Reminiscences of reconstruction in Texas ; and, Reminiscences of Texas and Texans fifty years ago Page: 35 of 58
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TEXAS AND TEXANS FIFTY YEARS AGO. 35
The writer remembers, before the war, reading several articles
from the pen of Judge Jewett, published in a Southern magazine,
the name of which the writer has forgotten, that manifested deep
research and no mean literary merit. Judge Jewett chose the law
for a profession and located in Texas, first at Old Franklin, in
Robertson county, where he took pot-luck with the rest of the
pioneers, in the discomforts of the wilderness and the alarms and
excitement consequent on actual and expected attacks from the
Indians. During President Lamar's administration he became his
private secretary. When annexation was consummated he was
elected from Robertson county a member of the convention that
framed the State Constitution of 1845, a model in the way of constitutions
that has not been surpassed in Texas or any other State
of the Union in what a constitution should be. So satisfactory
was this constitution to the people of Texas that from the date
of its adoption to 1866, only one amendment was made to it, which
authorized the election by the people of judges of the Supreme
Court, district judges, Attorney General, district attorneys, Comptroller,
Treasurer and Commissioner of the General Land Office,
instead of the nomination of these officials by the Governor and
confirmation by the Senate.
In 1846 the county of Leon was created, with Leona, a village
near Old Fort Boggy, as the county seat. As was the custom in
those days, when a new county was created out of the territory of
Robertson, some one of the lawyers that had congregated about
Old Franklin went to the newly created county. It fell to the lot
of Judge Jewett to go to Leon, and he settled at Old Fort Boggy.
At the Fort he married Mrs. Rachel Ball, the widow of McKay
Ball, who had emigrated from Arkansas and settled at the Fort,
where he died after a short residence. Ball was said to be a lawyer
of some repute in Arkansas. In his new home Judge Jewett
devoted himself to the practice of his profession with good success,
acquiring business in nearly all of the counties that then composed
the Third Judicial District. In 1852 or 1853 the Legislature
created the Thirteenth Judicial District, and Judge Jewett
became a candidate for judge of this new district, and was elected,
as the writer remembers, without opposition. As to the counties
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Wood, William D. Reminiscences of reconstruction in Texas ; and, Reminiscences of Texas and Texans fifty years ago, book, 1902; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14387/m1/35/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.