Name Robert Houston | ||
Robert Samuel Houston (August 7, 1820 – January 5, 1902) was an American stonecutter and dairy farmer from Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, who spent two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, almost twenty years apart.
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Background
Houston was born in Charlemont, Massachusetts on August 7, 1820. He received a common school education, and became a stonecutter. He married Lucy M. Stone of Whately, Massachusetts on January 24, 1849. He worked for one employer in Meriden, Connecticut from 1851 until moving to Wisconsin in September 1857, eventually settling on a farm in Pleasant Prairie, where he took up dairy farming, selling butter and cheese (winning medals with both); and raised hay, corn and oats. He died of edema in Milwaukee on January 5, 1902.
Public office
Houston served as chairman of the town board for the town of Pleasant Prairie, and as treasurer of his local school district.
He was first elected to the Assembly in 1873 to represent Kenosha County as a member of the Liberal Reform Party, a short-lived coalition of Democrats, reform and Liberal Republicans, and Grangers formed in 1873, which secured the election of one Governor of Wisconsin and a number of state legislators. He drew 1,005 votes to 777 for Republican former state senator Francis Paddock (Republican incumbent Asahel Farr was not a candidate). He was assigned to the standing committee on railroads. He did not seek re-election, and was succeeded by Republican Rouse Simmons.
He was elected again to the Assembly in 1890 for a two-year term, this time as a Democrat, with 1,597 votes to 1,453 for Republican J. Cavanaugh (Republican incumbent Dwight Burgess was not a candidate). He was assigned to the committee on agriculture. He did not seek re-election, and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Daniel A. Mahoney.