Charles Miles Lusk: Houston Businessman and Civic Leader (1857–1914)

Charles Miles Lusk, Sr., Houston businessman and civic leader, was born on May 18, 1857, on Clapps Creek near Buffalo, Leon County, Texas. He was the son of Robert Orville Lusk and Mary A. (Haley) Lusk and the grandson of George Vance Lusk. Charles Lusk was the seventh and youngest Lusk child, and by 1880 he worked as a store clerk in Jewett, the Leon County seat, where he married Ella Fitzgerald, a Wisconsin native, in 1881. That same year the couple moved to Laredo, where Lusk owned the C. M. Lusk Saloon on Main Street and sold liquor, wine, and cigars. Their daughter, Eloise, was born in Laredo in 1883.

The Charles Miles Lusk family moved to Houston in 1884 and joined Lusk’s oldest sister, Jennie Mary Lusk, who had married Gustave Forsgard. C. M. Lusk’s aunt, Eloise Lusk Burke, and her husband, Andrew Jackson Burke, were longtime residents and prominent citizens of Houston. The Burkes’ son, Edmond, hired his cousin Charles to manage his E. L. Burke branch store at 55 Congress Avenue, which sold groceries and provisions. Ella and Charles Lusk’s sons, Leon and Charles Michael, were born in Houston.

C. M. Lusk became a passenger and ticket agent for a new train service on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1892, but he soon decided to follow his love of horses, horse racing, and saloon operations. Between 1892 and 1898, he partnered with John P. Moon and D. Edward Williams in their club rooms at 1895 Preston Avenue, and later he partnered with William. J. Perry in his company’s club rooms at 264½ Preston Avenue and 76½ Main Street. Lusk also worked as a merchandise broker in 1897–98. Gambling was a popular activity in Houston at that time, and the city had many saloons that encouraged the practice. City police periodically swept the area and made arrests (such was the case in 1894), but the betting business continued as usual.

Charles Lusk was the final proprietor of the Turf Exchange Saloon & Restaurant at Main Street and Prairie Avenue from 1899 through 1907. The establishment included a saloon, restaurant, and pool hall where Mexican silver dollars were embedded in the floor. Patrons could bet on national horse races via telegraph, because only the Turf Exchange and Western Union, headquartered across Main Street, had access to the national telegraph system. The Turf advertised “direct wire to all races throughout the country.” Turf Exchanges were located in cities across the country. Lusk’s Hotel Main, for men only, occupied the top two floors.   

At the turn of the twentieth century, Lusk owned a string of thirty to forty racehorses with Bassett Blakely, who operated a 15,000-acre ranch west and southwest of Houston. Lusk frequently traveled by train to New Orleans and beyond to watch horses race.

In 1903 Charles Lusk arrived at the Turf Exchange in one of the first Cadillacs sold in Houston by the Gydeson-Manford dealership. Unfortunately for Charles and his racing friends, that same year, in 1903, Texas outlawed gambling and betting, including pari-mutuel betting (a type of betting in which all wagers go into a pool that is shared equally among the winners).

In February 1906 several saloon owners, including Lusk, were arrested, fined, and released for exhibiting gaming and selling pools on horse races. When his trial came up on March 8, 1906, all cases were dismissed due to lack of witnesses. On February 22, 1907, the Houston Chronicle praised the Turf’s various amenities, including its “splendid restaurant” and fine wines and cigars, and boasted the business as a hub for sporting competitions: “It is also headquarters for all sporting news, prizefights, etc. descriptions being received direct from the ringside over their private wires. The Turf has been established for eight years, and is one of the largest and finest places in the Southwest….Mr. C. M. Lusk, the proprietor, is a genial gentleman, and always makes his patrons at home.”

Lusk ended his relationship with the Turf Exchange when it closed on June 20, 1907.   That year the Turf Exchange in Galveston fought in court against forced closure and argued that placing bets on “chalk ponies”—horse races in states where betting was legal—was not in violation of the anti-gambling law of Texas. New York, Louisiana, Illinois, California, and Kentucky allowed betting.

In 1907 Lusk served as secretary of the Houston Fair and Racing Association. The following year Lusk and a horse named Charlie Lusk were headlined as winners in the fourth race of the Houston spring meeting.

Lusk acquired land around Harris County. In 1908–09 he also formed Southwestern Commission Co., a partnership with John Madigan, a Houstonian who had been born in Canada. Lusk was already acquainted with Madigan, who had worked as a commission broker in the Turf Exchange. Madigan was considered an authority on all matters connected with turf racing. From 1908 through 1914 Lusk worked as an investment broker, investment banker, and notary with an office in the Gibbs Building in Houston. He owned residential rental properties. In 1913 Lusk and Madigan led an effort to bring horse racing back to Texas, as there was much concern about the decline in the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds. They proposed replacing the old bookmaking system of betting, which sometimes led to dishonest outcomes, with a system using pari-mutuel machines to place bets, thus yielding more honest results. Such a system was already in use in parts of Europe and the United States. Lusk and Madigan felt that betting might lend some excitement and, as a result, increase interest in the game.

Charles Miles Lusk was active in the civic affairs of Houston. He joined the Redfish Boating, Fishing and Hunting Club in 1894. In 1900 he was the first president of the (extant) Houston Eagle Aerie No. 63 of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles After growing the Aerie’s membership to 280, Lusk was appointed district deputy grand president in 1901. The Eagles presented him with a personalized, colored-enameled, gold-medal as appreciation for his devotion to the order. He also was a member of the Red Men’s Social Club and Library, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Sharks. Politically, Lusk was a staunch Democrat. In 1913 he joined with other leading citizens and made a speech promoting the re-election of Mayor Baldwin Rice.

The Lusks were members of Annunciation Catholic Church. In 1890 they were the highest bidders at a sheriff’s sale for two lots on Preston Avenue for which they paid $3,500; after adding a third lot, in 1895 they moved to their home at 1801 Preston Avenue. They spent their summers Clear Lake near Seabrook, where Lusk purchased 373-acres and created a compound named “Lakewood”—comprised of a home, pier, boathouse, garage, and caretaker’s unit—in 1907.

In October 1914, Charles Miles Lusk, age fifty-eight, jumped over a fence at Lakewood in order to put out a fire started by a vagrant. His foot landed on the tines of a potato fork. Tetanus ensued, and he died in his Houston home on October 25, 1914. His wife and their three children survived him. Lusk was buried in Houston’s Holy Cross Cemetery.