Texas Legislators: Past & Present

Joseph Draper Sayers

Full Name: Joseph Draper Sayers
Birth date: September 23, 1841
Death date: May 15, 1929

Terms of Service

Senate, 13th ⁽¹⁾ ⁽²⁾ ⁽³⁾ Legislature
1/14/1873 - 1/13/1874
Democrat

(1) Entire Senate went up for reelection due to Senatorial redistricting. Act passed Apr. 24, 1873 [presented to Governor May 1, 1873 and became law without his signature], 13th Legislature, R.S., ch. 35, Apportionment Laws of Texas, 1836-1950 1950.
(2) 13th Legislature - Senators elect qualified and took their seats, 1/14/1873, p. 1. Senate Journal .
(3) 13th Legislature - Included in list of 15 Senate members that were conservative Democrats, p. 145. The Texas Senate: Volume II, Civil War to the Eve of Reform, 1861-1889 1999.

Biographical Notes and Resources

Selected Newspaper articles

Resolutions and Journal entries

60th Legislature, R.S., HCR 58 (engrossed). Last action in Senate: referred to Committee on State Affairs, 3/14/1967 (Senate Journal, p. 440). Resolutions - Memorial .
41st Legislature, 1st C.S., 5/16/1929, pp. 527-528. Resolutions - Memorial .
41st Legislature, 1st C.S., SCR 10, 5/16/1929, pp. 355-356. Resolution also printed in House Journal, 41st 1st C.S., 5/16/1929, p. 527. Resolutions - Memorial .
"Governor Sayers and his wife are now buried together in Bastrop, Texas, the place from which he left school in 1861 to enlist in the Fifth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers of the Confederate Army. Major Sayers fought in several fierce engagements from Val Verde, New Mexico to Mansfield, Louisiana, and acquitted himself with valour and heroism. He suffered several severe wounds and finished the war on crutches." 60th Legislature, R.S., HCR 58 (engrossed). Resolutions - Memorial .
"Governor Sayers lived a long and useful life, filled with heroic deeds and magnificent achievements. He fought valiantly in the cause of the Confederacy throughout the Civil War, and was among the last, if not the last, survivor of Tom Green's Brigade. He was wounded at the Battle of Val Verde, again at the Battle of Mansfield, and on both occasions exhibited that rare courage and fortitude which only a soldier of the highest type can." 41st Legislature, 1st C.S., SCR 10, 5/16/1929, pp. 355-356. Resolutions - Memorial .

Photographs

Photograph. Joseph Sayers, Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 1846-2006
Photograph. Joseph Sayers, DeGolyer Library, SMU, Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs
Photograph. Joseph Sayers, State Preservation Board

Other Resources

SAYERS, Joseph Draper (1841-1929). Representative, TX. Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress .
Biographical sketch, Joseph D. Sayers, pp. 121-123. Governors Who Have Been, and Other Public Men of Texas 1921.
SAYERS, JOSEPH DRAPER (1841-1929). Handbook of Texas Online .
Governor of Texas 1899-1903. Legislative Reference Library, Governors of Texas, 1846-present .
Portrait and biographical sketch, Joseph D. Sayers, Member of Congress, pp. 60-61. Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, 20th Legislature 1887.
Biographical sketch, Joseph D. Sayers, Member of Congress, pp. 141-142. Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, 21st Legislature 1889.
Portrait and biographical sketch, Joseph D. Sayers, Representative, Tenth Congressional District, pp. 180-181. Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas, 22nd Legislature 1892.
12th Lieutenant Governor: Joseph Draper Sayers. Photo and biographical sketch. Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 1846-2016 2016.
Confederate States Army, Major. Sayers was "the last Confederate soldier to serve as governor." Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 1846-2016 2016.
Portrait (July 1862) and biographical sketch, p. 17. Texans and Their State: A Newspaper Reference Work 1918.
Biographical sketch, pp. 76-77. Birth date 9/23/1842. Texans Who Wore the Gray 1907.
Confederate States Army, Captain, Valverde Battery; Major, Assistant Adjutant General, 5th Texas Cavalry. Texas Burial Sites of Civil War Notables: A Biographical and Pictorial Field Guide 2002.
Biographical sketch and portrait, pp. 5-6, 44, 79, Plate No. 67. Texas in the War, 1861-1865 1965.
Biographical sketch, p. 235. Birth date 9/23/1842. Texas Legislative Manual, 1879-80 1879.
Portrait and biographical sketch, Governor Joseph D. Sayers, pp. 1-2. The Twenty-Seventh Legislature and State Administration of Texas 1901.
Biographical and portrait of Joseph D. Sayers, pp. 359-374. Relatives: Joseph Draper Sayers and William B. Sayers - brothers. Year Book for Texas, 1901 1902.