Born in North Carolina, Robert Simonton Gould was educated at the University of Alabama, came to Texas in 1850, practiced law in Centerville, served as the first District Attorney, then as judge in the old 13th Judicial District, and represented Leon County at the Secession Convention in 1861. After Leon County voted 534 to 82 in favor of secession, he raised local troops which, as Co. B, became the nucleus for the 6th Texas Cavalry, or Gould's battalion, in the Confederate Army. First as major and then as colonel, he led the battalion for four years in Louisiana and Texas, served in the Red River Campaign to prevent invasions of Texas, fought in the 1864 repulses of Federal forces at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, and at Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas, had his horse killed under him. After the war he was reelected judge of the old 13th District, but in 1867 was removed by military authorities directing Reconstruction in Texas. Appointed Assistant Justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1874, he was afterward elected and served until Dec 31,1882, including service as Chief Justice from 1880 to 1882. He was later named, along with Governor O.M. Roberts, as one of the first two professors of law at the University of Texas and held that post from 1883 to 1899, before dying in Austin.