Thomas Joseph

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Thomas Joseph, out of Galveston County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, on February 11, 1823, Thomas Miller Joseph didn't stay a Connecticut man for long.

Around 1841, he came to Galveston, arriving with his mother, Annis Rogers Joseph, and the family of his Uncle Alexander Edgar. A young man, a new city, and the Gulf wind at his back. He read the law, got admitted to the bar, and then, well, Galveston and Texas just kept calling on him.

He became a Democratic Party leader. He served as chief justice, which is to say county judge. He held the rank of major.

He served as a state legislator. And then a state senator. That is not a short list for any man.

He and his wife Mary Minor Trueheart Joseph had eight children together. Eight. Mary Minor passed in 1885, and Thomas Joseph himself kept on until March 10, 1905, when he died at the age his years tell you he'd earned.

Now here is where the story takes its turn, and you feel it in your chest a little. Thomas Joseph may be buried directly over his own mother's grave site. Annis Joseph, who passed in 1879, her grave, like so many others in Galveston, was lost.

Several storms came through, the way they do along that coast, and the markers, the records, the exact ground where people were laid to rest, were taken. So a son may rest above his mother without anyone knowing for certain that is so. Galveston keeps its stories the way the Gulf keeps things it takes.

Sometimes close, sometimes gone, sometimes both at once.

What the marker says

(Feb. 11, 1823 - Mar. 10, 1905) Born in Hartford, Conn., Thomas Miller Joseph came to Galveston about 1841 with his mother Annis (Rogers) (d. 1879) and the family of his Uncle Alexander Edgar. Admitted to the bar, he became a Democratic Party leader, serving as chief justice (county judge), major, state legislator, and senator. He and his wife Mary Minor (Trueheart) (d. 1885) had eight children. Joseph may be buried over his mother's grave site which, like others, was lost after several storms. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986