Born in North Carolina on March 31, 1808, James Pinckney Henderson arrived in Texas on June 3, 1836, at the head of a company of volunteers. He served as Attorney General of the Republic in 1836, Secretary of State from 1836 to 1837, Minister to England and France from 1837 to 1839, and Special Minister to the United States in 1844. He became the first Governor of the State of Texas from 1846 to 1847, and during the Mexican War from 1846 to 1847 served as a Major General in command of Texas forces, receiving a vote of thanks and a sword from the U.S. Congress for gallantry. In 1858 he became a United States Senator from Texas, and he died in Washington D.C. on June 4, 1858.