Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Consultation appointed Houston as a major general and the highest-ranking officer of the Texian Army,[7][10] though the appointment did not give him effective control of the militia units that constituted the Texian Army. [87] A Texas political convention voted to secede from the United States on February 1, 1861, and Houston proclaimed that Texas was once again an independent republic, but he refused to recognize that same convention's authority to join Texas to the Confederacy. He was born to Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton. [8] He left the tribe to return to Maryville in 1812, and he was hired at age 19 for a term as the schoolmaster of a one-room schoolhouse. Sam Houston, byname of Samuel Houston, (born March 2, 1793, Rockbridge county, Virginia, U.S.—died July 26, 1863, Huntsville, Texas), American lawyer and politician, a leader in the Texas Revolution (1834–36) who later served as president of the Republic of Texas (1836–38; 1841–44) and who was instrumental in Texas’s becoming a U.S. state (1845). [31] Houston was elected to represent Nacogdoches, Texas at the Convention of 1833, which was called to petition Mexico for statehood (at the time, Texas was part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas). Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family migrated to Maryville, Tennessee, when Houston was a teenager. He had eight children with his third wife Margaret. [25] In late 1829, the Cherokee accorded Houston tribal membership and dispatched him to Washington to negotiate several issues. [15], After leaving government service, Houston began an apprenticeship with Judge James Trimble in Nashville. His successor, Edward Clark, was sworn in on March 18. He was influential in gaining the admission of Texas to the United States in 1845. [7] The Texas constitution barred presidents from seeking a second term, so Houston did not stand for re-election in the 1838 election and left office in late 1838. Senator from Texas. [17] In his first major speech in Congress, Houston advocated for the recognition of Greece, which was fighting a war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. Eliza asked before her death that all her papers be burned, any images of her be destroyed, and her body be placed in an unmarked grave. [10] He quickly impressed the commander of the 39th Infantry Regiment, Thomas Hart Benton, and by the end of 1813, Houston had risen to the rank of the third lieutenant. Photo: Facebook/Sam Houston The story and Sam Houston and his wife Margaret doesn’t end here. Houston's health suffered a precipitous decline in April 1863, and he died on July 26, 1863, at 70 years of age . She and Houston first met when she was ten years old, and he was stunned to see how beautiful she was when he returned to her village years later. He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and after the war, he presided over the removal of many Cherokee from Tennessee. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the territorial issues left over from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas. The act also repealed the Missouri Compromise, an act that had banned slavery in territories north of parallel 36°30′ north. This triumph secured Texan independence and was followed by Houston’s election as president (1836–38; 1841–44) of the Republic of Texas. Yet despite Houston’s love of alcohol, he would become the first leader of the Lone Star Republic and serve as the state’s first Senator after it joined the Union in 1846. Houston thus developed a rapport with the Indians that was unique for his day. Both of Houston's parents were descended from Scottish and Irish immigrants who had settled in British North America in the 1730s. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only American to be elected governor of two different states in the United States. He was influential in gaining the admission of Texas to the United States in 1845. Houston chose to align with the Democratic Party, which contained many of his old political allies, including President Polk. Efforts to resuscitate him failed and Kinison died at the scene from internal injuries. Rev. Margaret Moffette Lea was Sam Houston's third wife. Houston returned to Rockbridge County, Virginia after the assembled State of Franklin convention rejected his constitutional proposal. Sam Was Buried in Huntsville, Texas in the Oakwood Cemetery. [34], Along with Austin and others, Houston helped organize the Consultation into a provisional government for Texas. [85] In late 1860, Houston campaigned across his home state, calling on Texans to resist those who advocated for secession if Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election.[86].