SAM HOUSTON

One of the most famous and colorful figures in Texas history, Sam Houston was born in Virginia on March 2, 1793. He spent much of his youth, however, in the mountains of Tennessee. There, young Houston became acquainted with the Cherokee Indians, and he spent much time with them, an activity which he much preferred over studies at school or working on the family farm.

With the outbreak of the second war against England, the War of 1812, Houston enlisted as a soldier, and was made sergeant in the U.S. Army. He excelled in the military and quickly won the admiration of his men and his superiors. In the Creek War against the Creek Indians he receiving three near-fatal wounds at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, he rose to the rank of first Lieutenant before resigning in 1818 to study law.

After a short time, he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Tennessee before running for public office. He sought and won a seat in the Tennessee House of Representativesin 1822 and was elected to the US Congress in 1823 and again in 1825. He was a staunch supporter of fellow Tennessean and future U.S. President Andrew Jackson and was widely considered to be Jackson's political protégé. In 1827 with Jacksons help, Houston was elected Governor of Tennessee by a large majority.

While governor he married eighteen year old Eliza Allen. (He was 34) The marriage was political and never blossomed into a relationship. Houston and Eliza separated shortly after the marriage, for reasons Houston refused to discuss to the end of his life. This became a huge scandal in Tennessee and Houston quietly resigned from politics and returned to live with his longtime friends, the Cherokees. He spent time among the Cherokee, married a Cherokee woman named Tiana Rogers Gentry, and set up a trading post apparently drinking heavily the entire time.There, he remained until 1832 when he moved to Texas (without Tiana) along with a few friends.

In Texas, Houston was elected a delegate from Nacogdoches to the Convention of 1833 which met at San Felipe. From that time, Houston emerged as a big player in the affairs of Texas. He became a member of the Consultation of 1835, and of the Convention which met at Washington on the Brazos in 1836 to declare independence from Mexico. It was there that Houston was elected commander of the army of Texas. Houston immediately took control of the Texas forces and conducted the retreat of the army to the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, where on April 21, 1836, his force defeated Santa Anna and secured Texas independence.

Houston was elected the first President of the Republic of Texas. After serving his term as President, he served in the Congress of the Republic in 1839-40. Then in 1841, Houston was again elected to be the President of the Texas. After Texas got U.S. statehood in 1845, Houston was elected Senator from Texas to the Congress of the United States.

On May 9, 1840, Alabama, Houston married Margaret Lea, with whom he had eight children. He was 47,she was 21. In 1859, Houston was elected to serve as Governor of the State of Texas. As Governor, Houston was strongly opposed to Texas leaving the Union to fight for the South in the Civil War. Because of this, Houston was forcefully removed from office in March of 1861, ending his career in public service. Houston retired to the privacy of his home at Huntsville, Texas, where died in July of 1863. The city of Houston and Sam Houston State University, and a national park near Huntsville are named in his honor

William Barrett Travis

Travis was born in South Carolina on August 9, 1809. Travis's boyhood centered on the work of the family farm, attendance at the Red Bank church, home schooling, and playing with area children. Travis attended a school in Sparta until he learned all that was taught there. Travis eventually became a teacher at the age of 19. He married Rosanna Cato, a former student of his. Within a year, when Travis was barely twenty years old, they had a son, Charles Edward Travis.

Travis studied law and became a practicing lawyer for a brief time. Not making much money with his legal practice, Travis began a publication of a newspaper, the Claiborne Herald,and joined the militia. The marriage soon failed, however. Travis abandoned his wife, son, and an unborn daughter, and headed for Texas. There is some evidence that Travis suspected his wife of infidelity and killed a man because of it, thus he came to Texas to escape punishment for his crime.

After arriving illegally in Texas in early 1831, Travis obtained land from Stephen F. Austin. He listed his marital status as single, although he was still married. He set up to practice law first in the town of Anahuac, and afterwards at San Felipe. He traveled the country doing legal work and became associated with a group of settlers who opposed the Law of April 6, 1830.

When friction developed between Texas and Mexico, Travis was one of the first to join the Texas forces. He became involved in the disturbances at Anahuac in 1832 where his quarrels with Juan Bradburn over 2 escaped slaves resulted in armed clashes at Velasco and produced the conventions of 1832 and 1833 with their petitions for repeal of the Law of April 6, 1830, and separate statehood for Texas.

Travis moved his legal practice to San Felipe in the aftermath of Anahuac. In 1834, despite his youth, he was accepted into the councils of government. When Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos demanded the surrender of the Texian's cannon that resulted in the Battle of Gonzales, Travis was one of hundreds to come to its defense. He arrived too late, however, to take part in the action.

When the Mexican Army opened up Anahuac again in 1835, Travis led some twenty-five men and captured the Mexican soldiers easily. The action alarmed the peace party, and for several months Travis was regarded by many Texians as a troublemaker. General Martin Perfecto de Cos branded Travis an outlaw and demanded that the Texians surrender him for military trial.

He remained with the Texas militia, serving in the cavalry, and accompanied it to besiege Bexar. He did not remain in San Antonio through the final assault in early December, but returned to San Felipe. He later accepted a commission as a lieutenant colonel of cavalry and became the chief recruiting officer for the army. Governor Henry Smith ordered Travis to recruit 100 men and reinforce James C. Neill at San Antonio.

In January 1836, Travis arrived in San Antonio with only twenty-nine men. Within a few days, he found himself in command, when the commander James C. Neill had to leave to care for a family emergency. When James Bowie arrived with 100 volunteers, he and Travis fought over command. Bowie became sick and Travis commanded the defenders during the siege and Battle of the Alamo.

His appeal from the Alamo for reinforcements has become an American symbol of unyielding courage and heroism. Although a few reinforcements arrived before the Alamo fell, Travis and over 180 defenders gave their lives for Texas independence on March 6, 1836.

The nature of Travis's death elevated him from a mere commander of an obscure fort to a genuine hero of Texas and American history. Remarkably, Travis was only twenty-six years of age at the time of his death. Travis County is named in his honor.

On February 24, 1836, during Santa Anna's siege of the Alamo, Travis wrote a letter addressed "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World":

Fellow citizens and compatriots;

I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or Death.

William Barrett Travis

James“Jim” Bowie

Known for his famous "Bowie knife", James “Jim” Bowie is now immortalized as one of the true folk heroes in early Texas. He didn’t invent the Bowie knife however, his brother Rezin did. James did make it famous when he used it to stab a man to death during a duel that turned into an all out fight know as the “Sandbar Fight” in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1827.

James Bowie was born in Kentucky in 1796. While still very young, he moved with his family, first to Missouri, then in 1802 to Louisiana, where he spent most of his youth receiving his education from his older brothers. It was there that he first acquired a reputation for being bold and fearless.

He got fairly rich at an early age going into business with his two other brothers, Rezin and John, first in sugar milling, then in land speculation, and then in slave smuggling. The land speculation involved selling land in Louisiana and Arkansas for which they had no real title for. They faked Spanish land grants which they then tried to convince the U.S. Government to accept. The Government eventually caught on and tried to arrest Jim for fraud, but by that time he had left Louisiana for Texas.

Jim and his brothers also bought slaves from the pirate Jean LaFitte in Texas. Importing slaves into the U.S. was illegal so they would smuggle them in fromTexas to Louisiana and sell them in the U.S at auction.

Bowie came to Texas for the first time in 1828 and settled there permanently in 1830.On April 25, 1831 Bowie married nineteen-year-old Maria Ursula de Veramendi, the daughter of his business partner Don Juan Martin Veramendi, governor of the province of Texas and vice-governor of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas. Bowie became a Mexican citizen and a Catholic. The couple had zero, one or two children -- sources disagree. While Bowie was away on a business trip, a cholera epidemic killed the whole Veramendi family, including his wife, in September 1833.He returned to the empty Vermandi house in San Antonio and turned to the bottle to drown his sorrows.

In the Texas Revolution, Bowie was a leading participant at the Battle of Concepcion and in the Grass Fight near San Antonio. He was in command of a volunteer force in San Antonio when William Barrett Travis arrived with regular army troops. The two men shared authority during much of the Siege of the Alamo, which caused some friction between the two and they did not get along. But pneumonia disabled Bowie, and he was confined to his cot at the time of his death on March 6, 1836 at the Battle of the Alamo.

DAVID “DAVY” CROCKETT

Davy Crockett, the celebrated hero, warrior and backwoods statesman, was born August 17, 1786 in a small cabin on the banks of the Nolichucky River, near Limestone, Tennessee. David "Davy" Crockett was the fifth of nine children and the fifth son born to John and Rebecca Crockett. The Crocketts were a self-sufficient, independent family. During his childhood, Davy is said to have had no more than 6 months education and that he didn’t learn to read or write until he was 18.

Davy Crockett married to Mary Polly Finley in 1806, just after his twentieth birthday. They lived for the next few years in a small cabin near the Crockett family, where their two sons, John Wesley and William Finley were born; they also had with a daughter, Margaret Finley After his wife Polly Finley's death in 1815 he married Elizabeth Patton with whom he had three additional children.

Davy served in the U.S. Army and was so popular with the other soldiers he was elected commander of a battalion in the Creek Indian War in 1813-1814. He used his popularity in that war to run and win a seat in the Tennessee legislature in 1821-1822 and again in 1823-1824. He then ran and won a seat in the Congress of the United States from the years 1827-1835. As a Congressman, Crockett supported the rights of squatters, who were barred from buying land in the west without already owning property. Crockett backwoods speech and the way he dressed, often wearing clothes made out of wild animals like deer hide, made him a celebrity in Washington D.C. A fictional play based on him called The Lion of the West made him even more famous.

He opposed many of President Andrew Jackson's policies. Jackson was also from Tennessee and still had a lot of power in the state. Davy’s opposition to Jackson caused his defeat when he ran for re-election in 1834. He said, "I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not ... you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas!" Following his defeat, he did just that.

On October 31, 1835, Crockett left Tennessee for Texas, writing his family he said "I want to explore Texas well before I return." He arrived in Nacogdoches, Texas, in early January 1836. On January 14, 1836, Crockett volunteered to serve in the Texas army and was promised about 4,600 acres of land as payment. On February 6, Crockett and about five other men rode into San Antonio de Bexar and camped just outside the town.

In March of 1836, Davy Crockett and the other Alamo defenderswere massacred by Santa Anna and the Mexican Army. All that is certain about the fate of David Crockett is that he died at the Alamo on March 6. According to many accounts of the battle between five and seven Texians surrendered during the battle and Santa Anna demanded the immediate execution of the survivors. Weeks after the battle, stories began to circulate that Crockett was among those who surrendered and were executed.

By the late 19th century, Crockett was largely forgotten. His legend was reborn in a 1950s TV show by Walt Disney, which also introduced his legendary coonskin cap. Because of the success of the TV show, Davy Crockett would be the most famous frontiersman in American history. The television series also introduced a new song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett". Four different versions of the song hit the Billboard Best Sellers pop chart in 1955.

JAMES FANNIN

James Walker Fannin was born in early 1804 in Georgia. He was adopted by his maternal grandfather, James Walker and raised on a plantation near Marion, Georgia. In 1819, he entered the U. S. military academy at West Point under the name of James F. Walker, He resigned after two years at West Point due to poor grades, absences and tardiness.

He married Minerva Fort in 1829 and they had two daughters, Jamie and Eliza Fannin.The family came to Texas in 1834 and settled near Velasco where he supposedly was a plantation owner. His letters from this time period show that he was actually a slave trader.

Soon after his arrival, he became active in the cause for independence from Mexico. He wrote to a United States Army officer in Georgia requesting money for the Texas cause and to West Point asking for officers to command the Texas army.

He fought at the Battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835. Later that month, he and James Bowie led the Texas forces in the battle of Concepcion.

In January of 1836, Fannin was appointed by the provisional government as an agent to raise troops and money for the republic. In command of a regiment at Goliad, he received orders from Sam Houston on March 14 to retreat to Victoria. Fannin delayed the retreat for five days. This turned out to be a huge mistake. When he finally began the retreat, the Mexican army under General Jose Urrea had advanced close to the town.

Fannin made another mistake when he slowed down his army by insisting they bring all the Goliad cannons with them and this caused his men to be caught out in the open by the Mexican forces under Urrea about 10 miles from Goliad. The Texans immediately formed a square with their wagons and cannons placed in each corner for defense as Gen. Urrea's forces attacked. After a fierce battle Fannin and his troops, facing overwhelming odds, surrendered. This battle is known as the Battle of Coleto, named after a nearby creek. Fannin and his men were marched back to Goliad and were imprisoned.On the order of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Fannin was executed along with virtually all of his men on March 27, 1836.