Pendleton Murrah

Pendleton Murrah (1826–August 4, 1865) was the tenth Governor of Texas. His term in office coincided with the American Civil War.

Career
A native of South Carolina, Murrah graduated from Brown University in 1848. He moved to Texas and opened a law practice in Marshall. He ran and was defeated for the U.S. Congress before winning the state gubernatorial race in 1863.

During the American Civil War, Murrah emphatically supported the Rebel cause, although he ended up in a controversy over the conscription of Texas militia troops into the Confederate army. Still, even after Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865, he encouraged Texans to continue the revolution. Only when Union occupation forces were en route to Texas did Murrah flee with other Confederate leaders to Mexico. Lt. Governor Stockdale filled the vacant post, acting as governor for three months, until provisional governor Andrew J. Hamilton assumed office in August 1865. The trip was too much for his already fragile health, and in August 1865, he died in Monterrey, Mexico of tuberculosis. His grave is located in the Panteon Municipal of Monterrey, Mexico.

Ancestry
Murrah was born in Bibb County, Alabama in 1826 the illegitimate son of Peggy Murrah, a daughter of Charles and Avarilla Jones Murrah. Charles, born in 1775 in Warren Co., North Carolina, traces his ancestry to Lodowick and Mira Ann Jeter Murrah of Caroline County, Virginia through their son also named Charles and his wife Margaret (Peggy).