67
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1837-1841
of State. After annexation he settled at Bonham and practised law. During the Civil War he held a military commission under the Southern Confederacy. He died at his Bonham home in 1872. See Lamar Papers, (6 volumes, passim); E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Journals of the Senate, Revublic of Texas, 1836-1845, 129, 205, 210; Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic Co1-resvo11clence of the Rei;mblic of Texas, II, 88, 94, 99. To JAMES B. SHAw 1 Executive Department, City of Austin, December 22c1. 1841. The President's compliments to Mr. Shaw, and respectfully announces to him that he has appointed Mr. F. R. Lubbock~ as Comptroller, and has directed him to proceed in the duties of his office. Sam Houston [Rubric] 1 "Houston's Private Executive Record Book," courtesy of Mr. Franklin Williams. ~Francis Richard Lubbock (October 16, 1815-June 22, 1905), governor of Texas, Confederate soldier, eldest son of Doctor Henry T. W., and Susan Ann (Saltus) Lubbock, was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. His ancestry was of English stock on both sides, and presented a long line of planters, ship-owners and merchants. Francis Richard was educated by private tutors, as was the custom of prominent southerners of the early nineteenth century. But when the boy was fifteen years old his father died, and the family met heavy financial reverses that compelled the lad to earn his own livelihood. His first job was a clerkship at Charleston, but he soon moved to Hamburg, South Carolina, and in 1834 went to New Orleans, where he opened a drug store. On February 5, 1835, he married Adele Baron, a Creole French girl of New Orleans; and on DecembP.r 12, 1836, this young couple emigrated to Texas and opened a store, first at Velasco, later at Houston. In 1837, Sam Houston appointed Lubbock comptroller of the Republic, a position in which he served for one year. He was again appointed comptroller in 1841, but served only a short time, when he resigned to look after his private business. For sixteen years he served as district clerk of Harris County, and in Derember, 1857, was elected lieutenant governor by the Democrats. He stood for election for the same office in 1859 but was defeated by Edward Clark. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Charleston Convention and supported secession; in 1861 he defeated Clark for the governorship of Texas. He found the treasury empty, Texas bonds unsalable, and the wild Indians hostile. His entire administration had to be an effort-not entirely successful-to defend the frontiers against the Indians, and to increase the resources of the state. Through his influence the Legislature raised a regiment of mounted men for frontier protection, and in the spring of 1862 created a military board (governor, comptroller, and treasurer) to provide defense for the state with funds acquired by selling United States "indemnity bonds" which had been brought to the ti·easury through the sale of the state's
Powered by FlippingBook