George Campbell Childress Statue

George Childress had been in Texas only since January 1836 when Milam Municipality sent him to the convention. The Handbook of Texas says he called the delegates to order, then introduced the resolution naming a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence. As its chairman he is almost universally acknowledged as the document's chief author. His life afterward went badly: the diplomatic mission to Washington ended in May 1836, and law offices opened in Houston and Galveston failed to support his family. On October 6, 1841, in Galveston, he took his own life.

What the plaque says

George Campbell Childress Statue Born in Nashville, Tennessee, January 8, 1804. Died in Galveston, Texas, October 6, 1841. Before coming to Texas in December 1835, he assisted in raising funds and securing volunteers for the Army of Texas; delegate from the Municipality of Milam to the Constitutional Convention held here from March 1 to 17, 1836, chairman of Committee of Five which drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence; appointed by President Burnet March 19, 1836; agent of Texas at Washington to secure the recognition of the sovereignty and independence of Texas by the United States.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Star of the Republic Museum — steps away
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 0.2 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Navasota — 5.9 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 12 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.

More markers nearby

• Andrew Robinson Sr. — steps away
• Washington County — steps away
• Washington-on-the-Brazos — steps away
• Asa Brigham — 0.9 mi