Erath (George Bernard) Family

George Bernard Erath (1813-1891), surveyor, solider, and legislator, was born and educated in Vienna, Austria. He moved to America upon his graduation from Vienna Polytechnic Institute, landing first in New Orleans, and then settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1832. The following year, however, he moved again to the Republic of Texas to be a surveyor in Robertson’s colony. In 1835 he signed up for John H. Moore’s ranger company, campaigning against the Indians, and in 1836 volunteered for service in the Texas Revolution in Company C of Colonel Edward Burleson’s First Regiment, Texan Volunteers. Following the Revolution, Erath continued his career as a soldier while also surveying until 1843, when he became a member of the House of Representatives of the Eighth and Ninth congresses of the republic (1843-1845).

A supporter of Texas annexation to the United States, Erath was elected to the State’s First Legislature. In 1846 he resumed his career as a surveyor, planning the towns of both Waco and Stephenville. He then was elected to the Senate of the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Legislatures (1857-1861). He resigned in 1861 to serve on a two-person committee dedicated to the resolution of issues between Texas and its reservation Indians.

In 1864, Governor Pendleton Murrah appointed Erath major of a regiment in the Second Frontier District, which held responsibility for the defense of the Texas frontier. Ten years later Erath made one final descent into political life, representing the Nineteenth District in the Fourteenth Legislature of the Senate.

Erath married Lucinda Chambers in 1845, and they had one daughter, Lucy, to whom he dictated his memoirs in 1886. He died in 1891, and the Texas State Historical Association published his memoirs in 1923. Erath County, Texas, is named for him.

Source: Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Erath, George Bernard, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/EE/fer1.html (accessed July 8, 2010).

From the guide to the Erath (George Bernard) Family Papers 1930; 74-002; 80-091., 1829-1967, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)