The Fearless Fifty-Nine, George Washington Smyth

George Washington Smyth was the 33 year old Jasper representative. Smyth moved to Texas in 1828 against the wish of his parents. By 1830, he secured an appointment as a surveyor for Bevil’s Settlement. In 1834, he became surveyor for George A. Nixon, who had been recently named commissioner of the Zavala, Vehlein and Burnet colonies. Smyth also served as land commissioner at Nacogdoches until the office was closed in December 1835. After the Convention, he raised several men to go fight in the battle of San Jacinto but it was over by the time they got there. He and his family took part in the Runaway Scrape as well. In 1839 Mirabeu Lamar appointed him to the boundary commission that was to set the Texas-United States boundaries. By 1842, he was elected as a representative in Texas Congress until 1843. A strong supporter of annexation, he took part in the convention that drew up the Constitution of 1845. After this he became the second commissioner of the General Land Office for four years starting in 1848 and a representative in the US Congress from 1853 to 1855. When the Civil War came around, Smyth opposed secession but had sons serve with the Confederate troops. Post Civil War, he went to Austin as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention of 1866 where he later died on Feb. 21, 1866.