James Luther Slayden

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James Luther Slayden (1853–1924), uncle of Fontaine Maury Maverick and maverick in politics; United States Representative from Texas; son of Thomas A. and Letitia E. (Beadles) Slayden, was born in Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky, on June 1, 1853. Upon the death of his father in 1869 he moved with his mother to New Orleans, Louisiana; where he worked for two years and attended common schools before attending Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

He moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1876; became a cotton merchant and rancher; elected to House of Representatives in 1892 in the Twenty-third legislature; declined to be a candidate for renomination; engaged in agricultural pursuits and mining; married Ellen Maury, of Charlottesville, Virginia in 1883. In 1896 he was elected to represent Texas as a Democrat in the 55th United States Congress.

He was appointed by Andrew Carnegie as one of the original trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in October 1910. For several years he was president of the American Peace Society; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth and to the ten succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1919); declined renomination in 1918; managed an orchard in Virginia, a ranch in Texas, and mines in Mexico.

As a legislator and later as a congressman, Slayden promoted the growth of the railroad system in Texas. In the United States Congress, while a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, he encouraged the expansion of Fort Sam Houston and was instrumental in making San Antonio a military center.

He was also chairman of the American group of the Interparliamentary Union. After his retirement from Congress in 1919, Slayden divided his business interests between his orchard in Virginia, his ranch in Texas, and a mine in Mexico.

Slayden was an Episcopalian, a Freemason, an Elk , and an Odd Fellow. Washington and Lee University honored him with the Phi Beta Kappa Key. Slayden, Texas,[1] was named in his honor. He died in San Antonio on February 24, 1924, and was buried in Mission Park Cemetery.

[edit] Sources

• Slayden, Maury Ellen. "Washington Wife: Journal of Mary Ellen (Maury) Slayden from 1897-1919." New York and Evanston: Harper & Row,1962.
• Biographical Directory of the American Congress.
• Sondra Wyatt Gray, The Political Career of James Luther Slayden.
• Pohl, James W. “Slayden’s Defeat: A Texas Congressman Loses Bid as Wilson’s Secretary of War.” Military History of Texas and the Southwest
• Texas Handbook Online