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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 profitable.

In 1916 Ferguson’s reelection seemed almost a certainty. The prohibitionists decided to support a relatively unknown Charles H. Morris of Winnsboro. The major issues of the campaign were prohibition, the tax rate, and certain  rumors concerning the Ferguson administration.

Regardless of the rumors, Ferguson was reelected by a majority of about 60,000 votes, but there was enough opposition to show that many Texans were not completely pleased with his administration. His second administration did little of consequence, except pass enough appropriation bills to force the tax rate to rise to the constitutional maximum of 35 cents.

This is when old Pa made a serious mistake. He got involved in a quarrel with the University of Texas.  Turns out the board of regents refused to fire some faculty members that the governor didn’t like. Well, he threw a Texas sized temper tantrum and vetoed almost the entire appropriation for the university. Needless to say, this generated a lot of news and interest, but it also sparked a desire from some members of the legislature to conduct an impeachment trial.

Remember how, I said that during the campaign there had been rumors about some issues with his administration? Well while preliminary investigations failed to uncover any charge that would merit impeachment, once he became embroiled in his dispute with the university, those old charges bubbled back to the surface. Coincidently at about the same time a number of new charges were made and on July 21, 1917, Ferguson was called before the Travis County grand jury. To the surprise of no one the grand jury announced that he had been indicted on nine charges.

Seven of the charges related to misapplication of public funds, one to embezzlement, and one to the diversion of a special fund. He posted a $13,000 bond and announced his candidacy for a third term as governor.

The speaker of the House decided to call a special session of the legislature, (remember the legislature in Texas only meets every 2 years) to consider charges of impeachment against the governor. While the speaker’s call was most likely not legal (only the governor can call a special session) Ferguson removed any doubt by himself calling the legislature to meet for the purpose of making appropriations for the University of Texas. This backfired-on Ferguson because the House immediately turned its attention to the numerous charges against him and ended up preparing twenty-one articles of impeachment.

After a three-week trial in the senate, he was convicted on ten of the charges. On five of them he was convicted of misapplication of public funds, of course 3 of those were related to his quarrel with the University. One of them stated that he had failed to properly respect and enforce the banking laws. And the third charged that he had received $156,500 in currency from a source that he refused to reveal.

Nine of the charges can be described as violations of the law, while the obtaining of $156,500 from a secret source while not legal was absolutely not good policy for a governor.

He was removed from office by a vote of twenty-five to three and declared him ineligible to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the state of Texas. Fighting to the end Ferguson declared that the legislature constituted little more than a “kangaroo court,” except that just a couple of months before the House and the Senate had refused to sustain charges against him. He believed that his  removal from office was far from certain when the legislature convened in special session. However, he underestimated the seriousness of his quarrel with the University of Texas.

He resigned his office the day before the judgment was announced and contended that it did not apply to him. The question was eventually carried into the courts, where the judgment of the Court of Impeachment was sustained.

While in many cases, being impeached and made ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit in the state would spell an end to a person’s political life; this was not the case for PA. In 1918 he sought the Democratic party nomination for the governorship but was defeated by William P. Hobby. In 1920 he was an unsuccessful candidate for President on his own American party ticket. In 1922 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate. Finally In 1924, unable to run under his own name, he ran his wife’s campaign for the governorship against Judge Felix Robertson, the candidate endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. The Fergusons beat Robertson and went to the Governor’s Mansion for a third time. Two years later they lost a reelection bid amid new scandals concerning excessive pardons and political patronage abuses.   James Ferguson died on September 21, 1944, and was buried in the State Cemetery in Austin.

Next time I’ll take a look at Ma Ferguson as our look at some of the most notorious governors of Texas.

This is the Hidden History Of Texas