TARVER, BENJAMIN E. (1802–1879). Benjamin E. Tarver, lawyer and public official, was born on May 1, 1802, probably in Virginia. In 1844 he owned a farm three or four miles north of Brenham, Texas, the town in which he maintained a legal practice. He represented Washington County in the House of the Third Legislature, 1849–50, Washington and Burleson counties in the Fourth Legislature, 1851–53, and Washington County in the Sixth Legislature, 1855–56. He died at Brenham on April 22, 1879, and was buried beside his wife, Louisa, in the Masonic Cemetery a short distance from Brenham.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mrs. R. E. Pennington, History of Brenham and Washington County (Houston, 1915). Ocie Speer, Texas Jurists (Austin, 1936).