FULSHEAR, CHURCHILL, JR. (1808-1892). Churchill Fulshear (Fulchur), Jr., early Texas scout, the son of Churchill Fulshearqv, was born in Tennessee on July 10, 1808. He came to Texas with his family before July 1824 and lived at the family plantation on the Brazos River. He and his brothers, Graves and Benjamin Fulshear, were on scout duty when Antonio López de Santa Anna's army crossed the river near the plantation on April 14, 1836. On April 19 Fulshear was sent with James Wells and Washington H. Secrest to watch the movements of MartÃn Perfecto de Cos. At Stafford's Point the three scouts encountered the Mexicans and became separated.
After the Texas Revolution Fulshear married Minerva Cartwright, daughter of Jesse H. Cartwright. They became parents of five children. In 1840 Fulshear held title to 5,904 acres in Gonzales County with another 865 acres not yet surveyed. From 1850 to 1870, after his father and brothers had all died, he operated a race course called Churchill Downs on the family plantation in Fort Bend County. His property was valued at between $10,000 and $20,000 in 1856. He was a member of the Texas Veterans Association in 1874. He died in 1892.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: DeWitt Clinton Baker, comp., A Texas Scrap-Book (New York: Barnes, 1875; rpt. 1887; facsimile rpt., Austin: Steck, 1935). "Reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 4, 7 (October 1900, January 1901, January 1904). Clarence Wharton, Wharton's History of Fort Bend County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1939).
