PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Runnels-Terry family of Houston, Texas

Note: This is just one of 1,164 family groupings listed on The Political Graveyard web site. These families each have three or more politician members, all linked together by blood, marriage or adoption.

These groupings — even the names of the groupings, and the areas of main activity — are the result of a computer algorithm working with the data I have, not the choices of any historian or genealogist.

  Hiram George Runnels (1796-1857) — also known as Hiram G. Runnels — Born in Hancock County, Ga., December 17, 1796. Mississippi state auditor, 1822-30; member of Mississippi state legislature, 1830, 1841; Governor of Mississippi, 1833-35; delegate to Texas state constitutional convention, 1845. Fought a duel with Volney E. Howard. Died in Houston, Harris County, Tex., December 17, 1857 (age 61 years, 0 days). Interment at Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Tex.
  Relatives: Uncle of Hardin Richard Runnels and Hester Eleanor Runnels (who married William Robinson Baker).
  Political family: Runnels-Terry family of Houston, Texas.
  Runnels County, Tex. is named for him.
  See also National Governors Association biography — Find-A-Grave memorial
  Hardin Richard Runnels (1820-1873) — of Boston, Bowie County, Tex. Born in Mississippi, August 30, 1820. Democrat. Member of Texas state house of representatives, 1847-54; Speaker of the Texas State House of Representatives, 1853-54; Lieutenant Governor of Texas, 1855-57; Governor of Texas, 1857-59; delegate to Democratic National Convention from Texas, 1860; delegate to Texas secession convention, 1861; delegate to Texas state constitutional convention, 1866. Member, Freemasons. Died December 25, 1873 (age 53 years, 117 days). Original interment at a private or family graveyard, Bowie County, Tex.; reinterment in 1929 at Texas State Cemetery, Austin, Tex.
  Relatives: Nephew of Hiram George Runnels; uncle of Cornelia Runnels (who married David Smith Terry).
  Political family: Runnels-Terry family of Houston, Texas.
  See also National Governors Association biography
  William Robinson Baker (1820-1890) — also known as William R. Baker — of Houston, Harris County, Tex. Born in Baldwinsville, Onondaga County, N.Y., May 21, 1820. Harris County Clerk, 1841-57; railroad executive; member of Texas state senate 16th District, 1874-75; mayor of Houston, Tex., 1880-86. Died in Houston, Harris County, Tex., April 30, 1890 (age 69 years, 344 days). Interment at Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Tex.
  Relatives: Son of Asa Baker and Hannah (Robinson) Baker; married 1845 to Hester Eleanor Runnels (niece of Hiram George Runnels).
  Political family: Runnels-Terry family of Houston, Texas.
  See also Wikipedia article — Find-A-Grave memorial
  Benjamin Franklin Terry (1821-1861) — also known as Frank Terry — Born in Russellville, Logan County, Ky., February 18, 1821. Planter; in 1844, he was attacked by two rebellious slaves with knives and axes; railroad builder; delegate to Texas secession convention, 1861; colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Shot and killed in action while leading Terry's Texas Rangers at the battle of Woodsonville (also called Rowlett's Station), in Hart County, Ky., December 17, 1861 (age 40 years, 302 days). Original interment at a private or family graveyard, Fort Bend County, Tex.; reinterment in 1880 at Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Tex.
  Presumably named for: Benjamin Franklin
  Relatives: Son of Joseph Royal Terry and Sarah David (Smith) Terry; brother of David Smith Terry; married, October 12, 1841, to Mary Bingham.
  Political family: Runnels-Terry family of Houston, Texas.
  Terry County, Tex. is named for him.
  See also Find-A-Grave memorial
  David Smith Terry (1823-1889) — also known as David S. Terry — of Galveston, Galveston County, Tex.; San Francisco, Calif.; Stockton, San Joaquin County, Calif. Born in Christian County (part now in Todd County), Ky., March 8, 1823. Lawyer; went to California for the 1849 Gold Rush; advocated the extension of slavery to California; justice of California state supreme court, 1855-59; chief justice of California state supreme court, 1857-59; killed U.S. Senator David C. Broderick in a duel near San Francisco in 1859; tried for murder, but acquitted; served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War; delegate to California state constitutional convention, 1878-79; candidate for Presidential Elector for California; his wife Sarah Althea Hill claimed to be the widow and heir of wealthy U.S. Senator William Sharon; in September, 1888, when her claim was finally rejected by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field (acting as a Court of Appeals judge for California), she and Terry caused an altercation in the courtroom and were jailed six months for contempt of court. Five months after his release from jail, he encountered Justice Field and slapped him in the face; he was then shot through the heart and killed by U.S. Deputy Marshal David Neagle, the justice's bodyguard, in the train station dining room at Lathrop, San Joaquin County, Calif., August 14, 1889 (age 66 years, 159 days). Neagle was arrested by local authorities, but later released on the demand of the U.S. government. Interment at Stockton Rural Cemetery, Stockton, Calif.
  Relatives: Son of Joseph Royal Terry and Sarah David (Smith) Terry; brother of Benjamin Franklin Terry; married, November 26, 1852, to Cornelia Runnels (niece of Hardin Richard Runnels); married, January 7, 1886, to Sarah Althea Hill.
  Political family: Runnels-Terry family of Houston, Texas.
  Cross-reference: Peter Singleton Wilkes
  See also Wikipedia article — NNDB dossier — Find-A-Grave memorial
"Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872
The Political Graveyard

The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 320,919 politicians, living and dead.
 
  The coverage of this site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.  
  The listings are incomplete; development of the database is a continually ongoing project.  
  Information on this page — and on all other pages of this site — is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. Users are advised to check with other sources before relying on any information here.  
  The official URL for this page is: https://politicalgraveyard.com/families/11276.html.  
  Links to this or any other Political Graveyard page are welcome, but specific page addresses may sometimes change as the site develops.  
  If you are searching for a specific named individual, try the alphabetical index of politicians.  
Copyright notices: (1) Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. (2) Politician portraits displayed on this site are 70-pixel-wide monochrome thumbnail images, which I believe to constitute fair use under applicable copyright law. Where possible, each image is linked to its online source. However, requests from owners of copyrighted images to delete them from this site are honored. (3) Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2023 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDL. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on March 8, 2023.

Creative 
Commons License Follow polgraveyard on Twitter [Amazon.com]