Details for George Campbell Childress

Historical Marker — Atlas Number 5167000278

Data

Marker Number 278
Atlas Number 5167000278
Marker Title George Campbell Childress
Index Entry Childress, George Campbell
Address 722 Moody
City Galveston
County Galveston
UTM Zone 15
UTM Easting 326075
UTM Northing 3243011
Subject Codes ports
Marker Year 1991
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark No
Marker Location Courthouse grounds, 722 Moody, Galveston
Private Property No
Marker Condition In Situ
Marker Size 27" x 42"
Marker Text (January 8, 1804 - October 6, 1841) Born into a prominent Nashville, Tennessee, family, George Campbell Childress attended Davidson Academy (later the University of Nashville). He was admitted to the bar in 1828, the sam year he married Margaret Vance. She died in 1835, soon after the birth of a son. Childress first visited Texas in 1834, at the urging of his uncle, empresario Sterling Clark Robertson. He soon returned to Nashville, however, and worked as a newspaper editor. By January 1836, he had returned to Texas and settled in Robertson's colony. The following month Childress and Robertson were elected delegates to the Convention of 1836, where the Texas Declaration of Independence was adopted on March 2. Childress is considered to be the primary author of that document. Sent by the Republic of Texas to attain recognition of the new country by the United States, Childress was unsuccessful and returned to Tennessee for a time. While there he married Rebecca Stuart Jennings. By 1841 Childress was in Galveston in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a law practice. Despondent over his financial situation, he committed suicide on Oct. 6 and was buried in an unmarked grave. Thirty-five years later Childress County was named in his honor.