George Bernard Erath (January 1, 1813 – May 13, 1891) served in both the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

and

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

Biography

Born in

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, he was a Texas pioneer and soldier who fought in the Texas Revolution, subsequently supporting the

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

's annexation to the United States. As a surveyor, he drew up the original street grids for the Texas cities of

Waco Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

, Caldwell, and Stephenville. He was a charter member of historic Waco Masonic Lodge #92. He married Lucinda Chalmers in December 1845, and they had five children. He was elected to the

in 1844 and 1846, and to the

in 1848, 1861, and 1873. He died in

on May 13, 1891.

Erath County, Texas Erath County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. According to the United States Census bureau its population was 42,545 in 2020. The county seat is Stephenville. The county is named for George Bernard Erath, an early surveyor a ...

, is named for him.

References

1813 births 1891 deaths Members of the Texas House of Representatives Texas state senators Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States People of the Texas Revolution American surveyors Erath County, Texas 19th-century American politicians {{Texas-bio-stub