In 1937 my father, Cecil, decided to get into county politics.  For reasons known only to him, he filed for the position of County Clerk of  San Augustine County, Texas.  He had no experience in politics, nor any other office work.  He had been a painter and paperhanger contractor, working with his father, Felix, and younger brother, Marvin.

 

My father ran on the motto, “Give a Young Man a Chance”.  The current county clerk had been in office for several terms and was much older than my father who was 32 years old at this time.

My guess as to why he entered politics is that he was about to starve to death in his contracting business.  He apparently felt that he had nothing to lose by tossing his hat in the political ring.  His plan was simple – meet and talk to as many people in the county as possible.

 

My father’s automobile was not all that dependable, so he walked as often as he drove.  San Augustine County is rather large, so when he was a long way from his home, he would spend the night with friendly farmers.  Although my father was rather shy, he had a nice smile and was very friendly to all he met.

 

Election Day finally came, and to my father’s surprise and elation, he came in second in a field of five candidates.  He was in a run-off election with Mr. Fred Fisher, the current county clerk.  In September, 1937, my father won the run-off election by 451 votes.  On January 1, 1938 he took over an office that had two female employees, and hardly any office equipment, save for a few old Underwood and Royal typewriters.

 

During most of my father’s career as the county clerk, he made a rather small salary which was dependable, unlike the contracting business which was irregular and undependable.  By that time my mother, Alice, had established herself as a beautician working in a local beauty shop. Their combined income was enough to get them by, and to save a little for those “rainy days” ahead.

 

One needs to remember that in those days there were no Xerox machines, no Fax machines, or computers.  All documents to be filed with the county clerk were hand typed by employees on very old typewriters.  Copies of deeds, or other documents, were typed by an employee and certified as a true copy by my father.  The books used to keep the records were very large, and required special book holders to keep them upright.  The pages could be removed so as to be placed in a typewriter and added to as additional documents were filed.

 

My father was very helpful to the citizens of the county.  He assisted them in filling out government forms, and all kinds of other documents, not because it was a part of his job, but because he wanted to help them.  I can remember his complaining about the federal government forms – they were usually too wide, or too long, or otherwise did not fit in the old typewriters in his office.

 

Dad was elected to the County Clerk’s office over and over again, usually by large numbers.  He was elected for eight two-year terms, and seven four-year terms.  Finally, in 1977, when he was around 72 years of age, he decided to retire from the office.  He had two more years left on his term, but encouraged the County Commissioners to appoint his nephew, Larry Woods, to fill out the remainder of his term, which they did.

 

I asked Dad once why he decided to retire, undefeated, before his term ended.  He explained that he sat down and calculated his Social Security income, in addition to his county retirement, and discovered it was costing him $50.00 each month to work.  It is difficult to argue with such reasoning.

 

Dad retired, and began his painting and paperhanging career again, though somewhat limited due to his age.  In October of 1991 he died of congestive heart failure at the age of 84.  He still holds the record for the longest tenured County Clerk in San Augustine County history. Apparently I did not inherit his desire to be involved in politics.
 

“THE CANDIDATE”

BY: NEAL MURPHY

P.O. BOX 511
SAN AUGUSTINE, TEXAS 75972
936-275-9033
Cell 936-275-6986

698 WORDS