Identified with Texas

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Identified with Texas is the first published biography of Texas Governor Elisha Marshall Pease (1812-1883), presented by historian Elizabeth Whitlow as a dual biography of Pease and his wife, Lucadia Niles Pease (1813-1905). Pease volunteered to fight in the first battle of the Revolution at Gonzales, and he served with the Texan Army at the Siege of Bexar. Pease served in the first three state legislatures after Texas joined the Union in 1845, was elected governor in 1853 and re-elected in 1855, and returned to the governorship as an interim appointee from 1867 to 1869 during Reconstruction. His achievements in all these positions were substantial.
Lucadia Niles Pease was known as the Governor’s “Lady.” Moreover, her early, independent travel and her stated position as a “woman’s rights woman” in the 1850s, as well as her support for sending a daughter away to college in the 1870s to earn a degree, all serve as markers of her intelligence and the strength of her convictions.
To tell their story, Whitlow mined thousands of letters and papers saved by the Pease family and housed in the Austin History Center of the Austin Public Library, as well as in the Governor’s Papers at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

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Reviews

“Perhaps E. M. Pease’s northern birth and his unionism largely explain why a man who made so many extraordinary contributions to Texas has not received the major biography that he deserves. Elizabeth Whitlow has filled this gap in Texas historiography with her carefully researched and thoughtfully written dual biography that takes readers into not only the life of E. M. Pease but also into that of his wife Lucadia Niles Pease. Identified with Texas is widely researched, but one source stands out above all—The Pease-Graham-Niles Family Papers at the Austin History Center. Drawing on the hundreds of letters exchanged by family members, Whitlow has accomplished every biographer’s goal—telling not only what the subjects did but also what they were like. In this dual biography, readers will ‘meet’ E. M. and Lucadia Pease as two very special people.”—Randolph B. Campbell, author of Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State

“Identified with Texas is a terrific piece of scholarship—a delightful gem of a work. Its ability to put the reader in the perspective of Pease offers readers a unique and powerful view into this era of Texas that is available nowhere else. And the book goes beyond that by intertwining the life of Lucadia with her husband, which provides much needed depth about both Marshall and the lived experience of the era. This dual biography approach provides a delightful method for weaving the everyday details of their lives into the text, adding depth and nuance throughout.”—Andrew J. Torget, author of the award-winning Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850

“By examining the lives of Elisha and Lucadia, scholars will gain valuable insights into Texas’s struggles as a reluctant Republic, annexation and early statehood, secession, the Civil War and
Reconstruction, and the post-Civil War era. The book is well written and weaves the primary sources together in an effective way.”—Kenneth W. Howell, editor of The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas during the Civil War and author of Texas Confederate, Reconstruction Governor: James Webb Throckmorton

"The results are impressive, a look at a husband and wife partnership that served Texas well."--Tombstone Epitaph

Published by University of North Texas Press