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The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

There is some question regarding exactly how Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross ---- governor of Texas, Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and the 4th president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, now called Texas A&M University ---- died.

The cause of Sully's death was listed as pneumonia. Oddly, very few accounts of Ross life mention the events leading to his death. A while back I spent some time researching and reading various articles printed when he died and all of them are vague ... almost suspiciously so.

In 1929 the Houston Chronicle published a story that contradicted the accepted account of Sully's death.
The article was based on an interview with Clint Padgitt, a businessman in Ross's hometown of Waco. Clint Padgitt was Ross's nephew. His mother, Anna Ross Padgitt, was Sul Ross's sister. The article read in part: "probably less than a dozen people in Texas know that Ross died from accidental poisoning, his death usually attributed to pneumonia." The story went on to say that the former governor was hunting with friends in the woods near the A&M campus when his death occurred. The party had brought along two barrels of flour, one of which contained rat poison to kill the rats that infested the area.

A servant who was along to do the cooking for the group presumably used flour from the wrong barrel in preparing an evening's meal. Ross, the first to eat that night, observed that the food tasted odd and warned the others not to take any. He immediately fell ill and died soon after.

Again, the story is uncorroborated, but the Houston Chronicle placed enough credence in it to print it. In my opinion, the poisoning story is more likely true than pneumonia.

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