hide in a thicket or in some other way keep out of the way, remaining
still so the bells about their necks made no noise. Sometimes it was
almost noon before all the foxey old oxen were brought to camp and the
journey resumed.
xxx
Further flavor of early times in Texas is in information obtained from
old settlers of Texas who knew General Houston after he became a citizen
of Texas, and from record books of Ann Cavett Cavitt Armstrong of
Wheelock, Texas. These sources are the basis of this short summary of
Houston's life.
Sam Houston was the son of Major Robert Houston and his wife, Elizabeth
Paxton, daughter of Squire John Paxton, one of the richest citizens of
Rockbridge County, Virginia. Houston's grandfather, John Houston, came
from Belfast, Ireland to Pennsylvania, later moving to the upper valley
of Virginia, along the same pattern of progression of the Irish Cavets.
Sam Houston was born March 2, 1793 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. His
father sold his Virginia holdings in 1806 and bought cheaper land in
what later was Tennessee. Major Houston died in 1807. His widow and
children lived at Marysville, Blount County, Tennessee near cousins of
her late husband, James and John Houston, who had lived there from
immediately following the Revoluntionary War.
During his boyhood Sam spent much of his time with the Cherokee Indians
to whom he became strongly attached, gaining their confidence and
affection to such an extent he was adopted by Chief 00-L00-Te-Ka who
named Houston Co-lou-neh. This free, undisciplined life, characteristic
of the Indians, was pleasant to The Raven.
In 1813 Houston joined the U. S. Army under General Jackson in the fight
with the Creek Indians at Horse Shoe Bend where he received wounds from
which he suffered the rest of his life. Deeply in debt, Houston went to
Nashville, Tennessee where he taught school, read law and practiced law.
In 1819 he was elected District Attorney which position he held until he
was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1827. During his governorship he
married Miss Elisa Allen, daughter of a prominent Sumner County family.
Three months later Eliza Allen Houston suddenly left her husband and he
resigned from the governorship, left Tennessee without a word of
explanation and returned to the Cherokees who by this time had moved
west to the juncture of the Cimarron and Neosho Rivers above Fort Smith,
Arkansas.
After Houston again became a Cherokee he was married to Tina Rogers who
was great-great aunt of Will Rogers. In 1830 Houston took Tina to a home
he had built for her on the Neosho River thirty miles from the home of
the Chief of the Cherokees.
Captain John Rogers, half-brother of Tina, became king of the Cherokees
succeeding Oo-Loo-Te-Ka.
Welcomed home by Chief Oo-Loe-Te-Ka Houston soon was made aware by the
Chief of the dishonest dealings of the Indian Agents and went to
Washington, at the Chief's request, to report to General Jackson on
their bold thievery. He succeeded not only in getting some of the agents
fired but in making the plotting politicians angry.
The misfortunes of the Texas colonists appealed to the sympathies of
Houston and in 1832 he and some of his friends left the Indian Nation
and went to Nacogdoches, San Felipe and San Antonio, where he was
persuaded to remain in the settlement or Nacogdoches and became a
candidate for delegate to the Convention of Texas Citizens which would
meet the following April. He was elected delegate. In the April meeting
the delegates looked to Houston for counsel in the decision which
declared in favor of independence.
--
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The most beautiful things in the world cannot be
seen or touched. It must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
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Wishes, Wants, and Dreams....a few poetic illusions
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...It is in silence where music lies...
Yanni
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One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem,
and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Goethe
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