Episode Details

Welcome to episode 85 of the Hidden History of Texas, today I'm talking about one of the most Notorious Governors of Texas - James "PA" Ferguson. James Edward (Pa) Ferguson, Texas governor, was born in 1871 near Salado, which is in Bell County and is fairly close to where I am, to James Edward and Fannie (Fitzpatrick) Ferguson. Sadly, his father passed away when Pa was only four, and his mother, being a true strong Texas woman stayed on working the farm and he began working in the fields as a young boy. When he was 12, he entered Salado College, which was a local preparatory school, but in a sign of things to come, was expelled for disobedience. At age 16 he left home for a life on the road and wandered throughout the Western states, where he did any type of job he could find. Eventually he returned home to Bell County, where he tried farming and working on a  railroad-bridge gang. He did use this time to begin to study law and in 1897 he was admitted to the bar. He opened up a practice in Belton and then in 1899 he married Miriam A. Wallace. The couple had two children and since in those days lawyers weren’t as busy as they are today, he expanded his personal interests to real estate and insurance. He then turned his attention to banking and for several years was not only a member of the Texas Bankers Association but also associated with the Farmers State Bank of Belton. In 1907 he moved his family to the larger town of Temple where he joined in the formation and establishment of the Temple State Bank. Needless to say, it was during this time period when he was involved with banking that he also took an active interest in county and local politics. In spite of the fact that he never held a local office he was very aware of how local politics worked. He was a staunch opponent of prohibition and had fought against allowing what was known as the local-option out of Bell County.  He served as a campaign manager for Robert V. Davidson in 1910 and worked with Oscar B. Colquitt in his successful gubernatorial campaign in 1912. Prohibition had been a major issue in the 1914 campaign, and there were candidates for the governor’s race on both sides of the issue. The prohibitionists held an elimination convention and pledged their support to Thomas H. Ball of Houston. The anti-prohibitionists tried to have their own convention, but Ferguson, even though he had been identified as an anti-prohibitionist, refused to publicly support it. As a result, the leaders at the convention was not able to eliminate him from receiving their endorsement and while they did not endorse him the other anti-prohibition candidates withdrew from the race. Due to his popularity Ferguson easily won the nomination by a majority of about 40,000 votes. Ferguson proved to be one of the more captivating speakers and had a native ability to persuade people. He was a masterful public speaker. His most popular and talked about proposition was a law that would actually limit how much rent a landlord could charge. For the folks who were known as “tenant farmers” this proved to be very popular. It was not popular among landowners, and he tried to assure landowners that the law would prove to be beneficial to everyone. After his election he was successful in getting the law passed, but it was soon declared unconstitutional. During his term the state began to provide aid to rural schools and there was enacted a relatively minor law that required compulsory school attendance. He was in favor of helping schools, and colleges were permitted to begin building programs. In order to pay for everything, educational appropriation bills were more generous than usual. Needless to say, these changes increased the ad valorem tax rate for state purposes advanced from 12½ to 30 cents. The prison system increased its landownership and since Texas had many ‘prison farms’ the system benefited from the rising price of farm commodities. During World War I the system became self-sustaining and