Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease

by Elizabeth Whitlow

Overview

Identified with Texas is the first published biography of Texas Governor Elisha Marshall Pease (1812-1883), presented by historian Elizabeth Whitlow as a dual biography of Pease and his wife, Lucadia Niles Pease (1813-1905). Born in Connecticut in 1812, E. M. Pease came to Texas in 1835, where he became, in his own words, “identified with Texas.” Pease volunteered to fight in the first battle of the Revolution at Gonzales, and he served with the Texan Army at the Siege of Bexar. Afterward, his career in public service began as a clerk at the Convention of 1836, and the first draft of the Republic’s Constitution is in his handwriting. Pease served in the first three state legislatures after Texas joined the Union in 1845, was elected governor in 1853 and re-elected in 1855, and returned to the governorship as an interim appointee from 1867 to 1869 during Reconstruction. His achievements in all these positions were substantial. Pease was also a highly successful and respected lawyer and a large landholder with properties in Travis and many other Texas counties. He owned slaves, but he did not take a strong proslavery position, and when secession came in 1861, he continued to support the Union. He and his family remained in Austin during the Civil War, and when it ended, he did his best to heal wounds and restore Texas to the United States in a second appointment as governor. Lucadia Niles Pease married Marshall Pease in 1850 and came to Texas as a newlywed. She was known as the Governor’s “Lady.” Moreover, her early, independent travel and her stated position as a “woman’s rights woman” in the 1850s, as well as her support for sending a daughter away to college in the 1870s to earn a degree, all serve as markers of her intelligence and the strength of her convictions. To tell their story, Whitlow mined thousands of letters and papers saved by the Pease family and housed in the Austin History Center of the Austin Public Library, as well as in the Governor’s Papers at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. E. M. Pease observed near the end of his life that he had been “one of the people of Texas since the colonial days of Stephen F. Austin.” He and Lucadia left an extraordinary historical record that documents the development of Texas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574418774
Publisher:	University of North Texas Press
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

ELIZABETH WHITLOW holds a BA with a double major in geography and history and a secondary school teaching certificate. She received an MSW from the University of Denver and spent much of her career in social service work. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Table of Contents

Preface v

Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1 The Early Lives of Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease, 1812-1837 1

Chapter 2 Establishing a Law Practice and Serving in the Legislature, 1837-1853 21

Chapter 3 The Travels and Early Married Life of Lucadia Niles Pease, 1837-1853 53

Chapter 4 Governor of Texas, First Term, 1853-1855 81

Photo Gallery

Chapter 5 Governor of Texas, Second Term, First Year, 1855-1856 113

Chapter 6 Governor of Texas, Second Term, Second Year, 1856-1857 147

Chapter 7 The Pease Family in Secessionist Texas, 1857-1865 173

Chapter 8 Return to Leadership in Post-War Texas, 1865-1867 205

Chapter 9 Governing Reconstruction Texas, 1868-1869 233

Chapter 10 Life after Reconstruction, 1869-1905 267

Epilogue 305

Endnotes 309

Bibliography 361

Index 367

Editorial Reviews

Perhaps E. M. Pease’s northern birth and his unionism largely explain why a man who made so many extraordinary contributions to Texas has not received the major biography that he deserves.  Elizabeth Whitlow has filled this gap in Texas historiography with her carefully researched and thoughtfully written dual biography that takes readers into not only the life of E. M. Pease but also into that of his wife Lucadia Niles Pease. Identified with Texas is widely researched, but one source stands out above all—The Pease-Graham-Niles Family Papers at the Austin History Center. Drawing on the hundreds of letters exchanged by family members, Whitlow has accomplished every biographer’s goal—telling not only what the subjects did but also what they were like.  In this dual biography, readers will ‘meet’ E. M. and Lucadia Pease as two very special people.”—Randolph B. Campbell, author of Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State
 
“Identified with Texas is a terrific piece of scholarship—a delightful gem of a work. Its ability to put the reader in the perspective of Pease offers readers a unique and powerful view into this era of Texas that is available nowhere else. And the book goes beyond that by intertwining the life of Lucadia with her husband, which provides much needed depth about both Marshall and the lived experience of the era. This dual biography approach provides a delightful method for weaving the everyday details of their lives into the text, adding depth and nuance throughout.”—Andrew J. Torget, author of the award-winning Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850
 
“By examining the lives of Elisha and Lucadia, scholars will gain valuable insights into Texas’s struggles as a reluctant Republic, annexation and early statehood, secession, the Civil War and
Reconstruction, and the post-Civil War era. The book is well written and weaves the primary sources together in an effective way.”—Kenneth W. Howell, editor of The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas during the Civil War and author of Texas Confederate, Reconstruction Governor: James Webb Throckmorton
 

"The results are impressive, a look at a husband and wife partnership that served Texas well."—Tombstone Epitaph

"A standout piece of Texas historiography, Identified with Texas by Elizabeth Whitlow carefully pieces together the lives of Elisha Marshall Pease and his wife, Lucadia Miles Pease, into a captivating biography of an oft overlooked governor and the woman supporting him. . . . The book contains incredibly detailed accounts of the early years of Texas politics, spanning from early 1830s all the way to the 1900s."—Texas Books in Review

"[T]his volume constitutes a welcome addition to the historical literature dealing with nineteenth-century Texas women. . . . Whitlow’s narrative of the Pease’s impact on Texas history is even-handed, well-written, and comprehensive in detail. The result is a worthwhile examination of both E. M. and Lucadia Niles Pease that is likely to remain the standard work for decades to come."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"Whitlow has made a significant addition to the historiography of nineteenth-century Texas. Identified with Texas is not merely a biographical chronicle of Elisha Pease's governorship; it also places Lucadia Pease's experiences on a near equal footing with those of her husband, which is a welcome change."—Journal of Southern History

"Governor Pease took part in many major events of both Texas and American history including the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction era. Lucadia Pease was  equally important to Texas history as her husband. She was a major advocate for women’s rights."—Panhandle-Plains Historical Review

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