 Barzillai Jefferson Chambers was born in 1817 in Montgomery County , Kentucky , the son of Walker Chambers and Talitha Cumi Mothershead Chambers . Chambers lived on his father 's Kentucky farm for the first twenty years of his life . In 1837 , he followed his uncle , Thomas Jefferson Chambers , to Texas . The elder Chambers , who had lived in Texas since 1830 , had raised a regiment to join the Texas Revolution and commissioned his nephew as a captain and his aide @-@ de @-@ camp . After helping his uncle to recruit soldiers in Kentucky , the two departed for Texas but arrived too late to see action . Chambers was discharged from the Texas army in 1838 and remained in the state , becoming a surveyor in the southern part of the state . The next year , he was appointed deputy surveyor for north central Texas , between the Brazos and Trinity rivers . The area had little white settlement at the time , and Chambers " narrowly escaped Indian attacks on several occasions . " 
