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Monday, November 27, 2017
Page #10
Texas History Minute U. S. Rep. Thomas Henry Ball had represented the area in Congress since 1897. The Eighth District included much of the area of Southeast Texas just to the north of Houston. A few months after Ball began his fourth term in 1903, he announced his resignation.
saddled with a reputation for violence in the years afterward and given the derisive nickname “SixShooter Junction.” The courthouse itself was torn down in 1955.
The Eighth District seat stayed empty for nearly eight months until former legislator John M. Moore Pinckney announced his candidacy was elected to fill the remainder of to succeed him and ran as a Pinckney’s term. supporter of prohibition like Ball. The attempt to ban alcohol sales Pinckney’s death only fueled the and consumption had gained demand for prohibition. It would momentum in the years after the come to Texas in the coming years. Dr. Ken Bridges Civil War. Though there were By 1918, the state legislature had many opponents to prohibition, ratified the national Prohibition Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, Pinckney was a respected figure amendment and passed a statewide writer, and history professor. He and won the election in November ban on alcohol. The debate over 1903. local alcohol sales is still a divisive can be reached at question in many Texas drkenbridges@gmail.com. His time in Congress was short communities. and uneventful. The Democrat John Pinckney, a Texas was re-elected to a full term easily congressman, was noted for his in 1904. After he was sworn in for fairness and his willingness to his new term in March 1905, he defend a cause in his short 59 returned to Texas. On April 24, he years. In 1905, his stance against went to the Waller County alcohol cost him his life and Courthouse where the Prohibition became one of the few instances of League held a rally. The the assassination of a sitting organization had a petition to ask congressman. the Texas Rangers to come and enforce a new prohibition law. John McPherson Pinckney was The topic had become very born into a farming family in 1845 controversial in the area, and the outside of Hempstead in what is rally drew many opponents. now Waller County. He was a middle child between an older Pinckney prepared to give a few sister and brother and a younger remarks in support of prohibition brother. As a youth, he attended but was shouted down. A scuffle school and also received private broke out in the crowd. Local tutoring. His sister, Susanna, attorney J. N. Brown pulled out a became a noted writer in the 1890s revolver and began firing. His and early 1900s. own son, Roland Brown, also pulled his gun and began When the Civil War broke out in shooting. In the chaos, 1861, the 16-year-old Pinckney and prohibitionists pulled their guns his brother Thomas both enlisted, and started firing wildly. serving in Hood’s Texas Brigade. Pinckney dived into the crowd to The two fought for the stop the fighting. In the process, Confederacy in some of the he was shot in the back. His bloodiest battles of the war, brother Thomas was shot and including the Second Battle of Bull killed trying to shield him from the Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg. gunfire. Four men were dead, and Pinckney rose in rank from private the courthouse walls were riddled to first lieutenant. When the with 75 bullet holes. Confederate army surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865, It lasted less than a minute. Pinckney was part of the surrender ceremonies. Roland Brown, himself injured, was charged with murder but After his return to Waller County, acquitted. No one was convicted his popularity led area residents to in connection with the crazed elect him justice of the peace by gunfight. the early 1870s. In Texas, a justice of the peace is essentially a small- John Pinckney was only the third claims court judge. Though congressman to be assassinated Pinckney had a reputation for while in office. The first two, U. intelligence and fairness, he had no S. Rep. James M. Hinds of legal education. His sister Arkansas and U. S. Rep. Thomas reportedly inspired him to go Haughey of Alabama, were shot further and study law. He was and killed during Reconstruction. admitted to the state bar in 1875. Other members of Congress would succumb to the wounds of He moved to Hempstead, the assassins in the twentieth century, county seat, and began working as among them Sen. Huey Long of an attorney. In 1890, he was Louisiana in 1935 and Sen. Robert appointed district attorney. He F. Kennedy of New York in 1968. served in the position for the next decade. In 1900, Pinckney was The two Pinckney brothers had elected county judge for Waller lived their lives together, defended County, the chief administrative each other in war, and died official for the county. together. The two were buried in Hempstead. Hempstead was
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John M. Pinckney
