1   Introduction

Although settlement in Kaufman began in August of 1840 with the establishment of Fort Kingsborough; the beginning of Kaufman as a city can be dated to 1851 when the widow of William P. King deeded the town site of Kaufman to the Commissioners for the County Seat[1].  The town was then surveyed, blocks were laid out, people began buying lots, and merchants moved into the town. By the middle of the 1850's, the town was described as having a half dozen stores, a few dozen residences, and the courthouse[2].

After the mid-1850's, the town began growing much more rapidly.  By 1859 a new courthouse, on the courthouse square, was under construction, there was a large hotel in town, new stores, two new churches (Methodist and Cumberland Presbyterian), and the population had grown to between 250 and 300[3].

Incorporation of a city in Texas in the 1800's could provide citizens with three principal benefits.  The mayor and constable (or marshal) of a city had power to maintain civil order and to fine or jail those who disturbed the peace.  Cities could take control of their schools and provide additional support for them through city school taxes.  Finally, cities could enhance public life through support of public works and utilities such as street maintenance and water, gas, and electric plants.  Whether to incorporate as a city and whether to keep the city government going would depend on the citizens' perception of how desirable these benefits would be compared to the costs of city government.  After incorporation, keeping the city government would depend upon the citizens' willingness to support the city with their taxes and their willingness to serve in public office.

Since Kaufman was the county seat, it could have some of the benefits of a city government without actually incorporating.  Kaufman was almost always the residence of a justice of the peace and of the county sheriff.  These officers could be relied upon to maintain order in the town and provide the kind of judicial actions that a city marshal and mayor's municipal court would provide, thus incorporation was not an absolute necessity.  The citizens of Kaufman had to carefully weigh the advantages and burdens of incorporation, and they sometimes chose not to incorporate or not to maintain the incorporation.strong

2  First Incorporation

In 1858, the people of Kaufman decided that it would be a good idea to have a city government.  They sent a petition to the Legislature of Texas asking that the town be incorporated[4].  However, the legislature had passed a law just a few days earlier that governed the incorporation of towns generally, so the legislature no longer had to pass a special law every time a town or city wished to be incorporated[5]. The Legislature, rather than passing a law to incorporate Kaufman, apparently suggested instead that the citizens of Kaufman incorporate under this general law. This the people of Kaufman did, and on December 10, 1859, a petition was filed in the office of the Chief Justice of the County which asked that Kaufman be incorporated[6]. The Chief Justice ordered that an election be held. The election was held on December 22, 1859, resulted in a vote of 42 to 1 in favor of incorporation.  The boundaries of the town were one mile square, centered on the courthouse, and the sides were oriented in the cardinal directions[7].

On January 14, 1860, an election was held for city officials.  At that time, Richard H. English[8], a lawyer in Kaufman, was elected mayor[9].  Mayor English and the other officers elected at that time were to hold their offices until the next general election in August 1860.  However, the Chief Justice, whose responsibility it was to call the election, apparently failed to do so, since the city election was not held until September 24, 1860.  When the election was finally held, Henry P. Teague[10] was elected mayor[11].  Teague was elected for a term to end in August 1861.  But in November 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, and the Civil War was soon under way.  Sometime during the war years, probably prior to 1862, the people of Kaufman let their city government lapse[12]. Many of the leading spirits of the city government such as R.H. English, H.P. Teague, D.W. Broughton, and J.G. Vance were in the Confederate Army by 1862[13].  With these leaders gone, the city government ceased to function.

3  Second Incorporation

With the end of the Civil War, the people of Kaufman and the rest of the South tried to put their lives back together.  The history of the city government of Kaufman was closely tied with that of the State during Reconstruction.  It is appropriate to review Reconstruction.  There were two periods in Reconstruction.  The first was from 1865 to 1867, when the President Andrew Johnson set the conditions under which the ex-Confederate states would be returned to the Union. Under Johnson's plan of reconstruction, Texas passed a new constitution, elected new officials, and prepared itself to be readmitted into the Union.  But the Congress, which was dominated by the Radical wing of the Republican Party, refused to accept the states that had been reconstructed under the President's policy.  They wanted a much more strenuous cleaning out of the old Confederate officials and more careful protection of the rights of the newly freed slaves.  In 1867, the Congress began its own process for restoring the states to the Union, and under this second process, Texas was eventually returned to the Union in 1870[14].

Returning to Kaufman and its city government, the Legislature which met under Presidential reconstruction met in the fall of 1866.  At that time, the representative for the district that included Kaufman county was Dr. W.B. Dashiell who was from Kaufman.  He introduced into the legislature the bill incorporating Kaufman, and it was passed by that legislature[15]. However, there is no evidence that there was ever an election held under this incorporation in 1866 or 1867.  Either an election was in fact held, but no evidence has come down to us, or, more likely, the people of Kaufman realized by the time that they would have been electing their city officials that the Congress was not going to accept the state government which had been organized under the President's plan.  The Congress within a few months did pass laws which put the state under the rule of the U.S. Army for a couple of years, so the people probably were reluctant to establish a city government which would be taken over by military appointees.

Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1870.  At that time, a Radical Republican governor, and Radical majorities in both houses of the legislature were elected.  Those were the days of the spoils system, where a political party winning an election would try to use the political power of the state to reward their party faithful.  The Legislature of Texas passed a law in the summer of 1870 for the filling of vacancies in city or county governments which might arise through death or resignation.  The legislature empowered the governor to appoint a person to fill any vacancy in a county or city government.  This gave the governor the opportunity to reward his Republican supporters[16].  Someone noticed that Kaufman had been incorporated, yet it had not a single official in office.  The governor began filling vacancies in Kaufman's government.  In fairness, the governor did balance between Democrats and Republicans in the officials with identifiable party affiliations[17].  The governor appointed R.A. Binford[18], a druggist, to be mayor in December 1870[19].   In November 1871, the governor removed Mayor Binford, for unknown reasons, and appointed in his stead Rev. Valentine I. Stirman[20,21].  Mayor Stirman held his office until January 1873.  On that date, six years after a the city had been incorporated and two years after the city government had been in operation, the people of Kaufman finally got to vote on their city officials[22].

It is not known who were the officers elected in January 1873, but they would have held their offices until January 1874.  In April 1873, the legislature of Texas passed a law amending the charter of Kaufman.  The bill had been introduced by Kaufman's Senator, Dr. William H. Pyle.  This amendment provided that whoever was elected in 1874 and thereafter would hold their offices for two year terms[23].  At the election in 1874, Edward E. Douglass[24], a blacksmith, was elected mayor.  Mayor Douglass was reelected on January 15, 1876 for another two year term[25].  However, it would appear that Douglass did not hold his office for the full two years, for some time between 1876 and 1880, the people of Kaufman again allowed their city government to die out[26].

There are two factors which might have contributed to the lapse of the city government.  In 1873, the Texas & Pacific Railroad came through the northern part of the county, and the towns of Terrell, Elmo, Forney, and Lawrence were all established along the railroad.  These towns grew rapidly and drew the lion's share of immigration to them.  Many people moved from Kaufman to Terrell (or one of the other railroad towns), so Kaufman's population actually dropped between 1870 and 1880.  Kaufman, without a railroad connection, simply could not compete[27].  Also beginning in 1873, the United States was in a depression beginning with the Panic of 1873.  The South did not begin to recover until 1879.  The times were hard economically and morale was low in Kaufman due to competition from the railroad towns.  It is easy to believe that the people of Kaufman came to the conclusion that a city government was a luxury they could not afford.

4  Third Incorporation

By 1880 Kaufman's prospects began to brighten.  The Texas Trunk railroad was under construction and was planned to connect Kaufman with Dallas.   This change in the fortunes of the town caused some citizens of Kaufman to consider reviving their city government.  In Feb 1881, a public meeting was held in Kaufman to discuss the idea of incorporation.  At that time, the sentiment was against incorporation.  It was felt that civil order was being maintained sufficiently by the Deputy Sheriff and the Constable for the Precinct[28].  In the August 1881, the railroad reached Kaufman[29]. The Kaufman Sun, in an editorial in October 1881, re-opened the question of incorporation[30].  That December, an election was held on the question of incorporating Kaufman for the third time.  On the vote for incorporation, there were 130 votes cast, 78 for, and 52 against, so incorporation passed[31].  In February 1882, the city officials were elected.  C.C. Taliaferro[32] was elected mayor[33].  These officials held their offices until April when the general election was held, and they were all unanimously reelected for a full one-year term[34].

Notes

[1] Kaufman County Deed Records, Vol. B, p. 160.

[2] Galveston Tri-Weekly News, 20 Aug 1857.

[3] Dallas Herald, 17 Nov 1858 and 4 May 1859.

[4] Memorial of J.M. Noble et al., Texas State Library, Archives Division, Memorials and Petitions. The petition is undated, but it was presented to the House by Rep. A.B. Norton on 4 Feb 1858, House Journal, 7th Legislature of Texas, p. 733.

[5] H.P.N. Gammell, Laws of Texas, Vol. IV, pp. 941-946 and 999.

[6] Kaufman County Commissioners Court Minutes, Vol. B, p. 324, manuscript copy in WPA Collection, Center for American History, University of Texas.

[7] Kaufman County Deed Records, Vol. H, p. 280.

[8] Richard H. English was born 3 Dec 1837 in Monroe Co, AL to John A. and Mary M. English.  He moved to Kaufman county about 1859 and practiced law.  During the Civil War, he served in the 7th Texas Infantry Regiment and as Adjutant of Granbury's Texas Brigade.  He appears to have returned to his native Alabama immediately after the war.  R.H. English settled in Carlowville, Dallas Co, AL and was the editor of the Selma, AL, Times at the time of his death on 30 Dec 1870.  He is buried in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Carlowville, AL.

[9] Kaufman County Commissioners Court Minutes, Vol. B, p. 327, manuscript copy in WPA Collection, Center for American History, University of Texas.

[10] Henry Pitts Teague was born 22 Dec 1835 in Laurens District, SC.  His parents moved to Pontotoc Co, MS when he was very young, and eventually to Anderson Co, TX in 1850.  After receiving his license to practice law, Teague moved to Kaufman in the late 1858.  He served in the 3rd Texas Cavalry Regiment.  After the war, he was elected County Judge in 1876 and 1878.  He died on 29 Oct 1903 in San Augustine, TX (where his son lived) and was buried there.

[11] Kaufman County Commissioners Court Minutes, Vol. 1, p. 2.

[12] No reference to the 1860 incorporation has been found after 4 Oct. 1860.

[13] R.H. English enlisted in the 7th Texas Infantry, Co. C, on 1 Oct 1861, H.P. Teague enlisted in the 3rd Texas Cavalry, Co. F, on 13 Jun 1861, D.W. Broughton enlisted in the 20th Texas Cavalry, Co C, on 22 Mar 1862, and J.G. Vance enlisted in the 6th Texas Cavalry on 10 Sep 1861.

[14] Charles W. Ramsdell, Reconstruction in Texas.

[15] House Journal, 11th Legislature of Texas, pp. 741, 761, 818, 840, and 907; Gammell, Laws of Texas, Vol. 5, pp. 1517-1518.

[16] Ramsdell, Reconstruction in Texas, p. 298; Gammell, Laws of Texas, Vol. 6, pp. 191-192.

[17] Election Register 1870-1873, Records of the Secretary of State, Archives Division, Texas State Library.

[18] Robert A. Binford was born 24 Jul 1832 in Alabama. He died 14 Dec 1888 in Terrell and is buried in Oakland Memorial Park.

[19] Election Register 1870-1873, Records of the Secretary of State, Archives Division, Texas State Library.

[20] Valentine Irvin Stirman was born 27 Apr 1830 in Kentucky to William and Sarah Willis Stirman.  The family moved to Texas about 1844 settling in Bonham and Paris.  In the early 1850's, Stirman joined his brother Winfield B. Stirman in Henderson Co.  He died 29 Jan 1919.

[21] Election Register 1870-1873, Records of the Secretary of State, Archives Division, Texas State Library.

[22] Dallas Herald, 4 Jan 1873.

[23] Senate Journal, 13th Legislature of Texas, p. 60; Gammell, Laws of Texas, Vol. VII, pp. 937-941.

[24] Edward E. Douglass was born 26 May 1836 in Sumner Co, TN to Harry Clinton and Betsy W. Douglass.  He died 20 Feb 1923 and is buried in Kaufman Cemetery.

[25] Galveston Daily News, 22 Oct 1875 and 26 Feb 1876.

[26] The last reference to a city government in Kaufman prior to 1882 is in the Galveston Daily News, 28 Jul 1876.

[27] Kaufman Sun, 3 Jan 1884; Kate Efnor, "History of Kaufman County," American Sketch Book, Vol. 5, p. 48.

[28] Kaufman Sun, 25 Feb 1881.

[29] Dallas Weekly Herald, 18 Aug 1881; Galveston Daily News, 13 Aug 1881.

[30] Kaufman Sun, 7 Oct 1881.

[31] Kaufman Sun, 16 and 23 Dec 1881.

[32] Christopher Columbus Taliaferro was born 26 May 1823 in Bedford Co, TN. He died 29 Mar 1896.

[33] Kaufman Sun, 3 Feb 1882.

[34] Kaufman Sun, 7 Apr 1882.