The Last Roll: Judge Stephen Chenault

Confederate Veteran
Volume19, Number 9, Page 439
September 1911

Judge Stephen Chenault, a former citizen of Orange for many years and connected with much of the earlier history of the city, died on November l, 1910, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Yancey W. Holmes, in Hale Center, Tex., at an advanced age. Stephen Chenault servrd throughout the entire war with Terry's Texas Rangers, and was in all the battles participated in by that famous organization.

After the war he went to Orange, where he lived most of the time afterwards. As Representative in the State Legislature, as County Attorney, and as County Judge of Orange County, he served the people faithfully and well, and was active always in every movement for the good of city and county. He leaves an only daughter, Mrs. Y. W. Holmes, of Hale Center,. and a sister, Mrs. Ellen O'Brien, widow of the late Capt. George O'Brien, of Beaumont.

Stephen Chenault was born in Gallatin, Tenn., January 6, 1831, and was thus almost eighty years old at the time of his death. His mother was formerly Miss Anne Trigg, and was related to the McGavocks of Franklin, Tenn. His father, Felix Chenault, removed to Texas when Stephen was about six years old, and he spent his boyhood and young manhood in Gonzales County. In 1854 and 1855 he studied law in Tulane University, New Orleans. He resigned the office of Tax Assessor and Collector of Gonzales County to enlist in the Third Texas Regiment at the outbreak of the great war. He remained with Terry's Texas Rangers for all of the four years.

Returning to Texas after the surrender, he was again elected Tax Assessor and Collector, but resigned the office and helpful salary, so much needed by the returned penniless soldier, rather than take the iron clad oath. Later he removed to Orange County and built up a large law practice that extended throughout the East Texas coast district. He was true to his principles when the test came during the carpetbag rule in Texas, and his counsel was always for moderation and patience. He was a member of the seventeenth legislature, and was one of the foremost workers during that notable session for the appropriation which made the University of Texas possible. Like his parents and his French ancestors, he was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and he was always proud of his Huguenot blood. His wife was Miss Jane McKenzie, also of Texas.

A brave man, Judge Chenault was unassuming in his public life and an ideal husband and father. A fellow member of the legislature from Galveston wrote of him: "Amiable, modest, unassuming as a companion, watchful and conservative as a legislator, modest and unobtrusive, a friend whose fidelity was ever unquestioned."

[From sketch sent by W. M. Warren, of Amarillo, Tex.]