The Bear Fighter
The Bear Fighter As Uncle Hugh used to say, “I always admired Big Jim. Competition keeps a man on his toes.” There will never be another Big Jim Ferguson. Thank God. He was a school dropout, but became a lawyer, banker and governor of Texas. He was probably the best public speaker in Texas politics. He was responsible for founding three colleges and the Austin State School. He financed the most ambitious building program in state history. He instituted state aid for rural schools and the first compulsory school attendance law. He fought the Ku Klux Klan and prohibition (The Klan was the most stringent advocate for voting dry in Texas. They vowed to vote anti-whiskey as long as they could stagger to the polls.), tried to cap sharecropper rents and opposed Women
