David Robert Wingate
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David Robert Wingate (1819-1899) was an American lumber businessman and plantation farmer who would serve in the Confederate Army as the commissioner of defense for Jefferson County, Texas during the Civil War. Overcoming numerous financial setbacks throughout his lifetime, he would remain a successful industrialist. He would own as many as a hundred slaves before the emancipation, but he would be remembered by society as a humanitarian to these people and generous provider.
On February 20, 1819, he was born in Darlington County, South Carolina unto Robert Potter and Pherobee (Kelly) Wingate. At an early age, his family moved to the delta region on the Mississippi River where logging and sawmills were prevalent. His education was unsophisticated, and he would begin to work in the lumber industry as a basic hand. At the age of 20, he married Caroline Morgan, a native of Mississippi with whom he would have seven children. In 1849, at the age of 30, he would own his first sawmill in Mississippi.[1] After three years of business there (including the rebuilding of the mill from a fire), Wingate moved to Newton County, Texas in 1852, where he established a large cotton plantation. Within seven years, he would be the largest antebellum cotton planter in Southeast Texas, with seventy to about eighty slaves working the site.[2]
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[edit] Venture back into the lumber business
Wingate saw the lacking timber market of the area as an opportunity, and this led to his discovery of the abandoned Spartan Mill at Sabine Pass. By 1859 he would own this sawmill, which he improved to be the largest steam sawmill facility in the state. He moved his family and thirteen of his slaves to this coastal town. In addition, he would establish a small fleet of lumber schooners for trade across the Gulf of Mexico. In the summer of 1860, the Wingate Mill Industries steam boiler exploded, killing several of his employees and disfiguring others. Wingate quickly rebuilt the equipment to continue to operate his mill and resume providing employment for his people.
[edit] Participation in the American Civil War
In April of 1861, David R.Wingate and one of his sons would enlist in the Sabine Pass Guard, whereas David would be appointed as chairman of safety for Sabine Pass, as well as Confederate States marshal of the east Texas region. During this time, he would begin blockade running, but would loose a steamer he owned in 1862 when it ran aground. He and his crew torched the craft and the cargo of 500 bales of cotton to avoid capture.[3] At this time period, Wingate is credited for supplying the needed logs to build Fort Sabine. In August of 1862, the yellow fever epidemic reached Sabine Pass, triggering Wingate to evacuate his family back to Newton County to remain until the end of the war. Several months later on October 21, a Union Navy patrol invaded Sabine Pass, destroying his sawmill and residence there with fire. In 1864, Wingate was elected chief justice of Newton County, with the provisional civilian governor Andrew J. Hamilton giving him the same appointment the following year.[4]
[edit] Financial losses and Wingate’s move to Orange
In 1873, Wingate suffered another substantial loss financially. His transporting craft along with the cargo of cotton being shipped to market went down in the Sabine River, a worth of about $50,000 dollars in that day. That same year, Wingate and his wife moved to Orange as he was seeking opportunities once again in the lumber trade. In 1878, his new sawmill called the D. R. Wingate and Company would begin to operate, but just two years later, it would be consumed by fire at a cost equal to that of his last loss. The city of Orange would benefit from the presence of David R. Wingate, despite his unfortunate luck with fires. Throughout the 1880’s, he would build larger facilities, with the demand for lumber always strong. Wingate also served as judge of Orange County from 1878 until 1884. After his wife’s death in 1890, he would venture into rice farming which succeeded well and added a new commerce to the region. On February 15, 1899, Wingate died due to pneumonia and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Orange, Texas.
[edit] Wingate remembered by society
Nearing the end of the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation led to his slaves being set free in the 1860’s. Those same people who were previously owned by D. R. Wingate were well taken care of by him, as part of his obituary reveals this:
. . . After his immediate family, the most sincere bereavement is felt among his old ex-slaves, who had never relinquished an imaginary right to rely on him when in trouble, and when their little crops failed, the Judge had always assisted them until the next season enabled them to pull out. It never occurred to a one of them to pay him back, and Judge Wingate did not expect it, but this did not deter the same people from asking him for further help whenever adversity overtook them again, nor did he suffer the recollection of their indebtedness to tighten his purse strings. He could no more resist an appeal from his former slave than from his own child . . .[5] |
In 1979, the Texas Historical Commission constructed a marker in recognition of David Robert Wingate’s achievements, Civil War activities, and his contributions to society.[6]