Elisha M. Pease

Elisha Marshall Pease (January 3, 1812 – August 26, 1883) was a U.S. politician from the 1830s through the 1870s. He served as the fifth and 13th Governor of Texas .

A native of Enfield, Connecticut, Pease moved to Mexican Texas in 1835. He soon became active in the Texas independence movement, and after the Texas Revolution began, Pease became the secretary of the provisional government and co-wrote the new Texas Constitution. After independence had been won, Pease was named the comptroller of public accounts in the government of the new Republic of Texas.

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 5 November. Pease contested the election, was declared the winner, and was sworn in 4 days later on 9 November.

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. Some would even say that Pease was the "Savior of the Texas economy."

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.^[1]

During the American Civil War, Pease sided with the Union. 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.

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

Notes

References

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. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6989. Retrieved 2009-04-11.