Item description for 1856 Texas Governors Elisha M. Pease/Edward Clark Signed Document

1856 Texas Governors Elisha M. Pease/Edward Clark Signed Document. Interesting document because it's signed by the Current Governor at the time Elisha Pease and the Then Secretary of state and later Governor for a short time Edward Clark. 12" x 16" document in 20" x 15" matting. It's loosely mounted to thick framing paper and could easily be removed for re-matting. Expected toning with no major issues, embossed state of Texas seal that may not show in the pics. Clark moved to Texas in 1842 and set up a law practice.[1] He served in the Texas Annexation Convention and two terms as a state representative in the Texas Legislature. During the Mexican–American War he served on the staff of Major General J. Pinckney Henderson and fought in the Battle of Monterrey.[2] When the war ended, he served as secretary of state under Governor Elisha M. Pease and as lieutenant governor serving under Governor Sam Houston.[1] When Sam Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, Clark became governor.[2] Slave quarters of Edward Clark's home in Austin. He enslaved nine people. Among Clark's first actions was to order the surrender of all fire arms and ammunition from private merchants to the state. Furthermore, all privately owned firearms were to be canvassed. Few weapons were ever turned in and most Texans did not comply for fear of future confiscation. After losing the governor's race by 124 votes to Francis Lubbock, Clark became a colonel in the Texas militia during the American Civil War. In 1863 he joined the Confederate States Army and was commissioned colonel of the 14th Texas Infantry Regiment. He commanded the unit, as part of the Greyhound Division, until being wounded in the Battle of Pleasant Hill.[1] A promotion to brigadier general wasn´t confirmed by the Confederate Congress and he left the service; however, in 1865 he was made a brigadier in the militia. He fled briefly to Mexico at the end of the American Civil War, and returned home to Marshall, Texas.[1] Elisha Pease bio Texas Republic 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. 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.[2] 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.