Pa and Ma Ferguson

James

Edward Ferguson Jr. (1871 – 1944), known as Pa Ferguson, was the 26th governor of Texas, in office from 1915 to 1917. Later, he was the first gentleman of Texas for two non-consecutive terms.

Ferguson was born near Salado in south Bell County, Texas. He entered Salado College at 12 but was eventually expelled for disobedience. At 16, he left home and drifted through the western states, finding employment in a vineyard, a mine, a barbed wire factory, and a grain ranch. After he returned to Texas, he studied law in Bell County and was admitted to the bar.

In 1899, he married Miriam A. Wallace and in 1903, he became the city attorney in Belton and established Farmers State Bank. In 1906, he sold that bank and established Temple State Bank. He also managed several local political campaigns. In 1914, Ferguson was elected governor of Texas by running as an anti-prohibitionist Democrat. He served from January 19, 1915 to August 25, 1917.

After being re-elected in 1916, Ferguson vetoed the appropriations for the University of Texas. The veto was retaliation against the university because of its refusal to dismiss certain faculty members whom Ferguson found objectionable, including former Texas Lieutenant Governor and founder and dean of the University of Texas School of Journalism, William Harding Mayes, who had been an opponent of Ferguson for the Democratic party’s nomination for governor in 1914. The accusations against Mayes were that he used his ownership of newspapers to spread negative information about Ferguson.

Impeached and convicted

This move spurred the drive to impeach Ferguson. After an investigation by attorney general Dan Moody, he was impeached, convicted, and removed from office during his second term. The chairman of the investigating committee, William H. Bledsoe of Lubbock, called for impeachment while sitting next to Ferguson. Ferguson was indicted on nine charges in July 1917. The Texas House of Representatives prepared 21 charges against Ferguson, and the Senate convicted him on 10 of those charges, including misapplication of public funds and receiving $156,000 from an unnamed source.

no limit on gubernatorial terms.

The Texas Senate, many of whom had served under William Harding Mayes and with whom Mayes maintained cordial relationships, removed Ferguson as governor and declared him ineligible to hold office under Texas jurisdiction.

Nevertheless Ferguson ran for governor in the 1918 Democratic primary, but was defeated by his successor, William P. Hobby of Houston, previously the lieutenant governor.

Ferguson also ran for President of the United States in the 1920 election as the candidate of the American Party. He was on the ballot only in Texas, where he received 9.86% of the vote in Texas, (and 0.18% of the vote nationwide). The 1920 presidential election was won by Republican candidate Warren Harding although Democratic nominee James M. Cox won in Texas.

Miriam

Ferguson was born Miriam Amanda Wallace in Bell County, Texas. She studied at Salado College and Baylor Female College. When she was 24, she married James Edward Ferguson. She got her nickname “Ma” partly from her initials “M. A.”, and also because her husband was known as “Pa” Ferguson. They had two daughters, Oudia and Dorris.

After her husband’s impeachment and conviction, Ma Ferguson sought the Democratic nomination for governor and was elected to office. During her campaign, she made it clear she was a puppet candidate with her husband James E. Ferguson as the real voice; at rallies, her speaking was limited to introducing him before letting him have the platform.[4] She told voters that she would follow the advice of her husband and that Texas would get “two governors for the price of one.” A common campaign slogan was, “Me for Ma, and I Ain’t Got a Durned Thing Against Pa.”

After her victory in the Democratic primary, she defeated George C. Butte, a prominent lawyer and University of Texas dean who emerged as the strongest Republican gubernatorial nominee in Texas since Reconstruction in 1869. The widespread corruption of her husband’s term led thousands of voters to cross party lines in the general election; where Republican candidates usually grabbed between 11,000 and 30,000 votes, Butte came out with almost 300,000 votes, many of them women and suffragists.[4] Ferguson received 422,563 votes (58.9 percent) to Butte’s 294,920 (41.1 percent). Butte had been supported by former Governor William P. Hobby, who had succeeded James Ferguson in 1917. Ma Ferguson was the second female state governor in the United States, and the first to be elected in a general election. Just two weeks before her inauguration, Nellie Tayloe Ross had been sworn in as governor of Wyoming to finish the unexpired term of her late husband.

In 1924, Ma Ferguson was elected governor, becoming the first female chief executive of Texas. Ferguson was elected with the help and support of her campaign manager, Homer T. Brannon of Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1926, attorney general Dan Moody, who had investigated her husband for embezzlement and recovered $1 million for Texas citizens, ran against her in a run-off election and defeated her to become the next and youngest governor of Texas.

Ferguson ran again in 1932 and narrowly won the Democratic nomination over incumbent Ross S. Sterling. She soundly defeated Republican Orville Bullington in the general election. Ferguson’s second term as governor was less controversial than the first.

According to rumor, state highway contracts only went to companies that advertised in the Fergusons’ newspaper, Ferguson Forum. A House committee investigated the charge but nothing ever came of it.

In October 1933, she signed into law Texas House Bill 194, which was instrumental in establishing the University of Houston as a four-year institution.

Ferguson failed at a bid for the United States Senate in 1922, having lost in the Democratic runoff election to Earle Bradford Mayfield. In 1924, Ferguson entered his wife Miriam in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. She won, and with Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, they became the first female elected governors in the United States, both having followed husbands who had served earlier. Miriam Ferguson served two non consecutive two year terms as governor: 1925 –1927, and 1933 – 1935.