Elisha Marshall Pease was born on January 3, 1812 in Enfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. His father, Lorrain Thompson Pease, was a descendant of Robert Pease who emigrated from England to Salem, Massachussets, in 1634 and of John Pease, one of the founders of the town of Enfield. His mother was Sarah (Marshall) Pease, of Windsor, Connecticut.
Elisha Marshall Pease obtained his education in the public schools of Enfield and in an academy at Westfield, Massachussets.
From his fourteenth year to his twenty-first, Elisha Marshall Pease was a clerk in a country store and in the post-office at Hartford, where he acquired an elementary knowledge of business and of accounting. He spent the summer of 1834 in the West and in the late fall was in New Orleans on business. There he heard so much of Texas that in January 1835 he removed to Texas and settled at Mina, now Bastrop, and began the study of the law with D. C. Barrett. However, his studies were soon interrupted by the outbreak of the war for Texan independence. He fought in the first skirmish at Gonzales and was then made secretary of the provisional government established by the consultation held at San Felipe in November 1835. Though not a member of the convention that declared independence in March 1836, he was of great help in drafting the constitution for the new republic.
During the struggle for independence Elisha Marshall Pease served as chief clerk of the navy and treasury departments and, for a short time, as secretary of the treasury after the death of Hardeman. In November 1836 he became clerk of the judiciary committee of the Congress and drafted the laws to organize the judiciary and define the duties of county officers. Late in 1836 he resumed the study of the law, this time with John A. Wharton of Brazoria. Admitted to the bar in 1837, he formed a partnership with Wharton and, later, with John W. Harris. For a short time, during the days of the republic, he served as district attorney. After Texas entered the Union, he served two terms in the House and one in the Senate of the state legislature.
In 1853 Elisha Marshall Pease was elected governor and in 1855 was reëlected on a platform opposed to the doctrines of the Know-Nothing party. The period of his two administrations was one of great prosperity to the state. Under his leadership the public debt was paid; a school fund of $2, 000, 000 was created; railroad building was encouraged; state institutions were established for the care of the insane, the deaf, and the blind; $100, 000 was set apart as an endowment for a state university; and steps were taken to put the university in operation. However, the approach of the Civil War put a stop to this development. Like Houston, he opposed secession, but he remained in Texas during the war, taking no part in it. Before the war he had affiliated with the Democratic party, but he now became a Republican.
In 1866 Elisha Marshall Pease was a delegate and a vice-president of the Philadelphia convention of Southern Unionists, and later in the year he was a candidate for governor but was defeated by J. W. Throckmorton. In the following year, when the latter was removed by the military authorities as an "obstruction to reconstruction, " he was appointed provisional governor by General Sheridan, but he resigned in 1869 because of a difference of opinion between the commanding general, J. J. Reynolds, and himself in regard to the reorganization of the state government. In 1872 he represented Texas in the Liberal Republican convention at Cincinnati that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency.
In 1874, Elisha Marshall Pease was offered the collectorship of the port of Galveston, but he declined it. When a second tender of the same office was made by President Hayes in 1879, he accepted it. This was his last public service. He died in the town of Lampasas, where he had gone for his health on August 26, 1883.
Elisha Marshall Pease was an outstanding governor. Among his important achievements was his pioneering effort to persuade the legislature to establish a system of public education and a state university. Though this effort proved largely premature, Pease's administration did establish the permanent school fund. His most significant accomplishment was the settlement of the public debt of the state, by which he made available funds for the establishment of a hospital for the mentally ill and schools for the deaf and blind.
During the American Civil War, Pease was a member of the Union Party. After the war, he changed his views and a member of Republican Party.
In August 1850 Elisha Marshall Pease was married to Lucadia Christinia Niles, the daughter of Richard Niles of Windsor, Connecticut. They had three daughters.
