The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 78

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau
Number of Pages: 1204

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Judge Hunter, only survivor of his brothers and sisters, acquired a common school education in Kentucky. After his father went west he remained at home working on the farm, and from the age of ten years was practically dependent on his own re- sources and energies. He worked out as a farm hand at ten dollars a month, and, nevertheless, managed to educate himself through books borrowed. At the age of eighteen he taught school. During the Civil War he became a drummer boy in a regiment of Home Guards, and served with a Union command until he was captured at Stone River, Tennessee, just before the great battle. He was paroled and sent home. At the age of twenty-one he was clerking in a dry goods store at Glasgow, Kentucky, where he cast his first vote supporting the democratic tieket. While in the store at Glasgow he kept many books in a back room and employed all his leisure time and many of his night hours in studying literature, mathematics and such sciences as geology, astronomy and chemistry. At Tomkinsville, Kentucky, he also studied law with John R. Leslie, a brother of Preston H. Leslie who served two terms as Governor of Kentucky. While at Tomkinsville he married Miss Mary E. Ray, daughter of John Ray, a wealthy resi- dent of that section.

Judge Hunter was licensed to practice law in Kentucky April 8, 1868, and remained in Tomkins- ville four years. His wife's father had moved to Louisville in 1870 and Judge Hunter went to that city

in 1872 and pursued the regular course of the Law School of the University of Louisville, graduating with the legal degree of LL. B. February 26, 1873. On the first day of May of that year he arrived in Texas and located in Sulphur Springs, where he be- came associated in the law firm of General Sam Bell Maxey and W. H. Lightfoot, until General Maxey was elected to the United States Senate in 1876. In November 1873, Senator Coke was elected Gover- nor of Texas, but Mr. Hunter was unable to vote in this election since he had not been in the state as a resident a year. However, he used his influence in the campaign to support the champion of democracy. When Governor-elect Coke went to Aus- tin to take his seat early the following year, the military Governor, E. J. Davis refused to vacate, and in the historic proceedings that followed Judge Hunter participated to the extent of purchasing a Winchester rifle and two hundred rounds of cartridges and accompanied a body of determined men who started for Austin for the purpose of seeing that the will of the people as expressed in the elec- tion was carried out. However, when President Grant refused the aid of the Regular Army to sup- port Governor Davis' contentions, the controversy abruptly ended without bloodshed. Judge Hunter practiced law at Sulphur Springs until the election of O. M. Roberts as Governor. At that time a new judicial district was created from half a dozen coun- ties in northeastern Texas, and the Governor ap- pointed Mr. Hunter district attorney, but he re- fused to accept the appointment until a meeting of the bar was held, represented by the lawyers of the district, and formal resolutions passed urging Mr. Hunter to accept the office. He gave a vigorous administration in that office for fifteen months, and in that time secured the conviction of thirty-five men to penitentiary sentences and the hanging of two criminals.

June 8, 1884, Judge Hunter removed to Fort Worth and opened his office in the then bustling small city and the metropolis of the great West Texas cattle country. The first friends Judge Hunter made in Fort Worth were B. B. Paddock and J. Peter Smith. Judge Hunter was soon handling a large private practice, and continued to devote his energies to the law until 1894, when the legislature created the three courts of Civil Appeals. He was then appointed by the Fort Worth bar to represent the interests and claims of Fort Worth as the location for Court No. 2, and proceeded with characteristic energy and en- thusiasm and after a notable campaign brought about the favorable decision by which Fort Worth became the seat of the Court of Appeals. The first three judges of the Court were B. D. Tarlton, Chief Justice, H. O. Head and I. W. Stephens. With the resigna- tino of Judge Head in the fall of 1895, Governor C. A. Culberson appointed Judge Hunter to fill the vacancy, and his appointment was subsequently con- firmed by election for a full term of six years: He was succeeded by Judge Ocie Speer. Upon the elec- tion of Judge Speer, Judge Hunter retired from the bench and resumed practice with W. W. Flood. Three years later, upon the death of Mr. Flood, Judge Hunter took in as his partner, his son, Ray. Ray Hunter was a young man of brilliant attainments in the law, and his death, September 26, 1916, was greatly lamented. Since then Judge Hunter has continued in practice and is head of the firm of Hunter & Hunter, composed of six members of the

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MEN OF TEXAS

Fort Worth bar, retaining his son's name as a ratter of sentiment.

Judge Hunter served as a member of the Legisla- ;ure in 1913-1914. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and ·wth as a lawyer and citizen is one of Fort Worth's grand old men. Judge Hunter was three times married. His second wife was Kate Rice Burnett, w:dow of Bruce Burnett. His third wife was Miss Anna E. Schober. He has one living son, Horace, s merchant at Oklahoma City.

Judge Hunter's dissenting opinion in the famous case of Chicago, R. I. & T. Ry Co., Vs. Rosa Langton, :: S. W. Rep. on page 1030 et Seq. bespeaks the character of the man and of the Judge more cer- sinly and graphically than would a whole volume f biography. In this opinion the Judge declares the law of the personal security of an American tizen more clearly and emphatically than was ever !clared by a Texas Court before, and cites both state and national authorities to support his opinion.

The case went to the Supreme Court of Texas on- the dissent, and that Court sustained the majority opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals, overruling Judge Hunter's dissenting opinion and the judgment was reversed and remanded for a new trial. See Opinion of Justice Stephens, 47 S. W. Rep. 1027.

The case was never retried but the Railway Con- pany succeeded in compromising the claim for $12,- 500.00-just half the sum the jury had awarded her

Just five years later, the precise question came before the same court again when Justice Brown who had participated in the decision overruling Judge Hunter's dissenting opinion above quoted, rendered the opinion of the Court in the case of Austin & N. W. R. Company vs. Cluck. 77 S. W. Rep. 403, 97 Tex. 172, holding just the reverse of their decision in the Langton case when they overruled Judge Hunter's opinion, and settled the law of personal security in Texas as Judge Hunter had declared it in his dissenting opinion, a portion of which fol- lows:

Excerpt from Judge Hunter's Opinion Nov. 29th, 1898.

IIUNTER (dissenting). "I regret that I can- not agree with my brothers on the opinion they pre- went in this case. I think that the ruling of the 'parned district judge in refusing to require the plaintiff to unwrap and expose her wounded limbs to the Company's Doctors was exactly correct. It appears from the bill of exceptions that they were "Surgeons of defendant and in defendant's regular employment;" that the plaintiff's counsel had previously refused to allow them to examine her upon this ground, offering, however, at the same "me, "to have plaintiff examined by any number of physicians the court might see proper to appoint, on defendant's application, who were not in any way wohnected with plaintiff or defendant." Defendant then made application to the court, and upon this application the court appointed Dr. Stinson to make tre examination, refusing to appoint the company's : «tors, or either of them, stating that Stinson could + t or not, as the parties themselves desired. At this juncture, it seems, defendant's counsel placed 'wo of the company's doctors on the stand, and re- "hested them then and there "to examine the plaintiff and her injuries," and I infer that the aforesaid in tors were then and there about to seize the plain-

hiff's limbs, and examine theni, nolens volens, when For counsel came to her rescue, again objecting to

the assault upon her by these corporation doctors, placing their objections upon the grounds (1) that they were in the employment of defendant, and were partisan, and not impartial; (2) that they had not been appointed by the court to make such examina- tion; and (3) that defendant had no right to have such examination without the plaintiff's consent, agreeing at the same tinie to submit herself to such examination at the hands of any other doctor con- sidered by the court to be impartial and competent. and not in the employment of defendant." Thus, Judge Hunter continued in a masterly opinion, an incontrovertible logic substantiating the position he held as Dissenting Judge. This opinion stands out in the history of court decisions as an example of unerr- ing reasoning and logical interpretation of the law and since that date eminent jurists have decided similar cases in the light of Judge Hunter's reason- ing.

Although the majority of the court would not con- cur, Judge Hunter's opinion in this noted case has since been recognized as the most conclusive and logical interpretation of the law in the case involved and the family and friends of the Judge cannot but honor the author of so note worthy a document.

The author of this short sketch of Judge Hunter's life cannot close the same without setting forth one of the poems written by him which tells of his patriotism and love of Country better than any further comment of his can do it.

TEXANS TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

(Lines by Judge Sam J. Hunter, a prominent Texas Democrat, who has admired Mr. Roose- velt from the beginning of his public career as a member of the New York Legislature. Copied from Fort Worth Record of April 8, 1905, upon the occasion of the President's visit to Texas)

Hail, Chieftain of the rank and file, brave colonel of San Juan,

We bid thee welcome to the state the hand of valor won.

We saw thee midst the smoke and flame on Santiago's hills,

Leading our Texas boys to fame-sharing their joys and ills.

We heard thy question passed along (Tho' Shafter said "lie still"),

"Boys, who will face those guns with me ? We've got to take that liill."

We saw thy bold Rough Riders then, in face of shot and shell,

Leap forth and shout in trumpet tones: "We'd follow thee to hell."

And when the blaze of Spanish guns into their bosoms burned,

And other men with faces blanched in deathly terror turned,

The valorous cowboys of thy band beheld with manly pride

Thy proud, heroic form in front; their colonel by their side.

Then came the charge of fearless men-the shout of triunph high-

And then the flag of freedom kissed the blue of Cuba's sky.

Brave Fish was left on Guasmas field, the first in fight to fall,

That gallant youth of gentle blood heard not his colonel's call,

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But o'er thy pallid form, proud boy, and o'er thine early bier,

Brave Texans' heads in sorrow bow and hold thy memory dear.

And thou, brave chief of this proud land, shalt live in song and story,

Thy charge with thy Rough Rider band hath covered thee with glory.

Yet other victories hast thou won since war hath ceased his carnage,

For thy just rule of honest hand we offer thee our homage.

No kindly diadem binds thy brow nor service throngs surround thee;

Thy throne is they brave people's love, and deeds of valor crown thee.

Then welcome to this sunny land, brave colonel of San Juan,

We'll greet thee with an open hand and open hearts will join.

Beneath the Alamo's saintly towers-on San Jacinto's wolds,

The spirit of our deathless dead reanimates our souls.

Thermopylae's messenger of defeat was a Grecian traitor son,

But Texas youth can proudly boast, "The Alamo had none."

No braver deeds in history's tomes can pen of man relate;

No prouder name than Texas bears is borne by any state.

And soon the granite shaft shall rise to point the sacred place,

Where heroes fell, in freedom's cause, a nation's birth to grace.

And on that shaft no prouder line can grateful hearts unveil,

Than, from that deadly field of strife, none came to tell the tale.

And so, on San Juan's rugged hill, midst fires of death and hell,

Fair Cuba rose-a nation free-thy glorious deeds to tell.

And when their bleeding wounds are healed, fair maiden of the sea,

Thou'lt sing of the Rough Rider boys whose valor set thee free.

Then welcome to this glorious state, brave champion of the right,

No brighter name in peace or war can poet's pen indite.

No party name can hem thee in; no creed thy conscience claims;

The glory of thy deeds is all thy country's now -- and fame's.

M. P. McLEAN. Inseparably interwoven with the making of Texas, in fighting its battles, in making its constitution, in form- ing its statutes, in being a leader in all political history of the Lone Star State is the life of Judge . Wm. P. McLean, of the law firm of McLean, Scott & McLean, Ellison Building, at Weatherford and Main Streets, Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. McLean's legal practice extends over sixty-two years and inasmuch as he has always been a leader, to review his life is to review the glory of his pro- fession.

Gallatin, Miss., was the birthplace of this noted Texan, on August 9, 1836. His parents were Allen

F. McLean, a merchant, and Anna Rose McLean. They moved to Texas when their son was two years of age and since that date, 1838, Wm. P. McLean has been a Texan. In 1857 he received his A. B. degree from the University of North Carolina. The following year he was admitted to the bar and he has been prominent in Texas' legal development since. Just as he was beginning his practice at Jefferson, Texas, the Civil War began and young McLean went to Victoria where he enlisted in the Confederate Army, in Company D, 19th Texas In- fantry, left his family in eastern Texas, and battled through the entire four years of the war. At the end when he was discharged, he was a major. In 1865 he began his practice at Mt. Pleasant where he remained for twenty-five years. In 1869 he was again elected to the state legislature for in 1861 he had been chosen to this responsible place but re- signed to enter the army. He became a congressman in 1872. In 1872 was made one of the electors for president and vice-president by the Democratic state convention at Corsicana. From 1884 to 1888 he was district judge of the Fifth Judicial District. In 1875 he was chosen to help remake the constitution of Texas and his wisdom and influence pervades out chief document as it is today. In 1894 he located at Fort Worth where he has been among the leaders of that city for the last twenty-six years.

In 1859 Miss Margaret Batte, a Virginian, became the bride of Mr. McLean. Nine children have been born to them, five of whom are now living: Ann, Ida, Richard, Thomas, Jefferson Davis, William P., Jr., Margaret, John H. and Bessie. The family resi- dence is at 316 Henderson Street. Mr. McLean is of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and is a Mason. He is a member of the Fort Worth Board of Trade and cf both the Fort Worth and State Bar Associations. His present associates are Walter B. Scott and his son, William P. McLean, Jr. He is a director of the Exchange State Bank of Fort Worth, also its legal representative, a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and the legal representative for the First National Bank of Fort Worth.

Mr. McLean, in experience, practice and service rendered, is one of Texas' greatest lawyers. No one of his profession is today more widely known and beloved in the Lone Star State than is he.

OBERT McCART, attorney at law, of the law firm of McCart, Curtis & McCart, senior member, Fort Worth National Bank Build-

ing, has a prestige enjoyed by no other Fort Worth lawyer-he has been in the Fort Worth Bar Association longer than any of its present membership. This association has lasted through forty-four years, since 1877.

Mr. McCart is a native of Kentucky. He was born at Flemingsburg, on January 22, 1844; his parents were Robert McCart and Elizabeth Lee McCart. . After attending the State University Normal of Illinois, Mr. McCart graduated from the law de- partment of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He then began his practice at Bloomington. Ill. On October 3, 1877, he yielded to the call of the Lone Star State and began his practice in Fort Worth where he has remained ever since. The result is he has grown up with the town. Forty-four years ago Fort Worth was a hamlet and a resident citizen at that time knew all the citizenship. This was Mr. McCart's situation and as the city has grown through

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the years, his habit of forming acquaintances at- tempted to keep pace and the result is that perhaps no man is known by more people and beloved by them in Fort Worth than is this earliest of lawyers who is active to this day. Associates with Mr. McCart in his present partnership are A. B. Curtis and H. C. McCart.

Mr. McCart's bride was Miss Fanny E. Kneffly of Dallas. Their children are Robert McCart, Jr., a mining engineer, John Lee McCart who was a captain overseas and is now in the oil business, and Fannie Bell who now is Mrs. T. E. D. Huckley of Forth Worth.

Self-made and attractively talented, Mr. McCart is among the leaders in his phase of law practice.

M. ALEXANDER, attorney F. & M. Bank Building, Fort Worth, Texas, of the law firm of Alexander & Baldwin, as a state senator is the author of some of Texas' best commercial laws-the Bank Guaranty Law and the Bulk Sales Law protecting merchants. He is one of Texas' busiest lawyers in civil practice.

Mr. Alexander was born in Tennessee, in Hardin County, on August 12, 1862. His parents were Wm. P. Alexander and Mary Craven Alexander. His father was a merchant. Hardin County public schools gave the youth his earliest education, Mc- Kenzie College of Tennessee, came next, and then Southern Normal University of Illinois lastly. Mr. Alexander came to Texas in 1886. In 1892, after studying law in both Tennessee and Texas, he was admitted to the Texas bar. For seventeen years he practiced at Weatherford, four of which years, 1900-1904, he was county judge of Parker County. From 1907 to 1911 he was state senator from Fort Worth district. It was in this service that he orig- inated the Guaranty Bank Law and the Bulk Sales Law protecting merchants. He has always been one of the active supporters of every prohibition measure. In 1912, after a seventeen year residence at Weatherford Mr. Alexander came to Fort Worth to reside. Two years later, in 1914, he formed the present partnership of Alexander & Baldwin, with Ben S. Baldwin. He is the legal representative of the Farmers Union of Texas.

In 1885 Mr. Alexander married Miss Emma Mc- Kenzie of his native state, Tennessee. To them two children have been born; a daughter, Thula, and a son, Bruce, who died in 1917 at the age of twenty- seven. At 1501 South Adams Street is the family residence.

Mr. Alexander is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the W. O. W., and of the American Bar Association.

ILLIAM C. AUSTIN, attorney, descendant of Stephen F. Austin, one of the founders of Texas, has an interesting career as the director of the U. S. secret service work during the late war for the northern district of Texas and as Assistant United States District At- torney for North Texas today.

Mr. Austin is a native of Wise County, Texas. He was born on February 19, 1880. His father, John H. Austin, is a descendant of Stephen Austin, one of the pioneer founders of Texas, also a son of W. Ben Austin a pioneer Presbyterian minister of Texas who preached the first sermon of his church in Grandbury, Texas. Wise County schools gave the youth his book training, and law offices of some of Fort Worth's ablest men his legal training. He

was admitted to the bar in 1913 and began his prac- tice in Fort Worth. After one year of private practice he was made chief agent for the Bureau of Investigations which position he held until February of 1920. In February, 1920, he was appointed by R. E. Taylor as an Assistant United States District Attorney for the Northern Texas District. During the late war, Mr. Austin had charge of the secret service work of the Federal Government for North- ern Texas. He had fourteen employees of the gov- ernment in this department working under his di- rection during this time.

In 1905, at Dallas, Texas, while Mr. Austin was with the Wells Fargo Express Company, Miss Henrietta Boyd, a west Texas girl, of Parker County, became his bride. They have three children, Josephine, Bernice and Willie C. The family reside at 2025 Granger Street and are members of the Hemphill Street Presbyterian Church where Mr. Austin is a director of the Men's Bible Class.

As one who from his first public service has been of large usefulness in investigations, secret service and also able as a lawyer, Mr. Austin is unusually well equipped for the place of responsibility and influence he now holds.

HARLES L. MORGAN, attorney at law, with offices at F. & M. Bank Building, who is associated with Ike Wynn in the general practice of civil cases, is identified with a number of large realty and oil litigations of Texas. He is a former aviator and has been practicing his profession by himself since 1919, when the firm of Wynn, Johnson, Green and Morgan, of which he was a member dissolved.

He is a native of the state of Texas, being born in Greenville, on October 29, 1892; his parents are J. H. Morgan, a lawyer of Greenville, and Maude Ellen (Lewalling) Morgan. He was educated in the Greenville grammar and high school and attended the Burleson College where he graduated in 1912 with the A. B. degree. Later he attended the Uni- versity of Texas and graduated in 1916 with the degree of LL. B.

He represented the Dallas Trust and Savings Bank, the Dallas Title and Guaranty Company, and the United States Bond and Mortgage Company, when he practiced his profession in Dallas between 1916 and 1917 and made a success of his first year of practice.

In September, 1917, he enlisted in the air service of .Uncle Sam at Dallas, Texas, and was sent to receive his ground training at Austin, Texas. His primary flying was received at Barron Field, Ever- man, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant A. S. A., August 28, 1918, as a Corpe de Armee Pilot. At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he received training in co-operation with the artillery and infantry for a number of months after which he was sent to Taliaferro Field at Fort Worth to train in the aerial gunnery school and combat flying, where he was made an instructor. After sixteen months in the service of Uncle Sam he was discharged January 8, 1919.

He is a member of the County Bar Association, Glen Garden Country Club, Chamber of Commerce and the Moslah Shrine, Knight Templar, Masons.

NDREW J. POWER, of the firm of Power, Dryden and Rawlings, attorneys at law, with offices at 2141% Main Street, Fort Worth, Texas.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

ILLIAM H. SLAY, attorney at law and senior member of the law firm of Slay, Simon anl Smith, 12th floor W. T. Wag- goner Building, has been practicing before the bar of the Tarrant County courts for nearly twenty years, having opened his first office for the practice of law in this city in the month of Septem- ber, 1902. Associated with Mr. Slay are U. M. Simon and Judge Mike E. Smith, the triumvirate forming one of the strongest law firms in the city.

For some years after beginning the active practice of his profession, Mr. Slay fought his legal battles alore. In 1905 he was appointed assistant county attorney's department, he was elected corporation At the close of his tenure of office with the county attorney's department, he was elected corporation counsel for the city of Fort Worth and held this position four years. In 1912 he formed a partner- ship with Mr. Simon and in 1916 Judge Smith came into the firm. The practice is confined to civil and corporation business. The firm is legal counsel for a number of leading oil companies and corporations of Fort Worth, and has substantial interests in oil properties and real estate in Fort Worth and North Texas.

Mr. Slay is a native of Texas and was born in Ellis County, November 23, 1875. He is a son of T. E. and Carrie C. Slay and spent his carly days on a farm. His preliminary education was received in the public schools of Ellis County and he spent four years at the University of Texas, doing two years of academic work and taking the law course during the last two years. He graduated with the class of 1902, receiving the degree of bachelor of laws.

In 1908 Mr. Slay was married to Miss Ruby Nored, daughter of Mrs. Martha C. Nored, who has been a resident of Fort Worth for more than twenty years. Mrs. Slay early identified herself with the church and for several years has not only been active in church affairs, but has been an industrious worker in women's clubs and in the matters of charity. Mr. and Mrs. Slay have one child, William H. Slay, Jr., who is eight years of age and who is now attending the public schools of the city of Fort Worth.

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The encyclopedia of Texas, V.1, Part 78

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau Number of Pages: 1204

Author: Davis, Ellis Arthur, ed; Grobe, Edwin H., ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Dallas, Texas Development Bureau
Number of Pages: 1204