TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Family Remembrances and the Legacy ofChief Justice Hortense Sparks WardBy Linda C. HunsakerIT HAS BEEN SAID THAT WE DESERVEneither credit nor blame for our ancestors. Withthat thought in mind, I have been asked to submitpersonal family recollections to this esteemedJournal about my father’s maternal grandmother,Hortense Sparks Ward (1872–1944), a trailblazingTexas woman who served as the first femaleChief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. Herstory is an inspiring one for our family, as well asfor the state she served. In a multi-generationalfamily with many grandparent names, I referto her as Hortense, and my late father and hisyounger brother called her “Grandma Ward” withgreat affection.The Early Life of a Courageous WomanWhen I was in my mid-twenties, I received atelephone call from future Governor Ann Richards,something I never anticipated. She said that the TexasFoundation for Women’s Resources was preparingHortense Sparks Ward.Photo from the Texas Supreme Court Archives.an exhibition documenting the outstanding achievements of women in Texas history, including my father’sgrandmother, Chief Justice Hortense Ward of the Texas Supreme Court. My father assured her that I would help.I agreed. As I learned more, I became fascinated by a story I had never known.The oldest of fourteen children, Hortense Sparks was born on July 21, 1872 in Matagorda County, Texas. 1She was fortunate to have a self-reliant and spirited mother, as well as a father who insisted on providing each of hischildren with a superior education. Despite his anti-Catholic leanings, her father ensured that his eleven daughters1See Jack Pope, Chief Justice Hortense Sparks Ward, Chair Presentation Ceremony, Friends of the State Law Library (Nov.16, 2000) (hereinafter, Pope, Chief Justice Ward), 1; David A. Furlow, Taking the Law into Their Own Hands: Hortense SparksWard, Alice S. Tiernan, and the Struggle for Women’s Rights in the 1910 Harris County Courthouse, Hou. B. Ass’n App. Law(Sept. 2013), http://www.hbaappellatelawyer.org/2013/09/taking-law-into-their-own-hands.html; see also Janelle D. Scott, Ward,Hortense Sparks, Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwa83) (accessed June 14, 2015)(correcting statements that Hortense was born in 1875 when her obituary referred to her birth date as 1872 and when the year of herhigh school graduation accorded with an 1872 birth); Janelle D. Scott, Hortense Ward: A Biographical Sketch for The Handbookof Texas History, Tex. St. Hist. Ass’n (1990), n. 1 (same, birth in 1872, as well as later life accomplishments); Janelle Scott, “TheyMade a Difference,” TAM Newsletter (Fall 1980), 8-9.51