Families of Samuel Dexter Houston
SAMUEL DEXTER HOUSTON, son of ELIZABETH PURDY and CALEB HOUSTON, was born June 11, 1818 in Columbus, Franklin, Ohio,3857 and died February 28, 1910 in Salina, Saline, Kansas.4718 He is buried in Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina, Saline, Kansas.6723, 456
He married (1) MARY JANE RANKIN in 1842.4718 She died March 8, 1848 in Iowa.4718
He married (2) TABITHA KIMBALL on May 20, 1850 in Riley County, Kansas.4718 She was born June 10, 1825 in Cadiz, Harrison, Ohio,4718 and died November 18, 1904 in Riley County, Kansas.4718 She is buried in Sunset Cemetery, Manhattan, Riley, Kansas.456
Children of MARY JANE RANKIN and SAMUEL DEXTER HOUSTON:
- SARAH HUNTER HOUSTON.
- KATHARINE AMANDA HOUSTON, b. January 10, 1843;4718 m. LUKE FISHER PARSONS on April 18, 1867 in Riley County, Kansas4694; d. August 19, 1924, Salina, Saline, Kansas.456
- ANNIE ELIZABETH HOUSTON, b. November 22, 1845;4718 d. January 22, 1920, Salina, Saline, Kansas.4728
Children of TABITHA KIMBALL and SAMUEL DEXTER HOUSTON:
- LORETTA HOUSTON.
- SAMUEL DEXTER HOUSTON, b. July 11, 1852, Iowa;4718 m. MARY E. WHITE on June 3, 1877 in Concordia, Cloud, Kansas6904; d. November 9, 1925, Electra, Wichita, Texas.843
- MARY LOUELLA HOUSTON, b. November 1, 1853;4718 d. after January, 1945.6720
- CHARLES SUMNER HOUSTON, b. June 20, 1855, Riley County, Kansas;4718 d. December 24, 1933, Riley County, Kansas.6725
- ANGELICA HOUSTON, b. March 4, 1857;4718, 456 d. March 7, 1857.4718, 456
- LAWRENCE NILE HOUSTON, b. July 9, 1858, Manhattan, Riley, Kansas;4718, 6720 m. MARTHA ALICE SELECTMAN on November 1, 1880 in Savannah, Andrew, Missouri456; d. January 3, 1945, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma.6720
- ULYSSES GRANT HOUSTON, b. November 23, 1860;4718 m. (1) BELLE VARVEL on September 7, 1892 in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas4721, m. (2) MARY L. H. HAYS on January 1, 1896 in Gilmer County, West Virginia1788; d. August 11, 1920, Okene, Blaine, Oklahoma.6633
- HORTENSE LORENE HOUSTON, b. April 8, 1863;4718 m. ALTON GORDON MARTIN on May 10, 1892 in Lyndon, Osage, Kansas4694; d. December 6, 1948, Miami, Ottawa, Oklahoma.456, 6734
- LABLANCHE HOUSTON, b. January 17, 1869;4718 m. CHARLES ANSEL GREEN on February 26, 1902 in Manhattan, Riley, Kansas4694; d. December 22, 1918, Riley County, Kansas.6726
Lawrence
Ulysses
Personal Information
- Samuel Dexter Houston was a member of the Presbyterian Church. 6722
Work History
Obituaries
Manhattan Republic, November 24, 19046724
Mrs. Houston Dead
From Saturday Evening's Republic
Mrs. S. D. Houston of College Hill one of the oldest settlers of this community, passed away yesterday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Charles Green. Funeral services will be held at the Methodist Episcopal church in this city tomorrow at the hour of 2:30 o'clock p. m. Friends of the family are invited.
Mrs. Houston came to this county with her husband, S. D. Houston, in 1853, locating on a farm four miles west of this city, where she has lived most of the time since. Mrs. Houston was seventy-nine years old, and for the last twenty years has been an invalid, rendered so by rheumatism.
She was born at Cadiz, Ohio in 1825, and at the age of fourteen years, joined the Methodist church and remained a consistent member until her death. Seven children and an aged husband survive her. Dexter and Nile Houston of Enid, Oklahoma; Grant Houston, whose home is Amherst, Mass.; Loella Houston of Denver, Colo.; Mrs. Hortense Martin of Miami, I. T.; Mrs. Charles Green and C. S. Houston of College Hill.
Salina Semi-Weekly Journal, March 4, 19106722
DIED AT AGE OF 92
SAMUEL DEXTER HOUSTON EXPIRED AT 5:45 MONDAY
FUNERAL ON WEDNESDAY
Burial Will Be at Gypsum Hill Cemetery—Was Member of First Constitutional Convention
Samuel Dexter Houston aged 92 years, one of the three surviving members of the first Constitutional convention of Kansas held in Wyandotte county fifty years ago on July 5 last, died at the home of his daughter and son-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Luke F. Parsons of 521 South Ninth street in this city at 5:45 o'clock Monday afternoon. He had been ill only a few days. His death is attributed to old age but was somewhat hastened by a sever cold which he contracted during the extreme cold weather a few weeks ago, since which time he had been confined to his bed.
The funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Luke F. Parsons, 524 South Ninth street.
Rev. F. C. McKean of the Presbyterian church and Rev. J. H. Alexander of the Plymouth Congregational church will conduct the services. Interment will be made in Gypsum Hill cemetery, in this city.
Pall bearers have been selected as follows: Thomas Anderson, D. R. Wagstaff, Rev. I. McDowell, T. I. Bond, Harding Mapes and H. H. Sudendorf.
Will and John Houston, both nephews of S. D. Houston, have both telegraphed that they will be here from Kansas City tonight to attend the funeral. All the children of the family have been heard from but none of them will be able to come to the funeral on account of sickness, with the exception of U. Grant Houston who has been here for the past three days.
Was Salina's Oldest Citizen
In the death of Mr. Houston, Saline county has lost its oldest citizen, and the state has lost one of the most prominent men in the making of Kansas history. It was he who introduced a resolution in the first legislature of the state which extended the state border west to the Colorado line, thereby saving about two hundred miles to the area of Kansas. A resolution had been introduced to extend the western line of the state 200 miles only from the Missouri line, when Mr. Houston objected, offering an amendment which carried, with the result that Kansas now extends to the Colorado line.
His Public Record.
He was elected to the legislature the second term but resigned before the expiration of his second term because as he has frequently expressed himself, "I did not care to serve with some of the men who were in the legislature at that time." He was elected to the senate from Riley county and declined the nomination for a second term. He was appointed receiver of the U. S. land office at Junction City under Lincoln's administration and held that office for ten years.
He laid out the town of Manhattan and a few years later assisted in laying out Concordia. He was largely instrumental in founding the state agriculture college at Manhattan.
Came to Kansas in 1854
Samuel Dexter Houston was born in Columbus, Ohio where he grew to manhood, and came to Kansas in 1854 settling on a farm in Riley county, where he resided until the death of his wife six years ago when he came to Salina. When quite a young boy he went to Illinois. From there he went to Iowa where he remained a few years, then to Quincy, Illinois where he attended the Mission Institute. When he first came to Kansas he practiced law at Concordia for sometime, and later settled on a farm near Manhattan, at the same time keeping in touch with his law practice.
Mr. Houston's paternal ancestors were from New England. His father was born in New Hampshire in 1800, and later moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he gained the undisputed reputation of being the best mathematician in the state of Ohio.
Was Writing a Book
S. H. Houston was widely known in the early days as a man of unusual mental power, and since he retired from active business life, had spent much time in writing a book which he had decided to call "Pot of Manna and Aaron's Rod Budded," or "Passing of Mosaic Priesthood—Temple Vail Rent." In some of the manuscripts appears the following explanatory note of his book: "The Last Enemy conquered and Satan dethroned by the Messiah; and Paradise regained."
A short time prior to his death he gave his son U. Grant Houston instructions to complete his book and have it published, with the understanding that whatever profits accrued from the sale of the book, should be divided between the son and his daughter Miss Anna E. Houston of this city who has nursed her father in his reclining years.
Eight Children Living
Four other daughters also survive. Mrs. L. F. Parsons of this city at whose home the deceased has resided during his reclining years. Miss Loella Houston, a prominent music teacher residing in Denver, Mrs. LaBlanche Green who lives at Manhattan, and Mrs. Hortense Alton Martin who resides at Miami, Oklahoma.
There are also four sons living. Dexter Houston is an attorney and lives at Denver. Charles Sumner Houston lives at Manhattan on the old homestead. L. Nile Houston is register of the U. S. Land office at Guthrie, Oklahoma, having been appointed to that position by President Roosevelt four years ago.
The youngest son, U. Grant Houston, who arrived in Salina Sunday night from Reading, Kansas where he had a lecture engagement, lives at Amherst, Massachusetts. He bears the distinction of having been baptized in the river Jordon in 1889 by T. DeWitt Talmage on December 6. He has spent much time on the lecture platform especially in the east, and is at the present time in Kansas where he has 30 lectures dates on the "Holy Land." He has traveled through the Holy lands two different times, and on his first trip he accompanied Talmage and his party.
All of the children were notified of their father's sickness and it is expected that all of them will be here for the funeral. It is probable that the two remaining members of Wyandotte convention still alive will be here for the funeral. They are Benjamin F. Simpson of Paola and John T. Burris of Olate.
Samuel Dexter Houston foresaw early the destinies of the state of Kansas as will be evidenced in the following letter which he wrote to the governor of the state during the war.
Land Office, Junction City, Kan., August 5, 1863
His Excellency Governor Garney:
Sir—Knowing the lively interest you take in reference to the prosperity of the state, I wish to call your special attention to a subject which, I presume, has already engaged your attention to some extend.
The question is: "Immigration to the State." The dry year, the war, our proximity or location in a state possibly very soon be one of the greatest battle fields of the war, and other causes, have for the past two years almost entirely defeated Kansas of the immigration which would have naturally flowed into it; and these and other causes still retard and turn immigration aside. That capital should be shy of danger is natural and thus we lose a class of men much needed in all communities, and which should be secured if it can be done with fair means.
i am told that several of the Western and northwestern states have agents at some of our principal cities whose business it is to direct immigration. Thus Minnesota and other northwestern states are now filling up. How these agents are sustained, or whether the report is true, I know not, but I presume it is done in some way by the state.
If some such way could be adopted in Kansas, would it not richly repay our state? A few of the border counties are practically settled, but far more than one-half of the state is still almost without settlement. Pass a line north and south through the east line of the Pottawatomie reserve, and that is close to Topeka, which is far east, as you know, of the center of the state, and I am of the opinion that if the entire families on farms were located at regular distances that you would not have one family for each township of six miles square; and this though on desert waste can be found for 175 miles west of this place. And here, governor, let me go a little. I came to Kansas in 1853 and have been here ever since. I think I know this portion of the state from observation and experience, and I feel confident in its ultimate triumph in all that goes to make up agricultural wealth. it is and should be a dryer country that most of the Mississippi valley, but it has quite moisture enough for the staple agricultural products. The extreme western border of the state will perhaps be the only land in the state not strictly agricultural, but even this belt of land will be found to be but a narrow one and beyond the extreme head of the Kansas river. The early and later rains fall as far west as the forks of the Solomon, 150 miles west of this place, each year since I have been here, and will more and more as the land is opened up. I allude to this subject, governor, because it is generally believed that Western Kansas will not produce, is too dry, etc. I am well satisfied that it will grow more wheat, and, take a series of years, more corn than Iowa or Illinois. But I have said enough.
The question is, how shall we secure an immigration to fill up a country pierced by three lines of railroads: One from Atchison west to the Republican, one up the Kansas and up the Republican valley, and one from Topeka southwest through a very rich portion of the state? A vast population can be stored on the water of the Blue, the Republican, on the rich, broad valley of the Soloman, as well as on the Smoky Hill, Neosho, and other streams. Thousands of settlers can find as good land now open as the land adjoining the town site of Topeka on the south, and all over western Kansas.
I have not nor will not allude to advantages other than agricultural. You will need none. To suppose that there is no other, is to set aside some of the most obvious saline and mineral manifestations found anywhere.
I write this hasty note, governor, to simply call you attention to the subject believing that if any plan can be devised to direct immigration legitimately that it will be done.
I will not deny that I might possibly be benefited a little with such immigration, but the state would far more. And feeling confident of the purpose of the executive to make Kansas a prosperous state, I have called his attention to it, at the same time feeling that you have no doubt ere that given the subject you most careful attention.
If the executive has not at his disposal such state means as will enable him to plan and execute some well directed plan to consummate the object, I trust that the coming legislature will at once place a proper fund at his disposal as will conduce much to the early and permanent prosperity of this rich state.
Would that it could be done at once, and not wait another year.
Feeling that I am writing to a friend, I have spoken freely and shall be glad at any time to do all in my power to increase the wealth and power of the state.
In haste, very respectfully your friend,
(Signed) S. D. HOUSTON
Salina Semi-Weekly Journal, March 4, 19106723
BURIAL OF A PIONEER
Many Old Friends Attend Funeral of Samuel D. Houston
The funeral of Samuel Dexter Houston who died at the home of his daughter Mrs. Luke F. Parsons late Monday afternoon in this city, was very largely attended this afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Parsons home, 524 South Ninth street.
The sermon was preached by Rev. F. C. Maegan of the Presbyterian church, with which the deceased united in early manhood. The scripture lesson was read by Rev. J. H. Alexander of the Plymouth Congregational church.
The music was furnished by a male quartette composed of Wilbur Fry, Dr. J. H. Bower, Dr. A. G. Rush and Clarance Wilson.
The pall bearers were Thomas Anderson, D, R, Wagstaff, Rev. I. McDowell, T. L. Bond, Harding Mapes and J. W. Burke.
The body was interred in Gypsum Hill cemetery.
Industrialist, March 12, 19109315
Samuel Dexter Houston Dead.
Ex-Regent Samuel Dexter Houston, whose death was reported last week, was one of the pioneer settlers of Manhattan and one of the early "makers" of the Kansas State Agricultural College. He died on February 28 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. L. F. Parsons, at Saline, being nearly 92 years old. During the last dozen years he had retired from public life, and at the time of his death was almost forgotten, even in Manhattan, but during the early days of Kansas he was one of the most influential men in the State. He was one of three survivors of the Wyandotte convention held in 1859, the two living members now being Benjamin F. Simpson, of Paola, Kan., and John T. Burris, of Olathe, Kan.
Samuel Dexter Houston was born in Columbus, O., in 1818, and before he reached his majority moved to Illinois with his parents, where he was education. He came to Kansas in 1854 and settled on a tract of land about four miles west of Manhattan, known since as the Houston farm. His daughter, Mrs. C. A. Green, and her husband still reside upon the place. The government road to Ft. Riley from Leavenworth crossed the Blue at old Juanita, about a quarter of a mile below the present bridge at Rocky Ford, and passed through the Houston place close by the house and then crossed the hills to the Eureka Valley. A post-office was established at his home and called "shannon," and it was there that the early settlers received their mail until Manhattan was laid out.
About 1857 the office was discontinued. In 1855 Mr. Houston was a member of the legislature from Riley county, being the only free state man that the Missourians permitted to be elected. This was the legislature that met in the first State capitol at Pawnee City, now within the Fort Riley reservation. The legislature was in session there three days and then adjourned to Shawnee Mission.
Those were war times, and the fight became so brisk that Mr. Houston resigned his seat in the legislature. He was a fighter for what he thought was best, and two years later was reelected and served the full term. He was then elected a member of the first State senate from Riley county and was the man who introduced to bill to locate the State University at Manhattan, the bill being vetoed by Governor Robinson. At that time the United States congress made a land grant of 90,000 acres for Kansas for the purpose of organizing an agricultural college, and Mr. Houston led the fight which resulted in locating the institution at Manhattan.
Mr. Houston was with John J. Ingalls and one or two others in the fight made for a rectangular boundary for the State of Kansas, and on the day the matter was put to a vote in the senate Mr. Houston offered an emendation to the bill providing that the outlines of the then territory should be the boundaries for the State. The amendment carried and the State was made to extend to the Colorado line. When he engaged in the history making of Kansas he determined that Kansas should be a prohibition state. He was one of the strongest supporters of Governor St. John, and stumped the Sate in the interest of the prohibition cause during the St. John campaign.
From 1863 to 1869 Mr. Houston was Regent of the Kansas State Agricultural College and in 1866 and 1867 the official land agent of the institution. In the following year President Lincoln appointed him registrar of the land office at Concordia, and it was while he held that office that he did much to build up Concordia. He then studied law and became afterwards one of the first practitioners in Saline county. He was not only a lawyer but farmed what was then one of the best farms in the county.
During the last few years of his life Mr. Houston was a student of the Bible. He read it several hours each day, and it is reported that at the time of his death he was engaged in writing a book on the "Atonement."
Unlike most men even twenty years his junior, he was active and every day walked two or three miles for the exercise. He even frequently went for a walk last winter when the roads were covered with ice, and although he suffered a fall recently was uninjured.
In the early days the Houston home, located on Wildcat creek about three miles west of Manhattan was noted for its wide hospitality, and as a starting point for many of the early settlers. Old-timers tell of visits back and forth, how the Houstons would load their children into a wagon, tie their old cow on behind, and drive across country for a visit of a day or two, there being nothing left at home that required attention. While a Regent of the Agricultural College Mr. Houston built on his farm a very handsome stone residence and a stately stone barn. The was was for many years considered the finest barn structure in Kansas.
Of Mr. Houston's children, three have graduated from this College—Miss Luella M. Houston, '71, Mr. Ulysses Grant Houston, '81, and Mrs. Hortense L. (Houston) Martin, '83.
Census Records
| Date | Location | Enumerated Names |
|---|---|---|
| April 6, 18604720 | Riley County, Kansas |
|
| June 6, 18704719 | Manhattan, Riley, Kansas |
|
| June 8, 18804724 | Concordia, Cloud, Kansas | |
| June 9, 18804730 | Manhattan, Riley, Kansas |
|
| June 5, 1900491 | Greeley, Saline, Kansas |
|
| June 6, 19004731 | River Township, Kingfisher, Oklahoma |
|
| June 15, 19003478 | Manhattan, Riley, Kansas |
|
