"Big A" Bledsoe

"Big A" Bledsoe. Settled 1852. , A Bledsoe (1801-1882) arrived in this area in 1846, coming from Missouri, to which he had emigrated from Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky about 1830. Stories say his father looked at him when he was born and commented approvingly, "He is a Bledsoe," and on the strength of this remark "A" became his name and was not an initial. In manhood he reached a height between 6'4" and 6'7", weighing between 250 and 300 pounds, so strong he could lift a mired wagon out of the mud to help the team or yoke of oxen. In Texas he was commonly called "Big A." A farmer by occupation, he was a promoter in spirit. In 1852 he laid out the town of Lancaster to compete with Pleasent Run, a bare mile to the north., He adhered to the Union during the Civil War despite the fact that both a son and son-in-law commanded companies in that conflict. In 1867 he was appointed County Judge of Dallas County by Special Orders No. 195. In the hotly disputed election of November 30 - December 3, 1869, he was confirmed, as having been elected Comptroller of the State of Texas on the Radical Ticket (Special Orders No. 6. Headquaters District of Texas, January 8, 1870)., In Austin Bledsoe's term coincided with that of the 12th Legislature, the most corrupt legislative body in Texas history. This group enacted a bill to issue six million dollars worth of thirty year, eight percent state bonds to subsidize the Southern Pacific and the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific railways on the single condition that the roads unite about halfway across the state. This was a steal so raw that Reconstruction Governor E. J. Davis sent it back with an indignant veto message, upon which the Legislature passed it over Davis's veto. Bledsoe then refused to sign the bonds as Comptroller, calling them unconstitutional even in the teeth of an alleged offer of one million dollars for his signature. One historian (Ramsdell) has suggested that Bledsoe and Davis disagreed on everything except these bonds., After the election of 1872 A Bledsoe withdrew from public life. He lived in Hutchins until his death and is still remembered for his courageous stand during the dark days of Reconstruction in Texas.