George Childress (1804 - 1841)

Born 8 Jan 1804 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Oct 1841 at age 37 in Galveston, Republic of Texas

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Biography

George Childress is Notable.

George Campbell Childress (January 8, 1804 – October 6, 1841) was a lawyer, statesman and was a principal author of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

George Childress was born on January 8, 1804 in Nashville, Tennessee, spending his youth between school and working on his father's property. He studied law and graduated Davidson Academy in 1826; after two years of further study he was admitted to the bar in 1828, marrying Margaret Vance that same year.

He visited Texas for the first time in late 1834 to visit his uncle Sterling Robertson and help him organize his new settlement. He returned to Tennessee and continued to practice law and take care of his wife and son until summer 1835, when his wife passed away.

"He married, 1st, Margaret Vance. The couple had an infant son, Charles Childress, who is presumed to have died in infancy."

"He married, 2nd, Miss - - - Jennings, a sister of the prominent physician, Dr. Thomas R. Jennings of Nashville and sister of the wife of Governor Henry Alexander Wise of Virginia."

"There were two children by the second marriage: [1224132] Annie Childress, born about 1837, and [1224133] Ellen Childress, born about 1839 . . .

"Annie and [1224133] Ellen Childress, daughters of George Childress, lived for two or three years in Nashville in the home of their uncle, Dr. Jennings, in North High St., immediately before the beginning of the War of the 60's. Annie Childress married - - - Daw of New York and had one child, Annie Daw. Ellen Childress married - - - Crute of Arkansas and had one child, Ellen Crute."^[1][2]

Childress and his son left for Texas late 1835 and settled in his uncle's colony, setting up his law practice. In February of the next year, he and his uncle were chosen to represent Milam Municipality at the Convention of 1836 to discuss the coming secession and war with Mexico.

He was chosen chairman of the committee to draft the Texas Declaration of Independence, and although he had five members to assist him, he is acknowledged as being the sole author of it; signing it when it was accepted by the delegates.

The Texas Declaration of Independence was produced, literally, overnight. Its urgency was paramount, because while it was being prepared, the Alamo in San Antonio was under siege by Santa Anna's army of Mexico. Immediately upon the assemblage of the Convention of 1836 on March 1, a committee of five of its delegates were appointed to draft the document. The committee, consisting of George C. Childress, Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman, and Collin McKinney, prepared the declaration in record time. It was briefly reviewed, then adopted by the delegates of the convention the following day.

Within two weeks of the signing, Childress and Robert Hamilton were sent to Washington DC to seek recognition from the United States as a separate Republic from Mexico; however, they were replaced in May by James Collinsworth and Peter Grayson.^[3]

In December of 1836 Childress married Rebecca Jennings. His life after the revolution was not prosperous; he failed three times to establish a law practice that was successful enough to support his family.

Distraught by his inability to earn a living, George Childress committed suicide at his home in Galveston on October 6, 1841. Five years later, Childress County was named after him in recognition of his service to the Republic of Texas.^[4]

George Campbell Childress' Suicide

Dr. Ashbel Smith kept a journal in which he made the following entry and also made copies which follow of the several letters left with him by Childress for delivery:

Oct. 6. Arrived in Galveston: 6 A. M. found Col. Geo. C. Childress who had inflicted on himself several wounds in the abdomen with a bowie knife of which he died about three hours afterwards.

Copies of Letters left by Col. Childress in an envelope addressed to me. To:

Dr. T. R. Jennings—Nashville, Tenn. Galveston Oct 4.

Dear Doctor

I cannot bear to live longer and I consider it an act of Justice in dying to declare that my unhappiness had in no part arisen from the conduct of my wife your sister,—she has made the best of wives, and is the greatest and most perfect character I have ever known.

Signed—Yr friend-Geo. C. Childress.

Thomas Reed Jennings was son of Rev. Obediah Jennings, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Nashvill. --- Mr. Franklin Morgan—Care of Morgan, Crutchers & Co. Philadelphia, Penn. Galveston Texas Oct 4.

My dear Sir,

To you and your wife Mary I bequeath my little daughter Ellen-Should she lose her mother adopt and raise her as your own child, and oblige. Signed—Yr friend—Geo. C. Childress.

Mr. Franklin Morgan-Philadelphia.

John Catron...was brother-in-law of Childress. He was then a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Hon. John Catron—Nashville Tenn. Galveston Oct. 5, 1841.

My dear Sir,

To you and your wife I bequeath the fathership and protection of my dear daughter Anne Should she be so unfortunate as to lose her mother please adopt her and raise her as your child—and oblige your frd

Geo. C. Childress.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Bond in her Kinship Book, pp. 487-8
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140505063255/http://www.robertson-ancestry.com/122413-01.htm
3. ↑ http://www.lsjunction.com/docs/tdoi.htm
4. ↑ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7753060
5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140505063255/http://www.robertson-ancestry.com/122413-01.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Childress
• http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth32341/