 Barzillai Jefferson Chambers ( December 5 , 1817 – September 16 , 1895 ) was an American surveyor , lawyer , and politician of the Gilded Age . Born in Kentucky , he moved to Texas to join that state 's war for independence against Mexico . Chambers stayed in Texas after its independence and annexation by the United States , earning a living as a surveyor and farmer in Johnson County . In the American Civil War , he served briefly in the Confederate army , then returned to his farming and business interests , becoming part @-@ owner of a bank in his hometown of Cleburne . In the 1870s , Chambers became concerned with farming and monetary issues in politics , eventually joining the nascent Greenback Party in 1877 . He ran unsuccessfully for Vice President on the Greenback ticket with presidential nominee James B. Weaver of Iowa in 1880 . The Greenback nominees finished in a distant third place , receiving only 3 @.@ 3 % of the popular vote and no electoral votes . After the election , Chambers remained active in Greenback politics in Texas until the party 's demise in the late 1880s . He died at his home in Cleburne in 1895 . 
