Sam Houston

Both of Houston's parents were descended from Scottish and Irish immigrants who had settled in Colonial America in the 1730s, including his great-grandfather John Houston.

Houston's father was descended from Ulster Scots people.

Samuel inherited the Timber Ridge plantation and mansion in Rockbridge County, Virginia, which was worked by enslaved African Americans.

During the American Revolutionary War, Captain Houston served in Morgan's Rifle Brigade as a paymaster.

He served in the Virginia militia, which required him to pay his own expenses and to be away from his family for long periods of time.

Thus, the plantation and his family's finances suffered.

He had five brothers and three sisters: Paxton, Robert, James (married Patience Bills), John, William (married Mary Ball), Isabella, Mary (married Matthew Wallace, followed by his nephew, Williams Wallace), and Eliza (who married Samuel Moore).

Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution.

He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate.

He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only individual to be elected governor of two different states in the United States.

Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family relocated to Maryville, Tennessee, when he was a teenager.

Houston later ran away from home, spending about three years living with the Cherokee, becoming known as "Raven."

Samuel Houston was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia on March 2, 1793, to Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton.

His father, Samuel Sr., planned to sell Timber Ridge and move west to Tennessee, where land was less expensive, but he died in 1806.

Elizabeth, his mother, followed through on those plans, settling the family near Maryville, Tennessee, the seat of Blount County.

At that time, Tennessee was on the American frontier, and even larger towns like Nashville were vigilant against Native American raids.

He had dozens of cousins who lived in the surrounding area of east-central Tennessee.

When they arrived, Elizabeth cleared the land, built a house, and planted crops.

Her oldest children, Paxton, Isabella, and Robert died within a few years after they arrived in Tennessee.

Elizabeth relied on James and John to run the store in Maryville, to operate the farm, and to watch over the younger children.

He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812; afterwards, and despite his earlier connections to the Cherokee people, he presided over the mass removal of Cherokee from Tennessee.

With the support of Jackson, among others, Houston won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1823.

He strongly supported Jackson's presidential candidacies and, in 1827, Houston was elected as the governor of Tennessee.

In 1829, after divorcing his first wife, Houston resigned from office, and moved to the Arkansas Territory.

Houston settled in Texas in 1832.

After the Battle of Gonzales, he helped organize Texas's provisional government and was selected as the top-ranking official in the Texian Army.

He led the Texan Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas's war for independence against Mexico.

After the war, Houston won the 1836 Texan presidential election.

He left office due to term limits in 1838, but won another term in the 1841 Texas presidential election.

Houston played a key role in the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845 and, in 1846, was elected to represent Texas in the United States Senate.

He joined the Democratic Party and supported President James K. Polk's prosecution of the Mexican–American War.

His Senate record was marked by his unionism and opposition to radicals from both the North and South.

He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the residual territorial issues from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas.

Houston owned slaves throughout his life.

He voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act, as he believed it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery, and his opposition to that act led him to leave the Democratic Party.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election, as well as for the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election.

In 1859, Houston won election as the governor of Texas.

In this role, he opposed secession, but unsuccessfully sought to keep Texas out of the Confederate States of America.

He was forced out of office in 1861, and died two years later in 1863.

Houston's name has been honored in numerous ways, and he is the eponym of the city of Houston, the fourth-most-populous city in the United States.