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Joseph
P. Pulsifer,
early Texas
apothecary and
a founder of
Beaumont, the
son of
Ebenezer and
Elizabeth
(Dwelbee)
Pulsifer, was
born in
Newburyport,
Massachusetts,
on July 8,
1805. Little
is known about
Pulsifer's
education,
except that
his letters
show him to
have been an
extremely
literate man.
Probably
through
apprenticeship,
he became an
apothecary,
and sometime
after 1827 he
opened a
drugstore in
partnership
with his
brother Eben
in nearby
Charlestown,
now a suburb
of Boston.
There Pulsifer
became a
member of the
Mechanics'
Society and
served as its
secretary in
1831. Sometime
during 1832 or
1833 he
returned to
Newburyport to
work in the
drug firm of
Thomas Davis
and Company.
In the fall of
1833 Pulsifer
moved to New
Orleans in
search of
economic
opportunity
and found
employment in
the store of
druggist and
retail
merchant Henry
W. Millard.qv
By 1835,
however, the
firm developed
financial
troubles.
Pulsifer and
Millard then
entered into a
partnership,
J. P. Pulsifer
and Company,
with Texas
merchant
Thomas B.
Huling.qv
The men moved
to Texas in
July of that
year. In a
small
settlement
named Santa
Anna, on the
Neches River,
they opened a
store under
Pulsifer's
management. In
the fall of
1835 the firm
purchased
fifty acres on
the Neches
River and laid
out the
boundaries of
a new town,
which they
called
Beaumont.
From
Beaumont,
Pulsifer took
an active, if
nonmilitary,
part in the
Texas
Revolution.qv
Citizens of
the Neches
River
Settlement, as
that area was
called,
appointed him
chairman of
the Committee
of
Correspondence,
secretary of
the Committee
of Safety (see
COMMITTEES OF
SAFETY AND
CORRESPONDENCE),
and a member
of a local
committee to
draft ideas
for a
constitution
and bylaws for
Texas. He also
served as
Beaumont's
first
postmaster and
as a trustee
of the first
school. After
the revolution
Pulsifer,
Huling, and
Millard added
fifty acres to
the original
Beaumont
townsite. By
entering into
partnership
with Nancy
Tevis and
Joseph
Grigsby,qv
each of whom
donated an
additional
fifty acres,
they increased
the original
area of the
town to a
total of 200
acres.
Beaumont
ultimately
incorporated
both Santa
Anna and Tevis
Bluff, an
older
settlement
about a mile
upriver from
Santa Anna.
Pulsifer, who
never married,
remained a
citizen of
Beaumont for
the rest of
his life. In
addition to
practicing his
professions of
storekeeper
and
apothecary, he
served in
various public
offices:
collector of
revenue for
the port of
Sabine, county
clerk, county
commissioner,
and clerk of
the Jefferson
County Board
of Land
Commissioners.
Before the
first
Jefferson
County
Courthouse was
built in 1854,
the county
commissioners
periodically
held court on
the second
floor of his
combination
home and store
in Beaumont.
He also served
as an agent in
Jefferson
County for the
Austin State
Gazette.qv
Pulsifer
died in
Beaumont in
1861. The one
extant volume
of his
correspondence
remains
unpublished.
It covers the
period from
1833 to 1836
and describes
his
immigration to
Texas and his
ordeal during
the Texas
Revolution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Judith Walker
Linsley and
Ellen Walker
Rienstra,
Beaumont: A
Chronicle of
Promise
(Woodland
Hills,
California:
Windsor,
1982).
Judith
Linsley and
Ellen Rienstra
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