N. Wright Cuny - Lakeview Cemetery - Galveston, TX - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

In Memory Of N.W. Cuney
The First Grandmaster
Of The First Prince Hall
Masonic Grand Lodge
Of Texas
Organized August 19, 1875
This Monument Dedicated
June 21, 1964
By The Most Worshipful
Prince Hall Grand Lodge
of Texas

To the left of this monument is the headstone of his wife:

Adelina
Beloved Wife of N.W. Cuney
Died October 1, 1895,
Age 39 years.
A loving wife
A devoted mother
A faithful friend

From the Handbook of Texas Online by Merline Pitre

CUNEY, NORRIS WRIGHT (1846–1898)

Norris Wright Cuney, politician, the fourth of eight children born to a white planter, Philip Minor Cuney, and a slave mother, Adeline Stuart, was born on May 12, 1846, near Hempstead, Texas. He attended George B. Vashon's Wylie Street School for blacks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1859 to the beginning of the Civil War. Afterward he wandered on riverboats and worked at odd jobs before he returned to Texas and settled in Galveston. There he met George T. Ruby, president of the Union League. Cuney studied law and by July 18, 1871, was appointed president of the Galveston Union League. He married Adelina Dowdie on July 5, 1871, and to their union were born a son and a daughter, Maud Cuney-Hare.

Cuney was a supporter of Edmund J. Davis, and his career in the 1870s and 1880s was a mixture of success and failure. In 1873 he was appointed secretary of the Republican State Executive Committee. He was defeated in the race for mayor of Galveston in 1875 and for the state House and Senate in 1876 and 1882 respectively. But in appointed offices and as a dispenser of patronage, Cuney was powerful. From his appointment as the first assistant to the sergeant-at-arms of the Twelfth Legislature in 1870, he went on to serve as a delegate to every national Republican convention from 1872 to 1892. In 1873 he presided at the state convention of black leaders at Brenham. He became inspector of customs of the port of Galveston and revenue inspector at Sabine Pass in 1872, special inspector of customs at Galveston in 1882, and finally collector of customs of the port of Galveston in 1889.

In 1883 Cuney was elected alderman on the Galveston City Council from the Twelfth District, a post that left him time to work simultaneously as a leader of the Republican party and a contracting stevedore. In 1886 he became Texas national committeeman of the Republican party, the most important political position given to a black man of the South in the nineteenth century. One historian of the Republican party in Texas characterizes the period between 1884 and 1896 as the "Cuney Era."

In order to lead Texas blacks to increased prosperity, in 1883 Cuney bought $2,500 worth of tools and called together a group of black dockworkers, which he eventually organized into the Screwmen's Benevolent Association. He carried this fledgling organization into open competition. He was also strongly committed to education. He was appointed a school director of Galveston County in 1871 and supported the black state college at Prairie View (now Prairie View A&M University).

Cuney was first grand master of the Prince Hall Masons in Texas from 1875 to 1877. He also belonged to the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows. He died on March 3, 1898, in San Antonio and was buried in Lake View Cemetery, Galveston.

Humanities Texas - Texas Originals

Norris Wright Cuney
May 12, 1846 - March 3, 1898

African American leader Norris Wright Cuney forged a remarkable career in post-Civil War Texas. Born into slavery in 1846, he nonetheless studied law and became a civic and political force in the years following Reconstruction.

Cuney was the child of Adeline Stuart, a slave on a Hempstead plantation, and Stuart's owner, Philip Minor Cuney. At thirteen, Cuney's father freed him and sent him north for education.

Following the Civil War, Cuney returned to Texas, to the bustling port city of Galveston, then Texas's most cosmopolitan city. There, he steadily gained experience and political sway. Over the course of his career, he served as city alderman, collector of customs, and school inspector for Galveston County. In 1886 he was named the Republican Party's national committeeman from Texas.

Cuney used his education, political connections, and wealth to improve the lives of Texas's former slaves. He worked to establish and fund schools and colleges for black Texans and opposed segregation in public schools. He also helped organize and lead the African American Masons. In the 1880s, he helped black laborers loading cotton on the Galveston docks form their own union and fight for equal pay.

Cuney died in 1898, but is still remembered in Galveston, where the city's Wright Cuney Park stands as a monument to this extraordinary civic leader.

Description: The Texas Historical Marker at the Old Galveston County Courthouse tells about Norris Wright Cuney: (1846-1898) Born a slave on the Waller County plantation of his father, Philip Cuney, Norris Wright Cuney was sent to Wyle Street School in Pennsylvania for an early education. At the age of seventeen he moved to St. Louis and found employment on Mississippi River steamboats. Following the Civil War Cuney moved to Galveston, where in 1867 he helped care for victims of the island's yellow fever epidemic. Interested in politics, he became a leader in the local Republican Party, eventually rising to high office in the state and national party organizations. He served as county agent in 1872, and in 1872 was appointed inspector of customs for the District of Texas, a position he held until he was elected Galveston's first black alderman in 1883. As a leader in the Republican Party, Cuney served as chairman of the state convention in 1882 and as a delegate to the national conventions in 1876, 1880, 1884, and 1888. He was appointed Collector of Customs by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889. Norris Wright Cuney was an important political and civic leader in Galveston. A park was dedicated in his memory in 1937. He is buried in Lake View Cemetery. (1989) Date of birth: 05/12/1846 Date of death: 03/03/1898 Area of notoriety: Politics Marker Type: Monument Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: In a cemetery - Daylight suggested. Fee required?: No Web site: Not listed

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