The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-03-19
EX-GOVERNOR IRELAND DEAD
THE DISTINGUISHED TEXAN
PASSED AWAY AT SAN AN
TONIC.
DIED OF NEURALGIA OF THE HEART
After an Illness of but Two Weeks Du-
ration-Loving Relatives and Friends
Attended the Deathbed-A Bio
graphical Sketch.

toudy. ne passeu away peacefully, AZ
tended by friends and relatives.
The ex-governor arrived in the city on
March 2, and feeling i'll, summoned
physician, who pronounced his condi
ton critical. He has been confined to his
room ever since.
Mrs. Il. s. Carpenter of Seguin and
Mrs. j. w. Graves of Houston, his
DAUGHTERS, together with their husbands,
were at the deathbed Mrs. Ireland's
presence was prevented by illness.
The body will be taken to Seguin to-
morrow at II o'clock. The date of the
funeral has not yet been fixed.
BIOGRAPHY.
John Ireland was born of yeoman par.
entage in Hart county, Kentucky, on the
LIST day of January, 1927. His education
al advantages were confined to the com
mon schools of the country; but, actual
ed by spirit of determination and self
reliance which buoyed him above the re-
restraints and gives of circumstances,
his endeavors were fixed upon the purpose
OF achieving an honorable place among
men; and bursting the trammels of his
early youth, he sought to obtain in the
realities of life that knowledge of which
his school facilities had afforded him
but a thirsting taste.
In 1917 he was appointed deputy sher-
if of Hart county, and about year after
wards was elected constable, which posi-
ton he held for three years. The knOwl-
edge of process and legal business which
the duties of these offices afforded him,
directed his ambition to the bar, and in
1851 he began the study of law in the
office of Robert ID. Murray and Henry
q. Wood at Mumfordsville. He at once
impressed into the service of his efforts
those habits of close application and pa
tent industry which have attended him
through life, which have constructed the
| sure steps of his advancement and formed
the sesame of his great success. So con-
slant and thorough was his progress in
mastering the general principles of the
| common law that in scarcely more than
one year he was admitted to the bar and
| entered upon his practice; but casting
about for new field and more inviting
prospects he was attracted by the glitter
ing future and allurements of the rising
| empire of the Southwest, and in 1853 re-
| moved to Texas and settled in Seguin,
where he began the erection of his fame,
and which has ever since been his unof-
fetal home. Here his sterling qualities
were recognized by his fellow citizens,
| and in 1858 he was elected mayor of the
tOWH AZ tle dppTOdCn VI Tie lOTeDOulnS
clouds of the civil war he ardently es-
poused the cause of his section and State,
| and favored the prompt resumption of it's
sovereignty, and it's withdrawal from the
Union. He was member of the cOnSti-
tutional convention in 1861, and as soon
as the status of political affairs were set
tied in his State he enlisted as private
in the volunteer army of the Confederacy.
This same purpose and devotion to duty
which ho nhor ,tn nil bie
career marked him as an efficient soldier
and invited promotion. He was made
successfully captain, major and lieuten-
ant-cOlOnel. and was an officer of high
standing. His services extended through
out the campaign of the trans Mississippi
department, and at the close of the war
he returned to theHpractice of law at
Seguin.
In 1866 he was member of the conven-
ton assembled to form a constitution for
the State in conformity with the Johnson
policy of reconstruction, and was soon
afterward elected judge of his judicial
district, but was removed on the usurpa
ton of military power in 1867. In 1873
he served as a member of the house in
the Thirteenth legislature, and in the
Fourteenth he was a member of the SEN
ate. In 1875 he was appointed associate
Justice of the supreme court, but was re-
tired by the new constitution of 1876,
which required that the court consist of
only three judges. His decisions are
found in the forty-fourth and forty-ffth
volumes of Texas reports. His assidu-
GUS habits and fondness for close anylit-
ical investigation, his natural inquisitive-
ness of mind, firm and well grounded con-
victiOns through legal training. and ample
resources of both principle and precedent
made him an excellent supreme judge.
and his decisions manifest a steady and
profound search for truth and justice.
His opinion in Lewis VS.. Aylett, 40 Tex
100, first settled the principle in Texas
Jurisprudence that real estate can not
pass by nuncupative will. In this case
he traces the power of deyising real es-
tate from it's origin in the Statute of Uses
through its enlargement by the abolition
of feudal tenures, when the custom of
making nuncupative wills was engrafted
upon it by necessity, to which it had al
ways been restricted. He showed that
there was nothing in the jurisprudence of
Texas that warranted the extension of
the power of nuncupative devise to real
property under the allodial tenures of the
State, and in regard to the competency
of devisees to establish verbal devise of
personal estate he adds:
Every dictate of humanity and the
daily lessons of life warn and teach us
of the folly and improperly of placing
not only the fortunes. but the lives of
the sick, aged and afflicted at the mercy
and avarice of the corrupt and the
vicious. That code of laws should al
low devisees to go before clerk or judge
on an ex-parte proceeding and prove a
verbal will giving to strangers an estate,
leaving kindred and family without pro-
vision can not be readily admitted and
it would deserve universal condemna-
ton"