Journal of the TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Summer 2015 Vol. 4, No. 4 General Editor Lynne Liberato Executive Editor David A. Furlow Columns Letter from the Outgoing President Fellows Column Executive Editor’s Page By Marie R. Yeates By David J. Beck By David A. Furlow I leave the presidency Seven Justices from the This issue of the Journal with a new appreciation Texas Supreme Court chronicles the evolution for the scope and impact joined the Fellows at the of women’s rights in of our programs and the third annual Fellows Texas over five centuries. people who make them Dinner for a wonderful Read more... David A. Furlow successful. Read more... Marie R. Yeates evening of art, dinner, David J. Beck and conversation. Read more... Reflections on the Message from the 2015-16 President By Ben L. Mesches Texas Equal Rights Amendment An Essay The Society will remain Photo Highlights from the Third Annual by Lynne Liberato keenly focused on The first time I voted projects that preserve the Fellows Dinner Photos by Mark Matson in a national election, I Court’s history, educate The Blanton Museum of voted for the Texas Equal the public, and encourage Art in Austin proved a Rights Amendment. lawyers to connect with delightful setting for this Read more... our collective history. Ben L Mesches year’s Fellows Dinner. Fellows Dinner Read more... Lynne Liberato Read more... attendees Executive Director’s Page By Pat Nester Under the leadership of David Furlow, the Society again presented compelling talks and materials at the Texas State Historical Association annual Pat Nester conference. Read more... Features No Pawn in a Game of Thrones: They Would Not Be Denied: The Texas Jury Service: A Milestone for Women’s Queen Isabella of Castile Set a Lasting State Archives Preserves the History of Rights in Texas By Sarah A. Duckers Precedent for Texas Women the Struggle for Women’s Suffrage When did Texas have its By David A. Furlow By Anna M. Reznik first woman juror? Your The legal concepts Texas was the first state answer probably ranges brought to the Southwest in the South to ratify the somewhere from the during the sixteenth, Nineteenth Amendment. 1890s to the 1930s. You’d seventeenth, and How was it that Texas be wrong. Read more... Louise Summers’ eighteenth centuries moved to the forefront of name on juror list continue to shape the the Suffrage Movement? Newly-registered rights of Texas women. Queen Isabella Read more... of Spain voters in 1918 Read more... Sandra Day O’Connor Set a Precedent By Sharon E. Beck Although Justice Remembering the Remarkable Judge O’Connor is usually Peter Gray: The Difference One Person Sarah T. Hughes thought of as hailing Can Make By Judge Elizabeth Ray from Arizona, she is By Laura Gibson She was the first female actually a native Texan. Peter Gray’s father’s Texas state district court Read more... Justice O’Connor decision to go to Texas judge, the first female would have a significant federal district judge impact on Texas’s Rules in Texas, and the first of Civil Procedure, the female to administer Preserving the Oral History of State Houston Bar Association, the oath of office to a Judge Hughes Peter Gray Bar Leadership and the life of Emeline, a president. Read more... By JoAnn Storey freed slave. Read more... Since 2004, the State Bar Appellate Section has been on a mission to preserve the oral histories of retired Court of Excerpts from Rough Road to Justice: Appeals justices and former chairs of the Winning the Archive War: The Journey of Women Lawyers in Texas section. Read more... Angelina Eberly Takes Her Shot By Betty Trapp Chapman By DeJean Miller Melton Historian Betty Trapp The actions of Angelina Chapman chronicles a Eberly exemplify not twentieth century story of Hortense Sparks Ward’s Spirit Shines only the tenacity and how women came to join on Through the University of Texas pluck of a pioneering the Texas judiciary. businesswoman, but also Read more... Center for Women in Law a constitutional struggle Rough Road cover By Linda Bray Chanow that shaped the Republic Mrs. Eberly fires! The Center is the of Texas and its laws. premier legal education Read more... Ad Astra per Aspera institution dedicated to the success of women (“A Rough Road Leads to the Stars”) in law from first-year Book review: Rough Road to Justice: The law students to the most Journey of Women Lawyers in Texas Attendees of the accomplished attorneys. Family Remembrances and the Legacy By Judge Sylvia A. Matthews Center’s 2015 Read more... of Chief Justice Hortense Sparks Ward Although the book is detailed and Summit By Linda C. Hunsaker evidences scholarly research, it is an easy My late father called read. Read more... this trailblazing Texas Archaeologists, Archivists, Assistant woman and first female Chief Justice of the District Clerks, and Historians: An Texas Supreme Court Executive Editor’s Gratitude “Grandma Ward” with Chief Justice By David A. Furlow great affection. Ward I’d like to express special gratitude to Read more... several people who went out of their way to help our contributing authors make this a special issue of the Journal. Read more... News & Announcements U.S. Senator John Cornyn Will Keynote Society Debuts YouTube Channel, Posts 2015 BA Breakfast By Dylan O. Drummond Society’s Twentieth Annual John Never-Before-Seen Court Content This year and going By Dylan O. Drummond forward, the Court’s Hemphill Dinner on September 11 This past April the By Marilyn P. Duncan annual BA Breakfast has Texas Supreme Court The Society’s main moved to coincide with generously granted fundraising event will the new date of the John permission to post certain Chief Justice Pope feature principal speaker Hemphill Dinner. videos never before & clerks at a prior Sen. Cornyn, a public Read more... publicly available. year’s breakfast servant for the last three Read more... The Society’s decades. Read more... Sen. Cornyn YouTube page Membership & More Society Hosts Second Biennial Texas Legislature Funds the Texas Calendar of Events Digital Archive Symposium on the History of Texas By David A. Furlow Jurisprudence The Eighty-Fourth Officers, Trustees, & Court Liaison By Dylan O. Drummond Legislature just made Photos by David C. Kroll life better for people 2014-2015 Membership Upgrades The seminar featured who believe that judicial captivating panel history matters. discussions, as well as Read more... Texas State Library 2014-2015 New Member List and Archives presentations ranging Commision logo from the rise of contract law in Texas to accounts Join the Society of the six lawyers who Course director The Journal Grants Reprints and Lynne Liberato perished at the Alamo. Provides Speakers Visit the Society on Twitter and Facebook! Read more... By David A. Furlow We believe in sharing the records, @SCOTXHistSocy research, and photos the Society has FB: Texas Supreme Court published, and we can often provide Historical Society SCOTX Justices Eva Guzman and Debra speakers familiar with Texas’s rich legal Lehrmann Join Chief Justice Nathan history. Read more... © 2015 Texas Supreme Court Historical Society Hecht in Celebrating Texas Female Judges’ Day at the Capitol By Dylan O. Drummond Perhaps for the First Time Ever, Court Senators Royce West and Clears Its Docket Joan Huffman authored By Dylan O. Drummond Senate Resolution No. This past June, the Court 535, which established the accomplished a feat it occasion and traced its may have never achieved roots back to the 1925 all- before in its history, one A gathering of woman Texas Supreme that many thought it Texas Supreme Texas women Court. never could. Read more... Court judges Read more... The Society’s Program “Magna Carta’s Eight Hundred Year Legacy” Filled the Conference Hall at the State Bar Annual Meeting By David A. Furlow Eight hundred years ago, King John I of England reluctantly agreed to make peace with a group of rebellious barons. Read more... Course attendees Letter from the Outgoing President Marie R. Yeates Dear Members, The past year at the Society has been an extremely productive and memorable one. I leave the presidency with a new appreciation for the scope and impact of our programs and for the people who make them successful. In my final message to the membership, I would like to offer a brief summary of these initiatives and thank some of those who have devoted time and energy to moving them forward over the past year. • Journal In its fourth year of publication, the Society’s e-journal continued to flourish under the leadership of Lynne Liberato and the executive team, David Furlow, Dylan Drummond, Marilyn Duncan, and David Kroll. Not only does each issue offer a treasure trove of scholarly articles, but the special features on Society events, including great photos, add even more color and interest. Each issue seems better than the previous one, and yet looking back, all four issues published in this volume year are equally remarkable. My hat goes off to the entire team. • Symposium The second biannual Society-sponsored symposium on the history of Texas jurisprudence was held in May, and all of us who attended were treated to a fascinating and varied day of panel discussions and paper presentations (see the story on p. 108). As was the case two years ago, the symposium was the brainchild of Lynne Liberato and Richard Orsinger, with essential support from Warren Harris and Pat Nester. This is exactly the kind of program the Society was established to sponsor, and I know I am not the only board member who appreciates both the quality of the program and the efforts of those who made it happen.