Historic Walker County

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❖ Top, left: Marcellus E. Foster (1870- 1942) in Houston with his grandchildren and attorney Clarence Darrow. COURTESY OF THE EDITOR’S COLLECTION. Top, right: Minnie Fisher Cunningham (1882-1964). COURTESY OF THE WALKER COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION. Below: The north entrance to the Texas Penitentiary at Huntsville, c. 1920. COURTESY OF THE HUNTSVILLE ARTS COMMISSION. B. J. Cunningham, a lawyer and insurance executive who introduced her to political campaigning. From 1907 to 1917, Cunningham rose in power from the president of Galveston’s local suffrage chapter to the president of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association. Then, in 1918, Carrie Chapman Catt, one of the most influential women of the era, selected Cunningham to lobby for the passage of the 19th amendment in Congress. With the ratification of the amendment in 1920, and the death of her husband in 1927, Cunningham returned to Walker County to begin a hard-fought, but ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate. This failure did not discourage her, however; she continued to be active in politics and the Democratic party until her death in 1964. 62 Inspired by Foster, Cunningham, and national progressive leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Walker County’s residents looked for ways to improve living conditions in their own neighborhoods and towns. One area that seemed ripe for change was the infamous convict lease system Opposite, top: Inmates working under the convict lease system. COURTESY OF THE TEXAS PRISON MUSEUM. Opposite, middle: A view of the Peabody Building from the yard of the President's residence at Sam Houston Normal Institute. COURTESY OF THE HUNTSVILLE ARTS COMMISSION. Opposite, bottom: The Samuel Walker Houston Training School. COURTESY OF THE JACKSON DAVIS COLLECTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LIBRARY. 2 8 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y
that had come to symbolize much that was wrong with the prison system at the turn of the twentieth century. Instituted in 1871, convict lease was a profitable practice that allowed the state government to raise revenue for poorly funded, overcrowded prisons by leasing prisoners to work for private individuals. The leasing of convicts proved fruitful as it lessened the number of prisoners who needed to be housed in Huntsville and “supplied the penal system with substantial financial support by providing cheap labor and producing goods for sale.” 63 In the fall of 1908, however, Reverend Jake Hodges, a chaplain at the Huntsville Penitentiary, provided a first-hand account of the savage brutality and sexual abuse he had witnessed in the convict leasing program to George Briggs, a progressive young reporter with the San Antonio Express. Briggs’s brilliant exposé condemning the prison system finally forced Texas Governor Thomas M. Campbell to call for a “searching, sweeping, and effective” probe into convict leasing. The investigation turned up a host of problems, including financial corruption, physical abuse, and appalling living conditions for prisoners. Moved by the report, Campbell signed a law that ended the convict lease system on September 17, 1910, and two years later all existing lease contracts were canceled so that prisoners could return to state control. 64 E D U C A T I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T Progressive Era reformers had a dramatic impact on education in Walker County. At Sam Houston Normal Institute, the area’s largest educational institution, President Henry Carr Pritchett oversaw a growing campus and the addition of a beautiful new Peabody Library. Opened in 1902, the library made Sam Houston the first institution of higher education in Texas to have an individual building devoted solely for library purposes. Harry Fishburne Estill replaced Pritchett at the helm of Sam Houston Normal in 1908 and followed in his predecessor’s footsteps, expanding the university on several fronts. By 1911, coursework was expanded from two years to four years giving the institution junior college status. In accordance with the growing city of C h a p t e r V ✦ 2 9
Page 2 and 3: Thank you for your interest in this
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS 3 CHAPTER I Native America
Page 6 and 7: ❖ Above: William E. Moore found t
Page 8 and 9: Eight decades later, following a di
Page 10 and 11: ❖ Cincinnati town survey. COURTES
Page 12 and 13: ❖ Advertisements from The Huntsvi
Page 14 and 15: ❖ Above: Sam Houston (1793-1863).
Page 16 and 17: ❖ Above: “A typical Texas cotto
Page 18 and 19: I need not assure you that whenever
Page 20 and 21: ❖ Above: Thomas Jewett Goree (183
Page 22 and 23: ❖ Right: Memphis Allen sat on the
Page 24 and 25: Five miles further north and east,
Page 26 and 27: ❖ Top: The Austin College Buildin
Page 28 and 29: ❖ Above: The Henry Opera House (l
Page 32 and 33: ❖ Above: New Waverly School, earl
Page 34 and 35: ❖ Operators at the switchboard, H
Page 36 and 37: ❖ Above: Andrew Smither, Lee Cart
Page 38 and 39: ❖ Above: Men with the Civilian Co
Page 40 and 41: ❖ Above: The Sam Houston Memorial
Page 42 and 43: imprisoned at the University of San
Page 44 and 45: ❖ Top: Huntsville City Council wi
Page 46 and 47: ❖ Wendell Baker with his wife, Au
Page 48 and 49: ❖ Above: An aerial view of Sam Ho
Page 50 and 51: ❖ Above: A map of Walker County T
Page 52 and 53: ❖ Above: An inmate is pulled by a
Page 54 and 55: ❖ The Texas Prison Museum proudly
Page 56 and 57: ❖ Above: The Storybook House (for
Page 58 and 59: 27 Patricia Smith Prather and Jane
Page 60 and 61: 95 Bernadette Pruitt, Wendell Baker
Page 62 and 63: HUNTSVILLE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL Like s
Page 64 and 65: to-date with industry trends, equip
Page 66 and 67: ELKINS LAKE RECREATION CORPORATION
Page 68 and 69: COMMUNITY SERVICE CREDIT UNION ❖
Page 70 and 71: ❖ MCCAFFETY ELECTRIC CO., INC. Ab
Page 72 and 73: FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF HUNTSVILLE O
Page 74 and 75: COMFORT SUITES- HUNTSVILLE Local re
Page 76 and 77: BETHY CREEK RESORTS For families wh
Page 78 and 79: CANDYCE FARRIS DIXON, CPA ❖ Candy
Page 80 and 81:
❖ CHARLES W. MONDAY, JR., M.D., P
Page 82 and 83:
SMITHER, MARTIN, HENDERSON & BLAZEK
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SAM HOUSTON CANCER CENTER In just a
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SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY In res
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HUNTSVILLE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTR
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Historic Walker County

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