Oran M. Roberts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oran Milo Roberts (July 9, 1815 – May 19, 1898), was 17th Governor of Texas from January 21, 1879 to January 16, 1883. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Roberts County, Texas is partially named after him.
Oran M. Roberts was born in Laurens District, South Carolina. He studied at the University of Alabama and graduated in 1836, and was admitted to the bar the following year. After serving a term in the Alabama legislature, he moved to Texas, where he opened a successful law practice. In 1844 he was appointed a district attorney by President Sam Houston. In 1846, after Texas had become a state, he was appointed district judge by Governor James Pinckney Henderson. He also served as president of the board and was a well respected lecturer in law for the University of San Augustine. In 1856 Roberts ran for and won a position on the Texas Supreme Court. During this time Roberts became a spokesman for states' rights, and when the secessionist crisis appeared in 1860, he was at the center of the pro-Confederate faction. In January 1861 he was unanimously elected president of the Secession Convention in Austin, a meeting that he had been influential in calling. Along with colleagues Roberts led the passage of the ordinance removing Texas from the Union in 1861. After a brief military career Roberts returned to Austin as chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1864. He held this position until he was removed along with other state incumbents in 1865.
During Reconstruction he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and also, along with David G. Burnet, was elected by the state legislature to the United States Senate. However, as the Reconstruction Act has become law, the states were subject to military rule, and none of the delegations of the southern states were seated. Upon the ascension of the Democrats to power in Austin in 1874, Roberts was appointed by Governor Richard Coke to his former position of Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Two years later, under the new Texas Constitution, he was elected to the same position, which he resigned when receiving a unanimous nomination from the Democratic Convention to run for governor. In 1878 he was elected governor of Texas and served two terms.
In 1883, just before Roberts' second term as governor was to ended, The University of Texas opened in Austin. After his term he was appointed professor of law, a position he held for the next ten years. In 1893 he left the university and turned his attention to more general historical writings. Among his works are his essay The Political, Legislative, and Judicial History of Texas for its Fifty Years of Statehood, 1845-1895 which was published in an early general history of the state, Comprehensive History of Texas, 1685 to 1897 (1898), edited by Dudley G. Wooten; and chapters on Texas in volume eleven of C. A. Evans's Confederate Military History (1899). He participated in forming the Texas State Historical Association and served as its first president.
Roberts was married to Francis W. Edwards of Ashville, Alabama, from 1837 until her death in 1883. They were the parents of seven children. In 1887 Roberts married Mrs. Catherine E. Border. He is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas.
[edit] External links
- Oran M. Roberts from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Message of Gov. O. M. Roberts on appropriations and expenditures under the control of the governor to the seventeenth legislature of the state of Texas, convened at the city of Austin, in regular session, January 11, 1881., hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- Entry about Oran Milo Robertsfrom the Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas published 1880, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- Sketch of O. M. Roberts from A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Richard B. Hubbard |
Governor of Texas 1879-1883 |
Succeeded by John Ireland |
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