Submitted to McLennan County TXGenWeb page by Diane E. Wilson. Viewer Submitted Profiles added to the bottom! 

Neil McLennan

McLennan County is named after Neil McLennan  (1777-1867), an early settler born on the Isle of Skye in 1777. He immigrated in 1801 to North Carolina with numerous family members and friends; in 1816 they moved to Florida. In December 1834 Neil and a large group of family and friends, including Laughlin and John, Neil's brothers, set sail from Pensacola, Florida, in a three-masted schooner, the Caledonia, which they navigated themselves. They arrived at the mouth of the Brazos River around March 1, 1835, and sailed up the river as far as Columbia (then named Montezuma, later Columbus). After a resting period they continued their journey, stopping at Pond Creek, in Robertson's colony. McLennan received a league of land on July 28, 1835, and in the early fall he and the men set about building shelters and improving the land. He built on the bluff overlooking the rolling prairie with a small lake nearby. During the following winter Indians killed Laughlin McLennan, his wife, and his mother and captured his three children; the other families moved back to the Robertson settlement of Nashville-on-the-Brazos. John McLennan was killed by Indians in 1838. In 1839 Neil McLennan joined George B. Erathqv on a scouting and surveying trip to a site on the Bosque River near that of present Waco. McLennan exchanged his Pond Creek land for claims on the Bosque, and in 1845 he moved his family there, where he died in 1867 at his family home.

Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor for which Baylor University was named)

Robert Emmett Bledsoe BAYLOR, jurist, born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, 10 May 1793; died at Gay Hill, Texas, 6 January 1874. He was the son of Walker Baylor, who commanded Washington's lifeguards at the battle of Germantown, and was a nephew of Colonel George Baylor. tie studied law with his maternal uncle, the Hon. Jesse Bledsoe. He served in the war of 1812 under Colonel Boswell, and was in the fight near Fort Meigs. When peace was restored he returned to Kentucky, was admitted to the bar, and soon acquired a large practice, in 1819 ha was elected to the state legislature, but during the following year removed to Alabama, where he became prominent in the legal profession. He was elected to the state legislature in 1824, and in 1829 was sent as a representative from Alabama to the 21st congress, serving till 3 March 1831. During the Creek war he commanded a regiment of Alabama volunteers, and rendered efficient set-vice in terminating the war on the borders of that state. Subsequent to his career in congress he immigrated to the republic of Texas, where he was immediately elected a judge of the district and of the Supreme Court. Judge Baylor, being a warm friend of annexation, after the change of government was elected a member of the convention that formed the present state constitution. Later he was again appointed one of the district judges, and held the office for twenty-five years. He was a devoted Baptist, and at one time a licensed preacher of that denomination. In 1845 a charter for a Baptist College, to be located at Independence, was granted by the congress of Texas, and it received the name of Baylor University, an honor warranted by the gifts of land and money made by Judge Baylor. One of the counties of Texas was also named for him.

Lawrence Sullivan Ross "Sul Ross" (Re-printed from Red River Authority)

Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross,(1838-1898) soldier, statesman, and university president, second son and fourth child of Catherine (Fulkerson) and Shapley Prince Ross, was born at Bentonsport, Iowa Territory, on September 27, 1838. His parents had moved from Missouri to Iowa in 1834; the family immigrated to Texas in 1839 and settled initially in Milam County, where young Sul had his first encounter with hostile Indians, then for a period at Austin, where the older children attended school, and finally in 1849 at Waco, where Shapley Ross became a pioneer settler, entrepreneur, and landowner. Sul's love for action and horses involved him in his first Indian fight while he was still a boy. Although his early ambition was to be an Indian fighter like his father, he recognized the value of education and enrolled at Baylor University in Independence, Texas, and then at the Wesleyan University in Florence, Alabama, where he obtained his A.B. degree in 1859. He apparently trained for no profession but desired instead a military career in state service. His opportunity came the summer of his junior year; while at home on vacation, the youth signed on with the United States Army as leader of a band of Indian auxiliaries from the Brazos Indian Reservation, which was then located in Young County. During the ensuing campaign against the Comanches in Indian Territory in September and October of 1858, Ross won the praise of regular army officers for his skill and courage, but nearly lost his life from a serious wound received in a battle at the Wichita Village near the site of present-day Rush Springs, Oklahoma. He recovered enough to return to college and graduated the next summer. About this same time he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Back in Texas, Ross joined the Texas Rangers and took part in the unsuccessful campaign of Middleton Tate Johnson against hostile tribes in the spring and summer of 1860, initially as a first lieutenant and later as captain of the Waco Company. Despite the general public contempt for the results of the Johnson expedition, Ross won the approval and trust of Governor Sam Houston, who empowered him to raise a company of his own for service in the area of Young and surrounding counties. In his defense of the frontier, Ross had the cooperation of regular troops, and his aggressive boldness in pursuing a Comanche raiding party in December 1860 resulted in the battle at the Pease River in which Cynthia Ann Parker was recovered, an exploit that gained him much popularity in Texas. With the coming of the Civil War he resigned from the rangers. He subsequently joined the Masonic order. He married Elizabeth Dorothy Tinsley, daughter of a Waco planter, on May 28, 1861. After acting as state peace commissioner to various Indian tribes, he enlisted in mid-1861 in the Confederate Army as a member of the Waco company raised by his older brother, Peter F. Ross, which was incorporated into the Sixth Texas Cavalry. First as major and then as colonel of his regiment, Ross took part in numerous western campaigns, including those of Pea Ridge, Corinth, and Vicksburg. He was promoted to brigadier general in early 1864 and commanded the Texas Cavalry Brigade (see ROSS'S BRIGADE, C.S.A.), made up of his former regiment, the Third Texas Cavalry, the Ninth Texas Cavalry, and the Twenty-seventh Texas Cavalry or First Texas Legion, for the remainder of the war. Under his able leadership, his brigade saw action in the Atlanta and Franklin-Nashville campaigns, although Ross was in Texas on furlough when his men surrendered at Jackson, Mississippi, in May 1865.

The wartime period undermined Ross's health, and he spent the eight years of Reconstruction farming near Waco with his wife and growing family. Eventually nine children were born to the Rosses, although only six lived to maturity. In 1873 the citizens of McLennan County elected Ross sheriff. In his two years in office he ended a reign of terror and helped form the Sheriffs' Association of Texas. He urged needed reforms and helped write the document that governs Texas today, the Constitution of 1876. Service as a constitutional delegate gave him experience in public office and a reputation for honesty and ability. During the next four years Ross did not seek political office on his own, despite the willingness of his comrades to support him in a bid for the office of governor on the Democratic ticket. He did agree, however, to become a compromise candidate for the state Senate from the Twenty-second District in the election of 1880. As senator, Ross made a record of solid achievement, but a reapportionment bill reduced his four-year term and he declined to run for reelection. Nevertheless, from the Senate it was an easy step to the governorship; by 1886 Ross's friends and supporters had persuaded him to enter politics on the state level, and he won easily on his first attempt. During his two terms (he was reelected in 1888 and served until 1891) the new Capitol was completed, the state attained new heights of industrial, agricultural, and commercial growth, and state eleemosynary and educational institutions flourished. Even more important, Ross's time in office was later considered one of exceptional good will and harmony. When he left the statehouse, he stepped immediately into the presidency of the seriously troubled Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University), a position in which he rendered his greatest public services. Under his presidency the number of students grew, many new buildings were built, and public faith in the institution returned. In 1893 he was elected commander of the Texas Division of the United Confederate Veterans, and two years later he turned down an appointment to the Railroad Commission that would have taken him away from A&M. It was a blow to the university when President Ross died suddenly at his home in College Station on January 3, 1898. As an editorial written after his death stated, "It has been the lot of few men to be of such great service to Texas as Sul Ross." Sul Ross State University, in Alpine, is named in his honor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Judith Ann Benner, Sul Ross: Soldier, Statesman, Educator (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1983). Ross Family Papers, Texas Collection, Baylor University.

 

Patrick Morris Neff "Pat Neff"

Pat Morris Neff served as governor of Texas from January 18, 1921 to January 20, 1925. Neff was born near McGregor, Texas on November 26, 1871. He worked on his father's farm and ranch, attended a country school when time would allow, and then went to McGregor High School. Neff graduated from Baylor University in 1894. He taught school in Arkansas for two years and then entered the University of Texas Law School, receiving a degree in 1897. Neff began practicing law at Waco in 1897 while pursuing a Master of Arts degree at Baylor University. He was McLennan County representative from 1901 to 1905, and was speaker of the house for the 28th Legislature. From 1906 to 1912, Neff was prosecuting attorney of McLennan County. From 1912 to 1919, he practiced law in Waco and worked on civic, religious, and educational projects.

In 1920 and 1922 Neff won the gubernatorial elections. The first day Neff was in office, he abolished the Board of Pardon Advisors. He called for economy in government, lower taxes, and improved education. Although he had problems with the legislature, he worked for sizable appropriations for conservation, helped develop a State Parks Board, and recommended the creation of a State Historical Board. During his administration Neff also helped develop medical facilities, including the American Legion Hospital, and advanced education in rural areas. When Neff completed his service as governor, he resumed his law practice in Waco. President Calvin Coolidge appointed Neff to the United States Board of Mediation (1927-1929). Governor Dan Moody asked Neff to be chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, a position he held from 1929 to 1931. He became president of Baylor University, serving from 1932 to 1947. Neff married Myrtie Mainer on May 31, 1899 at Lovelady, Texas. They had two children. Pat Neff died on January 19, 1952.

John W. Baker

(1850-1931). John W. Baker, lawyer and county official, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 30, 1850, the son of Amanda (Saunders) and John Holland Baker. He attended private schools and graduated from Waco University (later Baylor University) and the Jesuit College of St. Louis (later St. Louis University). Baker read law in the offices of Coke, Herring, and Anderson and entered into private practice in Waco. He married Louise Brown in 1875, and they had five children. Baker was named county clerk of McLennan County in 1876 and held that office until 1892. He was county treasurer in 1893-94 and then served as sheriff for ten years. He became a county judge in 1904 but returned to private practice in 1908. He resumed his duties as county clerk in 1912 and continued in that position until his death, on November 23, 1931. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Betty A. M. McSwain, ed., The Bench and Bar of Waco and McLennan County (Waco: Texian Press, 1976). A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984).

Waller Saunders Baker

(1855-1913). Waller Saunders Baker, lawyer, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 30, 1855, the son of Amanda (Saunders) and John Holland Baker.  The family moved to Texas in the late 1850s and settled on a farm near Crawford in McLennan County. Baker graduated from Baylor University in 1875, read law for a year in the office of Thomas Harrison, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Waco the rest of his life. He was attorney for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway and a law partner of Pat M. Neff. In 1884 he became chairman of the Democratic executive committee for McLennan County and in 1887 served one term in the state Senate. In 1892 he was a delegate to the Democratic convention in Houston and campaign manager for James S. Hogg. Baker married Mary Mills of Galveston in January 1886. He died on September 9, 1913, while on vacation in San Francisco, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Waco. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Henry Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas (Austin: Daniell, 1880; reprod., Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978). Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]). Betty A. M. McSwain, ed., The Bench and Bar of Waco and McLennan County (Waco: Texian Press, 1976).

Edward Jeremiah Gurley

(1827-1914). Lawyer, legislator, and brother of Davis R. Gurley, was born in Franklin County, Alabama, on June 7, 1827. He was graduated from La Grange College, Alabama, in 1845 and received a master's degree in 1846. He read law in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and there married Annie Blocker. They had two daughters. In 1852 they moved to Waco, Texas, where Gurley practiced law with his brother-in-law, Richard F. Blocker. When the Civil War began Gurley raised the Thirtieth Texas Cavalry in McLennan and surrounding counties and led the regiment as colonel in the Indian Territory and Arkansas. After the war he returned to his law practice, which consisted largely of land litigation in McLennan, Falls, and Williamson counties; he also acquired extensive landholdings. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and was elected to the legislature in 1867. His first wife died, and he married Virginia (Jennie) Alexander in 1868. They had one son. In his later years Gurley owned several plantations along the Brazos River; he was president of the Lone Star Cotton Picking Machine Company and of the Collins Company, which owned land in the Mexican coffee region. He died on July 4, 1914. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. L. Bentley and Thomas Pilgrim, Texas Legal Directory for 1876-77 (Austin: Democratic Statesman Office, 1877). Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas (New York: Southern, 1880). John M. Kinney, Index to Applications for Texas Confederate Pensions (Austin: Texas State Archives, 1975). A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984).

Robert Shapley Ross

(1848-1923). newspaper editor, publisher, and Civil War soldier, son of Catherine (Fulkerson) and Shapley Prince Ross, was born on April 22, 1848, at Station Creek, a ranger station near Waco. He was possibly the first white child born in the environs of present McLennan County. He attended primary school in Waco, St. Mary's in San Antonio, and Baylor University. During the Civil War he was a captain in Company D, Sixth Texas Infantry. After the war he returned to Waco, where he married Elizabeth Anne Gleen on March 12, 1871; they had one daughter. In 1874 Ross helped organize the Waco Grays, a defense organization armed by the state, and was elected captain. The Grays numbered about sixty men and drilled once a month. In 1876 Ross edited the Advance, a Waco afternoon newspaper. Later, with his brother William Hallam Ross, he owned and published the Daily Reporter. He served as deputy sheriff of McLennan County for eight years, and from 1890 to 1894 he was county treasurer. In 1912 he was one of those responsible for bringing a group of Huaco Indians to the Waco Cotton Palace. Ross died on January 11, 1923, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Waco. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Raymond L. Dillard, A History of the Ross Family and Its Most Distinguished Member, Lawrence Sullivan Ross (M.A. thesis, Baylor University, 1931). John Sleeper and J. C. Hutchins, comps., Waco and McLennan County (Waco: Golledge, 1876; rpt., Waco: Kelley, 1966). Waco News-Tribune, March 16, 1922. Waco Times-Herald, May 16, 1912, January 11, 1923.

Shepherd Mullens

(ca. 1828-1871). Shepherd (Shepart, Sheppard) Mullens, black political leader, was born a slave in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1828 or 1829. He arrived in Texas, still a bondsman, during 1854. Between 1865 and 1870 he acquired several lots in Waco and other pieces of land in McLennan County. On December 29, 1866, he married Sallie Downs. In 1867, when Congress passed the Reconstruction acts that divided most of the Confederacy into military districts, Maj. Gen. Charles Griffin, the commander of the Fifth Military District, appointed Mullens to serve on the board that registered voters in McLennan County. A few months later Mullins served on the platform committee of the first Republican Party Convention in Texas. In 1868, after the death of a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1868-69, he ran successfully for election to fill the seat. In the convention he became a member of the committees on public lands, commerce, and manufactures. Generally the radical wing of the Republican Party received his support in convention votes. In 1869 Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds, then the state military commander, selected Mullens to serve a four-year term as a McLennan county commissioner.

In the factional struggles of the Republican Party before the state election of 1869, Mullens became a vice president of the convention organized by radical leader Morgan C. Hamilton. When the Twelfth Legislature was elected in 1869, Mullens campaigned for and won a place in the House of Representatives. He strongly supported Republican efforts to protect the interests of black people. Thus he favored the establishment of the Texas State Police and a militia to control violence. He also voted for a state system of education available to all citizens and joined other black legislators in unsuccessful opposition to school segregation. Republican efforts to provide frontier defense received his approval. Mullens represented his local constituents by introducing a bill to extend the city limits of Waco. Along with most other Republicans in the house, he generally supported vetoes by Governor Edmund J. Davis of costly railroad bills. Mullens died on August 7, 1871, and was buried in Waco. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Washington, D.C., New Era, June 16, 1870.

Benjamin Franklin Gholson

(1842-1932). The son of Elidia (Anderson) and Albert G. Gholson, was born on November 17, 1842, in the area that later became Falls County, Texas. The family shortly thereafter moved to McLennan County, where they established a community later named Gholson. On October 2, 1858, Gholson joined Capt. John Williams's company of Texas Rangers, with which he served until April 5, 1859. On March 4, 1860, he joined Capt. J. M. Smith's company and assisted in the recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker. Gholson married Jane Adaline (Adeline) Langford on July 18, 1862. After the Civil War, during which he served in Col. George W. Baylor's Second Texas Cavalry and participated in the retaking of Galveston (see GALVESTON, BATTLE OF), the Gholsons settled on a ranch in Lampasas County. Gholson's ranching activities extended into Hamilton and Coryell counties, and he became prominent as a stockman. During the last years of his life he maintained his home in Evant and was active in the Texas Ex-Rangers Association. He died on April 3, 1932, just a few months before he and his wife would have celebrated their seventieth wedding anniversary. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frontier Times, August 1932. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984).

James Patterson Alexander

Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was born in Moody, McLennan County, Texas, on April 21, 1883, the son of John Newton and Mary (Patterson) Alexander. He attended Baylor University in 1901 and received a law degree from the University of Texas in 1908. After a summer of postgraduate work at the University of Chicago in 1908, he began a law practice in McGregor. He moved his practice to Waco in 1911 and was elected county judge of McLennan County in 1916. He married Elizabeth Akin of Waco on August 2, 1916, and they had two daughters. From 1920 to 1924 Alexander served as judge for the Nineteenth District Court. He retired to private practice in 1924 but in 1930 became an associate justice of the Tenth Court of Civil Appeals at Waco. From 1920 to 1940 he was a member of the Baylor law faculty. While there, he taught civil trial procedure and instituted a series of student practice trials. In 1940 he was elected chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, in which he served until his death. One of his primary concerns was to revise the code of civil procedure so that cases would move through the judicial process more efficiently.

Alexander was a Baptist, a Mason, and a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas. He also served as director of the State Bar of Texas and as president of the National Council of Judicial Councils. He farmed and raised bees as a hobby. He died in Austin on January 1, 1948, and was buried in the State Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 51. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

John Kern Strecker

(1875-1933). Naturalist and civic leader, son of Sallie F. (Agnew) and John Kern Strecker, Sr., was born at Waterloo, Illinois, on July 10, 1875. In November 1887 the Strecker family moved to Waco, Texas, from Fort Scott, Kansas. Strecker had only a limited formal education and began his employment period as a stonecutter, his father's vocation. At a young age Strecker began a lifelong interest in natural history, at sixteen he published his first scientific paper-an article on local birds. It was for his scientific publications on amphibians and reptiles of Texas and the Southwest, however, that he became a recognized authority. Strecker began collecting snakes as a hobby in 1893. His interest led to a job as curator of the Baylor University Museum in 1903. He directed the museum's development until his death in 1933, and achieved national and international recognition for the museum through his publications and field studies. Strecker also served Baylor simultaneously as university librarian from 1919 to 1933 and as summer editor of the campus newspaper from 1908 to 1911. Strecker received an honorary M.S. degree at the Baylor commencement in 1925. Strecker's numerous scientific papers were on varied subjects but concentrated on mollusks, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The monographic treatments of the freshwater mussels (in 1931) and terrestrial and freshwater snails (in 1935, posthumously) have yet to be completely updated. Several newly described species were named in his honor. Besides his scientific writings, Strecker also wrote natural history articles for a Waco newspaper and several popular science magazines. Strecker was well known on the Baylor campus and in the city of Waco; his scientific trips to out-of-state museums and in-state collecting spots were items of interest in the Waco newspapers. A prominent local politician, Strecker was chairman of the McLennan County Democratic Executive Committee for the twenty years prior to his death. He announced for mayor of Waco in 1918 but later withdrew in favor of a political associate. Strecker was a member of numerous organizations, including the First Presbyterian Church of Waco, Woodmen of the World, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Biological Society of Washington, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Texas Academy of Science, Texas Folklore Society, and Texas Game and Fish Protective Association. He served as president of the last three organizations and as head consul of the Texas Woodmen of the World and was a thirty-second degree Mason. Strecker married Mary Robert Boyd of Waco on October 27, 1915; their only child, Robert Kern Strecker (born on November 4, 1920), died a few months after his birth. Strecker died at Waco on January 9, 1933, after an illness lasting several months. In 1940 the Baylor University Museum was renamed the Strecker Museum in his honor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dayton Kelley, ed., The Handbook of Waco and McLennan County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1972). Texas Library Association News Notes, January 1929. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.