Historical Documents

The Historical Document Room was opened to the public on October 24, 2006. The room is available for viewing historical documents from 1837—1925. These court records are not just paper, they are valuable sources of Texas' and Houston’s history. Some of the most badly deteriorated records have been restored and preserved by the Harris County District Clerk's Office. Those efforts have been honored with a 2004 Good Brick Award from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance.

What Can I do to Help Save Harris County’s History?

The Harris County District Clerk’s Office has teamed with the Houston Bar Foundation to raise the funds needed to continue restoring and preserving Harris County’s past. The Houston Bar Foundation is accepting tax-deductible donations to preserve records. We do not suggest an amount for your donation as any amount is greatly helpful and appreciated.

Checks can be made payable to: Houston Bar Foundation Records Preservation and mailed to P.O. Box 3552, Houston, TX 77253. For a contribution form to include with your check, please click here.

In addition to preserving case files, bound volumes such as criminal case indexes, minute books, fee docket books and accounting books from as early as the Republic of Texas days are being saved. Costs for preserving these invaluable historical documents range from $10 for a file to as much as $2,500 for a civil index book. Donors who contribute an amount necessary to preserve one entire book may, if they wish, be recognized on the spine or outside cover of the book. Standard wording for such recognition will be, “In memory of _________,” “Graciously donated by ________,” etc. Other wording desired by the donor will be taken into consideration.

The process for preservation requires experts trained in handling historical documents, as the documents must be handled with extreme care. They are unfolded, pacified, then encapsulated in special Mylar plastic sheets to protect them from further damage caused by exposure to air and moisture. The process being used will preserve these records for up to 300 years and prevent further deterioration of our historical records.

Services Available in the Historical Document Room

• Public viewing of original documents
• Requested copies for $1.00 per page

Historical Case Of The Month

The Honorable Judge Mark Davidson has been instrumental in the development of the Harris County District Court Historical Document Project. An avid legal history buff, Judge Davidson continues to write and serve as a special advisor to the ongoing Case Of the Month articles. Click for an archive of previous Case Of The Month articles

The Case of the Midnight Train to PalestineCause No. 72,699 - Cox v. The Pullman Company Most people have experienced riding on an airplane that was full to capacity. The spaces we ride in are minimal in both leg room and in seat width. Invariably, the full flights have several screaming infants that make the cramped quarters even less restful. Getting a good night's sleep, or even a nap, on a long flight can be difficult, at best. Many people, thinking back to their parents' or grandparents' stories about "The Golden Age of Railroading," long for the Pullman cars shown in movies from the era (1). They imagine fully horizontal sleeping quarters and ever-attentive bellmen who cater to every whim. The case of Robert L. Cox v. The Pullman Company teaches us that the good old days might not have been as good as nostalgic memories of the past would have us believe. This CBS News Story chronicles the history of the Pullman car porters The story of the case started on the night of November 15, 1916 when the Plaintiff, Dr. Robert Cox, bought a ticket for his wife Margaret to go to Palestine, Texas on the overnight train from the International & Great Northern Railroad. Dr. Cox must have been a gentleman of means (2), since he independently purchased a ticket from the Pullman Company to allow his wife to sleep in a berth for the supplement of $4.95 (3). Trouble ensued when Mrs. Cox got on the train and discovered that she was the only woman in the sleeper car. According to her petition, the other passengers were "offensive in their conduct." Mrs. Cox called the porter, who arranged, in exchange for an additional $4.50, for her to move to a drawing room at the end of the car, in which she would have private accommodations. Mrs. Cox then retired for the night, apparently undressing and putting on night clothes. Copy of Mrs. Cox' Ticket From Historical Case Record #72699 If you are unable to view the document, try this link All was well, until employees of the Pullman Company entered her locked room and, she alleged, stated "in a rough and boisterous manner" that she would have to pay additional money to sleep in the drawing room the entire night. When she refused, she was ordered to return to the original berth in her night clothes. She alleged she caught a severe cold from that walk (4). The petition alleges that the other passengers remained "disagreeable," especially after they got the impression that she had not paid for the room at the end of the car. The request for damages alleges that T)he "plaintiff's wife was subject to great humiliation, embarrassment and mortification, and was exposed to the cold. As a result thereof she... contracted a severe case of inflammation and neuralgia of the head, face, nose and throat, by reason of which the muscles, nerves and tendons of her said neck, face, nose and throat became swollen and inflamed, and her teeth and jaws infected, thereby causing plaintiff's said wife great pain and suffering... as that it became necessary for her to have two of her teeth thereafter extracted..." Judge William Masterson Abe Wagner Meyer Wagner W.L. Cook Pictures of Wagner, Wagner and Cook are shown with permission and by courtesy of the Houston Bar Association, taken by Tara Shockley The Plaintiff also alleged that because of the injuries suffered on the train, that she was unable to continue to work as a music teacher for a period of forty five days, and that she had been making $25.00 per day from private lessons (5). Even after that period, the petition alleges diminished earnings for another six months in an unspecified amount. The suit was filed on April 25, 1917 with O. M. Duclos, the District Clerk of Harris County, who assigned it to the 55th District Court, presided over by Judge William Masterson. The Plaintiff's lawyers, Abe Wagner and his brother Morris Wagner, sued for the amount of two thousand nine hundred seventy-five dollars (6). It is amusing, and a bit shocking, to realize that the petition is very clear to state that the named plaintiff is Robert Cox, who was bringing the suit for his wife. This was because in 1914, the Texas Legislature had adopted Article 1839 of the Civil Code, authorizing husbands to sue for debts and obligations owed to their wives. Mrs. Cox was eventually joined as a party, but only on the eve of trial. The Defendant's lawyer was the outstanding firm of Andrews, Streetman, Burns and Logue (7). The lead attorney in the case was William L. Cook, who was the third most senior of the eight associates in the firm (8). The firm had a history of representing railroads in the Houston area, and had the reputation of being, along with Baker, Botts, Parker and Garwood, the finest railroad attorneys in Texas. Mr. Cook was in charge of the attorneys representing the railroad clients at the firm, and was known as a mentor to the trial attorneys of his firm. The file contained one set of paper discovery, a deposition on written questions of Ernest Benner, who was the Pullman Car porter on the train to Palestine. Mr. Benner would not be at the trial because he had joined the military and was stationed in Canada. His recollection of the events differed markedly from that of the Plaintiff. He denied that any of the passengers were rowdy or intoxicated, and claimed that two of the passengers in the car were employees of the railroad. He also said he was courteous to Mrs. Cox. As to the claimed cause of illness, he said that the inside of the railcar was heated with steam heat. The case went to trial in the 55th District Court on May 23, 1918. We do not know the names of all the jurors in the case, but we know that one of them was a very prominent Houstonian named Sigmund J. Westheimer. Mr. Westheimer was the founder and owner of Westheimer Transfer and Storage, a business that continues to this day. He was the primary donor responsible for the founding of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He was also a founder of Adath Yeshurun Synagogue (9). By all accounts, he was a leader in the Houston business community. The Defendant's attorney undoubtedly thought that putting a prominent businessman on the jury would mean that he was likely to be the foreman and that he would lead the jury to a verdict favorable to them. As it turned out, they were half-right. Mr. Westheimer was elected the presiding juror, but the jury reached a verdict in favor of the Plaintiff. The jury found that ordering Mrs. Cox to change rooms was negligent, that she contracted neuralgia as a result of the transfer, and awarded her damages in the amount of $2000.00. The Defendant sought a new trial in vain, and appealed unsuccessfully to the First Court of Civil Appeals, located in Galveston (10). The reader should remember the travails of Mrs. Cox the next time you are assigned to the middle seat on a crowded plane. That inconvenience is better than coming down with neuralgia, losing two teeth, and having to run down the aisle of a cold train car in your nightclothes! Several that come to mind are North by Northwest, Some Like it Hot, Silver Streak, and Murder on the Orient Express. Dr. and Mrs. Cox lived at 1117 Jefferson Ave. Today, that is the location of the Cathedral for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. To convert the sums in this article to 2009 Dollars, multiply the number by 19.62. This means Mr. Cox was willing to pay $97.13 in 2009 Dollars so that his wife could get a night's sleep. The Houston Post reported that the low that night in Houston was thirty-seven degrees. If true, it means she was making almost $500.00 per day in 2009 dollars! $58,369.50 in 2009 dollars. Andrews Streetman Burns and Logue is now known as Andrews Kurth. Mr. Cook would become a partner in the autumn of 1918, and remained with the firm until his death in 1932. Other associates in the firm were M. E. Kurth and R. C. Fulbright. Adath Yeshurun merged with Beth El in 1946 to become Beth Yeshurun. Today, it is the largest Conservative Jewish congregation in Houston. Pullman Co. v. Cox et ux; 220 S.W. 599 (Ct Civ. App. - Galveston) 1920.