Fulshear, Churchill (unknown–1831)

Churchill Fulshear, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, was born in France. He worked as a mariner for a time, and was in Craven County, North Carolina, on December 9, 1800, when he married Betsy Summers. They were in Tennessee by 1808, when their third son was born. In the summer of 1824 Fulshear moved to Texas. He arrived already a man of considerable property and soon was settled on a sitio of land, granted in 1824 in what is now Fort Bend County. There he raised stock and farmed with his three sons, Benjamin, Graves, and Churchill Fulshear, Jr. His household also included his wife, a daughter, and a servant. Noah Smithwick arrived in Texas in 1827, walked from the coast to the Fulshear home, and was welcomed into the family's log cabin. There he was given his first Texas meal of "dried venison sopped in honey." In 1829 Fulshear ran for regidor at San Felipe but was defeated by Jesse H. Cartwright. He ran again in 1830 and was elected. Though he was old and lame, Fulshear fulfilled his duties, often traveling to check on the merits of land grantees in Austin's colony. He died on January 18, 1831. His three sons served as scouts in the Texas army during the Texas Revolution. They were on duty when Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna crossed the Brazos River on the road to San Jacinto. The town of Fulshear, in northern Fort Bend County, is named for Churchill Fulshear.