George Washington SMYTH, Congress, TX (1803-1866)

SMYTH, George Washington, a Representative from Texas; born in North Carolina, May 16, 1803; moved with his parents to Alabama, and later to Murfreesboro, Tenn.; attended the common schools and the college at Murfreesboro; moved to Texas, then a part of the Republic of Mexico, in 1828, and settled in the municipality of Bevell, Zavalas Colony (now Jasper County); appointed by the Mexican Government as surveyor, and later made commissioner of titles; delegate to the General Consultation of Texas at San Felipe de Austin in 1835; member of the Texas State convention and a signer of the declaration of independence of Texas in 1836; also a signer of the constitution of the Republic of Texas; appointed by President Lamar, of Texas, commissioner in charge of the boundary line between the Republic of Texas and the United States; engaged in agricultural pursuits; deputy in the Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1845, and assisted in framing the constitution of the State of Texas; elected commissioner of the general land office of the State in 1848; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855); declined a renomination to the Thirty-fourth Congress; served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War; member of the State constitutional convention in 1866; died in Austin, Tex., February 21, 1866, while attending a session of the convention; interment in the State Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present