4th Grade Biographies
/ Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) Stephen F. Austin is called the "Father of Texas." His father, Moses Austin, had an agreement with the Spanish government to colonize a portion of northern Mexico. When Moses died, Stephen was asked to continue his father’s job. Stephen selected a site for his colony along the Brazos and Colorado rivers. He brought 297 families to live in Austin's Colony. They became known as the "Old Three Hundred." Austin tried to work with the Mexican government and to bring in new residents. He also received other land grants. In ten years he helped more than 1,500 families settle in Texas. As Santa Anna gained more and more control, he limited the freedom of the Texans. Austin served time in jail for speaking out against the Mexican government. When he was released, he supported actions that would lead to the Texas Revolution./ James A. Baker III (1930- ) James A. Baker, III was born in Houston, Texas. He served in the U.S. Marine Corp and later set a law firm in Texas. He has served in numerous senior government positions for several United States Presidents. He served as the nation's Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, as well as Chief of Staff for the White House.
/ Placido Benavides (?-1837) Plácido Benavides was a native of Mexico. He was known for his contribution to the settlement of Victoria, Texas. He was responsible for issuing the land titles and other business transactions in De Leon’s colony. The Mexican government gave him permission to continue the colony after De Leon’s death. Although he disagreed with Santa Anna, he stayed loyal to Mexico. Therefore, he could not support the independence of Texas.
/ Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe (1897-1943) Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe was a concert singer who performed in the United States and Europe. He was praised for his ability to sing in several languages, for his vocal control and range, and for his power to communicate through music. In 1926 he performed as the baritone “Tizan”, the leading role in the opera Deep River.
/ Gail Borden (1801-1874) Gail Borden was an inventor, publisher, surveyor, and founder of the Borden Company, Gail Borden learned from experience that preserved foods were important to settlers. He was born in New York but moved to the Texas territory in 1829. As a surveyor, he helped to measure Stephen F. Austin's colony, prepared the first topographic map of Texas, and designed Galveston. In 1835 he published the first issue of his Telegraph and Texas Register and published it in various cities. He began inventing and secured patents for condensed milk in America and Britain. He founded the New York Condensed Milk Company (later named Borden's) in 1857. He built a meat-packing plant in Borden, Texas. He supported children through education and religious philanthropy.
/ James Bowie (1796-1836) James “Jim” Bowie shared command at the Alamo with William B. Travis. Bowie was born in Kentucky but as an adult he moved to Texas and searched for gold and silver. During the Texas Revolution, Bowie was in charge of the volunteer forces at the Alamo. There he became ill with pneumonia and was confined to his cot. It is said that he died there during the Battle of the Alamo. A Texas hero and a reckless adventurer, Bowie was known for his legendary ability to fight with the Bowie knife and his skill in riding alligators.
/ Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle (1643-1687) Rene Robert Cavelier preferred to be called by his noble title, Sieur de la Salle. He invested in the Canadian fur trade in the hopes of becoming rich. He traveled down the Mississippi River to its delta in 1682. This helped France establish trade in the Mississippi Valley, and they also claimed Louisiana. While seeking the mouth of the Mississippi, de la Salle sailed past the delta and landed in Matagorda Bay,Texas. He helped establish Fort St. Louis and claimed the area for the French. This is the reason that the French flag is one of the six flags which has flown over Texas. Fighting among the members of the expedition led to La Salle's assassination on March 19, 1687.
/ George Childress (1804-1841) George Childress was born in Tennessee and came to Texas in 1835. At the Convention of 1836, Childress was selected to chair a committee to write the Texas Declaration of Independence. This document was closely modeled after the U.S. Declaration of Independence and explained why Texas was declaring its Independence from Mexico. He is known as the primary author of the document.
/ Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) Bessie Coleman was the first African- American to earn an international pilot's license. She learned to fly in Europe and brought back her skills to the United States. She dazzled crowds with her stunts at air shows. She refused to be stopped because of racism, a dislike or disrespect of a person based on race. Her hopes were to open an air school where other African-Africans could learn to fly. Unfortunately, she died in a plane crash.
/ Francisco Coronado (1510-1554) Francisco Coronado explored the Southwestern portion of North America. This helped open the area for colonization and settlement. Coronado first sailed to the New World in 1535 to search for riches for Spain. He led an expedition in search of the Seven Cities of Cíbola, or Seven Cities of Gold. During the search he traveled through territory in present-day Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. He never found the Seven Cities of Cibola.
/ David Crockett (1786-1836) David “Davy” Crockett was born in Tennessee. Davy Crockett enlisted in the militia and fought in the Creek Indian War. He became involved in government and served at the local, state, and eventually, the national level as a member of the House of Representatives. He came to Texas shortly before the Texas Revolution began. With a group of volunteers he ended up at the Alamo where he died defending it from Santa Anna and the Mexican Army. The adventures of Davy Crockett, a sharpshooter and hunter, grew in popularity and earned him a place in American folklore.
/ José de Escandón (1700-1770) José de Escandón was born in Spain but moved to the area we know as New Spain when he was young. When José grew up, he became involved in helping to settle parts of Mexico and southern Texas. The people of Spain wanted to settle these parts because they did not the English and French to settle there. He was the first governor of an area known as Nuevo Santander. He governed the area for 22 years and became wealthy from farming, raising livestock, and shipping. For his colonization efforts, Escandón is sometimes called the "Father of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.”
/ Martin de Leon (1763-1833) Martin de Leon is the only empresario of Mexican descent to settle a colony in Texas. He first worked as a merchant and then chose to settle in Texas. He petitioned, or asked, the Mexican government in San Antonio for the right to establish a colony. At first he was denied the right, but then the Mexican government approved his petition to form a colony in 1824. He started his colony near Victoria. He opposed Santa Anna but died in 1833 before the battles for Texas independence.
/ Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490-c. 1556) Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer who was considered the first geographer and historian of Texas. He sailed the coast of Florida. Then while trying to reach Mexico, he shipwrecked on an island off the Texas coast. De Vaca and his men were caught and enslaved by Indian tribes on the Texas coast. After many years, only he and three other men remained. Cabeza de Vaca and the other survivors left the area of Galveston Island searching for Spanish settlements. They eventually reached the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca helped write the earliest notes known to exist describing the Indians and landforms of Texas.
/ Adina de Zavala (1861-1955) Adina de Zavala was a preservationist who is best known for saving the Alamo as a historic site. Her mission in life was to protect the historic treasures of Texas. She was responsible for encouraging a state-wide recognition of Texas Independence Day on March 2. Being of proud of her state and people in the state, she suggested that all Texas public schools be named for state heroes. She was a charter member of the Texas State Historical Association. She was the granddaughter of Lorenzo de Zavala, the vice president of the temporary Texas government. She was called “The First Lady of Texas Historic Preservation.”
/ Lorenzo de Zavala (1788-1836) Lorenzo de Zavala administered a land grant, established a colony in east Texas, and took an active role in the Mexican government. He served in the Mexican Congress and as a governor of the state of Mexcio prior to 1835. He became an active supporter of the quest for Texas to be independent. He participated in the Convention of 1836 and served as vice-president in the temporary government established during the Revolution. He is credited with designing the first flag of the Republic of Texas.
/ Michael DeBakey (1908-2008) Michael DeBakey was well-known as a medical doctor in Houston, Texas. When he was a medical student, he invented a major component of a heart-lung machine which made open-heart surgery possible. During World War II, he helped to develop Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) units. In 1966 he was successful in using a gas-energized pump to bypass the left ventricle in a patient suffering severe heart failure. DeBakey thought the use of a pump to aid the heart was more practical than replacing it with an artificial pump. He devised a plan to allow doctors, hospitals, medical schools and community groups throughout the name to cooperate in the treatment of heart disease, cancer, and emergency medical care. In the early 1990s, he cooperated with the Raytheon Company to develop an interactive video system which allows experts to examine and diagnose illness without having to travel to the patient. DeBakey evaluated the medical condition of Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996.
/ Susanna Dickinson (1814-1883) Susanna Dickinson will always be remembered as an adult Anglo survivor who witnessed the massacre at the Battle of the Alamo. Santa Anna let her go free to inform the Texans what would happen if they continued their battle for independence. She left, headed east, and met up with the Texas Army being lead by Sam Houston. Her report about the battle and the strength of the Mexican Army led Houston to order the Texans to flee. This began the Runaway Scrape.
/ Clara Driscoll (1881-1945) Clara Driscoll has been known as “Savior of the Alamo” because she put up thousands of dollars to prevent the Alamo convent from being sold to a hotel firm. She later was reimbursed the money. She served on the Democratic Party National Committee from Texas for 16 years. She was an honorary life presidency of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Her home in Austin, Laguna Gloria, was deeded to the Texas Fine Arts Association and is an art museum and school today. In Corpus Christi, she provided for a hospital and free clinic for sick and crippled children. The Driscoll Children’s Hospital still operates today. Upon her death, she lay in state at the Alamo with the Lone Star flag at half-staff.
No Picture Found / Carlos Espalier (1819-1836) Carlos Espalier was born in Texas in 1819. He died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, at age seventeen. It was said that he was a protégé, or learned from, Jim Bowie. Because of the similarity in names, a claim has been made that Carlos Espalier and Charles Despallier are the same person. This is not a known fact.
/ Enrique Esparza (1828-1917) Enrique Esparza was at the Battle of the Alamo and saw his father killed during the battle. He was a farmer. He carried his goods from location to location in carts. The trips were dangerous and tiresome. Therefore on his return home, he always visited the church first to give thanks for a successful trip.
/ Vicente Filisola (c. 1789-1850) General Vicente Filisola was second in command of the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution. After Sam Houston’s Texans defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Filisola became the commander-in-chief of the Mexican soldiers who remained in Texas. The Mexican army eventually retreated to Mexico. Filisola was blamed for all that went wrong in the campaign in Texas.
/ Joseph Glidden (1813-1906) Joseph Glidden invented the first commercially successful barbed wire. It was patented in 1874. He was co-founder of the Barb Fence Company of De Kalb, Illinois. This company marketed the wire. Farmers and settlers in Texas used the wire to protect water supplies, crops, and livestock from free-range cattle. The barb wire changed the cattle industry in Texas.
/ Henry B. González (1916-2000) Henry González served as a role model for Mexican-Americans in Texas through his political activities. He was born in San Antonio to Mexican immigrant parents. He earned a law degree. He began his political career as a member of the San Antonio city council. In 1956, González became the first Mexican-American to be elected to the Texas Senate in more than 100 years. He was the first Mexican-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a Democrat, he served in the U.S. Congress for more than 30 years.