BRAMAN, DON EGBERT ERASTUS (1814-1897). Don Braman, public official, the oldest child of Andrew and Nancy (Hawes) Braman, was born in Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, on September 21, 1814. He attended the common schools of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1833 he visited an uncle, Don Carlos Hawes, in Macon, Georgia, and in 1835 participated in a raid against the Cherokee Indians in what is now Eufaula. In 1836 he traveled to New Orleans, and the following year he headed to Texas with a large number of volunteers for the Texas army. He enlisted at Camp Johnson in Jackson County on March 9, 1837, and was discharged on June 30, 1838, from Captain Miles, Company E, Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers. He received payment of land in Baylor County for his service.

Braman received a second class headright of 640 acres in Matagorda County and served as a customs officer at Matagorda. He was appointed clerk of the First Judicial District Court in 1847 and served in that office until 1866. He studied law while he was district clerk and was admitted to the bar in 1853. He served as mayor of Matagorda for several years and was appointed county judge in 1867 by Governor Elisha M. Pease.^qv Braman was the author of Braman's Information About Texas (1857), which gave a description of counties and information for emigrants. He was a pro-Union Southerner, but he had a few slaves. In 1860 he was listed as a lawyer with $8,200 worth of land and $7,300 in personal property. He financed cattle drives to northern markets. After the 1886 hurricane he moved to Victoria. On April 28, 1844, he married Mary Elizabeth Burkhart; they had eleven children, who were all baptized at Christ Episcopal Church, Matagorda. Braman died on February 17, 1897, and his funeral was conducted at St. Mary's Catholic Church, where he had been confirmed in 1893. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Columbus Marr, History of Matagorda County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1928). Matagorda County Historical Commission, Historic Matagorda County (3 vols., Houston: Armstrong, 1986).