PFT Stories

Thomas Chambers: His Life and His Murder

Thomas Chambers, one of our state's more ambitious early businessmen, was the youngest of 20 children. Not left with much of an inheritance, he sought fortune elsewhere.

"In 1826, he decided Mexico was calling and he took a ship down to Vera Cruz," said Liz Appleby of the San Jacinto Museum.

"He went down to Mexico learned the language and earned extra money tutoring the children of rich businessmen. Then he would translate documents for people and offer legal advice. He gained a very respectable reputation among the Mexican government," said historian Peter Stynes.

His time in Mexico led to a career amassing land.

"He became certified as a surveyor and became the Surveyor General of Texas. And this is really where his passion for land started to come into being. For his fee, for all this wonderful work he did, he got a fabulous 11 leagues of land that encompassed about five counties in present day Texas," Appleby said.

Some of Chambers' land acquisitions didn't make him any friends.

"He took a lot of really important and good land that unfortunately in many cases had already been owned," Appleby said.

Chambers also fostered hostility among his neighbors when he sided with Mexico over the Texian revolutionary faction.

"He knew what side the bread was buttered on," Stynes said. "He was going to side with the Mexican government. That's where he got his reputation. During the events of 1832 Chambers organized a company of Germans and they were ready to garrison against the Texans militia."

Chambers saw the prevailing winds and did an about face, offering to raise troops for Texas.

"Early in the year (1836) they made him a general in the reserves and sent him to Kentucky to raise troops, he was gone the whole time of the revolution," explained Kevin Ladd of the Wallisville Heritage Park.

While Chambers was away on an extended trip, a man named John O'Brien ended up with one of his land parcels in Chambers County. The result was not good for O'Brien.

"Chambers didn't pay his taxes on that property and the sheriff was authorized to sell the land. John O'Brien bought it and became the legal owner," Stynes said. "O'Brien got shot and killed, as well as a reporter from the Galveston News," Lipp said.

Chambers was always looking for money making schemes.

"He had a charter set up for (a) transportation company. He had some land he had already given to them. He could have those big road ways all across the state. And these wagons didn't have horses attached to them, they just had sails," Lipp said.

The end result of Chambers' manipulations was that he was quite unliked.

"Chambers was highly suspected because he was a highly educated man. He may have come off very arrogant and many people just didn't trust him," Stynes said.

Eventually, Ab Wilcox of that rival family would bring about the demise of Thomas Chambers.
Chambers was upstairs with his family.

"They were going to kill Chambers. Several men were applying for the job, so to speak, and they drew straws and Wilcox drew the right straw," Stynes said. "One account said Wilcox climbed a tree and fired through a window with a shot gun. And one story is he was cuddling his daughter Stella in his arms."

The blast missed the child, but not its intended target. Some mystery remains about Chambers' murder because it was never resolved.