VINSON, WILLIAM ASHTON
(1874-1951). William Ashton Vinson, attorney, son of John and
Mary Elizabeth (Brice) Vinson, was born on a farm near White Oak,
South Carolina, on December 22, 1874. After the family moved to
a farm near Sherman, Texas, in October 1887, he attended public
school in Sherman for two years and then entered Austin College
Preparatory School. In 1896 he graduated from Austin College with
second honors in his class. He subsequently studied law in the
office of Judge W. W. Wilkins in Sherman, took the bar examination
in open court, and received his license to practice. In 1899 Vinson
became a partner in Wilkins, Vinson, and Batsell, where he remained
until 1909. He married Ethel Clayton Turner of Sherman on December
19, 1900; they had three daughters. On September 19, 1909, he
and his family moved to Houston, where he joined the firm of Lane,
Walters, and Stoney. He remained with this firm until 1915, when
he formed a law partnership with E. W. Townes under the name of
Townes and Vinson. In 1917 after the death of Townes, James A.
Elkins,
qv who was then living in Huntsville, moved to Houston and helped
Vinson form Vinson, Elkins, and Weems, which became the largest
law firm in Houston and one of the largest in the nation. Vinson
was a director and general counsel of the Great Southern Life
Insurance Company. In 1940 he was appointed by the Texas Supreme
Court to serve on a committee to prepare a code of civil procedure
for all the Texas civil courts. He was also a member of the Texas
committee on interpretation of rules of civil procedure. He served
as a member of the library board of the Houston Public Library
qv and was president of the board from 1926 until he retired in April
1951. He was also active in the establishment of the USO centers
in Houston. Vinson died at his home on October 26, 1951, and was
buried in Forest Park Cemetery, Houston.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Marcellus E. Foster and Alfred Jones,
eds., South and Southeast Texas (n.p.: Jas. O. Jones, 1928).
Clarence R. Wharton, ed., Texas under Many Flags (5 vols.,
Chicago: American Historical Society, 1930).
Ann Hornak
