Wyley Martin

Martin County was named for Wyley Martin, a soldier, judge, and legislator, who was of the Three Hundred of Stephen F. Austin.

Wyley Martin was born in Georgia in 1776, and was a clerk and teacher until the War of 1812, when he was commissioned a third lieutenant in the Ninth United States Infantry on August 9,1813.For the next ten years, he was a professional soldier, raising to the rank of Captain of the Sixth Infantry, his unit when he resigned his commission on July 21, 1823. He resigned supposedly because he killed a man in a duel.

In 1825, he immigrated to Texas with S. F. Austin's Three Hundred, and was appointed accolade of the colony. This was the administrative head of the colony under the immigration laws of the time. In 1835, Wyley was the acting head of the Department of the Brazos.

He was a delegate to the conventions of 1832,1833,and 1835 as a member of the "Peace Party" and opposed to independence from Mexico, but when the revolution came, he was one of the signers of the declaration of war against General Santa Ana's Centralist Regime on November 7,1835.

During this time, in December 1835, he made a pen-and-ink sketch of Travis, while at San Antonio. It is the only known portrait of Col. Travis done from life. The sketch, which is disputed by some is here.

During the revolution, Martin attained the rank of Major in the army, but because of several reasons, his war service was undistinguished, and uneventful. He resigned his commission on May 15,1836.

After the war, Martin made his home in Fort Bend county, where he was appointed chief justice of the county in 1837. He was admitted to the in 1838, and elected as chief justice of Fort bend county on September 6, 1841. Later he was elected to the Texas Congress as representative of Austin, Colorado, and Fort Bend counties. At 65, he was the oldest representative in the Sixth Congress or Texas. He died in Fort Bend settlement during the break between sessions at this time.