103
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1837
I must respectfully solicit your concurrence in the above nom- inations. Sam Houston 1 E. W. Winkler (ed.), Sec1·et Joiwnals of the Senate, Re7mblic of Texas, 1896-1845, 64. 2 James Gardner Hurd (1813-March 14, 1883) was the son of Captain Norman Hurd and Ann Gardner Hurd. He was born and educated at Middle Haddam, Connecticut. Captain Norman Hurd was a sailor in the United States merchant marine for many years. He came to Texas in 1835 and settled at Lynchburg on Galveston Bay, where he became associated with David G. Burnet in the erection and operation of the first steam saw mill ever brought to Texas. Captain Hurd was not in Texas during the revolu- tion of 1835-1836, but joined the Texas navy in 1838, and remained purser of the flag ship B1·utus until 1845. After the annexation of Texas to the United States he was for some time a customs officer at the port of Gal- veston and at Sabine. He died at Galveston, November 22, 1870 in the eighty-fourth year of his age. James Gardner Hurd was Captain Norman Hurd's only son and was from early youth much on the sea with his father. Although his father was, in 1837, in Connecticut, engaged in a shipping enterprise, James Gardner came to Texas and entered the ·Texas naval service; after his father re- turned to Texas in 1838, father and son served together, often on the same ship, until the Texas navy was sold. After annexation he was with his father in the custom houses at Galveston and at Sabine. Later they were engaged in private enterprise until after the Civil War. For many years .James G. Hurd was confidential clerk to Captain Charles Fowler, manager of the Morgan Steamship Interests at Galveston. He was very little in public office, but did once accept membership on the city council, and was an original stock holder and official in the Galveston Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Notwithstanding his aversion to public office, he was always deeply interested in all matters that pertained to the interest of the city of Galveston. He was a strong opponent to secession, but remained at Galveston throughout the Civil War and devoted his energies to the pro- tection of public and private property and the care of families whose sup- porting members had gone to the front. Another service for which he was noteworthy was his self .abnegation during yellow fever epidemics from the first in 1838, to the last a few years before his own death. At Galveston, in 1846, he married Julia A. Day, a native of New York, who had come to Texas in 1839, an inmate of her uncle's, William F. Mead, family. To this marriage three children were born, but only one, a daughter, l\Irs. R. W. Shaw, lived to be grown. See History of Texas with Biographical His- tories of the Cities of Houston and Galveston (Lewis Publishing Company, 1896), pp. 625-626. 3 Captain James D. Boylan's nomination was postponed, and on June 1, 1837, was again considered and rejected (See E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Joiwnals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1896-1845, 60). Hearing that Captain Boylan had been ordered to start on a cruise, the Senate, October 4, 1837, ordered him to be detained· for further orders. This order seems not to have been obeyed. Information concerning his cruise may be found
Powered by FlippingBook