The Capitol Boycott

The current Capitol in Austin has stood for more than 130 years and has seen its share of controversies, including one before it was officially opened. The construction of the Capitol sparked a boycott and a national conversation on the use of contract labor. 

The Texas Capitol under construction, c. 1887. Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, PICA 18008.

How to Build a Capitol with No Money
In the late 1800s, Texas was out growing its Capitol, but had little ready cash. When the 1876 Constitution was written, an article was included that set aside 3 million acres in the Texas Panhandle to be used to fund the new Capitol. However, it lay unused until a fire destroyed the Capitol in 1881. At that point, the legislature found some investors, calling themselves the Capitol Syndicate, who agreed to take the land in trade for constructing the Capitol. By 1885, the Capitol Syndicate realized that the land was not nearly as profitable as they had hoped and they needed a way to bring down the cost of construction. The legislature agreed to let them use convict labor from Texas prisons.

Black Convict Laborers shaping granite near the Marble Falls quarry, c. 1885. Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, PICA 06358 [source]

Black Convict Labor
The 1880s were well into the Jim Crow era in Texas. One of the hallmarks of the Jim Crow era were laws that disproportionately punished African Americans and a justice system that did not really care if African Americans brought before the court were innocent or guilty. This led to a large population of incarcerated African American men, and it was these men that were leased to the Capitol Syndicate for work on the new capitol. Much of the South was using convict labor to replace the enslaved labor that had been used prior to the Civil War, sometimes with African Americans forced to work the same plantations they had formerly been enslaved at. The Capitol syndicate paid $0.65 per day per convict to the state to cover room and board. These men were used as stone cutters for the limestone and granite and constructed the railroad to take the granite to the building site. The local mason’s union was not happy.

A group of the Scottish Stonemasons brought to Texas to break the boycott, c. 1886. Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, C00194 [source]

The Boycott
The masons in Texas decided to boycott the Capitol building project. They felt that the use of unskilled convict labor denigrated their profession and depressed their wages. A notice circulated in Austin saying “Granite cutters of America, show this Great-I-Am, Gus Wilkie, and his Chicago syndicate, that free men will not submit to the introduction of slavery into our trade under the guise of contract convict labor, and that you will not teach convicts our trade to enrich these schemers, who care for nothing but the almighty dollar, and now seek to degrade our trade to fill their own pockets.” The masons refused to work on the Capitol unless they stopped using convict labor to quarry the stone. The subcontractor, Gus Wilkie, refused. However, the project still needed skilled masons. Wilkie sent George Berry to Scotland and to recruit stonemasons to bring back to Texas. The local masons caught wind of this and jumped into action. A law had been passed in 1885 forbidding bringing in immigrants to perform contract labor and Wilkie was about to break it. They sent union representatives to meet Berry in New York and he was brought before US District Attorney, who questioned him about the 86 men and could find no proof of wrong doing and release him. Meanwhile, the union representatives talked with the workers and found that each had a contract from Berry, in clear violation of law. Many of these workers refused to continue with the project and helped to provide the proof the US District Attorney needed. However, another boat of 62 men were on their way from Scotland, headed for Galveston. Union representatives were sent to meet the men in New York and Galveston, but the Scottish masons were unloaded in Virginia, then sent the rest of the way to Austin by rail. In July 1886, the US District Attorney filed charges against Gus Wilkie and the members of the Capitol syndicate, but, while the case wound its way through the courts, the work on the capitol continued apace, with the Scottish masons overseeing the African American convict laborers.

Continuing the Fight
It took several years for the lawsuit to finally bear fruit, and it wasn’t necessarily the fruit the masons had wanted. Only Gus Wilkie was charged for the illegal strike breakers, and he was fined $1,000 per worker – for a total of $64,000. Wilkie appealed the decision to President Harrison and, despite the pleas of the union, Harrison reduced the fine to $8,000. The US National Union exacted their own payment, requiring Wilkie to pay them $500 before they would allow union masons to work on any project he was involved in, while the International Union required $500 to remove his name from blacklisting. But during that time, the case sparked a national debate on contract labor. Meanwhile, convict labor is still widely used in Texas, though opponents continue to lobby strongly against its use, or, if it is used, for a fair wage and good working conditions for the workers.

Beauford Jester

Beauford Jester, 1949. [source]

School, War, and Law
Beauford Jester was born into a political family: his father had been lieutenant governor under Governor Culberson. Following in the tradition, Jester attended Harvard Law School, but put his studies on hold to serve in World War I as a captain in the Army. When the war ended, he returned to his studies at the University of Texas. He earned his law degree in 1920 and returned to Corsicana to start a practice and help run the family ranch. Jester served on the UT Board of Regents and, in 1933, became the youngest chair of that board. He undertook a massive building campaign, giving the UT campus many of its iconic buildings, including the UT Tower.

Campaign ad for Beauford Jester, [source]

Politics
In 1942, Jester was appointed to the Railroad Commission, a position he kept in the next election. From there, Jester campaigned for governor in the 1946 election. There was a wide field, but he won the Democratic primary and then the state election. Jester’s two terms saw a few milestones in Texas history, including the first budget over $1 million. He worked for increased funding for education, rural roads, and state parks. Jester supported anti-lynching measures and a repeal of the state poll tax, though he opposed civil rights legislation on the national level. He also supported making Texas a right-to-work state, preventing union dues from being deducted automatically from paychecks, and prohibiting mass picketing, all of which earned him a reputation as anti-union.

A Fateful Train Ride
A few months into his second term in office, Jester took the train from Austin to Houston to take advantage a vacation after the legislative session and complete what he called a “secret mission.” It had been a hectic session, with members of the legislature calling for Jester’s impeachment and Jester threatening a special session. Jester was supposed to stop at a Galveston clinic for a physical, something he needed after the stress of the session. He would never make it to his appointment. Sometime after leaving Austin late on the night of July 10th, Jester suffered a heart attack and died, presumably in his sleep. Despite traveling with several state troopers as bodyguards, Jester’s death wasn’t discovered until a porter attempted to wake him at the train’s arrival in Houston.

Allan Shivers [source]

Jester’s body was flown back to Austin, where a short funeral service was held in the Senate Chamber. It was then taken back to his home town of Corsicana where he was buried. Jester was succeeded as governor by a man with perhaps one of the most appropriate last names, Allan Shivers.

Jane McCallum

Texas’s Longest Serving Secretary of State

Portrait of Jane Y. McCallum. Image # PICB 13189, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Women’s Suffrage
Jane McCallum was a fierce proponent for women’s suffrage. While running a household and taking care of her four children, she was elected president of the Austin Women’s Suffrage association in 1915. McCallum was also well versed in dealing with the press. She wrote a suffrage column for the Austin American and the Austin Statesman as well as serving as state manager of press and publicity for the Texas state constitutional suffrage amendment. After suffrage, she headed publicity efforts for other goals of the Joint Legislative Council, a group of five women’s groups often referred to as the “Petticoat Lobby.”  With the “Petticoat Lobby,” McCallum campaigned for education, prison reform, and stronger prohibition laws. In 1926, she headed the Joint Legislative Council’s campaign for Dan Moody against the incumbent governor Miriam Ferguson. 

Jane McCallum with Texas’ Declaration of Independence, circa 1930, C06672, Chalberg Collection of Prints and Negatives.

Secretary of State
In 1927, Dan Moody appointed Jane McCallum Secretary of State, an office she would retain under Governor Ross Sterling, making her the longest serving Secretary of State and the only one to serve under two different governors. During her tenure, McCallum found an original copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence in a vault in the Capitol. She had the document restored and displayed in the Capitol, an act which she considered one her most important contributions to Texas. The document is now in the Texas Library and Archives while the decorative grille is on display in the Capitol Visitor Center in Austin.

Later Life
McCallum continued to be active in political lobbying for the rest of her life. She served as a presidential elector in 1940 and state Democratic committeewoman in 1942 and 1944. She continued writing her suffrage column, “Woman and her Ways,” which morphed to a feature on women’s issues after suffrage was achieved. She also wrote many features on important women in Texas history, such as sculptor Elisabet Ney, female founders of the US, and of Texas. Jane McCallum died in 1957 and was buried in Austin.

Elisabet Ney

By Friedrich Kaulbach – Thanks to Mrs. Fisch, Public Domain, [source]

Education and a Celebrated Career
Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elisabeth Ney was born in Münster, Westphalia, in what is today Germany, in 1833. Her father was a stonecutter and she grew up on tales of her sculptor ancestors. At 19, she announced her intent to move to Berlin and study sculpture. Her family was outraged. It was not considered proper for a girl to live by herself in a strange town or to study sculpture. Besides, art academies did not admit women. In retaliation, she went on a hunger strike. With a little help from the Bishop of Munster, she reached a compromise with her parents and headed to Munich. In 1854, Ney became the first woman to graduate from the Munich Art Academy and then headed to Berlin, to study with the celebrated Christian Daniel Rauch. In 1857, Ney set up her own studio and began a career as a celebrated portrait sculptor, sculpting busts of Otto von Bismark, Jacob Grimm, and King Ludwig II.

Liendo Plantation, 1934. Historic American Buildings Survey, James I. Campbell, Photographer March 10, 1934 VIEW OF FRONT FROM EAST. – Liendo, Farm Road 1488 and Wyatt Chapel Road Vicinity, Hempstead, HABS TEX,239-HEMP.V,1-3.tif [source]

Pause for Family
In 1863, Ney married Edmund Montgomery, a celebrated Scottish scientist. In 1871, when the Franco-Prussian was broke out, the couple immigrated to the United States, first to Georgia, then to Minnesota. In 1873, Ney traveled by herself to Texas, where she found Liendo Plantation and declared it home. Her family followed shortly after. Ney spent the next 20 years managing the plantation. By the late 1880s, Ney was calling Liendo Plantation a “lovely cursed retreat.” She had little artistic stimulation and little society, since her husband was quite happy to be a reclusive scientist. In 1891 Ney separated from her husband and went to Austin.

A Sculptor Again
In Austin, Ney built a studio she called Formosa and began taking commissions. However, she didn’t really see success until the Texas Legislature commissioned statues of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston and a grave memorial for Albert Sydney Johnson. Ney continued to sculpt and was active in the art scene of Austin until her death in 1907. In 1911, a group of Ney’s friends got together to preserve her studio and all the works therein, creating the Elisabet Ney Museum, which is still open to visitors today. Visitors to Washington, D.C. can also see a few of her works. Copies of her Austin and Houston statues represent Texas in the Statuary Hall at the National Capitol and her Lady Macbeth is on display in the National Museum of American Art.

Elisabet Ney in her Austin Studio, c. 1900. By Unknown – Stadtmuseum Münster, Public Domain, [source]

Susanna Dickinson

Messenger of the Alamo

Portrait of Susanna Dickinson (1814-1883), McArdle Collection, Texas State Library and Archives, [source]

Coming to Texas
Susanna Wilkerson Dickinson was born in Tennessee around 1814 and married to Almaron Dickinson when she was just 15. She came with him to Texas and they settled along the San Marcos River in what is now Caldwell County in 1831. When the Texas Revolution broke out, Almaron Dickinson went to fight for the Texans and wound up in San Antonio in the fall of 1835, where Susanna and their 2 year old daughter, Angelina, joined him.

At the Alamo
When the fighting resumed in February 1836, the Dickinsons moved into the Alamo. When the Alamo fell, Susanna became a widow. Santa Anna interviewed all the women and had Susanna identify all the important Texan men. He then sent her and her daughter to the Texan army with a letter from himself, warning the Texans to surrender, and with the famous “Victory or Death” letter from William Travis. Susanna provided one of the few eyewitness accounts of the Alamo siege and stood as witness for the heirs of those killed at the Alamo.

The Susanna Dickinson Museum, By Daderot – Own work, CC0, [source]

After the War
Susanna had a rough life after the war. She was hounded for the rest of her life to tell the story of the Alamo over and over. She married again, first to John Williams, who she divorced because he beat her, then to Francis Herring, who died of alcoholism, then to Peter Bellows, who divorced her on grounds of infidelity. In 1856, Susanna and 21 year old Angelina sold the land awarded to them for Almaron Dickinson’s service. Finally, in 1857, at 43, Susanna married Joseph Hannig, a prosperous cabinet maker and the couple moved to Austin. Susanna would remain with Hannig until her death in 1883. Hannig buried her in Oakwood Cemetery where he would join her in 1890, despite having remarried. Their house in Austin is now the Susanna Dickinson Museum.

The Railroad Reaches Austin

1905 view of Downtown Austin, including railroad tracks on Congress Ave. Source.

Map of Austin, Texas, 1873. Note the Railroad tracks entering town from the east at about 5th street and the old Limestone Capitol in the center. Source

Surely it was an exciting Christmas when the first train pulled into Austin, Texas on December 25th, 1871. Finally, the capitol was connected to the outside world. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad’s arrival kicked off a massive period of growth for Austin, which had been a fairly sleepy frontier town until then, despite its status as the State Capital.

The International-Great Northern Railroad would arrive in 1876, but Austin wouldn’t see the continued economic boom it had hoped for. New railroad lines redrew trade routes and largely bypassed Austin, cutting it out of the economic loop.

Samuel Whiting

Rising Tensions
Samuel Whiting was born in Connecticut, but moved to Mexican Tejas in 1825. As tensions mounted between the Texians and the Mexican government, he was involved in several gatherings where the Texians expressed their displeasure with Mexico. When war broke out in late 1836, the new provisional Texas government realized that they needed a navy. They passed a bill authorizing the purchase of several schooners, but that would take a while.

List of Officers Bearing Commissions of Letters of Marque and Reprisal, November 3, 1836, TSLAC, [source]

A Navy Out of Thin Air
With no Navy, the not-quite Republic of Texas issued Letters of Marque, or Commissions to private captains who wished to harass Mexican ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Samuel Whiting was granted six Letters of Marque to take to New Orleans and find willing Captains to give them to. He would eventually enlist the San Felipe, the William Robbins, the Terrible, the Thomas Toby, the Flash, and the Ocean. However, with little opportunity for prizes in fighting the Mexican navy, this effort was not as successful as the Texians had hoped.

Printing and Politics
After the Texas Revolution, Samuel Whiting became the public printer for the Republic of Texas, meaning that he was the official printer for things like the Journals of Congress. He also started a newspaper, the National Intelligencer, which ran from 1838 to 1839 and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Houston. When the capitol moved to Austin, so did Whiting, publishing the first edition of his new paper, the Austin City Gazette in October of 1839. Whiting supported Houston politically until the Archives War, when Whiting began publicly criticizing Houston. Things became difficult for Whiting in Texas after that and he left the country in late 1842. He moved to New York where he would run a series of businesses, including an insurance company and a tailor’s shop until his death in 1863.