The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 106
334 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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106 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
from execution" did pass the Senate on the day of adjournment,*
though I can not ascertain its provisions, whether extending to
realty or not. It was reported either from the Committee on Indian
Affairs or the Committee on Public Lands, it is not certain which,
but, of course, presumably the latter. The Senate Journals do
not show the name of the member who offered the bill.
The exemption bill which passed the Housef was introduced
by Louis P. Cook.1 On the last day of the session "a message was
received from the Senate informing the House that the Senate had
concurred in 'An act to exempt certain property therein named
from execution.' " And this is the title of the enrolled bill which,
passing both houses, became the law. This tends to show, but not
conclusively, that the law originated from the House bill. If true,
the credit of offering the bill evidently belongs to Cook, whoever
may have conceived the idea and prepared the bill itself. I have
yet to learn, however, that Cook ever claimed to have originated
the homestead law.
Such well known Texans as Judge Reagan and Governors Lub-
bock and Roberts vouch for Judge Rains' character as a man of
truth and honor, and Governor Roberts says unqualifiedly that he
would implicitly believe any statement that Rains had made on
this subject.
It only remains to add, that Judge Rains always claimed the
honor of originating the homestead law. He made this claim re-
peatedly on the hustings and elsewhere from 1839 on, and there
has never been any rival claimant for the honor. All the acquaint-
ances of the Judge in Eastern Texas, the place of his residence,
will bear witness to the truth of this statement.
From the foregoing, it may be accepted as true that the Republic
of Texas led the way in homestead legislation, and that Emory
Rains framed the first homestead statute of the age.
* Senate Journal, Third Congress, p. 131.
t House Journal, Third Congress, p. 238.
$ Cook was a New Yorker, a prominent member of the House in the Third'
Congress, and Secretary of the Navy in 1839. He died in 1849.
While I was holding the County Court for Van Zandt county in 1877,
Judge Rains, who had business in the court, was a guest at my home in
Wills Point, He then claimed, as he had done for decades before, that he
originated the homestead law; and he told me many incidents of its origin,,
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898, periodical, 1897/1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101009/m1/123/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.