WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1861
256
Legislature (1859-186_1). He had been a noted Indian fighter and frontier protector, and as commander of militia companies had earned the title of colonel. His son, John D. Stell, Jr., and his family are to this day, holders of large tracts of land in Leon County, and are men of influence in the communities in which they live. See Lewis Publishing Company, History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone, and Leon Counties, 464-465; Wood, A Sho,·t History of Daniel B. Wood and Fa-mily, 18-19. 5 William P. Rogers (December 27, 1817-October 4, 1862) was born in Georgia, but while the boy was Yery young, his father moved to north Mississippi, and settled in Monroe County, where he was educated and pre- pared for the medical profession, which however, he abandoned for the law. During the Mexican War he went out from Columbus, Mississippi, as a first lieutenant of a company which A. K. McClung commanded; but when the troops were reorganized at Vicksburg, Jefferson Davis was made colonel of the regiment; McClung became lieutenant colonel, and Rogers was raised to the rank of captain of Company K of the First Mis- sissippi Rifles. He fought throughout the war and made himself ~onspicuous for bravery at Buena Vista. During Persident Taylor's administration he served as consul at Vera Cruz, after which service he moved to Washing- ton, Texas, and developed into one of the prominent lawyers of the State. His name appears as counsel in many important cases in the Supreme Court Reports. He moved to Houston in 1859, and was elected a delegate from Harris County to the Secession Convention, which met at Austin, in January, 1861, and became one of the signers of the ordinance of seces- sion. He was offered the command o_f a regiment in Virginia, but preferred the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Second Texas Infantry. This com- mand fought at the battle of Shiloh and the first battle of Corinth, April 6, 1862. Again in the fall of 1862, his command was with the Confederate forces that attacked Rosecrans in the old fortifications at Corinth, and there on the second day of the attack, he fell as he led his 1·egiment against the front of Fort Robinette. See Sidney S. Johnson, Texans Who Wo,·e tl1e Gray, 120-122. 6 Thomas J. Devine (February 28, 1820-March 17, 1890) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, of Irish parentage. He received a liberal education with a fair knowledge of Latin, French, and German. He was, however, thrown upon his own resources at an early age, and at fifteen became a clerk in a clothing house of Tallahassee, Florida. In 1838, he 1·ead law at Woodville, Mississippi, under the celebrated jurist, Thruxton Davidson. In 1840, he entered Transylvania University, graduating therefrom in 1843, in the class with James B. Clay and Frank Blair. This same year he received his law license from the Supreme Court of Kentucky and set out for Texas. He located first at La Grange, Fayette County, but soon moved to San Antoni~. In 1844, he married Helen Anne, daughter of Thomas G. Elder, of La Grange. He was elected the next year, city attorney of San Antonio, a position he held until 1855. In 1861, he was a delegate to the Secession Convention, held at Austin, and voted ,vith ardent emphasis on every ballot for secession. He was appointed, by the Secession Conven- tion, a member of the Committee of Public Safety, a body of picked men (19 in number) in whose hands was placed the government of Texas. This committee appointed three men, Judge Devine one of them, to go to San Antonio to confer with General Twiggs, commander of the United States
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