WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1831-1832
199
Almost immediately after the discovery of gold in Georgia, great tracts of land in north Alabama and southeast Tennessee were bought up by specu- lators, and some gold was found in those regions, but before these mines had been developed for any great profit, the gold rush to California had begun and they were well nigh abandoned. 4 Gerard Troosts was born in Bois de Due, Holland, March 15, 1776, and died at Nashville, Tennessee, August 14, 1850. He was educated at uni- versities at Leyden and Amsterdam, and made a specialty of chemistry, geology, and natural history. He immigrnted to Nashville in 1827, and in 1828 was appointed professor of chemistry, geology and mineralogy at the University of Nashville, a position he held at the time of his death. He was a member of many scientific societies and gained a broad reputation for his modesty and his great learning. See Dictionary of American Biography, XVIII, 647-648. Tennessee Historical Magazine, 1832 (October). Appleton, Cyclopaedia of Americcm Bfograph11, VI, Jos. C. Guild, Old Times fa Ten- nessee, 478.
To SAMUEL L. GouVERNEUR 1
5th Feby [1832] ?
Dear Sam, Tomorrow morning come to Browns Hotel at 9 A. M. and you shall see what you shall see!! Samuel L. Gouverneur. 1 0riginal in New York Public Library. Photostat, The University of Texas Library. This letter contains no year date. It is placed in 1832, because Houston stayed at Brown's Indian Hotel while in Washington in 1831-1832; also because William Prentiss, Brown's son-in-law, was mixed up in the Indian contracts squabble. But the date 1832 is simply a guess. It is pos- sible that it was written some time after 1846 while Houston was a United States Senator from Texas. However, as far as can be learned, he lived then at the Willard.
TO WILLIAM STANBERRY 1
Washington City, April 3d, 1832. Sir: I have seen some remarks in the National Intenigencer of the 2d instant, in which you are represented to have said, "Was the late Secretary of War removed in consequence of his attempt fraudulently to give to Governor Houston the contract for Indian rations?" The object of this note is to ascertain whether my name was nsed by you in debate, and, if so, whether your remarks have been correctly quoted.
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