Junker, Isaiah (1818–unknown)

Isaiah Junker, blacksmith, county judge, and legislator, was born in 1818 in Pennsylvania. He moved to Beaumont in the 1840s and was one of the first blacksmiths to operate in the area. According to the 1850 census he had a wife Elizabeth and four children. His son Wilson served in the Civil War and became a steamboat captain in the 1870s. Junker was active in local Jefferson County and Orange County politics. He served three terms as a county judge for Jefferson County. His first term was from 1846 to 1848, and he was re-elected in 1854. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1855 as the representative for Orange and Jefferson counties in the Sixth Texas Legislature. He also served in the House of the Ninth Texas Legislature. His final term as county judge for Jefferson County was from 1857 to 1860. In 1857 Isaiah Junker became one of the primary promoters for the Mexican Gulf and Henderson Railroad, later named the Eastern Texas Railroad. In 1861 he purchased a mercantile store.