The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 24
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Asa Holt of Van Zandt County among the Negro delegates; but
no supporting evidence can be found for this claim.8
More than one-half of the delegates had lived in Texas less
than twenty-five years, the decade of the 1850's supplying almost
one-third; some thirteen of them, moreover, had resided in Texas
less than ten years. About fifty of them had come to Texas in the
years from 1840 to 187o.
In his compilation of occupational backgrounds, McKay was
led by the San Antonio Herald of August 5, 1875, to conclude
that the Convention contained "forty-one farmers, twenty-nine
lawyers, and a few merchants, editors, stockmen, and physicians."'
Henderson, on the other hand, found that "there are 33 lawyers,
30 farmers, 5 merchants, 3 physicians, 3 editors, 2 school teach-
ers, 2 mechanics, i printer, i miner, 1 wool grower, i minister, i
postmaster, and one stock-raiser."" McKay assigned a definite oc-
cupation to only seventy of the ninety delegates elected, Hen-
derson to only eighty-four.
On the basis of available biographical information, it appears
that neither of these listings is entirely accurate. It appears that
there were actually thirty-three lawyers, twenty-eight farmers,
three merchants, three physicians, two editors, two teachers, two
mechanics, one minister, and one postmaster. Some of the lawyers
owned land and claimed, when politics demanded, to be farmers;
in addition, some merchants, physicians, ministers, and others also
owned land outside city limits and could also, upon occasion,
claim to be farmers. For this reason, among others, accurate
designations in some cases are extremely difficult. It is possible,
therefore, to assign a single occupational background to only
seventy-five of the delegates. The remaining fifteen were involved
in two or more occupations which they actively pursued.
Three of them, N. H. Darnell, L. L. Nugent of Erath County,
and J. F. Johnson of Franklin County, were farmer-lawyers;
three were farmer-teachers, S. A. McKenney of Denton County,
A. T. McKinney of Walker County, and W. N. Ramey of Shelby
County; two were farmer-ministers, J. P. Douglass of Cherokee
sNegro Legislators in Texas, A History of the Negro in Texas Politics from Re-
construction to Disfranchisement (Dallas, 1935), 35-
*Seven Decades, 75.
ODirectory, 3.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/42/?q=%221777%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.