WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
113
2 Isaac Van Zandt (July 10, 1813-October 11, 1847), son of Mary (Isaacs) and Jacob Van Zandt, was born in Franklin County, Tennessee. On both sides his ancestors were Revolutionary patriots. Through boyhood and youth Van Zandt was the victim of ill health, which fact rendered his schooling desultory. Shut off from the privilege of attending formal school regularly, he became an ardent reader of all kinds of books that came into his possession; especially did he develop an ardent and intense love for English literature and for general history. At the age of twenty he married Fannie Lipscomb and began a career in the mercantile business with his father for partner. This business was at his native town, Salem; but it was a short lived enterprise on account of the death of his father in 1834. In order to settle his father's estate and to make a just division among the heirs, the store had to be sold. Upon receiving his patrimony, Isaac Van Zandt converted his lands and negro slaves into money and bought a stock of merchandise which he carried to Coffeeville, Mississippi, and set up a business. For a while he prospered; prices were high and the people were eager to buy what they wished at any price. But the bubble burst in 1837. Bankers, tradesmen, farmers,-all classes went down in the crash; and Van Zandt found himself practically penniless. He converted all his property-even bed coverlets which his wife had woven-into cash, and paid his debts as far as the money would satisfy them. But he had to make a new start in life, and without funds. While a resident of Coff~- ville, he had, for amusement, joined debating clubs, and had discovered that he had a talent for public speaking and was acute in argument. The discovery of this talent shaped his future career, for stripped of all his property, and forced to turn to his native gifts of inteliect for a livelihood, he decided to study law. He worked assiduously and was admitted to the bar after less than a year's study. He set up a law office in Coffeeville and was fairly successful in his profession; even won back some of the fortune that had been lost. But his greatest legal success came in Texas to which he had moved in 1838. He settled first in Panola County and lived in a rude log cabin, and during their stay in Panola County his family had daily experience in all the hardships and privations of frontier life. In 1839, however, they moved to Marshall, where Van Zandt set up a law practice. Success was his from the start. In 1840-1841, he represented the county in the House of Representatives and was considered one of the leading statesmen of that body. In 1842 Houston appointed him charge d'aff ctires to the United States, and during his two years of residence at Washington as the diplomatic agent for Texas, he worked hard for annexation of Texas to the United States, but when this measure was assured, he resigned the office and returned home. In 1845 he was a delegate to the Annexation convention, in which convention he was considered one of the keenest debaters, and one of the most far-sighted statesmen of Texas. In 1847 he was a candidate for the governor's office, but while making his campaign, he was stricken with yellow fever and died at Houston on October 11. His body was carried to his home in Marshall and was buried there in the city cemetery. See John Henry Brown, Indian TI'ars and Pio1tcers of Texas, 511-513; E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Jo1irnals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1896-1845, 227, 295; Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of
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