# James B. Wells Jr. > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/James_B._Wells_Jr. > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/James_B._Wells_Jr..md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Wells_Jr. > Source revision: 1336206054 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American lawyer}} {{Infobox person |name = James B. Wells Jr. |image = Jim Wells Texas.jpg |image_size = |caption = |birth_date = July 12, 1850 |birth_place = [St. Joseph Island, Texas](/source/San_Jos%C3%A9_Island_(Texas)), U.S. |death_date = December 21, 1923 |death_place = [Brownsville, Texas](/source/Brownsville%2C_Texas), U.S. |occupation = Lawyer, political boss }} '''James Babbage Wells Jr.''' (July 12, 1850 – December 21, 1923) was an American lawyer, [rancher](/source/rancher), and [Democratic Party](/source/Democratic_Party_(United_States)) boss of [South Texas](/source/South_Texas). Wells is remembered for the nearly four decades that he spent as a political kingmaker from his base in [Cameron County, Texas](/source/Cameron_County%2C_Texas), and as the namesake of [Jim Wells County](/source/Jim_Wells_County%2C_Texas), in the same state. ==Biography== ===Early years=== Wells was born July 12, 1850, on [St. Joseph Island](/source/San_Jos%C3%A9_Island_(Texas)) in [Texas](/source/Texas), a [barrier island](/source/barrier_island) on the state's [Gulf Coast](/source/Gulf_Coast_of_the_United_States). He was the son of Lydia Hastings and James B. Wells Sr., both of whom hailed from [New England](/source/New_England) [sailing](/source/sailor) 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](/source/Texas_Revolution) of 1835-36 as a [privateer](/source/privateer), 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 and eventually managed the operation. In 1873, Wells moved to [Galveston](/source/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](/source/University_of_Virginia_School_of_Law) in 1874 and received his degree the following year.Evan Anders, [https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwe22 "James Babbage Wells, Jr.,"] ''The Handbook of Texas,'' Texas State Historical Society online, www.tshaonline.org/ ===Business career=== After 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](/source/Rockport%2C_Texas). He soon moved his practice to [Corpus Christi](/source/Corpus_Christi%2C_Texas), however, where he gained the attention of [Democratic Party](/source/Democratic_Party_(U.S.)) political boss Stephen Powers. Powers would take Wells under his wing in 1878 after the death of Powers' junior partner in a [duel](/source/duel). Wells proved to be a very successful local attorney by 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 and even married 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 his practice of law, Wells was active as a ranch owner, land speculator, and investor in oil exploration and life insurance.Anders, ''Boss Rule in Texas,'' pg. 23. He was unable to amass a fortune, however, and was driven to speculative investments, which sometimes failed magnificently and brought him to the brink of [bankruptcy](/source/bankruptcy) on three separate occasions.Anders, ''Boss Rule in Texas,'' pg. 24. Although commonly known as "Judge," Wells was the holder of public office only briefly, as elected City Attorney of [Brownsville](/source/Brownsville%2C_Texas) 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."Biographical Note," [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00027/cah-00027.html "A Guide to the James B. Wells Papers, 1837-1926,"] Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. ===Political career=== Powers was instrumental in building up an organized Democratic power base in Cameron County, which was dominated during the [Reconstruction Era](/source/Reconstruction_Era) by [Republican](/source/Republican_Party_(U.S.)) political appointees of the federal government in [Washington, D.C.](/source/Washington%2C_D.C.) That 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.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pp. 4, 22. 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 them controlled the political opinions and votes of a substantial number of their employees, predominately [Mexican-Americans](/source/Mexican-Americans), who retained the traditional deferential political attitudes of the ''patrón''-''[peón](/source/pe%C3%B3n)'' relationship.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pp. 6-7. That 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 taxes](/source/property_taxes), and garnering the intervention of [Texas Rangers](/source/Texas_Ranger_Division) and federal troops to suppress [cattle rustling](/source/cattle_rustling) and [civil unrest](/source/civil_unrest).Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pp. 7-9. 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](/source/Central_America) by rail.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 11. From 1895 [conservative Democrats](/source/Bourbon_Democrat) firmly dominated Texas politics and Wells forged close ties with the political establishment in [Austin](/source/Austin%2C_Texas) as well as local political machines in neighboring counties.Anders, ''Boss Rule in Texas,'' pg. 9. This included particularly his cohort [Archie Parr](/source/Archie_Parr) of [Duval County](/source/Duval_County%2C_Texas), with whom he consulted in patronage decisions from the 1890s.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 21. Wells held consistently conservative views, including support of the [gold standard](/source/gold_standard), and was a political opponent of reform Democratic Governor ["Big Jim" Hogg](/source/Jim_Hogg), father of the [Texas Railroad Commission](/source/Texas_Railroad_Commission).Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pp. 21-22. 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 that force, which, together with local [vigilante](/source/vigilante) 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.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 10. Wells remained the dominant figure in Cameron County politics and controlled the government agenda and government patronage through the coming of [World War I](/source/World_War_I).Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 19. He would remain as chairman of the Cameron County Democratic Party until 1920.Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pg. 20. ===Death and legacy=== Wells died on December 21, 1923, in [Brownsville, Texas](/source/Brownsville%2C_Texas). In the estimation of historian Evan Anders, despite modest corruption in Cameron County,Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas,'' pp. 8-9. 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](/source/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.
[Jim Wells County](/source/Jim_Wells_County) was named in Wells' honor. Wells' papers are housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. ==Footnotes== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== * Armando C. Alonzo, ''Tejano Legacy: Rancheros and Settlers in South Texas, 1734-1900.'' Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1998. * Evan Anders, ''Boss Rule in South Texas.'' Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1982. * Joe Robert Baulch, [https://archive.org/details/JamesB.Wells-SouthTexasEconomicAndPoliticalLeader ''James B. Wells: South Texas Economic and Political Leader.''] Ph.D. dissertation, Texas Tech University, 1974. * David O'Donald Cullen and Kyle G. Wilkison (eds.), ''The Texas Right: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Conservatism.'' College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2014. * Harbert Davenport, "Reminiscences of Judge James B. Wells: Interview by William A. Owens, July 12, 1952." Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. ==External links== * [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00027/cah-00027.html "A Guide to the James B. Wells Papers, 1837-1926,"] Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. {{Jim Wells County, Texas}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, James Babbage Jr.}} Category:1850 births Category:1923 deaths Category:People from Brownsville, Texas Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni Category:Texas Democrats Category:Texas lawyers Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:Jim Wells County, Texas --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [James B. Wells Jr.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Wells_Jr.) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Wells_Jr.?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.