Elisha M. Pease

Elisha M. Pease
5th & 13th Governor of Texas
In office August 8, 1867 – September 30, 1869
Appointed by	Philip Sheridan
Lieutenant	Vacant
Preceded by	James W. Throckmorton
Succeeded by	Edmund J. Davis
In office December 21, 1853 – December 21, 1857
Lieutenant	David Catchings Dickson (1853–1855) Hardin Richard Runnels (1855–1857)
Preceded by	James W. Henderson
Succeeded by	Hardin Richard Runnels
Member of the Texas Senate from the 11th district
In office November 9, 1849 – November 3, 1851
Preceded by	John B. Jones
Succeeded by	Adolphus Sterne
Member of the Texas House of Representatives from the Brazoria district
In office February 16, 1846 – November 5, 1849
Preceded by	District established
Succeeded by	District abolished
Personal details
Born	(1812-01-03)January 3, 1812 Enfield, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	August 26, 1883(1883-08-26) (aged 71) Lampasas, Texas, U.S.
Resting place	Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Texas, U.S.
Political party	Unionist Republican
Profession	Politician

Elisha Marshall Pease (January 3, 1812 – August 26, 1883) was a Texas politician. He served as the fifth and 13th governor of Texas.

Early life

Elisha Marshall Pease was born in January 3, 1812 to Lorrain Thompson Pease and Sarah Marshall Pease. The native of Enfield, Connecticutt attended Westfield Academy in Massachusetts.

Career

Among Pease's first jobs was a position as a clerk in Hartford, Connecticut. By early 1835, he moved the Mexican Texas, settling in the local district of Mina while studying law.

Texas Republic

Pease soon became active in the Texas independence movement and after the Texas Revolution began, Pease became the secretary of the provisional government. He served as the assistant secretary at the Convention of 1836 but was not an elected delegate to the Convention. After independence had been won, Pease was named the comptroller of public accounts in the government of the new but temporary Republic of Texas.

Texas State

Following the annexation of Texas to the United States, Pease was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1845 and reelected in 1847. In 1849, he ran for the Texas Senate from District 11 (Brazoria and Galveston counties) but lost to John B. Jones who was sworn in on November 5, 1849. Pease contested the election, was declared the winner, and was sworn in four days later on November 9, 1849.

Pease first ran for governor in 1851 but withdrew from the race two weeks before the election. He was elected in each of the next two elections, 1853 and 1855. As governor, he paid off the state debt and established the financial foundation that the state would later use to finance its schools and colleges.

In 1856, surveyor Jacob de Córdova of the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad Company named a newly discovered river in West Texas the "Pease River" after the governor.

The E. M. Pease Middle School is located at 201 Hunt Lane across from El Sendero subdivision in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas.

Civil War and aftermath

During the American Civil War, Pease sided with the Union. He nonetheless enslaved several people; census records show ten enslaved people living and laboring at Pease's Austin plantation in 1860. After the war, he became a leader in the state Republican Party and was appointed as the civilian governor of Texas in 1867 by General Philip H. Sheridan, who was the military head of the Reconstruction government. Pease's policies as governor alienated both ex-Unionists and ex-Confederates and he resigned in 1869.

Elisha and his wife donated land to the City of Austin that would eventually become Pease Park.

Pease died of apoplexy in Lampasas, Texas. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas.

Personal life

Pease married Lucadia Christiana Niles in 1850. They had two daughters who reached maturity.

References

• Griffin, Roger, "He was made of turkey." (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1973).
• Hafertepe, Kenneth (1992). Abner Cook: Master Builder on the Texas Frontier. Austin: Texas State Historical Press. ISBN 0-87611-102-9.

External links

• Entry for Elisha M. Pease from the Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas published 1880, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
• "Elisha M. Pease". Find a Grave. Retrieved April 11, 2009.