Sam Houston

NAME Samuel Houston. He was known to the Cherokee as "Colonneh," meaning "The Raven." 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Sam Houston is the only person in U.S. history to have been elected governor of two different states (Tennessee and Texas). He was the primary military leader of the Texas Revolution, the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, and a tireless advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples. (1)

BIRTH Samuel Houston was born on March 2, 1793, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. His birthplace was the Timber Ridge plantation, a working farm maintained by enslaved African Americans. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND Houston came from Scottish and Irish colonial stock. His father, Samuel Houston Sr., was descended from Ulster Scots and the Houston baronets, the founders of Clan Houston in Scotland. His mother was Elizabeth Paxton. 

Both parents traced their ancestry to colonists who had settled in America in the 1730s. Houston's father served as a captain in Morgan's Rifle Brigade during the American Revolutionary War as a paymaster, though the demands of military service left the family plantation in financial difficulty. 

He had five brothers — Paxton, Robert, James, John, and William — and three sisters: Isabella, Mary, and Eliza. 

Houston's father died in 1806, and his mother Elizabeth moved the family to Maryville, Tennessee, on the American frontier. (2)

CHILDHOOD Houston had a carefree, rebellious childhood with little patience for schooling or farm work. He was at odds with the Presbyterian hellfire preached by his mother and resisted every attempt to confine him to a conventional frontier life. 

At age 16, fatherless and restless, he ran away from home and went to live with a Cherokee tribe on Hiwassee Island, led by Chief John Jolly (known in Cherokee as Ahuludegi or Oolooteka), who adopted him as a son and gave him the Cherokee name "The Raven." Houston spent more than two years with the tribe, learning the Cherokee language and following their customs. 

He returned to Maryville in 1812 and briefly worked as a schoolmaster at the age of 19, charging his pupils three dollars per term — one-third payable in cash, the rest in corn.  (3)

EDUCATION Houston received only about six months of formal schooling in total across his entire life. He attended Porter Academy in Maryville, Tennessee, where he was taught by the Reverend Isaac L. Anderson, founder of Maryville College. Whether he attended Maryville College itself has not been confirmed. 

What formal learning Houston lacked, however, he partially compensated for through voracious reading — in particular, he was drawn to his father's library and devoured classical authors such as Virgil as a boy. 

After the War of 1812, he studied law for just six months in Nashville under Judge James Trimble and passed the bar in 1818. (4)

CAREER RECORD 1813, Enlisted in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, serving under Andrew Jackson.

1818, Resigned from the army and began studying law; he passed the bar after only six months of study and opened a practice in Lebanon, Tennessee.

1823–1827, Served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for Tennessee’s 7th district.

1827, Elected Governor of Tennessee.

1836, Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Army; led the victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.

1836–1838, Served as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1841–1844, Served his second term as President of the Republic of Texas.

1846–1859, Served as one of the first two U.S. Senators from the state of Texas after annexation.

1859–1861, Served as the 7th Governor of Texas

1861–1863, Retired to Huntsville, Texas, shunned by many Texas leaders. 

APPEARANCE Houston was a physically commanding presence — tall, broad-shouldered, and powerfully built, standing approximately 6 feet 6 inches in height, which made him a giant by 19th-century standards. 

He was considered handsome in his youth, and even in middle age his imposing frame drew attention wherever he went. 

Outside Huntsville, Texas, a 67-foot concrete statue by sculptor David Adickes, titled A Tribute to Courage and colloquially known as "Big Sam," captures something of his physical monumentality. (5) (6)

Painting of Houston from 1836

FASHION Houston was one of the most flamboyant dressers of 19th-century American public life. He loved pomp and theatrical self-presentation and dressed in loud, provocative costumes throughout most of his life. He favoured the latest styles in hats, vests, sashes, pantaloons, shirts, coats, and boots, wearing them with deliberate theatricality. 

When he led a delegation of Cherokee to Washington, D.C., he dressed in full Cherokee regalia to meet President James Monroe — earning a sharp reprimand from Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. 

As a U.S. Senator from Texas, he wore a leopard-skin vest on the Senate floor. 

In all weathers he favoured a soft fur hat with an immense round brim, and in winter wrapped himself in a Mexican serape. 

In 1835, before any army existed for him to command, he travelled to New Orleans specifically to purchase a general's uniform, ready for the revolution he anticipated. Houston, it was said, did not dress to please others — he dressed to present a striking pose. (5)

CHARACTER Houston was a man of grand contradictions: brave, witty, generous, and visionary on one side; given to drinking, volatile rages, and personal recklessness on the other. He combined the noble qualities of the frontier — individualism, self-sufficiency, determination — with a surprisingly modern openness to other peoples and cultures unusual for his time. He believed that Native Americans and Black people were as intelligent as whites, even as he owned enslaved people.

Houston was charismatic to an extraordinary degree and commanded a room the moment he entered it. 

Observers described him as fiercely loyal, yet capable of long periods of self-destructive isolation. Biographers have suggested he may have suffered from depression or bipolar disorder. 

He fought only one duel in his life, wounding but not killing his opponent, and escaped others through theatricality and wit. 

The inscription on his tomb, approved in his lifetime, reads: "A Brave Soldier. A Fearless Statesman. A Great Orator — A Pure Patriot. A Faithful Friend, A Loyal Citizen. A Devoted Husband and Father. A Consistent Christian — An Honest Man." (5)

SPEAKING VOICE Houston was celebrated as one of the great orators of his age. His voice was described as deep, resonant, and compelling — a natural instrument for both the courtroom and the open-air political rally. 

He had joined the Dramatic Club in Nashville in his twenties, where his height and frame made him a powerful stage presence. The club's director declared he had never encountered another actor with "a keener sense of the ridiculous." 

Houston brought this theatrical flair to all his public speeches, and his addresses — particularly his warnings to Texans against secession in 1860 and 1861 — were noted for their prophetic force. His prediction to a crowd on April 19, 1861 — "After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it" — proved devastatingly accurate. (5)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Houston possessed a sharp, irreverent wit. When challenged to a duel by a man he considered beneath him, he responded coolly: "Tell him that I won't fight him, for I never fight downhill." 

His humour was part of his political arsenal — on one occasion he defused a confrontation with armed rival William H. Wharton not through violence but through theatrical grandeur, raising his arms and thundering: "Draw! Draw if you dare! Lift your hand against the majesty of Texas and the Almighty God would blast you where you stand." Wharton stood down; Houston later appointed him Texas's ambassador to the United States. (5)

RELATIONSHIPS Houston was married three times.

His first wife was Eliza Allen (born 1810), daughter of a wealthy Tennessee plantation owner, whom he married on January 22, 1829, when he was 35 and she was 19. The marriage collapsed after just eleven weeks. Neither Houston nor Eliza ever publicly revealed the reason; some historians have speculated Eliza was in love with another man. The scandal forced Houston to resign the governorship of Tennessee. Eliza refused to sanction a divorce, and Houston did not obtain one until 1837 from a Texas district court.

His second relationship was with Tiana (Diana) Rogers, a Cherokee woman and daughter of Chief John "Hellfire" Rogers, whom he married in a Cherokee ceremony in 1830 while still legally married to Eliza Allen under civil law. Tiana had been widowed with two children. Houston and Tiana lived together for several years. She declined to accompany him to Texas in 1832; she remarried and died of pneumonia in 1838.

His third and final wife was Margaret Moffette Lea Houston (April 11, 1819 – December 3, 1867), of Marion, Alabama, whom he married on May 9, 1840, when he was 47 and she was 21. They had met at a garden party hosted by her sister in Mobile in 1839. 

Margaret Lea Houston, wife of Sam Houston circa 1839.

The age gap of twenty-six years and Houston's well-known difficulties with drink gave her family serious reservations. Houston courted her with love letters and presented her with his likeness carved on a brooch. 

Margaret was First Lady of the Republic of Texas, First Lady of the state of Texas, and a founding member of Concord Baptist Church in Grand Cane. She was a poet and an accomplished musician. Her deep Baptist faith and resolute personality persuaded Houston to give up alcohol and profane language. 

They had eight children together. Their eldest son, Sam Houston Jr., joined the Confederate army and was left for dead on the battlefield at Shiloh; he was saved by a Union Army clergyman who found a Bible from Margaret in his pocket. 

Margaret gave birth to their youngest child, Temple Lea Houston, inside the Governor's Mansion in Austin, as angry mobs gathered outside in response to her husband's opposition to Texas signing the Ordinance of Secession. 

After Sam Houston died in 1863, Margaret became the keeper of his legacy and opened his records to a trusted biographer. She died on December 3, 1867.  (7) (8)

MONEY AND FAME Houston achieved enormous fame but died in relatively modest circumstances. His log home, "Woodland," in Huntsville, and his cramped log law office nearby were, as one historian noted, all that Texas's leading citizen had to show for a lifetime of bravery and inspired leadership. 

In his final years, too ill and politically ostracised to practice law effectively, he rented the Steamboat House in Huntsville because he could not afford to buy back his old home. Yet his name was already attached to the booming city of Houston, Texas, which had been named in his honour in 1837, and which grew to become one of the largest cities in the United States. 

His posthumous fame has only grown — he is widely regarded as one of the founding giants of the American Southwest. (9)

Sam Houston in 1861.

FOOD AND DRINK Houston was a legendary drinker for the first half of his life — so notorious that the Cherokee who sheltered him after his first failed marriage nicknamed him "Big Drunk." He drank so heavily during his years among the Cherokee in the late 1820s and early 1830s that contemporaries despaired of him. 

In the mid-1840s, having married Margaret Lea and pledged sobriety, he was discovered to be consuming what he called "bitters and orange peel," which in fact registered eighty proof — the same alcoholic strength as bourbon. By the mid-1850s, historians believe he had genuinely moderated his drinking. Margaret's religious influence was credited with his eventual abstinence. 

On food, Houston was a man of the frontier with straightforward tastes; no elaborate dining habits are recorded.  (10)

MUSIC AND ARTS Houston had strong theatrical instincts and a love of public performance, honed from his early years in Nashville's Dramatic Club. He was drawn to opera during his years in Washington and was known to attend theatrical performances. 

His wife Margaret was an accomplished musician whose playing and singing were a regular feature of domestic life. Houston's own artistic expression lay primarily in rhetoric and oratory, which contemporaries rated as among the finest of his age.  (11)

LITERATURE Houston was a reader from boyhood, shaped by his father's library of classical authors. He was particularly fond of Virgil, whose Aeneid — the story of a wandering hero who founds a new nation — had obvious personal resonances. 

As a public figure he was also a writer of considerable force, and his undelivered speech on being removed from the governorship of Texas in 1861 is considered a masterpiece of political prose. 

Houston's life has attracted major literary and historical treatments, including James A. Michener's The Eagle and the Raven (1990) and Marshall DeBruhl's biography Sword of San Jacinto. 

NATURE Houston spent formative years on the Tennessee and Texas frontiers and was deeply at home in wild terrain. His years with the Cherokee gave him practical skills in woodcraft, hunting, and wilderness survival. 

He had a well-documented and somewhat irrational fear of ticks — an odd phobia for a frontiersman who spent decades in the outdoors. 

Cedar Point, the family farm on Trinity Bay (1840–1863), was the one home the Houstons maintained continuously throughout their marriage. (11)

PETS Houston kept animals throughout his life as befitted a man of the frontier. He once took in a mangy dog, though he was not above kicking or whipping it — a lapse in kindness noted even by his admirers. His horse Copperbottom (purchased 1839) became historically significant as a progenitor of the American Quarter Horse breed.

He was a capable horseman and in 1839 purchased a horse named Copperbottom, which went on to become one of the foundation sires of the American Quarter Horse breed; he owned the animal until its death in 1860.  (5)

The Sam Houston monument by sculptor Enrico Cerracchio, in Houston, Texas's Hermann park

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Houston  was a skilled and enthusiastic whittler — a hobby he acquired during his years with the Cherokee and maintained throughout his life. He often carved small wooden objects while listening to political debates. 

His deeper recreation was political theatre and oratory. 

SCIENCE AND MATHS He had little interest in the hard sciences, though as a statesman, he was concerned with the practicalities of land surveying and the logistics of early Texan infrastructure

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Houston's spiritual life was a long, complicated journey. He was raised in his mother's strict Presbyterian faith but rejected its hellfire and damnation as a teenager, finding greater spiritual comfort in what biographer James L. Haley described as the "free and unsophisticated spiritual expression" of the Cherokee. 

In 1833, he was baptised into the Catholic faith in order to qualify under Mexican law for property ownership in Texas — a pragmatic rather than devout conversion. 

His wife Margaret spent fourteen years trying to bring him to the Baptist faith. With the help of the Reverend George Washington Baines (great-great-grandfather of President Lyndon B. Johnson), Houston finally agreed to adult baptism, and on November 19, 1854, he was immersed in Little Rocky Creek near Independence, Texas, by Reverend Rufus C. Burleson, then president of Baylor University. He lived the rest of his life as a professing Baptist, and Margaret read to him from the 23rd Psalm as he died. (12) (13)

TEXAS PRESIDENT History has a habit of rewarding punctuality, but in the case of Sam Houston, it seems you could show up fashionably late and still walk off with the prize. Houston only declared himself a candidate eleven days before the September 1836 election—the first held by the fledgling Republic of Texas—and promptly trounced the field. He collected 5,119 votes, leaving Henry Smith dust with 743, and Stephen F. Austin—the very chap many considered the father of Texas—trailing with a rather humbling 587. It was less an election than a victory lap following Houston’s recent heroics at the Battle of San Jacinto.

He took office on October 22, 1836, inheriting a nation that might politely be described as “aspirational.” The treasury was empty, the debts were mountainous, and there wasn’t even a proper currency to lose sleep over. Recognition from abroad was essential if Texas was to avoid being mistaken for an unusually ambitious cattle ranch. The United States eventually obliged in March 1837, with France, Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium following along, presumably after checking that Texas was, in fact, still there.

Meanwhile, Antonio López de Santa Anna loomed to the south like a recurring nightmare, as Mexico declined to recognise Texan independence or its enthusiastic claim to the Rio Grande. Closer to home, relations with Native peoples presented another difficulty. Houston—who had spent time living among the Cherokee—favoured a more conciliatory approach, a stance that did not endear him to settlers who preferred solutions involving expulsion and, ideally, a large map with fewer inconvenient inhabitants.

Hovering over everything was Houston’s great ambition: annexation by the United States. Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate—never a body to rush into anything, especially when slavery was involved—kept slamming the door. By 1838, Texas withdrew its request, perhaps in the manner of a suitor deciding to stop calling after several unanswered letters.

During this first term, the town of Houston (named with admirable efficiency after the man himself) briefly served as the capital. Then, owing to a constitutional clause forbidding consecutive terms—an early example of political systems ensuring nobody got too comfortable—Houston stepped down in December 1838.

What followed might best be described as a cautionary tale. His successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, had once been his vice president but now behaved like a man determined to redecorate by setting fire to the furniture. Lamar reversed nearly everything Houston had done: he launched a brutal campaign against the Cherokee, pursued expansionist schemes such as the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition, moved the capital to the freshly minted Austin, and spent money with the carefree abandon of someone who had not personally met the national debt.

Houston, relegated to the Texas House of Representatives as a congressman for San Augustine, became Lamar’s most persistent critic—a sort of political ghost at the banquet, reminding everyone how much better things had been before the host started smashing the crockery.

By 1841, the voters had had enough of adventure and voted Houston back in. He returned to find the republic financially battered and diplomatically overextended. Where Lamar had charged about like a man chasing a hat in the wind, Houston settled into a slower, subtler game—particularly on the question of annexation.

At first, Washington showed little enthusiasm. So Houston tried something rather clever: he courted Britain and France, hinting that Texas might align itself with European powers—or, in a move guaranteed to raise eyebrows in the American South, even consider abolishing slavery under British influence. This had the desired effect of alarming John Tyler, who suddenly found annexing Texas a far more attractive proposition than letting it drift into someone else’s orbit.

A treaty was duly signed in April 1844, only for the U.S. Senate to reject it two months later—proving once again that progress, like a mule, often requires considerable coaxing. The matter rolled into the 1844 election, where James K. Polk won on a pro-annexation platform. This gave Tyler just enough political cover to push annexation through Congress by joint resolution, sidestepping the treaty process altogether.

Houston left office on December 9, 1844, succeeded by Anson Jones. A year later, on December 29, 1845, Texas entered the Union as the 28th state. Houston, having spent the better part of a decade nudging, cajoling, and occasionally alarming the United States into action, might reasonably have felt he’d earned a quiet sit-down.

His presidency, taken as a whole, resembles a long and rather delicate balancing act performed over a pit of financial ruin, military threat, and diplomatic uncertainty. He kept Texas solvent enough, recognised enough, and intact enough to survive until it could be absorbed into the United States. His preference for negotiation over annihilation—whether with foreign powers or Native tribes—was not always popular, but it proved, in the end, remarkably effective.

In short, Houston’s two terms form the narrow but essential bridge between the gun smoke of San Jacinto and the neat addition of a star on the American flag—a journey that, like many in history, looks inevitable only after someone has gone to considerable trouble to make it so.

POLITICS Houston was one of the most remarkable political figures in American history — the only person ever elected governor of two different U.S. states (Tennessee and Texas), and the only former foreign head of state to serve in the U.S. Congress. 

He began as a Democratic-Republican and Jackson loyalist, becoming a Democrat, then briefly affiliating with the Know Nothing (American) Party in the 1850s, before standing as a Constitutional Unionist in 1860. 

His defining political conviction was an unwavering belief in the American Union. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, and fought secession to the end of his political life. 

When Texas voted to leave the Union in February 1861, he refused to swear the Confederate oath: "In the name of my own conscience and manhood... I refuse to take this oath." He was removed from office. 

He also refused President Lincoln's offer of 50,000 troops to keep Texas in the Union, saying he loved Texas too much to impose that upon it.  (3)

SCANDAL The central scandal of Houston's life was the catastrophic collapse of his first marriage to Eliza Allen in January 1829 — after just eleven weeks. Neither party ever publicly revealed the cause, though the failure was immediate and total: Eliza was whispering against him by the following morning. The humiliation ended his political career in Tennessee and sent him into years of drinking and exile among the Cherokee. 

He was also convicted by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832 for assaulting Congressman William Stanbery with a cane on a Washington street, after Stanbery accused him of a fraudulent government contract bid; he was reprimanded by the Speaker and fined $500 by a federal court. He owned enslaved people throughout his life — a moral failing his admirers have struggled to address given his otherwise progressive views on race. (5)

MILITARY RECORD Houston enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 24, 1813, at the age of 20. During the Creek War, he was grievously wounded at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (March 27, 1814) — struck by an arrow in the groin and two musket balls in the right shoulder and arm. Army doctors expected him to die; he did not. He rose from private to second lieutenant and earned the enduring respect of General Andrew Jackson. He served as a sub-agent overseeing Cherokee resettlement in 1817–1818 before resigning from the army following his public clash with Secretary of War Calhoun.

In Texas, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Texian Army by the Convention of 1836. Despite enormous pressure from the provisional government and his own officers, he conducted a disciplined strategic retreat following the fall of the Alamo before turning to strike at the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836). The Texian force of 783 men routed Santa Anna's 1,350-strong army. Houston's horse was shot from under him and his ankle shattered by a stray bullet during the battle. The victory secured Texan independence. He rose to the rank of Major General. (1)  (3)

Surrender of Santa Anna by William Henry Huddle 

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Houston's body bore the marks of a violent life. His groin wound from Horseshoe Bend (1814) never fully healed and caused him pain for years. The ankle shattered at San Jacinto (1836) left him with a permanent limp. 

Biographers have speculated that he suffered from clinical depression and possibly bipolar disorder, as suggested by his long periods of self-destructive withdrawal. His decades of heavy drinking took a further toll. (9)

HOMES Houston lived a notably peripatetic life, moving between frontier cabins, Cherokee settlements, rented accommodation, and executive mansions. The principal homes of his life were:

Timber Ridge Plantation, Rockbridge County, Virginia — birthplace (1793)

Maryville, Tennessee — family home from 1807

Hiwassee Island, Cherokee territory — lived with Chief Jolly's tribe, 1809–1812 and again 1829–1832

Nashville, Tennessee — law practice and political career, 1818–1829

Governor's Mansion, Nashville — 1827–1829

Various locations in Arkansas Territory/Texas — itinerant years, 1829–1835

Cedar Point, Trinity Bay, Texas (1840–1862) — the one home maintained continuously throughout his marriage to Margaret Lea; a farm in Chambers County

Governor's Mansion, Austin, Texas — 1859–1861

Woodland Home, Huntsville, Texas — the log cabin he shared with Margaret and their family, now part of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum complex. 

Woodland home By Pma03

Steamboat House, Huntsville, Texas — his final home, rented from 1862 until his death on July 26, 1863; a uniquely designed two-storey wooden house modelled by its builder on a steamboat  (9) (14)

TRAVEL Houston's life was defined by movement. He ranged across Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Washington D.C., and deep into the Cherokee territories before making his way to Texas in 1832. 

He visited Washington D.C. repeatedly over four decades, first as a young soldier seeking to expose fraud against the Indians and later as congressman, senator, and would-be presidential candidate. His journeys were often made on horseback through dangerous frontier territory. (3)

DEATH Sam Houston died of pneumonia on July 26, 1863, at the Steamboat House in Huntsville, Texas, at the age of 70. He had been in declining health since April of that year. The Civil War he had warned against and fought to prevent was still raging. As he lay dying, his wife Margaret sat by his bedside reading to him from the 23rd Psalm. His last words, according to tradition, were simply: "Texas... Texas... Margaret..."

His funeral was held in the upstairs parlour of the Steamboat House. He was buried in Huntsville. (7) (9)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Houston has been portrayed in numerous films and television productions:

Man of Conquest (1939) — portrayed by Richard Dix in an early Hollywood biopic

The Alamo (1960) — portrayed by Richard Boone

Gone to Texas (1986, TV film) — portrayed by Sam Elliott

Texas (1994, TV miniseries)

Texas Rising (2015, History Channel miniseries) — portrayed by Bill Paxton

He was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1960. 

A 67-foot statue by sculptor David Adickes, A Tribute to Courage (1994), stands beside Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston in Huntsville, Texas — the ninth-tallest statue in the United States. 

Along with Stephen F. Austin, Houston is one of only two Texans represented by a statue in the U.S. National Statuary Hall in Washington D.C. 

ACHIEVEMENTS Led the Texian Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836), securing Texas independence from Mexico

First and third President of the Republic of Texas (1836–1838; 1841–1844)

Instrumental in Texas's annexation as the 28th U.S. state (December 29, 1845)

The only person in American history elected governor of two different U.S. states (Tennessee and Texas)

One of the first two U.S. Senators from Texas; the only former foreign head of state to serve in the U.S. Congress

Stood against secession at enormous personal cost, opposing the Confederacy when virtually all around him acquiesced

The city of Houston, Texas — the fourth most populous city in the United States — bears his name

Sam Houston State University, Fort Sam Houston, Sam Houston National Forest, and numerous other institutions and landmarks are named in his honour

Sources: (1) Britannica – Sam Houston (2) Wikipedia – Sam Houston (3) Texas State Historical Association – Sam Houston (4) EBSCO Research Starters – Sam Houston (5) HistoryNet – Sam Houston (6) Texas Standard – Sam Houston (7) Wikipedia – Margaret Lea Houston (8) Texas State Historical Association – Margaret Lea Houston (9) Texas Highways – Steamboat House (10) Sam Houston State University – Houston and Alcohol (11) Texas Monthly – Little-Known Facts About Sam Houston (12) Istoria Ministries – How Sam Houston Became a Baptist (13) Discover Texas – Sam Houston's Baptism (14) Texas State Historical Association – Steamboat House