biography – Page 4 – Texas History Notebook

Tex Erwin, Major League Baseball Player

Ross Emil “Tex” Erwin was born December 22, 1885 in Forney, Texas to Hiram P. Erwin and Laura Ann Boles Erwin. Tex’s father Hiram was a farmer and carpenter according to various census and newspaper reports. Hiram was also once tried and acquitted of the charge of murder in 1899. The charge was related to a downtown Dallas shooting which had occurred in 1898. Hiram had testified that the victim had threatened him on numerous occasions, which might have had an impact on the verdict. In addition, the victim had previously also had stood trial for murder and had been acquitted. During Hiram’s trial, some of his testimony was apparently used to implicate him in a somewhat related arson case, for which he was also tried. In the latter case, Hiram was convicted, received a new trial and was again convicted in the second trial. There are no other mentions in Texas newspapers of legal issues other than these. Hiram died in 1927. Laura survived him by more than thirty-five years until she died in 1964. She and Hiram are buried in Dallas.

Richard Clayton Ware, Texas Ranger

Richard Clayton “Dick” Ware was born November 11, 1851 near Rome, Georgia to Benjamin Franklin Lafayette Ware and Mary Jane Price Ware. Ware is the Texas Ranger traditionally credited for giving outlaw Sam Bass his fatal gunshot wound in Round Rock, Texas in July, 1878.

Horton Foote

Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was born March 14, 1916 to Albert Horton Foote, Sr. and Harriet Gautier Brooks Foote in Wharton, Texas. His name Albert is a Foote family name and the name Horton was his grandmother’s maiden name. Horton was in third generation of the Foote family to be born in Texas. His great grandfather S. D. Foote had come to the state in the 1800s.

Michel Branamour Menard

Michel Branamour Menard was the founder of Galveston, Texas and wa a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. He was born on December 5, 1805 in La Prairie, Canada to Michel B. Menard and Marguerite de Noyer Menard. His parents were of French heritage.

Ron Ely, Actor

Ronald Pierce Ely was born in Hereford, Texas on June 21, 1938 to Vernon Howard Ely and Sybil Ely. His father Vernon died at the age of 38 the following year, after which his mother raised Ron and his sister. A 1966 newspaper article in the Clay County Reader out of Henrietta, Texas noted that Ron was born and raised in Texas and that he had worked in the summers shoveling grain and working in the oilfield near Amarillo.