Daddy, I’m scared.
Spiderboy’s turn to be scared.
Bittygirl checks out the Sea Wall through dad’s shoulder.
Hey, this isn’t so bad afterall.
Seagulls have chowed down on this jellyfish already.
We check out a jetty.
Sam Houston, one of the most illustrious political figures of Texas, was born on March 2, 1793, the fifth child (and fifth son) of Samuel and Elizabeth (Paxton) Houston, on their plantation in sight of Timber Ridge Church, Rockbridge County, Virginia.
He was of Scots-Irish ancestry and reared as a Presbyterian. He acquired rudimentary education during his boyhood by attending a local school for no more than six months.
When he was thirteen years old, his father died. Some months later, in the spring of 1807, he emigrated with his mother, five brothers, and three sisters to Blount County in Eastern Tennessee, where the family established a farm near Maryville on a tributary of Bakers’ Creek. Houston went to a nearby academy for a time and reportedly fed his fertile imagination by reading classical literature, especially the Iliad.
In 1859, two years before the start of the war between the states, he was opposed to having Texas secede from the union. In 1861, Texas voted to secede. Sam Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the new Confederacy and he was removed a governor.
He retired to Huntsville, Texas. He chose this city because the hills reminded him of his boyhood home near Maryville, Tennessee. He was seventy years old at the time of his death on July 26th, 1863. He died in Huntsville, TX at 6:15 p.m.
Soldier, statesman and rollicking character, Sam Houston walked across history.
Spiderboy and Bittygirl check out the big dude.
Whoa!
Bittygirl says, “wait up daddy.”
Checking the names on the fund raising bricks.
Some guy from Poland.
Some guy from Houston.
Some guy from Austin.
