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FIRST IN TEXAS by Bob Arnold chronicles the lives of three men who made significant contributions to more than 150 years of Texas history.
In 1821, Josiah Bell and his wife crossed the Sabine River into Texas as penniless squatters. They settled in Austin Colony on the upper Texas coast where Bell was often left in charge of the colony’s affairs during Stephen Austin’s negotiations with Mexican officials. Bell built a river landing on the Brazos River that became a supply depot for settlements near the river and ultimately a major trading port for goods coming into and out of Texas. In spite of occasional Indian attacks within the colony, a deadly cholera epidemic, and a growing political disenchantment with Mexico, the settlement prospered. Josiah Bell became a respected leader within the colony, a successful entrepreneur and businessman, and the founder of two towns, one of which was briefly the capitol of the Republic of Texas.
Josiah Bell’s third son, James Hall Bell, was educated at Harvard Law School and became the first native-born Texan to serve as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, serving both before and during the Civil War. Judge Bell was an outspoken opponent of secession as well as a staunch defender of citizens’ rights against the undue powers of government. Immediately after the Civil War, he was instrumental in bringing the Republican Party to Texas and was an important Texas politician until his death, often taking political stances that resulted in disfavor with his friends and colleagues.
Red Arnold was raised in the east Texas town of Longview and enlisted in the Marine Corps after his high school graduation. After his stint in the Marines, he became a Texas Highway Patrolman and married the great-granddaughter of Judge James Hall Bell. When World War II began, he reentered the Marines and fought in several Pacific Island battles. At the conclusion of the war, he returned as a wounded veteran to Texas to restart his law enforcement career, ultimately serving nearly twenty-five years as a Texas Ranger. Red Arnold became known as the “law in Northeast Texas,” often involved in deadly encounters with hardened criminals, strikebreakers, and petty criminals as well as with election fraud, robbery, and other crimes.
Author Bob Arnold has woven the lives of these three family members through 150 years of Texas history, beginning with the struggles of early Texas settlements and the brief but successful war for Texas independence. The story continues with the competing interests of slavery and states’ rights that led to a terrible civil war and the difficulties in reestablishing the rightful place of Texas within the United States after the conflict concluded. The history spans the development of Texas law as a frontier justice administered by honest and moral men through the infancy of written Texas law and the enforcement of today’s complex code of criminal law. Josiah and James Bell, and Red Arnold offer lessons of responsibility, commitment, and resolve to those facing today’s difficult social and political issues.
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Bob Arnold graduated from Texas Tech and entered the United States Army as a Signal Corps officer. Following his military service, Bob was employed by Union Carbide Corporation as a polymer chemist and had a thirty-five-year career in various roles within the laboratory, manufacturing, and business organizations of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical. Following his retirement, Bob spent several years of research and writing First in Texas. He and his wife reside in Friendswood, Texas, and have two children and two grandchildren.
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