8th Texas Legislature
The 8th Texas Legislature met from November 7, 1859 to April 9, 1861 in its regular session, a first called session, and an adjourned session. All members of the House of Representatives and about half of the members of the Senate were elected in 1859.
Sessions
- 8th Regular session: November 7, 1859 – February 13, 1860
- 8th First called session: January 21–February 9, 1861
- 8th Adjourned session: March 18–April 9, 1861
Party summary
Officers
Senate
- Lieutenant Governor
- Edward Clark, Democrat
- President pro tempore
- Jesse Grimes, Democrat, Regular session
House of Representatives
- Speaker of the House
- M. D. K. Taylor, Democrat
Members
Members of the Eighth Texas Legislature at the beginning of the regular session, November 7, 1859:
Senate
District | Senator | Party | Took office |
---|---|---|---|
1 | James W. Sims | Democrat | 1859 |
2 | Lewis G. Harmon | Democrat | 1859 |
3 | Martin D. Hart | Democrat | 1859 |
4 | James W. Throckmorton | Democrat | 1857 |
5 | Albert G. Walker | Democrat | 1857 (First time: 1849–1851) |
6 | Emory Rains | Democrat | 1859 |
7 | John Green Chambers | Democrat | 1859 |
8 | Louis T. Wigfall | Democrat | 1857 |
9 | Jesse H. Parsons | Democrat | 1859 |
10 | Elisha Everett Lott | Democrat | 1853 |
11 | Robert Henry Guinn | Democrat | 1853 |
12 | Alexis T. Rainey | Democrat | 1859 |
13 | John N. Fall | Democrat | 1857 |
14 | John R. Dickinson | Democrat | 1859 |
15 | Henry C. Wallace | Democrat | 1859 |
16 | Enoch S. Pitts | Democrat | 1859 |
17 | Mark M. Potter | Democrat | 1851 |
18 | Abram Morris Gentry | Democrat | 1859 |
19 | Jesse Grimes | Democrat | 1855 (First time: 1846–1853) |
20 | Chauncey Berkeley Shepard | Democrat | 1857 |
21 | David M. Whaley | Democrat | 1858 |
22 | Francis Marion Martin | Democrat | 1859 |
23 | George Bernard Erath | Democrat | 1857 |
24 | George E. Quinan | Democrat | 1857 |
25 | Eggleston D. Townes | Democrat | 1859 |
26 | Fletcher S. Stockdale | Democrat | 1857 |
27 | Thomas Hinds Duggan | Democrat | 1859 (First time: 1851–1853) |
28 | Edwin B. Scarborough | Democrat | 1853 |
29 | Forbes Britton | Democrat | 1857 |
30 | Isaiah Addison Paschal | Democrat | 1857 (First time: 1853–1855) |
31 | Gustav Schleicher | Democrat | 1859 |
32 | Claiborne C. Herbert | Democrat | 1857 |
33 | Archibald C. Hyde | Democrat | 1857 |
House of Representatives
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008) |
District | Representative | Party | Took Office |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Solomon H. Pirkey | Unknown | November 12, 1859 |
- Basilio Benavides
- Anthony Martin Branch
- Kindallis Bryan
- Constantine W. Buckley
- William Clark
- David B. Culberson
- Nicholas Henry Darnell
- John Wilson Davis, Jr.
- Isaac N. Dennis
- David Catchings Dickson
- Edward Dougherty
- Foscue
- James Carlton Francis
- Benjamin Cromwell Franklin
- De Witt Clinton Fort
- Lindsay Hagler, San Patricio County
- James Marshall Harrison
- John L. Haynes
- J. W. Henderson
- Alfred Marmaduke Hobby
- Richard Bennett Hubbard, Jr.
- Henry Lawrence Kinney
- Francis J. Lynch
- John Haywood Manley
- Samuel Maverick
- John N. McClarty
- George McKnight
- Roger Q. Mills
- William Wright Morris
- Titus H. Mundine
- José Ángel Navarro
- Allison Nelson
- Anthony Banning Norton
- Benjamin F. Parker
- Samuel Redgate
- Joel Walter Robison
- Shelton
- Daniel McDowell Short
- John Dennis Stell
- M. D. K. Taylor
- Robert H. Taylor
- Robert J. Townes
- Jacob Waelder
- Charles A. Warfield
- George Washington Whitmore
- William Amos Wortham
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Wrede, Jr.
Membership changes
Senate
District | Outgoing Senator | Reason for Vacancy | Successor | Date of Successor's Installation |
---|---|---|---|---|
District 3 | Martin D. Hart | Hart resigned February 26, 1861. | Turner L. Greene | Unknown |
District 8 | Louis T. Wigfall | Wigfall announced his resignation on December 7, 1859. | E. A. Blanch | January 14, 1860 |
District 9 | Jesse H. Parsons | Parsons resigned after the adjourned session. | None | |
District 12 | Alexis T. Rainey | Rainey resigned after the regular session. | Steward Alexander Miller | January 21, 1861 |
District 14 | John R. Dickinson | Dickinson resigned after the regular session. | Henry P. C. Dulany | January 26, 1861 |
District 15 | Henry C. Wallace | Wallace resigned January 4, 1861. | Franklin Barlow Sexton | None[1] |
District 15 | Franklin Barlow Sexton | Sexton did not appear. | None[2] | |
District 25 | Eggleston D. Townes | Townes resigned March 13, 1861. | Nathan George Shelley[3] | November 4, 1861 |
District 29 | Forbes Britton | Britton died February 14, 1861. | Benjamin Franklin Neal | March 19, 1861 |
District 30 | Isaiah Addison Paschal | Paschal resigned March 29, 1861. | Unknown | Unknown |
- ^ District 15: Sexton did not return from Confederate States Army service in time to meet with the legislature.
- ^ District 25: Shelley elected in special election held March 25, 1861 and sworn in with the Ninth Texas Legislature.
House of Representatives
District | Outgoing Representative | Reason for Vacancy | Successor | Date of Successor's Installation |
---|---|---|---|---|
District 22 | John N. McClarty | McClarty resigned after the regular session. | William Wright Morris | January 22, 1861 |
District 65 | Henry Lawrence Kinney | Kinney was opposed to secession and resigned February 9, 1861. | Alfred Marmaduke Hobby | March 19, 1861 |
External links
- Texas Legislature Online
- Texas Senate
- Texas House of Representatives
- Election Results from the Office of the Secretary of State
- Legislative Reference Library
- v
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Texas State Legislatures (and year convened)
- 1 (1846)
- 2 (1847)
- 3 (1849)
- 4 (1851)
- 5 (1853)
- 6 (1855)
- 7 (1857)
- 8 (1859)
- 9 (1861)
- 10 (1863)
- 11 (1866)†
- 12 (1870)†
- 13 (1873)†
- 14 (1874)†
- 15 (1876)†
- 16 (1879)
- 17 (1881)
- 18 (1883)
- 19 (1885)
- 20 (1887)
- 21 (1889)
- 22 (1891)
- 23 (1893)
- 24 (1895)
- 25 (1897)
- 26 (1899)
- 27 (1901)
- 28 (1903)
- 29 (1905)
- 30 (1907)
- 31 (1909)
- 32 (1911)
- 33 (1913)
- 34 (1915)
- 35 (1917)
- 36 (1919)
- 37 (1921)
- 38 (1923)
- 39 (1925)
- 40 (1927)
- 41 (1929)
- 42 (1931)
- 43 (1933)
- 44 (1935)
- 45 (1937)
- 46 (1939)
- 47 (1941)
- 48 (1943)
- 49 (1945)
- 50 (1947)
- 51 (1949)
- 52 (1951)
- 53 (1953)
- 54 (1955)
- 55 (1957)
- 56 (1959)
- 57 (1961)
- 58 (1963)
- 59 (1965)
- 60 (1967)
- 61 (1969)
- 62 (1971)
- 63 (1973)
- 64 (1975)
- 65 (1977)
- 66 (1979)
- 67 (1981)
- 68 (1983)
- 69 (1985)
- 70 (1987)
- 71 (1989)
- 72 (1991)
- 73 (1993)
- 74 (1995)
- 75 (1997)
- 76 (1999)
- 77 (2001)
- 78 (2003)
- 79 (2005)
- 80 (2007)
- 81 (2009)
- 82 (2011)
- 83 (2013)
- 84 (2015)
- 85 (2017)
- 86 (2019)
- 87 (2021)
- 88 (2023)
- 89 (2025)