Horatio Chriesman

Chriesman was born on August 13, 1797, in Virginia.[1]

He served as a surveyor in Kentucky and Missouri.[1] In 1821, shortly after his wife died, he left Missouri for Texas with his father-in-law, William Kincheloe (1779–1835), aboard the schooner Only Son.[1] They arrived on the Colorado River on June 19, 1822.[1]

Chriesman became a member of the Old Three Hundred after Stephen F. Austin succeeded his father, Moses Austin, as empresario. Becoming the first to plot the headright Spanish grants on February 10, 1823,[2] he continued until Stephen F. Austin's death in 1836.[1][3]

He surveyed the Jack League, in what is now Fayette County, which was purchased in 1843 by the German immigration company Adelsverein as a slave plantation. It was named Nassau Plantation after the Duke of Nassau.[4][5]

Chriesman fought against Native Americans as captain of the colonial militia in 1824.[1] A few years later, in 1826–1827, he served in the Fredonian Rebellion, European settlers' first attempt to secede from Mexico.[1]

He was elected as mayor of San Felipe, Texas in 1832.[1] Later that year, he was an attendee of the Convention of 1832.[1]

In 1835, Chriesman lost the election as regidor of Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas.[1] A year later, he attended the Convention of 1836 in Washington-on-the-Brazos.[1]

In 1836, as he was moving East towards the Trinity River, he heard about the Battle of San Jacinto and decided to serve in the Texas Revolution.[1] As a result, he enlisted as captain in the 2nd company of the 141st Infantry Regiment.[1]

Serving on a committee to help choose the new Republic of Texas seat of government in 1837, Chriesman proposed a site near Washington-on-the-Brazos at what is now Gay Hill in Washington County. He was willing to donate four Labors of land (approximately 700 acres) for the capital of the Republic of Texas.[1][6] Austin was eventually chosen as the seat of government.[7]

In 1840, Chriesman was one of nine trustees who incorporated the Republic's first private institution of learning, the Union Academy in Washington-on-the-Brazos.[8]

He retired in Burleson County, Texas.[1]

Chriesman married Mary Kincheloe in 1818.[1] She died in New Madrid, Missouri, in 1821.[1] In 1825, he married Augusta Hope.[9] He had eleven children.[1]

Chriesman died on November 1, 1878 in Burleson County, Texas.[1]

• The town of Chriesman, Texas, in Burleson County is named in his honor.[1][10]
• The ghost town of Gay Hill in Washington County, Texas, was known as "Chriesman Settlement" until it was renamed by the Republic of Texas in 1840.[11]