MAETZE, ERNST GUSTAV (1817-1891). Ernst Gustav Maetze, teacher and legislator, was born in Glogan, Silesia, on September 20, 1817. He graduated from the University of Breslau (now Wroc_aw, Poland) with a degree in Protestant theology, but he preached only one sermon before he became headmaster of the intermediate school at Bernstadt in Silesia. He participated in the German revolutionary movement of 1848 and in the early 1850s immigrated to Texas, where he first taught at a private school at Millheim, Austin County. Shortly afterwards Maetze founded the first public school in Millheim and subsequently taught there for twenty-seven years. In the election of 1888, about ten years after his retirement as a teacher, Maetze won election to the Texas Senate from District Twelve. He served as a member of twelve committees in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second legislatures and chaired the Committee on Rules. He was president pro tem of the Senate when he died at his home in Millheim on October 12, 1891.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Members of the Legislature of the State of Texas from 1846 to 1939 (Austin: Texas Legislature, 1939).

Rudolph L. Biesele