Issue 1 Volume 2 November 2015

Photo of the Month

Fanthorp Inn Anderson, Texas

Grimes County Historical Commission

Meetings of the Grimes County Historical Commission are held on the Second Monday of the Month at 7:00 pm in the Courthouse Annex in Anderson, Texas

Contact Information Russell Cushman 403 Holland Navasota, TX 77868 (936) 825 8223 rcush403@aol.com Visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GrimesCountyHistoricalCommission Online Website (coming soon) www.grimescountyhistoricalcommsion.com

Grimes County Historical Commission

Executive Board Chairman Russell Cushman Vice Chairman Joe King Fultz Secretary Rebecca Duff Treasurer Malcom Green

COMMITTEES Historic Markers Denise Upchurch Cemetery Markers Denise Upchurch Historic Preservation Sarah Nash Newsletter & Publicity Vanessa Burzynski

PAGE 2 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

Houston Daily Post Saturday, November 10, 1900

A State of War in Grimes - Sheriff Scott and Followers are Beseiged in the Jail at Anderson

Navasota, Texas, November 9 – Wild reports of the commencement of a battle between Sheriff Scott and his party in the jail and citizens in the court house and surrounding houses in Anderson reached Navasota at 11 o’clock today. This afternoon all is quiet at the “city on the hills”. It is said that the first shot this morning came from the jail, and was promptly replied to from the court house. All told there were five or six shots fired, but no one was hurt. And all remains quiet and lonely, patiently awaiting what the next moment may bring forth. The sheriff and his party of some ten or fifteen men, some women and some prisoners, are in the jail; a company of between fifty and 100 armed citizens are at the court house and on the street. All business in Anderson is suspended. The stores opened for a little while this morning, but soon closed. The saloons were promptly closed immediately after the shooting of Wednesday afternoon. The people are cool, sober and resolved. Any overt act is sure to be fraught with tragic consequences. In a telephonic talk with Senator Neal this afternoon, Governor Sayers at Austin stated that he had advices from Grimes county today, and intimated that he would send General Scurry or Captain McDonald to the scene tomorrow for a personal investigation of the impossible stories that have been set afloat by lame rumor. Late this afternoon Sheriff G. L. Scott sent out from the jail to the citizens a proposition signed by himself and indorsed by his father, J. N. Scott, in which he asked that in consideration of the citizens allowing himself, father, brothers, sisters and brothers-in-law to leave the county unmolested, he will immediately leave the county, never again to return to it. He wants to amicably settle all past differences with citizens and persecute no citizen for any act towards him or his family. The citizens straightway met and considered the proposition. They discussed it thoroughly and decided to answer that so far as they were concerned the conditions would be granted, but that they could not answer for others and guarantee him safety through the county. This leaves the matter for the State authorities to unravel. They are expected here tomorrow.

Houston Daily Post November 9, 1900

Anderson Full of Armed Men They are there to prevent any further trouble. The three victims of Wednesday’s Tragedy were Laid to Rest at Anderson

Navasota, Texas, November 8 – Information from Anderson this afternoon says that the scene of yesterday’s bloody battle is now perfectly quiet, but practically in the hands of rural citizens gathered from all parts of the county. Their avowed purpose is to preserve the peace, and they are doing it. It appears now that Mr. Scott’s wounds only amount to an ugly bullet hole through the fleshy part of one thigh. Deep scenes of sorrow marked the bearing away of the dead today and all three were laid to rest in the Odd Fellows’ cemetery by those who loved them living and reverenced them dead.

John J. Bradley Jr. was buried at 10:30 under auspices of the Odd Fellows. Young McDonald was also a member of this order, but the Navasota gentlemen arrived too late to participate in his obsequities. The body of Emmett Scott was laid away shortly after 12 o’clock. Both Bradley and McDonald were to have been married shortly. Bradley was shot in the region of the heart by Scott and was so close as to be powder burned. He ran into his store when the shooting began. McDonald shot Scott after he (McDonald) had first been knocked down and shot.

Scurry going to Galveston

Austin, Texas November 9 – Adjutant General Scurry left for Anderson, Grimes County, tonight to which point he was ordered by the governor who has received several applications for protection from parties claiming to have been ordered from their homes in that county. General Scurry goes to the scene of the reported trouble to ascertain the particulars thereof and act as he may deem necessary.

“History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.” ~ Lord Acton

PAGE 3 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

Houston Daily Post Monday November 12, 1900

Scott Brought to Houston Arrived Last Night Escorted by the Light Guard Turned over to Friends at the Grand Central Depot and Taken Out to Jourdeville.

The Houston Light Guard returned from Anderson yesterday evening on the 7 o’clock Central train, accompanying Sheriff Garrett Scott of Grimes County, who was wounded Tuesday at Anderson by unknown parties. The company was ordered to Navasota Saturday night by Adjutant General Scurry, who had already gone to Anderson to investigate the condition of affairs at that place as detailed in The Post. The boys, forty of them, under command of Captain George McCormick and Lieutenants Hutcheson and Hoover, left Houston at 10:40 Saturday night and arrived at Navasota, reporting to Colonel Gordon Boone for further instructions. At about 6:30 Sunday morning they started in wagons for Anderson, which is about 10 miles in the interior from Navasota. The company arrived there about 11 o’clock and was met by Adjutant General Scurry. Dinner was prepared and partaken of and the company proceeded to the jail, where Scott and his family were.

On account of the wound received by Scott not having received proper surgical attention, it was in pretty bad condition, and he was put into a spring wagon and hauled away from the jail. He was not taken directly by the court house, where armed citizens had esconsed themselves it being feared that such action would cause someone to lose his head and shoot.

On reaching Navasota Scott was placed on a stretcher and aboard the regular train and brought to Houston. At the Grand Central depot he was turned over to friends, who loaded him onto one of the ambulances of the Westheimer undertaking establishment and had him driven out to Jourdeville or to some point in the Fifth Ward near that suburb.

Members of the Light Guard say they found things far more peaceable at Anderson than they expected and that the only time they consider that danger threatened was when they were removing Scott from the jail. The citizens the boys say appeared somewhat excited then, and were peering from every window in the vicinity.

Scott has Left Grimes Under Military Escort the Party was put Aboard a Train

Navasota, November 11 (1900) – In accordance with telegraphic orders issued yesterday evening by Adjutant General Scurry, Captain George McCormick arrived here on the 1 o’clock train last night with forty men of the Houston Light Guard and other military organizations of Houston. They were met at the depot by Colonel Gordon Boone and taken to the Shaw Rifle’s armory for the night.

At an early hour this morning they departed for Anderson, ten miles away, in wagons. The boys were received there with due courtesy and treated to a good dinner, after which they repaired to the jail and stationing sentinels about in every direction as a matter of precaution, placed Sheriff Scott in the bed of a spring wagon, one of his nieces on either side and a cordon of troops closely around the vehicle; the four or five other members of the sheriff’s party were seated in buggies and wagons and the remaining troops were thrown out ahead and to the rear of the procession. In this matter the relieving force came on to this city. Within the city limits they wound around the suburbs until the south side was reached, then down the track they went to await the evening train and in an hour all were speeding toward Houston.

A large crowd of interested, orderly citizens witnessed the departure from Anderson and another viewed the march through Navasota. With a little jeering of a sentinel who made himself obnoxious at Anderson, there was no ill feeling manifested and no friction between the citizens and the officers commanding.

PAGE 4 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

Rosenwald Schools in Texas

In 1917, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co. of Chicago, established the Julius Rosenwald Fund to support the construction of schools for African-American children in the southern United States. Between 1920 and 1932, the program donated more than $28 million in fifteen states, and resulted in 527 funded buildings on approximately 466 school campuses in Texas.

Rosenwald Schools represent an important chapter in Texas history, reflecting the initiative of African-American communities which sought educational opportunities for their children during the Jim Crow Era, when all public schools in Texas were segregated by law. With financial assistance from the Rosenwald Fund, these communities built modern school facilities, many of which continued to operate as schools into the 1960s.

Most Rosenwald buildings were built of wood following standardized plans, and many were demolished after they ceased serving as schools, while a few were converted to churches or community centers. Some communities built teacherages (teacher’s homes) and related buildings with Rosenwald assistance.

Rosenwald School in Anderson, Texas

Grimes County had 6 Rosenwald schools

Anderson 1927-28, three-teacher, plan#3-B, (school remains) Courtney 1924-25, two-teacher, plan#2-C John Conn 1924-25, one-teacher, plan #1 Navasota 1930-31, two-teacher, three-room shop, plan# 400 San Prairie I926-27, two-teacher, plan#2-C Singleton 1923-24, one-teacher, plan#1

PAGE 5 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

Fanthorp Inn & Cemetery

The Fanthorp Inn, a well-known hotel of the period of the Republic of Texas, was located in what became Anderson, in central Grimes County. The original structure was built by Henry Fanthorp in 1834 as a home for himself and his wife Rachel (Kennard) at the crossing of the mail routes between Houston and Springfield and Nacogdoches and San Felipe de Austin. Fanthorp soon enlarged the original two-room log building into a hotel, and in 1835 it became the first post office and store in the area. Kenneth Lewis Anderson, vice president of the republic, died at the inn on July 3, 1845. The inn served as a community center between 1850 and 1865. After Fanthorp died in 1867 it was operated for another year and then closed. The house continued to be used by the family as a private home until 1976. In 1977 the house and adjoining property were purchased by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to serve as a historical exhibit. The inn and the Fanthorp family cemetery were restored, and a new building was constructed to house a small exhibit on transportation of the period. In 1974 the inn and a portion of the surrounding Anderson downtown area became part of the Anderson Historic District.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Irene Taylor Allen, Saga of Anderson-The Proud Story of a Historic Texas Community (New York: Greenwich, 1957). Texas Historical Commission, National Register Files. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Persons buried in the Fanthorp Family Cemetery

Kenneth Lewis Anderson Patience Burdette Anderson James Peronneau DeSaussure Julia Stone DeSaussure Martha C. Dickson Annie V. Dodson John H. Fanthorp Mary A. Fanthorp Rachel V. Fanthorp Sarah E. Fanthorp Mary Ann Kennard Michael Moore Kennard Marie Virginia Kettler John Laprelle Martha Laprelle Eleanor Fanthorp Stone McDonald J. G. McDonald, Jr. Mary Eleanor McDonald Bette Moore Rebecca L. Moore Virginia S. Peck William H. Peck Alice Yarborough Ratcliff James Q. Ratcliff John Noble Ratcliff Martha Jane Ratcliff Lieut. John Noble Ratcliff Jr. Wilmar Rhoda Henry Fanthorp Stone Mary Stone Mary A. Fanthorp Stone Maj. William M. Stone James Edward Wourms

PAGE 6 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

FANTHORP, HENRY (ca. 1790–1867). Henry Fanthorp, merchant, innkeeper, and land speculator, was born in Lincolnshire, England, about 1790. He sailed for America in search of a livelihood and arrived at Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1832. When later that year he applied for land in the Stephen F. Austin and Samuel M. Williams colony, he testified that he was a widower and had left a son in England. In 1833 Fanthorp purchased from Francis Holland a tract of 1,100 acres on the west bank of upper Holland Creek in what is now central Grimes County. At once he began trading in agricultural commodities and built a small log house on his property. In the spring of 1834 he built for his bride, Rachel (Kennard), a much larger house near the intersection of stage roads from Houston to Springfield and Nacogdoches to San Felipe de Austin; he soon established the

Fanthorp Inn at the new residence. In December 1835 Fanthorp was appointed postmaster of Grimes County's first post office. In 1837, with his brother-in-law Mike Kennard and Abraham Womack, he opened a general store at the inn, perhaps the first such establishment in Grimes County. In 1839 he purchased a second tract of land, surveyed a townsite, and began to sell lots. The community that grew up near the inn was known as Alta Mira until 1846, when its name was changed to Anderson. In 1851 Fanthorp was agent for the United States mail coaches operating between Houston and Austin. The Fanthorps had a son and two daughters. Both Rachel and Henry Fanthorp died in Grimes County in 1867 and were buried in the family cemetery near the Fanthorp Inn.

Henry Fanthorp

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

E. L. Blair, Early History of Grimes County (Austin, 1930). Grimes County Historical Commission, History of Grimes County, Land of Heritage and Progress (Dallas: Taylor, 1982).

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ANDERSON, KENNETH LEWIS (1805–1845). Kenneth Lewis Anderson, lawyer and vice president of the republic, son of Kenneth and Nancy (Thompson) Anderson, was born on September 11, 1805, in Hillsborough, North Carolina. There he attended William Bingham's school. He worked as a shoemaker at an early age. By 1824 he was living in Bedford County, Tennessee, where he became deputy sheriff in 1826 and sheriff in 1830; he was a colonel in the militia by 1832. About 1825 Anderson married Patience Burditt; the couple had three children. Two sons, Theophiles and Malcolm, and a grandson, William, became judges in San Antonio.

In 1837 the family moved to San Augustine, Texas, where Mrs. Anderson's brother-in-law Joseph Rowe had lived for five years. In 1838 Anderson served successively as deputy sheriff and sheriff. It was probably after he arrived in Texas that he studied to become a lawyer. President Mirabeau B. Lamar appointed him collector of customs for the district of San Augustine, and he was confirmed on November 21, 1839. He served until he became a candidate from San Augustine County for the House of Representatives of the Sixth Congress in 1841; he won with the largest majority in the county's history at that time. As a partisan of Sam Houston, Anderson was elected speaker of the House on November 1, 1841. He immediately led an unsuccessful attempt to impeach Lamar and Vice President David G. Burnet. Anderson had for a time been considered for secretary of the treasury, a post that went to William Henry Daingerfield. In 1842 he helped convince Houston to veto the popular but dangerous war bill, which sought to force an invasion of Mexico.

After one term, and despite President Houston's pleas, Anderson retired in 1842 to practice law in San Augustine with Royal T. Wheeler; he eventually formed a partnership with J. Pinckney Henderson and Thomas J. Rusk. In December 1842 Anderson became district attorney of the Fifth Judicial District. In 1844 Anderson was frequently mentioned as a candidate for president, but eventually he became the Houston party candidate for vice president, on a ticket headed by Anson Jones. Anderson's opponent, Patrick Jack, died before the election, and Anderson won nearly unanimously. He presided over the Senate at Washington-on-the-Brazos in June 1845, when the Texas Congress approved annexation. After adjournment he immediately left for home despite being sick. After only twenty miles, at the Fanthorp Inn, his fever flared. There he died on July 3, 1845, and was buried in the Fanthorp cemetery. The vice president had been considered the leading candidate to become the first governor of the state.

His law partner, Pinckney Henderson, was instead elected governor in December. Anderson was a Mason. Fanthorp was renamed for him in 1846, and on March 24, 1846, Anderson County was established and named in his honor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

James T. DeShields, They Sat in High Places: The Presidents and Governors of Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1940). John S. Ford, Rip Ford's Texas, ed. Stephen B. Oates (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963). Thomas Clarence Richardson, East Texas: Its History and Its Makers (4 vols., New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1940). Leslie H. Southwick, "Kenneth L. Anderson, Last Vice President, Almost First Governor of Texas," East Texas Historical Journal 30 (Fall 1992).

Grave Marker for Kenneth Anderson Fanthorp Cemetery

This plaque can be found inside the Grimes County Courthouse

PAGE 8 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

MCDONALD, JAMES GREEN, JR. (1858–1938). James Green McDonald, Jr., a leading figure in Grimes County's Democratic party in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and a chief organizer and leader of the White Man's Union Associationqv of Grimes County, was born in Anderson, Texas, on September 11, 1858, the fourth child and oldest son of Julia T. (Davis) and James G. McDonald, Sr., a prominent Grimes county lawyer. James G. McDonald, Jr., seems to have been determined to follow in the footsteps of his father whom he greatly admired. He studied law under his father, was admitted to the bar in 1888, and the next year began his own legal practice. Like his father, he also became active in the county's Democratic party and rose quickly in its ranks. In 1884 McDonald was appointed Anderson's postmaster (then a federal Democratic political appointment); in 1890, when he was thirty-two years old, he was elected county attorney; and he was elected county judge in 1892 and 1894. Though he had no property and little personal wealth of his own at the time, to the new Judge McDonald the future no doubt seemed bright. Then, in Grimes County elections in 1896 and again in 1898, a coalition of white Populists and black Republicans combined to defeat the Democrats in relatively close contests for sheriff, county judge, and other local positions.

In early 1899 McDonald, who had been ousted from his position as county judge in 1896 and was defeated again in 1898, began to work with a group of other local Democrats to prepare for the election of 1900. At a meeting in McDonald's office, they agreed to form a new organization, the White Man's Union Association of Grimes County (WMU) to take the county back from their black and white Populist opponents. Apparently inspired by the Jaybird Association, a similar organization created earlier in Wharton County, the Grimes County WMU drew up an all-white slate of candidates, headed by James G. McDonald, Jr., for county judge, for the 1900 elections and worked hard to rally support for their cause: the complete elimination of black influence in county politics. Meanwhile a campaign of terror was waged to suppress the opposition. Two blacks had been lynched in the county just before the WMU was formed; by the spring of 1900 night riders were roaming the county, threatening blacks and telling them to leave the county. In July Jim Kennard, a local black Populist leader, was shot and killed a hundred yards from the county courthouse in Anderson. No one was ever charged with the murder, but it was rumored that McDonald was responsible. In late September another prominent black Populist, Jack Haynes, was shot to

death in his cotton field. Again, no one was ever charged with the crime.

The intimidation campaign worked. Thousands of blacks and an unknown number of white Populists left the county in the months before and after the election. Over 4,500 men, white and black, had voted in the 1898 Grimes county elections. In November 1900 only about 1,800 voters showed up at the polls. In Plantersville, just north of Anderson, the Populist vote dropped from 256 in 1898 to 5 in 1900; in Anderson, the Populist candidates received about 13 votes each. All of the WMU candidates, including McDonald, were swept into office in a huge landslide victory. After the election of 1900, the WMU's control of local politics was assured. The county's blacks had been effectively stripped of their right to vote, and the Populist movement in the county had been crushed. In 1902 the WMU's candidates for Grimes county offices would run completely unopposed, and the Grimes County WMU and the Democrats would continue to control the area's elections for the next sixty years. McDonald served as judge of the Grimes County Court from 1900 to 1904 and was elected on Grimes County's WMU ticket to the Texas state legislature in 1906 and 1908. More than 30 percent of the blacks in Grimes County left the area between 1900 and 1910. In 1910, for the first time since 1850, more whites than blacks lived in the county.

During his years in office after the 1900 election, McDonald's real estate holdings and personal wealth grew considerably. As he gradually acquired more land and livestock, his total taxable wealth grew steadily—rising to $3,620 by 1903, to $3,816 by 1904, to $4,325 by 1906, and to $7,048 by 1908. In 1910 he owned eleven town lots, 455 acres of land, twenty-two horses or mules and thirty-seven cattle, with a total assessed value of $6,500. J. G. McDonald, Jr., married Eleanor Stone, Henry Fanthorp's grandaughter, in 1895. They probably moved into the former Fanthorp Inn about 1901, and in 1903 they had a daughter, Mary Eleanor. But Eleanor died January 25, 1903, not long after the birth, and only a few months later, on June 15, Mary died. McDonald's father, James G., Sr., died that same year, on March 11. McDonald never remarried and continued to live in the former Fanthorp Inn for more than thirty years after Eleanor's death. After leaving office in 1909 he withdrew from public life to tend to his properties and his horses.

PAGE 9 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

McDonald was an amateur historian and became respected in Grimes County for his knowledge of the past; during the 1920s and 1930s he was consulted by local historians such as Irene Taylor Allen and Eric Lee Blair on a number of topics, including the origins of the White Man's Union. In his role as a chief organizer and beneficiary of the formation of the WMU, McDonald had helped to shape the development of Grimes county politics and its social relations. In his later role as a respected local historian, he found himself in a position to shape how his actions would be understood and interpreted for generations to come. In 1919 he returned to the state legislature to represent the Twenty-second District. In 1928 McDonald was elected as the WMU's candidate for Grimes county attorney, and he held the post until 1932.

In his later years McDonald's behavior grew increasingly eccentric, and in 1935 friends grew alarmed as they witnessed ever more erratic behavior. He was examined by Dr. M. E. Parker who later testified that McDonald was "suffering from Senile dementia, hallucinations, imagined people were plotting after him. Unquestionably of unsound mind." At a competency trial held on September 4, the court also heard George Nobles who had known McDonald for about twelve years. "[I] saw him 2 weeks ago," Nobles testified. "[M]ental condition getting worse, talks about fights, etc., hard time going to sleep—now talks constantly about things of the past." McDonald was committed to the Austin State Hospital, where he died in March 1938. He is buried in the Fanthorp Cemetery in Anderson.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Irene Taylor Allen, Saga of Anderson: The Proud Story of a Historic Texas Community (New York: Greenwich, 1957). Eric Lee Blair, Early History of Grimes County (N.p.: N.p., 1930). Constitution and By-Laws of the White Man's Union Organization of Grimes County, Texas (Houston: J.M. Hogan, 1912). Lawrence C. Goodwyn, "Populist Dreams and Negro Rights: East Texas as a Case Study," American Historical Review 76 (December, 1971). Grimes County Ad Valorum Tax Records (1847–1910), Texas State Archives, Austin. Grimes County Election Records, vol. 1886–1944, Grimes County Courthouse, Anderson. Grimes County Probate Records, Grimes County Clerk's Office, Anderson. Jaybird Association Papers, in Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas-Austin. Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (4 vols. Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, 1914). Members of the Legislature of the State of Texas from 1846 to 1939

(Austin: Texas Legislature, 1939). Sue Moss, "Historical Narrative," in Sandra R. Sauer and Sue Moss, Fanthorp Inn State Historical Park (41GM79), Grimes County, Texas: Archeological Excavations, 1983–1989, Reports of Investigations, No. 116 (Austin: Prewitt and Associates, 1998).

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WHITE MAN’S UNION IN GRIMES COUNTY The political campaign of 1900 is one of importance in the history of Grimes County for it was in this year that the White Man's Union first submitted a ticket. In the election of 1876 the Populist Party combined with the Republicans, which was then composed mostly of negroes, and defeated the Democratic ticket. A similar campaign in 1898 resulted in a controversy. The Democrats contested the election. While the contest was pending, the election returns were taken from the office of the county clerk, C. B. Nichols, and it is thought that they were burned. At any rate they were never found and the Populist-Republican combination claimed the victory. With a few exceptions their candidates held the offices until 1900. In the Spring of 1899 a small group of men met secretly in the office of Judge J. G. McDonald to discuss plans for the organization of a White Man's Union. Five men are known to have been present at this meeting, namely: John Wickry, of Anderson ; Will Edwards, of Prairie Plains ; Sam Isbell, of Bedias; Jim Ogg, of Plantersville; and J. G. McDonald, of Anderson. It was decided to delay the actual organization until the public attitude could be sounded. A few months after this meeting a white boy was killed by a negro in the Roan's Prairie community and the negro was hung by a mob of white men. About ten days later a white church building in the Erwin community was burned and a negro was suspected. When a group of white men called at this negro's home, he refused to come out of the house, and in the subsequent fight, two white men were slightly wounded. The negro was taken and immediately hanged. The organization of the White Man's Union quickly followed. Membership was open to all white men upon application, but such applications were subject to blackball. In the actual election, however, any white man could vote the ticket, even though he was not a member of the Union. The candidates on the White Man's Union Ticket for 1900 were as follows: County Judge - J. G. McDonald County Attorney - Haynes Shannon County Clerk - J. T. Prestwood District Clerk - Billie Wilcox County Sheriff - J. C. Baker County Tax-collector - Bob H. Oliphant County Tax-assessor - W. S. Stampley County Treasurer - L. M. Bragg Representative - J. M. Ackerman Senator - Floyd Edwards Commissioners - J. M. Barron, J. L. Gillespie, R. M. West, and Will Ashe.

The Union was successful at the polls without exception, and no White Man's Union candidate has been defeated in Grimes County since that date. The Union made it a rule that no officer could hold office for more than two terms, and it has become almost an Un-written law in Grimes County that a candidate for a second term would have no opposition. Since there were eight voting precincts in the county, and it being the policy of the Union to allow each precinct representation in the county government the custom of allowing each precinct to draw an office for which they were to submit candidates was established. The offices drawn for were as follows: judge, attorney, clerk, tax-collector, tax-assessor, treasurer, sheriff, and district clerk. Slips for each of these offices were placed in a bucket and members of the executive committee (one from each precinct) drew one slip and for the office thus drawn his precinct, and only his, could nominate candidates. In actual practice, however, precincts often exchange candidates. This allows a precinct to secure an office for which they have a suitable candidate. Candidates for the offices of senator, representative, surveyor, and county school superintendent were nominated at large. [J. G. McDonald to E. L. Blair July 10, 1928.] The following information was taken from the book “Early History of Grimes County” by E. L. Blair.

The election results for the November 6, 1900 election were as follows: County Judge J. G. McDonald 1553 G. L. Scott 315 County Attorney Haynes Shannon 1579 R. B. Tuck 328 County Clerk J. T. Prestwood 1554 C. B. Nichols 364 District Clerk W. F. Wilcox 1570 Buford McGoldberry 344 County Sheriff James Baker 1549 Gains Colson 361 County Treasurer L. M. Bragg 1571 J. W. H. Davis 345 County Tax Collector Robert Oliphant 1555 W. G. Howard 361 County Tax Asssessor W. S. Stampley 1573 D. F. Sullivan 346

PAGE 11 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

Our Baptist friends have had an interesting protracted meeting going on here during the week. Quite a number of persons have attached themselves to the church, and there seems to be Did you know that Anderson had a Newspaper back still many others deeply penitent. Elders Taliaferro in the 1800’s. It was called the Central Texian. It and Morrill are the only non-resident ministers we was published from 1854 thru the 1860’s. This are aware of assisting in the exercises. newspaper had interesting articles from all over the

state and the country, ads for liver pills and other Larceny – Our County Court was engaged on remedies, obituaries, wedding announcements, Monday last in the trial of several slaves for theft. advertisements for goods and services, and We heard the testimony in but one case, that of the beautiful poetry and works of fiction and non-fiction State vs. Harriet, a negro woman belonging to alike. (see poem on next page). William White, Esq. A large number of witnesses were in attendance, and as much interest seemed Other newspapers in Grimes County included: to be manifested in the result as could have Grimes County News 1800’s possibly been shown in the celebrated case of Sam Grimes County Record 1800’s Phillips and the hog, in Greenbrier, Virginia. We Grimes County Sentinel 1878 shall not attempt to give the evidence. They jury we Grimes County Herald 1884 learn disagreed and were discharged. Grimes County Star 1900’s

The Anderson Advocate 1900’s Walker County Election – Col. McAdoo, who passed The Anderson Press 1940 through town to-day from Huntsville says that all the The Home Journal 1871-1872 boxes in that county had been heard from but one, The Texas Baptist 1855-1861 and that Fillmore has seven votes ahead. A friend The Texas Gladiator 1868 writing from Huntsville at ten o’clock PM on The Shiro Advertiser 1910 yesterday says that all the boxes had been heard from but two, and that “Buck and Breck” were You can read scanned images of the Central Texian twenty six votes in the lead. We shall hear in a few newspaper online at the Texas Portal Online days the result, till when we must, as paddy says by website. There are 33 issues online. Here is a as “sisy as we can”. Oh! For a chain of telegraphic sample of what you will find. communication with the outer world. http://www.texashistory.unt.edu

CENTRAL TEXIAN ~ Alfred A. Pittuck, Editor A friend in town has just handed us the following ANDERSON, TEXAS extract from a letter received from a gentleman now Wednesday, November 5, 1856 in Huntsville. It was written on the 4th inst. “About

A gentleman from Washington informs us that three o’clock this morning, the whole town of Huntsville and the neighborhood around for miles, was aroused by the startling information that the Fillmore had a majority of thirty votes at that slaves were rising! The wildest excitement precinct. prevailed and the people were up all night, with lights and under arms. Men who lived in the A Phantasmagorical exhibition is to take place at country, but were here attending court rushed the Courthouse on tomorrow evening by Messers. home in the greatest haste. It is now believed to Bible & Co. Good music is anticipated on the have been fabricated by some mischievous person. occasion. All is now quiet in regard to this matter, but the town is full men under the highest excitement.” A heavy rain accompanied with a driving wind from

the North fell here on Monday last. The little creeks We notice, in the Ranger, that the name of the Hon. near town were put to running for the first time Guy M. Bryan has been mentioned in connection since last May. with the position of Representative for the Western Congressional district. Messrs. Bee, Palmer, The editor of the Item is gratified to think that the Potter, Harrison and others have also been spoken election will be over before he will be required to of. Whether our present Representative Col. Bell publish another paper. He says dabbling in politics thinks of standing another canvass we have not is a dirty business and unsuited to his taste or heard. Shouldn’t wonder, however if he did. At all

genius. events, the shadows of coming events are numerous enough to assure us that we are to have a lively time of it next summer.

PAGE 12 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2015

A Mother’s First Gift A Rebel Wife in Texas She sits beside the cradle Elizabeth (Lizzie)

Scott Neblett, diarist, was born in Raymond, Mississippi, to James and Sarah (Lane) Scott on January 17, 1833. In 1839, when she was six years old, the family moved to Houston, Texas. The following year they moved to Fanthorp Springs, three miles east of the site of present Anderson in Grimes County.

The area was sparsely populated, and the first school Lizzie atten On May 25, 1852, she married William H. Neblett, a Texas farmer, planter, and aspiring attorney. The couple spent their first three years of married life in Anderson and moved to Corsicana in 1855. There William Neblett practiced law, edited the Navarro Express, and farmed property three miles outside of town. The family returned to Grimes County in December 1861. Mrs. Neblett kept a diary from March 1852, two months before her marriage, until May 1863, shortly after her husband left to serve the Confederacy. She wrote, "I can never gain worldly honors. Fame can never be mine. I am a woman! A woman! I can hardly teach my heart to be content with my lot." She found one of her greatest hardships to be childbirth; she had six children and asked her husband to let her use artificial birth control. She was an avid reader of literature and poetry and saved copies of favorite poems and stories in bulging scrapbooks. Her diary, combined with her letters, scrapbooks, and a memoir she wrote about her deceased husband, provide a picture of a mid-nineteenth-century Texas woman. Following her husband's death in 1871, she lived most of her remaining years in Anderson, where she died on September 28, 1917. Her diary and letters were published in 2001. She is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Anderson.

And her tears are streaming fast, For she sees the present only, While she thinks of all the past, Of the days so full of gladness,

When her first-born’s answering kiss Filled her soul with such a rapture,

That it knew no other bliss. O, those happy, happy moments!

They but deepen her despair, For she bends above the cradle,

And her baby is not there.

There are words of comfort spoken, And the leaden clouds of grief,

Wear the smiling bow of promise, And she feels a sad relief;

But her wavering thoughts will wonder, Till they settle on the scene

Of the dark and silent chamber, And all of that might have been!

For a little vacant garment, Or a shining tress of hair, ded was held in a small log cabin.

Tells her heart in tones of anguish That her baby is not there!

She sites beside the cradle, But her tears no longer flow,

For she sees a blessed vision, And forgets all earthly woe;

Saintly eyes look down upon her, And the Voice that hushed the sea,

Stills her spirit with the whisper, “Suffer them to come to Me.”

And while her soul is lifted On the soaring wing of prayer

Heaven’s crystal gates swing inward And she sees her baby there!