John Nixon Wheat of Liberty, Texas passed away peacefully September 29, 2024. Born December 15, 1952, he is preceded by his mother Dora Arrendale Wheat, father Thomas Allen Wheat, Sr. and brother Thomas Allen Wheat, Jr. Nixon is among a small portion of the population whose family goes back to the early eighteen hundreds in Texas.

Mr. Wheat was the great, great, great grandson of Henry Jones who in 1817 came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin and his colony of “Three Hundred”. Wheat’s great, great Grandfather, William Jones, was born in 1822 in Washington County Texas under a live oak tree, thus becoming the first born in Austin’s Colony.

The Jones’ were granted a league of land eight miles south of present-day Richmond Texas. William Jones married Mary Barnett whose father was the first signatory of the Declaration of Independence from Mexico and the first Alcalde for the area. William and Mary had a daughter, Nancy Jones, who married Steve Wheat and they owned and operated the old Jones estate, which became known as the “Wheat Ranch”. Steve Wheat also purchased many holdings in the fast-growing community of Houston and maintained a home there. He owned much of the land up and down Washington Boulevard and had his stables there. He is buried at Glenwood Cemetery on land he once owned.

There are many other branches in Wheat’s family tree, one going back to Jorge Antonio Nixon who was the land commissioner for Texas under Mexico. “Nixon” has been a family name passed down for generations.

Wheat’s Grandfather Allen Wheat was a Texas Ranger and later Sheriff of Liberty County. He left Richmond and moved to Liberty and married Kalita Smith whose family had come to Texas in 1852. Her Grandparents were sailing from Florida to Texas, when her grandfather Colonel Hugh Farrier, a notorious gambler, won Ironwood Plantation in a poker game. Ironwood is located on the Trinity River. Mrs. Farrier had the good sense to have the land deeded to her upon their arrival in Galveston so that the Colonel could not gamble it away. They settled at Ironwood and it has been in the family ever since.

Over the years, Nixon and his father acquired from other family members nearly the entire old plantation.

Since 1817 Wheat’s forefathers have been noted for their public service. His father, Judge Thomas Wheat, attended West Point and was a well-known trial lawyer throughout the state. In the1940'S he became associated with Lyndon Johnson and was a part of the “Johnson Old Guard.” He helped in Johnson’s short bid for the Presidency in 1960 and then became John Kennedy’s campaign chairman in Southeast Texas. He met with Johnson and Harry Truman and other leading Democrats many times at Johnson’s Ranch strategizing the 1960 campaign. After Kennedy and Johnson’s election, Thomas Wheat was offered a Federal Judgeship in the Eastern District of Texas, but turned it down since it meant he would have to move his family from his beloved Liberty, Texas.

Nixon’s generosity supported many causes in Houston, Liberty, and nationally. He was a strong advocate of Stages Repertory Theater, Princess Grace Foundation, Houston Chamber Choir, Awty School, Legacy Community Health, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, City Hall Preservation Committee, Museum of Natural Science, Houston Grand Opera, the Rainforest Foundation, Theta Charity, Pin Oaks Charity Horse Show, Art Houston, Baker Institute, Virtuosi of Houston, numerous political candidates, and elected officials hosting many of them in his home in Houston. He also served on the Trinity River Authority board of directors.

Nixon Wheat has continued the proud traditions of his family, although he has supported a few Republicans—a once blasphemous act for this family, who nearly always chaired the County Democratic party and was members of the Democratic State Executive Committee. He has expanded the family’s land holdings and mineral holdings. One of Wheat’s great, great Grandfathers, George Ricks, gave many parcels of land for churches in Liberty County. He gave the land for the Trinity Valley Baptist Church, the oldest predominantly African American church in Liberty County. Another of his ancestors gave land and church buildings for St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Liberty, where Mr. Wheat is a member. To continue this legacy Wheat is a strong supporter of St. Stephens Episcopal School, a co-ed boarding school in Austin, from which he graduated. Wheat is very concerned that there be a “private affirmative action” program in this country. He feels that all need to do what we can privately to bring children of ethnically diverse and economically oppressed groups into the mainstream through education of every type.

Although he was a strong supporter of private property rights, he also feels that it is to the advantage of private property owners to protect the environment and keep as much property as we can in its natural state. He served as chairman of the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District, which has jurisdiction over the Trinity River Delta system. This according to wetlands experts is the most pristine unspoiled delta systems left in the world and it is in Metropolitan Houston. To that end Wheat organized the Upper Texas Coast Water-Born Education Center, whose purpose is to teach students from all around Texas about the Texas wetlands and what we must do to save them.

Nixon’s zest for life, his uncanny sense of humor, his generosity, friendship, and unique style will be remembered by all his friends and family as a blessing. The service will be private.