Career
Collinsworth served as a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas, and an interim Secretary of State of Texas. Collingsworth County, Texas and Collingsworth Street in Houston, were both posthumously named in his honor. Prior to his life in Texas, Collinsworth was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, and then served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.
His body was taken by boat upstream along Buffalo Bayou to Houston, where he lay in state at the Texas Capitol.
He was interred at Founders Memorial Cemetery in Houston.