Thomas Henry Ball (January 14, 1859 – May 7, 1944) was a
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 ...
politician and a
Democratic member of the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
. He was mayor of
Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas. The population was 45,941 as of the 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area. Huntsville is in the East Texas Piney Woods on Interstate 45 and home to ...
, from 1877 to 1892, and moved to Houston in 1902.
Thomas Henry Ball and
Frank Andrews formed a law firm in Houston in 1902. Melvin Kurth joined in 1913.
Andrews Kurth
Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP was a Houston, Texas based international law firm founded by Frank Andrews and U.S. Congressman Thomas Henry Ball in 1902, and later joined by Melvin Kurth in 1913. In April 2018, the firm merged with Hunton & Williams ...
was important to Texas railroad firms early in the twentieth century. It represented
Reconstruction Finance Corporation The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgag ...
and
Federal National Mortgage Corporation,
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
agencies. In the early twenty-first century, Andrews Kurth had offices in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, and employed more than 400 lawyers.
He held many posts in the
Democratic Party of Texas
The Texas Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Texas and one of the two-party system, two major political parties in the state. The party's headquarters are in Austin, Tex ...
, and unsuccessfully sought the 1914 nomination to be
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas heads the state government of Texas. The governor is the leader of the executive and legislative branch of the state government and is the commander in chief of the Texas Military. The current governor is Greg Abbott, who ...
on a
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
platform, despite endorsements from
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
and
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
. His Houston
law practice
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professi ...
represented chiefly railroads and corporations, and he promoted Texas port facilities both in Congress and after. He was general counsel for the
Port Commission of Houston. He was a delegate at the
1892 Democratic National Convention
The 1892 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois, June 21–June 23, and nominated former President Grover Cleveland, who had been the party's standard-bearer in 1884 and 1888. This marked the last time a former president was ...
, and in
1924
Events
January
* January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after.
* January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...
and
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...
.
[
Because Ball had been instrumental in routing a railroad through Peck, Texas, the town was renamed ]Tomball, Texas
Tomball ( ) is a city in Harris County in the U.S. state of Texas, a part of the Houston metropolitan area. The population was 12,341 at the 2020 U.S. census. In 1907, the community of Peck was renamed Tomball for local congressman Thomas Henry Ba ...
, in his honor in 1907.[
]
References
Further reading
*Lewis L. Gould, Progressives and Prohibitionists: Texas Democrats in the Wilson Era (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973; rpt., Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1992)
*George P. Huckaby, Oscar Branch Colquitt: A Political Biography (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1946).
*Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler hicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916
*Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
(Tomball, Texas).
*Clarence R. Wharton, ed., Texas under Many Flags (5 vols., Chicago: American Historical Society, 1930).
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Thomas Henry
1859 births
1944 deaths
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Austin College alumni
Texas lawyers
Mayors of places in Texas
People from Huntsville, Texas
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas