The Writings of Sam Houston, Volume III

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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842

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Colo. Washington will tell you all. 0 If you are not known to my friend, Col. Christy/ please seek him out. He will be greatly valuable to you. vVe are old soldiers of affection. Houston Daingerfield. P. S. Mrs. H. returns many thanks & her kindest salutations. Houston. 1 Missouri Historical Society, Jefferson Memorial, St. Louis, Missouri. zcolonel Lewis M. H. Washington was, in 1835-1836, a member of Fan- nin's army, and was attached to Fannin's staff (his own statement in an affidavit made concerning the use of Thomas G. Western's property by Fannin's soldiers in February, 1836. See Com7>troller's Milita111 Service Records, Texas State Library) . . At the end of the revolution Washington returned to his plantations on the Trinity, where he prospered in the raising of cotton and cattle. He was, moreover, a. writer, and contributed senti- mental, philosophical, and even a few political articles to the various news- papers of his day. See Ashbel Smith Pape1·s, Texas University Library. 3 See Houston to Santa Anna, March 21, 1842~ 4 Clark L. Owen was born in Shelby County, Kentucky in 1808. He gave up a mercantile business at New Castle, Kentucky, to come to Texas in March, 1836. He joined the Texas Army and was appointed captain in May, 1837. In 1842 he participated fo the Mier Expedition, and later had numerous encounters with the Indians on the southwestern frontier. H~ finally settled at Texana, on the Navidad River, married a daughter of Dr. Wells of that place, and later engaged in farming and stock-raising on Carancahua Creek in Jackson County. He served one term as Senator in the Sixth Congress (November 10, 1841-December 13, 1842), representing the Districts of Matagorda, Jackson, and Victoria. He was opposed to secession, but volunteered in the Confederate service, and was commis- sioned captain of Company "K" of the Second Texas Infantry. He was killed on the first day of the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, April 6, 1862. Ben Stuart writes of him: "Clark L. Owen was a brave, modest, unassum- ing Christian gentleman, a worthy scion of a worthy sire." See Thrall, A P.ictorial Histo1·y of Texas, 697; Brown II, 240; Congressional Papers (Sixth Congress), Texas State Library; Ben Stuart, Texas Fighters and Frontier Rangers (MS), pp. 233-234, The University of Texas Library. GHouston's ironical reference to General Albert Sidney Johnston who was Secretary of War during Lamar's administration in 1839. See Houston to Toby Brothers, November 1!), 1836. cm the Hardin-Simmons University Library, Abilene, Texas, is to be found a letter from Anson Jones to Daingerfield, March 31, 1842, which, no doubt, went in the same packet as Houston's letter, and gives Jones' point of view concerning the "all" that Washington probably told Daingerfield. The letter is as follows: Houston, March 31, 1842.

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