Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Andrew Jackson HOUSTON
US Senator. The son of Sam Houston, he was born in Independence, Texas, attended Baylor University and West Point, and in 1873 obtained a position as a Clerk in the Texas School Department, later moving to Washington, DC to accept a position in the US Land Office. In the late 1870s he was an organizer of Austin's Travis Rifles, a volunteer militia that backed the Democratic state government after Reconstruction. Houston was admitted to the bar in 1876 and from 1879 to 1889 was Clerk of the US District Court in Dallas. He joined the Texas National Guard in 1884, attained the rank of Colonel before resigning in 1893, and raised a cavalry troop for the First US Volunteer Cavalry (the Rough Riders) during the Spanish-American War, but did not mobilize with them. From 1902 to 1910 he was US Marshal for eastern Texas. Houston ran for office unsuccessfully several times as a Republican and Prohibition party candidate. In 1922 he was named Superintendent of the San Jacinto Battleground State Park. In April 1941 Governor W. Lee O'Daniel appointed Houston to the US Senate to fill the vacancy caused by Morris Sheppard's death. O'Daniel intended to run for the seat in the ensuing special election and named Houston as a placeholder, making the 87 year old the oldest person to ever become a Senator (though some already-serving Senators have been older). The trip to Washington, DC for his swearing in had a negative effect on his health and he served just two months before dying at a Baltimore, Maryland hospital. (bio by: Bill McKern)
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