The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 10

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

of the Confederacy from the sixth district of Texas." He
was forty-five years of age at the time of his service in the
Constitutional Convention.
Fletcher S. Stockdale was born in Kentucky. He moved to
Texas in 1846. He was one of the sixteen delegates to the
Democratic national convention in Charleston in 1860, and
was a member of the committee on resolutions in the "seceders'
party meeting."2 In 1861 he was a member of the Texas
Secession Convention, a member of the House of Representa-
tives of the Texas Legislature, and a candidate for the office
of presidential elector for the state at large.13 He was a mem-
ber of the State Senate in 1868.14 At the time of his service
in the Constitutional Convention, he was a lawyer and stock-
raiser and was forty-eight years old.
In the issue of January 19, 1850, of The Northern Standard,
one John Boyd, of Tawakanah, published a notice "to the
people of Texas offering land as a site for the seat of the
state government for the next twenty years-in the election
prescribed by the State Constitution." Boyd stated in
his notice that Lipscomb Norvell and others were donating
3,400 acres of land in addition to his, making a total of 4,800
acres. Norvell was born in Kentucky and came to Texas
in 1835. He was a lawyer and was forty-seven years of age
when serving in the Constitutional Convention.'5
2. Need for Reorganization of Courts of Texas
That there was a need for the reorganization of the courts
of Texas in 1875 was shown by the fact that the district and
Supreme Court dockets were so overcrowded with petty cases
as greatly to impair the usefulness of these courts, and justice
was delayed and sometimes denied because of that condition.'"
In calling attention to the existing condition, Norvell, on
November 3, pointed out to the Constitutional Convention that
the "increasing business of the Supreme Court was accumu-
lating at the rate of 150 cases per year," and Jacob
Waelder, of Bexar County, on November 11, stated that "there
"xThe Northern Standard, Nov. 16, 1861.
121bid., May 5 and 12, 1860.
alIbid., Feb. 23, Apr. 27, and Nov. 2, 1861.
41Ibid., March 6, 1868.
1SHenderson, Directory, 2.
x6Journal of the Convention, 413-414.

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