Storey, Leonidas Jefferson (1834–1909)

Leonidas Jefferson Storey, legislator and lieutenant governor, son of John Thompson and Lucy (McAlester) Storey, was born on October 6, 1834, in Chattooga County, Georgia. In 1845 the family moved to Gonzales, Texas, and two years later to Lockhart. Storey attended Austin College one term, read law, and began practicing in Lockhart in 1858. In 1859 he married Lucinda J. Ellison; they had ten children. During the Civil War Storey rose from second lieutenant to captain in Company B, Twenty-sixth Texas Cavalry, Xavier B. DeBray's brigade. From 1873 to 1875 he represented Caldwell County in the Texas legislature and from 1876 to 1880 was a state senator from the Thirty-first District. He became lieutenant governor in 1880. In 1892 Governor James Stephen Hogg appointed Storey to the Railroad Commission. He continued in the position after it became elective, and on January 20, 1903, he was elected chairman, a post he held until his death on March 28, 1909.