Preceded by Avery Matlock Spouse(s) Laura Cross Houston Succeeded by John Hall Stephens Name Temple Houston | Nationality USA Role Attorney | |
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Born August 12, 1860Austin, Travis CountyTexas, USA ( 1860-08-12 ) Parents Sam Houston, Margaret Lea Houston Grandparents Major Samuel Houston, Elizabeth Paxton Uncles James Houston, William Houston, Robert Houston, Paxton Houston, John Paxton Houston Similar People | ||
Temple Lea Houston (August 12, 1860 – August 15, 1905) was an attorney and politician who served from 1885 to 1889 in the Texas State Senate. He was the last-born child of Margaret Lea Houston and Sam Houston, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas.
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Biography
Temple Lea Houston was the only one of the Houstons' eight children to be born in the Texas governor's residence in Austin. By the time he was seven, both his parents had died. He lived with an older sister and her family in nearby Georgetown, Texas. At the age of 13, Houston left home to join a cattle drive and later worked on a riverboat on the Mississippi River. Aided by a friend of his father's, he gained an appointment as a page in the U.S. Senate and worked in Washington, D.C. for three years.
Houston returned to Texas in 1877 at the age of 17 to attend the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M University). He transferred to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he graduated in 1880 with honors in law and philosophy. He "read the law" with an established firm and was admitted to the bar. He was the youngest attorney in Texas when he opened his practice. That year he was appointed as the attorney for Brazoria County near Houston, Texas.
In 1882, Houston was appointed as the district attorney of the 35th Judicial District of Texas, which then covered a large part of the Texas Panhandle, based in Mobeetie, Wheeler County.
Marriage and family
Established in his career, on February 14, 1883, 23-year-old Houston married Laura Cross, the daughter of a planter. They lived near Fort Elliott, which protected the border against American Indians, as well as the important cattle drives. The couple had seven children, only four of whom lived past infancy.
Political career
Houston was elected in 1884 to a single term in the Texas State Senate from District 19.
He concentrated his law practice on the Santa Fe railroad (the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway). He spoke French and Spanish, as well as seven Indian languages. In 1888, he gave the dedication address for the opening of the Texas State Capitol, which is still in use after several renovations.
In 1894, Houston moved his family to the cattle town of Woodward in Oklahoma Territory. He was legal counsel of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; its Woodward depot became one of the most important points in the territory for cattle shipping to the East. Houston became widely known and popular for his courtroom dramatics. He was charged with murder in the shooting of a brother of the outlaw Al Jennings, after an argument in the Cabinet Saloon, and was acquitted.
Houston won a reputation as a brilliant trial lawyer. In 1899, he delivered his "Soiled Dove Plea" in a makeshift courtroom in Woodward's opera house. The argument on behalf of Minnie Stacey, a prostitute who worked at the Dew Drop Inn, became famous for winning her acquittal after ten minutes' consideration by the jury.
The historian William T. Hagan described Houston as "a flamboyant figure in his black frock coat and shoulder-length auburn hair topped off with a white Stetson. He liked to lace his arguments with literary allusions and could enthrall a courtroom or legislative chamber."
Death
Temple Lea Houston died on August 15, 1905. His wife Laura (Cross) Houston died on April 17, 1938. They are buried together at Elmwood Cemetery in Woodward, Oklahoma.