Horatio Chriesman

Chriesman was born on August 13, 1797, in Virginia. ==Career==

He served as a surveyor in Kentucky and Missouri. he continued until Stephen F. Austin's death in 1836. He surveyed the Jack League, in what is now Fayette County, which was purchased in 1843 by the German immigration company Adelsverein as a slave plantation. It was named Nassau Plantation after the Duke of Nassau. Chriesman fought against Native Americans as captain of the colonial militia in 1824. Austin was eventually chosen as the seat of government. In 1840, Chriesman was one of nine trustees who incorporated the Republic's first private institution of learning, the Union Academy in Washington-on-the-Brazos. He retired in Burleson County, Texas. ==Personal life and death==

Chriesman married Mary Kincheloe in 1818. He had eleven children. Chriesman died on November 1, 1878, in Burleson County, Texas. ==Legacy==

• The town of Chriesman, Texas, in Burleson County is named in his honor. • The ghost town of Gay Hill in Washington County, Texas, was known as "Chriesman Settlement" until it was renamed by the Republic of Texas in 1840. ==References==