DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — my job is just to do it justice. Now, most men who shape a state arrive with deep roots already in its soil. Elisha Marshall Pease arrived with a suitcase from Connecticut and a whole lot of nerve.
Born January 3, 1812, he made his way to Texas in 1835 — and he didn't ease into things. Within months of arrivin', he joined the Texian forces at the Battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835, the very fight that initiated the Texas War for Independence. Not a bad way to introduce yourself to your new home.
In the early days of the Republic, Pease worked as a government clerk — learning the machinery of a young nation from the inside out. From there he moved into the Legislature, then the Senate. By the time he landed in Brazoria, he was a prominent lawyer, and in 1853 the people of Texas elected him Governor.
Here's where the story gets substantial. During Pease's first two terms in office, from 1853 to 1857, Texas got something it had never had before: a permanent school fund, and the state's first free public schools — built. Not proposed.
Built. He also pushed for increased railroad construction while managing to reduce both taxes and the state debt at the same time. And on the frontier, where Indian raids kept recurring, Governor Pease ordered the Texas Rangers out to meet them.
Then came 1856, and a quieter kind of milestone. The Governor's Mansion had just been constructed, and the Pease family became the very first to occupy it. Elisha, his wife Lucadia Niles — born in 1813, and who, it should be said, would outlive her husband by more than two decades, passing in 1905 — and their three daughters moved in and made history simply by unpacking their bags.
Now. The Civil War. Pease was a staunch Unionist, and in a state that went Confederate, that was not a comfortable thing to be.
He didn't fight it publicly. He restricted his political activities during those years, 1861 to 1865, and waited. In 1866 he ran for Governor again.
Lost that one to J. W. Throckmorton.
But then — and this is the kind of turn that only history can produce — General Philip H. Sheridan, the federal military commander of Texas, removed Throckmorton in 1867 and appointed Pease provisional governor to enforce Reconstruction policies. Pease found himself back in the Mansion he had been the first to occupy, this time under very different circumstances.
He tried to make it work. He couldn't, or wouldn't, in good conscience continue. In 1869, he resigned in protest.
He spent the rest of his life in Austin. At the time of his death on August 26, 1883, Elisha Marshall Pease was a banker — the man who had helped build a school system, tame a frontier, and navigate the wreckage of a war, closing his days counting figures in a quiet office on the same soil where it all began. Seventy-one years.
Connecticut to Texas. Gonzales to the Mansion to a banker's desk. Some stories know exactly how to land.
What the marker says
(January 3, 1812 - August 26, 1883) In 1835 E. M. Pease migrated to Texas from his native Connecticut. He joined the Texian forces at the Battle of Gonzales, Oct. 2, 1835, which initiated the Texas War for Independence. In the early days of the Republic, he worked as a government clerk and later served in the Legislature and Senate. He was a prominent lawyer in Brazoria when elected Governor in 1853. During Gov. Pease's first two terms in office, 1853-57, a permanent school fund was established and Texas' first free public schools built. Other achievements included increased railroad construction and reduction of taxes and the state debt. Gov. Pease ordered Texas Rangers to the frontier to combat recurring Indian raids. The Pease family became the first to occupy the newly constructed Governor's Mansion in 1856. A staunch Unionist, Pease restricted his political activities during the Civil War (1861-65). In 1866 he again ran for Governor but lost to J. W. Throckmorton. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, federal military commander of Texas, removed Throckmorton in 1867 and appointed Pease provisional governor to enforce Reconstruction policies. Pease resigned in protest in 1869. At the time of his death he was an Austin banker. Married to Lucadia Niles (1813-1905), he had three daughters. (1977)