WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
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have afforded me great pleasure, and I write this to say that whatever our political [differences] may be, they will not with me disturb our personal regards. When I reach Austin I will be happy to meet you at Halls House. Truly Thine Sam Houston Hon. Ashbel Smith Austin Texas [Addressed] : To Hon. Ashbel Smith Member of the House
&c &c Austin Texas by Hon. Mr. Sayles 2 1 Ashbel Smith Papers, University of Texas Library.
2 John Sayles (March 9, 1825-May 22, 1897) was born at Ithaca, New York. His father was a successful physician; his mother was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, who also did missionary work among the Oneida Indians. He was educated in the local schools of his community and at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, where he received both the A.B. and the M.A. degrees. When he was fifteen years old he began teaching school in order to pay for his own education, and after graduation from college he continued in the profession, teaching at various places in New York, Georgia and Texas. In 1845 he accepted a position in a school at Brenham, Texas, and while there also studied law in the office of J. D. Giddings and Barry Gillespie, prominent lawyers of Brenham. In 1847 he passed the ba~ examinations and set up an office for himself, a short time later going into partnership with Barry Gillespie. A later partnership at Brenham was with Benjamin Bassett, and the firm of Sayles and Bassett was one of the most prominent of Washington County for thirty years. For one term, 1863-1855, John Sayles served in the Texas Legislature, this being the only political office he ever held. From 1857 to 1859 he was a professor of law at Baylor University. This is thought to be the first law school ever estab- lished in Texas, and R E. B. Baylor, Royal T. Wheeler, and John Sayles composed the first law faculty in Texas. During' the Civil War Sayles fought with the Confederacy as a Brigadier General under General J. B. Magruder. He served as Adjutant General on Magruder's staff. After the war, he returned to Brenham and took up his practice. Being by nature and for pleasure a close student, he began a scien- tific study of various phases of law, and became the ablest and most prolific writer of law books that Texas has ever produced. In 1886 he moved to Abilene, Texas, and established a law partnership with his son Henry, the firm name being Sayles & Sayles, a firm still extant, in the hands of his descendants. In 1849 John Sayles .married Mary Elizabeth Gillespie, the only daughter of Barry Gillespie. He died May 22, 1897. See Dictiona,·y of Ame1-ican Biography, XVI, 402-403; Dallas Moniing News, May 30, 1897; Biogra.phi- cal Encyclopedia of Texas (1880), 181-182; James D. Lynch, Bench and Bar of Texa.s, 436-439; Members of the Legislatiwe of the State of Texas, 1846- 1999, 25 (This compilation was made by order of the Texas Legislature, 1939, Tommy Yett being the chairman of the compilers); J. C. Townes, La10 Books and How to Use Them, 1909, p. 186.
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