Description
1856 Texas Governors Elisha M. Pease/Edward Clark Signed Document. Interesting<br>document because it's signed by the Current Governor at the time Elisha Pease<br>and the Then Secretary of state and later Governor for a short time Edward<br>Clark. 12" x 16" document in 20" x 15" matting. It's loosely mounted to thick<br>framing paper and could easily be removed for re-matting. Expected toning with<br>no major issues, embossed state of Texas seal that may not show in the pics.<br><br>Clark moved to Texas in 1842 and set up a law practice.[1] He served in the<br>Texas Annexation Convention and two terms as a state representative in the Texas<br>Legislature. During the Mexican–American War he served on the staff of Major<br>General J. Pinckney Henderson and fought in the Battle of Monterrey.[2] When the<br>war ended, he served as secretary of state under Governor Elisha M. Pease and as<br>lieutenant governor serving under Governor Sam Houston.[1] When Sam Houston<br>refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, Clark became<br>governor.[2]<br><br>Slave quarters of Edward Clark's home in Austin. He enslaved nine people.<br>Among Clark's first actions was to order the surrender of all fire arms and<br>ammunition from private merchants to the state. Furthermore, all privately owned<br>firearms were to be canvassed. Few weapons were ever turned in and most Texans<br>did not comply for fear of future confiscation.<br><br>After losing the governor's race by 124 votes to Francis Lubbock, Clark became a<br>colonel in the Texas militia during the American Civil War. In 1863 he joined<br>the Confederate States Army and was commissioned colonel of the 14th Texas<br>Infantry Regiment. He commanded the unit, as part of the Greyhound Division,<br>until being wounded in the Battle of Pleasant Hill.[1] A promotion to brigadier<br>general wasn´t confirmed by the Confederate Congress and he left the service;<br>however, in 1865 he was made a brigadier in the militia. He fled briefly to<br>Mexico at the end of the American Civil War, and returned home to Marshall,<br>Texas.[1]<br><br>Elisha Pease bio<br><br>Texas Republic<br>A native of Enfield, Connecticut, Pease moved to Mexican Texas in 1835. He soon<br>became active in the Texas independence movement and after the Texas Revolution<br>began, Pease became the secretary of the provisional government. He served as<br>the assistant secretary at the Convention of 1836 but was not an elected<br>delegate to the Convention. After independence had been won, Pease was named the<br>comptroller of public accounts in the government of the new but temporary<br>Republic of Texas.<br><br>Texas State<br>Following the annexation of Texas to the United States, Pease was elected to the<br>Texas House of Representatives in 1845 and reelected in 1847. In 1849, he ran<br>for the Texas Senate from District 11 (Brazoria and Galveston counties) but lost<br>to John B. Jones who was sworn in on November 5, 1849. Pease contested the<br>election, was declared the winner, and was sworn in four days later on November<br>9, 1849.<br><br>Pease first ran for governor in 1851 but withdrew from the race two weeks before<br>the election. He was elected in each of the next two elections, 1853 and 1855.<br>As governor, he paid off the state debt and established the financial foundation<br>that the state would later use to finance its schools and colleges.<br><br>In 1856, surveyor Jacob de Córdova of the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson<br>Railroad Company named a newly discovered river in West Texas the "Pease River"<br>after the governor.<br><br><br>The E. M. Pease Middle School is located at 201 Hunt Lane across from El Sendero<br>subdivision in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas.<br>Civil War and aftermath<br>During the American Civil War, Pease sided with the Union. He nonetheless<br>enslaved several people; census records show ten enslaved people living and<br>laboring at Pease's Austin plantation in 1860.[2] After the war, he became a<br>leader in the state Republican Party and was appointed as the civilian governor<br>of Texas in 1867 by General Philip H. Sheridan, who was the military head of the<br>Reconstruction government. Pease's policies as governor alienated both<br>ex-Unionists and ex-Confederates and he resigned in 1869.<br><br>Elisha and his wife donated land to the City of Austin that would eventually<br>become Pease Park.<br><br>Pease died of apoplexy in Lampasas, Texas. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in<br>Austin, Texas.
