Sam Houston was a strange bird
By Warner M. Montgomery
Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Dr. Ken Peters talks about his favorite subject, Sam Houston, at the Torch Club.

Dr. Ken Peters has a hangup! Ever since his daughter gave him a copy of The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston , he has not been able let go of the first president of the Republic of Texas. Last week, Dr. Peters dumped his obsession on the Torch Club.

After degrees from Albion College and the University of Michigan, Peters flew south to earn his fame and fortune teaching history, first at Benedict College then 33 years at USC. He retired a rich man in 2006 and is now busy delving into the life of Sam Houston, a Texan who did not die at the Alamo with Davie Crockett, Jim Bowie, and South Carolinians James Bonham and William Travis.

Sam Houston, according to Peters, was born in Virginia, became a legend in Tennessee, and died a hero in Texas in the middle of the Civil War. He was self- educated, adopted by a Cherokee chief, married an Indian maiden (second of three marriages), and was a personal friend of Andrew Jackson.

Not one to avoid a fight, Houston battled the Indians, the Mexicans, and many political foes. In a duel, he was wounded in the groin. He caned a congressman and was reprimanded by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Houston served as adjutant general, attorney general, congressman, and governor of Tennessee. He resigned the governorship (1829), left his wife and went into self- imposed exile with the Cherokees - where he married a Indian woman and was granted Cherokee citizenship.

When it looked like Mexican control of Texas was weakening, Houston charged into Texas in 1832 on behalf of the Cherokee Nation. Enamored with Texas, Houston left the Indians and his wife and jumped into the rebellion as commander- in- chief of the Texas Army.

At the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836), Houston defeated and captured Mexican General Santa Ana and was elected first president of the Lone Star Republic. He married for the third time and sired eight children.

When Texas became a state in 1845, Houston became its first U.S. senator. Seeing secession in the wind, he resigned from the senate and was elected governor of Texas, hoping to keep his beloved state in the union. He failed and was forced out of office in 1861.

Old Sam turned down President Lincoln's offer to lead the Union forces against the Confederacy, and quietly retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died July 26, 1863.

The always poetic Peters ended his talk with the last stanza from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.

The Torch Club, an international speakers organization, meets every month for dinner and a talk by a member. For information, call Ed Latimer 803-776-4765.

The Raven

And the raven, never

flitting, still is sitting,

still is sitting

On the pallid bust of

Pallas just above my

chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's

that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his

shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies

floating on the floor

Shall be lifted -

nevermore!