Harry McLeary Wurzbach (May 19, 1874 – November 6, 1931) was an American attorney and politician. He was the first Republican elected to the United States House of Representatives from Texas since Reconstruction to be elected for more than two terms and was re-elected to the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth congresses, representing Texas's 14th congressional district for several terms, from 1921 to 1929. He was re-elected in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress and died in office. The first Republican elected from Texas who was born in the state, he was the only Republican from Texas serving in Congress during this period.
Early life and education
Wurzbach was born in San Antonio, Texas to Charles Louis Wurzbach and the former Kate Fink, who were ethnic Germans, descendants of immigrants. He attended public schools. He went to Virginia for college, graduating in 1896 from Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington. That same year, he was admitted to the Texas bar and established his practice in San Antonio.
Marriage and family
After starting his law practice, Wurzbach married Frances Darden Wagner of Columbus, Texas, in the Episcopal Church there.
Military service
During the Spanish–American War (1896–1898), Wurzbach volunteered as a private in Company F, First Regiment, Texas Volunteer Infantry. The unit served three months in the army of occupation in Cuba.
Political career
After the war, in 1900 Wurzbach and his wife relocated to Seguin in Guadalupe County, where he continued his law practice.
Guadalupe County had a high proportion of people of ethnic German ancestry, many of whom were immigrants or their descendants from after the revolutions of 1848 in the German states. Historically many, and perhaps most, of the German immigrants who settled in Central Texas before the American Civil War had opposed slavery and quietly favored the Union.
After the Civil War, during the Reconstruction era and well into the mid-20th century, many German-American Texans supported the Republican Party. The party was also supported by African-American voters, but most were disfranchised after 1901, when the legislature imposed a poll tax. With its German-American heritage, Guadalupe County was the third-most reliably Republican county in the state through 1964.
In the late 19th century, the Populist Party attracted many white voters, including in the agrarian South. In 1896, Republican Robert B. Hawley of Galveston, Texas was elected as a Representative from Texas's 10th congressional district of the Greater Houston area; he won again in 1898, serving in total from 1897 to 1901. He won both elections by a plurality, when many white voters split between supporting the Democratic and Populist parties.
The Democratic-dominated legislature worked to prevent losing power again through split tickets or coalitions, as well as to disfranchise blacks, which was the goal of all southern legislatures. It adopted a poll tax in 1901, which resulted in the intended effect of almost eliminating voting by blacks, as well as many Latinos and poor whites. In addition, the state adopted white primaries. The blacks had been loyal Republicans since emancipation and passage of amendments granting citizenship and suffrage. The Democrat-dominated Texas state legislature was following those of other states of the former Confederacy in working to disfranchise blacks; from 1890 to 1910, southern states passed constitutional amendments, new constitutions and laws that achieved this. The Democrats essentially established a one-party state.
Immediately becoming active in local politics after moving to Seguin, Wurzbach was elected as the Guadalupe County prosecuting attorney from 1900 to 1902. Running as a Democrat in 1902, he lost a race for County Judge (the chief administrative officer of a Texas county). But after "seeing the error of my ways," he ran as a Republican and was elected as County Judge from 1904 to 1910. The campaign in 1910 was personally bitter, and he resigned a few days after the election, returning to his law practice.
1916 return to politics
By 1916 Harry Wurzbach had returned to campaigning. He ran on the Republican ticket for United States Congressman from Texas's 15th congressional district, against the popular incumbent, John Nance Garner, who had held the seat since 1902 when the district was created. Wurzbach lost 3 to 1 across the district, failing to carry Guadalupe County. Garner was elected for a total of 14 consecutive terms from this district.