Of cousins and namesakes

With a name like Reagan, relatives in Sharon's part of the family wonder if they are related to any famous Reagans. Sharon specifically asked me last week if her family was related to the Reagan for whom Reagan County in Texas is named for. Other family members wondered if they are related to a certain famous former actor who once occupied the White House.

I fiddled around with some of the features of Family Search, the online resource from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, to see if I could find answers. And I did. 

First, you need to know that Reagan County lies southeast of the Midland-Odessa area and west southwest of San Angelo, which puts it in between I-20 and I-10. You also need to know, if you're not from Texas or you flunked Texas geography, that it could charitably be said to be in the middle of nowhere. If you're from that area, I apologize, but I grew up in Midland, which is close to the middle of nowhere. 

Reagan County has one incorporated town, Big Lake, and the total population of the county runs a bit more than 3,300. My graduating high school class had almost 700 people in it. Enrollment in my college the year I graduated exceeded 18,000 It has two other unincorporated towns, Best and Texon, and you have to blow Google Maps up to find them.

The county is named for John Henninger Reagan, an immigrant to Texas from Tennessee. A lot of people came to Texas from Tennessee back in the 1800s, such as that Crockett fella, who famously declared, "You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas." Guess he didn't know what the weather was like in the summers here.

Reagan came to Texas for a job he was supposed to have in Nacogdoches but almost immediately became involved in a war with the Cherokees, known as the, ahem, Cherokee War. Subsequently he worked as a surveyor and scout before getting himself elected as a justice of the peace and serving as captain of the militia in Nacogdoches. He also studied law and eventually opened a law office in Buffalo, not too far from Palestine, the latter town being where he would wind up spending much of his life and where he is buried.

After Texas became a state he entered politics, serving as county judge for Henderson County and later a member of the state house. During his tenure he became involved in a dispute that cost him a bid for the state senate, even though he was later proved to be right about the dispute. By 1855, he was serving as a judge in the Ninth Judicial District, and a couple of years later, he became the U.S. rep, running as a Democrat. You may remember that Democrats used to be pretty popular and influential in Texas. 

His positions could be confusing. He supported a secessionist over Sam Houston in the governor's race in 1859 while running for reelection as a unionist. He and Sam both won their races. 

When it became apparent the Union would split, he resigned his seat and went back to Texas to lobby for joining the Confederacy. He was elected to the Secession Convention in Alabama and in a short time became postmaster general for the Confederacy. Historian William Davis proclaimed that his tenure was the only time in U.S. history that a postal service ran properly and profitably. 

When Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, Va., near the end of the war, Reagan went with him. Davis appointed him Secretary of the Treasury after that department's leader resigned. Finally the pair of them, along with Texas Gov. Francis Lubbock were captured in Georgia. Reagan was sent to a jail in Boston, and during his time there, he wrote an open letter to Texans urging them to cooperate with the victors, renounce the declaration of secession, free all the slaves and grant them some voting rights. If they didn't do it voluntarily, they'd be forced to.

This letter didn't win him any friends in Texas, but they learned soon enough that he was right. After his release, he returned to Palestine, Texas. As his predictions came true, his image was rehabilitated, and he gained the nickname the "Old Roman," a reference to a Roman statesman who'd helped the Roman republic during a crisis and then resigned.

He regained his old congressional seat but resigned before the end of his term because he was persuaded by Gov. James Hogg to become the first head of the Railroad Commission after its formation. Back then, the commission actually regulated railroads. For anyone who doesn't know, the RRC is mostly concerned with oil regulation nowadays.

An avid lover of history, he helped form the Texas State Historical Commission, which is responsible for the Handbook of Texas Online, from which most of this information came.

So, is he related to the Reagan family? Sort of, and not as a direct relation of Sharon's father. Reagan had three wives, one of whom is the 11th cousin of Sharon's mother, if Family Search's information is correct. That makes him a cousin-in-law.

And that actor guy? Well it turns out that he married a woman named Nancy Davis -- you may remember her -- who is this 8th cousin of my grandmother. Yup, that's right, at least according to Family Search. That makes him my cousin-in-law. 

Speaking of cousins, in a midweek post, I will try to unravel the whole x cousin x removed mess.

Image: John Henninger Reagan, from the Library of Congress by way of the Handbook of Texas Online.