WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
144
they are not sworn to, you will have them sworn to before the Chief Justice of the County, or a Notary Public, .and forward the same to this Department. So soon as you have executed this order you will report to this Department. Sam Houston. 1 Executive Records, 1859-1861, p. 227, Texas State Library. 2 John McClannahan Crockett was born in Lancaster, South Carolina, December 26, 1816. He was educated at Franklin Academy with two years of college training. Before he was sixteen, both father and mother were dead, and the boy was entirely alone in the world. When he was nineteen he went to Tennessee, but not liking conditions returned to South Caro- lina. But he was restless, and in 1836 returned to Tennessee to settle al; Troy, Obion County, where he opened a mercantile business. There, March 17, 1837, he married Catherine, daughter of John Polk, the brother of President James K. Polk. He read law at spare times, and was admitted to the bar in 1844, and developed a fair practice, which together with his mercantile business gave him financial ease. But in 1846 he lost his entire fortune, and resorted to teaching school to support a growing family. In 1848, he i'noved to Clarksville, Red River County, Texas. Life proved hard, for his health failed, and he was not able to practice his profession. Fortunately he was a we11-trained violinist, and he turned his accomplish- ment to account and was able to eke out a living by playing for country dances until his health improved. In 1849, he moved to Dallas, a new village of only thirty-nine inhabitants, who lived in some half dozen log cabins. Here, he set up his law office, and because clients were scarce, he also served as a deputy clerk. In the early months of 1860, he became the commissioner for the settlers of Mercer's colony, and served them for five months. In November, 1860, he moved to Tyler and lived there until 1864, during which time he served as mayor of Tyler, and represented in the State Legislature, Cooke, Denton, Collin, Kaufman, and all other coun- ties lying within the Mercer Colonial grant. In 1861, he was elected lieutenant governor of the State. Throughout the Civil War he superintended an arms factory which he developed into promising proportions, but the close of the war prevented it from being of great benefit to the South. Bankrupt at the close of the war, he man- aged to buy a small ranch about three miles from Dallas. Here he estab- lished a breeding farm for registered stock, a business that prospered. See Encyclopedia of the New West, 169-165.
To M. D. GRAHAM 1 Executive Department, September 13, 1860.
Hon. M. D. Graham, Attorney General Dear Sir: Art. 1950 (p. 424) of Oldham and White's Digest makes it the Comptroller's duty to advertise a list of "delinquent Assessors and Collectors," which has been done.
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