Oran Milo Roberts was the 17th Governor of Texas from January 21, 1879 to January 16, 1883. He was a member of the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

. Roberts County, Texas, is named after him.

Oran M. Roberts was born in Laurens District, South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. He studied at the University of Alabama

University of Alabama

The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

 and graduated in 1836, and was admitted to the bar the following year. After serving a term in the Alabama legislature, he moved to Texas

San Augustine, Texas

San Augustine is a city in San Augustine County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,475 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of San Augustine County and is situated in East Texas.-Geography:San Augustine is located at ....

, where he opened a successful law practice. In 1844 he was appointed a district attorney by President Sam Houston

Sam Houston

Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...

. In 1846, after Texas had become a state, he was appointed district judge by Governor James Pinckney Henderson

James Pinckney Henderson

James Pinckney Henderson was a United States and Republic of Texas lawyer, politician, soldier, and the first Governor of the State of Texas....

. 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

Texas Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for non-criminal matters in the state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort for criminal matters.The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices...

. During this time Roberts became a spokesman for states' rights, and when the secessionist crisis appeared in 1860, he was at the center of the pro-Confederate faction. 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 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 colonel of the Eleventh Texas infantry, with which he served the Trans Mississippi Department, “Walker’s Division,” during the greater part of the campaigns in Arkansas and Louisiana. In 1864, and while he was with his command, Governor Roberts was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He held this position until he was removed along with other state incumbents in 1865.

During Reconstruction he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and also, along with David G. Burnet

David G. Burnet

David Gouverneur Burnet was an early politician within the Republic of Texas, serving as interim President of Texas , second Vice President of the Republic of Texas , and Secretary of State for the new state of Texas after it was annexed to the United States of America.Burnet was born in Newark,...

, was elected by the state legislature to the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

. However, as the Reconstruction Act

Reconstruction Act

After the end of the Civil War, as part of the on-going process of Reconstruction, the United States Congress passed four statutes known as Reconstruction Acts...

 has become law, the states were subject to military rule, and none of the delegations of the southern states were 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

Richard Coke

Richard Coke was an American lawyer, farmer, and statesman from Waco, Texas. He was the 15th governor of Texas from 1874 to 1876 and represented Texas in the U.S. Senate from 1877 to 1895. His uncle was Congressman Richard Coke, Jr..Coke was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, to John and Eliza 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 this 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' second term as governor was to end, The University of Texas

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

 opened in Austin. After his term he was appointed professor of law

University of Texas School of Law

The University of Texas School of Law, also known as UT Law, is an ABA-certified American law school located on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The law school has been in operation since the founding of the University in 1883. It was one of only two schools at the University when it was...

, a position he held for the next ten years. During this period 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. 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. In 1893 he left the university and turned his attention to more general historical writings. Among his works are 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

Texas State Historical Association

The Texas State Historical Association or abbreviated TSHA, is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the rich and unique history of Texas. It was founded on March 2, 1897. As of November 2008, TSHA moved from Austin to the University of North Texas in Denton.The executive...

 and served as its first president.

Roberts was married to Francis W. Edwards of Ashville, Alabama

Ashville, Alabama

Ashville is a city in St. Clair County, Alabama, United States part of the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman Combined Statistical Area. Its population was 2,260 at the 2000 census, at which time it was a town. This town is the county seat of St. Clair County along with Pell City. According to the 2005 U.S....

, 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

Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, TX)

Oakwood Cemetery, originally called City Cemetery, is the oldest city-owned cemetery in Austin, Texas. Situated on a hill just east of I-35 that overlooks downtown Austin, just north of the Swedish Hill Historic District and south of Disch-Falk Field, the once-isolated site is now in the center of...

 in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

.

External links

• Message of Gov. O. M. Roberts on appropriations and expenditures under the control of the governor to the seventeenth legislature of the state of Texas, convened at the city of Austin, in regular session, January 11, 1881., hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Entry about Oran Milo Roberts from the Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas published 1880, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Sketch of O. M. Roberts from A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879, hosted by the Portal to Texas History