Gustav Schleicher (sometimes spelled Gustave) (November 19, 1823 – January 10, 1879) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

-born Democratic

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. He was an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

who served briefly in the Texas legislature, and was a veteran of the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

.''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''
/ref>

Early life

Schleicher was born in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

in the German principality of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

in 1823. He attended the

Giessen University University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

and studied engineering. He assisted in the construction of early railroads in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. He,

Hermann Spiess Hermann Spiess (c. 1818–1873) was co-founder of the Bettina, Texas commune in 1847. He became Commissioner-General of the Adelsverein after the resignation of John O. Meusebach. Early life Hermann was born around 1818 in Offenbach am Main, Gran ...

and Dr.

Ferdinand Ludwig Herff Ferdinand Ludwig Herff (1820–1912) was a 19th-century German-born physician who emigrated to Texas and became a medical pioneer in San Antonio. He was one of the co-founders of the Bettina commune. In 1982, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark 1268 ...

were among the leaders in a group of intellectuals who immigrated to Texas and founded a

Fisher–Miller Land Grant The Fisher–Miller Land Grant was part of an early colonization effort of the Republic of Texas. Its 3,878,000 acres covered between the Llano River and Colorado River (Texas), Colorado River. Originally granted to Henry Francis Fisher and Burcha ...

commune, named

Bettina Bettina is a female name predominantly found in the Italian and German languages. This name has various interpreted meanings and origins. In Italian, Bettina originated as a diminutive of the names Elisabetta and Benedetta. Benedetta is the Ita ...

after the German literary figure and social visionary

Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...

, on the banks of the

Llano River The Llano River ( ) is a tributary of the Colorado River (Texas), Colorado River, about long, in Texas in the United States. It drains part of the Edwards Plateau in Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin, Texas, Austin. Two spring-fed tributa ...

in 1847.''Handbook of Texas Online''. Texas State Historical Society.
/ref> According to the ''Handbook of Texas Online'',"The community was intended to prove the truth of

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

ideals and light the way for relief of the troubles in Europe, which had led to sporadic attempts at revolution and were later to lead to the abortive German revolt of 1848."

Texas politics and American Civil War

Schleicher became disillusioned with the experiment in Bettina (he is said to have remarked that "the bigger the men, the more they talked, the less they worked and the more they ate.") and moved to

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. In San Antonio, he worked with others to begin the Guadalupe Bridge Company to build a toll bridge across the Guadalupe River on the main road between San Antonio and

New Braunfels New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal County, Texas, Comal and Guadalupe County, Texas, Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas known for its German Texan heritage. It is the county seat, seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a popula ...

. He also was instrumental in forming the

San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad The San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad (SA&MG) was a railroad set up in 1850 to connect the city of San Antonio, Texas, San Antonio to the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad survived the American Civil War, Civil War and merged with the Indianola Rai ...

and he began to build a railroad from Port Lavaca to San Antonio with Gen.

Joseph E. Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American career army officer, serving with distinction in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia secede ...

who was stationed in Texas. In 1852, Schleicher became an American citizen and was elected to 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 ...

, where he served one term in the

Fifth Texas Legislature The Fifth Texas Legislature met from November 7, 1853, to February 13, 1854, in its regular session. All members of the House of Representatives and about half of the members of the Senate were elected in 1853. Sessions * 5th Regular session: Nove ...

.Faust, Albert Bernhardt. ''The German Element in the United States''. Boston:Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1909. From 1854—1861 Schleicher was surveyor of the Bexar Land District, which included most of the area from San Antonio to

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

. During this time he acquired title to extensive land holdings on the

Edwards Plateau The Edwards Plateau is a geographic region at the crossroads of Central Texas, Central, South Texas, South, and West Texas. It is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east, the Llano Uplift and the Llano Estacado to the north, and the ...

. In 1856, Schleicher married Elizabeth Tinsley Howard. Beginning in 1858, he and his brother-in-law, Heinrich Dresel, published the San Antonio German-language newspaper the ''Texas Staats-Zeitung''. Schleicher was a cofounder of the San Antonio Water Company in 1858 and of Alamo College in 1860. He was elected to the

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 ...

in 1859 representing the 31st District which comprised territory west of San Antonio: Gillespie, Medina, and Uvalde Counties. Like most German immigrants, Schleicher opposed Texas's secession from the Union. However, after his adopted state joined the Confederacy, Schleicher became a captain in the Confederate Army, in charge of Gen.

John B. Magruder John Bankhead Magruder (May 1, 1807 – February 18, 1871) was an American and Confederate military officer. A graduate of West Point, Magruder served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and was a prominent Confede ...

's Corps of Engineers.

After the war and service in Congress

Schleicher practiced law in San Antonio when the Civil War was over and resumed his work in developing railroads. He is listed as one of the incorporators of the Columbus, San Antonio and Rio Grande Railroad and served as engineer for the construction of the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway, which ran from

Indianola, Texas Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1875, the city had a populatio ...

Cuero, Texas Cuero ( ) is a city in and the county seat of DeWitt County, Texas, DeWitt County, Texas, United States. Its population was 8,128 at the 2020 census. History The city of Cuero had its start in the mid-19th century as a stopping point on the Chisho ...

. According to the ''Handbook of Texas Online'', "He founded the latter town as a way-station and moved to it soon afterward, in 1872." In 1874, he was elected to Congress representing the 6th District when it was drawn for the first time. He was reelected to two additional terms and served as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and then as Chairman of the House Canals and Railroads Committee. His activities in support of the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

gained him a challenger within the Democratic primary in the person of

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

, and Schleicher had to wage a bitter campaign before being nominated and reelected in 1878. He died on January 10, 1879, two months before the start of his third term. A memorial address by the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

floor leader

James A. Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

was more than a courtesy for a deceased junior member of the opposition party, and attested to the depth of feeling for Schleicher. He was buried in the

San Antonio National Cemetery San Antonio National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in the city of San Antonio in Bexar County, Texas. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses , and as of the end of 2005, had 3,163 interme ...

Memorials

Schleicher County, Texas Schleicher County is a County (United States), county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 2,451. Its county seat is Eldorado, Texas, Eldorado. The coun ...

was named for Gustav Schleicher.

References

;Sources Retrieved on 2009-04-27 *Faust, Albert Bernhardt. ''The German Element in the United States''. Boston:Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1909.
''Handbook of Texas Online''. Texas State Historical Association.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleicher, Gustave Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Democratic Party Texas state senators People of Texas in the American Civil War Hessian emigrants to the United States German emigrants to the United States Engineers from Darmstadt 1823 births 1879 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas 19th-century American politicians Schleicher County, Texas

Early life

Texas politics and American Civil War

After the war and service in Congress

Memorials

See also

References