A history of Texas and Texans, Part 5

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

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T. W. Hudson had his early education in a little log schoolhouse in Arkansas, and when one considers the period and the progress of the educational system of the country at that time it is easy to arrive at the conclu- sion that the boy came through his school experience with the meagerest addition to his mental equipment. How- ever, in later years, after the close of the Civil war, he repaired that lack to a great extent by attending school in Magnolia, Arkansas. Young Hudson volunteered for service in the Confederate army in May, 1861, and enlisted in Captain Reed's company. This company later disbanded and the young man returned home, but in April, 1862, he joined the company of Captain Henry Perry, Colonel Tom P. Dockery's regiment, and straight- way moved to the front. He was in the battle at Farm- ington and on October 4th was wounded at Corinth, a ball passing through his left knee. His leg was ampu- tated the next day, just above the knee, and before he was able to leave the hospital he was taken prisoner, sent to Iuka, Mississippi, and there held until January 3, 1863. Then, through the kindness of a Miss Foster, of Florence, Alabama, he, with three other men who had each lost a leg, was taken in a mule wagon to Florence, Alabama. On March 25th following he went to Hunts- ville, thence to Mobile, and on April 13, 1863, started back overland to his Arkansas home. It was then that the young man, maimed and broken in health, decided that he must repair the lack he had experienced in his early schooling, and he began to attend school at Mag- nolia, Arkansas. As a result of this study he began teaching school in 1864 and he continued in that work until 1870. In 1871 he came to Texas, and he has ever since been identified with the State in one capacity or another.

The first location of Mr. Hudson in Texas was at Collinsville, and there he took up his teaching work again, continuing there for three years, until in 1873, when be was elected to the office of justice of the peace. That was his first civil office, and he served therein until 1885, when he went to Houston, and was elected there to the office of grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Masons, an order to which he had long given allegiance as a member. He held that office for three years, then returned to Grayson county, and in November, 1890, was elected to the office of county clerk. He served faith- fully for six years, during three successive terms, and in 1900 he was elected justice of the peace in Sherman, an office which he has continued to hold with all of credit to himself and to the city from then until now, or during a period of thirteen years. His service has been one of the most satisfactory order, and he has been returned to the office with pleasing regularity from year to year. Always a Democrat, he has done good work for the party

in this county. Judge Hudson was a member of the county board at the time when the present Grayson county court house was completed and turned over to the public, in March, 1876, and he presided at the first court held in the new building. He also served as one of the first county officers after this building came into use.

Judge Hudson has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1858, and he has advanced well along in the various bodies. He is a devout Baptist and has long been a member of the church. On October 23, 1872, Judge Hudson was married in Collinsville, Texas, to Mrs. S. M. Westworth, who was a daughter of J. M. Doty, a pioneer farmer of Grayson county, who died here several years ago. Mrs. Hudson died November 28, 1913.

The judge and his wife have four living children. Mrs. Hudson had a son by her first marriage, J. W. Westbrook, now about forty-five years of age and a resident of Oklahoma, where he is clerk of the county court at Ada, Oklahoma. The Hudson children are as follows: Nettie, the wife of R. E. Chambers, of Austin, Texas, cashier of the Citizens Bank of that city; Dan K. Hudson, a bookkeeper in the Merchants' and Planters' Bank of Sherman, and Homer D., of Austin, a book- keeper in the banking and insurance department of the State.

The judge has his office on the corner of Houston and Crockett streets, while his residence is at No. 414 South Elm street.

HON. ALFRED J. HARPER. The public career of Judge Harper began eighteen years ago when he was elected county judge of Limestone county, and his service has been continuous as county judge, as state senator and since 1911 as judge of the court of criminal appeals at Austin. His thorough qualifications as a lawyer, his broad experience in state and local affairs, and his disinterested and competent administration of every trust and duty of a public nature with which he has been honored, have been characteristic and influential in all his service, whether as a legislator or on the bench, and his dignity and industry have served to maintain the high standard of the Texas court of criminal appeals.

Alfred J. Harper was born in Scott county, Mississippi, May 17, 1864, a son of Robert E. and Fannie (Hodges) Harper, both of whom are natives of Alabama. His father, who was a merchant and planter in Mississippi, was a member of the Sixth Mississippi Infantry in the Confederate army during the war between the states, under the command of General Robert E. Lowery, while the regiment was commanded by Col. A. Y. Harper, an uncle of Judge Harper, and another uncle, James C. Harper, was a captain in the same regiment.

The education of Judge Harper was acquired in the schools of Mississippi, and his last teacher was J. R. Preston, now superintendent of public instruction in Mississippi. Coming to Texas in 1881, at the age of seventeen, in Limestone county, Judge Harper was em- ployed for a time in the printing office of L. L. Foster, who was afterwards railroad commissioner of the state of Texas and later president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan. Mr. Harper studied law in Limestone county at the office of Gibson & Doyle, was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1891, and has ever since been actively engaged in the work of his profession either as a lawyer or judge.

Judge Harper served as county judge of Limestone county for six years, from 1896 to 1902. The district comprising Limestone county sent him to the state senate for eight years, from 1903 to 1911, and he finally re- signed from the senate to accept his present position as judge of the court of criminal appeals. His service in the state senate had some noteworthy features. He was chairman of judiciary committee No. 2; was anthor of "The Medical Practice Act; " was author of the Texas

3. It Hudson.

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law compelling all railroads to fumigate their trains, the first law of its kind ever adopted in the United States, and one that since its passage by the Texas legislature has been adopted by many other states; was also joint anthor of the law authorizing the creation of drainage and levee districts for the reclaimation of bottom lands of Texas.

Judge Harper affiliates with the Masonic fraternity, being Past Master of Groesbeck Lodge No. 107, A. F. & A. M .; is a Royal Arch Masou and a Knights Templar ; is Past Chancellor of Travid Lodge No. 20, Knights of Pythias; a member of the Knights of Honor, and belongs to the University Club of Austin and the Austin Press Club. Judge Harper married December 23, 1901, Miss Margaret L. Ingram, daughter of S. C. and Shelly (Mosely) Ingram, of Limestone county. Their four children are as follows: Alfred J. Harper, Jr., James O. Harper, Margaret Harper and Lloyd M. Harper. Judge Harper and family reside at 2830 Rio Grande Street in Austin.

W. W. COLLIER. For more than twenty years a promi- nent banker of southwest Texas, Mr. Collier must properly be included in that group of aggressive and forceful characters who have been chiefly instrumental in the development of this section of the state during the past half century. Mr. Collier is in every sense of the word a pioneer. He was during the early years of his life a member of the State Rangers force, and in that capacity offered himself for the protection and safeguarding of the frontiers of the Texas of that time. As a ranger he was all over west Texas from the rear grounds into the far northwest, and all rangers acquired a reputation for fearlessness and efficiency, qualities for which the ranger service has been noted since its establishment.

Mr. W. W. Collier was born at Rusk, in Cherokee county, Texas, in 1863, a son of Thomas Pierce and Anna (Lewis) Collier. The father, a native of Alabama, came to Texas in 1847 and became one of the early settlers in Smith county. Subsequently he moved into Cherokee county, and in 1867 to Waco, the city which remained his home during the remainder of his life. His death occurred in 1877. During the war between the states he had served in the Confederate army under General Magruder in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Two of his brothers were killed while serving as Con- federate soldiers. His wife also had one brother who lost his life while fighting for the cause of the south. Anna Lewis Collier was born at Rome, Georgia.

Mr. W. W. Collier spent most of the years of his youth at Waco, and completed his education by graduation from the Robinson high school, a well known institution of its time and located five miles south of Waco. When he was eighteen years of age, in 1883, Mr. Collier rode to Austin on horseback and enlisted for service in the Texas State Rangers. He became a member of Company D, which was then commanded by Captain L. P. Sieker. The first assignment to duty was on the detach work at the crossing of the Nueces River in Uvalde county, and from that time forward for a period of four years and four months, he was in active and constant service as a ranger. His duties often required him to undertake long journeys alone, while at other times he was on duty in co-operation with his company. No finer body of state soldiery has even existed than the Texas State Rangers, and probably the only organization of a similar kind which can be compared with the Ranger force is that of the mounted police of western Canada. As Ranger Mr. Collier's service extended all along what was then the frontier of Texas from Laredo west to El Paso, and north and east into Hamilton county. The period of the eighties is remembered by old-timers and by students of Texas history as one of the worst in the history of the frontier. That was the great era of the range cattle business, when the cowboy and his followers were supreme, Vol. IV-2

during which time also the first great railway pushed by lines into the far west, and brought with them many attendant scenes of disorder and outlawry.

On leaving the ranger service Mr. Collier located at Uvalde, the county seat of Uvalde county, and soon afterwards was elected to the office of County Treasurer. Few men have been honored more consecutively in public office than Mr. Collier. By successive elections he held the position of county treasurer for twenty years, and at his retirement was one of the oldest and most highly esteemed public officials that Uvalde county had ever had. In the meantime, in 1890, he organized the first bank of Uvalde county, known for some time as the First National Bank of Uvalde. The business of this bank was subsequently liquidated aud Mr. Collier then established a private bank, under the name of Collier & Company. This institution was later merged into the Uvalde National Bank of which Mr. Collier served as president. He continued in the banking business in Uvalde until 1907, at which date he moved his home to San Antonio, where he has been since a resident, and also active in banking and general financial affairs of this southwest Texas metropolis. He is now active vice president of the State Bank & Trust Company of San Antonio, one of the strongest and most influential financial institutions of southwest Texas.

Fraternally Mr. Collier is affiliated with the Masons, being a Knights Templar and Shriner, and past master of his lodge at Uvalde. He is also a past deputy grand master of Texas. Mr. Collier married Miss Mattie Hale, who was born in Milan, Tennessee. Their five children are George Pierce, W. W., Jr., Shelley Hale, John Howell and Eleanor Collier.

ELISHA MARSHALL PEASE. While his administration through two terms as governor of Texas during the dec- ade of the fifties has placed the name of Elisha M. Pease prominently in Texas history, his career was one of much greater service and variety of experience than the brief space usually assigned to a governor's official term in the ordinary school books on Texas history could adequately describe. For one thing, it is not generally known that Governor Pease was in Texas and an active participant in the events leading up to the revolution and the organization of the government of the Republic in 1835-36. His service as provisional governor of Texas after the Civil war was much misunderstood during the existing turmoil of the state at that time. A brief sketch of his life and character, it is hardly necessary to state, has a very appropriate place in this publication.

Elisha Marshall Pease was born at Enfield, Connecti- ent, January 3, 1812, a son of Lorrain Thompson and Sarah (Marshall) Pease. After his education in the public schools of Enfield and an academy at Westfield, Massachusetts, he began his career at the age of four- teen as clerk in a country store, and his early training in accounts and his habits of promptuess and punctuality in business were decided factors in his later success.

His business duties sent him south to New Orleans in 1834. New Orleans was then a center of intelligence for all affairs concerning the Texas country, and Mr. Pease, having heard many glowing accounts of the province west of the Sabine, determined to investigate their truth and venture into what was then Mexican territory. His point of landing was at Velasco, and thence he proceeded to the frontier settlement on the Colorado, locating at Mina, now the town of Bastrop. Colonel D. C. Barrett, subsequently prominent in the affairs of the Republic, was practicing law at Mina, and received Mr. Pease into his office as a student. While prosecuting his studies, he quickly gained an acquaint- ance and established himself in the confidence of the people in and about Mina, and soon afterward his clerical qualifications caused him to be appointed secre- tary of the Committee of Safety for the jurisdiction of Mina. That was his first active relation with public

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affairs, which continued with intervals until the close of his long and eventful life.

The Texas revolution actually began in 1835, and Elisha M. Pease was present at the first skirmish between the Texan patriots and the Mexican authorities at Gon- zales, which preceded the siege and capture of San Antonio and all the notable events which followed in its train. Soon afterwards Mr. Pease was made secretary of the council of the Provisional government, and held that position until the inception of the government ad interim in March, 1836. While Mr. Pease was not a member of the convention which declared the independ- ence of Texas and formulated the first constitution for the republic, his abilities were so pronounced and his aid and skill in both the detailed and the comprehensive working out of the plans of government were so invalu- able that he was called in to assist in a very material way in framing the ordinances for the new government, and did much more towards drawing up and perfecting that instrument than many of those who actually sat in the convention as delegates.

During the summer of 1836, after independence had been won, Governor Pease served successively as chief clerk of the navy and treasury departments, and for some time acted as secretary of the treasury after the death of Secretary Hardeman. In November, 1836, came his appointment as clerk of the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives, and in that capacity he drafted the laws creating and defining the duties of the various county officers. At the close of the first session of Congress, in December, 1836, President Houston offered him the portfolio of postmaster general, a high honor which he felt obliged to decline, since it was his desire to continue the study of law and enter active practice. His law studies were accordingly resumed in the office of Col. John J. Wharton at Brazoria, and in April, 1837, Mr. Pease was admitted to the bar of the Republic at the old town of Washington on the Brazos. An appointment as comptroller of public accounts gave him official duties which he resigned in the following December and returned to Brazoria, where he took up the active practice of law in co-partnership with Col. John Wharton. In 1838 John W. Harris became asso- ciated with them, and after the death of Col. Wharton the firm of Harris & Pease continued for many years and as advocate and counselors probably no firm at the time ranked higher and had a better record of success than this.

While a successful career as a lawyer was adding to his fame, Governor Pease was seldom without some offi- cial vocation. He served as district attorney for a term and after the annexation of Texas to the Union in 1846 was elected a member of the first legislature from Brazoria county. In the following session, which had a great burden of duties, Mr. Pease had a prominent part and was author of the law regulating proceedings in District courts and of many other notable measures of the session. Re-elected to the house for the second legislature he became chairman of the judiciary com- mittee, and originated the probate laws of Texas in 1848. In the third legislature he sat in the senate, to which he was elected in 1850, and served during the regular session, but was absent from the state when Governor Bell convened an extra session, and at that time he resigned and terminated his legislative service.

In 1853 the people of Texas elected Elisha M. Pease as their governor, and he was re-elected in 1855. Those two administrations are characterized in the history of the early state as one of great prosperity, governmental economy, the promotion of much wise legislation whose fruits are still bearing in the state. The revolutionary debt was finally cancelled, a school fund of two million dol- lars was created, and alternate sections of lands granted to railroads under old charters were set apart for the benefit of public schools; the lunatic asylum, orphan asylum, institutions for the deaf and dumb and blind were estab-

lished and ample grants of land made for their support. A notable provision of his term as governor was the setting aside of one hundred thousand dollars to provide for the state university. All these measures and reforms were recommended by Governor Pease and were carried out largely through his active influence and leadership. While so much was done to lay the foundations of the later educational and charitable institutions and in other progressive ways, the cost of the goverment administra- tion was remarkable for its economy. The expenses of the various state departments aggregated less than the amount of revenue derived from taxation, and at the end of Governor Pease's second administration Texas was free from debt. Perhaps no governor of the time showed a more watchful interest in behalf of the people of the state and more closely safeguarded the future welfare than Governor Pease. An illustration of this is seen in his rejection of the attempted deposit of the spurious Pacific railroad bonds, which would have con- stituted an onerous burden upon the people for many years to come. In other ways he saved the state large sums of money.

Governor Pease always acted with the Democratic party until the policy of secession drove him out of its ranks in 1861. In his opinion, nothing in the situation of affairs justified the secession movement, and it was viewed by him as opening a sure path to disaster and humiliation. Though opposing secession and occupying much the same high ground as Sam Houston, Governor Pease continued a resident of Texas throughout the war, but was not active in public affairs. After its close he subsequently was affiliated for the greater part with the Republican party. In 1867 came his appointment as provisional governor of the state by the military authorities, an office which he held until 1869. His resigna- tion at the latter date was the result of the difference of opinion between him and the commander of the dis- triet in regard to the re organization of the state govern- ment. A few years later, in 1872, Governor Pease represented Texas in the convention at Cincinnati which nominated Horace Greeley for president. In 1874 the office of collector of the port of Galveston was offered him by Secretary Bristow under the Grant administra- tion, but was declined; however, in 1879, he accepted the same position when it was tendered him by President Hayes, and his official administration as collector of the Galveston port was his last public service. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Austin, and took an active part in its management as vice president until his death.

G. W. Pease died at Lampasas on August 26, 1883. There survives him one daughter, Julia M. Pease, who lives in the old homestead in Austin.

Governor Pease had intellectual talents of a high order. Much of his success, especially in the law, was due to his ready perception of the basic principles and the gist of any proposition. An ability to act in accord- ance with the promptings of his sound judgment was also an important element in his public life. While defferential to the opinions of others, and in affairs of state often submitting his course of action to a conneil of advisers, Governor Pease was noted for his independ- ence and his course of action was usually his own, and not the product of the judgment of others. As a lawyer, these qualities naturally made him a safe counselor. His conclusions were the result of a deep and patient search for truth, sustained by a calm, impartial and discriminat- ing mind, and his views, once formulated, were maintained with honesty and candor to the end. It is said that few lawyers of his time were more expert in determining the merit of a case upon proper statement of the facts, and he would never advise fruitless or doubtful litigation, but made it a rule to instruct his clients to accept a bad compromise rather than a successful suit without prac- tical advantage.

His briefs were clear, fair and logical, and revealed a

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patient research which placed to his advantage every legal resource. However, it was noteworthy that he would never seek nor accept any undue or unfair ad- vantage over his opponent. Chief Justice Wheeler once said that the statement of the facts in his briefs were always so lucid and just that he could rely upon them without reference to the record.

He was honest and steadfast in his political convic- tions. In private and social life Governor Pease was con- genial, generous and kind-hearted, and his home was the seat of a flowing and generous hospitality.

Governor Pease was married in 1850 to Miss L. C. Niles of Windsor, Connecticut. After his death she maintained at her home near Austin the hospitality which during his lifetime had welcomed friends to a generous board. In conclusion, it can be said that Gov- ernor Pease in all the relations of his long life made the Golden Rule his motto. He was a model husband, father and friend, and above all an honest man and a true patriot. The record of his public services form some of the brightest pages of Texas history, and it is not one to be soon forgotten and in succeeding generations is likely to receive even truer and better appreciation than it has in the past.

SIMON J. CLARK, M. D. Among the younger mem- bers of the medical fraternity who are rapidly winning their way upward to positions of eminence in their chosen calling, few have gained the distinction already attained by Dr. Simon J. Clark, already recognized as one of the leading eye, ear, nose and throat specialists in the state. He was born July 21, 1882, at Titusville, Penn- sylvania, and is a son of William and Mary (Nesbit) Clark, both of whom are now residents of Nocona, Texas, to which point they came from the East in 1890. Wil- liam Clark, who is now engaged in the real estate busi- ness and is known as one of his adopted community's substantial citizens, is a veteran of the Civil War, through which he served as a member of the Second Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry.

Although born in the East, Doctor Clark is by nurture and training a son of the Southwest, for he was but three years of age when he was brought to Texas by his parents and here he grew to sturdy and self-reliant man- hood. His early education was secured in the graded and high schools of Nocona, Texas, following which he prepared for his medical career, for which he had shown a natural inclination from boyhood. After his gradua- tion from the medical department of the University of Texas, in 1907, he spent two and one-half years in the Manhattan Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, at New York City, and for one year thereafter was asso- ciated with Doctors Wood and Alport, of Chicago, the former being acknowledged as one of the greatest eye specialists to be found in the world. Doctor Clark estab- lished himself in practice at Austin in 1912, and this city has since been the field of his labors and the scene of his many successes, and he has rapidly advanced towards the leaders in his special line. Indeed, it is claimed that at this time he controls the largest professional business of any eye, ear, nose and throat specialist in the city, although Doctor Clark is a very modest and unassuming man and prefers to let his accomplishments speak for themselves. However, his many friends are confident in their assertions that if past achievements may be taken as a criterion of future performances his name will be known not alone locally, but nationally. He continues to be a constant and assiduous student, attending lectures, subscribing to the best literature of the profession, and being an active and interested member of the Austin Medical Society, the Texas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He maintains offices at No. 402 Scarborough Building.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 5

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