Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease by Elizabeth Whitlow

Abstract

Reviewed by: Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease by Elizabeth Whitlow Light Townsend Cummins Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease. By Elizabeth Whitlow. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2022. Pp. 432. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) Elisha Marshall Pease is one of the least-known governors of Texas, especially within the context of general historical knowledge popularly held by many Texans. Nevertheless, Pease’s relative obscurity is surprising because his accomplishments rank him among the more effective occupants to have held that office. It is even more surprising that this volume constitutes the first published biography of Pease, supplanting Roger A. Griffin’s 1973 doctoral dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin. This timely book goes a step further by skillfully blending the story of his wife, Lucadia Niles Pease, into the progression of the governor’s life, examining the personal aspects of their companionate marriage along with her impact on his political career. As such, this volume constitutes a welcome addition to the historical literature dealing with nineteenth-century Texas women. The political story of Pease’s career spans from 1835, at the start of the Texas Revolution, to his passing in 1883. A lawyer by training, he fought at the Battle of Gonzales, thereafter securing appointment as general secretary of the 1836 provisional government along with holding other administrative posts during the Republic before representing Brazoria County in the state legislature after statehood. He served two terms as governor from 1853 until 1857. During that time, he put the state on a firm financial footing, created the economic strategies to pay for public education, organized state-funded reservations for Native Americans, began construction of the governor’s mansion in Austin, and worked to establish schools for both the blind and the hearing impaired. A Unionist during the Civil War, he sat on the sidelines during the conflict and thereafter emerged as a founder of the Republican Party in Texas. During Reconstruction, military authorities appointed him governor, and his tenure [End Page 401] was marked by bitterness from former Confederates before he resigned in 1869. He eventually left public life and practiced law in Austin. Married to Elisha Marshall Pease in 1850, Lucadia Niles Pease stood by her husband’s side as much more than a wife detached from his work. She chose the location of the governor’s mansion and influenced its architecture while becoming the arbiter of social life in Austin as first lady. When the couple bought a farm west of downtown Austin in 1859, including a grand Greek Revival home called Woodlawn, Lucadia supervised much of the activity there, including raising foodstuffs, educating the family’s three children, and encouraging her husband’s endeavors. The Peases owned slaves, but Lucadia routinely expressed her discomfort with slavery in her private communications. During and after the Civil War, she refused to be ostracized in Austin because of her pro-Union beliefs and carved out a respected life for herself until her death in 1905. Author Elizabeth Whitlow, a resident of Austin and intimately familiar with the history of the Pease family there, has conducted extensive research in a plethora of primary and secondary sources, including the Pease family papers at the Austin History Center and holdings at the Briscoe Center for American History, the Texas General Land Office, the Texas State Library and Archives, and other relevant repositories. She has also currycombed diaries, memoirs, and newspapers of the era in the successful assembling of an impressive documentary base for this volume. Whitlow’s narrative of the Pease’s impact on Texas history is even-handed, well-written, and comprehensive in detail. The result is a worthwhile examination of both E. M. and Lucadia Niles Pease that is likely to remain the standard work for decades to come. Light Townsend Cummins Austin College Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association