Houston v1

WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1836

4-84

1"Proclamations of the Presidents," Cong1·essional Pa,vers, Texas State Library. 2 Benjamin C. Franklin (April 25, 1805-December 25, 1873) was born in Georgia, and was educated at Franklin College, Athens, Georgia. After being admitted to the bar he began the practice of law as the partner of Charles J. McDonald (ex-Governor of Georgia) at Macon; but, in 1835, he immigrated to Texas and settled at Columbia, Brazoria County. He was active in the first revolutionary conference that met at Columbia, and when the Texas Revolution began he was active in raising the com- pany of which Robert J. Calder was elected captain. This company formed part of Burleson's regiment, and it participated in the Storming of Bexar, December 5-10, 1835. Early in April, 1836, President Burnet gave Frank- lin a commission as captain and detailed him to organize a company of scouts; before he could accomplish this work, however, the Battle of San Jacinto was fought, in which battle he participated as a private. On April 23, 1836, Benjamin C. Franklin was elected judge of the Third Judicial District (Brazoria) by the Texas Congress. This election automatically made him a member of the Texas Supreme Court of which James Collins- worth was Chief Justice. Franklin retired from the bench in ·November, 1839, moved to Galveston, and set up an office for the private practice of his profession. His practice became widespread over the whole of South and East Texas, and concerned itself with the location of lands, and with litigation that grew out of the intricate land system of the country. Although a Southerner in sympathy, he took no active part in the Civil War, because he was too old for military service and too great a sufferer from rheumatism to be capable of strenuous work. He removed from Gal- veston to his farm in Montgomery County, where he remained till 1870. In 1870, seeing some chance to be of use to Texas in throwing off the tyrannical rule of the Reconstruction period, he returned to Galveston and took an active part in the initial efforts made by the State to regain control of the State Government. In the fall of 1873, he was elected by the Galveston district to represent it in the State Senate, but he died before being sworn into office. Franklin was twice married; first to ·Eliza Carter Brantly of Milledgville, Georgia, in 1837, by whom he left two sons; secondly, to Estelle B. Maxwell, a cousin of Michael B. Menard, and she survived him. See James Lynch, Bench and Ba1· of Texas, 173-177. Comp- troller's Military Service Record8, Texas State Library. Dixon and Kemp, Heroes of San Jacinto, 278. Wooten (ed), Com.7n·ehensive History of Texas, I, 310. The Texas Historical Association Quarterly, II, 43; XVIII, 282.

TOBY AND BROTHER 1 Executive Office Columbia 17th Novr. 1836.

Messrs. T. T'oby & Bro Gent. Your several last letters have been duly delivered to the Secretary of State for his reply, and you will shortly receive des- patchc:s from him. The Secretaries of the Navy and War ai:e apprised of so much of your communications as pertain to then· respective departments.