Texas Almanac, 1947-1948 Page: 33
[610] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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FIRST CITIZEN OF TEXAS
Editor's Note -The present is the first edition of the Texas Almanac and State Industrial
Guide since the death of G. B. Dealey, Chairman of the Board of the A H Belo Coi poration,
publishers of the Texas Almanac as 'ell as The Dallas Morning Nexs and owners of Radio
Stations WFAA, KGKO and KERA-FM
BY SAM H. ACHESON.
Shortly after noon on February 26, opened it, reflected the prosperity and
1946, the Governor of Texas ordered the world prestige of mighty Albion The
flags of state and nation to be lowered to young boy's parents were part and parcel
half-mast over the Capitol at Austin. This of the Midlands, that section of England
was done as word flashed from Dallas then undergoing rapid industrialization.
that George Bannerman Dealey, then in Its chief industry was textiles which used
his eighty-seventh year, had died a few cotton imported from America, much of it
moments before at his home in the city even then from Texas They were sturdy,
where he had lived for more than sixty God-fearing, industrious folk, a family of
years. the kind which the young Queen was to
The Lone Star Flag in its time had immortalize in her own as the domestic
been dropped to half-staff out of respect ideal of the century.
to the passing of many notable men and Three daughters and five sons were
women. From Queen Victoria to the born to George and Mary Nellins Dealey,
wartime President Roosevelt, these have of which young George was the second
included great soldiers, rulers, statesmen, son and fourth child The father, born in
jurists and other public figures. No oth- Liverpool, was English to the core, a
ers, however, had been so purely and shoemaker by trade, a manager, then a
completely the private citizen. None thus shop owner by virtue of his own thrift
honored had been more closely or more and energy. The Dealey grandfather was
warmly enshrined in the hearts and lives likewise a native of Liverpool and lived
of his fellow Texans. The dipping of the out a successful career as land agent,
colors was symbolic of the acclaim from appraiser and accountant. There crept in
the Red River to the Rio Grande of the from his mother's side, though, a more
First Citizen of Texas. What was the adventurous, not to say a downright Irish
secret of the life of one whose passing strain. The mother was a County Mona-
seemed like that of a personal friend to ghan lass whose father, William Nellins,
thousands upon thousands who had never had served as one of Wellington's officers
met him in person? in the Napoleonic Wars and was a vet-Born in England.
When G. B. Dealey was born in Man-
chester, England, in 1859 the Texas
Almanac was only two years old. With
its parent publication, The Galveston
News, which had been founded seventeen
years before, the yearbook gave much of
its space to praising the glories of hlife in
Texas. Its full title a few years after first
publication was changed to the Texas
Almanac and Emigrants Guide. Circulated
widely throughout the eastern part of the
United States and Europe, including the
British Isles, it attracted thousands of
settlers to the Lone Star State.
But young George's parents gave little
thought at the time to a land so far across
the sea. Britain was then enjoying the full
blaze of its great Victorian Age. The
famed Crystal Palace Exposition, no less
than the royal figures who ceremoniallyeran of Waterloo. Her own grandfather
had been James Johnstone, freeholder of
Granshaw, Ireland, and owner of the
township of the same name Even on the
father's side there was a most un-English
spirit, Grandfather James Quayle, who
proudly won his title of master mariner
and lived as the proud Manxmen w ho
inhabit the Isle of Man.
When the boy was only seven years old
the family moved from Manchester to
Liverpool where the father opened a
larger business. The family fortune pros-
pered in the good times prevailing then,
and the youngster began his schooling in
a carefree atmosphere. He was placed
under a typical schoolmaster of the era of
Thomas Arnold, one who to a painful
degree carried out the injunction of not
sparing the rod. The boy never forgot the
corporeal punishment which was meted
out to even the youngest child who broke
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Texas Almanac, 1947-1948, book, 1947; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117136/m1/35/?rotate=270: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.