Eliza Allen, Sam Houston's first wife, was born to Laetitia and Colonel John Allen, a wealthy Sumner county couple who believed that Houston was an acceptable match for their daughter. After Houston and Eliza's eleven-week marriage soured in 1829, Eliza went into seclusion and Houston left Nashville to live with the Cherokees in Arkansas. The couple never saw each other again.
Four years later, Eliza's mother died while giving birth to her tenth child, and the following year, her father died after being kicked in the abdomen by a horse. Eliza was left to care for her younger siblings.
Houston and Eliza were officially divorced in 1837, a year after Houston became the president of the Republic of Texas. In 1840, Eliza married Dr. Elmore Douglass of Gallatin, a widower with ten children. She and Dr. Douglass added four more children to their family; only two of the four survived to adulthood, but died before age 35, having no families of their own.
On March 3, 1861, Eliza died of stomach cancer at age 51. She had no descendants and tradition holds that before her death she requested that all images of her be destroyed and her that personal papers and letters be burned. She was buried in an unmarked grave in the Gallatin cemetery, although a marker was placed on the grave a century later.
Elizabeth Crook, The Raven's Bride (New York: Doubleday, 1991).
Phil's note: accounts make Eliza's age to have been 17, 19 and 20. One account suggests "rumors of drinking and infidelity", another claims that she left him.
Still another luridly depicts her "running screaming from the house in the night".
Enter Eliza Allen. In 1829 Houston married the 19-year-old. Haley admits he hasn't uncovered the smoking gun that will explain the bizarre sequel, but he sifts patiently through the scant evidence -- including the few comments Houston subsequently made or supposedly made -- and delivers a "most likely reconstruction of events."
In brief he thinks Eliza was in love with someone else but was pressured by her ambitious family to marry the governor. Immediately after the wedding Houston discerned something was amiss and confronted Eliza, precipitating a blowup. Disgust at the sight of Houston's war wounds may have contributed to Eliza's disaffection with her older husband.
In any event, Eliza packed her bags, and Houston quit the governorship and moved to Indian territory.
Austin author James L. Haley
photo by John Anderson
The failure of Tennessee Gov. Houston's first marriage to Eliza Allen is much less mysterious since Haley has rounded up all the facts. It now appears that Ms. Allen's politically ambitious father and uncle persuaded her to make the match when she, in fact, preferred another. When she told Houston some version of this, he sent her back to her family home, resigned the governorship, and migrated to western Arkansas, where he pickled himself in spirits for several years and ran a trading post with an informal "Indian wife." His behavior was a great scandal among his friends and fodder for his political enemies. But by the time Houston came to Texas, he had already lived an incredible life as a soldier, merchant, Indian agent, congressman, and governor, and the Lone Star State would provide greater glories still.
Loser of the Eighteen-Minute War for Texan Independence
General I. M. Willingtonegotiate Lopez de Santa Anna
Everything in Texas is big
USS Sam Houston (SSBN 609)
USS SAM HOUSTON
(SSBN-609)
dp. 6946 tons (surf.), 7884 tons (subm.); l. 410.5'; b. 33';
s. 16k (surf.), 21k (subm.); td. 1300'; a. 16 missile tubes, 4-21" tt. fwd.;
cpl. 10 officers - 100 enlisted men (each in 2 crews); cl. "ETHAN ALLEN"
Keel laid down by Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock, Newport News, VA 28DEC59;
Launched: 2FEB61; Sponsored by Mrs. John B. Connally, Jr.;
Commissioned: 6MAR62 with Capt William P. Willis [B]; Cdr Jack H. Hawkins [G] in command;
Decommissioned and struck from Navy List: 6JUN91;
Disposed of through SRP at PSNS 3FEB92.
USS SAM HOUSTON (SSBN-609) was the third nuclear powered submarine and the first 608 class SSBN to be built at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. The keel for this revolutionary weapons system was laid on 28 December 1959. On 2 February 1961, the ship was christened SAM HOUSTON by Mrs. John B. Connally, wife of the then Secretary of the Navy. The launching followed an address by the late Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, in which he remarked, ..."The recent development of nuclear propulsion has probably done more for the submarine than for any other type of vessel and when equipped with the POLARIS missile system, the submarine becomes one of the deadliest weapons in our arsenal." The ship slid down the ways as the nation's seventh POLARIS submarine.
Upon completion of sea trials, SAM HOUSTON was commissioned on 6 March 1962. Thereafter she departed on initial shakedown cruise, fired her first missiles and subsequently departed on her first patrol in October 1962.
The third patrol provided two historic "Firsts" in FBM submarine history. SAM HOUSTON was the initial FBM submarine to deploy to the Mediterranean and join the NATO Forces there, and also the first POLARIS submarine to make a port-of-call during a patrol, when she made a short operational visit to Izmir, Turkey.
SAM HOUSTON completed 17 POLARIS deterrent patrols prior to entering Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the fall of 1966 for a complete overhaul. This overhaul gave the boat the latest developments in submarine operational capability. Prior to this overhaul, SAM HOUSTON had spent over 70% of her life at sea submerged, ready to perform her mission of deterrence.
SAM HOUSTON was decommissioned and struck from the Navy List on 6 June 1991 and disposed of through SRP at Puget Sound 3 February 1992.
Can you hear me now?
Capture Site of General Santa Anna
Historical marker at the approximate site of Santa Anna's capture on April 22, 1836 after the Battle at San Jacinto which gave Texas its independence from Mexico. The marker is located next to the Pasadena Paper Mill front gate, facing the Houston Ship Channel. Enter from the traffic circle on the south side of the Washburn Tunnel. Take the Pasadena Paper Mill entrance road on the right side of the Tunnel. The marker is on the right after the road turns to the left towards the entrance gate of the Mill.
"This point is the approximate site of the capture of Santa Anna - the President of Mexico, and commander of the Mexican army - by James A. Sylvester, Joel W. Robinson, Edward Miles, S. R. Bostich, Joseph Vermillion and ___ Thompson, all soldiers of the Texas army under General Sam Houston. Santa Anna had made his escape disguised in the uniform of a private soldier, on horseback, on the night of the battle of San Jacinto, April 21st. He was captured on the 22nd and taken back to the camp on the battle ground, where General Houston lay wounded. The salutations "El Presidente" of the wounded Mexican prisoners revealed his identity." Approved by the San Jacinto Chapter, the Daughters of the Republic, the San jacinto State Park Commisioners, and Governor O. B. Colquitt. Erected March 2, 1916.
I am General Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and I am willing to negotiate.
