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Citation:  [Identification of Item], Personal Papers of Sam Houston, MC027, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch: 

One of the most influential men of Texas history, Sam Houston (1793-1863) was born March 2, 1793, in Virginia and when he was a boy, moved with his family to eastern Tennessee.  Houston's performance at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, March 26, 1814, won him the lifelong admiration of Andrew Jackson, commander of the United States Army.  Jackson’s political patronage served Houston well over the next several years and helped him to attain several political and military offices of influence:   Attorney General of the District of Nashville, two terms in the United States House of Representatives, colonel and adjutant general of the state militia of Tennessee, and eventually governor of Tennessee in 1827.  On April 16, 1829, Houston separated from his wife, Eliza Allen, resigned the governorship and moved west to Indian Territory.  For three years he lived with the Cherokees and took an Indian wife, Diana Rogers Gentry.

Houston arrived in Texas on December 2, 1832.  A central figure in the politics of the rebellion against Mexico, he represented Nacogdoches at the San Felipe Convention in 1833 and was appointed major-general of the Texas Army at the Consultation of November 12, 1835.  Sam Houston helped to secure a treaty with the Cherokee in February 1836.  He also participated in the convention that declared the Independence of Texas March 2, 1836, at Washington on the Brazos.  On March 4, 1836 he was granted command of the Republic’s military forces.  From Gonzalez he began a long controversial retreat from the advancing Mexican army.  Under Houston’s leadership, the Texas Army defeated the forces of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto April 21, 1836. 

Sam Houston served two non-consecutive terms as President of the Republic of Texas, 1836-1838 and 1841-1844.  He married again on May 9, 1840 to Margaret Moffette Lea and fathered eight children.  After the United States accession of Texas, Sam Houston served as United States Senator from February 21, 1846, to March 4, 1859.  Elected Texas governor in 1859, Houston would not swear a loyalty oath to the Confederate States of America and was removed from office by the Texas Convention on March 16, 1860.  However, he refused Abraham Lincoln’s offer of federal troops to maintain his office.  Out of office, Sam Houston remained supportive of Texans who fought in the Civil War.  He succumbed to pneumonia after several weeks of illness and died July 26, 1863. 

Bibliography:

“HOUSTON, SAMUEL.”   Handbook of Texas Online.  http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/HH/fho73.html

Scope and Content Note:

Correspondence, reports, a few financial documents and one legal record comprise the Personal Papers of Sam Houston (1841-1868).  The papers are principally composed of correspondence received by Sam Houston during the last twenty years of his life, three letters sent by Houston, a receipt of deposit and brief account statement.  Of four letters sent by him, two are autograph copies, and only one is signed.  Correspondence received comes from several influential men of Texas history including Joseph L. Bennet (d. 1848), Eber Worthington Cave (1831-1904), John Forbes (1797-1880), James Hawkins (1813-1896), M.T. Johnson (1810-1866), Philip Martin (1800-1876), Benjamin McCulloch (1811-1862), Thomas J. Rusk (1803-1857), William Read Scurry (1821-1864), Ashbel Smith (1805-1886) and William Stanhope (1819-1869).   Many of these letters and other memoranda record first person accounts of the Battle of San Jacinto that are written in support of Sam Houston’s honor.  An August 28, 1857, newspaper clipping from the Galveston News records a contrary account of the battle by Capt. Jesse Billingsley.  One report is a handwritten transcription of a speech made by a Comanche Chief.  Typescripts of letters are separated from the originals and arranged alphabetically by correspondent.  Typescripts of reports are also arranged in separate sub-series.

Personal Papers of Sam Houston (1832-1868 Bulk: 1841-1863 )

Manuscript Collection:  MC027

Size:  .3 linear feet

Boxes:  1

Inventory

     Series:  Correspondence:  Sent

     Series:  Correspondence:  Received

     Series:  Correspondence:  Third Party

     Series:  Financial

     Series:  Legal

     Series:  Printed Materials

     Series:  Reports

     Series:  Typescripts