TEER, CLAUDE D. (1881 ~ 1939). Claude Teer was born in 1881 in Monticello Arkansas. At some point he moved to Granger, Williamson County, Texas, where he married Clara Wayman. Wayman was the third child born in Granger. The couple had one daughter, a Mrs. Harry Peterson.
Claude Teer was elected to the State Legislature from Granger in 1919. Teer served in the 36th through 40th Legislatures and served as Secretary to the State Highway Commission from 1927-1928. He was appointed to the State Board of Control by Governor Dan Moody in 1929. He was then reappointed to the Board in 1936 by Governor James V. Allred and served as its chairman to the time of his death.
There is evidence that Teer believed in prison reform as he worked with the Texas Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor, a prison-reform organization that operated during the 1920s, according to the Handbook of Texas Online.
As Chairman of the State Board of Control, Teer oversaw the creation of a hospital for black Texans. According to Texas State Library and Archives Holdings, "The Texas Locating and Building Board of the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium for Negroes was created in 1935 by the 44th Legislature (Senate Bill 467) to find a location for and to oversee the building of a tuberculosis sanatorium for African-Americans. It was composed of the Chairman of the State Board of Control, the State Health Officer, and the Superintendent of the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The Board of Control Chairman, Claude Teer, served as chair of the Locating and Building Board. After hearing proposals from a number of cities and towns, the sanatorium for African-Americans was built in Kerrville. Upon its completion, the sanatorium was turned over to the Board of Control and the Locating and Building Board was abolished."
Teer was also Chairman of the State Board of Control during the Texas Centennial Celebration when the remains of many notable Texans were reinterred in the Texas State Cemetery. The Cemetery was under the State Board of Control at the time.
Teer died while still serving as Chairman on August 28, 1939 and he was buried at the Cemetery a short time later.
Information taken from Texas State Cemetery file materials, holdings from the Texas State Library and Archives and the Handbook of Texas Online. |
Follow Us