Biographies of Oakwood Cemetery Residents
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TALLICHET, JULES HENRI (1877-1937) Buried in Sec 3, lot 776
Jules Henri Tallichet, railroad lawyer, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 20, 1877. In 1884 he moved with his family to Austin. His father was a professor of languages at the University of Texas, where Tallichet received his LL.B. in 1900 and his LL.M. in 1901. In 1900 he joined the law office of Sam R. Fisher in Austin. He showed a natural affinity for trial work and developed a reputation as an aggressive trial lawyer. In 1909 Tallichet moved to Houston and joined the law firm of Baker and Botts, where he continued to represent the Southern Pacific lines; he became general attorney for the railroad in 1912 and general counsel in 1927. Tallichet's pastimes included ornithology, hunting, yachting, early Texas history, and firearms. As a student at the University of Texas he was reported to have roamed the campus late at night with a large six-shooter, which he would pull and fire in imaginary gun battles. Tallichet was a Mason, a Democrat, and a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He married Agnes Estelle Montelin of Austin on September 22, 1904. Tallichet died of a stroke at his home in Houston on November 24, 1937. At the time of his death he was a partner in the firm of Baker, Botts, Andrews and Wharton and was called the "dean of Texas railroad lawyers." Source
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online
TERRELL, JOHN JAMES (1857-1920) Buried in Section 3, lot 1159
John James Terrell, state land commissioner, was born in Texas in 1857 where his father established a store near the Denton County line. After the Civil War, conflicts with the Indians in the area intensified and the family moved to Decatur in 1867 for protection. He moved to Austin in 1887 and began his career with the General Land Office. Here, his first official act was to adopt rules and regulations governing the sale and lease of land. This migration benefited the Permanent School Fund and the Texas economy in general. Terrell made a tour of school lands to appraise and classify them. He fixed fair-market values and after the passage of the 1905 act, the Permanent School Fund increased $314 million in just twenty months. He also wanted compensation to the State for lands mined for gold, silver, tin, and copper. He strove to provide the average citizen access to public lands for homes and other purposes. Another problem at the Land Office was the lack of space for documents. The Legislature, however, did not respond for another ten years. After his retirement, he was appointed in 1912 as inspector of Indian lands in Arizona. He died in 1920 from injuries received in an auto accident and his body was returned to Austin for burial. Source
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online
THOMPSON, BEN (1843-1884) sec 1, lot 71
Ben Thompson was born November 2, 1843 in Knottingley, Yorkshire, England emigrated to Austin, Texas in 1851, where he worked as a printer. He soon became a professional gambler with a penchant for violence. In 1861 Thompson served in the Confederacy during the Civil War. He became a gunfighter with a reputation as one of the most lethal of his time. He served penitentiary sentences in Mexico for murder and in Texas for wounding his brother-in-law. He was pardoned from the Texas penitentiary by President U. S. Grant. In 1871 he left Texas and opened a saloon in Abilene, Kansas. Between 1874 and 1879 Thompson traveled Texas as a professional gambler. In 1879 he served with Bartholomew "Bat" Masterson as a hired gun for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in Leadville, Colorado. Masterson described Thompson's skill with a revolver in the following manner: "It was doubtful if, in his time, there was another man living who equaled him in a life-and-death struggle." Returning to Austin, Texas he was elected City Marshal of Austin in 1880 and again in 1882. While in San Antonio, he killed the owner of the Vaudeville Theater, Jack Harris, for which he was tried and acquitted of murder. On March 11, 1884 Thompson returned to the Vaudeville Theatre, where he was killed by persons thought to be friends of Jack Harris. Source
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online
TOWNES, ROBERT J (1806-1865) Buried in Section 4, lot 126
Robert J Townes, judge and Texas Secretary of State, was born in 1806. He was living in Brazoria in 1839, when he attended a local meeting called to memorialize the Texas Congress to pass a law quieting Mexican land titles. He attended a meeting in Brazoria in 1845 on annexation. He was elected district judge in the First (Brazoria) District in 1852 and rode the circuit for a few years. Townes moved from Brazoria to Austin. About 1855, he built Edgemont, a 100-acre plantation; the main house later burned in 1956. He was elected to represent Travis County in the House of the Eighth Legislature (1859-61). In 1860, he signed the address calling for the meeting of the Secession Convention. He was Secretary of State under Gov. Frances. R. Lubbock and held the office until his resignation in 1865. He died that same year, October 3, 1865. Source
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online
