Thomas Howe Scanlan


Prior to 1892, the Scanlan family is listed in Houston City Directories as being at 270 Congress Avenue. In 1892-1893, the City Directory locates the family at 1917 Main Street, where a mansion was built. The Scanlin family had a dispute with Houston over the widening of  Main Street and the cutting down of an Oak tree and therefore dismantled the mansion and built the wings of the Arcola Scanlan Plantation house from the materials. They installed two 2 Detroitdiesel engines, one a 2 cylinder with a 10,000 KW generator, and the other a 3 cylinder with a 20,000 KW generator that are still on the Scanlan Plantation grounds in 2004.


 

SCANLAN, THOMAS HOWE (1832-1906). Thomas Howe Scanlan, Reconstruction mayor of Houston, son of Timothy Scanlan, was born on November 10, 1832, in Castle Mahon, Limerick County, Ireland. When he was seven his father took the family to New York. In 1853 Thomas moved to Houston and entered the mercantile trade. During the Civil War he made a fortune smuggling cotton through Mexico. He invested his new wealth in valuable real estate in Houston and Galveston. On April 28, 1861, he married Harmena Ebert, a member of a prominent Houston family. They were members of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Of their ten children, seven daughters survived. After Union troops occupied Houston in June 1865, Scanlan declared himself a Republican. Radical Reconstruction began in 1867 when Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds, commander of the Department of Texas, replaced traditional Democratic leadership in city government with loyal Republicans. In August 1868 Scanlan accepted the appointment as alderman of the Third Ward. In this position he guarded against corruption by insisting on strict compliance with terms by city contractors. Beginning in August 1868 he served as chairman of the finance committee. He greatly improved the city's financial condition. This experience enabled him to manage the city as mayor, a position to which he was appointed in 1870. During his mayoralty for the first time four out of the ten appointed aldermen were black. Scanlan promoted the cause of freedmen by appointing blacks to the police force and supporting the election of black councilmen in 1872. His administration continued the other policies initiated by the Democratic party after 1865. Long-term bonds for municipal improvements were paid for by an ad valorem tax rate of 2 percent. Scanlan's city improvements included paved streets, sidewalks, a new market house, better roads and bridges, improved navigation of Buffalo Bayou through dredging of the canal, and a sewer system, all of which had long been goals of the city. Though the people wanted these improvements, they disliked the tax burden to pay for them. The Democrats seized the opportunity to accuse Scanlan of graft and wasting city revenues. In large part these accusations stemmed from the cost of constructing the market house. After Scanlan's election to a second term, construction began in 1872 at a proposed cost of $228,000. The structure's plans were altered to make it a civic monument. The city hall and market house, completed during Scanlan's third term in June 1873, included a 1,000-seat theater, retail shops, and professional offices. Houstonians now had an elaborately appointed building costing over $400,000. On July 8, 1876, however, the market house was destroyed by fire, and when rebuilding cost less than $100,000, charges of waste and corruption abounded. Although the accusers overlooked the fact that the new building was constructed on the old foundation, omitted the Italianate elegance, and lacked the theater, Scanlan and the Republicans had lost control of the city to the Democrats once again.

In 1875 President Ulysses S. Grant named Scanlan postmaster of Houston. He served until 1879. His interest in municipal improvements continued as he actively invested time and money in the Houston City Street Railway Company, the Texas Western Railroad, the Houston Gas Light Company, and the Houston Water Works Company. Thomas W. House was president and Scanlan vice president of the gas company. Scanlan became the first president of the Houston Water Company in 1881, with House as vice president. But the company proved unable to keep up with city expansion, and major fires in 1886, 1891, 1894, and 1901 had to burn themselves out because there was no water pressure at the hydrants. Scanlan's explanation in each case was that the 1878 franchise called for pipes that were so small that pressure levels could not be maintained. Another source of grievance against the company was the inability to provide the city with clean water. In defense against both charges, the company reported that 52 percent of money invested in the company was being spent on new mains, on drilling for artesian wells, and on doubling the plant's pumping capacity. But the company persistently refused to install water meters and to stop the sources of pollution above its reservoir. It also continued to use water from the contaminated Buffalo Bayou. The chronic failure of the company to provide fire protection and pure water caused a clamor for municipal ownership. The city council offered to buy the waterworks in 1903. Settlement was finally concluded in 1906 after an arbitration board set the price. After the sale of the waterworks in June 1906, Scanlan vacationed at his summer home in Chicago, where he died suddenly on July 9, 1906. His wife had died in Houston on March 20, 1898. Both are buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston. Scanlan's daughters received a multimillion-dollar estate in real estate and oil property. His estate executor, Kate Scanlan, built the Scanlan Building in 1909 and named it in his honor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lewis E. Daniell, Texas-The Country and Its Men (Austin?, 1924?). David G. McComb, Houston: The Bayou City (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969; rev. ed., Houston: A History, 1981). Harold L. Platt, City Building in the New South: The Growth of Public Services in Houston, Texas, 1830-1910 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983).

Priscilla Myers Benham


 

JAMES THEODORE DUDLEY WILSON,

1820-1902). James Theodore Dudley Wilson, Houston mayor, banker, and soldier, son of Margaret (Pendergrast) and Robert Wilson,  was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 4, 1820. His mother died in 1823, and his father left him in the care of friends and relatives. Before he reached the age of fifteen, Wilson had lived in Missouri, Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. At the age of fourteen he clerked in a store in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Wilson arrived in Texas in September 1835 and went to work in the store of W. C. White in Columbia. From March until the summer of 1836 Wilson served as a private in the Texas army. He assisted in the capture in 1835 of the Mexican sloop-of-war Correo Mexicano, commanded by Thomas M. (Mexico) Thompson. In 1837 he moved to Houston and worked for his father, who was engaged in the real estate business. From 1852 to 1858 he was a salesman for the mercantile establishment of Van Alstyne and Taylor. As an employee of the military board of Texas during the Civil War, Wilson bought supplies in Mexico for the Confederate Army. After the war when banking was legalized in Texas, he became director and president of the National Exchange Bank. Governor Richard Coke appointed Wilson mayor of Houston in 1874 to replace Thomas H. Scanlan, and a few months later Wilson was elected to the position in a popular election and served until 1875. He was again mayor from 1877 to 1878. On February 1, 1855, Wilson married Mary Adaline Cornelia Cone, and they had four sons and two daughters. Wilson was a Democrat, a Presbyterian, and a member of the Texas Veterans Association. He died on November 23, 1902.


The Scanlan Family PDF


 


or

Go to  Home Page