12/05/2022
Temple, Oklahoma, is named after this colorful gun-toting lawyer.
It’s been said (by a noted historian – we aren’t making this up) that there are three themes in the timeline of Woodward and Northwest Oklahoma that truly set the region apart: Temple Houston (and all the subplots that go with his story); the Dust Bowl (an exercise in holding on when life tries to blow you away and cover you in topsoil); and the 1947 Woodward tornado (which stands as a testament to the resilience of people here).
We offer that there’s a fourth theme, that of the life and saga of Francesca Reynolds, but we’ll save that for another time.
Today’s post from newspapers past is about everyone’s favorite lawyer with a gun, Temple Houston. There is a city-sponsored (and OHS-sanctioned) historical marker (paid from private donations) that will be put up on the NE corner of 9th and Main soon as a tribute to Mr. Temple’s impact on Woodward.
The Muse social media guy, Mr. Robin is fond of pointing out that Temple Houston was something of an enigma. But he also quickly points out that it’s the entire picture…the whole man…that made Temple the character that he was and made him so darned fascinating. Accounts such as contained in today’s post help fill in the gaps and make for a broader picture.
After his altogether-too-soon death in 1905 at the age of 45, newspapers across the O.T., the I.T., Kansas, and Texas published tributes of one sort or another. He had his detractors in those tributes to be certain, but in the end, the scales tilted more toward “loved the guy.”
The Woodward News of December 1, 1905, published a lengthy account of a commemoration address to the Woodward County Bar Association. (Spoiler alert: it leaned very much toward the “loved the guy” side.) By the way, this is another of the “lost” publications that contained this sort of tribute to Temple (as was the Billy Bolton tribute in late August 1895 which has now been found) – fortunately, someone preserved this article online.
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Woodward, Oklahoma, Nov. 14.
Upon the occasion the meeting of the Bar of Woodward County, Oklahoma Territory, to commemorate its members, Temple Houston and A. G. Cunningham, Hon. Jesse J. Dunn, of the Woods County, O.T. Bar, addressed the meeting as follows:
Hon. Jesse J. Dunn: - May it please the Court; Members of the Woodward County Bar: -
Temple Houston belonged not alone to Woodward or the Woodward bar. Temple Houston belongs to the West. He stood alone in his characteristics. He had many friends; he had many friendships. Many men were his friends, made friends of him, but no man ever became familiar with Temple Houston.
He sprung from the most picturesque lineage of our nation. His father was the most picturesque character that the history of our country records. Governor of one state, president of a separate, independent Republic, then senator of this nation from that same republic.
Temple Houston, in my mind, bore many of the characteristics of his great progenitor. Had it not been his father, it might have been Temple Houston who at San Jacinto burned his bridges behind him and shouted to his Rangers as they hurled themselves into line, as they took after the fleeing Mexicans, the cry of “Remember the Alamo! Remember the Alamo.”
Temple Houston, to my mind, was like some character from old stories, a cavalier, an ancient character. He was in this age; he was part of our life; he was a lawyer among us, but it seems to me that many of the things that appeal to us went by him unnoticed. He was not mercenary. The money features of the practice which appealed to many of us, failed to appeal to him. He was intensely loyal to his clientage. He had the most perfect command of invective, sarcasm, wit, humor, and the most complete mastery of eloquence all of which he commanded and brought into play throughout his practice.
I say he stood alone he went like no one who “Trods alone the banquet Hall deserted. The lights are fled, the garlands dead, And all but him departed.”
He seemed to be a character from another age. He lived his own life; he bore himself self-poised, self-sufficient. He cared but little of the opinions of the other men. He did that which his own conscience justified, and he left the rest with his critics. He never explained; he never palliated. He stood as one of the brothers here mentioned, firm and unyielding in positions which he assumed before the courts and juries. He was a man of strong impulses, strong loves, strong prejudices, a man who, when a friend, was a loyal friend, but a man who held within himself the power of being a good hater. He was disdainful, he was unmindful of those who offended him. He stood aloof from them. He went his way. He let them go theirs.
Temple Houston as I have said belongs to the entire West, and I’m glad, indeed, as a member of another bar than this, to be permitted to stand here, in his home, at his bar, and pay this, my little tribute to the character of a man whom I always admired. It seems scarcely natural to come to Woodward and not find him, Temple Houston, here. He was the first to be sought. I loved to talk to him. His intellectual nature, his breadth of learning, his complete mastery of the English language, made is converse and association always a dear one. With Stanton as he stood at the bier of the martyred Lincoln, as he pressed his eyelids down, so we can say of Temple Houston, he is now with the ages.
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Visit the Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum in Woodward and be sure to visit the Houston Room to learn more of the man and the legend that was Temple Houston.
We are bar association-, picturesque lineage-, and admission-free. Stop in sometime soon to discuss the various aspects of Temple’s life with the social media guy (aka, Mr. Robin) who has never been honored by the Woodward County Bar unless you count as honoring the stack of cease-and-desist orders or the line of lawyers outside our doors waiting to serve subpoenas on him. Hint to lawyers: he has a secret entrance into the Muse. Slip us a $50 donation and we’ll show you where to stand.
Please share these posts. Let’s make Mr. Temple famous!
And, above all, please be careful out there!
