Historic Walker County
An illustrated history of the city of Huntsville, Texas, and the Walker County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
An illustrated history of the city of Huntsville, Texas, and the Walker County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
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Above: Sam Houston (1793-1863).<br />
Daguerreotype by Charles Fredricks.<br />
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON<br />
MEMORIAL MUSEUM.<br />
Below: Margaret Moffette Lea<br />
(1819-1867).<br />
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON<br />
MEMORIAL MUSEUM.<br />
H U N T S V I L L E A N D<br />
S A M H O U S T O N<br />
As new settlements emerged in <strong>Walker</strong><br />
<strong>County</strong>, the local seat at Huntsville grew at a fast<br />
clip. Thomas and Sandford Gibbs ran a<br />
mercantile store and operated a private bank<br />
that helped fund the development of the county.<br />
Robert Goodloe Smither acted as a merchant<br />
and local booster, raising funds and promoting<br />
new institutions in the area. Soon, there was a<br />
local newspaper called the Huntsville Item, and a<br />
half-dozen churches were in operation<br />
throughout the city. The Cumberland<br />
Presbyterians built the first church in town in<br />
1848, and seven years later the Old School<br />
Presbyterians constructed a building of their<br />
own. Then, in quick succession, the Baptists<br />
(1852), Christians (1854), Methodists (1857),<br />
and Episcopalians (1871) established churches<br />
for their own Sunday services. 19<br />
The development of <strong>Walker</strong> <strong>County</strong> received<br />
a further boost in 1844, when General Sam<br />
Houston, the hero of San Jacinto and first<br />
President of the Republic of Texas, established<br />
his Raven Hill plantation fourteen miles<br />
northeast of Huntsville. Three years later, while<br />
serving as a U.S. Senator in Washington D.C.,<br />
Houston had a new “Woodland Home” built in<br />
Huntsville for his wife, Margaret, and their<br />
growing family. The Houstons lived in their new<br />
home from 1847 to 1858, and Margaret even<br />
convinced her husband to join the Baptist<br />
Church during their time in Huntsville.<br />
Sam Houston’s move to <strong>Walker</strong> <strong>County</strong><br />
brought other prominent people to the<br />
community as well. For instance, Sarah<br />
Williams Kittrell Goree, the matron of honor at<br />
Margaret and Sam Houston’s wedding, moved to<br />
Huntsville with her husband Langston Goree<br />
and children in December 1850. The Gorees<br />
also brought Dr. Pleasant Williams Kittrell and<br />
his wife with them as well. Together, the Gorees<br />
and Kittrells transported a train of wagons,<br />
herds of livestock, and dozens of enslaved<br />
African Americans to <strong>Walker</strong> <strong>County</strong>. The two<br />
families briefly lived in the Houston’s Woodland<br />
Home, while their houses were built in the area<br />
known as the Kittrell Cutoff. Dr. Kittrell<br />
practiced medicine in Huntsville, served two<br />
terms in the Texas legislature, and chaired the<br />
Education Committee that authored the bill to<br />
establish the University of Texas. 20<br />
Another of Houston’s colleagues, Henderson<br />
Yoakum, moved to the Huntsville area in 1845<br />
and began practicing law with his friend and<br />
partner, Anthony Martin Branch. Yoakum was<br />
elected district attorney for the Seventh Judicial<br />
District in 1850 and then to the Texas House in<br />
1 2 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y
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