True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 81

HOUSTON AND HOUSTONIANS 81
while the old printer expected to condemn the book in a breath
and take his drink in peace.
Colonel Oberly had one great virtue. Whatever he wrote
for a newspaper he held himself responsible for and never
sought to hide behind the management or any of the higher
editors. I will never forget the advice he gave me when I was,
made managing editor of the Galveston News.
"Now," said he, "you will be called on to pass on many things
that affect character and interests. It is a big responsibility
and I want to tell you the easiest way to meet it. When you
strike anything questionable, read it over carefully and then
go out and take a walk, thinking it over. When you get back,
read it again and then ask yourself, 'Am I willing to fight for
this in case a row is made?' If you can't answer in the affirmative
throw the stuff in the waste basket." There is a world
of wisdom in that advice.
What made me think of Colonel Oberly this morning was
seeing in the papers where the printers were preparing their
burial place in such an elegant wa.. The colonel's name was
mentioned among those buried in Glenwood Cemetery. He died
suddenly, I think, in 1886. It was awful weather in February
and it had been raining for weeks. Houston was a sea of mud
and after getting off the few paved streets navigation was impossible.
The road to Glenwood was impassable and it was
necessary to use the street cars for the funeral. The coffin was
taken over to the Central. Depot and there transferred to a
street car drawn by mules. Other cars took the places of carriages
and thus the first and probably the last street car funeral
in Houston took place.
HONEST BOB WILSON.
ONEST BOB" WILSON has never received that justice
from the writers of history to which his eminent services
to the colonists, the he Republic, and to the young state
of Texas entitle him. He was one of the remarkable men of
the early days and it is a shame that he is not better remembered.
Old Houstonians remember him, not so much for anything that
they knew of his achievements, as from the fact that he was
the father of the Hon. James T. D. Wilson, the first mayor chosen
by the people after reconstruction days, when the Democrats
gained control of the state. The younger generation know of
him as being the grandfather of the Wilson boys, who have
done so much for the growth and advancement of Houston and
who, today, have their shoulders to the wheel, working for an
even greater Houston.
It is scarcely credible that a man of such accomplishment
should have his memory perpetuated only through the lesser,
accomplishments of his descendants, yet that is literally tru
of "Honest Bob" Wilson.
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