Oran Milo Roberts

Oran Milo Roberts (July 9, 1815  May 19, 1898), was the 17th Governor of Texas from January 21, 1879 to January 16, 1883. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Oran Milo Roberts
17th Governor of Texas
In office
January 21, 1879  January 16, 1883
LieutenantJoseph D. Sayers
Leonidas J. Storey
Preceded byRichard B. Hubbard
Succeeded byJohn Ireland
Chief Justice Texas Supreme Court
In office
1874–1879
Delegate Texas Constitutional Convention 1866
Chief Justice Texas Supreme Court
In office
1864–1865
President of 1861 Secession Convention
In office
1861–1861
Texas Supreme Court
In office
1856–1861
District Judge (Texas)
In office
1846–1855
District Attorney (Texas)
In office
1844–1845
Alabama State Legislature
Personal details
Born(1815-07-09)July 9, 1815
South Carolina
DiedMay 19, 1898(1898-05-19) (aged 82)
Austin, Texas
Resting placeOakwood Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Francis Wycliffe Edwards (1837-1883)
Catherine E. Border (1887)
Alma materUniversity of Alabama
ProfessionAttorney
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States
Branch/service Confederate States Army
Rank Colonel
Commands11th Texas Infantry Regiment
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Roberts County, Texas, is named after him.

Early life

Roberts was born in Laurens District, South Carolina. He studied at the University of Alabama, 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 Texas President Sam Houston. In 1846, after Texas had become a state, Roberts 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. He became a spokesman for states' rights, and when the secessionist crisis appeared in 1860, he was at the center of the pro-Confederate faction.

American Civil War

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 his colleagues, Roberts led the passage of the ordinance removing Texas from the Union in 1861. In 1862 he resigned his seat on the bench and entered the Confederate Army and was elected as colonel of the Eleventh Texas infantry with which he served as part of the Walker's Texas Division in the Trans-Mississippi Department during the greater part of the campaigns in Arkansas and Louisiana. In 1864, while he was with his command, Roberts was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He held the position until he was removed along with other state incumbents in 1865.

Postbellum

During Reconstruction, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1866. Along with David G. Burnet, he was elected by the state legislature to the US 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 was seated.

Roberts eventually returned to Gilmer, Texas, where he opened a law school in 1868. Among his students were a future Texas Supreme Court justice, Sawnie Robertson, and a Dallas district judge, George N. Aldredge.

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. He served as chief justice for four years and was involved in rewriting much of Texas civil law. He resigned as Chief Justice after receiving a unanimous nomination from the Democratic Convention to run for governor. In 1878 he was elected governor of Texas and served two terms. He was elected governor of Texas on a platform of post-Reconstruction fiscal reform. His two gubernatorial terms were marked by a reduction in state expenditures. His plan for countering the high taxes and state debt of the Reconstruction years became known as "pay as you go." A major part of the plan involved the sale of public lands to finance the debt and to fund public schools. Though ultimately successful in both reducing the debt and increasing the public school fund, the decreased government appropriations under Roberts halted public school growth for a time. The present Capitol in Austin was contracted during Roberts's terms, and the cornerstone for the University of Texas was laid in 1882. Railroad mileage increased across West Texas, and the frontier became more secure.

In 1883, just before Roberts's second term as governor was to end, The University of Texas opened in Austin. After his term, he was appointed professor of law, a position that he held for the next ten years. He was immensely influential in the state's legal profession. His impact on a generation of young attorneys was symbolized by the affectionate title "Old Alcalde" bestowed upon him by his students.

In continuance of that legacy, the University of Texas named its alumni magazine "Alcalde" in his honor and, in 1963, built and named a residence hall after him. During his tenure at the university, Roberts wrote several professional works, among them a text, The Elements of Texas Pleading (1890), which was used for decades after his retirement from teaching. In 1893, he left the university and moved to Marble Falls, where he turned his attention to more general historical writings. Among his works were 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.

Family

Roberts was married to Frances 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.

Further reading

  • Texas, the Dark Corner of the Confederacy: Contemporary Accounts of the Lone Star State in the Civil War. U of Nebraska Press; 1994 [Retrieved 6 August 2017]. ISBN 0-8032-7036-4. p. 235–237
Party political offices
Preceded by
Richard Coke
Democratic nominee for Governor of Texas
1878, 1880
Succeeded by
John Ireland
Political offices
Preceded by
Richard B. Hubbard
Governor of Texas
1879-1883
Succeeded by
John Ireland
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