Rash's Surname Index

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Notes for Temple Lea HOUSTON

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Frontier Lawyer. At age 13, having lost both parents, he joined a cattle drive and later worked on a riverboat on the Mississippi River. In 1877 he returned to Texas to attend the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M). He transferred to Baylor University, where he graduated in 1880 with honors in law and philosophy. He was the youngest attorney in Texas when he opened his practice. Temple spoke French and Spanish and seven Indian languages. In 1888, he gave the dedication address for the opening of the current Texas Capitol. In 1894 Temple moved his family to the cattle town of Woodward in the Oklahoma Territory. He was legal counsel of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railways; its Woodward depot became one of the most important points in the Territory for cattle shipping to the East. Temple became widely known and popular for his courtroom dramatics. He was charged with murder in the shooting of a brother of the outlaw Al Jennings, after an argument in the Cabinet Saloon, and was acquitted. Temple won a reputation as a brilliant trial lawyer known for his courtroom dramatics. In 1899 he delivered his "Soiled dove plea" in a makeshift courtroom in Woodward's opera house. The argument on behalf of Minnie Stacey, a prostitute who worked at the Dew Drop Inn, became famous for winning her acquittal after only ten minutes of consideration by the jury. In his personal life he and his wife Laura Cross had seven children, only four of whom lived past infancy. (bio by: Shock)

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