History

The moody residence

The Moody home was built in 1887 by the Robertson family when they moved to Taylor from eastern Tennessee. Mrs. Margaret Robertson, her daughter Nancy (Nannie) and her son Will were the original occupants of the home. Will was an attorney and later moved to Austin where his two brothers were living. Nancy was a school teacher until she married Dan’l Moody in 1890. When he moved in it became the Moody home. The home remained in the Moody family until 1975 when Mary Robertson Moody, older sister of Gov. Dan Moody, donated the house to the City of Taylor to be used as a museum. 

Unverified family history says that Dan’l added on to the house. It is believed that the addition was the kitchen and back hall area which is the only part of the house that is not two-story. When work was done on leveling the kitchen some years ago it was discovered that portion of the house was actually bolted to the main structure. 

The paint colors used on the exterior of the home are as close as modern paints could come to duplicating the original colors. A study by architectural history students from the University of Texas scraped down to the original layer of paint and the colors were chosen based on their findings. The house would have had shutters for every window but over time they have been lost.

The Road to the Governorship

Dan Moody’s passion for justice led him to be the first to successfully prosecute a case against the notorious Ku Klux Klan when he was District Attorney for Travis and Williamson counties. He is credited with having “broken the back” of the Klan in Texas by sending four Klansmen to prison in 1924. According to author Ken Anderson in his book Dan Moody, Crusader for Justice “Moody took Texas from being the number-one Klan state at the beginning of 1923 to the most anti-Klan state in the country by the end of 1923.”

At the time of the Ku Klux Klan trial, Dan Moody was the youngest District Attorney to have served in Travis and Williamson counties. He went on to win election as Texas Attorney General (an original campaign banner hangs in the museum) where he continued to fight for justice.

The year was 1926 when young Dan Moody, then 33 years old, declared his candidacy for governor of Texas on March 6. (Copies of original petitions to have Moody’s name put on the ballot are on display in the museum.) One month later on April 20,1926 he married Mildred Paxton of Abilene.

After formally opening his campaign for governor on May 8 in his hometown of Taylor, he and his bride set out to campaign across Texas. The sign on the back of his car read “Vote for Dan Moody, He is your friend.” In the first 30 days of the campaign he made more than 200 speeches. Wearing his straw boater (now on display in the museum) he set out to beat five opponents including incumbent Governor Miriam “Ma” Ferguson. The campaign attracted nationwide media coverage.

Moody’s campaign slogan “Dan’s the Man” led him to a huge victory with Ferguson coming in a distant second some 126,000 votes behind the popular young politician who had built a reputation as a crusader for justice.

Governor Dan Moody was sworn in on January 18, 1927 and served two terms in office (1927-1931) before retiring from public life and starting a private law practice in Austin. He lived in Austin until his death in 1966 and is buried in the State Cemetery.