Source:
" The subject of this sketch,
Osceola Archer, is
a native of Maryland. He was born in the beautiful village of Port
Deposit,
built against a bluff of the Susquehanna river, a few miles above Havre
de
Grace, where the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad Company spans that
stream,
and which will be remembered by all travelers to the Eastern cities.
Osceola was the third son of John
and Anna
Laura Archer, and came to Texas with them in 1846, and settled in
Western
Texas, were the family has resided ever since. His father, Judge John
Archer,
graduated at West Point, the United States Military Academy, in the
class of
1827, and after serving in the army with his old friend and classmate,
the
lamented and gallant General Albert Sidney Johnson, resigned his
commission for
the purpose of entering into the occupations of civil life. He
afterwards read
law, and at the advanced age of seventy years was admitted to the bar
with the
design of engaging actively in the practice of that profession, but
soon
thereafter he was elected and served as County Judge of Karnes county
for six
years. He still resides in that county, and is now in the eighty-fourth
year of
his life.
Osceola Archer from early boyhood
has had a
great thirst for knowledge, and availed himself of all the facilities
offered
in his locality to obtain an education. He spent the last two years of
his
scholastic life at the old Aranama College in Goliad, and by close
application,
which habit he has not forgotten, he acquired a good English education,
and in
addition a fair knowledge of the classics, Latin and Greek.
In 1861 he left Aranama College and
determined
to prepare himself for the practice of law, but being without
sufficient means
to attend a law school and relying upon his own resources, he began
life as a
school teacher at Oakville, where he read law at night and at all
leisure times
when he was not engaged with his school, but he was not content to
remain thus
long.
In 1861 the call to arms of every
Southern
patriot arousing the native ardor of young Archer, he abandoned the
birch rod
of the pedagogue for the sabre of the soldier, and volunteering in the
Confederate States service he joined the celebrated Terry Rangers at
Houston,
and served throughout the war as a private in that gallant regiment. He
participated with his command in most of the great battles fought by
the army
of Tennessee, including the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Kentucky,
Murfresboro,
Tennessee, Knoxville and Bentonville, besides being engaged with his
regiment
in hundreds of cavalry charges and skirmishes which rendered the Terry
Rangers
so famous and so terrible to the enemy, in all of which young Archer
bore
himself with marked spirit and gallantry.
When the war closed, he returned to
Texas,
August, 1865, and taught school in DeWitt county for five months,
resuming and
continuing his application to the study of law in all his spare time.
Finally
he gave up school teaching, and at his father's home in Karnes county,
he
devoted all his attention to the completion of the study of the text
books of
the law, and upon a rigid and thorough examination was admitted to the
bar at
Helena, Karnes county, Texas, on the sixteenth day of October, 1866. It
cannot
be regarded as extraordinary that he obtained a license to practice law
so soon
after the war, when it is remembered that for some years previous to
the war he
had been a close student of law.
In 1867 Mr. Archer was appointed
County Attorney
by the Commissioners' Court of Karnes county, in which capacity he
served for
eighteen months, when he resigned, in order to give proper attention to
his
general and increasing civil practice.
In March, 1869, Judge Archer formed
a
partnership in the practice of law with Major A. H. Phillips, a
prominent
lawyer of Victoria, Texas. The firm located an office in Victoria, with
Major
Phillips in charge, and another in Indianola, with Judge Archer in
charge. The
partnership existed until 1870, when Judge Archer was appointed
District
Attorney for the Sixteenth Judicial District, composed of seven
counties,
including Victoria, Calhoun and Nueces. In this office he served until
1871,
when he took the stump for the Hon. John Hancock, the Democratic
nominee for
congress, against the Republican, Ed. Degener, Esq., and the
consequence of
this political action was his removal from office by Governor E. J.
Davis.
In June, 1872, a Democratic
Convention was
held in Victoria for the nomination of District and County officers.
The
candidates for District Attorney were the Hon. Wm. H. Grain, now a
member of
Congress from that district; Judge W. W. Dunlap, and Judge Osceola
Archer. On
the first ballot Archer was nominated, but owing to the delicate health
of Mrs.
Archer he was compelled to leave the Gulf coast, and before the
election was
held he declined the nomination and moved to Austin, Travis county,
arriving in
that city on the 25th of November, 1872, where he has resided ever
since.
He immediately took a high position
at the
Travis county bar as a thorough gentleman and reliable attorney.
As a citizen he has proved himself
to be
public spirited and useful. Governor Ross appointed Judge Archer a
member of
the Board of Managers of the State Lunatic Asylum, located at Austin,
in June,
1887. At the first meeting of the Board he was elected President. He
was
reappointed by Governor Ross to the same position in 1889, and was
re-elected
by the Board as its President for the next two years.
To this difficult duty Judge Archer
has given
the strictest attention, fully appreciating the condition of the
unfortunate
class dependent upon the wise conduct of that institution for either a
recovery
or as comfortable a life as possible in their sad mental condition. He
has
discharged these duties most conscientiously and without fear of
personal
criticism from any quarter.
Judge Osceola Archer was married to
Miss
Nannie Wildy on the 30th of November, A. D. 1871. They have six
children, five
girls and one boy. He has a very comfortable homestead in the city of
Austin,
and is surrounded by all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life,
and
with his young and growing family he dispenses the hospitalities of his
home
with all the cordiality and refinement of his native Maryland.
He is an active member of the
Protestant
Episcopal church, having become a member in 1879, and has been a
vestryman in
that church since the following spring. He is also treasurer of the
Espicopal
Endowment Fund and the Fund for Aged and Infirm Clergy and Widows and
Orphans
of the Clergy. He has been elected to the position successively since
1881.
At the Episcopal Council for this
Diocese,
held in Tyler, Texas, in April, 1889, Judge Archer was elected delegate
to the
General Council of the church in the United States, to be held in New
York in
October. He is conscientiously attentive to his duties as a member and
officer
of the church. He served for five years as Superintendent of the
Sunday-school
of the church at Austin.
As a lawyer Judge Archer is a close
student
and has acquired a comprehensive view and wide range of the science of
the law.
He is regarded by all who have dealings with him, as a lawyer and
citizen, as
perfectly reliable, and has been entrusted with the settlement of large
interests and the investment of large sums of money. He is a man of
method,
answers letters and makes remittances promptly. His practice is growing
solidly
and remuneratively, and by close attention to his business he has
accumulated a
competency and acquired some valuable real estate in the city of Austin.
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