Mayor of El Paso, Texas. He gained recognition as a renowned criminal lawyer who became a Democrat mayor of El Paso, Texas, serving from 1915 to 1917. He served during Pancho Villa's rebellious and, at times, criminal activities in the Mexican Interior and along the United States border. He threatened Villa with arrest if he came to El Paso. In retaliation, Villa offered a standing reward of a thousand pesos in gold to anyone who would deliver on the Mexican side the "gringo mayor dead or alive." Born the eldest of three children of Thomas Calloway and Amanda Rose Lea, a prestigious Missouri family, he earned a LL.B. degree in 1898 from what is now the University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School, before serving in the Spanish-American War. After visiting a cousin in New Mexico in 1901, he relocated to Texas, opening his law practice in 1904 in El Paso, serving on the Texas bar for forty years and soon beginning a political career when he was appointed police-court judge. On February 16, 1915, he became the youngest El Paso mayor ever elected to that date. While mayor during the years of World War I, he had many concerns including guarding the Mexican border while fearing the entry of German spies and draft dodgers fleeing to Mexico. He worked to prevent the smuggling of sugar from Mexico to the United States. Working with Federal authorities from a local standpoint, he had to enforce the Immigration Law of 1917, which required passports to enter the United States. During the Mexican Revolution's poor public health conditions, the spread of deadly typhus across the border into Texas was another one of his concerns after the city's public health officer died with the disease. While mayor of El Paso, he banned the importation of Mexican Cannabis, which is credited as the first United States law controlling the importation of drugs. After being mayor, he served in World War I, but by the time he finished officer training school, the war had ended. He died from the complications of a heart attack. He married twice and had three children with his first wife. His second wife was Mexican-born. His oldest son, Tom, became a well-known artist, author, and El Paso historian.