Sam Houston. Sam HoustonPHOTO: Library of Congress Sam Houston was a big, strong man, but many of his biographies say that he was afraid of the dark.
He also became governor of two American states even though he seemed to prefer Native American culture over white culture. Houston was born in 1793 and grew up in Maryville. When he was a teenager, he ran away from home to live with the Cherokee Indians on Hiwassee Island, located in Meigs County. He stayed there for about three years and was given the name “The Raven” by a Cherokee chief. Horseshoe Bend National Military Park Click here to read more about the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Houston later moved to Lebanon, became a lawyer, and then was elected to Congress. Sam Houston (1793-1863) One of the most colorful and controversial figures in Texas history, Sam Houston was born in Virginia on March 2, 1793.
He spent much of his youth, however, in the mountains of Tennessee. There, young Houston became acquainted with the Cherokee Indians, and he spent much time with them, an activity which he much preferred over studies or working on the farm. With the outbreak of the second war with England, Houston enlisted as a private soldier, and was made sergeant of a company. He excelled in the military and quickly won the admiration of his men and his superiors.
After receiving three near-mortal wounds at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, he rose to the rank of first lieutenant before resigning in 1818 to study law. After a short time, he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Lebonon, Tennessee before running for public office. In Texas, Houston was elected delegate from Nacogdoches to the Convention of 1833 which met at San Felipe. THE WEST - Sam Houston. A sometimes volatile and often contradictory man, Sam Houston played a crucial role in the founding of Texas.
Houston was born into a military family in Virginia in 1793. His father, an army major who had served in the Revolutionary War, died when Sam was fourteen. His mother took their family to eastern Tennessee, where Houston spent much of his later childhood in the company of Cherokee Indians, coming to know their language and customs well. His involvement in the War of 1812 launched Houston's political career.
He served under Andrew Jackson in the campaign against the Creek Indians, allies of the British. Two years later, in the midst of his re-election campaign, Houston and his new wife, Eliza Allen, separated. By 1833 Houston was living in Texas for at least part of the year, and seems to have established a permanent residence in Nacogdoches, near the Louisiana border, by 1835. Houston died on his farm in Huntsville, Texas, in 1863. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) HOUSTON, SAMUEL (1793–1863).
Sam Houston, one of the most illustrious political figures of Texas, was born on March 2, 1793, the fifth child (and fifth son) of Samuel and Elizabeth (Paxton) Houston, on their plantation in sight of Timber Ridge Church, Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was of Scots-Irish ancestry and reared Presbyterian. He acquired rudimentary education during his boyhood by attending a local school for no more than six months. When he was thirteen years old, his father died; some months later, in the spring of 1807, he emigrated with his mother, five brothers, and three sisters to Blount County in Eastern Tennessee, where the family established a farm near Maryville on a tributary of Baker's Creek. Houston went to a nearby academy for a time and reportedly fed his fertile imagination by reading classical literature, especially the Iliad. At age eighteen he left the Cherokees to set up a school, so that he could earn money to repay debts.