The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 325
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Analysis of Membership of Texas Secession Convention 325
pation as either "planter" or "farmer." Unfortunately, the census
enumerators were not uniform in their distinction between
"planter" and "farmer," and frequently a man with few slaves was
designated "planter" in one county, whereas in another county
all engaged in agriculture were labeled "farmer."
The nine physicians and seven merchants constituted the next
largest occupation groups present at the convention. Judges, of
whom there were five; ranchers and stock raisers, five; and "gen-
tlemen," two, were the other occupations engaged in by more than
one delegate. Occupations of the other members were varied,
ranging from blacksmith and grocer to clergyman and local public
officials."
In real property the median holding for the 167 delegates found
in the census returns was $6,ooo, while the median holding in
personal property was $1o,ooo.10 Table 2 shows that seventeen
delegates found in the census returns had no real property listed
and nine had no personal property listed. The other extreme was
the nine delegates who held $100oo,ooo or more in real property
and the three who held that amount in personal property. T. J.
Chambers, with $550,000 in real and $2o,ooo in personal prop-
erty, was the wealthiest member, whereas J. D. Rains of Wood
County, with only $250 in personal property, had the smallest
amount among those for whom property was listed.
TABLE 2
PROPERTY HOLDING OF DELEGATES
Number of
Real Property of Delegates Delegates
Not found in census ............................ io
No real property listed in returns .................... 17
Real property less than $10o,ooo ...................... 73
$1o,ooo and below $25,000ooo............... ............. 46
$25,ooo and below $10o,ooo ....................... 22
$1oo,ooo and over............................. 9
Total.................................. 177
9See Appendix I for occupation of each delegate.
loThe Texas convention had the lowest median holding in both personal and real
property of the seven conventions held in the lower South, 186o-1861. Delegates to
the Florida convention, the next lowest, had a median of $7,ooo and $15,000 in
real and personal property, respectively. See Wooster, Secession Conventions of the
Lower South (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1954), Table 66, p. 311.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/388/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.