Archie Parr

Archer "Archie" Parr (December 25, 1860 or 1859

They had a family of five children, including sons Givens Parr, who attended Yale University and served two terms as a county judge, but mostly concentrated on ranching; and George Parr, who followed his father into politics and inherited his party machine. Throughout most of the state, the Democratic Party became dominant, and competitive elections were effectively held only at the primary level.

In 1907, John D. Cleary, the county tax assessor, was killed with buckshot in the back. He had "engineered a Democratic sweep of the county elections of 1906." The Democratic candidate won the election, but Wurzbach contested it at Congress for irregularities. The committee found in his favor, and he was seated in 1930. That year, Wurzbach won re-election to Congress, and died the next year in office.

In 1934, Parr lost in the Democratic primary for reelection to the Texas Senate. An IRS civil suit for unpaid income tax represented him as a tax cheat. He had hoped that launching a road project with a quicker route to Corpus Christi, Texas, would help him win reelection. That road had to cross the King Ranch. His former friend and Democratic political ally, Congressman Richard M. Kleberg, opposed construction of the road across the ranch.

Legacy and honors

Parr's power was recognized in his nickname of "Duke of Duval County". His son, George Parr, followed him into Texas politics and, by his father's death in 1942, already controlled the county political machine that "dominated Duval County until 1975." He was elected to the state senate. Bitter about Kleberg's failure to support his father in 1934, in 1942 George Parr contrived the defeat of Kleberg in the Democratic primary.