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Feb. 27, 2004, 11:21AM

Doing right by doing wrong

By RICK CASEY
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

When Peter Gray, one of the founders of Baker Botts law firm, apparently engineered a packed jury back in 1848, he may have set a precedent for the legendary Captain James A. Baker Jr.

It's called doing right by doing wrong.

For Gray, it was liberating a black woman from a white landowner who wrongly claimed her and her children as his slaves.

In Baker's case, it was saving the fortune that founded Rice University from being stolen by a sleazy lawyer.

If you missed Tuesday's piece by my colleague Harvey Rice on Gray and Emeline, it's a fascinating story. The daughter of a slave and her owner, Emeline had been freed by her father.

But a Houston man named Jesse Bolls claimed her and her children as his property. Gray took up Emeline's cause and filed suit on her behalf.

In those days, explains state District Judge Mark Davidson, an amateur historian who found Emeline's case file in the archives, the district clerk drew up a pool of about 30 or 40 prospective jurors to be available for the traveling district judge when he heard cases here.

The interesting thing, Davidson says, is that the jurors who sat on Emeline's case and decided in her favor were not on the list. It appears Gray, who was so influential at the age of 28 that he had already served as district attorney and was then both a city alderman and a state legislator, persuaded the clerk or the judge or both to let him have a special jury. Some were prominent men, and none was a slaveholder.

Davidson suspects that the jurors may have come from a Masonic lodge founded by Gray's father, but he hasn't yet had time to confirm it.

Fast forward to 1900 and the fascinating story told by University of Toronto professor Martin Friedland in his book The Death of Old Man Rice.

William Marsh Rice had come to Houston in 1838 at the age of 22. He built a large fortune distributing liquor, importing ice from New England, investing in railroads and in other endeavors.

Probably the wealthiest man in Texas, he moved in the 1870s to New York.

At the time of his death, Rice was being sued by relatives of his late wife, who felt they hadn't received their fair share of the estate.

Rice was represented by Baker, whose father had helped found Gray, Botts & Baker. The younger Baker had drafted a will in 1896 (shortly after Mrs. Rice's death) that left the bulk of Rice's estate to the fledgling Rice Institute. Not incidentally, Baker also chaired the institute's board.

One of the lawyers for Mrs. Rice's family was Albert T. Patrick, a 34-year-old Texan who had been practicing in New York since 1892.

Patrick had a history. In Texas, he had represented a husband in an alienation-of-affections lawsuit against his wife's alleged lover. Then Patrick represented the wife in her suit for divorce.

In New York, he broke a lease by subletting his apartment to "a Negro Republican club," thereby driving out other tenants.

If it was a commitment to civil rights, Patrick's devotion to the cause had its limits. The landlord claimed Patrick extorted $3,000 from him before agreeing to have the club vacate the apartment.

Baker and Patrick had dealt with each other when Baker visited New York to work on the lawsuit.

When Rice died, Baker was stunned to learn that Patrick produced a new will purportedly signed by Rice shortly before his death.

The will had been drawn up by Patrick and left him virtually all of Rice's vast estate.

Baker immediately jumped a train to New York. According to Friedland's sober book, he played a major role not only in defending the Rice Institute's interests but also in obtaining a conviction of Patrick.

For Rice's murder.

To be continued.

You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.


ARADER GALLERY
 

 

 
Eckerd
 

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