Posted 11:27 pm Monday, July 26, 2010
2 Governors To Be Honored With Markers
By CASEY MURPHY
Staff Writer
One man was the first Texas native to serve as governor of the Lone Star State. The other succeeded a fellow Tylerite for the governorship.
Staff Writer
One man was the first Texas native to serve as governor of the Lone Star State. The other succeeded a fellow Tylerite for the governorship.
On Thursday, two governors who hailed from Tyler and served in the late 1800s -- James Stephen Hogg and Oran Milo Roberts -- will be honored with Half Mile of History stones during an unveiling ceremony at 10 a.m. at Gallery Main Street, 110 W. Erwin St.
The Half Mile of History is comprised of permanent outdoor markers in a half-mile loop around the square. The stones pay tribute to historic people, places and events in Tyler.
Hogg, the first Texas native to serve as governor of the state in 1891, advocated the establishment of the Railroad Commission, called for the permanent establishment of rotation in office, the prohibition of nepotism, equality of taxation, the suppression of organized lobbying in Austin, steps to make "corporate control of Texas" impossible and helped enact open records that would "disclose every official act … to the end that everyone should know that in Texas, public office is the center of public conscience and that no graft, no crime, no public wrong shall ever stain or corrupt our state," according to the nomination letter submitted by Tyler Main Street Director Beverly Abell.
Hogg was born March 24, 1851, near Rusk. His father, Brig. Gen. Joseph Lewis Hogg died at the head of his command in 1862 and his mother, Lucanda, died the following year. Hogg and four siblings were left to run the family's plantation. He spent almost a year in 1866 going to school in Alabama before working as a typesetter at a Rusk newspaper. Gradually, the family estate had to be sold to pay taxes and buy food, clothes and books while the brothers prepared themselves to earn a living by agriculture and practicing law.
While helping the sheriff in Quitman, a group of outlaws lured Hogg over the county line, ambushed him and shot him in the back. He recovered and returned to the newspaper business in Tyler before running his own newspapers in Longview and Quitman from 1871 to 1873. He served as justice of the peace in Quitman from 1873 to 1875, while studying law and earning his law license. He and his wife Sallie Stinson had four children.
Hogg received his only defeat for a run for public office in 1876, when he ran against John S. Griffith for a seat in the Texas Legislature. He was elected Wood County attorney in 1878 and served as district attorney for the 7th District from 1880 to 1884, when he became known as the "most aggressive and successful district attorney in the state."
In the national campaign of 1884, he won enough black votes from the Republicans to make Smith County a Democratic stronghold, the letter states. Despite a push for Hogg to run for Congress, he instead entered into private practice in Tyler.
In 1886, he was elected Texas attorney general. He sought to enforce laws providing that railroads and land corporations sell their holdings to settlers within certain time limits and succeeded in breaking up the Texas Traffic Association, formed by the roads to pool traffic, fix rates and control competing lines in violation of the laws. He forced "wildcat" insurance companies to quit the state and aided legitimate businesses. He helped to write the second state antitrust law in the nation and defended the Texas Drummer Tax Law before the U.S. Supreme Court, but lost.
Hogg forced the restoration of Texas' railroad headquarters and shops, and gradually compelled the railroads to respect Texas laws. He advocated the establishment of the Railroad Commission and was elected governor on that platform in 1890.
He served as governor from 1891 to 1895 and did much to strengthen public respect for law enforcement, defended the Texas claim to Greer County and championed five major pieces of legislation. The "Hogg Laws" included establishing the Railroad Commission, the railroad stock and bond law cutting down on watered stock, the law forcing land corporations to sell off their holdings in 15 years, the Alien Land Law which checked further grants to foreign corporations to get the land into the hands of resident settlers and the act restricting the amount of indebtedness by bond issues that county and municipal groups could legally undertake. To encourage investments in Texas, he traveled to several states and solicited for the welfare of the common schools, The University of Texas and Texas A&M University.
He never sought another public office but continued to champion progressive reforms.
Hogg died on March 3, 1906, in Houston and was buried in Austin.
ROBERTS
Roberts spent years in Tyler during the 1800s as a Texas Supreme Court justice, raised troops here while serving as a Confederate officer and represented Smith County as president of the Secession Convention. He succeeded Gov. Richard B. Hubbard, of Tyler, in 1879.
Roberts spent years in Tyler during the 1800s as a Texas Supreme Court justice, raised troops here while serving as a Confederate officer and represented Smith County as president of the Secession Convention. He succeeded Gov. Richard B. Hubbard, of Tyler, in 1879.
Part of the "Tyler Gang," made up of Texas governors Roberts, Hubbard and Hogg, Roberts served on the Texas Supreme Court, sometimes in Tyler, and was one of the founders of the Texas State Historical Association, for which he served as its first president.
Roberts was born in North Carolina in 1815 and grew up in Alabama, attending the University of Alabama, before moving to Texas and practicing law in Nacogdoches. During the Republic of Texas era, Roberts was appointed to the courts to serve as a district judge.
After Texas received its "statehood" and Tyler was developed, Roberts earned a seat on the Texas Supreme Court and established a part-time residence here in 1857. Roberts owned the long block on the west side of South Broadway Avenue, south of Elm Street, and had a home there in the 1850s and 1860s.
Roberts was well known in judicial circles for advice and consultations to lawyers and was probably most famous for his involvement in the Secession Convention. Roberts was sent to the convention as a delegate from Tyler and was elected president of the convention, which played a part in taking Texas out of the Union to join the Confederacy.
He returned to Tyler to raise troops for the war effort, and he served as a Confederate officer at various locations until he was elected Texas chief justice in 1864.
D
uring Reconstruction, Roberts qualified to take the Oath of Amnesty and also was elected as a delegate of Smith County to the Reconstruction Convention in Austin to help set up the new state Constitution. He was chosen as senator-elect from Texas, but was denied a seat in Washington D.C., because of the radical reconstruction situation after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. No appropriation for the expenses of federal legislators was made and Roberts' wife had to sell their Tyler home and move to a smaller house on the outskirts of town on Claude Street to raise money.
uring Reconstruction, Roberts qualified to take the Oath of Amnesty and also was elected as a delegate of Smith County to the Reconstruction Convention in Austin to help set up the new state Constitution. He was chosen as senator-elect from Texas, but was denied a seat in Washington D.C., because of the radical reconstruction situation after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. No appropriation for the expenses of federal legislators was made and Roberts' wife had to sell their Tyler home and move to a smaller house on the outskirts of town on Claude Street to raise money.
Returning to Texas, places to practice law were scarce, so Roberts moved to Gilmer to teach law and agriculture classes before practicing law again in Shelby County and moving back to Tyler in 1873, where he went into a partnership with two other judges.
Some Tylerites suggested Roberts run for governor, but a judge from Waco was elected with Hubbard as lieutenant governor. After being appointed chief justice, Roberts participated in many legal decisions that would form precedent in Texas law. Later, when the governor from Waco resigned to serve as a senator, Hubbard filled out the term.
At the next election, instead of nominating Hubbard for governor, the Democratic Convention settled on Roberts as a "compromise candidate." He was fiscally conservative and was called the "pay as you go" governor, Tyler Librarian Chris Albertson said. He served as governor from 1879-1883.
Later, he served as the head of The University of Texas Law School, where he was called the "Old Alcalde." He helped found the Texas State Historical Association and was its first president, writing many articles and papers before he died in Austin on May 19, 1898 at the age of 83. He is buried at the Oak Wood Cemetery in Austin.
Ms. Abell also nominated Roberts for the Half Mile of History honor.
