Henry Street Hudspeth

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of Henry Street Hudspeth. Now, this man's beginnings are a little hazy. The marker gives us his birth year with a question mark, so we'll say he came into this world sometime in the eighteen hundreds, in Mississippi, and leave it at that.

What we do know is what he did with the years he had. He served as a Captain, Company B, 2nd Regiment, Arkansas Cavalry, in the Civil War. A Confederate veteran, riding out whatever that long conflict asked of him.

Then came Texas. He arrived in 1877, and if you know anything about this state in those years, you know it was a place where a man could write himself a new chapter. Henry Street Hudspeth was exactly that kind of man.

By 1888 he had moved to Crockett County and taken up the post of county clerk. Not the flashiest title in the world, but the kind of work that keeps a county running, the quiet backbone of the whole operation. He married Elizabeth A.

Royal, and together they raised five children. Five. Now here is where the story takes a turn that makes you sit up straighter around the fire.

One of those five children grew up to become a United States Congressman. C. B.

Hudspeth. Henry Street Hudspeth was gone by 1900, the marker tells us that plainly. But a Confederate captain from Mississippi, who came to Texas and kept the county's records straight, left something behind that went all the way to the halls of Congress.

Not a bad legacy for a man whose birth year history couldn't quite pin down.

What the marker says

(18? - 1900) A Confederate veteran. Captain, Co. B, 2nd Regiment, Arkansas Cavalry, Civil War. Born in Mississippi. Came to Texas, 1877. Served as county clerk after moving here, 1888. Married Elizabeth A. Royal. One of his 5 children was U.S. Congressman C. B. Hudspeth. Recorded - 1970