"George Washington Slept Here" is a cliche'd phrase
Here in Texas it's Sam Houston's ways.
Come and stand where ol' Same stood
Find a plaque erected for the public 'good'
Engraved Granite plaque set in concrete at sight of Old Post Office on Main Street (across from the Carnegie Library/Bell County Museum).
Memorial reads:
On this site of the Old Post Office on
July 14, 1857, Sam Houston, Commander
of the Texian Army and Hero of San Jacinto
spoke while running for governor.
After being past president of the Republic
of Texas and senator he served as governor
of Texas from 1859-1861.
Plaque provided by the Sam Houston
Chapter of the Republic of Texas, 2008,
commemorating it's (sic) 75th Anniversary.
And apparently that's all that's electronically available (the museum across the street was closed on Sunday). Feel free to add any detail YOU find.
A little about Belton and Sam Houston:
(
visit link)
BELTON Historic Preservation Action Plan
“During the secessionqv crisis there was some pro-Union sentiment in Belton. A Whig newspaper, the Independent, was published there, and in the election of 1859 Bell County residents voted overwhelmingly for Sam Houston.qv Nonetheless, in 1861 the county voted for secession by a wide margin. A large number of men from Belton served in the Confederate forces, and local residents established several small industries to support the war effort, including a complex of stock pens and slaughterhouses to process dried beef.”
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Further Reading
"In Search of the Heroes -- The Life of Sam Houston" (http://www.graceproducts.com/houston/life.html)
And if you don't believe Ol' Sam is the Texas Lincoln, read this oped from the Belton Journal (http://www.wesriddle.com/Horse%20Sense%2029%20-%20Texas.pdf): "Remind the person in the cube next to you that he wouldn’t be here enjoying this if it weren’t for Sam Houston, and if he or she doesn’t know the story, tell them. When William Barrett Travis wrote in 1836 that he would never surrender and he would have Victory or Death, what he was really saying was that he and his men were forged of a hotter fire. They weren’t your average every day men. Well, that is what it means to be a Texan. It meant it then, and that’s why it means it today. It means just what all those people North of the Red River accuse us of thinking it means. It means there’s no mountain that we can’t climb. It means that we can swim the Gulf in the winter. It means that Earl Campbell ran harder and Houston is bigger and Dallas is richer and Alpine is hotter and Stevie Ray was smoother and God vacations in Texas."
Yup, Texans LOVE our history. And we'll immortalize it with some sort of monument.
Enjoy Belton's historic downtown ... it's worth a wander. [And be SURE to check out the Texiana on the building just across the side street from you (on your left) -- all those Texas panels are fun stuff.]