David Gouverneur Burnet

Burnet was a lawyer and politician who served as ad interim President and Vice President of the Republic of Texas. Burnet was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1788, orphaned at an early age and spent much of his early life living with different family members before striking out on his own. He participated in a filibuster expedition against Venezuela and worked at a trading post in Louisiana before starting a law practice in Ohio. He came to Texas in 1826 to secure an empresario grant near Nacogdoches, which he sold a few years later and opened a saw mill on the San Jacinto River, which he was forced to sell after four years. Though not a very successful businessman, he possessed impressive oratorical skills and though not invited to the Convention of 1836, he went anyway and when the Convention declared independence, they selected Burnet to serve as the ad interim president. He presided over Texas through the Revolution and earliest days of the Republic. His greatest accomplishment as president, securing the Treaty of Velasco, also caused him to become quite unpopular because of his decision to allow Santa Anna to return to Mexico. He later served as Vice President under Mirabeau Lamar and unsuccessfully campaigned for the presidency in 1841. He served as the Secretary of State under Governor Pinckney Henderson. His wife passed away in 1858 and their only surviving child, William, was killed during the Civil War. He died penniless in Galveston in 1870. Burnet County was named in his honor.