USA > Texas > Governors who have been, and other public men of Texas > Part 14
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Another signer of the Declaration of Independence was S. Rhoads Fisher, who came to Texas in the early days.
He bore an active and useful part in the establishment of the Republic and in formulating its policies. He was a man of liberal learning, and literary culture, and a gentleman by birth and breed- ing. He and General Sam Houston had some differences at one time over some public question, and he sent the General a chal- lenge to fight a duel, but the matter was adjusted in some honor- able way, and the cordial personal relations of the two as they existed before, were entirely restored, and were never again disturbed.
The duello was not an unheard of method of settling questions of differences in those days. As I recall, from either having heard it or read of it. General Felix Huston and General Albert Sidney Johnston fought a duel at a very early day, and General Johnston was wounded in the hip.
It is said that General Houston fought a duel in Tennessee with one Judge White, who was so dangerously wounded as to have made his recovery doubtful for a long time, and it may have been that fact which influenced General Houston to not desire to again adopt that method of settling a personal difference.
Personally, I have always believed that a duel was a most fool- ish way to determine any question, and no duellist ever chal- lenged my admiration, but many better men than I am, were earnest advocates of the practice. I am told that that brilliant man, Henry A. Wise of Virginia, believed in the duel to the last day of his life.
It took more courage, in my judgment, to decline a challenge than it did to fight one, when the custom prevailed of fighting duels. A friend of mine, who served under General Forrest, per- haps as a courier on his staff, told me that General Earl Van Dorn, a fiery, hot-blooded Southern soldier, once challenged Gen- eral Forrest to a duel.
General Forrest said: "General Van Dorn, no man doubts your courage or mine, and it is not necessary for us to go out and shoot, or shoot at, each other to prove our courage. Furthermore, there is an army of the enemy of our common country in front of us, and it is our duty to fight it, and not each other, therefore, your challenge is declined."
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Nathan Bedford Forrest was the greatest cavalry leader the world ever saw, and was courage incarnate, but never, when he rode with nodding plume and flashing saber amid the hell and hail of battle, as he did on many a bloody field, did he display a higher type of courage than when he declined the challenge of his younger fellow soldier.
S. Rhoads Fisher was the father of Rhoads Fisher, who was for so many years connected with the General Land Office of Texas, and who died in the comparatively recent past, and whose son Hon. Lewis Fisher, was, for a number of years, the very efficient judge of one of the District Courts of Galveston, and later was Mayor of that city. Judge Fisher's wife is the granddaughter of James Wilmer Dallam, the reporter of Dallam's decisions. So far as my knowledge, acquired either by reading or by tradi- tion, or otherwise, extends, the descendants of every Texas vet- eran have reflected credit on their ancestry.
The interpreter between Santa Anna and Sam Houston, as the latter lay wounded on the battle field of San Jacinto, was Moses Austin Bryan. He lived to a ripe old age, respected and venerated by all who knew him.
One of his sons was, for a number of years, Judge of the 21st Judicial District of Texas, and another son, Louis R. Bryan, has been President of the Texas State Bar Association and is now a resident of Houston, and is one of the most efficient and capable lawyers at the bar of Texas.
The son of L. R. Bryan, L. R. Bryan, Jr., now assistant cash- ier of the Lumbermans National Bank of Houston, sprang to an- swer his country's call and went overseas and took his place where death held high carnival, and stayed until the last shot was fired.
He bore himself as might have been expected of one in whose veins runs the blood of the patriot, Moses Austin Bryan, his pa- ternal grandfather, and the blood of that princely gentleman, Chauncey B. Shepard, his maternal grandfather, and one who was of the same race and lineage of that knightly soul, Seth Shepard, who, when a mere boy, went out to do battle in defense of his native Southland.
There is one name connected with Texas history which stands pre-eminent in the calendar of Texas patriots, that of Stephen F. Austin who, Sam Houston said, was justly entitled to be called "The Father of Texas."
He was never married, and died at a comparatively early age, but he had sisters, or at least one sister, who came to Texas at a very early day and his collateral kindred have always been and are yet among the worthiest citizenship of Texas. The names of the Perry and the Bryan families, all of whom were of his kin
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by consanguinity or affinity, have always been synonyms of social and moral worth, and exalted character.
My friend, Hon. E. T. Branch, Criminal District Attorney of Harris County, a grandson of a noble Texas pioneer, gave me, a few years ago, a number of autograph letters of Stephen F. Aus- tin, which I cherish as a treasure beyond all price.
One of the letters, written to a relative, I believe a sister, re- veals that he was urged to go to Mexico City to endeavor by ne- gotiations with the administration of the republic of Mexico, of which Texas, a Mexican State, was then a part, to get relief from certain oppressive government regulations, the exact nature of which I do not now recall, and the letter is not at hand as I write.
He said he did not want to go, but wanted to settle down on his farm near his sister and rest, and was further desirous of not undertaking the journey, because it would cost him much money, which he would not be able to get back. On the margin of the letter there is written in pencil by some relative a memorandum to the effect that the money was never returned.
He made the journey-not in Pullman cars, paying 3 cents a mile, and getting 20 cents from his government-but went across trackless plains, haunted by savages, through primeval forests, and miasmatic swamps on a mission of patriotism, and the hall of his reception was a dungeon, and he came back broken in health, and soon passed away.
He was essentially a Texas pioneer, though never a Governor or judge or general, yet but for him and his compatriots, there would have been no Texas such as there is today.
They gave Texas to the world, and with their own hands, nerved by their brave hearts, wrote their own glorious record. Yet there are people, even in Texas, who speak of them with ill- concealed sneers, yet the names of those who made possible this imperial commonwealth will live in song and story when those who disparage their achievements, shall have sunk into an obliv- ion from which no trumpet will ever awake them to resurrec- tion.
His nephew, Hon. Guy Morrison Bryan, whom I knew, and who was a most estimable gentleman, was elected to the Legislature of Texas in 1848, to the State Senate a few years later, to Congress in 1857, and was Speaker of the House of Representatives of Texas in 1873, and again a member of the House in 1878. He married a daughter of William H. Jack, who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto as a private and later achieved distinction in official station, and at the bar.
His son, Guy M. Bryan, Jr., a grand-nephew of Stephen F. Aus- tin, is an executive officer of one of the leading banks of Hous- ton, and a justly respected citizen.
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General Hamilton P. Bee came to Texas at 15 years of age, when his father, Bernard E. Bee, was holding the position of Sec- retary of War of the Republic.
His brother, Bernard E. Bee, christened General T. J. Jackson "Stonewall," just before he (General Bee) while leading his in- trepid South Carolinians and waving his gleaming sword, pre- sented to him by the State of South Carolina, fell at first Manassas.
General Hamilton P. Bee was Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives of Texas at 34 years of age-a position to which my father helped elect him. He was a gallant Confederate soldier, and a cultured gentleman.
As late as the administration of Governor Ireland he served as Commissioner of Insurance, Statistics and History.
His son, Carlos P. Bee, has filled the position of District Attor- ney and State Senator, and is now a member of Congress from Texas.
I did not, and do not cherish the purpose to elaborate on this special theme, but it seems to me to be germane to my main theme of Governors, Legislators and Jurists, to show what manner of men those were who transmitted to us so splendid a heritage.
By the operation of the same divine and unerring law which transmits the penalties for ill-lived lives and blessings for lives lived uprightly and in the fear of God "to the third and fourth generations" the splendid qualities and sturdy virtues which made noble and admirable the characters of their fathers have been transmitted to the descendants of the early pioneers of Texas, and have so dowered them that they have stood every test of service, and proved themselves worthy sons of noble sires.
It may be thought by some who read these pages, that I stress too greatly the subject of the early Texas pioneers, and some reader may infer that I claim descent from some one of that heroic band, but I do not.
I came to Texas, an infant in my mother's arms, long after they had wrought their great work, but I would deem myself unwor- thy to be a Texan if I did not appreciate their great achieve- ments and admire their noble characters.
They were brave soldiers, unselfish patriots, farseeing states- men, endowed with great constructive ability, and they left to those of us who now live and generations yet unborn, the richest, noblest heritage ever bequeathed by valor and statesmanship to coming generations.
I regret that I can not clam to be "kindred to the blood" of any of them, but I am proud to be able to say that my three sons are the great nephews and my three daughters the great nieces of Davy Crockett. I had rather they should be of kin to him than to any king or prince that ever wielded a scepter, or wore a crown.
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He wore a coonskin hunting cap, and a buckskin hunting shirt, but that coonskin cap covered a clear brain and a level head, and under that buckskin hunting shirt, throbbed as heroic a heart as ever poured out its rich, red blood that liberty might live.
He was not cultured nor highly educated, but he lived uprightly and wrought nobly. He was one of the bold, brave leaders who blazed the way for the advancing cohorts of civilization and progress. He lived as became a man, in the highest sense of that term, and like a man, he died.
He fell fighting to the last at the foot of a statue of the Prince of Peace, within the consecrated walls of the Alamo, and of him it can be truly said :
"He taught men how to live, and Oh, too high A price for knowledge, taught men how to die."
That man, I care not who he may be, that speaks, or even thinks, in terms of disparagement of the fathers and founders of Texas, is unworthy to share in the fruits of their faithful services and heroic sacrifices; and ought to take his feet off the soil they con- secrated by their devotion and hallowed by their blood, and go elsewhere to live, if he purposes to longer cumber the earth with his unworthy presence.
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EAST TEXAS MEN.
CHAPTER XXIV.
I have never enjoyed an extensive acquaintance in North Texas, but was reared in the piney woods of East Texas. It has been my good fortune to know many of the prominent men of that sec- tion, which was settled and in the enjoyment of many of the benefits and blessings of civilization and refined society, when the red man roamed over North, Northwest and West Texas, but now those parts of Texas which were settled last, have developed with marvelous rapidity, and a great future for them is kindling in splendor.
If time and space permitted, it would be a pleasure to deal with the name of every East Texas man who has held public po- sition. The list is worthy of being perpetuated, though writing wholly from memory, I may omit some as worthy as were those I remember, and I shall not undertake to name all of those.
I never saw General Thomas J. Rusk, so far as I know. His career ended when I was a mere child. He commanded a wing of the Texas Army at San Jacinto, and when Texas became a part of the Union, represented her in the United States Senate, and at the time of his death, was Chairman of the Committee on Postoffices and Postroads. His home was in Nacogdoches.
Frank W. Bowden was, I believe, from Anderson County, and I once heard Governor Roberts say he was the most eloquent man ever in Texas.
Colonel Frank B. Sexton of Marshall, but later of El Paso, was a typical Southern gentleman, of stately, courtly manners and the highest personal character.
He was elected to the Confederate Congress during the war be- tween the states, and was for many years attorney of the T. & P. Railway. He was a contemporary at the bar of that able lawyer Wm. Stedman of Marshall, whose mantle as a lawyer descended upon the worthy shoulders of his son, N. A. Stedman, who served at one time on the Railroad Commission, and also as District Judge at Fort Worth, and has for a number of years, represented the allied railway interests of Texas.
Tyler is by no means a large city, and until within the com- paratively recent past had hardly arrived at the dignity of a city, but it has furnished to the bar of Texas a greater number of able lawyers than has any single town or city within my knowledge in proportion to its population: Micajah H. Bonner, G. W. Chil- ton, John M. Duncan, one of the most graceful and skillful trial
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lawyers that ever appeared before me; Cone Johnson, lawyer and orator; Horace Chilton, John L. Henry, Tignal W. Jones, John C. Robertson, Sawnie Robertson, H. G. Robertson, T. N. Jones, N. W. Finley, one of the ablest judges ever on the bench of the Civil Appeals Court; Henry B. Marsh, W. S. Herndon, J. S. Hogg, R. B. Hubbard, and A. G. McIlwaine and J. M. Edwards are, or were, all Tyler men, and there is not one of the list who is not above the average in legal ability, while some are, or were, among the ablest lawyers at the bar of Texas.
Even in the small towns, mere villages, were able lawyers. Colonel E. B. Pickett, once Lieutenant Governor, and Hon. Chas. L. Cleveland, both lived at Liberty. The latter was at one time District Judge, later a partner for many years in Galveston of Asa Hoxie Willie, and died in the office of Criminal District Judge of Harris and Galveston Counties. I was in Houston when he died, having gone there to sit for him during his illness.
Both Colonel Pickett and Judge Cleveland were able lawyers and E. B. Pickett, Jr., grandson of Colonel Pickett, who may proberly be called E. B. Pickett III, is a young lawyer of recog- nized ability.
Judge Jas. A. Baker and Leonard A. Abercrombie were both from Huntsville and both were able lawyers. Judge Baker was, during the Civil War, judge of the same district of which Judge Peter W. Gray was judge prior to the war.
He, after the war, about 1872, became a partner of Judge Gray, and the firm of Gray, Botts & Baker by the death of all the original partners, and the accession of others, is now the firm of Baker, Botts, Parker & Garwood. At one time or another nearly every member of the firm has practiced before me, and all without exception, have demonstrated marked efficiency as lawyers.
I heard the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas say re- cently that a case in which Jesse Andrews, Esq., of the firm ap- peared on one, the winning side, and Morris R. Locke, Esq., of Dallas, on the other, prepared the briefs, was the best briefed case he had ever examined, and other appellate judges who han- dled the record, have told me the same.
The head of the firm, Captain Jas. A. Baker, combines legal knowledge, the ability to advise wisely, and rare financial ability, a most unusual combination.
I have frequently recalled a remark made to me by Judge Baker before I began to practice law, to the effect that he meant to train his son for the corporation practice, as it was "destined to be the future field of profitable practice." The language was prophetic, as the statement was made before Judge Baker went to Houston to live. The son is now the executive head of a firm which was, in a large sense, founded by an East Texas lawyer,
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which firm represents more corporate and commercial interests than any other in Texas, if not in the South.
I knew Judge Baker from my earliest boyhood. He and my father were near neighbors and close friends. Both were fond of good company, were famous raconteurs, and Judge Baker played the violin beautifully, and was a man of great social charm.
Leonard A. Abercrombie resigned the office of District Attor- ney to enter the Confederate Army, in which he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and from which he returned utterly impov- erished. He was, take him all in all, one of the ablest, most re- sourceful and skillful trial lawyers in civil or criminal cases I ever saw.
I read law in his office, and he practiced law before me for nearly seven years, and was a courtly gentleman of the most exalted character, and the most faithful friend ever a man had.
One of the Judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals nominated at Galveston in 1876 after the enactment of the Constitution which created the Court, was Malcolm D. Ector of Marshall, Texas.
He was one of the 20th District Judges who were removed from office in 1867. He commanded a brigade in the Confederate Army and lost a leg above the knee in one of the bloody battles in Tennessee, probably the battle of Franklin.
His nomination was part of the fruits of the appeal made by Geo. P. Finlay for recognition and reward of Confederate Vet- erans, to which I referred to in a previous chapter. He was an elegant gentleman, and served most efficiently as Presiding Judge of the Court until the fall of 1879, when he died, and was suc- ceeded by Hon. George Clark, who was appointed by Governor Roberts.
In August, 1880, Judge Clark was defeated at Dallas by the Hon. Jas. M. Hurt. It is said when Judge Roberts heard the result of the balloting, he said: "I can beat 'em making judges."
I think it very likely that he, like myself, had never heard of Judge Hurt before, for experience soon demonstrated that though a very able man was defeated, the one who was selected made a great judge.
ROBERT M. WILLIAMSON.
There will be in all likelihood many who will read this humble volume who will not recognize the man, the outlines of whose life and character are the theme of this sketch, by the name which heads it.
If I had used the phrase "Three-Legged Willie," there would be few who would not at once identify the subject. When he first arrived in Texas he was called "Mr. Willie." After James Willie came, he and R. M. Willianison were boon companions. James
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Willie was an older brother of the late Asa Hoxie Willie who was, from 1882 to 1888, the most efficient Chief Justice of the Supreine Court of Texas. James Willie at one time, was Attorney General of the State, and was the author of the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure of Texas, which is surpassed by no work of the kind in all the range of the literature of the criminal law. When a boy about 15 years of age, R. M. Williamson suffered an attack of white swelling in his left leg, with the result that the leg was bent back from the knee, and from the knee down he had a wooden leg.
That affliction is clearly revealed by an examination of the full length portrait of him which hangs in the Senate Chamber of Texas. To distinguish him from "Jim Willie" the Mexicans called him "Mr. Three-Legged Willie," which sobriquet was commonly adopted, and he was so known until his death. Many people did not even know that his real name was "Williamson." I confess that I did not know that fact until many years after he had passed away. I do not know with what measure of accuracy the portrait referred to portrays the real man, but it clearly reveals a dominant, forceful character, and it is sure that his "counterfeit" presentment fitly fills a place in the Valhalla of Texas heroes .
Robert M. Williamson, though born in Georgia, came to Texas from Alabama in 1826. In that day the code duello was recog- nized and all differences involving questions of honor were set- tled among gentlemen in accordance with its provisions, and on the field of honor young Williamson fatally wounded his antag- onist, who had committed the one offense, which in that day and time, was, and it is to be hoped yet is, unforgivable-that of in- dulging in remarks which reflected upon the moral character of a young lady.
Robert M. Williamson was, in a large sense, a fair type of the intelligent, resourceful, efficient pioneer, but he was not an ordinary pioneer, who was content with a few cattle, and a free range, and hunting and fishing opportunities ad libitum, for he was in no sense an ordinary man. His vision was broad, and he aspired to worthy achievements.
It may be appropriate to set forth in this connection my views concerning the leaders among the early Texans for whose char- acters and achievements my admiration is intense.
There were many remarkable men who came to Texas at a very early day-men, who by reason of their courage, intellect and force of character, would have left the impress of their per- sonality upon any country in any age of the world. Coming as they did into a territory covering an area of more than 350,000 square miles, and with less than one inhabitant to each ten
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square miles, they of course ventured into a virgin realm, and were pioneers in the fullest and truest sense of that term.
They knew when they prepared to come that they would be compelled to face dangers and undergo hardships, and be com- pelled to live among crude surroundings in so far as concerned their places of residence and their local environment. They knew that the conveniences and comforts of life would be few, and that of luxuries there would be none. They knew, too, they would have not only to establish homes, but organize a govern- ment. Any man who entertains the view that the men who laid the foundations of Texas were rude, reckless, ignorant adven- turers, embarking on, so to speak, a pioneering lark, because they either thirsted for excitement, or desired to reap profit by ex- ploitation of a new land, sadly errs.
They came to Texas because they were far-seeing men. They rightly reasoned that a realm of such marvelous resources was destined to be settled speedily and afford homes in the course of one or more generations to many millions of people, and the splendid, but practical vision that filled their waking dreams has become a marvelous reality. We, of this generation, are their debtors, as heirs to the heritage which they bequeathed us.
There are many people who find it hard to believe that as far back as 1826-nearly a century ago-when Judge Williamson came to Texas, there were really any men of classical education, statesmanlike capacity, oratorical power, or legal ability to be found here, or that such men came here until many years later. Such people seem unable to associate culture, ability and capacity for legislation and organization with virgin forests and tents and log cabins and the general crudeness which characterizes all pioneer settlements.
They seem to think that civilization and all the refinements and luxuries which wealth make possible are necessary to intellectual development, and the production of statesmen, whereas the con- trary is true. The enervating influences and habits of modern- day society do not call into full play those qualities which make for constructive statesmanship. Statesmen who would have re- flected honor upon any legislative assembly in the world lived in the early days of Texas in log cabins with wives who would have graced the courts of kings.
In rude court houses built of logs, and not infrequently before juries who sat on the ground under the shade of forest trees, pio- neer Texas lawyers delivered speeches as great in all the ele- ments of oratory as are any of those perpetuated in rare volumes as the greatest specimens of orators in bygone ages.
The slightest intelligent reflection cannot fail to show that it was impossible for the work wrought in Texas between 1825 and 1845 to have been the work of any but able, far-seeing, progres-
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sive, courageous men, who were familiar with the fundamental principles of right and justice upon which alone free govern- ment can safely rest.
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