Town Named for Governor F.S. Stockdale

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Now, some towns get their names on a map and that's about all the story there is. But pull over a second, because the town of Stockdale up in Wilson County carries the name of a man whose life was tangled up in just about every consequential moment Texas had from the 1840s all the way to 1890.

His name was F. S. Stockdale, and the marker calls him the last governor of Confederate Texas.

That right there ought to tell you something. Born in Kentucky, trained in the law there, admitted to the bar there, and then he pointed himself toward Texas sometime in the 1840s and didn't look back. He developed extensive lands and resources, got himself elected to the Texas Senate and served from 1857 to 1861, and when the secession question came to a head, he was right in the middle of it.

The State Secession Convention placed him on the Committee on Federal Relations, tasked with drawing up the Ordinance of Secession itself, and also on the committee to draft a constitution. If there was consequential paper being put to pen in Texas at that moment, Stockdale had a hand on it. When the war came, he served in 1861 as a military aide to Governor F.

R. Lubbock, and then in 1862 and 1863 as a major on the staff of General T. H.

Holmes, who was commanding the Confederate Armies west of the Mississippi River. He stood for state election in 1863 and won the office of lieutenant governor. Now here is where the story takes one of those turns that history tends to spring without much warning.

On June 11, 1865, Governor Pendleton Murrah left the state, departing with other southern leaders for Mexico in the hope of making a later fight for independence. That departure elevated Stockdale from lieutenant governor to chief executive of Texas, almost by the logic of absence, making him the last man to hold that particular office in Confederate Texas. He served as chief executive until August 2, when he was deposed by A.

J. Hamilton. So his tenure as governor was measured not in years but in the hard weeks of a collapsing order.

Most men might have folded after that. Stockdale, apparently, was not most men. After the war he pioneered the refrigerated shipping of Texas beef, working to help restore the state economy.

He aided moves to end Reconstruction. He was a leader in the 1875 Texas Constitutional Convention. He also served as counsel for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and you may recall he had been president of the Indianola Railroad back in 1859, so railroads and law were threads that ran through the whole of his career.

He died at his home in Cuero on February 4, 1890. And here is the quiet detail the marker saves for last: this man who came to Texas in the 1840s, who helped write the Ordinance of Secession, who became the last governor of Confederate Texas, who tried to put the state back together after the war, was buried in Kentucky. He came a long way from home, and in the end, home came and got him back.

What the marker says

Last governor of Confederate Texas. Legal scholar and statesman. Born in Kentucky. Admitted to the bar there. Came to Texas in the 1840s. Developed extensive lands and resources. President of Indianola Railroad, 1859. Counsel for the Southern Pacific R.R. Member of Texas Senate 1857-61, and of State Secession Convention, which placed him on Committee on Federal Relations, to draw up the Ordinance of Secession, and on the committee to draft Constitution. Served in 1861 as military aide to Gov. F. R. Lubbock, and as a major on the staff of Gen. T. H. Holmes, Commander of the Confederate Armies west of the Mississippi River, in 1862-63. Stood for state election in 1863 and was elevated from office of lieutenant-governor when on June 11, 1865, Gov. Pendleton Murrah left state with other southern leaders for Mexico in the hope of making a later fight for independence. Served as chief executive until August 2 deposed by A. J. Hamilton. Pioneered after the war the refrigerated shipping of Texas beef, to help restore state economy. Aided moves to end Reconstruction. Was a leader in the 1875 Texas Constitutional Convention. Died at his home in Cuero Feb. 4, 1890. Buried in Kentucky.