On any given day, one may have to stop for the rare chicken who has wandered its way onto the road from the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. The grounds that the chickens call home rest on fifteen acres of the original 200 acre farm owned by General Sam Houston and his family between 1847 and 1858. Here, one can feed the ducks in Lake Oolooteka, an artificial pond honoring the adoptive Cherokee Indian father of Sam Houston, or meander over the footbridge to the Woodland Home, where one can walk up the same steps that Sam Houston took more than a century ago. Nearby, one can walk to the single room log cabin that served as Houston’s study and law office. And, a short distance away, one will find the Steamboat House, the location of Houston’s death and funeral.
Additionally on the grounds, one can find two period piece double-pen log cabins named Bear Bend and Guerrant Cabin. Only one, Bear Bend, has a direct relation to Sam Houston. The cabin served as the family’s hunting lodge during the 1850s. In 1974, preservationists B. Carroll and Mae Tharp bought the cabin and relocated it from its original site, an area now located under Lake Conroe. The task was not easy, as Carroll and Tharp dismantled and numbered each piece individually in order to rebuild it exactly as it was – a task the pair completed in 1987. The Tharps maintained this and five other historic properties on their land until they donated the entire lot to Sam Houston State University. Unfortunately, due to the remote location of the cabins, upkeep proved costly and the decision was made to once again relocate the buildings. In October 2010, Bear Bend Cabin was uprooted and relocated to the memorial grounds were it was restored and rededicated the following March. The other four buildings owned by the Tharps were relocated to Montgomery’s Fernland Historical Grounds. Across from Bear Bend, the Guerrant Cabin dates from the 1840s and was built by Daniel Boone Guerrant, an early settler of Walker County. Like Bear Bend, Guerrant Cabin was moved to the museum in the twenty-first century to be used for demonstrations.
Sitting just north of the Steamboat House, the Wigwam Neosho Museum Store, offers visitors a chance to shop, watch an introductory video, and pay admission into the museum. It is strongly recommended that one visits the exhibits inside the Memorial Museum. Each year the museum develops new programs, activities, and exhibits on the history of Sam Houston, the Texas Republic, and the fight for Texas Independence. Admission to walk and tour the grounds is free year round. However, if you are interested in looking into the buildings, receiving a tour, or going into the store or museum, then you will have to do it during business hours between 9A.M – 4:30 P.M Monday-Saturday, excluding holidays, and 12 P.M – 4:30 P.M on Sundays also excluding holidays. Demonstration times and dates can be found on the museum website.
]]>Located in Huntsville, Texas, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and attached grounds are spread across eighteen acres of the original two hundred-plus acres once owned by Sam Houston and family from 1847 to 1858. Preservation of this historic site started in the first decade of the twentieth century, when Bertha Kirkley, a history professor at Sam Houston Normal Institute, worked with her students to revive the property and return the “Woodland Home” and Sam Houston’s law office to their original site. The initial stage of this work was completed in 1911, but a lack of funds and public indifference meant that the property was poorly maintained. Indeed, as journalist Gregory Curtis has pointed out, various “inauthentic embellishments were added” to the Woodland Home during this period, and local “agricultural students were using it as a hay barn.”
In the late 1920s, Joseph Lynn Clark, another history professor at Sam Houston State Teachers College, wrote to every member of the Texas legislature seeking financial assistance to properly preserve the Woodland Home and surrounding buildings. In 1927, the legislature approved a $15,000 appropriation for restoration of the home and the construction and development of a museum at the site. A formal dedication for the museum was held on May 3, 1929. While this appeared to an unmitigated success, Clark soon complained that the Museum’s renovations at the Woodland Home changed the structure “in the interest of attractiveness and permanency,” without due regard to the historic appearance of the building.
In 1936, as Texans prepared to celebrate the centennial of the state’s independence from Mexico, Clark again lobbied officials for funds to commemorate the life and legacy of Sam Houston. This time, the Centennial Commission appropriated $35,000 to construct a new rotunda for the museum and to modernize the building. Between 1936 and 1960, construction occurred in installments, and in 1995 the Katy and E. Don Walker, Sr. Education Center was also constructed. The center, resting in the back of the museum grounds, holds a gift shop, auditorium, exhibit gallery, and activity rooms.
The museum is owned and managed by Sam Houston State University, which sits across the street from the museum and grounds. Inside the museum there are three wings holding permanent exhibits detailing the life of Sam Houston, the Texas Revolution, and other collections and exhibits housed year round. Periodic demonstrations, such as blacksmithing, pottery, and hearth cooking, occur during various times of the year including at the annual General Sam Houston Folk Festival every spring. The museum is open from 9 A.M to 4:30 P.M Tuesday thru Saturday and 12 P.M to 4:30 on Sundays.
]]>One of the most important centers at the Houston home was the kitchen. A simple, single, large wooden room with a stone fireplace in the back, the kitchen served as the location for preparing food, washing clothes, soap making, animal butchering, candle making, and storage. It was separated from the house to protect from fire and heat especially in the summer months. During the winter, the large fireplace served to shelter and dry perishable items. Next to the kitchen a small garden provided herbs, spices, and vegetables.
One of the most important figures in the Houston’s kitchen was Eliza Revel, an African-American slave, who traveled to Texas with Margaret after she married Sam Houston. Eliza served as the main cook and directed the daily activities around the kitchen. Margaret was very dependent on Eliza, especially during her numerous pregnancies and health problems. Of course, serving Margaret meant that Eliza was forced to sublimate her own desires and wishes to those of her white owner.
After the Houston’s left Huntsville and Woodland Home was sold, the kitchen was removed from the property. The replica on the museum grounds is erected on the original site in as complete detail as possible. The museum provides demonstrations of hearth cooking and other activities inside the kitchen at various times in the year.
]]>Margaret Moffette Lea was born on April 11, 1819, on her family’s farm near Marion, Alabama, to Temple and Nancy Lea. At fifteen, her father passed away. After that her family moved into town taking up residence in the home of Henry Lea, Margaret’s older brother and a prominent state legislator and businessman. Soon after Margaret began her education at Pleasant Valley Academy. At nineteen, she began her Bible studies at the Judson Female Institute.
In May 1839, Margaret attended a garden party held by her sister in Mobile, Alabama, and met General Sam Houston, the hero of the Battle of San Jacinto and first President of the Republic of Texas. Margaret at the time was twenty years old, and Houston was forty-six. While Margaret’s mother strongly opposed their relationship, Sam Houston proposed in June and Margaret said yes just a week after the proposal. After a year-long courtship, the two were married on May 9, 1840, in Alabama. Margaret was Sam Houston’s third wife.
In June, the couple relocated to Galveston, Texas. Sadly during the first year of their union, the couple spent time apart. The Texas pollen and heat contributed to Margaret’s chronic asthma and soon her health problems prevented her from traveling. Sam Houston was forced to leave her in Galveston at her mother’s home when he traveled around the state. Although the couple was separated for long periods, Sam and Margaret wrote frequent letters to show their love and devotion to one another.
After her recovery, Margaret began to set up their home in Cedar Point along Trinity Bay. Despite owning several houses, the Houston family came back to Cedar Point every summer. Margaret tried to keep her spirits up by gardening, writing poetry, and studying her faith. She was a devoted Baptist. At one point, she helped founding a church. She was also very committed to converting Sam and freeing him of his drinking habit, which she eventually did.
In 1841, Sam was re-elected for his second term as President of Texas. The couple moved to Washington-on-the-Brazos, the temporary capital. For the first time, Texas had its very own first lady. The first of their eight children, Sam Houston Jr., was born on May 25, 1843. After Sam’s term ended, he relocated the family to a temporary location on Raven Hill plantation, which was fifteen miles east of Huntsville. While Sam was away in Washington D.C serving as a senator, their first daughter, Nancy Elizabeth, was born. In December, bothered by pain Margaret moved in with her family. She was later diagnosed with a breast tumor. During the operation, Margaret refused any whiskey to ease the pain and instead bit on a silver coin between her teeth.
When Sam returned home, he moved the family closer to Huntsville at Margaret’s insistence. She wanted to be closer to the church and to the doctor. Their “Woodland Home” became Margaret’s favorite house, and four of their children, Margaret Lea, Mary William Houston, Antoinette Power, and William Rogers, were born there. In 1853, following Sam Houston’s Senate tenure, the family moved to Independence, Texas. In 1854, Margaret gave birth to her sixth child, Andrew Jackson, in Independence before again leaving for Huntsville. In December 1958, after the birth of their seventh child, they sold their "Woodland Home" to pay off debts and moved to Austin to live in the Governor’s Mansion, where their last child, Temple Lea, was born.
After Sam refused to sign an oath to the Confederacy and was removed from his position as governor, the family returned to Independence. The location allowed their older children to attend Baylor University. At the end of 1862 the family moved to the Huntsville region and rented the “Steamboat House” from Rufus W. Bailey. In July 1863, Sam Houston passed away surrounded by his loved ones.
Following his death, Margaret left Huntsville for good. At first she lived in Cedar Point, then moved to Houston, and later moved in with her mother in Independence. In 1864, she traded land for “The Root House” located next to her mother’s property in Independence. Her mother died on February 7, 1864. In the following years, Margaret’s two daughters got married and her first grandchild was born. On December 3, 1867, Margaret passed away from yellow fever. She was buried the same day in a plot next to her mother.
]]>Following his military service in the War of 1812 and a stint as a sub-Indian agent to the Cherokees, Sam Houston moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in March 1818 to read law under the direction of Judge James Trimble. It took Houston just six months to complete his course of study, and he subsequently practiced law in the Volunteer State before serving as the governor of Tennessee from 1827 to 1829.
Later, when Houston moved to Texas in December 1832, he returned to the practice of law. While he lived on his property in Huntsville, Texas, he often sought refuge and escape in his law office, a simple log cabin near his Woodland Home. Serving as one of the first United States senators from Texas, he used this space as an unofficial meeting place to discuss matters of importance with friends, allies, and constituents. According to family tradition, Houston banned women from entering the small wooden cabin and allowed only Joshua, his most trusted slave, to clean it.
When the Smedes family purchased Houston's Woodland Home in 1858, a decision was made to move the law office to a different site. In 1905, after students at Sam Houston Normal Institute restored the cabin, Professor J. L. Pritchett relocated it back to its original location.
]]>In 1847, Sam Houston bought a 200-acre property on the outskirts of Huntsville, Texas, to be the site of his family’s home. Houston designed a house that would resemble that of his boyhood in Virginia. While away to serve as one of Texas’s first Senators, Houston kept regular correspondence with his wife concerning his design wishes. The house was finished in February 1848. Houston referred to it as “our dear woodland home” in a letter to his wife. The name stuck, even though he allowed that she could “choose a better name if she saw fit."
The Woodland Home is a standard dog-run log cabin consisting of two separate sections. The first floor has two rooms, a parlor and master bedroom, connected by a breezeway. The second floor, accessible by a single narrow staircase, has two bedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, separated by a loft area. There are also two smaller rooms on the back side of the house, extending from the wide rear porch. These are referred to as “stranger’s rooms” and were occupied by Margaret’s mother and used for storage.
Detached from the house was an outdoor kitchen. A large outdoor kitchen was preferred in the South due to the humidity and summer heat. The building design would have been simple, yet functional with an area great enough to accommodate all the necessary kitchen chores as well as stored items. The kitchen that rests on the property today is a latter-day model. Further structures on the property included a hog pen, chicken house, smokehouse, corncrib, carriage house, cotton house, stables, slave quarters, an outhouse, and a law office.
During the family’s time at the Woodland Home, Sam Houston served as the first senator of Texas for the United States and travelled several times away from home, often spending half a year in Washington D.C. While away, his family slave, Joshua, maintained the house and farm. Joshua was held in high regard by the Houston family and the community. The family lived on the property for eight years. It would be the only property Margaret would refer to as her own. The house was unoccupied starting in 1853, on account of Houston’s political career. In 1858 the beloved house was sold for $4,000 to J. Carroll Smith, a local businessman, in order to pay off the debts incurred by Houston’s campaign for governor. For twenty years the house went through various owners. In 1878, it was sold to S. Smedes. In 1899, the home premiered as “Smedes’ Boarding House for Girls,” with additions added to the east, west, and south ends, tripling the size. The law office was moved away from the property. At some point before 1910, the house was sold and experienced further modifications to its appearance.
In 1905, a group of students from Sam Houston Normal Institute, led by the history department’s Bertha Kirkley, formed a group to rescue and restore the old home site. By 1908 the group had raised enough to purchase 2.5 acres of the original property. They continued to acquire more property and with the help of community support eventually purchased the Woodland Home and Law Office, relocating them to their original locations. Before the house could be moved it caught fire, but was saved before it could do extensive damage. In 1925, a fire did further damage. In 1927, another movement was led to restore the house, and it was opened to the public on May 3, 1929.
In 1974, the home was deemed a National Historic Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Restoration projects throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have striven to restore the building to its original condition.
]]>In 1855, Dr. Rufus W. Bailey, a Dartmouth educated minister and attorney, moved to Huntsville, Texas, to serve as a language professor at Austin College. After acquiring an eight acre tract of land in Huntsville, he commissioned a large home to be built in 1858. According to popular legend, Bailey intended to present the new structure, which he named Buena Vista, to his son and daughter-in-law as a wedding present. Upon first sight, however, the young couple refused to live in the eccentrically designed building, which featured twin front turrets and riverboat side galleries on two lengthy floors.
By 1862, Bailey’s well-intentioned wedding gift -- now known the “Steamboat House” -- had sat empty for many months. This situation made it possible for Sam Houston, the recently deposed Governor of Texas, to rent the building from Bailey upon his return to Huntsville. Wartime pressures and health problems constantly plagued Sam Houston during the last year of his life. As his persistent cough turned into pneumonia, Houston’s strength declined. On June 26, 1863, the old general passed away in the front room of the Steamboat House. The next day family and friends held funeral services in the upstairs parlor of the house, followed by a burial in nearby Oakwood Cemetery.
With the passing of Sam Houston, his family moved out of the home. Rufus Bailey, who had died three months previously, left the Steamboat House to his son, Frank. Once again confronted with ownership of the unusually shaped house, Frank Bailey quickly put the structure up for auction. For the next sixty years the house would pass from one family to another, and it deteriorated over time. In 1936, J.E. Josey donated the Steamboat House to the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. The building was dismantled, moved to the museum grounds, and extensively refurbished. On March 2, 1937 the newly remodeled Steamboat House was opened to the public as part of the Texas Centennial.
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