the Bar and by the Press. It was, no doubt, due to the character of the arguments that be made in the House of Representatives that President Taft, though a Republican, determined to appoint him to the Judgeship he now holds. Judge Russell participated in some of the most important de- bates in Congress, notably in the discussions of the White Slave Law, the Hepburn Bill, the Railroad Rate Bill, and the proposed Arbitration law.

Judge Russell has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Jennie Matthews, to whom he was married in 1884. Five children were born of that marriage, only two of them surviving. His second wife was Miss Anne Ford, whom he married in 1897 and by whom he has one child. His surviving children are Mrs. Albert M. Lindsay of El Paso, Texas; Mr. Henry Russell, an attorney at law of Sherman, Texas, and Miss Annie Laurie Russell, also of Sherman.

STEPHEN DECATUR O'BRIEN. A residence of more than fifty-four years and a life characterized by business ac- tivity and honor well entitle Stephen Decatur O'Brien of Liberty to more than passing mention as one of his community 's representative men. He has not confined his energies to one line of business, but has made it bis aim to attain the highest degree of perfection along several directions, has been alert and enterprising, and pos- sesses a positive genius for devising and executing the right plan at the right time. Moreover, he has main- tained a policy in harmony with the old and time-tried maxim concerning honesty and labor, and his business record might be summed up in the phrase "through struggles to success."

Mr. O'Brien was born in St. Mary's Parish (now Morgan City), Louisiana, April 27, 1853, and is a son of Charles Wallace and Felid (Salles) O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien's great-grandfather, Christopher O'Brien, served as a private in a Virginia company during the Revolutionary War, prior to the outbreak of which he had owned large landed estates, which, however, he lost during the struggle for American independence. . Among the children of the old patriot were a daughter, whose family became prominent in Virginia affairs, and a son, Christopher. The latter married a Miss Berwick, moved to Illinois, then to Louisiana, where Berwick's Bay (now Morgan City) was named after his wife's family, and finally passed away, after some years spent in agrienl- tural pursuits. His brother George lived during the last years of his life at Beaumont, where he passed away, while another brother, Luke, came to Texas and died at Liberty. All reared families. The children born to Christopher O'Brien and his wife were as follows: An- drew: George; Charles Wallace; America, who married Captain Stevens and passed the greater part of her life in Louisiana, but died at Liberty, Texas; Cynthia, wbo came to this state and married Frank Hardin, a Ten- nesseean and one of the old surveyors of Liberty county, and died here; Katie, who married Mr. Bagley and died here, and Virginia, who married Mr. Collins and re- mained in Louisiana.

Charles Wallace O'Brien was born in Louisiana, and was given a very limited education in his youth. He passed his life as a farmer of the slaveholding class, and died in the Liberty community in 1879 at the age of sixty-five years. He was in sympathy and harmony with the Confederacy during the war between the South and the North and contributed his service to the cause by his activities as a civilian in his, home place. He never held publie position in his life, preferring to devote his whole time and attention to his own affairs, and was without membership in fraternal organizations of any

kind, although he had a wide acquaintance and was popular with his fellow men. On an occasion in his youth Mr. O'Brien was insulted by a minister of the Gospel, and ever after that throughout his life he avoided the church. Mr. O'Brien was married in Louisi- ana to Miss Felid Salles, a French lady, who belonged to a pioneer family of that state, and they became parents of a family of ten children, as follows: Hor- tense, who became the wife of Ed Cullen and is now a resident of Austin, Texas; Permelia, who became the wife of John Ridley and passed away at Waco, Texas; Rowenna, who became Mrs. Diek Hardin and died in Leon county, this state; Stephen Decatur of this review; Charles W., who died in Leon county; Benjamin Mi- chael, a merchant of Liberty and farmer and stock raiser of Liberty county, a sketch of whose career ap- pears on another page of this volume; Frank, who passed away in childhood; Christy S., who died unmar- ried in Dallas county, Texas; Mary Juanita, who resides at San Antonio, and Florialla White, who is the wife of H. A. Speer of San Antonio.

Stephen Decatur O'Brien was not yet seven years of age when he came with his parents to Liberty county, in February, 1860, and here he grew to manhood, near Liberty, on the family homestead, making the most of his opportunities for an education, although his school advantages were not many. He remained with his fa- ther until he became of age, and, when he reached bis majority, embarked in farming and stock raising on bis own account in this community. In this he has been en- gaged to the present time, although he has also passed some twenty years as a merchant. He engaged in mer- chandising at Liberty in 1886, and was identified with the firm of B. M. O'Brien & Brother until 1906, when a dissolution occurred and S. D. O'Brien resumed more actively bis farming and stock raising. His ranch and farm are in the Martin Survey, and be has been a factor in the development of other farms near Liberty. He is having tilled some 275 acres, which gives employ- ment to thirty-five families, and other outside labor is required from time to time. Tenant houses have risen on his land at the hands of Mr. O'Brien, besides his new residence in Liberty, which is of moderu type and adds`conspicuously to the appearance of the town. This residence is a two-story structure of seven rooms, com- modious and convenient, with open stairs and curtained openings, finished in mission, and it sets off handsomely the large, picketed yard. The O'Brien store also, where he did business for so many years, is an example of the work he has done in developing Liberty. He has served the town as an alderman, and has given efficient service on the board of education, and in a political way has al- lowed himself to serve his county and city in conventions as a Democratie delegate.

On February 21, 1900, Mr. O'Brien was married at Liberty to Miss Nonie Crain, a daughter of Capt. E. J. Crain, who came hither from Ibberville Parish, Lonisiana. Mr. Crain, who died in Liberty, was a school teacher by vocation, and for some time was also engaged in the saw- mill business here. During the great struggle between the South and the North he served in the ranks of the Gray, in command of an infantry company, and snbse- quently passed his life as a private citizen. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: Mrs. O'Brien; Georgie, who is the wife of William Lanwehr of Houston, Texas; Cora, who married Shelby Stiles of Fort Worth; Leila, who married R. W. Leslie of Galves- ton, and Miss Corinne, principal of the school of Devers, Texas. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, namely: Berwick Crain, Decatur, Charles D. and Felide Corinne.

WALTER GRESHAM. Galveston has been fortunate in the character of its citizens of light and leading. Other- wise, perhaps, the colossal material misfortunes which

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have at various times passed that way would have over- whelmed the spirit as it did the structure of the city. Praise is due to many, and the honors and rewards have often been parceled out to the deserving, but to none more than to Walter Gresham. Only occasionally does it happen that a citizen while alive and active in the cause to which he has devoted his years and efforts be- comes the object of an affection and esteem which usually attach to the memory and not to the living presence. One need live in the city of Galveston but a short time in order to appreciate, as did the writer a few years ago, with what peculiar inflection of admiration and respect the name of Walter Gresham is spoken by associates and citizens of every class. His has been a career in which disinterested labor in behalf of a community and eivic patriotism has dominated over all private interests and individual successes. He is a lawyer by profession, an able one, at that, but only comparatively few who know him think of his professional attainments; rather is he the booster of all the big things which represent a prac- tical realization of Galveston's ideals. Mr. Gresham has lived in Galveston since the close of the Civil war, in which he served with the efficiency of a good soldier, and he is as keenly and vigorously a man of the present and modern spirit as the youngest citizen.

A Virginian by birth, Walter Gresham was born in King and Queen county, July 22, 1841, a son of Edward and Isabella (Mann) Gresham. His father, who was ed- ucated for the law but never practiced, owned a large Virginia plantation and devoted his time to its opera- tion. On that old plantation, and with the surroundings and atmosphere of the old-time Virginia societies, Walter Gresham grew up and received his early education in pri- vate schools. Still pursuing his studies when the war broke out, in 1861, he went into the Confederate service. While recuperating from illness and wounds received in his first campaign, he entered the University of Virginia and studied during the fall of 1861. In the following spring he returned to the army, and remained until the spring of 1863, when he returned to the University and completed his law course, graduating with the degree of L. B. in June, 1863. As the war was still in progress, there was neither opportunity nor inclination to take up active practice. He returned to his duties as a soldier, and continued with the Virginia army until the final surrender, in 1865. During the following months he ac- cumulated a little capital, and then started for Texas, arriving at Galveston December 31, 1866. At the begin- ning of the following year he was established in an of- fice and enrolled on the list of Galveston attorneys, where he remained for forty-five years.

The first large public enterprise connected with the welfare of Galveston and with which Walter Gresham was associated was the organization of Galveston citizens in 1875 for the purpose of constructing a new railroad outlet in order to place the city in reach of the great productive regions lying behind it. Before the war, one line of railroad had been constructed, from Galveston to Houston, but, as that road had the monopoly of transpor- tation, its service was apparently conducted with a lack of fairness which discriminated severely against the prosper- ity of the port city. Mr. Gresham, therefore, was one of the active leaders in the organization of a syndicate of Galveston citizens who acquired the charter of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad Company, which com- pany undertook and carried out the construction of a railroad ten hundred and fifty miles in length. Mr. Gresham was one of the directors of the company. By 1876 this road was built from Galveston to Arcola, and finally was carried on to the northern limits of the state. In 1886, when the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe was con- solidated with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Sys- tem, Mr. Gresham was second vice president of the Texas Company.

Following the construction of the railroad came the

necessity of a suitable harbor for ocean-going vessels. This brought about the deep-water movement, the history of which extends over a long period of years and cannot be entered into in detail at this point, except to say that Mr. Gresham was at all times vigorously fighting in be- half of this movement and has probably been the great- est individual factor in its successful culmination. In 1888 he was one of the organizers of the meeting of the states west of the Mississippi river for the purpose of building a deep-water harbor on the coast of Texas. At this meeting having been made chairman of a committee to urge the matter before Congress, he spent months in Washington, and finally had the satisfaction of seeing Congress pass the law, in September, 1890, authorizing the expenditure, under a continuing contract, of $6,200,000 for the construction of jetties-the first practical step in the creation of a permanent harbor at Galveston. Mr. Gresham drafted the resolution passed by Congress, De- cember 17, 1889, which provided for the appointment of a board of engineers to examine the ports along the coast of Texas and to determine upon the one most worthy of improvement, the same to conform in dimen- sions to the harbor described by the convention composed of delegates from twenty-two states and territories which met at Denver, Colorado, in the fall of 1888. This board, after examining the various points on the Texas coast, unanimously reported in favor of the selection of Gal- veston as the point to be made a first-class harbor. In this way was obtained the thirty-foot channel and pro- visions made for the accommodation of the largest ves- sels at that time afloat on deep-sea waters.

. In the meeting of the Trans-Mississippi Congress at Muskogee, in 1907, Mr. Gresham drew up the resolution to Congress requesting that deep-water improvements should be continued, and that resolution was acted upon by Congress May 27, 1908. The work carried out in pursuance of these resolutions and plans has resulted already in the making of the port of Galveston one of the largest deep-water harbors in the world, of sufficient area to accommodate all the navy and merchant shipping that could be gathered in Atlantic and Gulf waters. From the first work of the army engineers to the present, Mr. Gresham has represented the interests of Galveston and has directed the great enthusiasm of his nature to the success of the great enterprise.

In 1901-2 he was president of the Trans-Mississippi Congress, and was vice president for Texas of the Na- tional Rivers and Harbors Congress. He has performed most of his civic work in his capacity as a private citi- zen. However, he has an important record of official life. He was a member of the Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second legislatures of Texas, representing Galveston county for six years, from 1887 to 1892 in- clusively. During the Twenty-second legislature he was a member of the committee, of which Chief Justice Brown was chairman, which drafted the railroad com- mission law of Texas. Two of the provisions of that law, which was the first practical measure providing for a railroad commission in all the states, owe their author- ship to Mr. Gresham. The first was the provision con- ferring upon the railroad commission the power to fix rates. The second feature is what is known as the "Long and Short Haul" clause. Neither of these important provisions, now so familiar in legislation affecting trans- portation, was embraced in the original bill, as intro- duced in the legislature, and both were adopted as amend- ments after much discussion.

Mr. Gresham in 1892 was elected a member of the Fifty-third Congress, representing the Tenth congres- sional district, taking his seat on March 4, 1893. He served until March 4, 1895. He was a candidate for re- election, but lost the nomination under the two-thirds rule by a few votes. Later he was again a candidate for nomiuation, and carried his distriet in the convention, but, being a supporter of the gold Democracy, he refused

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 26

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960 Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 906

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906