Houston, Sam, Jr. (1843–1894)

Sam Houston, Jr., soldier, physician, and author, the eldest of eight children of Sam and Margaret Moffette (Lea) Houston, was born at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, on May 25, 1843. After being taught by his mother and tutors, he entered Bastrop Military Institute (later Texas Military Institute, Austin), but interrupted his studies to join the Confederate Army in 1861. While serving with the Second Texas Infantry at the battle of Shiloh in April 1862, he was hit by a minie ball and survived only because a Bible in his pocket stopped the ball. He spent nearly six months as a prisoner of war, part of that time at the notorious Camp Douglas in Illinois, before being exchanged and sent home. Upon his return from the Civil War he studied for a time at Baylor University in Independence. In 1867 he entered medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine for a time but later abandoned it for writing. Sam Houston's Rambling Rustlings, a collection of his articles and short stories, is a rare find in a collection of Texana. In 1875 Houston married Lucy Anderson of Georgetown, Texas. Three children were born of this marriage. After his wife's death in 1886, Houston, saddened and discouraged, went to live with his sister Margaret, Mrs. Weston Williams, at Independence. He died there on May 20, 1894, and was buried in the City Cemetery of Independence.