Among the founders of Gregg County, Felix Johnson McCord, a young lawyer, became a distinguished public official of county and state, serving as state legislator, district attorney, dirstict judge, assistant attorney general, and justice of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

New and thriving Longview attracted ambitious young men, and in 1872, Felix McCord came to establish his law practice. He had left his home in war ruined Corinth, Miss., at 19, landed from a steamboat at Jefferson with a saddle and $5 and bought a pony to ride to Gilmer, where he was to study law with Congressman David B. Colberson for the next four years while working in a sawmill.

In Gilmer he met John M. Duncan, who was working as a bricklayer to support his law studies. These two future distinguished jurists formed a busy law partnership in Longview.

In 1873, he married Miss Gabriella Fuller, the daughter of a doctor, from Tuscaloosa, Ala., at Coffeeville in Upshur County. B.W. Brown, a revered early Longview minister, officiated. When he brought his bride to Longview, a reception was held at the Whaley house of Mrs. George Tate's grandparents.

The McCords had seven children, Jessie, Hec Fuller, Hallie, Donna, Thomas Campbell, Norma Lee and Claribel. Jessie married H.A. McDougal; Hec married Ella Cobb; Donna married J.J. Johnson; Tom married May Craddock; Norma Lee married Jack C. Lewis; and Claribel married Paul Bramlette.

Surviving are Miss Hallie McCord, Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Bramlette, all of Longview.

Gregg County sent Felix McCord to the Sixteenth Texas Legislature in the late 1870's and Gov. Oran M. Roberts appointed him district attorney for the Seventh District of Texas in 1879.

In 1884, he became judge of the district, then comprised of Gregg, Wood, Upshur, Van Zandt, Henderson and Smith counties. The Court, with officers, lawyers, and retinue, moved from county seat to county seat.

For a number of years, future Governor James S. Hogg was district attorney, and the two, McCord and Hogg, were commended for the honor, fearlessness and efficiency of their court, as was the order and well managed record keeping of Gregg County Clerk of Court, R.B. Levy.

Judge McCord, after a term as assistant attorney general, when he represented the State of Texas before the Supreme Court in the famous Standard Oil anti trust suit, and won, was appointed associate justice of the Court of Criminal Appeals by Gov. T.M. Campbell of Longview. His trenchant opinions are still models.

After he left the bench, he went to the legislature from Gregg County once more, in his seventies, serving in the 35th, 36th and 37th Legislatures until his death in 1922.

These words of Justice McCord's on retiring from the appellate bench are 'relevant' today - or should be: "As a judge, I have tried to decide the law as it is and not what public opinion wanted it to be. To follow public clamor is not the office of the judge. Its favors are fickle. Today we despise what yesterday we praised; today we place a crown of thorns where yesterday a wreath of flowers."