[1] In 1821, shortly after his wife died, he left Missouri for Texas with his father-in-law, William Kincheloe (1779–1835), aboard the schooner Only Son.
[1][3] He surveyed the Jack League,[clarification needed] in what is now Fayette County, which was purchased in 1843 by the German immigration company Adelsverein as a slave plantation.
[1] In 1836, as he was moving East towards the Trinity River, he heard about the Battle of San Jacinto and decided to serve in the Texas Revolution.
[1] Serving on a committee to help choose the new Republic of Texas seat of government in 1837, Chriesman proposed a site near Washington-on-the-Brazos at what is now Gay Hill in Washington County.
[7] In 1840, Chriesman was one of nine trustees who incorporated the Republic's first private institution of learning, the Union Academy in Washington-on-the-Brazos.