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Portrait of Elisha Marshall Pease. Cabinet card format. Elisha Marshall Pease (1812-1883) was born in Enfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, to Lorrain T. Pease and Sarah (Marshall) Pease. He was called "Marshall" by his family and is not known to have signed himself as anything but "E. M. Pease" and "Marshall"--never "Elisha." He studied at Westfield Academy (Mass.) until age fourteen or fifteen, after which he worked as a store clerk and then for the Hartford Post Office. He left Connecticut in 1834 and, after exploring the Midwest and making a trip to New Orleans, came to Texas in 1835. There he came to acquire financial security that he could not gain in New England. Pease settled in the Municipality of Mina (later renamed Bastrop) where he became involved in the early stages of the Texas Revolution. He fought in the first battle at Gonzales, and then he began service to the interim government and, later, that of the Republic of Texas. He wrote part of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas and served in several positions in the interim government. He settled in Brazoria at the invitation of John Austin Wharton, where he joined Wharton's law firm, and he was admitted to the Texas bar in 1837. He served in the first three terms of the Texas legislature after annexation. Pease ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1851, but he won two years later, and he and his family moved to Austin. He was governor for two terms (1853-1857), during which time his administration settled the debt remaining from the Texas Revolution, putting the state on a sound financial foundation for the first time. He persuaded the Legislature to establish a Permanent School Fund of two million dollars, but as much as he wanted public schools, they were not generally operational until after the Civil War. He encouraged railroad construction in the state and led the building campaign that resulted in construction of the Governor's Mansion, the General Land Office, and a new Capitol. He also led the establishment of state schools for the deaf and the blind, as well as the state "lunatic asylum." In 1859, Pease bought the home that James B. Shaw had built west of the City of Austin in 1854. With its surrounding farm and untouched acres, it became known as Woodlawn. The house was the prototype of the Governor's Mansion--both were built by Austin's "master builder," Abner H. Cook. Four generations of the Pease family lived there. Before, during, and after the Civil War, Pease was loyal to the Union, although he was an enslaver. He and his family remained in Austin during the War, lest they lose all their property, and he farmed with enslaved people at Woodlawn. Because he refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy, he could not practice law during the War. During Reconstruction, he unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1866. The following year, he was appointed provisional governor by the U. S. Army command in charge of Texas. In 1869, he resigned over political differences. He continued to be involved in Texas politics and, in 1879, he was appointed United States Customs Collector, where he served two years. He co-founded a bank in Austin and was involved in civic improvements. Pease died suddenly in Lampasas and was buried in the family plot of the Austin City Cemetery, now Oakwood Cemetery.

View from bank of flooded river. Stamped on verso: "Made By Geo H. Berner, with H. R. Marks, Photographer, Austin, Texas."

House damaged by flood.

Southeast view of the Austin Dam on the Colorado River after breaking during a flood. The dam was built in 1890 in an attempt to bring industry to the city, but failed after upriver storms sent a flood cracking the dam and killing eight people.

Broken dam and flooded river. On verso: "Made by Geo H. Berner with H. R. Marks, Photographer, Austin, Texas."

Formal studio portrait from the waist up of Julia Webber Wooldridge. She wears a dark dress with a decorative lacy collar.

Head-and-shoulders portrait of William "Buck" Walton. Cabinet card format.