 |
|
||
| |
FROM THE ARCHIVES Augustus Allen Held No Harris County Property? Editor’s Note: The January-February issue of The Houston Lawyer focused on stories of Houston’s legal history, gleaned from the Harris County District Clerk’s Document Preservation Project. Members of The Houston Lawyer editorial board were given access to the preserved files, and they have written a series of case summaries that offer a glimpse into the gems found in these early records. Some of these cases involved the city’s most luminous early leaders and its most venerated institutions. Some involve colorful, world-renown characters with a Houston connection. Space constraints did not allow all of the case summaries to be published in that issue, so The Houston Lawyer will continue to feature short articles on similar cases in some of its upcoming issues. By Fred A. Simpson An 1840 lawsuit filed in the First Judicial District of Harris County, Republic of Texas, includes the names of many Texans who prominently appear in the historical records of Harris County and of Texas. Styled Andrew Briscoe and D.W.C. Harris, Executives vs. A.C. Allen, the lawsuit involved the estate of Sam Houston’s law partner. Plaintiffs Briscoe and Harris were serving as executives for the estate of John Birdsall who, just before his death in 1839, was the law partner of Sam Houston. Birdsall’s grievance against Defendant Allen resulted from an unpaid $1,070 promissory note executed and delivered by Allen as payment for legal services allegedly performed by Birdsall. Among the witnesses summoned to trial was an individual named H.R. Allen,1 who testified in writing that he had personal knowledge “that it was the practice of [Birdsall] to take notes in advance of services being rend [sic]” and that H.R. Allen had himself been sued for the same type of grievance, but that H.R. Allen had defeated his plaintiffs. The record shows judgment was rendered against A.C. Allen in the fall term of 1843 in the amount of $536.50, or one-half of the note’s $1,070 face amount. The remarkable finale to this story is that Allen stonewalled the judgment against him. On April 23, 1843, a Harris County deputy sheriff returned the execution of judgment ordered by the then-district clerk, T.R. Lubbock (a future governor of Texas), with the following handwritten notation: “Received July 1, 1843 & returned not satisfied having found no property of Defendant in the County & his refusing to point out.”2 The players in the litigation had notable histories: Briscoe was an early Tejano who opposed Mexican authority. He served Mexican prison time with his co-plaintiff, Harris. Briscoe was ultimately a captain in the Texas Infantry Regulars at the battle of San Jacinto. DeWitt Clinton (“D.W.C.”) Harris was the son of John Richardson Harris, the man who named Harris County (formerly “Harrisburg” County) after himself. D.C. Harris was the first Harris County District Clerk. Augustus Chapman (“A.C.”) Allen was a founder and major developer of the City of Houston. Fred Simpson is a partner in the Litigation Section of Jackson Walker’s Houston office and is an associate editor of The Houston Lawyer.
Endnotes 1. H.R. Allen was likely one of the Allen brothers, of which there were six. 2. Among the witness summonses in the file of this lawsuit is one issued by the district clerk, James S. Holman, the first mayor of Houston and an advocate for annexation of Texas by the United States. |
