‘The Surrender of Santa Anna,’ painted by William Henry Huddle, shows an injured Gen. Sam Houston (lying down) accepting the surrender of Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna in Texas’ war for independence.
Get a history lesson on the first elected president of the Republic of Texas at The Falls on the Colorado Museum in Marble Falls. “Sam Houston: Texas Icon,” a Humanities of Texas exhibit, is on display through March 24 in honor of Texas Independence Month.
Houston’s legacy is a fascinating story of state history and politics, according to a museum media release announcing the exhibit.
“Sam Houston was a big part of the story of Texas Independence,” said museum Chair Darlene Oostemeyer in the release. “This exhibit gives Texans a better understanding of the breadth of Sam Houston’s influence. For non-Texans, who have most likely heard of the historic figure, they will also learn why he became such an icon.”
After leading Texas in its war of independence from Mexico, declared on March 2, 1836, Gen. Houston was elected president of the new republic the following October. He was re-elected as the Republic of Texas’ third president in 1841.
Houston later became governor (1859-61) of the recently annexed state of Texas on the eve of the Civil War. By that time, the highly acclaimed general was not so popular with his constituents: In a secessionist state, he was staunchly in favor of preserving the Union. Opinion turned around with the turn of the 20th century.
The road to historic hero hit a rough patch as the Civil War approached in the mid- to late 1800s.
“Bear in mind … that all Histories from the Rock of Plymouth, and Jamestown to the present time, have been made by white men, and a man who tells his own story, is always right until the adversary’s tale is told,” Houston said in 1855.
In the early 1900s, a movement began to preserve Houston’s memory and honor his legacy. The Texas Legislature established the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in the former governor’s original homestead in Huntsville. Shortly after, his final home, the Steamboat House, was also restored.
“To General Sam Houston, more than to any man living or dead, Texas owed her independence,” said A.W. Terrell, a planter, Confederate officer, and diplomat who served as president of the Texas State Historical Association and was on the Board of Regents for the University of Texas. “The prejudice excited by Texas slave holders against him on account of his opposition to the extension of slavery, and which has been transmitted to many of their posterity, is unworthy of our people. Too long has this State neglected his memory.”
“Sam Houston: Texas Icon” is presented by the Humanities of Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Falls on the Colorado Museum, 2001 Broadway in Marble Falls, is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. Go to fallsmuseum.org for more information about the museum and its exhibits.
