Cornelius Ennis (September 26, 1813 – February 13, 1899) was a cotton shipper and railroad executive who served as

Mayor of Houston The following is a list of people who have served as mayor of the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. Until 2015, the term of the mayor was two years. Beginning with the tenure of Bob Lanier, the city charter imposed term limits on offi ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. His shipping enterprise ran Union blockades during the American Civil War.

Early life and career

He was born September 26, 1813, in

Belleville, New Jersey Belleville (French: "Belle ville" meaning "Beautiful city / town") is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, the township's population was 38,222, reflecting an increase of 6.4% from th ...

where he grew up and received his education. In 1834, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and started work in a drugstore, before using his learned trade to open his own drugstore in Houston in 1839. He partnered with George W. Kimball and expanded the business, making their first shipment of cotton to Boston in 1841. He married Kimball's sister Jeannette Ingals Kimball the same year. They had four children. Kimball drowned off the Florida coast while escorting a cotton shipment and investment funds to New York in 1842, leading Ennis into his involvement with the railroad as a better transport option that needed investment. Ennis started and was on the board of directors the

Houston and Texas Central Railway The Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC), was an 872-mile (1403-km) railway system chartered in Texas in 1848, with construction beginning in 1856. The line eventually stretched from Houston northward to Dallas and Denison, Texas. with branch ...

in 1853 along with

William R. Baker William Robinson Baker (1820–1890) was a railroad executive, Texas State Senator and Mayor of Houston, Texas. Early life Baker was born on May 21, 1820, in Baldwinsville, New York to Asa Baker and the former Hannah Robinson. He lived in New ...

Paul Bremond Paul Bremond (October 11, 1810 – May 8, 1885) was an American businessman. He was a hatter, doing business in New York City and Philadelphia, and from 1840, a commission merchant in Galveston, in the Republic of Texas. From the 1850s until ...

, Thomas William House,

William J. Hutchins William J. Hutchins (March 3, 1813 – June 4, 1884) was a businessman and a Mayor of Houston. Early life Hutchins was born in Duchess County New York. He spent most of his childhood in New Bern, North Carolina, where he stayed until the age o ...

and

William Marsh Rice William Marsh Rice (March 14, 1816 – September 23, 1900) was an American businessman who bequeathed his fortune to found Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice was murdered by his valet Charles F. Jones while sleeping. The murder was pa ...

. As mayor he supervised the ''Houston Tap Railroad'' completion which was sold in 1858 and became the

Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway The Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway was chartered in September 1856 to extend southward from Houston to West Columbia in Brazoria County. The railroad's nicknames were the Columbia Tap and the Sugar Road. The railway absorbed track from an earlie ...

. He also promoted construction of the

Houston Ship Channel The Houston Ship Channel, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the world. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an incr ...

Mayor of Houston

He became the

July 1856 and served until December 1857. He had a band of robbers who were robbing shippers arrested.

Civil War era blockade running

In the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

he shipped cotton to Cuba and to England via Mexico despite the Union Navy's blockade. His blockade running was so successful that after the war he further expanded his cotton export businesses and invested in the newspaper in Galveston now known as '' The Daily News''.

Death and legacy

He died February 13, 1899, at his home in Houston and is buried at the Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. On the announcement of his death his name was reported as "Col. Cornelius Ennis".

Ennis, Texas Ennis () is a city in eastern Ellis County, Texas. It is on the edge of the blackland prairie region of Texas. The population is 20,159 according to the 2020 census, with an estimated population of 21,210 in 2021. Ennis is home to the annual Nat ...

, developed as a northern base of operations of the railroad he directed, is named for him. Several other towns in Texas were named for the railroad's directors. He never lived there and there are no records he even ever visited. Two of his daughters married into newspaper publishing families. Two of his descendants visited the museum in 2008. Conservative TV Talk show host

Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show ''Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News since 2016. Carlson began h ...

is his 3x great-grandson.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ennis, Cornelius Mayors of Houston People from Belleville, New Jersey People from Houston 1813 births 1899 deaths