Senator comes to mind , not because this is a barkingly raucous election year but because we have a new member of the family , a three-month-old blue heeler mix we ’ ve been calling Davis , in recognition of the town where we found the gangly , little guy – Fort Davis . We chose the name in part because we have a cat named Bo , short for Bomar Street . Bo was a feral kitten born two winters ago under our bungalow .

We gave a passing thought to naming Bo ’ s bothersome interloper Fort , but Davis seemed just fine – until a friend during a Friday evening Zoom get-together alluded to the delicate matter of bestowing the name of the president of the Confederate States of America on a pet . ( The frontier fort , the town , and the county are all named for Jefferson Davis .) I sensed from the expression on our friend ’ s face that the name Davis was on a par with Adolf or Stalin or maybe John Wilkes Booth . That ’ s not what we had in mind , of course , but we immediately realized we couldn ’ t dismiss the historical reference . Particularly these days .

Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate and slaveholding Mississippi planter who served in both the U . S . House and Senate before President Franklin Pierce named him secretary of war in 1853 . Fort Davis was established on the San Antonio – El Paso Road the next year and named for the secretary . ( Davis , by the way , is the man who championed the use of camels as pack animals in the great southwestern desert , including West Texas .) He was the Confederacy ’ s one and only president from 1861 to 1865 .

Texans had a thing for Davis in the decades following the war . With the collapse of the Confederacy , Davis was hightailing it to Texas before being captured in Georgia . After serving two years in prison , while plans to try him for treason came to naught , prominent Dallasites offered to buy him a house – with a yard as large as he wanted – if he would relocate . He declined .

In 1876 , the newly established Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas offered him the presidency . Writing on behalf of the school , Gov . Richard Coke urged him to come and reside “ among a people who will never cease to love and honor you .” Davis said no , in part because he owned a Memphis life insurance company and the $ 4,000 annual salary the Aggies offered would represent a financial sacrifice . The Texas Legislature established Jeff Davis County in 1887 . The Handbook of Texas quotes an unnamed Texas legislator who exulted , “ Thank God that at last we have a Texas county named in honor of the president of the Confederacy .” Davis died in 1889 , but in Texas and throughout the South the determined campaign to memorialize the Lost Cause had already begun . Rebel soldier statues