the assistance rendered by William Bryan and Edward Hall, of New Orleans, to the Texas Revolution.

Professor William R. Manning of the University of Texas expects to spend the latter part of the summer gathering material from the Mexican archives for the show lectures on diplomatic history which he will deliver next year at Johns Hopkins University.

A summer session of the School of American Archæology will be held this summer at Santa Fé and the ruins in El Rito de los Frijoles from August 1 to 30, inclusive. Lectures will be given and research conducted by the regular staff of the school on the distribution and culture of the peoples in the southwestern part of the United States and Northern Mexico in prehistoric times; on the development of design in ancient Pueblo art; on the Indian cultures of the Southwest; on the civilizations of ancient Mexico and Central America; on the native languages, and methods of recording and studying them; and upon the hieroglyphic writings of the Ancient Mayas. In connection with these courses there will be excursions to such important sites as Pecos and Puyé, and to neighboring Pueblos still occupied. Besides the regular staff of the school, lectures will be given by Dr. Harry Langford Wilson, of Johns Hopkins University, and Professor D. A. Cockerell, of the University of Colorado.

"Through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Wroe, the William Barrett Travis Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic was presented on April 4th with a life-size portrait of James S. Lester. Judge Lester represented the counties of Fayette and Bastrop in the Congress of [the Republic of] Texas. He gave to Fayette county its name; also named the town of La Grange; was one of the heroes of San Jacinto and was the first county judge of Favette county. He died in December, 1879."-Austin

Statesman, April 7, 1912.

"Dr. Ferdinand Herff, for more than two generations the leading physician in San Antonio, and famed both in Europe and America for his skill as a daring, yet successful surgeon, died May 18, 1912] at the Herff homestead, 308 East Houston Street, which he built in 1853, and in which he resided ever since. Had

he lived until November 29, Dr. Herff would have been 92 years old."-San Antonio Express, May 19, 1912.

The Express gives in this issue more than three columns to a sketch of Dr. Herff's remarkable career, and editorially comments on his qualities as a citizen. An incident in the early life of Dr. Herff as a member of the "Communistic colony of Bettina" is narrated in THE QUARTERLY, III, 33-40.

Captain M. B. Davis died at Waco on June 18. He was born in Virginia in 1844, was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, and served in a Virginia regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. In 1873 he entered the newspaper business in Waco. From 1875 to 1878 he served as a Texas ranger, but at the expiration of that time re-entered newspaper work. For a number of years before his death he was Texas representative of the National Audubon Society.-(From a sketch in The Dallas News, June 19, 1912.)

On June 21 Colonel Andrew J. Baker, of San Angelo, died while on a visit to Los Angeles, California. He was born in Grenada county, Mississippi, in 1842, was educated at the University of Mississippi, and served in a Mississippi regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. After the war he practiced law at Oxford, Mississippi, and was a member of the Legislature which closed the period of Reconstruction in that State. He moved to Texas in 1884, was a member of the Twenty-second Legislature, served as Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas from 1894 to 1898.--(From a sketch in The Dallas News, June 22, 1912.)

THE

SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL

VOL. XVI*

QUARTERLY

OCTOBER, 1912

No. 2

The publication committee and the editors disclaim responsibility for views expressed by contributors to THE QUARTERLY.

RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL SAM HOUSTON

A. W. TERRELL

General Sam Houston will always be conspicuous in history as one of the most remarkable men of the past generation. Much has been written about him that is misleading. This was natural, for his career was marked by fierce antagonisms, and men generally regarded him either from the standpoint of partiality or prejudice.

I who knew him intimately in his later years now comply with the request of friends in giving my recollections of him, with incidents of his strange career, many of which I had from his own lips in social converse from time to time while he was governor of Texas and I a young district judge, meeting him almost daily in Austin. I know of no other living man who knew him well, and a natural curiosity is felt by this generation to know more of his appearance, his disposition, his habits, incidents illustrating his character, and the peculiarities that distinguished him from other men.

His Early Life. On the forty-third anniversary of his birth (March 2d, 1836) he signed the Declaration of Texas Independence. When left an orphan at a tender age by his father's death, his mother crossed the mountains from Virginia with him and her other children, and settled in Maryville, Blount county, Tennessee. The family was poor, and after working on a small farm and obtaining such common school education as a new country

*Volumes I-XV published as THE QUARTERLY of the Texas State Historical Association.

afforded he was placed by his older brother in the store of a Mr. Sheffy to clerk. He was not satisfied there, and went to the tribe of Cherokee Indians, whose lands were just across the Holston River, and but a few miles distant. With them he remained for nearly two years, fishing, hunting, participating in their ball games and other amusements. His adventurous and ardent nature rejoiced in the wild freedom of the forest and in the companionship of the Cherokees, whose language he learned to speak fluently. The Indians made him a sub-chief and named him Co-lon-neh,1 the raven. He lived in the home of Oo-loo-tee-kah, known by Americans as John Jolly, who became the principal chief of the western fragment of the Cherokees after their removal by treaty west of the Mississippi River. Thus early he heeded the "call of the wild" by disregarding the authority of his older brother, and evinced that impatience of control that marked all his future life.

After leaving the Cherokees he was for a short time a student in the academy at Maryville, until the declaration of war with England, when he enlisted as a private soldier in his twentieth year, and was commissioned as an ensign by President Madison.

His Personal Appearance.-Joseph Guild of Gallatin, Tennessee, states in his Old Times in Tennessee that Houston was six feet six inches high. Guild greatly admired Houston and some allowance must be made for his error, for Houston's height in his prime of life was six feet two inches; he once told me so, and though men shrink in stature when old he could never have been so tall as Mr. Guild describes him. I will describe him as I remember him, though it is difficult to write a picture of any one.

His bearing was always dignified and erect; his form indicated great strength and activity; his face and head were large and symmetrical; his voice deep toned, manly and firm; his speech whether in conversation or addressing an audience deliberate and distinct; and his eyes large and deep blue.

He was a little eccentric in his dress, was occasionally seen with a vest made of leopard's skin, and wore in all seasons a soft, broad brimmed, fur hat. In winter he sometimes wore a Mexican

The Cherokee word "Co-lon-neh" is properly Ka-la-nu, signifying "raven," a common Cherokee word and hereditary personal name.-F. W. HODGE.

blanket, but in other respects was usually clothed in the fashion of the time. His gestures were graceful and his manners refined, especially when with ladies, with whom he was a great favorite. He was an inveterate whittler, and one of his San Jacinto captains once told me that he always found him whittling when he visited his headquarters. I will be excused for remembering that I often thought of General Houston's appearance during the four years I lived in Europe when I met often in the audience chamber of the Sultan of Turkey and at social functions the ambassadors of other powers, bedecked with the medals and gewgaws of rank. On such occasions I have wished that I could show them Sam Houston, a man commissioned for leadership by God, who needed no artificial decorations, and whose appearance attested his nobility.

A fine marble bust of Houston may be seen in the State Library room in Austin which represents him as he looked in 1859.1 An excellent portrait of him belonging to the Hon. Edwin B. Parker of Houston shows how he appeared in 1863, and another portrait painted in the Cherokee nation now hangs in my hall, and will be given to Texas. Another portrait made at the same time in the Cherokee nation belongs to the State of Tennessee. They represent him naked with only a blanket thrown around his waist. He told the artist to paint him as "Marius among the ruins of Carthage," and so he stands among broken columns with but a few remaining standing, as if to indicate that hope was left.

I quite agreed with the Hon. John H. Reagan, Major W. M. Walton, Governor Lubbock and others that the marble statue of Houston in the National capitol, a replica of which is near the south entrance of our State House, does not convey a correct idea of the man. They are the conceptions of a distinguished artist

'See frontispiece.

2A portrait of Sam Houston very closely resembling the one described in the above paragraph was some years ago offered to the Tennessee Historical Society: the Society did not accept it. Concerning the history of this proffered portrait the secretary of the Society states that it "was painted in or near the city of Nashville, Tenn., by Washington Cooper. I knew the artist well for many years. In speaking of this portrait he said that Governor Houston was very proud of his physical development. 'He came to my studio one day and asked me to paint him as a Roman senator, which I consented to do.'"

The Tennessee Historical Society has two portraits of Governor Houston by Cooper.-THE EDITORS.