Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar [source]

Georgia
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was born in Georgia in 1798. He grew up on a cotton plantation and was a voracious reader. Though he was accepted to Princeton College, he chose not to attend. Instead he went into business, first as a merchant, then running a newspaper, but was unsuccessful at both. In 1823, he became secretary to Georgia Governor George Troup, his first foray into politics.

Tragedy
Lamar married Tabitha Jordan in 1826, but his wife’s health was poor and he soon resigned his post with Governor Troup to take care of her. Lamar reentered politics in 1829, running for state senator, but after his wife’s death in 1830, he declined to run for reelection. Instead, he turned to travel and writing, publishing some of his best known poems. After time had softened his grief, Lamar turned his attention to studying law and passed the bar in 1833. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1832 and 1834, but his brother’s suicide in 1834 set him wandering once again.

Texas
Lamar followed James Fannin, Jr., an old friend, to Texas in 1835. Lamar threw himself wholeheartedly into the Texas Revolution, writing poems supporting the cause. He had to return to Georgia to settle his affairs, but quickly returned in 1836 after the news of the Alamo and the massacre at Goliad to join the Texas army. On April 20, 1836, he was involved in a skirmish with the Mexican Army where he distinguished himself and was promoted to Colonel and given command of the cavalry. After the Battle of San Jacinto, Lamar was a vocal supporter of executing Santa Anna. He was briefly put in command of the entire Texas Army, but the men did not accept him and he quickly retired. Lamar ran for President in the first election for the Republic of Texas, but lost to Houston and became his Vice President. In 1838, with Houston ineligible and the other two candidates having committed suicide, Lamar won the Presidency almost unanimously.

President
Lamar succeeded Sam Houston as President of the Republic of Texas in 1838. Houston reportedly gave a three hour “Farewell Address,” after which Lamar was indisposed and his aide read his inaugural remarks. Lamar was a bit of a mixed bag as a president. He moved the capital to its present location in Austin (largely to get it out of Houston), and set aside land to fund higher education in Texas, what would become UT and A&M. However, he was also determined to drive the Cherokee and Comanche out of Texas, believing they needed to be exterminated to allow for white settlement. This led to several battles and massacres. Lamar also drastically drove up Texas’s debt, up to $7 million, one of the factors leading to Texas’s eventual annexation by the US. Houston was reelected in 1943, and attempted to undo much of what Lamar had done, including moving the capital back to Houston, which led to the very short Archives War. The same year, Lamar’s daughter, back in Georgia, died at only 16.

Post Presidency
Lamar retired for while to his plantation in Richmond, where he began writing poetry again. Lamar passionately defended slavery and eventually advocated for Texas’s annexation to the US because he thought it would preserve slavery in the US. He served in the US army during the Mexican-American War and as a state legislator for the first few years of Texas statehood. He remarried in 1851 to Henrietta Maffitt, and the couple had a daughter shortly thereafter. In 1857, Lamar published a poetry collection and, later that year, President Polk appointed Lamar as ambassador to Nicaragua, then simultaneously to Costa Rica. Lamar served in Managua for almost two years, before returning to Texas due to his failing health. He died in December of 1859.

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.

James Ferguson

By Bain News Service, publisher – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ggbain.16894. Public Domain, [source]

Governor
Despite having no prior experience as an elected official, James Ferguson was elected governor of Texas in 1914. Though he won reelection in 1916, rumors were already circulating about his administration and, though investigations had turned up nothing definitive, he faced strong opposition. Early in 1917, Ferguson got into a dispute with the University of Texas. Ferguson had objected to the appointment of the new president of the university, Robert Vincent, and thought that a great deal of the opposition he faced during his reelection was coming from the University of Texas. Soon after his reelection his submitted a list of faculty members he wanted fired from UT, including William Harding Mayes, a former Lt. Governor who had run against Ferguson in 1914. The Board of Regents refused. When the state budget arrived on his desk later that year, Ferguson vetoed the entire budget for the University of Texas.

Impeachment
In July of 1917, Ferguson was indicted on nine charges of mishandling state money. Ferguson responded by announcing his candidacy for a third term as governor. The Speaker of the House called for a special session to deal with the scandal, which Ferguson then legitimized by calling one himself for appropriations for UT. Instead, the House started impeachment proceedings. The House presented 21 charges against Ferguson and the Senate convicted him of 10, mostly misapplication of funds and the acceptance of money from questionable sources. However, August 25^th, the day before the verdict, Ferguson resigned, claiming the impeachment judgment did not apply to him.

First Gentleman
Ferguson would take the matter to the courts, which would uphold the impeachment, and declare him ineligible to hold office in Texas. Nonetheless, he ran unsuccessfully for governor against William Hobby, his former Lt. Governor, in 1918, for US President in 1920, and for US Senate in 1922. In 1924, he changed tack, successfully running his wife, Miriam Ferguson’s, campaign for governor, making her the second female governor in the country and the first in Texas. He would continue to run his wife’s campaigns for the next two decades, but was only successful again in 1932. Ferguson died in 1944 and is buried next to his wife in the Texas State Cemetery.