Robert B. Hawley

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1849, Hawley attended Catholic parochial schools and the Christian Brothers College there.{{cite web|last1=HOOKER|first1=ANNE W.|title=HAWLEY, ROBERT BRADLEY|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhabd|website=tshaonline.org|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|accessdate=22 March 2018|language=en|date=15 June 2010}} After his father died, Hawley took on the duties of caring for his mother and siblings while still in his teens. He studied law under a Judge Bowman of Louisiana.{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Joseph Lyon|last2=Campbell|first2=Effie Shelton|title=The descendants of Capt. Thomas Carter of "Barford", Lancaster County, Virginia, 1652-1912: with genealogical notes of many of the allied families |url=https://archive.org/details/descendantsofcap00byumill|page=[https://archive.org/details/descendantsofcap00byumill/page/113 113]|quote=robert bradley hawley.|publisher=J. L. Miller|accessdate=22 March 2018 |language=en|date=1912}}

Hawley moved to Galveston in 1875 at the age of 21. He never practiced law, however, instead becoming a merchant, importer, and manufacturer in the bustling port city for the next 20 years. On December 11, 1878, he married Mary Drake Rice with whom he had a daughter. He was elected to serve as president of the Galveston Board of Education from 1889 to 1893.

{{See also|Third Party System|Fourth Party System|Solid South}}

Hawley became active in Republican Party politics in the waning years of the Reconstruction era, a time when Texas was almost completely dominated by the Democratic Party. The Galveston area was a center of an urbanized population, including many German immigrants and African-American freedmen, groups that favored the Republican Party. On September 4, 1890, Hawley was elected as the temporary chairman of the Republican state convention in San Antonio. He served as a delegate to several Republican national conventions.

In 1896, the one-term Democratic Congressman Miles Crowley chose not to run for reelection in Texas's 10th congressional district, which at the time included Galveston County. Hawley ran and was elected to the 55th Congress. A 16-year-old Albert Lasker worked as a reporter on the campaign before moving to Chicago and a career in advertising.{{cite web|title=Albert D. Lasker (1880 - 1952) Collection, 1884 - 2010, MS172, Box 1 - 16|url=http://www.library.northwestern.edu/documents/libraries-collections/special-collections/Lasker-Collection-Finding-Aid.pdf|publisher=Northwestern University|accessdate=23 March 2018|location=McCormick Library of Special Collections, Evanston, Illinois}} Hawley successfully ran for reelection in 1898 for the 56th Congress.

In each election, Hawley triumphed with less than 50% of the vote, due to much of the white vote being split between the Democrats and the new Populist Party. During his four years in Congress, he was the only Republican elected from Texas.

In office when Galveston was destroyed by the powerful 1900 hurricane, Hawley decided not to seek reelection. Hawley also realized the likely effects of the poll tax passed by the Texas Legislature in 1901, which sharply reduced voting by minorities and poor whites. Total voter participation dropped markedly in the state in the early 1900s, essentially ending Republican and Populist competition and leaving elections to be dominated by white Democrats.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/791091 "Nixon v. Condon. Disfranchisement of the Negro in Texas"], The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 41, No. 8, June 1932, p. 1212, accessed 21 March 2008[http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/html/vce/0503.html//archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080402060131/http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/html/vce/0503.html "Historical Barriers to Voting"], in Texas Politics, University of Texas, accessed 4 November 2012 From 1890 to 1910, all states of the former Confederacy passed measures to disfranchise blacks and exclude them from the political process.

He was succeeded by the Democrat George Farmer Burgess.

Hawley returned to his business pursuits in Galveston and helped in rebuilding the city. In 1899, taking advantage of the situation in following the Spanish–American War, Hawley acquired 77,000 acres of land in Cuba and established the Cuban American Sugar Company.{{cite book|last1=Pérez Jr.|first1=Louis|title=Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy|date=1990|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0820324838}}[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9907E2D7113CE533A2575AC2A9679D946095D6CF Obituary: "Robert B. Hawley Dead"] New York Times, 29 November 1921, accessed 2 November 2012 He served as its president, adding to his business fortunes following his congressional tenure.

In 1921, he was living at 36 Gramercy Park in New York City with his good friend, artist Arthur G. Learned and Mr. Learned's wife Leila. On the evening of November 27, he was ill with indigestion. Administered a "restorative", he fell asleep around 4 am, but was found dead in his bed four hours later on the morning on November 28, 1921.

Hawley, Texas, in Jones County is named in his honor.

In 1899, Jonathan Pierce, the postmaster of Deming's Bridge, in Matagorda County, Texas, successfully lodged to have the post office and cemetery renamed to Hawley in thanks for the congressman securing Pierce's son an appointment to the United States Naval Academy.[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrh96 "Hawley, Texas (Matagorda County)"], Handbook of Texas Online, accessed 6 November 2012 It has since become a ghost town.{{cite web|title=Deming's Bridge, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGulfCoastTowns/Demings-Bridge-Texas.htm|website=www.texasescapes.com|accessdate=22 March 2018}}

{{Election box begin no change

| title= 1896 U.S. House Texas Congressional District 10 Election.}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Republican Party (US)

|candidate = Robert B. Hawley

|votes = 17,936

|percentage = 45.8

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (US)

|candidate = J.H. Shelburne

|votes = 15,757

|percentage = 40.2

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Populist Party (United States)

|candidate = Noah Allen

|votes = 5,476

|percentage = 14

}}

{{Election box end}}

{{Election box begin no change

| title= 1898 U.S. House Texas Congressional District 10 Election.}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Republican Party (US)

|candidate = Robert B. Hawley

|votes = 17,757

|percentage = 48

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (US)

|candidate = W.S. Robson

|votes = 16,462

|percentage = 44.5

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Populist Party (United States)

|candidate = J.W. Baird

|votes = 2,604

|percentage = 7

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Independent (politician)

|candidate = Frank Gary

|votes = 186

|percentage = 0.5

}}

{{Election box end}}

{{reflist}}

{{CongBio|H000378}}

• [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=155645 Election results], Our Campaigns
• [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9907E2D7113CE533A2575AC2A9679D946095D6CF Obituary: "Robert B. Hawley Dead"] New York Times, 29 November 1921
• {{Find a Grave|7775093}}

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{{s-par|us-hs}}

{{US House succession box

| state=Texas

| district=10

| before=Miles Crowley

| years=1897–1901

| after=George Farmer Burgess

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawley, Robert Bradley}}

Category:1849 births

Category:1921 deaths

Category:People from Galveston, Texas

Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas

Category:American sugar industry businesspeople

Category:People from Gramercy Park

Category:Christian Brothers University alumni

Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives