TERRELL, J. O. (1856–1923). J. O. Terrell, legislator, cattleman, and banker, son of Jonathan W. and Amelia (Love) Terrell, was born in Kaufman County, Texas, on April 6, 1856. He attended Trinity University at Tehuacana, studied law in a private office at Kaufman, and was admitted to the bar in 1877. He was elected to the Texas Senate from the Dallas district in 1884, served in the Nineteenth and Twentieth legislatures, and was chairman of the Senate judicial committee. In 1895 he moved to San Antonio, where he became a banker. His interest in cattle breeding led him to establish a Jersey farm near San Antonio, for which he imported cattle to improve Texas livestock. In 1910 he received the unanimous Republican nomination for governor of Texas. He married Mattie Simpson in December 1877; they were parents of six children. He died in San Antonio on June 28, 1923.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lewis E. Daniell, Texas-The Country and Its Men (Austin?, 1924?). Who Was Who in America, Vol. 2.
