From the Texas State Legislative Reference Library's website.
Today's two-part posting centers on two political figures named in honor of the famed Greek statesman and orator Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.) The first of these men is multi-term Texas state representative and senator Demosthenes Franklin Goss, who was born on April 25, 1855, in the county of Rockwall.
"D.F." Goss (as most sources list him) was the seventh child born to Ephraim and Rebecca Johns Goss, and as an adolescent attended the Add Ran College in Thorp Springs, Texas, graduating in the class of 1878 with his Bachelor in Science degree. In the same year of his graduation, he married Estelle Truscott, with whom he would have seven children over eighteen years. They are listed as follows: Lucinia Livington (born 1879), Gertrude Arizona (born 1882), Myrtle Amelia (born 1884), Clara Rebecca (born 1888), Ephraim Truscott (born 1892), Mary Elizabeth (born 1894) and Lucile (born 1897).
In 1883 Goss was admitted to the Texas bar and soon commenced practice in the town of Seymour. In the late 1880s, Goss was appointed to a vacant county judgeship in Baylor County, Texas, and four years later was elected as a Democrat to the first of three terms in the Texas State Senate, representing his home county of Baylor. Goss' first senate term saw him introduce one important piece of legislation, authoring an amendment "making selection of the members of the Railroad Commission elective instead of appointive."
Goss was re-elected to that body in 1896 and 1900, with his final term concluding in 1904. During his last senate term, Goss was Dean of the Senate and chaired the Committee on Public Lands, and also was a member of the Committees on Constitutional Amendments, Educational Affairs, Judiciary No. 2, Mining and Irrigation, Privileges and Elections, Public Buildings and Grounds, Rules and Stock and Stock Raising. In addition to his legislative service, Goss was the Democratic candidate for Texas Land Commissioner in 1898.
After his tenure in the senate, D.F. Goss returned to his native Baylor County, where he died of pneumonia on May 11, 1925, at age 70. He was preceded in death by his wife Estelle, who had died in 1924. Both were subsequently interred in the Masonic Cemetery in Seymour, Baylor County, Texas.
Second to be profiled today is the obscure Demosthenes Cicero LeRoy, born on July 7, 1819. All that is known of him is that he was a lawyer and served in the New York State Assembly in 1851, hailing from Onondaga County.
LeRoy served but one term in the state assembly and died in the year of his service on December 20, 1851, at the age of 32. A brief death notice in the Buffalo Courier remarks that he had caught a chill after soaking his feet in warm water after being outside on an extraordinarily cold day. He then "imprudently" went to his office "and remained there during the evening without a fire", subsequently catching a cold. His illness extended for five days, whereafter he died of "severe cold and inflammation of the brain." LeRoy was memorialized in the same paper as a "young man of fine talents and amiable character." Just 32 years old at the time of his death, LeRoy was survived by his wife and two children and was interred in the Maplewood Cemetery in the town of Camillus, New York.
From the Buffalo Courier, December 24, 1851.
You Can Help!
I am currently seeking more information (as well as a picture) of Demosthenes LeRoy, so if any readers/amateur historians want an interesting project to fill their time with, see what you can dig up on this oddly named New York state assemblyman!
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