Gustav Schleicher
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Gustav Schleicher (sometimes spelled Gustave) (November 19, 1823 – January 10, 1879) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
-born Democratic
United States Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
from
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. He was an
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
who served briefly in the Texas legislature, and was a veteran of the
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), 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), fi ...
.''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 the ...
in the German principality of
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
in 1823. He attended the Giessen University and studied engineering. He assisted in the construction of early railroads in
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. He, Hermann Spiess and Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Herff were among the leaders in a group of intellectuals who immigrated to Texas and founded a Fisher–Miller Land Grant commune, named Bettina after the German literary figure and social visionary Bettina von Arnim, on the banks of the Llano River 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 () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
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 San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
. 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. He also was instrumental in forming the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad 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 military officer who served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia declared secession from ...
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. There are no Term limits in the United States, term limits. The ...
, where he served one term in the
Fifth Texas Legislature The 5th 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: Novem ...
.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 (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...
. During this time he acquired title to extensive land holdings on the
Edwards Plateau The Edwards Plateau is a geographic region forming the crossroads of Central, South and West Texas, United States. It is named in honor of Haden Edwards. It is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east; the Llano Uplift and the Lla ...
. 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 is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives functioning as the lower house. Together, they form the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the state of Texas. The Senate ...
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'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, Victoria, Texas metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Ar ...
to Cuero, Texas. 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 A ways and means committee is a government body that is charged with reviewing and making recommendations for government budgets. Because the raising of revenue is vital to carrying out governmental operations, such a committee is tasked with fi ...
, the
Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Affairs Committee may refer to: * Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development * Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade * Foreign Affairs Committee of t ...
and then as Chairman of the House Canals and Railroads Committee. His activities in support of the
gold standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, 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 ...
gained him a challenger within the Democratic primary in the person of John Ireland, 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 floor leader James A. Garfield 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.


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 cou ...
was named for Gustav Schleicher.


See also

*
List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899) The following is a list of United States United States Senate, senators and United States House of Representatives, representatives who died of natural or accidental causes, or who killed themselves, while serving their terms between 1790 and 18 ...


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 Engineers from Darmstadt 1823 births 1879 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Schleicher County, Texas 19th-century members of the Texas Legislature 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives