Associate Justice, Texas Supreme Court, 1857-1862
Chief Justice, Texas Supreme Court, 1864-1866, 1874-1878
Oran Milo Roberts was born July 8, 1815 in the Laurens District of South Carolina and was raised near Ashville. When Roberts was ten his father died, and he moved with his mother to a small farm. He worked on the farm and attended school in a log schoolhouse during the winter months. Roberts shared his father's dream that he would one day enter the legal profession. In 1832, at the age of seventeen, he left home to attend the University of Alabama.
Following his college graduation in 1836, Roberts, then twenty-one, got a job tutoring the children of a judge. The position offered him access to his employer's law books, and he eagerly took advantage of the opportunity. He completed his law studies in the office of William P. Chilton, who later became an Alabama Supreme Court judge. In 1837 Roberts married and was admitted to the bar. The following year he was elected a representative to the Alabama legislature.
Oran Roberts moved to San Augustine, Texas in 1840, where he established a law practice and began a long and distinguished career as a Texas jurist, statesman, and educator. In 1844 Sam Houston appointed him district attorney. The following year he was appointed district judge by Gov. Henderson. He also served as president of the board and lecturer at the law school of the University of San Augustine. In 1857 he was elected associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
Roberts was an outspoken proponent of states' rights, was instrumental in calling the Secession Convention in Austin in January 1861, and was unanimously elected its president. He was among the leaders who succeeded in passing the ordinance removing Texas from the Union. When the Civil War broke out, Roberts resigned his position on the bench and helped to organize a regiment in East Texas. Following Chief Justice Wheeler's suicide in 1864, Roberts was elected to fill his vacancy on the court.
After the war, Roberts was elected to the U.S. Senate, but as “unpardoned rebels” the southern senators were not allowed to be seated. He returned to private practice and opened a law school in Gilmer, Texas in 1868, where he taught for two years. Among his students was Sawnie Robertson, a future Texas Supreme Court justice.
Gov. Richard Coke appointed Roberts chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1874, and he was elected to the position in 1876. During his time on the bench, Roberts was involved in rewriting much of Texas civil law. He served on the court during “momentous times of conflict and change” under four state constitutions: 1845, 1861 (Confederacy), 1869, and 1876.
In 1878 Roberts was elected governor, and his longtime associate, George F. Moore, succeeded him as chief justice. In 1880 Roberts was reelected governor. As governor, he advocated sweeping fiscal reforms, reduced debt, and increased the public school fund. During his terms The University of Texas at Austin opened and plans were made for the present Capitol building.
Following his retirement from political office, Roberts served as a professor of law at The University of Texas from 1882-1892, where his students fondly called him “the Old Alcalde.” While a professor he wrote an important textbook,
Oran M. Roberts died in Austin May 19, 1898 at the age of eighty-three. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. He was said to have been admired by friends and adversaries alike for his integrity, sincerity, and honor, and was remembered as a just and impartial judge, a firm and conservative governor, and a kind and painstaking law professor.
His opinions extend from Hart v. Weatherford (
Duncan v. Magette,
Davenport, Jewette Harbert.
The History of the Supreme Court of the State of Texas 49-59 (Austin, Texas: Southern Law Book Publishers, 1917).Dixon, Ford. Roberts, Oran Milo,
Texas Handbook Online ( Last Updated July 18, 2001). http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/RR/fro18.htmlIn Memoriam: Proceedings Touchinig the Death of Hon. Oran M. Roberts, Late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
92 Texas reports v-xii (1898).Lynch, James Daniel.
The Bench and Bar of Texas 273-284 (St. Louis, Missouri: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1885).Norvell, James R. A Texas Portrait: Oran M. Roberts,
23 Texas Bar Journal 727 (1960).
