Joseph Speight and the Waco Suspension Bridge

One of the most famous landmarks in Central Texas is the Waco Suspension Bridge in McLennan County.  Waco was founded on the banks of the Brazos River just below where it is joined by the Bosque River.  For years, the only crossing nearby was Shapley Ross' ferry that connected what is now East Waco, connecting with the road extending to Dallas, to downtown Waco at the extension of Austin Avenue to the river, connecting a main route to Marlin.  It was also one of several Brazos River crossings of the famed Chisholm Trail.

After the Civil War, certain Waco residents including J. W. Speight, J. B. Earle, H. M. Hood, A. J. Buchanan, O. J. Downs and J. M. Burney held a preliminary discussion to consider a project to build a bridge to span the Brazos in Waco.  Following this discussion, they drew up a petition to the Texas Legislature to grant them a charter to undertake the project.  On November 1, 1886, a charter was granted allowing the group to build an operate such a bridge for 25 years.  The bridge could be funded as a toll bridge and would have a limited monopoly in that no other bridge could be built within 5 miles of Waco.

Speight then called a meeting to be held May 8, 1868 that was attended by himself, Earle, Downs and Burney and they resolved to create the Waco Bridge Company.  It would be stock company, funded by a subscription of 2,500 shares offered for sale to the public at $20/share totaling $50,000.  In the two weeks that followed, the initial offering was subscribed and the first meeting of the Company was held May 25, 1868.  57 individuals signed the minutes including Speight, his daughters Jessie and Sally and future governor Richard Coke.  Speight was nominated to serve as President but Coke nominated and spoke in favor of J. T. Flint who would be elected president of the company.  Initial directors were Speight, Trice, Coke and Wallace.  Coke was a distant relative of Speight's by virtue of the fact that he was married to Mary Evans Horne, whose brother L. L. Horne married Ophelia Jenkins .  It is unknown whether Coke's lack of support disappointed Speight, but there is no obvious evidence that it did.  Speight, Prather and Owens were appointed to draw up bylaws and Speight made a motion that Flint also be added to this group.  Flint opined that he felt the bridge could be built for $40,000.

Things progressed rapidly from this point with the selection of the New Jersey firm of John A. Roebling as designer of the bridge.  Flint was authorized to go to New York City to meet with the firm, set up the contract with Roebling and order the initial materials.  Engineer Thomas M. Griffith was engaged to head up the project.

The location chosen was in the same general area as the Shapley Ross Ferry boarding sites.  On the west side the connecting street was redesignated as Bridge Street.  About three acres were acquired on the east side from Earle's Waco Manufacturing Company.  Bids were let for the masonry portion of the contract and a local company named Trice Brothers was chosen as the supervising contractor.  Trice also furnished the brick and the McCrary and O'Neal company was engaged to furnish the wooden planking.  Engineer George B. Dutton who was also serving as Waco City Engineer was engaged to string the cable.

On March 15, 1869, a capital call of the last 20% of the initial stock subscription was made when it became obvious that costs were going to exceed the initial subscription of $50,000.  Flint was authorized to obtain a loan for another $15,000, which he did.  In addition, the company authorized a second subscription of stock to raise another $25,000.  Construction progressed toward its conclusion.

One expenditure noted was the approval of $13.13 for the purchase of whiskey for the bridge hands as the project neared its end.  The bridge was completed by December 1969 at a total cost of about $141,000 and the first tolls were collected January 1, 1870.  Funding came from the initial and secondary stock subscriptions and from bonds and loans.  The project included the toll house on the west side which still stands today.

Tolls were collected for a few years, but almost immediately opposition to the toll feature began to be voiced, despite the fact that the tolls were needed to pay for the operation and cost of the bridge.  The bridge company continued to own and operate the facility for more than a decade, though one by one the initial officers went on to other pursuits or left due to illness, death or other reasons.  Flint resigned in November, 1873; Coke resigned because he had been elected governor of Texas; Speight died in 1888.

Other notable events in the timeline included a petition by W. A. Taylor to extend his streetcar line over the bridge, which petition was denied.  In 1878, Thomas Griffith was reengaged to fix a sag that had developed in the cabling.  In 1884 and again in 1885, there were floods that came close to submerging the downtown area with the flood in 1885 being noted as the worst flood in the short history of the town.

Opposition to the toll feature reached its peak in the 1880s.  After discussions, effective September 1, 1889, McLennan County offered to purchase 100% of the stock of the Waco Bridge Company.  The offer was accepted and control of the structure was effectively transferred on that date. The cost to the County was equal the shareholders' investment of $75,000.  Simultaneous with the above transaction, McLennan County conveyed the structure to the City of Waco for $1 and the bridge has since been operated without tolls.

The Roebling firm would go on to complete the famed Brooklyn Bridge.  In the meantime, it completed other suspension bridges, but had the wire rope design not worked in Waco, the Brooklyn Bridge might have had to be redesigned.  To the untrained eye, the similarities between the two structures are easily noted, though the Brooklyn Bridge is clearly a much larger and more complex project.  In contrast to the Waco Suspension Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge took 13 years to complete, at an estimated cost of $15,500,000.

Over the years, the wood planking was upgraded and replaced.  In 1913, the City replaced the older steel with higher gauge steel to handle the heavier traffic and trusses were added to accommodate pedestrian traffic.  The brick towers were rebuilt and stuccoed, giving the structure virtually the appearance it has today.  The bridge was designated in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 on its centennial anniversary.  It was retired from vehicular traffic the following year but is still in continuous use for other traffic and events.

Note: This article draws heavily on the fine work done by the late Roger N. Conger, who obtained and studied the minutes of the Waco Bridge Company and added his own research.

© 2015, all rights reserved.

Dr. George W. Truett's accidental shooting of Police Chief Arnold

George W. Truett was the husband of the former Josephine Jenkins of Waco, the daughter of Warwick Hoxie Jenkins.  George and Josephine were introduced by Dr. and Mrs. B. H. Carroll. 

117 years ago today, the paragraph below appeared in the Bryan, Texas Eagle:

The Gun of Rev. George W. Goes Off Accidentally While Hunting.

“Dallas, Feb. 5.-J. C. Arnold, chief of police of this city, was accidentally shot yesterday near Cleburne, Tex., while hunting, by Rev. George W. Truett, pastor of the First Baptist church here. The gun of the minister was accidentally discharged, sending a load of birdshot into Captain Arnold’s leg. The wound is not considered dangerous.”

George Washington Truett (1867-1944) was the long time pastor of First Baptist Church. He was born on a farm in North Carolina. He and some of his brothers moved to Whitewright, Texas in 1889 where he joined the local Baptist church and shortly thereafter accepted a call to the ministry. He’d been educated at Hayesville Academy in North Carolina and had served as a teacher before coming to Texas and in 1891 accepted a job to serve as financial secretary of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The school was heavily in debt and Truett is credited with raising $92,000 to pay off Baylor’s entire indebtedness. In 1893, he then enrolled as a student, graduating in 1897 with a bachelor’s (AB) degree.
He’d served as a student pastor at East Waco Baptist Church and in September 1897, he accepted the pastorate of First Baptist Church, where he would remain until his death from bone cancer in July 1944.

James C. Arnold was born and raised near Wellington, Georgia in 1851 to W. B. and Martha Arnold. He left home to accept work on a farm in Mississippi in 1866. In 1869, he moved to Upshur County, Texas to work for the a son of one of the farm’s owners who operated Camp’s Ferry on the Sabine River. Arnold worked at the Ferry until a year after it was sold in 1871. He then joined a meat contracting company that supplied beef to businesses building the first rail lines from Longview west. From there he moved to Fort Worth to be engaged in the same business, but the railroad suspended operations. He would remain in Fort Worth in the grocery business until moving to Dallas in 1874 where he would briefly work in the meat and hide business until he was hired onto the police force of Dallas.

Arnold served as a patrolman until 1879 when he was appointed deputy city marshall. He continued to rise through the ranks until he was elected as Chief in 1881. As chief he was well regarded and was reelected many times. At the time of the accidental shooting, he had been a part of the Dallas police force for 24 years.

On February 4, 1898, Truett, Arnold (a member of First Baptist church) and Rev. G. W. Banner set out in a buggy to hunt birds at the invitation of former Sheriff Boyd of Johnson County near Cleburne. In the afternoon, Truett’s shotgun accidentally discharged, hitting Chief Arnold in the leg. Truett and Banner quickly tied off a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood. They were successful in getting him to local Dr. Harris who treated the wound. Satisfied that Chief Arnold could make the trip back to Dallas on the scheduled Santa Fe train, they brought Arnold to his home at 451 Commerce Street. At first, Arnold’s condition appeared to be stable, given the wounds, but they called in a local doctor for a consultation. Arnold was given fluids to compensate for the loss of blood, but late on the afternoon of Feb. 5, he began to decline and he died at his home at about 8 PM that evening.

The official cause of death was listed as a heart attack, but Truett blamed himself for the accident and was deeply depressed at the loss of his close friend. Truett had decided to leave the ministry, but was persuaded by friends and church members to continue, which he ultimately did. Truett would later reveal that he had also received a vision of Jesus standing beside him saying “Be not afraid, George. You are my man from now on.” Truett would go on to serve as pastor of First Baptist for a total of 47 years before succumbing to cancer. When he was no longer able to preach because of his final illness, he offered to resign, but he was so beloved by the congregation that they refused to accept his resignation.

To learn more about Truett, please see George W. Truett: A Biography by Powhatan W. James and Thy Will Be Done: A Biography of George W. Truett by Keith E. Durso.

Also please see the web page below for more information about Chief Arnold: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jwheat/obits/obits98. 

More images from Hobbs Army Air Field, WWII

Dr. Oscar M. Marchman, Jr. was a physician at the Hobbs Army Air Field in Hobbs, New Mexico during WWII.  He was a grandson of Warwick Hoxie Jenkins.

Hobbs Army Airfield

Above is a program from a Christmas Day dinner at the Hobbs Army Air Field in New Mexico.  Dr. Oscar Marchman, Jr. was a grandson of Warwick Jenkins and was stationed at the Hobbs NM Army Airfield during WWII.  He is listed at the top of the roster in the second image.  Dr. Marchman was a surgeon on the base and brought back with him many interesting stories about his time in New Mexico, including serving as a doctor for the base wrestling matches.

Judson Cicero and Warwick Jenkins - Civil War

We plan to write more about this as information is discovered but Judson Cicero Jenkins (1839-1891) was the half-brother of Warwick Jenkins.  Cicero served in the 8th Texas Cavalry along with B. H. Carroll, a name that is familiar to Texas Baptists.  After the war, Cicero practiced law with Warwick in Waco until Cicero died in 1891.  After Cicero's death, his widow Julia Dean Jenkins received a Confederate pension from the U. S. Government.  On the roster of the 8th Texas Cavalry was a W. H. Jenkins, but this was William Herndon "Bill" Jenkins, we believe, a neighbor of the Carrolls from Caldwell, Texas.

Warwick was eight years younger than Cicero, having been born in 1847.  He was 14 1/2 when the Civil War began and Warwick was living with his mother, Harriet Ann Daniel Jenkins, in Waco.  To the best of our knowledge, he joined the 15th Texas Infantry two years later and served under Joseph W. Speight.  Annie Jenkins Sallee writes that Warwick served in Company G (a cavalry unit) under Waller and within that Company, in Green's Brigade.  At this point, we have not found his name on a roster.  Though the activities of the 15th Texas Infantry are well documented, we have not yet found a great deal of personal information other than that of the officers: the Speights, Harrisons and some others.  They were all family friends and later fellow members of First Baptist Church of Waco.

Many of the families were eventually related by marriage.  B. H. Carroll married Hallie Harrison after the death of Ellen Bell Carroll, his wife of many years.  Warwick Jenkins married Jessie Speight, daughter of Joseph W. Speight.

Governor Richard Coke (1829-1897)

Governor Coke is related to the Jenkins family by marriage.  He was the husband of Mary Evans Horne of the pioneer McLennan County Horne family in 1852 and was the brother-in-law of Ophelia Jenkins Horne.  Coke was born in Virginia and after graduating from William and Mary, he moved to Waco, Texas in 1850 to practice law.   

In the tumultuous early years of Texas statehood that followed, Coke established his law practice and began to venture into public office.  Coke served as a delegate to the convention that was to vote for succession from the United States in 1961.  Shortly thereafter, the Civil War began and he joined the Confederate Army in 1862, serving as Captain in the 15^th Texas Infantry for the duration of the war.  His only known injury was on November 3, 1863 in a battle near Opelousas, Louisana.  At the close of the war, he returned to McLennan County.

Almost immediately, Coke accepted an appointment as a District Court Judge in Texas.  He was elected to the Texas Supreme Court the following year, only to be fired by Gen. Phillip Sheridan along with four other justices in an effort to advance reconstruction.   In the intervening years, there was a strong backlash to reconstruction, leading to his successful Democratic campaign for Governor in 1873, defeating the incumbent Edmund J. Davis, only to have his election ruled invalid by the Texas Supreme Court.  After several contentious months, former Governor Davis resigned and Coke was allowed to take office, serving from 1874 to 1876.

Significant accomplishments during his terms as Governor of Texas included a strong focus on balancing the state budget and the establishment of the college now known as Texas A&M University. Coke later was elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas serving in that capacity from 1877 to 1895.

He retired to his home in Waco and his nearby farm. He became ill after suffering exposure while fighting a flood of the Brazos River on the family farm near Waco in April, 1897. After a short illness, he died at his home in Waco and, after a state funeral, was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Coke County in West Texas is named in his honor.

You might be a Daughter of the Republic of Texas

James R. Jenkins, Jr. was the father of Warwick H. Jenkins.  If you are a lineal descendant of James R. Jenkins, Jr. (1811 - 1857), you are probably eligible to be a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.  Jenkins emigrated to Texas in April, 1836, settled at Washington-on-the-Brazos and fought in several expeditions against the Indians.  He was elected to represent Washington County in the Third Congress of the republic (1838–39).

Citations: James Milton Carroll Collection (Texas Baptist Historical Collection, Roberts Library, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary). Zenos N. Morrell, Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1872; rpt. of 3d ed., Irving, Texas: Griffin Graphic Arts, 1966). Annie Jenkins Sallee, A Friend of God: Highlights in the Life of Judge W. H. Jenkins (San Antonio: Naylor, 1952).

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Membership Eligibility in Daughters of the Republic of Texas:

Any woman having attained her sixteenth (16th) birthday is eligible for membership, provided she is personally acceptable to The DRT and is a lineal descendant of a man or woman who rendered loyal service for Texas prior to the consummation of the Annexation Agreement of the Republic of Texas with the United States of America on the nineteenth day of February, eighteen hundred forty-six (19 February 1846).

Proof submitted by an applicant shall include documentation on the applicant’s ancestor. Any date cited on the membership applications shall be documented. The applicant must furnish acceptable proof of her lineal descent from a man or woman who served in any of the following capacities:

(1) As a colonist with Austin’s Old Three Hundred, or any colonies authorized under the Spanish or Mexican governments before the Texas Revolution or those authorized by the Congress of the Republic of Texas.

(2) As an officer or private in the service of the Colonies or of the Republic of Texas.

(3) As a loyal resident, male or female, regardless of age, who established residence in Texas prior to the nineteenth day of February, eighteen hundred forty-six (19 February 1846). (“Loyal” shall be interpreted to mean that he or she had not been proved disloyal. A loyal resident, regardless of age, gave the service of residing in Texas and aiding in its settlement. “Service” shall be interpreted to mean “resident” or “military.”)

(4) As a recipient of a land grant authorized by the Provisional Government of the Republic of Texas. Those grants include “Toby Scrips;” head rights, first, second, third, and fourth class; preemption grants; land scrips; colony contracts; bounty certificates; and donation certificates.

Dr. George Berry Graves (1880-1915)

George Berry Graves was born December 22, 1880 in Hurst, Pittsylvania County, Virginia.  His secondary education included pharmacy, dentistry and medicine at Sewannee, the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee.  Upon graduation, jobs were hard to find but in 1903 a friend of his helped him locate a job as a physician for the Southern Pacific Railroad in remotely located Valentine, Jeff Davis County, Texas.  At this writing, the town of Valentine is almost abandoned, but in those days Southern Pacific had a large roundhouse in which they serviced their railroad engines running between California and Chicago.  With the railroad business, Valentine was a village of over 2,000 people. 

Shortly after moving to Valentine, Dr. Graves was introduced to his future wife, Sarah Jenkins, at a ten day cowboy revival in nearby Paisano, Texas by Josephine Jenkins Truett and her husband, pastor Dr. George Truett who led the revival.  The young couple was married in 1910 as Dr. Graves continued to serve the employees of Southern Pacific and nearby ranching families.  In addition operating his medical office, Dr. Graves established a drug store to secure a supply of medications for his patients.  One winter night during a blizzard, Dr. Graves was awakened by knock on the door.  A local cowboy had called to ask Dr. Graves to attend to a sick rancher, and Dr. Graves obliged.  However, as a result of this event, Dr. Graves suffered a bad cold that progressed to pneumonia.  Dr. Graves had suffered from tuberculosis in his youth and he died from complications of pneumonia on June 7, 1915.

Rufus Burleson's Statue at Baylor

Rufus Burleson died in 1901.  The following year, a committee including a 30 year old Pat Neff commissioned a statue of Burleson to be placed in the quadrangle on the Baylor University campus surrounded by the four recently constructed buildings: Old Main, Georgia Burleson Hall, the Carroll Science Building and the Carroll Library and Chapel.  The sculptor chosen was Pompeo Coppini, an Italian-born artist living in San Antonio.  Later works by Coppini include the statue of George Washington on the University of Texas campus, the statue of Sul Ross on the campus of Texas A&M University, the Alamo memorial in San Antonio and the statue of Judge Baylor also on the Baylor campus.

Coppini’s autobiography, From Dawn to Sunset, relates the August 8, 1903 session when the committee and Georgia Burleson were invited to inspect the clay model for the statue.  In attendance were members of the committee, including Pat Neff, Georgia Burleson and a granddaughter of the Burlesons.  Coppini states that all he had to work from was a poor photograph and a small portrait engraving of the subject.  However, with other information that had been provided to him, he felt that he had been able to build an image of Burleson in his mind.
 
The artist also relates that he needed a subject to pose for the work and he had found an old man on the street to serve in this capacity.  In contrast to the well known teetotaler Burleson, the man was “a dissipated whiskey drinker, reduced by the habit to the level of a bum,” but that the man served his purpose.  Coppini continued: “You may think that it was sacrilegious to use such a man to help me make a good likeness of Burleson; on the contrary, it turned out to be a real inspiration to the better conception and idealization to the man who fought and taught against such a state of degeneration.  The old man [the model] seemed to be happy when he was holding the Holy Bible.”

The committee viewed the statue in silence, examining it from every angle while Mrs. Burleson and her granddaughter remained seated at a distance.  The little girl exclaimed, “Grandma, that is Grandpa!” after which Georgia let out a cry and left the room.  Coppini’s wife escorted Georgia to their bedroom and the others followed.  Coppini was concerned that Georgia was disappointed, but was assured by Pat Neff that there was no trouble at all.  Coppini relates that Neff told him that the statue was so lifelike that Georgia could not look at it any longer without breaking down.  Coppini viewed the success of this statue as a solid early step in his Texas career. (1)

 According to Martha Cooper Garrett, the granddaughter who was not named in Coppini’s account was her mother, Emma King Burleson Cooper.



(1) Looking Back at Baylor, Kent Keeth, p. 25

Georgia Burleson (1833-1924)

Georgia Jenkins was a strong willed person, like her husband Rufus.  Their relationship began in 1849 when they met at a Sons of Temperance rally in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas when Georgia was 16 years old.  Rufus Burleson, then 10 years older and pastor of the congregation that was to become First Baptist Church of Houston, was slated to receive a silk banner from the Sons of Temperance.  The banner was presented to him by Georgia.  She evidently made a distinct impression in Rufus and later that year, he made the following entry in his diary, “My mind on one subject is fixed—my manner of life I have resolved to change—if my health and God’s providence permit—I need the sympathy of a pious and lovely woman at all times.”

The daughter of the late Pleasant Cicero and Harriett Ann Daniel Jenkins, Georgia received her secondary education at Judson Female Institute at Marion, Alabama.  Upon her return to Texas, she and Rufus married on January 3, 1853 at Independence, the ceremony performed by their long time friend Henry L. Graves, the first president of Baylor University.  The wedding took place on the Baylor campus.

 Rufus was the natural successor to Baylor President Graves and in 1951, he was selected to serve as president of the university, a post that he was to hold for ten years.  Burleson acknowledged his reliance on Georgia’s advice and counsel in his administrative decisions throughout his career.  They were well matched and Georgia is credited for influencing the expansion of coeducation at Baylor.  Ultimately a disagreement over this same issue would lead to Rufus’ departure in 1861 from the Independence, Texas university and his move to Waco to serve as president of the newer but growing Waco University.  Baylor at Independence always separated male and female students with Baylor Female College having its own board of trustees, something that disturbed Rufus.  Undoubtedly Rufus had a strong following among the professors and upon his resignation and departure from Baylor at Independence, virtually all of the instructors of the male branch of the college went with him to become professors of the Baptist supported Waco University.

 Rufus and Georgia devoted their efforts to developing Waco University.  Georgia served as matron of the second  major structure on the campus, a women's dormitory named in her honor, Georgia Burleson Hall.  Though there were strict rules of propriety for the female students, Georgia and Rufus strongly believed in coeducation which was practiced in the classrooms and in Sunday worship services.  The two universities were merged in 1887 and took the name of the Independence institution.  The men's branch of Baylor moved to Waco.  The women's branch of Baylor at Independence became Mary Hardin-Baylor and was moved to Belton, Texas.

 Rufus and Georgia were married over 48 years until his death at the age of 77 on May 14, 1901.  Following his death, Georgia continued to live in Waco until her death at the age of 90 on June 11, 1924.

  

 

Marriage of Annie Jenkins Sallee

She kept a diary, now in the Texas Collection at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in which she shared her deepest thoughts.  Annie had a burden for Christian missions and felt called to go to China where she served most of her adult life, leaving only when forced to by the occupying Japanese Army in 1943.

Annie began her missionary work in China in 1905.  Shortly thereafter, she became reacquainted with fellow missionary Dr. Eugene Sallee, whom she had first met in Texas at a Baptist youth conference.  Annie had written in her diary that she did not want to marry, feeling that her life's mission was to carry the gospel message to the Chinese people.  Elsewhere in her diary, she disclosed that if she ever married, she certainly did not want to marry in China.  However, the young Dr. Sallee must have been quite persuasive.  After working together for a while, Sallee asked her to marry him and she ultimately accepted.  They were married in China on November 18, 1906.

During their courtship, Annie wrote in her diary that she had confided her attraction to Sallee to her sister "Sittie," Josephine Jenkins Truett.  Josephine told her that she and Dr. George W. Truett had not kissed until the day of their wedding.  Impressed by Jospephine's actions, Annie vowed not to kiss Dr. Sallee until the day of their marriage.  To the best of our knowledge there is no further mention of this vow in her diary, but knowing the resolve of Annie in other matters (despite the fact that Dr. Sallee was able to persuade her to marry him), we speculate that she probably kept this vow.

Annie and Dr. Sallee were married almost 25 years until his untimely death in the United States while on furlough in 1931.  Annie remained on the mission field in China until she was compelled to leave during World War II.

James R. Jenkins (1811-1857)

The following was written by Rufus Burleson regarding his father in law, James Jenkins:

As James R. Jenkins was my father-in-law—suppressing all the devotion I feel for his memory—I will give the plain historic facts of his life and glorious death.

 He was the son of Capt. James Jenkins, a brave officer in the Revolutionary war, and was born in Green County, Georgia, in 1810.

 He was converted and baptized at the age of nineteen by Elder J. M. Lumpkin, the noble peer of Young Rhodes and Jesse Mercer. He became an active member for life of the Baptist Church.

 He was educated in Mercer University, at Penfield, Ga., during the presidency of Rev. Billington Sanders, who was a Cato in firmness and a Paul in zeal. " The student was not only an admirer, but an example of the firmness and honest integrity of his beloved President. In the halls of grand old Mercer he formed the lifelong friendship of Rev. Wm. M. Tryon. Rev. Noah Hill, and scores of noble spirits.

 He studied law under Gen. Hugh Haraldson in 1836, and came to Texas and settled at Washington in 1837.

 His exalted integrity, moral character and devotion to his profession placed him at once among the leading members of the Washington bar, then the most talented bar in Western Texas. He rose rapidly in the confidence of the people, and was elected a member of the third Texas Congress of the Republic.

 Political life had no charms for him, but as a conscientious Christian he saw clearly that the Texas land laws, especially the eleven-league Mexican grants, would lead to endless law suits, enriching lawyers and impoverishing the people. He clearly pointed out the dangers and the remedy. But, alas, his warnings were disregarded, either from blindness or cupidity. His wise counsels would have saved the Texas people millions of dollars and endless vexatious lawsuits. His home at Washington, and afterwards at Independence, was ever a home for Morrell and Baylor and Tryon and Huckins, and all the Old Guard, and especially for me in 1852-3.

 As a church member he was ever faithful, but for years one terrible doubt was an eating cancer on his vitals. A skeptical friend, in an argument, drew a grand picture of the boundlessness of the universe—of 75,000,000 suns, with all their attendant planets, perchance peopled with bright intelligence, in comparison with which the earth, with all its inhabitants, is but a grain of sand on the sea shore of God's immensity. 'Now, said the boastful skeptic, how absurd that the grand Maker and glorious Ruler of all these worlds would come down to earth sprinkle it with his tears, bathe it with his blood, and die on the cross for such wicked, contemptible creatures as men. His supreme reverence for God and his supreme modesty gave the infidel argument great power. Though, like Job, he could say, "I know by glorious experience that my Redeemer liveth," yet the infidel's words were sharp as a sword. One Sabbath, by what we call accident in our blindness, but in reality is God's special providence, he heard me preach a sermon on the text, Ephesians 3:10: "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." The grand scheme was to show that the whole boundless universe, not merely our little grain of sand, the earth, was profoundly interested and eternally benefited by Christ's death on the Cross, and that as Thermopylae, Bunker Hill and the Alamo were nothing in themselves, but only places where undying courage and patriotism were displayed, that had instructed and inspired heroes in all lands and ages, thus Calvary was the Christian Thermopylae and Alamo that displayed so wonderfully the love, the wisdom, and the holiness and justice of God that all angels, arch-angels, principalities, powers in all Heavenly places were instructed, benefited and forever blessed. This plain Bible view dispelled every doubt, and demonstrated that all infidel philosophy, falsely so called, is sounding brass and tinkling cymbals and as a dream when one awaketh.

 When he came to die, after long and painful sickness, he called me to his bedside and said: "Can it be possible that the glorious light of divine love is shining so brightly? I am passing through the valley of death, but there is no shadow, but all is full of light and glory." He called all his family around him, bade all a tender farewell, and, taking up his two little sons, Warwick H. and Rufus, in his arms, laid his hands upon them, like the dying Jacob, and prayed that they might be true men and devoted Christians and meet him at Jesus' feet in glory. Then, folding his arms across his breast, with a smile and brightness of ineffable glory radiating his emaciated features, he closed his eyes in death, or, rather, opened his eyes on the angel bands and chariots of glory that came to carry him home.

 The resplendent glory beaming on every feature seemed silently to say, "The chariots, the chariots of glory."