USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 28
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Mr. Dunn has been active in every good work, and has thousands of sineere admirers throughout Texas.
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WILLIAM KELLY,
BROWNSVILLE.
Capt. William Kelly, born in Belfast, Ireland, April 2, 1840, is one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Brownsville, and is highly. esteemed for his scholarly attainments, business integrity and social qualities. He came to America from Ireland, his native country, in 1861, when twenty-one years of age, and at once enlisted in the First New York Mounted Rifles, with which regiment he served for three years and was then mustered out as a First Lieutenant and brevet Cap- tain. He was subsequently commissioned as first Lieutenant, Eighth United States Colored Troops, but was soon transferred to the Quartermaster's Department and assigned to duty as a Brigade Quartermaster. The close of the war found Mr. Kelly in Texas, and he located in Brownsville in 1865. He began steamboating on the Rio Grande in 1866, in the employ of King, Kenedy & Com- pany, who then owned and navigated sixteen good-sized steamboats, which carried an immense amount of freight from Brazos, Santiago, to Browns- ville and points on the upper river. At that time there were frequently over fifty vessels of all kinds, from 3,000-ton steaniers to 1,000-ton schooners, anchored in the harbor of Brazos, Santi- ago, and off the mouth of the Rio Grande, all of them engaged in a paying business.
Mr. Kelly succeeded to the business of King. Kenedy & Company, in 1874, since which time he has run the steamboating business on a constantly descending scale. From a fleet of twelve steam- boats on the lower river and four on the upper, run constantly to their utmost capacity, the busi- ness is now reduced to one small boat, the
" Bessie," 110 tons, making two trips a month (when there is water enough to float her), from Brownsville to Rio Grande City. The changes in the Rio Grande river are remarkable and almost unaccountable; but the certainty of other means of transportation being provided for, the freight which now passes over that route makes it imprac- ticable to attempt any improvement of river navi- gation, and Mr. Kelly is prepared to abandon his last steamboat.
There are few enterprises for benefiting his sec- tion in which he is not personally and financially interested. .
He is a director of the Rio Grande Railroad, vice-president and director of the First National Bank, and one of the foremost promoters of rail- road construction to the frontiers of the_United States and Mexico with a view to connecting the systems of those countries and opening the way for trade and manufactures.
Educational matters have always received his careful attention. ile has been chairman of the School Board for the past twelve years, and the value of his services is attested by the flourishing condition of the public schools of the city and the many improvements in accommodations and methods within that period.
Mr. Kelly owns 6,000 acres of land below the city and is interested in silver and lead mines in Mexico.
He was married in 1870 at Brownsville, to Mrs. Thornhan. They have five children, viz. : Louise M. E. ; William, a graduate of West Point Mili- tary Academy; Mary G., Anna R. and John W.
A. W. TERRELL,
AUSTIN.
Leaving out of account all that part of the long and uneventful period of Spanish and Mexican domination that antedates the beginning of Anglo- American colonization, the history of Texas covers a period of time much shorter than that of any
other of the Southern States. Yet the State has a history that in romance, depth of meaning and value to the present and the future is second to that of no other in the American Union. The lessous taught by the immolation at the Alamo, the
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massaere at Goliad and the victory at San Jacinto will never be forgotten. These lessons are the her- itage not alone of the English-speaking peoples. but of mankind. The action of the Spartans at Ther- mopylæ and the united Greeks at Marathon and Platea for many centuries had only to be recounted to ineite men, ripe for liberty, to fly to arms in re- sistance of tyranny. Texas has added other and equally glorious examples of what men should do and can do if inspired by the spirit of freedom. Of these examples every Texian is justly proud. It is also a source of pride that valor in the field was followed by wisdom in the Senate, that among the first work done by the founders of the Republic and subsequent State, they laid the foundation for a system of popular education and made provision for the establishment and maintenance of the insti- tutions for the deaf and dumb, blind and insane, and mapped out lines of publie policy that evineed a statesmanship at once wise, noble and unselfish -- a statesmanship in advance of the times in which they lived and that entitles them to the veneration of posterity. But the people, above all else, are proud of the succession of great men who have in an unbroken line appeared in the walks of public life and by their abilities and virtues shed luster upon the proud and heroic name of Texas. The roll of honor is too long for recital here. The name of Houston, dauntless in war, peerless as an orator, with port and carriage that would have befitted a curule Senator in the golden days of the Roman Republic ; the name of Rusk, the idol of the people and the most distinguished figure in the Senate of the United States, up to the time of his menancholy death, are enshrined in the heart and memory of every man in every land where votaries are to be found at the shrine of freedom. There were others equally able, no less worthy, and scarcely less dis- tinguished for their serviees, who were contempor- aries of these men ; nor, since the fathers have com- pleted their pilgrimage of life, have they been without successors, worthy to receive upon their shoulders the mantles which they let fall. It is a lamentable fact. however, that of late years the number has diminished and, instead of there being many leaders of genuine statesmanship and patriotic purpose whom the people can safely look to, to origi- nate and push reforms and give sound counsel in time of doubt or danger, there are all too few. Among the brightest and best public men that Texas ean now boast is the subject of this brief memoir, Hon. A. W. Terrell, the present Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States to the Otto- man Empire. In looking back over his career, extending as it does over a period of more than
forty-years, one is struck by the extent, variety and value of his public services ; not only that, but, what is more worthy of admiration, by the utter disregard of self that he has manifested upon many an occasion, when he deemed it necessary to speak and act in defense of the interests of the country, by his singular boldness and originality of thought and the fearlessness he has displayed in the support of convictions when those convietions were opposed by a blind and senseless opposition due to the fact that he was in advance of the immediate times and blazing a way for the multitude to follow and the multitude's ordinary leaders, with some of whom patriotism is a trade, that they do not hesitate to turn to profit. In point of sheer intellectual strength he compares favorably with any of our great men of former days, with any in the South to-day, and is certainly without a superior in this State. A learned lawyer, a sound and erudite scholar and a magnetic, Ciceronian orator, he also deserves the distinction of a statesman, using that term in its proper signification. The deeper prob- lems of life, as regards the race, the nation and the individual, have been pondered over by him by day and by the midnight lamp, and are ever upper- most in his mind. It has never, at any time, ocearred to him to sacrifice principle for the sake of personal aggrandizement. He has shown him- self to be far above that vanity of little minds that feeds upon applause. He has been actuated by nobler motives, - the desire to do his duty fully, the love of truth and justice, and a desire to con- tribute his part toward the prosperity and glory of the country and the welfare of his fellow citizens and of the generations whose duty it will be to perpetuate free institutions and the blessings that are inseparable from the possession of liberty. He was among the very first, if he was not the first, to call attention to the necessity of abridging and controlling corporate power, and the pack was in- stantly in full cry at his heels, keeping always, how- ever, at a safe distance, or receiving wounds that no leech could cure. Now the country is thoroughly aroused, and his views have been adopted not by a few, but by the toiling millions of the country. But for him Texas would have no commission to-day to regulate railway freight charges. He started the movement that has eventuated in such a commis- sion and at last, as a member of the House of Representatives, perfected the railroad commis- sion bill that became a law. This is his- tory familiar to every man conversant with the facts, it detracts nothing from the merit due to others, and it deserves a lasting place npon the pages of the State's history. That Texas
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has a university, a system of efficient and richly endowed publie free schools and eleemosynary in- stitutions that are a credit to our enlightened civil- ization is largely due to him. As a result of his labors as a legislator, or his public spoken or written utterances, many of the most salutary laws upon our statute books were enacted. Prior to 1855 there were no party nominations in Texas. In that year the American, or Know-nothing party, a secret, oath-bound organization, out of touch with the spirit of free institutions and based upon passion and prejudice, placed a full State ticket in the field. The Democracy, ever true to its tradi- tions, only needed leadership to perfect organization and offer battle, although the chances of its stem- ing the tide successfully seemed poor indeed. At this juncture, Judge Terrell and a few other leaders held what was known as the " Bomb Shell " meet- ing in the city of Austin, that resulted in the call- ing of a Democratie State Convention, that nomi- nated candidates who, as the standard-bearers of the party, canvassed the State and with the aid of other Democratie speakers and workers, Judge Terrell among the number, won a victory that gave the coup de grace to the " Know-nothing " party in Texas. He is entitled to the proud distinction, if it is due to any living man, of being one of the fathers of the Texas Democracy. He has been true to the party's principles and colors and his white plume has helped head the way for the Demo- cratie hosts upon many hard-fought political fields during many years. Party fealty has been some- thing more with him than merely a blind worship of an organization. He has considered party as but a means to an end -- good government -and he has never hesitated to denounce wrong, labor for the adoption of correet policies or to warn against mistakes when they were about to be committed. The people have grown more and more to appreciate his true character, and when President Cleveland conferred upon him the honor of appointment as Minister to Turkey it was a course of gratification to them that a Texian should have been selected for that important mis- sion at a time when affairs in the East rendered it necessary that only a man of sound judgment, skillful address and first-class abilities should be sent to Constantinople. They knew that he would bear himself ereditably. He has more than met the full measure of their expectations. His name has become a household word, in every Christian home throughout the world, and he has won for himself a position that entitles him to honorable rank among the trained diplomats of Europe, where diplomacy has long been reduced to a fine art ; in fact, he has
accomplished more for the amelioration of the con- dition of the Armenian Christians and for the pro- teetion of Christian missionaries in Armenia than the representative of any other single power ; this, too, without the aid of warships in the Dardanelles. Of dignified and imposing presence, courtly in his manners, just in the formation and frank in the expression of his views, he soon came to enjoy not only the respect but the friendship of the Sultan, who is himself a learned and polished man of gen- erous sentiments and who assured Judge Terrell that he would take pleasure in granting any reason- able request, a promise that was redeemed as far as it lay in his power to do so. Judge Terrell upon his recent return (in April, 1896), to his home in Austin, Texas, on leave of absence, was received by his fellow-citizens with every public and private expression of respect and affectionate regard. After a brief stay he will return to his post of duty in Turkey.
He was born on the 3d day of November, 1828, in Patrie County, Va., finished his education in the University of Missouri and was licensed as a lawyer before he was twenty-one years of age. He was elected City Attorney of St. Joseph, Mo., in 1849, and removed to Austin in 1852 in search of a more genial climate for his wife, formerly Miss Ann E. Bouldin, who died in 1860 ; entered into a law part- nership with Hon. W. S. Oldham in 1852 ; engaged actively in practice and as counsel took part in the trial of many of the leading eases known to the courts.
In 1857 was elected District Judge and re- mained on the bench in the Austin District until 1863, when he resigned and organized a regiment of cavalry for the Confederate service. He was in command of his regiment until the close of the war, leading it into action in the battles of Pleasant Hill, Mansfield, and the various engagements fought during the retreat of Banks down Red river. A few weeks before the surrender of the Trans-Mis- sissippi Department, in recognition of his capacity as a commander, he was commissioned by Gen. E. Kirby Smith as a Brigadier-General.
After the war he settled temporarily in Houston to practice his profession, but the oneertain condi- tion of the courts induced bim to retire from pro- fessional work for a time and he engaged in planting on the Brazos, near Calvert, until the death of his second wife, formerly Miss Sallie D. Mitchell, in 1871. Ile then returned to Austin, resumed prac- tice and three years later was appointed Reporter for the Supreme Court, which position he retained for thirteen years. During the period of his re- portership he published more volumes than have
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ever been reported by any other Supreme Court Reporter in the United States.
In 1876 he was elected to the Senate without opposition and was twice re-elected. During this term of service he framed the present jury law which was a great improvement upon that previously in force and which no subsequent Legislature has been able to improve. Ile was also champion of the law that established the State University and drew all the aets which gave it its permanent endowment. He also framed the school law, while chairman of the Committee on Education, that established what was known as the "Community System," which continued until the establishment in recent years of the "District System." The various measures for rebuilding and enlarging the asylum for the insane, and the educational insti- tutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind, were originated and pushed to enactment by him. All the laws under which the Texas State Capitol were erected were framed by Judge Terrell, and so careful was the system of cheeks and supervision provided by law, that the splendid granite capitol was finished complete under the original contracts, without a deficiency. His influence was felt in every direction and he left his impress upon very nearly all of the important legislative work that was accomplished. Judge Terrell was chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate for eight years. After securing the passage of laws for the construction of the State capitol, Judge Terrell was again elected to the State Senate, with the avowed object of securing the establishment of a State University. Its establishment had been required in the constitution of the Republic of Texas and of the State for over forty years, but the jealousy of the different sections of so vast a State had prevented its location. An inspection of the jour- nals of the Senate show that the bill which finally established the State University, was introduced by Senator Buchanan of Eastern Texas. It was alinost the copy of a bill introduced formerly in the House, by Representative, afterwards Congress- man, Hutchison, of Houston, and may be regarded as the joint work of O. H. Cooper, afterwards State Superintendent of Education, Mr. Hutchison and Judge Terrell. The original bill, which be- came law, was in Judge Terrell's handwriting. Senator Buchanan, as Judge Terrell's friend, in- troduced the bill. At the close of his last term in the Senate, Judge Terrell declined re-election, at a time when he could have been returned without opposition. In 1888 he was made Democratie Elector for the State at large and did yeoman ser- viee in unifying the party, in disseminating a
knowledge of fundamental principles and in secur- ing an overwhelming majority for the party's nominees. In 1891 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, from Travis County, without offering himself as a candidate, and after his published declaration that he did not wish the position and would not electioneer for it. The majority accorded him was the largest ever re- ceived by a candidate in Travis County. It was at this session that he perfected the railroad com- mission bill. He also aided in the passage of other and much needed legislation.
In 1883 Judige Terrell was married to Mrs. Ann HI. Jones, formerly Miss Ann H. Holliday. He has three living children : Mrs. Lilla Rector, and two sons.
Judge Terrell delivered a speech at the laying of the corner-stone of the magnificient granite State capitol, in 1885, and read a poem in Latiu, that was inscribed upon a bronze plate, which was de- posited in the receptacle in the corner-stone. The oration was a superb effort and well suited to the occasion and the poem is said by competent Latin scholars to be worthy of perpetuation for after- times in a language that has been handed down to us by the immortal lyric strains of Ovid and Horace. He has delivered by special request many ad- dresses before colleges and literary and learned societies, and delivered many speeches in the dis- cussion of problems that confront the people or that he knew would in the coming years demand solution at their hands. There are many who re- member his speech delivered many years ago, in the Opera House at Austin, and published under the title of " The Cormorant and the Commune." No man who has a copy of it would part with it for love or money. This was only one among many equally striking utterances, the echoes of which still reverberate through the land, or have grown and deepened into the thunderous diapason of popular demands that cannot and will not be silenced until justice is done.
In every campaign, State and national, until his appointment as Minister to Turkey, his views were eagerly sought, and he was looked to as a leader. Ilis fame is national and international. Ilis wisdom and patriotism are approved. He has helped to make a large and important part of the history of Texas. The State is proud of it and the nation's representative at the most important court in the East, and, when his term of service has expired, will right gladly welcome him home again.
It is to be regretted that he has retired from polities, and manifests no disposition to again enter the arena.
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RUFCS HARDY.
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RUFUS HARDY,
CORSICANA.
Judge Rufus Hardy was born in Monroe County, Miss., December 16, 1855.
His father, George Washington Hardy, was a native of the same State and county, and was one of a family of seven sons and seven daughters. The family were, as their name implies, a hardy, meritorious race. By their indomitable energy, good judgment and sterling integrity, they all became prosperous. Though none of them sought any public position, they were all Democrats of the old school, believing that every citizen should stand on an equal footing before the law, asking no favors, and demanding only an open field and a fair chance in the race of life. Three of the brothers came to Texas, and settled finally in Brazos County, where they owned large estates in land and negroes. These brothers were G. W., A. W., and Henderson Hardy. G. W. Hardy was the oldest and the wealthiest. He was a good liver ; his home was the seat of hospitality before the war, and in everything he was the typical Southern gentleman and planter - proud, gener- ous, patriotic, and devoted to his friends and family. Being a cripple, besides being exempt on account of his age, and the act exempting owners of a certain number of slaves, he did not enter the Confederate army, but his devotion to and zeal for the cause of the South in her struggle for a separate, independent government, was not sur- passed by that of any soldier in the ranks, and all during the war his cribs were open and free to the wife or widow of any soldier who was fighting, or had died for his country. His confidence in the ultimate triumph of the South was supreme, and caused him to invest, even in the last years of the war, all that he had in negro property, so that when the end came he was left without a dollar and without even a home. He lived twelve years after the war, with health and spirit greatly broken, and died in 1877, leaving only a small property, accumulated after the war between the States.
Judge Hardy's mother, prior to her marriage, was Miss Pauline J. Whittaker, born and reared in Maury County, Tenn. She, too, was one of a family of seven sons and seven daughters. The Whittakers were a prominent family in Middle Tennessee. The old family home, a brick two- story building, where the mother of Judge Hardy spent her girlhood days, is still standing, but it
has passed into strangers' hands. Mrs. Hardy (nee. Whittaker) is still living, and spends her time with her four children.
Judge Hardy has one brother, D. W. Hardy, of Navasota, who now owns, besides his home in that place. valuable farms in the Brazos bottom, near by.
Judge Hardy has two sisters, Mrs. T. J. Knox and Mrs. S. Steele, who also live at Navasota. Mr. Steele owns a very fine farm in the Brazos valley and Mr. Knox a farm near Navasota.
The subject of this memoir received such educa- tion as the private country schools in Texas afforded in the old days, when the maxim " spare the rod and spoil the child " was still held good. In his seven- teenth year, partly with money earned by himself and partly with money furnished by his elder brother, D. W. Hardy, and his father, he was enabled to enter Summerville Institute, a long-established private school in Noxubee County, Miss., where he spent one year, during the presidency of Thomas S, Gath- right, afterwards the first president of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Bryan. Later he spent two years at the University of Georgia, at Athens, one year in the collegiate depart- ment and one year in the law department. He returned home in Jane, 1875, and began the prac- tice of law at Navasota, in January, 1876, when less than twenty-one years of age. He moved thence to Corsicana in February, 1878, and has since resided in that city.
In February, 1881, he married Miss Felicia E. Peck, daughter of Capt. Wm. M. and Mrs. Nancy Forbes Peck, of Fairfield, Texas. Capt. Peck was a Tennesseean by birth and his family have been represented on the bench of the Supreme Court of that State. Mrs. Peck (nee Forbes), came from a fine old family of the good State of Alabama. Capt. Peck bore the commission of Captain in the Confederate army, having raised a company of Freestone County boys in 1861 to fight for the Southern cause. After the war he came home, like thousands of others, to begin life, as it were, anew. He was a man of exceptional energy and capacity, of intellectual culture and natural refinement, a polished gentleman of the old school and successful in everything he undertook. In November, 1880, Judge Hardy was elected County Attorney of Navarro County, and was re- elected in 1882. In 18844 the office of District
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Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District, com- posed of Limestone, Freestone and Navarro coun- ties, was created and he was elected to the position. Two years later he was re-elected to the office. In 1888 he was elected District Judge and was re- elected in 1892 and is now occupying the bench. His teri will expire in November, 1896. This year (1896) he has not offered himself as a candidate for judicial honors or for any public position, and, after a service of sixteen years in office, will retire to private life and resume the practice of bis pro- fession. In all his official career, which has been altogether connected with the administration of the law, his endeavor has been to do justice without fear or favor. As a successful prosecutor, his record stands unsurpassed and as judge bis re-election to a second term without opposition, either inside or outside of the Democratic party, attests how well he has discharged his duties.
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