Thomas Jewett Goree

b. 14 November 1835, d. 5 March 1905

Thomas Jewett Goree, 1835-1905
  • Thomas Jewett Goree was born on 14 November 1835 in Marion, Perry County, Alabama.
  • Langston James Goree and Sarah Williams Kittrell appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1840 in Perry County, Alabama. Other (counted but unnamed) members of the household apparently included Thomas Jewett Goree, Samuel Escridge Goree, Mary Frances Goree, Anna Goree and Robert Daniel Goree. Also in the household was a second female aged 30-39, whose identity is unknown, and may have been in the household in 1830.
  • He attended Howard College in Marion, Alabama, and after the family moved to Texas received a BA degree in 1856 at Baylor University in Independence (chartered as a Baptist univeristy by the Republic of Texas in 1845). He graduated from law school in Independence in 1858, was admitted to the bar and entered the firm of Robers, Willie and Goree. T. J. Goree was assigned to supervise the Montgomery County office of the firm, while Rogers and Willie kept offices in Houston.
  • Thomas Jewett Goree appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Montgomery PO, Montgomery County, Texas, living in the household of Pennsylvania-born teacher J. Goble. He is also enumerated with his mother and siblings in Polk County.
  • He was a lawyer in Montgomery County, according to the 1860 census.
  • Sarah Williams Kittrell appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Dayton PO, Polk County, Texas. Other members of the household included Thomas Jewett Goree, Robert Daniel Goree, Langston James Goree Jr., Edwin King Goree, Pleasant Kittrell Goree and Susan Margaret Goree. Thomas Jewett Goree also was enumerated as a lawyer in Montgomery County.
  • Thomas J. Goree attached himself as a volunteer aide to General Longstreet at First Manassas, and on 14 January 1862 was appointed an aide de camp with rank of 1st lieutenant, CSA, reporting to General James Longstreet, and served with Longstreet throughout the war. His name appeared as a signature to a parole of prisoners of war, done at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 9 April 1865.
  • On 26 June 1865, in Campbell Courthouse, Virginia, Thomas Jewett Goree wrote in his travel diary: "At the time of Genl. Lee's surrender I was quite unwell and so could not start for Texas with Pleasant and others who were going home. I thought that by the time I was well enough to travel it would be difficult to find company going south and to travel alone in the unsettled state of the country would be too dangerous. So decided to send my horse on the Texas and go to Lynchburg and remain a while and then try to get home via N. York, N. Orleans, Galveston &c. I was encouraged to this, too, by Genl. Longstreet who had decided to go to Texas and proposed this route for himself. The only difficulty in my way was the want of funds, but I thought by some means to overcome this. Col. Powellhis wife.
  • He married Eliza Thomas Nolley, daughter of Edward Dramgoole Nolley and Mary Frances Nicholas, on 25 June 1868 in Walker County, Texas.
  • Thomas Jewett Goree and Eliza Thomas Nolley appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1870 in Midway, Madison County, Texas. Other members of the household included Edward F. Goree, Lillian Otey, Edwin King Goree and Pleasant Kittrell Goree.
  • He was a merchant, according to the 1870 census.
  • In 1873 Leonard Anderson Abercrombie entered into a law partnership in Huntsville with Thomas Jewett Goree.
  • The following appeared on 3 July 1875 in The Galveston Daily News: (Huntsville, July 2, 1875) The surviving members of the Hood Brigade present at the reunion met in the Cough House at 8 A. M.
         . . . Fifth Texas -- P. J. Goree, H. G. Hame, J. W. Neighbors, L. J. Goree, Jim A. Dickie, T. A. Birdwell, T. A. Bowden, A. C. Woodall, W. G. Smith, W. R. Rome, W. J. Smither, J. G. Burden, Robert Burns, W. W. Alston, Calhoun Kearse, J. H. Parker, M. A. Lamplain A. S. Martin, E. M. Berry, James B. Assek Goree, W. P. Wilson, W. G. Coleman, Berry Hicks, W. I. Sandel, R. A. Brantley, L. A. Cox, A. M. Pinson, F. M. Polland, W. J. Towns, A. J. Decapie, W. B. Campbell, L. Gillam, R. a. Park, F. A. Charles, E. J. Adickes, Walter Keenan, C. T. Hull, R. S. Neblett, Jeff C. Hayson, Wm. T. Hill and A. T. Hill, Gen. J. B. Robertson and Capt. Thos. J. Goree, of Longstreet's staff.
         . . .
         Judge Benton Randolph welcomed them to the hospitalities of Huntsville in a short speech.
         . . .
         Norman Kittrell, Esq., of Galveston, replied on behalf of the Lone Star Rifles and did himself and his comrades credit.
         General Robertson closed the speech-making, when the soldiers and ladies were invited to dinner.
         The people of this vicinity had a profusion of everything good, prepared invitingly, and the guests did it ample justice. It was a good, old-fashioned out-of-doors barbecue and dinner.
         The veterans will meet nowhere in the State with a heartiereception than this of to-day.
  • During his tenure as superintendent of the State Penitentiary in Huntsville from 1878 to 1891, Thomas Goree Thomas Goree established weekly worship services, initiated night classes that offered the rudiments of a basic education, and set up a library of several thousand volumes.
  • Thomas Jewett Goree and Eliza Thomas Nolley appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Walker County, Texas, and widow Mollie Rives [Reeves?], age 24, unidentified.. Other members of the household included Sue Hayes Goree, Hubert T. Goree, Robert Edwin Goree, Lillian Otey and George Nolley Otey.
  • He was superintendent of the State Penitentiary, according to the 1880 census.
  • The following appeared on 28 August 1884 in The Galveston Daily News: Twelve o'clock yesterday was the time set for the hearing of the case against Governor Ireland, who was charged with depriving Emile Francois of his liberty. Inasmuch as United States Marshal Tracy did not arrest the governor, the case, of course, was not called. A News Reporter asked Colonel Tracy what he had to say about the case. He said The News report was fairly correct. The reporter, he said, had put some embellishments on to what actually occurred, but the governor knew what was said, and he did not mind the reporter's play of imagination.
         . . .
         Deputy Marshal Tim Finn returned yesterday from Huntsville, where he served warrants of arrest upon Colonel T. J. Goree, superintendent of the penitentiary, Captain Ben E. McCulloch, assistant superintendent, Captain P. F. West, under keeper, Jeff Kelly, day sergeant, Colonel Jim Smithers, superintendent State farm, and W. B. Campbell, gate-keeper.
         Major H. Brahan, financial agent, Fred Brooks and W. A. Robertson were brought along as witnesses. These gentlemen, all officers of the penitentiary, are brought down here to answer to the charge before the commissioner of depriving Emile Francois of his liberty and rights as a citizen. The case has been ste by Commissioner Spann for hearing in the state court-house, district judge's room, at 10 o'clock this morning. The government will be represented by United States District Attorney Stratton, and the defendants by Messrs. Wheeler & Rhodes.
  • Thomas Jewett Goree and Eliza Thomas Nolley appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Galveston, Texas, at 7404 Avenue "I" Robert A. Rogers, a boarder.
  • He was assistant manager, Texas Land & Loan Company, according to the 900 census.
  • Thomas Jewett Goree died on 5 March 1905 at age 69 in Galveston, Texas.
  • He was interred at Oakwood Cemetery, Huntsville, Walker County, Texas.
  • The following appeared on 6 March 1905 in the Galveston Daily News: Maj. Thomas J. Goree died at 2:10 o'clock yesterday morning and the remains were shipped on the 2 p.m. International & Great Norther train to Huntsville, where the funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon. The following from the friends of the deceased acted as pallbearers: Messers. J. P. Alvey, R. Waverley Smith, D. B. Henderson, John Sealy, Fred Pabst, E. R. Cheesborough, Manco Stewart, W. A. R Rogers, Walter Hunscom, H. M. Knight and Lewis Fisher. Many of the friends of the family followed the remains to the depot. Maj. Goree was about 70 years of age and is survived by a widow and two children, Mrs. Dr. Thompson of Huntsville and Mr. Robert Goree of Waco, Tex., and also by a large number of relatives throughout Texas. The deceased was on Longstreet's staff throughout the war between the States, and remained at his post of duty until the end of the struggle and was the very last man to leave that command after the surrender at Appamattox, and in all those long years there were no two men who were bound together with closer ties of friendship than were those old soldiers -- Longstreet and Goree. . . . Maj. Goree was born in Perry County, Alabama, Nov. 14, 1835. His parents came to Texas in 1850 and settled near Huntsville and he was rearedin Walker and contiguous counties. He was educated at Baylor University and entered upon the practice of law, which he continued until the war began in 1861, when he went to Virginia and was at once appointed to a position on the staff of Gen. Longstreet, as stated above. In 1873 he returned to the practice of his profession and continued it until his appointment in 1877 as Superintendent of State Penitentiaries, which position he filled with rare efficiency. A stern adn uncompromising Integrity, combined with grat executive ability and a spirit of humanity admirably fitted him for the position in which he won a reputation as a prison manager co-extensive with the Nation. In 1893 he was appointed assistant manager of the Texas Land and Loan Company of this city, which position he held at the time of his death. He was a man who made and held friends, and his character was so spotless and his integrity so much a proverb that he had the perfect confidence of his fellow men to a degree rarely surpassed. The death of Maj. Goree is a loss to this community and State.
  • For additional biographical information, see The Texas Handbook Online.
  • And for a description of the Steamboat House at Buena Vista, The Texas Handbook Online.
  • Biography: Longstreet's Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree. Edited by Thomas W. Cutrer. Charlottesville & London: University Press of Virginia, 1995.
  • Last Edited: 14 Apr 2016

Family: Eliza Thomas Nolley b. 11 November 1845, d. 1929