Historic Walker County

❖
Right: Memphis Allen sat on the
Board of Trustees for the Bishop Ward
Normal and Collegiate Institute for
Negroes in Huntsville (1883-1890).
COURTESY OF THE SAMUEL WALKER HOUSTON
MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER.
Below: African-American politicians
who sat in the Texas legislature during
Reconstruction. Richard Williams
(bottom row, fifth column) and James
H. Washington (fifth row, seventh
column) represented Walker County.
COURTESY OF THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN
CULTURES, SAN ANTONIO.
and 13th Texas Legislatures; Memphis Allen, a
founding member and trustee of the Bishop
Ward Normal and Collegiate Institute for
Negroes in Huntsville; Joseph M. Mettawer, a
band leader, educator, and county
commissioner; C. W. Luckie, an educator and
member of the school board; and Jane Ward, a
hotel operator and community activist. Many of
these individuals worked with local whites,
including Micajah Clark Rogers and George
Washington Grant, who both helped African
Americans secure land and improve their
economic and educational opportunities.
Despite these steps forward, however, a
devastating yellow fever epidemic struck
Huntsville in 1867, carrying off a full 10 percent
of the population. From August 9 to October
19, 1867, at least 130 citizens lost their lives,
including James Gillaspie, Anthony Martin
Branch, and Pleasant William Kittrell. 40 The
yellow fever epidemic only underscored what
was already a dark and tumultuous time. After
touring East Texas in 1869, a reporter for the
Cincinnati Commercial noted, “You cannot pick
up a paper in Texas without reading of murder,
assassinations and robbery….The civil authority
is powerless—the military insufficient in
number.” 41 Two years later in 1871, a rebellion
broke out in Walker County when a freedman,
Sam Jenkins, was found murdered after
testifying against several white men in an assault
case. Four whites—Nathaniel Outlaw, Joseph
Wright, Fred Parks, and John M. Parish—were
arrested for the murder. On January 11, 1871,
three of them were found guilty. The verdict
brought an outbreak of gunfire in the
courtroom; Parish and Wright escaped, aided by
Huntsville citizens.
By February 20, Governor Edmund J. Davis
established martial law in Walker County, an act
required only three times across the state during
Reconstruction, and a court martial was
arranged to rectify the situation. The entire
city population was taxed in order to pay
for the military occupation. Soon enough,
however, Democrats returned to power and
Reconstruction came to an abrupt if
unsuccessful end. It would take another century
for African Americans to realize the promise of
the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were
added to the U.S. Constitution between 1865
and 1870. But, the march to that “better day
coming” had at least begun. 42
2 0 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y