I have ever witnessed in Congress." He frequently clashed with fellow Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett, with Crockett calling Lea a "poltroon, a scoundrel, and a puppy," and warning they would fight if they ever crossed paths. Later life During the mid-1830s, Lea developed an interest in railroad construction, which many East Tennesseans viewed as a solution to the region's isolation. He was secretary of an 1836 Knoxville convention that mapped out the proposed Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad. This proposed railroad was doomed by the Panic of 1837, however. Lea moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1836. He then moved to Goliad, Texas, in 1846, to promote railroad construction. He worked with the Aransas Railroad Company, which sought to build a line from the Aransas Bay area to Goliad, and eventually from Goliad to San Antonio (his brother, Albert Miller Lea, was chief engineer of the company). In 1866, the company reincorporated as the Central Transit Company, re-mapping its line from Goliad to Galveston as part of a larger transcontinental effort. Though vigorously promoted by Lea, the company's plans never materialized. Lea was a founding trustee of the University of Mississippi. Both Albert and Pryor Lea supported the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society which planned to invade Mexico and Central America and establish a massive slave empire around the Gulf of Mexico. They pitched the society's plan to Governor Sam Houston in 1860, but Houston rejected the plan, and ordered the Texas Rangers to break up the Knights' assemblies. Lea was a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention, which met in Austin in January 1861 to adopt an Ordinance of Secession, leading to eventual Texas membership in the Confederacy. He was elected to the Texas Senate later that year, serving a single term. During the war, he worked with Goliad Aid Association, which provided relief to indigent families, and served as a commissioner with the Aransas Salt Works. In 1866, Governor James W. Throckmorton appointed Lea state superintendent of public instruction, though he was later removed for opposing Reconstruction. Goliad County elected Lea their delegate to the state's 1875 Constitutional Convention, but he declined due to his "extreme age." He died on September 14, 1879 (age 85 years, 14 days), and is interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Goliad. References External links 1794 births 1879 deaths People from Grainger County, Tennessee Jacksonian members of the United States House