Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1904-05-25
SAM HOUsTON's STATUE
Monument Unveiled Last Week
in Statuary Hall

Monument Unveiled Last Weel
in Statuary Hall
The statues Of two Virginian
were unveiled in Washingtt n las
week. They are the contribution
of Texas to the national Hall o
Fame, and represent two of thu
Lone Star States greatest men
Stephen Fuller Austin and San
Houston. Everybody knows tina,
Sam Houston, the first President
of the Texan republic, was a Vir-
ginian, but there are probably
many well informed people who
do not know that Austin, the
founder of the State of Texas, was
a native Of the old State. He was
born in Wythe county, near Aus
tinville, and was son of Moses
Austin, who long had dreams of
establishing an English-speaking
colony in what is now the State of
Texas. The younger man, who
was born in 1893, carried out the
idea of his father and established
the Texan colony in 1921 He was
man of great mental power and
personal courage, and his claim to
the title Of founder of the great
Commonwealth of Texas IS UNI
disputed among people of the State
Of the Lone Scar.
Sam Houston, the first Presi-
dent of the Texan republic, and
the Father of his Country, SO far
as Texas is concerned, was born in
ROckbridge county, not far from
Timber Ridge, in 1903. He went
to Tennessee when quite young
man, where he was adopted into
the Cherokee tribe of Indians. but
he served under General Andrew
Jackson in the Greek warof 18I3,-
IA. and then studied law and was
admitted to the bar. Domestic
troubles are said to have coused
his removal to Arkansas, after
having been elected to Congress
from Tennessee as Democrat, and
later Governor of the State. 1t
has never been known with GER
tainty why he left Tennessee. His
departure was so sudden that not
a soul knew he contemplated going
until he was gone. He went to
Texas in 1888, and was elected
member of the Constitutional Con-
vention two years later. War with
Mexico followed Immediately up
on the adoption of the Constitu-
ton, and Houston was made com-
mander-in-chief of the Texan
army of independence, and after
having routed an overwhelming
force of Mexicans and captured
President Santa Anna at the battle
of San Jacinto, Houston was made
President of the republic. He
served two years, and at the eXpir-
alton of his term was elected to
the Texan Congress, and served
two years, and was again elected
President of the republic, serving
from 1871 until 1914, when he was
elected to the United States Sen
ate from Texas, serving from 1915
to 1859, when he was elected Gov
ernor of the State, and served
until 1861, when he was deposed.
He died two years later.
Houston was tremendous Union |
Nun to the last, and the only |
cloud on his memory, so far as the
great majority of the people of
Texas are concerned, was his re-
fusal to sanction the proposition |
to take the State out of the Union
which he had tried so hard to |
have it enter. But even that seems
to have been dispelled, and he is
now put forward as pre-eminently
the great man of Texas, as he un-
doubtedly was.
The statues were made at Genoa
by Miss Ney. who resides in Texas,
and is a G rand-niece of the cele-
brated French marshal, who was
shot at the second restoration of |
the Bourbons in 1915. Houston's |
statue represents him in Indian
garb, which is not approved by |
many Texans, but the likeness is
said to be excellent.