Horatio Chriesman

Horatio Chriesman (August 13, 1797 – November 1, 1878) was an American surveyor, politician and soldier.

Early life Chriesman was born on August 13, 1797, in Virginia.

Career He served as a surveyor in Kentucky and Missouri. he continued until Stephen F. Austin's death in 1836.

He surveyed the Jack League, in what is now Fayette County, which was purchased in 1843 by the German immigration company Adelsverein as a slave plantation. It was named Nassau Plantation after the Duke of Nassau.

Chriesman fought against Native Americans as captain of the colonial militia in 1824. Austin was eventually chosen as the seat of government.

In 1840, Chriesman was one of nine trustees who incorporated the Republic's first private institution of learning, the Union Academy in Washington-on-the-Brazos.

He retired in Burleson County, Texas. He had eleven children. The ghost town of Gay Hill in Washington County, Texas, was known as "Chriesman Settlement" until it was renamed by the Republic of Texas in 1840.