MEET SAM HOUSTON

 

  

The Rosenberg Library would like to invite you to meet Sam Houston!

 

Sam Houston IV, great-great grandson of the General Sam Houston (1793-1863), will be speaking at the Rosenberg Library on the evening of May 14, 2008.  Mr. Houston will share stories about the life and times of his legendary ancestor and answer questions from the audience.  The event if free and open to the public.

 

Samuel Houston was born to a Virginia farming family in 1793.  At the age of 16, Houston ran away from home to live among the Cherokee Indians.  The Cherokees acted as a surrogate family to Houston, and he was given the Indian name “Colonneh,” meaning “The Raven.”  Houston maintained a great sympathy toward Native Americans throughout his life.

 

After three years, Houston left the Cherokees and joined the United States Army in 1813.  He spent five years in the military, eventually earning a rank of second lieutenant.  Houston resigned from the service in 1818 and began to study law.  Shortly thereafter, he opened a private practice in Tennessee.

 

Houston was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1823, and he became governor of Tennessee four years later.

 

Houston married the first of his three wives, Eliza Allen, in 1829.  The marriage was brief, lasting only eleven weeks.  A distraught Houston resigned from his governorship and for a second time sought refuge with the Cherokee Indians.  Houston eventually re-married a Native American woman.  Together they established a trading post in Oklahoma.

 

By 1832, Houston had re-entered the political arena.  Leaving his life with the Indians and his wife behind, Houston embarked one of the most pivotal phases in his career.  He decided to settle in Texas, a land of bold, new opportunities.  Houston quickly involved himself with the rebellious politics of Texans.  He served as a delegate to the Consultation of 1835 and was appointed major general of the Texas army.

 

Houston led the Texas troops to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, establishing Texas’s independence from Mexico.  In 1836, he became the first elected president of the Republic of Texas.  Sam Houston married for the third and final time in 1840.  His bride was Margaret Moffette Lea, a 21-year-old native of Alabama. 

 

When Texas joined the United States in 1845, Houston represented Texas in the United States Senate.  He lost his Senate seat in 1857 but was re-elected governor of Texas in 1859.  Houston’s adamant opposition to secession led to his growing unpopularity among Texans.  He warned that a separation from the Union would lead to a civil war in which the South would be destroyed.  As governor, Sam Houston refused to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederate States of America, and as a result, the Texas Convention removed him from office in 1861.

 

At this point, Houston was 68 years of age, and for a third time in his life, he slipped into exile.  He moved his wife and their eight children to Huntsville, Texas where he lived until his death from pneumonia in 1863.  He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Huntsville.        

 

Come hear Mr. Houston IV tell the story of one of the most intriguing and influential figures in Texas history.  This unique event is not to be missed!

 

Date:  Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Time:  5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Place: Rosenberg Library, 2310 Sealy, Galveston

            Wortham Auditorium, 1^st Floor

 

Admission is free and open to the public.