Houston, Samuel: Early Life
Early Life
He moved (c.1806) with his family to Tennessee and lived much of his youth with the Cherokee, by whom he was adopted. Serving (1814) in the Creek campaign under Andrew Jackson, he was seriously wounded (1814) while fighting bravely at the battle of Horseshoe Bend. He returned to Tennessee, was admitted (1818) to the bar, practiced law in Lebanon, Tenn., and held many state offices.
Tall, vigorous, and dramatic in speech and in action, Houston, like Jackson, captured the popular imagination. He was sent (1823, 1825) to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat. Elected (1827) governor of Tennessee, Houston seemed in 1829 to have a bright political future, with his reelection almost assured and the Democrats strengthening themselves in national politics. Suddenly, however, his wife, Eliza Allen Houston, left him, and he immediately resigned (1829) his governorship. He rejoined the Cherokee in what is now Oklahoma. There he lived with them as government post trader and as adviser, drinking heavily during much of this period.
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