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| Historic
Name: |
Dan
Moody, Jr. |
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Architect | Builder: |
Page,
Southerland Firm |
| Year: |
1937 |
| Style: |
Federal
Revival/Georgian |
| Areas
of Significance: |
Art,
Architecture |
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City: |
Austin |
DAN MOODY JR. IN AUSTIN.This home located in the
Old Enfield area was orginally owned by Dan Moody Jr., son of Gov.
Dan Moody. Gov. Moody was a close friend of Peter Mansbendel and
gave the eulogy at Mansbendel's funeral in 1940. Over 400 attended
the furneral. (See below to learn more about Dan Moody)
Front of Moody Home
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Entrance & Stairs
(Stairs carved by Mansbendel?)
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(Newel Post by Mansbendel?)
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Carved bookcase by Mansbendel |
Mantle by Mansbendel |
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Gov Dan Moody |
Gov Dan Moody |
Dan Moody (then Attonrey General) and Mildred Paxton were
married on April 20, 1926 six months before he became governor.
|
The Gov in Session |
Daniel J. Moody was born on June 1, 1893, to Daniel
James Moody and Nancy Elizabeth Robertson Moody in the then-fast-growing
railroad town of Taylor, where he would spend his childhood.
He attended The University of Texas from 1910-14, where he was
a member of the Hildebrand Law Society and later vice president
of the Cofer Law Society. Without completing his law degree,
he left school, passed the bar exam, and formed a law partnership
with Harris Melasky, a childhood friend, in Taylor. Moody developed
a good reputation as a lawyer. During World War I, he recruited
a company of soldiers. They were training in Arkansas when the
Armistice was declared. Moody returned to his practice. The
year 1920 marked two important events in Moody's career. He
began his political career when, at age 27, he became the youngest
person ever to serve as Williamson County attorney. It also
was the year the Ku Klux Klan entered Texas.
How
Dan Moody Destroyed the Klan in Texas
Imagine 170,000 hate-filled Texans organized into a secret,
very powerful society. A society that openly preached white
supremacy and hatred for blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants.
A society so powerful that its members and friends controlled
local and county politics, dominated the Texas Legislature,
and elected a U.S. senator. A society that kidnapped and beat
those who disagreed with them and, because they controlled local
law enforcement, did so without fear of prosecution. That
nightmare was reality in Texas in 1922. The Ku Klux Klan controlled
politics, committed vigilante violence with impunity, and
was poised to take over state government from the governor's
office on down in the 1924 election. Now imagine Governor
Pat Neff just appointed you district attorney of Travis and
Williamson counties. Your predecessor resigned mid-term in
frustration over his inability to obtain an indictment against
Klansmen who had openly committed a murder in downtown Austin.
Oh, and the Travis County sheriff and Austin police commissioner,
both known Klansmen, had been held in contempt of court for
impeding that murder investigation. That is precisely the
situation that confronted Dan Moody in 1922. He became the
Texas' youngest governor at age 33.
http://utopia.utexas.edu/articles/alcalde/moody.html?sec=history%E2%8A%82=diversity
Copyright-The University of Texas 2007
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