The Mystery of Sam and Eliza Houston

OK, let's just get this on record now--Sam Houston had woman troubles.  The particular situation we are going to discuss tonight involves his first wife.  On January 22, 1829, when he was the governor of Tennessee and 35 years old, he married Eliza Allen, 19 at the time.

As innocuous as that seems, seeming isn't necessarily believing.  This was the wedding of the leader of the state to the daughter of a prominent family--a big deal indeed, with all the best folks, clothes, music, food, and drink available.  The couple were far from strangers, having known each other for six years, and he had been her friend and confidante.  This was also an arrangement that her father, in particular, had pursued wholeheartedly.  And, girl though she was when she and her husband left in their honeymoon coach, the new first lady seemed fine with the events of the evening.  Little did anyone suspect what changes this would bring to so many lives, for Eliza would break Houston's heart and drive him from the state.

The couple traveled to an inn at Nashville, where the marriage effectively ended with the journey.  Over the next couple of days, the governor failed to make several meetings, so friends and staff sought him out.  They found a pitiable sight.  Houston sat in his bedroom, accompanied by a man he had known since childhood. obviously agitated to the point of being distraught.

He and his bride had separated.  And he absolutely refused to explain how or why.  Not only that, the gentleman would never, ever tell anyone, nor would Eliza.  Unsuspectingly, they created a riddle that historians have failed to unravel for almost 200 years.

Theories, historical and amateur, abound.  Some argue that the girl was simply too young.  Perhaps no one had bothered to share the facts of life in detail, and the whole affair was off-putting or even offensive.  Others believe that machismo was the culprit, for Houston had the "Robin Williams body type."  He was a large, hirsute, macho bear of a man.  Maybe the sight was too much for her.  There is the "oozing wound theory," as the governor had taken an arrow in the abdomen 15 years earlier, during the Indian Wars, when he served with Andrew Jackson.  The trouble there was that the wound had failed to heal.  Seems the arrowhead had shattered and, therefore, could not be removed in toto.  Was this the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back?

And finally, many developed the notion that the only reason Eliza would abandon such a hopeful match would be for another love.  She had been the object of other attentions, and Houston was aware of this.  But if she had developed deep feelings for someone else and told her groom only on their wedding night, it would have broken his heart.  The only question here is why then didn't Eliza Allen ever remarry after receiving her bill of divorcement?

The gist of it is that no one knows.  The two survivors of this tragedy took their hurt with them to their graves.  Margaret Lea, Houston's widow, believed that Eliza had admitted to loving another.  But this woman held her husband so deeply in her heart that she could imagine no other reason to abandon him.

For his part, Governor Sam Houston was so traumatized that he resigned his position and fled to the wilderness of Arkansas.  There, he grew a beard, moved in with the Cherokee (again), and was given an Indian name--"The Big Drunk."

So the Hero of San Jacinto got hurt, for the first time, but certainly not the last.  Other women would enter his life, but it seems he did not learn a damn thing from Tennessee.  More on that later.

So, the next time you are broken-hearted, remember it happens to the best of us--and for reasons we may never share.

And you thought the English royal family was confused.

VK