Thomas Jefferson Holbrook was born about 1879. He attended Professor F. M. Berhns' West Texas Normal and Business College of Cherokee, Texas, and was a graduate of the University of Texas Law School class of 1906. From 1907 to 1919 he was legal advisor and credit manager of Mistrot Brothers in Galveston, and served in the same capacity for Sanger Brothers in Dallas from 1919 to 1921. He was elected state senator from Galveston in 1921, and continued in that office until 1937. He was dean of the Texas Senate for many years, and was voted outstanding orator by the news media. While in the Senate, he introduced legislation calling for flood control of the Colorado River, banking regulation, old age pensions, a Texas State Museum, prevention of water pollution, and regulation of the practice of medicine. He was one of the leading critics of the New Deal in Texas, and introduced resolutions in the Texas legislature and the State Bar Association opposing the attempted revision of the United States Supreme Court by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. After his defeat in the election for the 46th Legislature, he moved to Austin in 1941.
He was a Scottish Rite Mason, and was a charter member of the Scottish Rite Educational Association of Texas and on the Board of Directors of the Scottish Rite Dormitory at the University of Texas. Holbrook's first wife, Davidella Rice Holbrook, died in 1941. At his death on October 21, 1964, he was survived by his second wife, Abigail Curlee Holbrook. Both Thomas Jefferson Holbrook and Davidella Rice Holbrook are buried in the State Cemetery in Austin.
From the guide to the Papers, 1836-1964, (Repository Unknown)
