Thomas Henry Ball

Thomas Henry Ball
File:Thomas H. Ball (Texas Congressman).jpg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 1st district
In office March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1903
Preceded by	Joseph C. Hutcheson
Succeeded by	Morris Sheppard
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 8th district
In office March 4, 1903 – November 16, 1903
Preceded by	Samuel W.T. Lanham
Succeeded by	John M. Pinckney
Personal details
Born	(1859-01-14)January 14, 1859 Huntsville, Texas
Died	Houston, Texas
Resting place	Forest Park Cemetery, Houston
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Minnie Thompson (m. 1882)
Children	Minnie, David, Rebecca, and 3 adopted children
Alma mater	Austin College University of Virginia School of Law
Profession	lawyer (admitted to bar 1886)

Thomas Henry Ball (January 14, 1859 – May 7, 1944) was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. He was mayor of Huntsville, Texas from 1877 to 1892, and moved to Houston in 1902.

Thomas Henry Ball and Frank Andrews formed a law firm in Houston in 1902. Melvin Kurth joined in 1913. Andrews Kurth was important to Texas railroad firms early in the twentieth century. It represented Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Federal National Mortgage Corporation, New Deal agencies. In the early twenty-first century Andrews Kurth had offices in London and Beijing, and employed more than 400 lawyers.

He held many posts in the Democratic Party of Texas, and unsuccessfully sought the 1914 nomination to be Governor of Texas on a prohibition platform, despite endorsements from President Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan. His Houston law practice represented chiefly railroads and corporations, and he promoted Texas port facilities both in Congress and after. He was general counsel for the Port Commission of Houston. He was a delegate at the 1892 Democratic National Convention, and in 1924, and 1928.

Because Mr. Ball had been instrumental in routing a railroad through Peck, Texas, the town was renamed Tomball, Texas in his honor in 1907

Further reading

• Lewis L. Gould, Progressives and Prohibitionists: Texas Democrats in the Wilson Era (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973; rpt., Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1992)
• George P. Huckaby, Oscar Branch Colquitt: A Political Biography (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1946).
• Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916])
• Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin (Tomball, Texas).
• Clarence R. Wharton, ed., Texas under Many Flags (5 vols., Chicago: American Historical Society, 1930).

External links

• Thomas Henry Ball from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Thomas Henry Ball at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Thomas Henry Ball at Find a Grave

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Joseph Chappell Hutcheson	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 1st congressional district March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1903	Succeeded by Morris Sheppard
Preceded by Samuel W.T. Lanham	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 8th congressional district March 4, 1903 – November 16, 1903	Succeeded by John M. Pinckney