James Babbage "Jim" Wells Jr. (1850–1923) was an American lawyer, rancher, and

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

boss of

South Texas South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 4.96 ...

. Wells is remembered for the nearly four decades he spent as a political

kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a royal or political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious and military means to influence the succession. Origina ...

from his base in

Cameron County, Texas Cameron County, officially the County of Cameron, is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 421,017. Its county seat is Brownsville. The county was founded in 1848 and is named for Capt ...

, and as the namesake of

Jim Wells County Jim Wells County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 38,891. The county was founded in 1911 and is named for James B. Wells, Jr. (1850-1923), for t ...

in the same state.

Biography

Early years

James B. Wells Jr. was born July 12, 1850 on St. Joseph Island in

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 ...

, a

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...

on the state's Gulf Coast. He was the son of Lydia Hastings and James B. Wells Sr., both of whom hailed from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

families.Evan Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas.'' Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1982; pg. 5. The elder James Wells participated in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36 as a

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

, settling on St. Joseph Island after the end of the conflict to raise cattle and operate a merchant ship. As a boy James Wells Jr. lived in comparative isolation on St. Joseph Island, where he received most of his education directly from his mother. As he grew older he began working at the family's ranch, eventually managing the operation. In 1873 Wells moved to Galveston, where he began to study law under the tutelage of a prominent attorney in that city. He enrolled in the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...

in 1874 and received his degree the following year.Evan Anders
"James Babbage Wells, Jr.,"
''The Handbook of Texas,'' Texas State Historical Society online, www.tshaonline.org/

Business career

Following his graduation from the University of Virginia Law School, Wells returned to his native Texas to open up a legal practice in the Gulf Coast city of Rockport, Texas. He soon moved his practice to Corpus Christi, however, where he gained the attention of

political boss

Stephen Powers Stephen Powers (1840–1904) was an American journalist, ethnographer, and historian of Native American tribes in California. He traveled extensively to study and learn about their cultures, and wrote notable accounts of them. His articles we ...

. Powers would take Wells under his wing in 1878 following the death of Powers' junior partner in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

. Wells proved to be a very successful local attorney, winning 20 victories in 21 cases during one session of the Cameron County District Court.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 6. Wells came to be regarded as Powers' protégé, even marrying Powers' niece, Pauline Kleiber on November 4, 1880. Together the couple had a daughter and three sons, with the oldest boy dying in a shooting accident in 1899. In addition to the practice of law, Wells was active as a ranch owner, land speculator, and investor in oil exploration and life insurance. He was unable to amass a fortune, however, being driven to speculative investments which sometimes failed magnificently, bringing him to the brink of

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

on three separate occasions. Although commonly known as "Judge," Wells was the holder of public office only briefly — as elected City Attorney of Brownsville in the early 1880s and as a gubernatorial appointee in 1897 to finish the term of an elected state district judge who had been forced to resign.

Political career

Powers was instrumental in building up an organized Democratic power base in Cameron County, which was dominated during the

Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

by Republican political appointees of the federal government in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. This took the form of the Blue Club of Cameron County, which gathered together the powerful ranchers of the region to organize voting for unified Democratic tickets. When Powers died in 1882, leadership of the Cameron County Democratic organization fell to Wells, who would remain at the helm of the soon-to-be-dominant political party's patronage machine for the better part of four decades. By 1890 approximately 97% of the land in Cameron County was controlled by a group of 90 ranchers, who each owned between 1,000 and more than 300,000 acres of tillable soil and rangeland. Each of these controlled the political opinions and votes of a substantial number of their employees, predominately Mexican-Americans who retained the traditional deferential political attitudes of the ''patrón''-''

peón Peon (English language, English , from the Spanish language, Spanish ''wikt:peón#Spanish, peón'' ) usually refers to a person subject to peonage: any form of wage labor, financial exploitation, coercive economic practice, or policy in which th ...

'' relationship. This provided a durable electoral base for Wells and his political allies and enabled them to advance their political agenda of entrenching land ownership rights, maintaining low

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inheri ...

es, and garnering the intervention of Texas Rangers and federal troops to suppress

cattle rustling Cattle raiding is the act of stealing cattle. In Australia, such stealing is often referred to as duffing, and the perpetrator as a duffer.Baker, Sidney John (1945) ''The Australian language : an examination of the English language and English ...

and civil unrest. He was also a strong supporter of railroad construction in the region, including a bold 1889 project to connect Corpus Christi and Brownsville with the nations of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

by rail. From 1895

conservative Democrats In American politics, a conservative Democrat is a member of the Democratic Party with conservative political views, or with views that are conservative compared to the positions taken by other members of the Democratic Party. Traditionally, co ...

firmly dominated Texas politics and Wells forged close ties with the political establishment in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

as well as local political machines in neighboring counties.Anders, ''Boss Rule in Texas,'' pg. 9. This included particularly his cohort

Archie Parr Archer "Archie" Parr (December 25, 1860 or 1859 – October 18, 1942), was a Texas cattle rancher and politician, who was nicknamed "the Duke of Duval County", where he was the local Democratic Party political boss. Beginning in 1914, Parr was ...

of Duval County, with whom he consulted in patronage decisions from the 1890s. Wells held consistently conservative views, including support of the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

, and was a political opponent of reform Democratic Governor "Big Jim" Hogg, father of the Texas Railroad Commission. Wells' recommendations controlled the appointments of Rangers serving in South Texas and his efforts at organizing South Texas legislators for the purpose were important in maintaining a permanent Ranger presence in Brownsville. Wells and his associates turned a blind eye to the abuses of this force, which together with local

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...

groups conducted what one historian has called a "reign of terror" which killed at least 200 Mexicans during the bandit raids associated with the revolutionary crisis of 1915. Wells remained the dominant figure in Cameron County politics, controlling the government agenda and government patronage, through the coming of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He would remain as chairman of the Cameron County Democratic Party until 1920.

Death and legacy

James B. Wells Jr. died December 21, 1923 in

Brownsville, Texas Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...

. In the estimation of historian Evan Anders, despite modest corruption in Cameron County financial gain was only a secondary motive behind Wells' public life:

"Political power itself and the attention that it brought were what mattered to the Brownsville lawyer. In economic terms, ...numerous other South Texas entrepreneurs overshadowed James B. Wels. Even as a highly esteemed lawyer, he served as the agent of more successful men. Only as a political leader did Wells stand on an equal footing with the powerful figures of the Trans-Nueces region.... Political power had made him an important man, and he relished the demonstration of that power in campaigns and factional battles."Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 25.

was named in Wells' honor. Wells' papers are housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Footnotes

External links

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, James Babbage Jr. 1850 births 1923 deaths People from Brownsville, Texas University of Virginia School of Law alumni Texas Democrats Texas lawyers 19th-century American lawyers