USA > Texas > The history and geography of Texas as told in county names > Part 17
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ernor and when his last term expired, began practicing law in Austin, Texas. Later he removed to Houston and practiced his profession there up to the time of his death, March 7, 1906. From the time he entered State politics in 1886, up to his re- tirement as Governor his career was rather a stormy one.
He instituted many wholesome reforms in the public policies of the state, in the face of strenuous opposition by the more conservative element of the Democratic party, so that in 1892 the convention which met at Houston divided, the conservative element withdrew and nominated a full state ticket in op- position. There followed perhaps the most noted political cam- paign in the history of Texas, but he was triumphantly elect- ed by a large majority. Among the most important reforma- tory laws were those restricting alien ownership of land, the regulation of railroads by commission, and the prevention of the issuance of fictitious bonds and the restriction upon the issue of all bonds by corporations. He was the most conspicuous lead- er in the life of progressing democracy in Texas. He was buried in the City Cemetery at Austin.
JIM WELLS.
Hon. James B. Wells was born on St. Joseph Island, Aran- sas Bay, about the year 1852, his father having been in the naval employment of the United States at the time of his birth. He obtained a good education, and in 1873 entered the law de- partment of the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1874. He located at Rockport and practiced law for a time and then moved to Brownsville, where he has since lived.
He is a prominent lawyer, and although he has taken active interest in the politics of the State he has never held any po- litical office. He was for several years a District Judge in that district by appointment, and after serving one term resumed his practice at Brownsville.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
KENDALL.
George Wilkins Kendall was born on the 22nd day of August, 1809, in the village of Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, about five miles from the, then, small village of Amherst, the birth- place of Horace Greeley.
He was of Puritan ancestry, both parents having descended from early settlers who came to New England previous to 1630. His father served, as a soldier in both wars against Great Britain.
About the year 1827, he went to New York City and learned the art of printing with Horace Greeley, who had just become a journeyman printer. Kendall afterwards went to Boston, but remained only a short time, when he drifted south and ob- tained employment as a printer, on the Raleigh Register, owned by Seaton and Gales. Here he met E. A. Lumsden, his fu- ture partner, who was employed on the Register, and both left and went to Washington, D. C., where they were employed on the National Intelligencer. In 1832, Lumsden left Washington and came to New Orleans and Kendall came a few years later. In 1836 they formed a partnership under the firm name of Lumsden and Kendall, and on the 25th of January, 1837, issued the first number of the New Orleans Picayune, the whole value of the plant at the beginning, not exceeding four hundred dol- lars. It grew rapidly in public favor, and in a few years was one of the leading newspapers in New Orleans.
In 1841, when Kendall learned of the contemplated expedi- tion to Santa Fe, desiring to see the country and report his observations to the Picayune, he set out from New Orleans to
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
Texas and arrived in time to join the expedition, on June 28th, 1841. He was taken prisoner and suffered all the hardships of the Texans for about two years, although he was a citizen of the United States, and his mission that of a newspaper cor- respondent only.
After his release from prison he returned to New Orleans to resume work on the Picayune. His contributions to this pa- per on his adventures created a widespread demand for their publication in book form. The result was his publication of the "Santa Fe Expedition," by Harper Bros., in 1844, and an- other edition in London in 1845. It consisted of two volumes, and within eight years forty thousand copies were sold, accord- ing to a note in "Raines' Bibliography of Texas." Although this assured him an ample fortune, he was ready and anxious to accompany the United States army into Mexico, and in 1846 he promptly attached himself to General Taylor's army on the Rio Grande, and was tendered by General Taylor a position on his staff. He actively participated in the battles of Taylor's campaign, and after the battle of Buena Vista joined General Scott's army at Vera Cruz and accompanied it as aide-de-camp of General Worth, captured a Mexican flag during a charge in one of the main engagements, and was complimented in an es- pecial manner. This flag was on exhibition at the New Or- leans Exposition in 1884.
These battles were reported to the Picayune in a most vivid manner. Becoming enamored of the climate of Western Texas he made his home at New Braunfels, where he carefully com- piled accounts of the principal battles of the Mexican War. He then went to Paris, France, and engaged a celebrated artist to illustrate his work. While in Paris he met Miss Adeline de Valcourt, a lady of rare accomplishments and great beauty. They were married in 1854, and made an extensive tour of Eu- rope, and never losing an opportunity of giving the benefit of his observations, he sent vivid letters to the Picayune.
The building occupied by the Picayune was destroyed by fire in 1850. It had then grown to be easily the leading paper of the South. A new four story building of solid granite was erected in its stead. Upon his return with his bride after a
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short stay in New Orleans, devoting his time to the interests of the paper, he returned to Texas and made his home at New Braunfels. In 1857 he purchased a large tract of land situ- ated in what is now Kendall County, about twenty-five miles northwest of San Antonio, to which he moved with his family in 1857 and improved it according to his own taste, regardless of expense. Here he spent the remainder of his days, going back and forth to New Orleans in the interest of the Picayune, in which he retained a proprietary interest. He engaged in farming on a small scale, and in live stock. He spared no ex- pense in introducing into Texas the best bred animals of Europe, principally sheep, and soon became the most success- ful sheep raiser in the Southwest. He contributed many ar- ticles to the Picayune, and the Texas Almanac on farming and live stock.
He was urged by friends to allow the use of his name as a candidate for Governor, but promptly declined to enter the po- litical arena. Being past the age of fifty at the beginning of the Civil War, he remained on his ranch during the conflict, and took no part in it, directly or indirectly. His communica- tion was cut off from the Picayune during the latter half of the period.
He devoted most of his means and time to supplying the needs of families of men absent in the Confederate Army, and organized and armed the old men and boys of the region for protection against marauding Indians.
At the first opportunity after war was over, he went to New Orleans, to find the equipment of the Picayune much run down, and immediately went to New York and purchased a new out- fit. While on this visit he saw Horace Greeley, who warmly received him and entertained him while in the city. He then visited the scenes of his boyhood in Hillsboro County, New Hampshire, where he met his kinsman and old friend of the Mexican War memory, ex-President Pierce, living in quiet re- tirement.
He then returned to Texas and died on his ranch, October 21, 1867, and was buried there. His partnership in the Picayune
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continued for more than forty years. The paper survived un- til April 25, 1914.
Upon his tomb is inscribed, "He was Poet, Journalist, Au- thor and farmer; eminent in all." He lived to see his name hon- ored by the creation of Kendall County in 1862.
MORRIS.
W. W. Morris was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, in 1805, and he was there reared and educated. About the year 1840 he removed to Alabama, where he taught school and studied law. After practicing his profession in that state he came to Texas, in 1849, and lo- cated near Henderson, in Rusk County. He practiced in the courts of Marshall, Gilmer, Quit- man, Nacogdoches, San Augus- tine, Carthage and adjoining counties, and in the higher courts of Texas. He served two terms in the Legislature, and in his later years gave much of his time and money to the construc- tion of railways in that part of Texas. He died at his home near Henderson, in Rusk County, June 3, 1883.
The writer's authority for the naming of this county for Hon. W. W. Morris is Sayles, in a note to the article on coun- ties and county boundaries. Since it has been stoutly contended that the county was named for another eminent jurist, and since there is nothing in the act creating the county to deter- mine the matter, a sketch of Hon. Richard Morris is given.
Richard Morris was born in Hanover County, Virginia, De- cember 27, 1815; was educated at the Brooks High School in Richmond and in the University of Virginia and admitted to the bar of that state in 1838, and in the same year came to Texas and located at Galveston. In the fall of 1841 President Lamar
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appointed him to the office of District Judge, which at the time made him a member of the Supreme Court ex-officio. He died August 19, 1844, during an epidemic of yellow fever in Gal- veston.
REAGAN.
John H. Reagan was born October 8, 1818, in Sevier County, Tennessee. He was a student at Nancy Academy, Sevierville, Boyd's Creek Academy, and at the Southwestern Seminary at Marysville. He came to Texas in 1839, joined General Rusk's regiment and, July 15 and 16, par- ticipated in the battles with the Cherokees and other Indians. In the fall of 1839 he was appointed deputy surveyor in that land district and held the position four years, al- ternating his duties as surveyor with work as a tutor for the children of a private family. He was elected Captain in the militia and Justice of the Peace in 1842. In 1843 he was with General Tar- rant in an expedition to the cross timbers against the Indians, and in the same year was Captain of a company organized to suppress the trouble between the Regulators and Moderators in East Texas. He engaged in farming and stock raising in Kauf- man County in 1844, at which time, having studied law, he ob- tained a temporary license to practice. When the County of Henderson was organized he was elected Chief Justice of the county and Lieutenant Colonel of the militia, and in 1847 was elected to the Legislature. In 1849 he was given full license to practice law and was in the active practice until 1852, when he was elected District Judge for a term of six years. While holding court at Kaufman he was prevailed upon to accept the
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
nomination for a seat in the United States Congress, with Judge Lemuel Dale Evans for an opponent on the Know-Nothing ticket. There ensued one of the most exciting canvasses in the political history of the State. He was triumphantly elected. He was re-elected in 1859 and was in the discharge of his duties when the Civil War began. He was a delegate to the State Secession Convention in 1861, and was at the Provisional Con- gress which met at Montgomery, on March 6, 1861. He was chosen Postmaster General of the Southern Confederacy and held that position until 1865. After abandoning Richmond he and other members of the official family of Jefferson Davis were pursued and captured by Federal troops near Irwinville, Ga. He was imprisoned in Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, and was released in the summer of 1865. He returned to Texas and went to work at manual labor on his farm. While so engaged he was tendered the position of Military Governor of Texas, but declined. Upon the restoration of the courts he resumed the practice of law at Palestine. His political disabilities hav- ing been removed he was elected to Congress in 1874 and was a member of the Constitutional convention in 1875. He was suc- cessively re-elected to Congress from 1874 to 1888, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1887. He took the lead while in Congress in the interstate commerce legislation, and at the earnest request of Governor Hogg, accepted the chairmanship of the Railroad Commission of Texas. He voluntarily retired from political life in 1903, went to his home at Palestine and spent the remainder of his life in writing his "Memoirs." He died on his plantation in the suburbs of Palestine March 6, 1905.
REAL.
This county was named in honor of Justus Real, Senator rep- resenting the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District of Texas, com- posed of the counties of Bexar, Bandera, Kendall, Kerr, and Gillespie. He was born in Kerr County, Texas, May 7, 1860. After taking advantage of such educational opportunities as this part of the sparsely settled county afforded he entered the
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Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas, and attended the sessions of 1883 and 1884. Since that time he has been a successful business man and in 1911 was elected to the State Senate as a Republican against a popular Democrat.
RUNNELS.
Hiram G. Runnels was born in Hancock County, Georgia, December 17, 1796. He moved to Mississippi Territory at an early age and taught school. He served for a short time in the army, fighting Indians. In 1817-18 he was a member of the convention that framed the first Constitution of the State of Mississippi. In 1822 he was elected Auditor of Public Ac- counts and served several years in that capacity. In 1829 he was elected to the Mississippi Legislature, and in 1830 was appointed receiver of public revenues. In 1831 he was a candi- date for Governor, but was defeated by a small majority; he was again a candidate for Governor in 1833 and was elected. In 1835 he was a candidate for re-election and defeated. In 1836 he became president of the Union Bank for a year, and for some animadversion upon his management he caned Governor McNutt upon the streets of Jackson. For a similar reason he fought a duel with Volney E. Howard, editor of the Mississip- pian, in 1840. In 1842 he came to Texas and engaged in plant- ing on the Brazos. Later he represented Brazoria and Galves- ton Counties in the State Senate. He moved to Houston about the year 1855 and was again elected to the State Senate. He died in Houston, Texas, December 17, 1857, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in that city.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
SCHLEICHER.
Gustave Schleicher was born in Darmstadt, Germany, No- vember 29, 1823. He was educated at the University of Gies- sen and chose the profession of civil engineer, and after grad- uation was engaged in several works of internal improvement in Europe. In 1847, in company with thirty-nine former students of German universities, he formed what was known as the "Colony of Forty," and pur- chased a large body of land in what is now Llano and other counties, where they engaged in farming and stock raising upon the most scientific methods ; but the location was then beyond the settled portion of the country, and Indian depredations and other causes soon rendered the enterprise impracticable. With a number of his associates he moved to San Antonio in 1850, and there he soon mastered the English language, and in 1853 was elected a member of the lower house of the Legislature, more to get an inside view of American institutions and cus- toms than for any honor or emolument on his part. At the close of his term, in 1854, he was chosen surveyor of the Bexar land district, an area of country larger than New England. After serving in this capacity five years he was, in 1859, elected a member of the State Senate. When the Civil War began, in 1861, he entered the engineer corps and served in the Confederate Army with the rank of Captain throughout the war. At the close of the war he engaged in railroad work, lay- ing out and superintending the construction of the railroad from Cuero to Indianola. He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, re-elected to the Forty-fifth and again to the Forty- sixth. He died January 10, 1879, in Washington, D. C. His remains were removed to San Antonio and buried there.
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He was one of the most cultured men in the history of Texas. Being a close student of political economy, his carefully pre- pared addresses were always educative and upon a high plane and models of literary form. In summing up his qualities, President Garfield said, "He has done justice to the scholarship which Germany gave him and the large and comprehensive ideas with which life in the new world inspired him." Senator Bayard of Delaware said of him: "It has been said to me more than once how admirable would Schleicher have been as a Cab- inet officer, and what a loss to our country it is that his powers and talents for administration could not have been exempli- fied in the highest office of the government."
TERRELL.
Alexander Watkins Terrell was born in Patrick County, Vir- ginia, November 23, 1827. His parents moved to Cooper County, Missouri, in 1832, and he obtained his primary edu- cation there. He entered the University of Missouri and, fin- ishing his course there, he began the study of law at Booneville and was admitted to the bar in 1848. He located at St. Joseph and practiced law until 1852, when he came to Texas and lo- cated at Austin. Five years later he was elected District Judge of the Second District; served as such until his term expired. Be- ing a judicial officer, he took no prominent part in the political agitation immediately preceding the secession of the State. At the expiration of his second term as District Judge, in 1863, he entered the Confederate Army as Lieutenant Colonel of the Thirty-fourth Texas Regiment (cav- alry) and was soon promoted to the rank of Colonel and com- manded the regiment until near the close of the war, partici- pating in the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and other en-
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
gagements in the campaign against Banks, in Louisiana. In 1865 he was promoted to the position of Brigadier General, and was in command of a brigade at the close of the war. In company with General Magruder and many other prominent Confederates he went to Mexico, but soon returned. He en- tered the practice of law at Houston, but owing to the unsettled condition of the courts he retired to his plantation on the Brazos, in Robertson County, and for four years was eminently successful as a planter with the new system of free labor. In 1872 he moved to Austin and formed a partnership with Judge A. S. Walker in the practice of law. In 1875 he was selected to the State Senate and re-elected in 1879 and 1882. At the urgent solicitation of his fellow citizens he was later elected as a member of the lower house of the Legislature, in all serv- ing sixteen years as a legislator. He was the author of many of the most salutary laws now on our statute books, two of the most conspicuous and far-reaching being our jury law and what is known as the "Terrell Election Law." His portrait hangs in the Hall of Representatives at the State Capitol. By a standing vote of that body, in presenting his portrait, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee voiced the sentiment of the people of Texas when, among other things, he said. "Judge Terrell has been the author of more good laws for Texas than any other man, living or dead." Besides his active career as a lawmaker, he was for some years reporter of the Supreme Court decisions, and reported the decisions of that court embraced in Volumes 52 to 76 inclusive, and in connection with Judge A. S. Walker, in Volumes 38 to 51, inclusive. During the last administration of President Cleveland he represented the United States as Minister to Turkey. He died while on a visit to Mineral Wells, Texas, September 9, 1912, and was buried in Austin.
WILLACY.
This county was named in honor of J. G. Willacy, who was born in Kentucky. He removed to Texas and located at Cor- pus Christi. He represented this district in the lower house of the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Legislatures, and the Senate in the Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Thirty-second and Thirty- fifth Legislatures. He is a farmer.
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YOAKUM.
Henderson Yoakum was born in Claiborne County, Tennessee, September 6, 1810. He studied in the common schools until prepared to take a collegiate course, and on July 1, 1828, en- tered the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated and was made a bre- vet Second Lieutenant July 1, 1832. After serving in the Black Hawk expedition he resigned from the army March 31, 1832, and was married in the same year in Roane County, Tennes- see, and removed to Murfrees- boro, where he studied law and entered the active practice of the profession. In 1836 he entered the military service again as Captain of a company in Gen- eral Gaines' command in Louisi- ana. In 1839 he was elected to the State Senate of Tennessee. In October, 1848, he came to Texas and located at Huntsville. In May, 1846, he enlisted in a company of riflemen and was elected First Lieutenant. He went to the front and served throughout General Taylor's cam- paign in the Mexican War. At the close of the Mexican War he returned to Huntsville and resumed the practice of law. In 1853 he established a country home a few miles from Hunts- ville and devoted himself to completing his history of Texas. In November, 1855, he visited Houston for the purpose of de- livering a Masonic address, and on the 30th of that month died suddenly at the old Capitol building. "Yoakum's History of Texas" is known and consulted by writers of history the world over, and regarded as the standard for the period which it covers.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
CHAPTER XV.
THE WAR BETWEEN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE UNION-1861-1865.
CONFEDERATE MONUMENT, CAPITOL GROUNDS, AUSTIN, TEX.
The soldiers and statesmen of the Southern Confederacy who have been honored by county names are :
Camp Lee
Stonewall
Val Verde
Ector
Randall
Sutton
Winkler
Gregg
Reeves
Terry
Young
Hood
Scurry Tom Green
Jeff Davis
Stephens
Upton
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CAMP.
John La Fayette Camp was born on a farm adjacent to Ely- ton (now a suburb of Birmingham), Ala., in 1820; attended the common schools and at the age of twenty graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knox- ville. He removed to Texas and lo- cated at Gilmer, in Upshur County, where he taught school and prac- ticed law. He married in 1851 and continued the practice of law up to 1861. He was then elected Captain of a company from Upshur County and joined the Confederate Army. When the Fourteenth Texas Regi- ment was organized he was elected Colonel, and in that capacity served through the entire period of the war; he was twice wounded severely, first at Murfrees- boro, Tenn., in the right shoulder, and afterward at Altoona Heights, Ga., was seriously wounded in the right leg. He was twice captured and imprisoned for many months. After the war he returned to Texas and was elected a member of the Con- stitutional convention of 1866 and State Senator in 1874. He became District Judge in 1878, and was appointed a member of the Board of Regents of the State University, but owing to ill health could not serve. In 1884 he was appointed Land Commissioner to Arizona. At the end of his term he moved to San Antonio and after a lingering illness died in July, 1891.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
ECTOR.
M. D. Ector was born in Putman County, Ga., February 28, 1822. He was educated at La Grange, Ga., and at Center College, Kentucky. He began the practice of law in his native county in 1845, and in the same year was elected to the Legisla- ture in that State. He came to Texas in 1849 and located at Henderson, where he practiced law. He was elected and served in the Texas Legislature in 1855. In 1861 he enlisted as a private and soon afterward was appointed Adjutant by Colonel (afterward General) Hogg. Af- ter the battle of Shiloh he was made a Colonel for gallantry on the field, and two weeks later was made a Brigadier General. He was in the battles of Chicka- mauga, Murfreesboro and other engagements, and while fighting near Atlanta on the 28th of July, 1864, he received a wound which necessitated the amputation of his left leg. When sufficiently re- covered from the operation he reported for duty and was assigned to the command of troops at Mobile. He returned to Texas after the war. He was elected District Judge, but after about a year's service he was removed, along with other officers in the Throck- morton administration, upon the pretense of his being an impedi- ment to reconstruction. He then removed to Marshall and prac- ticed law. In 1874 he was appointed District Judge by Gov- ernor Coke. When the Court of Appeals was created, in 1875, he was made a Justice of that body, and in 1876 selected as Chief Justice by his associates. During a session of the court at Tyler he died in that city October 20, 1879.
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