Sam Houston’s Journey Begins: The Story of a Boy, a Book, and the Appalachian Frontier

*AI Generated Image

In the late 1700’s the population of the United States was still concentrated along the Atlantic coasts. The Appalachian Mountains proved to be such a barrier to settlement that when Pioneers came into the western counties of Virginia they came not from eastern Virginia, but from Pennsylvania along the great Philadelphia Wagon Road following the easier path of the broad Shenandoah Valley. 

Unlike the English descendents of the Tidewater; these were Scotts Irish immigrants proud of their independent Saxon heritage.  Many of them settled around the town of Lexington in Rockbridge County.  If there was a leading family among them, it was the Houston’s.  John Houston started a prosperous plantation Timber Ridge.  In 1754 John Houston underwrote construction for a sturdy stone Presbyterian Church on his property.  In time Timber Ridge and its pillared mansion passed to his grandson Samuel Davidson Houston (Samuel Rutherford Houston’s father), who later served as an officer during the American Revolution under George Washington.  

Samuel Rutherford Houston was born March 2, 1793 to Samuel Davidson Houston of the Virginia Militia and Elizabeth Paxton Houston.  Samuel and Elizabeth had nine children, first were six sons (Robert, Paxton, James, John, Samuel, and William) then three daughters (Mary, Isabelle, and Elizabeth Ann).  Their first four sons were dutiful and studious, but their fifth son Samuel was a poor student, an idler, and a dreamer.  Although he disliked school, he was fascinated by books and the use and sound of language. His father’s library was one of the finest on the Virginia frontier and a place where he lost himself in dreams of adventure. His favorite book was Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s The ILLIAD which he virtually memorized, and it provided a guide for his life.

Sam’s father had been on a military endeavor in Tennessee and fell in love with the lay of the land; he purchased 419 acres in Greenback, Tennessee just south west of Knoxville and Maryville.  Major Sam Houston returned home to announce that the family was going to move to Tennessee; however, he died suddenly of pneumonia at Dennis Callaghan’s Tavern near present day Callaghan, Virginia, in Alleghany County 40 miles west of Timber Ridge while on militia inspections in the winter of 1806.  Some of Major Houston’s soldiers delivered this news to his wife Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Houston, then a widow, sold the plantation, packed up and moved to the Appalachian foothills of Tennessee.  The family spent one night at their cousin Matthews’ Inn on their journey to Tennessee. Family lore recorded as Mrs. Elizabeth traveled to a new life, cousin Matthew shook his head and said:  “I have no hope for Sam; he is so wild.”