David Thomas (Texas politician)

David Thomas (10 December 1795–1836) was a signatory of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first Attorney General (ad interim) and acting Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas.

Early life and family

David Thomas was the third of six children of William and Elizabeth (Purviance) Thomas of Wilson County, Tennessee. He was born on 10 December 1795 (State of Texas records say 1801), presumably in Wilson County, Tennessee. His parents removed from Middle Tennessee to Dyer County in the newly opened Western District of Tennessee.

David Thomas's father, William Thomas, was from the area of Statesville, North Carolina, then Tennessee. His three brothers, Henry, James, and John, were also soldiers in the Revolutionary War. William's father was Jacob Thomas of Rowan County, North Carolina, also a Revolutionary War soldier, who married Margaret Brevard.

David Thomas's mother Elizabeth was the daughter of American Revolutionary War soldier John Purviance of Rowan County, who married Mary Jane Wasson. One of Elizabeth's brothers was David Purviance, who is listed as a co-founder with Barton Stone of the Christian Church-Church of Christ which originated at the Cane Ridge Meeting House in Bourbon County, Kentucky, outside Paris, Kentucky, circa 1804. David Purviance served in the Kentucky and Ohio legislatures, where he continually advocated abolitionism, and was an early trustee of Miami University, serving often as the board's president pro tempore. Levi Purviance wrote a biography of the father David Purviance.

A birth quilt made by his family is crafted "D.O. Thomas", but his middle name is unknown and it is possible that the intent was "DP" for "David Purviance Thomas", reflecting his mother's maiden name.

David Thomas later became a lawyer. It is known that Sam Houston read law at Maryville College in eastern Tennessee, but is not yet known where his friend and colleague David Thomas read law, whether with a preceptor or at college. Also, it is known that David Thomas's first cousin-once removed, James Houston Thomas (18-8-1876) was the Attorney General of Tennessee 1836-1842, at roughly the same time David Thomas was attorney general ad interim of the Republic of Texas. Political Graveyard "James Houston Thomas (1808-1876) of Tennessee." Born in Iredell Co., NC, Sept. 22, 1808. Democrat. U.S. Representative from Tennessee 6th District, 1847–51, 1859–61; Delegate from Tennessee to the Confederate Provisional Congress, 1861-62. Died near Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tenn., August 4, 1876. Interment at St. John's Cemetery.

The independence of Texas

David Thomas affixed his signature to the Texas Declaration of Independence alongside that of Sam Houston, each from Refugio on March 2, 1836. His writings in the Texas State Archives as Secretary of War reveal, by the degree of shakiness of handwriting, the relative proximity to the Texans of Santa Anna's troops heading toward San Jacinto.

On 3 March 1836, David Thomas was amongst those appointed to the Constitutional Committee for the nascent Republic of Texas and is thought to have been a principal drafter of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas: on the committee were, inter alia, David Thomas and Sam Houston of Refugio, Texas, and Robert Hamilton of Red River and James Collinsworth of Brazoria.

Death and legacy

Thomas died 1836 after suffering an accidental mortal wound from a musket ball in the leg on the steamship Cayuga when fleeing troops of Santa Anna (Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna) with the new government of the Republic of Texas as part of the Runaway Scrape. David Thomas is buried in a hero's grave in the de Zavala Cemetery in the San Jacinto battlefield state shrine near Houston.

An extant letter sent from Groce's Plantation, some 12 miles below Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas to his brother, Hiram Jacob Thomas, M.D., dated just before David Thomas's death in 1836 states unequivocally, "I am attorney general of Texas." He reports that their fellow Tennessean Colonel David Crockett has been killed at the Alamo. By 1836, his brother Dr. Hiram Jacob Thomas had removed from Tennessee to Vernon in Jasper County, Mississippi. The letter, in the University of Texas libraries, is handstamped "Nashville T," where evidently the recipient paid for and picked up the letter, in a time before the government issued stamps and when the addressee had to pay to receive mail:

Großes Pass [Groce's Plantation]
March 20th 1836
13 miles below Washington [-on-the-Brazos]

Dear Brother
I have only time to write you a few words Major Green has just arrived and tells me that he saw you lately at New Orleans, afterwards at Vernon [Mißißippi].
The convention has adjourned, and after a declaration of Independence and adoption of a constitution and electing a President -- one Presidente [sic], Secretary [sic] of State of War of the Navy of The Treasury, and attorney general all forming the 3 cabinets--I have not time to write to you in detail. I am the attorney General of Texas.
You will I have no doubt see from the papers a full account of the proceedings of Texas. The President & his cabinet will find their residence at Harrisburgh on the Waters of the Trinity on [or?] Galveston Bay where you will be good enough to direct your letterξ ---------
I have not speculated any as yet - times are a little difficult at this time. Santa Anna is in the country--San Antonia [sic] was stormed on the 8th day of this month, not a man escaped to tell the news, about one hundred & eighty Americans were butchered col Croket amongst them and I expect Major Autry of Jackson [Tennessee? Mississippi?] It is said that there was between two & three Thousand Mexicans who made the attack. There was according to their own account upwards of five hundred killed and as many wounded
Gen. Houston is in the field with 800 men in the Colorado his force increasing dayly [sic]. Col Fannin is at Goliad with five or six hundred men, all volunteers from the United States they have fortifyed [sic] and have, I have no doubt, been attacked before this time. I am anxious to hear from there All my acquaintances are there that belong to the army.
I have very little doubt but Santa Anna will attempt to storm that force, if he should succeed they will suffer the fate of those in the Alamo. But I feel confident this place will be able to sustain itself.
I will write to you again soon

Yourξ &c. [et cetera] David Thomaξ
Dr. H.J. Thomaξ " [End of Letter] [Envelope handstamped as received at "Nashville T."]
Dr. H.J. Thomaξ
Vernon
Mißißippi
U.S.

David Thomas's land grant from the State of Texas was posthumously claimed by his nephew in West Tennessee John Edwin McCorkle (1839–1924), Tennessee state legislator and son of Jane Maxwell Thomas (Mrs. Edwin Alexander McCorkle), on behalf of all the nieces and nephews of David Thomas. One of them was David E. Thomas, by then an attorney in Austin, Texas, who responded to an inquiry from McCorkle that the land grant was not worth claiming, for it was subject to Indian depredations and back taxes amounting to more than its fair market value. Nevertheless, McCorkle claimed the land for the heirs of the decedent David Thomas.

This is what the land-grant document says:

"No. 525—IN THE NAME of the STATE OF TEXAS: To all to whom these Presents shall come, know ye: I, :F.R. Lubbock, Governor of the State aforesaid by virtue of the power vested in me by Law and in accordance with the Laws of said state in such case made and provided by these presents GRANT to the Heirs of David Thomas, deceased, their heirs and assigns forever, One Third of a League of Land, situated and described as follows: In Callahan County, Survey No. 801, on the waters of Pecan Bayou, a tributary of the Colorado River and between the East and West Caddo Peaks, by virtue of Headright Certificate No. 165, issued by the Board of Land Commissioners for Bastrop County, on the 2'd day of November A.D. 1838. ...*********** In Testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be affixed, as well as the SEAL of the General Land Office. Done at the City of Austin on the Twenty Fifth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and Sixty Two [1862] .....[signed] F.R. Lubbock, Governor...."

References

Sources

1. See for the presidents of the Republic of Texas: David G. Burnet, Sam Houston, Mirabeau B. Lamar, and Anson Jones.
2. The Texas Declaration of Independence online: www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/republic/odeclar-10.html
3. Comptroller's Office, Austin, Texas, Certificate of Redemption No. 675 P. A., April 16, 1880: "Whereas, At a sale of Lands for Taxes for the year 1877 the following described Real Estate was sold for the taxes of said year and costs of sale, and the same was bid off to the State: Original Grantee: David Thomas; No. of Acres: 99; Brown County; Unrendered: This is to certify that John Edwin McCorkle [nephew, 1839–1924, representing the heirs of David Thomas] has exhibited at this office satisfactory evidence that he has paid...taxes for which said property was sold...amounting to $4.18 in accordance with 'An act for the relief of all persons whose lands have been sold for taxes and bought in by the State, approved March 22, 1879.'"
4. Stuart Hoyle Purvines, PURVIANCE FAMILY (privately published 1986).
5. 1836 letter from David Thomas to his brother Hiram Jacob Thomas, M.D., in University of Texas library for American History, donated by Evelyn d'Arcy Cushman, wife of Alfred Cushman, a descentant of David Thomas' other brother John Purviance Thomas, born Middle Tennessee (Sumner County) 22 Feb. 1792, died 1857 Mississippi (and wife Catherine Espy Thomas). John Purviance Thomas' children were American J. Thomas (Mrs. Milton Hue Johnson), c.1817-1860, of Gibson County, West Tennessee, mother of Sarah Jane Johnson McGee, 1845–1892, grandmother of Henry Johnson McGee, 1869-Memphis 1919, great-grandmother of Lucille McGee Cushman, born in Gibson Co, Tenn., to Houston, Texas, and gg-grandmother of James Alfred Cushman IV whose wife Evelyn donated the 1836 letter to the University of Texas libraries; David E. Thomas, 1822–1887, attorney in Austin, Texas, m. Olivia Tulley; Albert H. Thomas, 1825–1884, Methodist minister in Memphis who m. a daughter of Judge Greer; and Melvina E. Thomas Riley. Attorney General & Acting Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas, David Thomas had a sister Jane McCorkle, who was the great-great grandmother of Sophie Huie Cashdollar and Marsha Cope Huie, the latter of whom added family documents to this information, including the Secretary's letter from Gross's Pass, Texas, above, dated 1836.
6. Family photograph of Dr. Hiram Jacob Thomas, brother of David Thomas; and papers concerning John Edwin McCorkle's redemption of land grant to David Thomas for back taxes, both in the hands of Marsha Cope Huie.
7. Purviance-Thomas-McCorkle-Huie Family Records of Dyer County in West Tennessee, possessed by Marsha Cope Huie.
8. The Handbook of Texas vol. II (1952), ed. Walter Prescott Webb (Austin: Tex. State Historical Assn.). (David Thomas "came to Texas in 1835 and joined the U.S. Independent Volunteers Cavalry Co. organized at Nacogdoches on Dec. 10, 1835. At the request of Francis W Johnson, the Military Affairs Committee of the General Council recommended a volunteer expedition against Matamoros in Jan. 1836 and David Thomas was commissioned 1st lieutenant for the expedition. [para.] Thomas was one of the four representatives from the municipality of Refugio to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos and there signed the Declaration of Independence. On March 17, the Convention elected Thomas, who was evidently a lawyer, the ad interim attorney general of the Republic. When Thomas J. Rusk, secretary of war, left the cabinet to join the army, Thomas was made acting secretary of war, thus holding two positions at the same time.")

Persondata
Name	Thomas, David
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Date of birth	10 December 1795
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Date of death	1836
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