Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/23



a locality known as Timber Ridge Church, seven miles east of Lexington, in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 2d of March, 1793, Sam Houston was born. His birth-day was, in 1836, the natal day of a young Republic, in the achievement of whose liberties he was the chosen leader.

On his father's and mother's side, in both lines, his ancestry is traced to the highlands of Scotland. By the side of John Knox, they fought for "God and Liberty." With a multitude of others they were forced to leave their Scottish homes, and seek a refuge in the north of Ireland. After the siege of Derry, in which they were engaged, they emigratad to Pennsylvania. For more than a century the ancestors of his father and mother were near each other. They had settled in Virginia, in close proximity, many years before the marriage of the father and mother of Sam Houston.

His father was a man of remarkable physique, powerful in frame, lofty in bearing, and of undisputed bravery. His chief passion was for a military life. A soldier of the Revolution, he served successively as Inspector of the Brigades of Generals Bowyer and Moore, and held office with the latter at the time of his death, in 1807, while on an inspecting tour among the Alleghany Mountains. Possessed merely of a comfortable living, he bequeathed to his son only the qualities of soul and body with which he was endowed.

His mother was distinguished in person, manners, and mind. Her countenance was impressive and dignified, her form tall and matronly, her carriage easy and graceful. Beyond most of her sex, her intellectual and moral qualities were conspicuous. And the wild scenes of frontier life, buoyed by unflinching fortitude, purity, and benevolence, illumined her life. So universal was her beneficence that the poor and the suffering gratefully blessed her name. Her son returned from a distant exile to weep by her bedside, when it was her lot to die.

The influence of such parents on Sam Houston was seen in every period of his life.