Philip Cuney

Philip Minor Cuney Sr. (March 15, 1807 - January 8, 1866) was a soldier, plantation owner and politician in Texas.[1][2] He served in the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in 1843, and then in the Texas State Senate from 1846.[3] His surname was originally spelled Cuny with the 'e' being added around the time he joined the legislature and his white descendants tended to use the original Cuny while Cuney was used by his black descendants.[3] He owned the large Sunnyside Plantation south-east of Hempstead and owned over 100 slaves.[4] By 1860 he owned 115 slaves making him one of the largest slave owner in Texas.[3] He not only grew cotton like most plantations but also grew sweet potatoes and corn and later moving into dairy with 700 dairy cows.[3]

Cuney was born in Rapides Parish, Louisiana to Richard Edmond and Tabitha (Wells) Cuney, who already had 5 other sons, and was of Swiss descent.[2] He moved to Austin County, Texas about 1837-1840 after the death of his first wife Carolina Scott in 1834.[2][3] He married his second wife Eliza Ware in 1842, with whom he had 3 children.[2] Eliza also added 1200 head of cattle and other wealth to the Sunnyside Plantation.[3] Although initially he had grown to be a wealthy land and slave owner emancipation left him in debt leaving $110,000 still owing at his death.[3] He served as a brigadier general in the Texas state militia as part of the First Brigade of the Fourth Division.[1]

With one of his slaves, a "mulatto" slave named Adeline Stuart, he had eight children who were, by law, also his slaves that he later set free.[3] Texas Republican Party leader and banker Norris Wright Cuney was one of his sons, and Maud Cuney Hare a pianist, writer, and activist was one of his daughters.[2]

While serving in the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas he generally voted in line with limiting the governments power both legislatively and administratively, voting against the ability to appoint judges and other positions in favour of elective positions.[3] He also voted to keep legal slavery but to allow owners to free their own slaves.[3]

He served in the Texas Senate from 1846 to 1849 in the 1st and 2nd Legislatures of the state after being admitted to the union in 1845.[1] He stood on the Military Affairs and on the Claims and Accounts committees as well as serving on other special committees.[3] Just prior to the end of the second term Cuney called for the resignation of the controversial judge John Charles Watrous.[3]

He stood again in 1851 but was unsuccessful, and in the same year he married Adeline Spurlock.[2] In 1853 he moved his family, along with the slaves Adeline Stuart and her children, to Houston where Cuney began to educate and free his slave children.[3] He died January 8, 1866 after a long illness.[3]