The life-sized statue of Sam Houston in his Masonic apron and attire stands on the north side of the main entry doors to the State Archives.
Houston was the chairman of the convention that organized the Lodge, which is why he holds a gavel. He is shown in his full masonic regalia, complete with ceremonial attire. He wars a suit and boots. Over his suit wears in his Masonic apron and cape. The cape is secured by a chain collar decorated with medallions of Masonic symbols. Houston's ceremonial fringed Masonic apron, with a star in the center, has the letters G. L. R. T. embroidered on it, meaning "Grand Lodge, Republic of Texas."
Houston holds his hat in his left hand, over his heart, with his gaze fixed up at some unknown object. Houston stands stiff and tall, standing at attention as only a military man can, perhaps at the moment of a pledge to the Texas flag, or a reciting of a Masonic pledge (if they do that -- Blasterz aren't Masons, so we don't know).
The statue was made by sculptor Raoul Jossett. It was donated to the State of Texas by the Grand Masonic Lodge of Texas. The statue is bronze over pewter, and stands on an pink granite base whose inscription reads as follows:
"General Sam Houston
(1793 -1863)
President of the Republic of Texas
Chairman of the Convention of Freemasons that established the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas, A.F. & A. M, in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol, Houston
December 20, 1838" [end]
From the book A Comprehensive Guide to Outdoor Texas Sculpture by Carol Morris Little, page 70 a little more information:
"GENERAL SAM HOUSTON
Sculptor: Jossett, Raoul (1898-1957)
Style: Portature, life-size, bronze
Location: DeZavala TX State Archives Building, Austin TX
Funding: Donated to the state 1961 by the Masonic Lodges of Texas
Comments: Jossett died during the completion of this statue, and his guild finished the work in his name. It was cast in pewter and covered in bronze in Italy. An identical statue is installed inside the Grand Masonic Lodge Library in Waco." [end]
Sam Houston is a giant figure in Texas -- literally. See (
visit link)
Thus there is no such thing as a brief biography of Houston: Hero of the war of 1812, Former Governor and US Rep. from Tennessee, and owner of a few accomplishments in Texas as well: A hero of San Jacinto, First President of the Republic of Texas, first US Senator from Texas, and all-around mythic Texas hero.
From the Handbook of Texas online (with some edits by us):
"HOUSTON, SAMUEL
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 . . . 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 . . . .
. . . Houston ran away from home as an adolescent in 1809 to dwell among the Cherokees . . . he sojourned for three years with the band. . . .
After war broke out with the British, he joined the United States Army…. Within four months he received a promotion to ensign of the infantry; in late December he was given a commission as a third lieutenant. As part of Andrew Jackson's army, he fought at the battle of Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River on March 26, 1814 [where]. he received three near-fatal wounds. . . . For his valor at Horseshoe Bend, Houston won the attention of General Jackson, who thereafter became his benefactor. . . .
He was detailed in late 1817 as sub-Indian agent to the Cherokees. In that capacity, he assisted Oolooteka and his clan in their removal to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. . . . Houston, by then first lieutenant, resigned from the army on March 1, 1818 . . . .
Houston read law in Nashville for six months during 1818 [and] subsequently opened a law practice in Lebanon, Tennessee. With Jackson's endorsement, he became adjutant general of the state militia . . . .
In late 1818, Houston was elected attorney general (prosecuting attorney) of the District of Nashville. After returning to private practice in Nashville by late 1821, he was elected major general of the state militia . . .He was likewise prominent in the Nash Masonic order by the early 1820s.
Houston's rapid rise in public office continued in 1823, when . . . he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the Ninth Tennessee District. As a member of Congress, he worked mightily, though unsuccessfully, for the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1824. In 1825 he was returned to Congress for a second and final term. In 1827. . . Houston was elected governor of Tennessee. He was thirty-four years of age.
On January 22, 1829, he married nineteen-year-old Eliza Allen of Gallatin, Tennessee. Houston subsequently announced his bid for reelection to the governorship. After eleven weeks and amid much mystery, the marriage ended. Eliza returned to her parents' home. Extremely distraught, Houston abruptly resigned from his office on April 16 and fled west across the Mississippi River to Indian Territory. Both parties maintained a lifelong silence about the affair. . . . .
He made his way to . . . what is now Oklahoma to live once again in self-imposed exile among the Cherokees, this time for three years. . . . He was granted Cherokee citizenship and often acted as a tribal emissary. Under Cherokee law, he married Diana (also known as Tiana) Rogers Gentry, an Indian woman of mixed blood. . . .
On the evening of April 13, 1832, on the streets of Washington, Houston thrashed William Stanbery, United States representative from Ohio, with a hickory cane. The assault resulted from a perceived insult by Stanbery over an Indian rations contract. Houston was soon arrested and tried before the House of Representatives. Francis Scott Key served as his attorney. The month-long proceedings ended in an official reprimand and a fine, but the affair catapulted Houston back into the political arena.
Leaving Diana and his life among the Indians, Houston crossed the Red River into Mexican Texas on December 2, 1832, and began another, perhaps the most important, phase of his career. . . . Houston saw Texas as his "land of promise."
He quickly became embroiled in the Anglo-Texans' politics of rebellion. He served as a delegate from Nacogdoches at the Convention of 1833 in San Felipe . . . . By October, he became commander in chief of troops for the Department of Nacogdoches and called for volunteers to begin the "work of liberty." . . . . On November 12 the Consultation appointed Houston major general of the Texas army.
During February 1836 . . . Houston negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee Indians in East Texas. In March, Houston served as a delegate from Refugio to the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos, where, on his birthday, March 2, the assembly adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence. Two days later Houston received the appointment of major general of the Texas Army, with instructions to organize the republic's military forces.
After joining his army in Gonzales, Houston and his troops retreated eastward as the Mexican army under Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna swept across Texas. . . . Houston and his men defeated Santa Anna's forces at the decisive battle of San Jacinto on the afternoon of April 21, 1836. During this engagement, his horse, Saracen, was shot beneath him, and Houston was wounded severely just above his ankle. The capture of Santa Anna the next day made the victory complete. At San Jacinto, Sam Houston became forever enshrined as a member of the pantheon of Texas heroes and a symbol for the age.
Riding the wave of popularity as "Old Sam Jacinto," Houston became the first regularly elected president of the Republic of Texas, defeating Stephen F. Austin. During his two presidential terms he successfully guided the new ship of state through many trials and tribulations. His first term lasted from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838. The town of Houston was founded in 1836, named in his honor, and served as the capital of the republic during most of his first administration.
After leaving office, Houston served in the Texas House of Representatives as a congressman from San Augustine from 1839 to 1841. He was in the forefront of the opposition to President Mirabeau B. Lamar, who had been Houston's vice president. . . .
Houston succeeded Lamar to a second term as president from December 12, 1841, to December 9, 1844.
Houston was succeeded to the presidency by Anson Jones, whom the electorate viewed as a "Houston man."
When Texas joined the union, Houston became one of its two United States senators,[and] served in the Senate from February 21, 1846, until March 4, 1859. . . .. As senator, Houston emerged as an ardent Unionist . . . a stand that made him an increasingly controversial figure . . . .
Houston always characterized himself as a Southern man for the Union and opposed any threats of disunity, whether from Northern or Southern agitators. He incurred the permanent wrath of proslavery elements by supporting the Compromise of 1850. . . . In 1854, Houston alienated Democrats in Texas . . . by opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Bill because it allowed the status of slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty, a concept he saw as potentially destabilizing to the nation. . . . His career in the Senate was effectively ended when, in 1855, the Texas legislature officially condemned his position on the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
As a lame-duck senator, Houston ran for governor of Texas in 1857. He was defeated by. . . . Hardin R. Runnels. Predictably, the state legislature did not reelect Houston to the Senate. . . . The replacement took place at the end of Houston's term, in 1859. . . .
Out of the Senate, Houston ran a second time for governor in 1859. Because of his name recognition, a temporary lull in the sectional conflict, and other factors, he defeated the incumbent, Runnels, in the August election and assumed office on December 21. . . .
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States, the clamor of discontent in Texas prompted Houston to call a special session of the state legislature. Adamantly opposed to secession, Houston warned Texans that civil war would result in a Northern victory and destruction of the South, a prophecy that was borne out by future events. The Secession Convention, however, convened [and] withdrew Texas from the Union; Houston acquiesced to these events rather than bring civil strife and bloodshed to his beloved state.
But when he refused to take the oath of loyalty to the newly formed Confederate States of America, the Texas convention removed him from office on March 16. . .
After leaving the Governor's Mansion, Houston at least verbally supported the Southern cause. . . . Houston moved his wife and other children in the fall of 1862 to Huntsville . . .
On July 26, 1863, after being ill for several weeks, he [succumbed] to pneumonia at age seventy. Dressed in Masonic ceremonial trappings, he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Huntsville.” [end]