Washington County Texas Biographies

Washington County Biographies

SETH SHEPARD
SHEPARD, SETH, LL.D., jurist, was born in Brenham, Texas, April 23, 1847. His parents were Chauncey Berkley and Mary Hester (Andrews) Shepard. His father was a lawyer, and afterward a farmer; a man of firmness, courage and a high sense of honor, whose chief public service was rendered as a member of the Texas state senate. His earliest known ancestor in this country was Elder William Brewster, of Plymouth. Other distinguished members of the family were Samuel McDowell, a member of the house of burgesses, and of the Virginia convention, 1775 and 1776, a colonel in the Revolution and afterward a judge in Kentucky; and Thomas Prince, who was governor of Plymouth colony.

His early life was passed in the country. His health was good and his tastes and interests were those of the average boy. He performed various tasks on the farm, and in summer " Looked after the flocks" an occupation which gave him time for study and reflection, of which he made good use. When the private schools were in session he attended them; but the outbreak of the Civil war, when he was about fourteen years of age, badly disorganized the schools of Texas. He studied at a military institute for four months. From July 4, 1864, until the close of the war, he served as a volunteer private, in Co. F, 5th Texas mounted volunteers in the Confederate States army. Chiefly because his father desired that he should enter this profession, he afterwards studied law. For this purpose he attended Washington college (now Washington and Lee university), from which institution he was graduated in 1868. In the following year he commenced the practice of law at Brenham, Texas; and later he was in active practice at Galveston, and at Dallas in the same state. He was a member of the Texas state senate, 1874-75, regent of the University of Texas, 1884-92; and from May 1, 1893, he was associate justice of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia until January 5,1905, when he was made chief justice of that court. For several years he has also been a lecturer at the Georgetown university school of law.

He was married first to Caroline Nelson Goree, January 18, 1882; and second to Etta Knowles Jarvis, March 15, 1891. Of his four children all are now living. He is a member of the Cosmos club of Washington; of the Mayflower Society; of the Sons of the American Revolution; of the United Confederate Veterans; the Southern History Association, and fellow of the Texas Historical Association. He has received the degree of LL.D. from Georgetown university. His religious connection is with the Protestant Episcopal church. His favorite forms of relaxation are walking, rowing, sailing and fishing. (from Men of Mark In America written by Merill Gates published 1906 )
submitted by Barbara Ziegenmeyer

BUCHANAN, James Paul
(1867—1937)
BUCHANAN, James Paul, a Representative from Texas; born in Midway, Orangeburg County, S.C., April 30, 1867; moved to Texas in 1867 with his parents, who settled near Chapel Hill, Washington County; attended the district school; graduated from the law department of the University of Texas, Austin, Tex.,1889; admitted to the bar; lawyer, private practice; justice of the peace of Washington County, Tex., 1889-1892; prosecuting attorney, 1892-1899; district attorney for the twenty-first judicial district of Texas, 1899-1906; member of the Texas state house of representatives, 1906-1913; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Albert Sidney Burleson; reelected to the Sixty-fourth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses (April 15, 1913-February 22, 1937); chair, Committee on Appropriations (Seventy-third through Seventy-fifth Congresses); died on February 22, 1937, in Washington, D.C.; interment in Prairie Lea Cemetery, Brenham, Tex. [Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present Contributed by A. Newell]