Editing Sam Houston (section)

== Personal life ==

In January 1829 Sam Houston, then Governor of Tennessee, married 19-year-old Eliza Allen. The marriage lasted 11 weeks. Neither Houston nor Eliza ever gave a reason for their separation, but Eliza refused to sanction divorce. Subsequently, he resigned his governorship and went to live with his Cherokee family for three years.<ref name=hbot /><ref name=txcol /> In the summer of 1830, Houston married [[Dianna Rogers]] (sometimes called Tiana), daughter of Chief John "Hellfire" Rogers (1740–1833), a Scots-Irish trader, and Jennie Due (1764–1806), a sister of [[John Jolly|Chief John Jolly]], in a Cherokee ceremony. The ceremony was modest since it was Dianna's second marriage; she was widowed with two children from her previous marriage: Gabriel, born 1819, and Joanna, born 1822. She and Houston first met when she was ten years old, and he was stunned to see how beautiful she was when he returned to her village years later. The two lived together for several years. Tennessee society disapproved of the marriage because under civil law, he was still legally married to Eliza Allen Houston. After declining to accompany Houston to Texas in 1832, Dianna later remarried. She died in 1838 of pneumonia.{{sfn|Haley|2002|p=70}} [[Will Rogers]] was her nephew, three generations removed.{{sfn|James|1988|pp=150–152}}
[[File:Margaret Lea Houston 1839.jpg|right|thumb|[[Margaret Lea Houston]]]]
In 1837, after becoming President of the Republic of Texas, he was able to acquire, from a district court judge, a divorce from Eliza Allen.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sam Houston and Eliza Allen: "Ten Thousand Imputed Slanders" |date=September 12, 2018 |url=https://www.tennesseehistory.org/sam-houston-eliza-allen-ten-thousand-imputed-slanders/ |publisher=The Tennessee Historical Society |access-date=December 13, 2019}}</ref>

In 1839, he purchased a horse which became one of the foundation sires of the [[American Quarter Horse]] breed named [[Copperbottom]]. He owned the horse until its death in 1860.<ref name="History">{{Cite web|url=https://www.aqha.com/history-of-the-quarter-horse|title=History of the Quarter Horse - AQHA|website=www.aqha.com}}</ref><ref name="Lost">{{Cite web |url=http://horsesonly.com/pednotes/WL/copperb.htm |title=Copperbottom: A Lost Bloodline |access-date=November 9, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028170709/http://horsesonly.com/pednotes/WL/copperb.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Copperbottom">{{Cite web |url=http://quarterhorserecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Copperbottom.pdf |title=Copperbottom |access-date=November 9, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026145237/http://quarterhorserecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Copperbottom.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On May 9, 1840, Houston, aged 47, married for a third time. His bride was 21-year-old [[Margaret Lea Houston|Margaret Moffette Lea]] of Marion, Alabama, the daughter of planters. They had eight children, including [[Sam Houston Jr.|Sam Jr.]], [[Andrew Jackson Houston|Andrew]], and [[Temple Lea Houston|Temple]]. With Margaret being a woman of Baptist faith, she had influenced him to quit many of the bad habits he had developed, such as drinking and acting out.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-11-09 |title=Sam Houston - Biography & Facts |url=https://www.history.com/articles/sam-houston |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref> Although the Houstons had numerous houses, they kept only one continuously: Cedar Point (1840–1863) on [[Trinity Bay (Texas)|Trinity Bay]].{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

In 1833, Houston was baptized into the Catholic faith in order to qualify under the existing Mexican law for property ownership in [[Coahuila y Tejas]]. The sacrament was held in the living room of the [[Adolphus Sterne House]] in Nacogdoches, Texas.{{sfn|Haley|2002|pp=104–105}} By 1854, Margaret had spent 14 years trying to convert Houston to the Baptist church. With the assistance of [[George Washington Baines]], she convinced Houston to convert, and he agreed to adult baptism. Spectators from neighboring communities came to Independence, Texas, to witness the event. On November 19, 1854, Houston was baptized by Rev. [[Rufus Columbus Burleson|Rufus C. Burleson]], president of [[Baylor University]], by immersion in Little Rocky Creek, two miles southeast of Independence.<ref>{{cite web|last=Augustin|first=Byron|title=Independence, Texas|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hli03|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=March 9, 2012|author2=Pitts, William L}}</ref>{{sfn|Seale|1992|pp=167–171}}