Daniel James Moody, Jr. was born on June 1st of 1893 in Taylor Texas. His father, Daniel James Moody Sr., was Taylor’s mayor-justice of the peace- school board chairman. His father was one of the towns first settlers in 1876. His mother, Nannie Elizabeth Robertson, was a local school teacher when she was married to Dan in 1890. His father was highly educated and graduated from the University of Texas Law School. After his father, who had been one of the early mayors of Taylor, lost his fortune when friends to whom he had loaned money went bankrupt, Dan at a young age helped to meet the family bills by clerking in a dry goods store after school and on weekends and by supporting in running a dairy at the family home. Moody Jr. graduated from …show more content…
became a member of the State Bar of Texas in 1914 as he practiced with Harris Milosky in Taylor. His early career was interrupted by the first World War where Moody served in both the Texas National Guard as first a 2nd Lieutenant and the Captain, and the United States Army as a 2nd Lieutenant. Dan Moody Jr. went back to his practice in 1920 and served as Williamson County Attorney for 2 years before becoming District Attorney in 1922. He was the youngest elected to many successive public offices. In 1923, Moody obtained an assault conviction against four members of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) for thrashing a white traveling salesman. At this time, the Klan was at a very powerful stance in Texas with around 150,000 members in the state, the “imperial wizard” included. Texas Klansmen included a U.S. senator and the mayors of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Wichita Falls. 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 1924 to the most anti-Klan state in the country by the end of 1924.” This case was widely reported and gave him political momentum, despite Klan …show more content…
His wife Mildred outlived him by 17 years, dying in 1983 and she is resting next to him. Reopened in 2007, the courtroom of the Williamson County Courthouse where Moody tried his famous case against the KKK was completely restored to its 1920’s appearance. It is free and open to the public in Georgetown, Texas. Daniel Moody Jr. was a very influential southern gentleman who contributed to many important events in history such as the WWI, a KKK case in 1923, and being the youngest Governor in the state of Texas