Eliza Allen also known as Eliza Allen Houston Douglass (December 2, 1809–March 3, 1861) was the first wife of
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...
. Their marriage, over after just eleven weeks, ended Houston's career as
governor of Tennessee
The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state.
The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...
. Houston resigned and went to the home of his foster father
John Jolly
John Jolly (Cherokee: ''Ahuludegi''; also known as ''Oolooteka''), was a leader of the Cherokee in Tennessee, the Arkansas Territory, and the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. After 1818, he was the Principal Chief and after reorganization of the t ...
, a leader of the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
people. Allen returned to her family in
Sumner County. For years, their marriage was the subject of rumors and theories about what made the marriage unsuitable to both Allen and Houston. They did not publicly expose any information about their marriage and they both seemed to be protective of one another's reputation. Allen's brother, Judge Benjamin Franklin Allen offered his opinion: "like many other couples they were not congenial".
After her brief time with Houston, Allen lived a quiet life. She took care of her younger sisters after her mother's death in 1832 and her father's death six months later. Houston and Allen's divorce was finalized in 1837. In 1840, Allen married a widower, Dr. Elmore Douglass. They had one son and three girls.
Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...
was her nephew, three generations removed.
Early life
![Donelson-cumberland-river-tn1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Donelson-cumberland-river-tn1.jpg)
Born on December 2, 1809 near
Gallatin, Tennessee
Gallatin is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Tennessee. The population was 30,278 at the 2010 census and 44,431 at the 2020 census. Named for United States Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, the city was established on ...
, Eliza H. Allen, was the daughter of Laeticia Saunders and John Allen, a wealthy plantation owner of Allendale. His plantation was located along the
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and ...
near Gallatin in
Sumner County, Tennessee
Sumner County is a county located on the central northern border of the U.S. state of Tennessee, in what is called Middle Tennessee.
As of the 2020 census, the population was 196,281. Its county seat is Gallatin, and its largest city is Hend ...
. John Allen was one of the wealthiest planters in the county; he had 39 slaves according to the inventory of his estate in 1833.
The first of ten children born to the couple, she was described by a relative as "dignified, graceful, and queenly in her appearance…
ith a face ofsweet, gentle, and winning expression."
John's brother was
Robert Allen, a Tennessee congressman from 1823 to 1827. Houston came to know the John Allen family through Robert and General
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
.
Marriage to Sam Houston
Courtship
Houston first met Allen when she was thirteen. At that time, he and her Uncle Robert both served in the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
.
Houston was a frequent visitor over five years
and he was invited to spend the Fourth of July with the Allen family in 1828. In August, he told John Allen that he wanted to marry his 18 year-old daughter. Allen said that she was interested in Houston because of his "brilliant conversation and his handsome and commanding presence."
Houston blushed when he talked about Eliza and in November 1828, he told his cousin John Houston that he intended to be married soon. He wrote of a "small blow up" and that he could not understand "what the devil is the matter with the gals I cant say but there has been hell to pay and no pitch hot" in December to
John Marable, a
United States Congressman
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
. He also said to him "May God bless you, & it may be that I will splice myself with a rib."
Houston believed that Allen loved him, but he had "a doubt that made him miserable".
Houston had a reputation for being a renegade, a drinker, and melodramatic.
Andrew Jackson and John Allen believed that the marriage would infuse Houston's political fortunes.
Henry Alexander Wise
Henry Alexander Wise (December 3, 1806 – September 12, 1876) was an American attorney, diplomat, politician and slave owner from Virginia. As the 33rd Governor of Virginia, Wise served as a significant figure on the path to the American Civil W ...
believed that Houston's interest in Allen was political, that he would benefit by marrying into the "popular" Allen family.
Marriage
On the day of his wedding, as Houston neared Allendale, he heard the distressed cry of a raven and saw its fluttering until it died in the dust, which he took to be a foreboding message. Allen cried while getting into her wedding gown.
Even so, Allen married Sam Houston, the
Governor of Tennessee
The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state.
The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...
, at Allendale on January 22, 1829, which made her the First Lady of Tennessee. She was nineteen, and Houston was 35.
On their wedding night, Houston felt that Allen was cool to him;
He believed that Allen married him to please her father, and that she was in love with someone else. Allen was repulsed by the arrow wound that Houston received in 1814 at the
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
The Battle of Horseshoe Bend (also known as ''Tohopeka'', ''Cholocco Litabixbee'', or ''The Horseshoe''), was fought during the War of 1812 in the Mississippi Territory, now central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian a ...
. Located in Houston's groin, it was a festering sore involving his intestines, and it gave off an offensive odor.
That night, they slept apart from one another.
The morning after the wedding, the couple rode on horseback towards
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
. They spent the night at Locust Grove, the residence of Mrs. Martha Martin. Observing Houston losing a snowball battle with Martin's daughters, Allen mentioned twice that she hoped that they would kill him. The second time she stated to Martha, "Yes, I wish from the bottom of my heart that they would kill him." It was the only recorded comment from Allen about Houston during short marriage. After breakfast, the Houstons continued on their journey and they settled at the Nashville Inn.
![Davidson County Courthouse (Southwest corner) 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Davidson_County_Courthouse_%28Southwest_corner%29_2.JPG)
During the days, Houston worked at the capitol, which at the time did business in the Davidson County Courthouse.
In the evenings he campaigned for his second term as governor or entertained.
Over the course of her life, Allen was known to have only two conversations about her marriage, one with Balie Peyton, her friend, and another with a relative. According to Peyton, Allen said that she went into the marriage hoping for a good union, but left him for good reasons; He was insanely jealous and suspicious, one time locking her in their room, so that she had no food until late at night. He did not like her to speak to others and even at her aunt's house he wanted her to remain in her room during the periods when Houston was not around. She told Balie Peyton that she left him because he "evinced no confidence in my integrity and had no respect for my intelligence, or trust in my discretion." He held on to this information until he was on his death bed." She was accustomed to caring parents and Houston was coarse and jealous. He may have developed his lovemaking skills from life in the Cherokee village, which might seem unusual to Allen. She was just nineteen years of age, inexperienced in love, perhaps only having had a boyhood sweetheart.
According to Allen's friend and relative with the initials "M.B.H.", Houston vacillated between expressing fondness and being an angry, jealous "maniac" who questioned that any woman was pure. Within a matter of a few weeks, Houston aged several years, according to his friend Frank Chambers.
On April 9, Houston wrote a letter to John Allen stating that he was confused by his wife's coldness and he questioned whether she loved him. He expressed that he now found her to be virtuous and was concerned that he may have ruined their marriage and asked for his advise on how to restore it.
On April 11, Houston traveled to Cockrill Springs for an election debate.
After eleven weeks of marriage, Allen left Houston on the same day to return to her family.
She traveled on horseback back to Gallitin, stopping one night at Martha Martin's home for the night. Martin stated that she and Houston had agreed to separate and she was slightly depressed. When Houston was asked to provide a statement about the separation, he said "I can make no explanation. I exonerate this lady fully, and do not justify myself."
Sam Houston's retreat
Houston went to Allen, likely on April 15th, and begged her to take him back. He "knelt before her and with tears streaming down his face implored forgiveness…and insisted with all his dramatic force that she return to Nashville with him".
She stayed. The following day he resigned as
governor of Tennessee
The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state.
The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...
.
On April 23, he wore a disguise and boarded a steamboat out of Nashville. He was headed for the
Arkansas Territory
The Arkansas Territory was a territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Arkansas. Arkansas Post was the first territo ...
to rejoin the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
. In the meantime, two of Allen's brothers, one of whom was George Webster Allen, rode across the country to intercept the steamboat at
Clarksville,
which had made several stops to load freight. Heavily armed and excited, they explained to Houston that there were a number of rumors about their separation, one of which was that he was so upset to learn of Allen's crime that he went insane. They wanted Houston's denial of the accusations. Houston told the brothers to "go back and publish in the Nashville papers that if any wretch ever dares to utter a word against the purity of Mrs. Houston I will come back and write the libel in his heart's blood." What caused the demise of the marriage was something that Houston kept secret throughout his lifetime.
He traveled on to the home of
John Jolly
John Jolly (Cherokee: ''Ahuludegi''; also known as ''Oolooteka''), was a leader of the Cherokee in Tennessee, the Arkansas Territory, and the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. After 1818, he was the Principal Chief and after reorganization of the t ...
, also known as Chief Oolooteka, who took him in as a boy.
He later said of that night, "When I lay myself down to sleep that night I felt like a weary wanderer returned at last to his father's house."
During this time with the Cherokee, he became known as the "big drunk", although he had been a drinker and womanizer before his marriage.
After Houston's marriage, he ceased to be the protege of Andrew Jackson, who had helped him become a congressman and the governor of Tennessee.
Although he was still legally married to Allen, in the summer of 1830 Houston married Tiana Rogers (sometimes called Diana), daughter of Chief John "Hellfire" Rogers (1740–1833), a Scots-Irish trader, and Jennie Due (1764–1806), a sister of Chief John Jolly, in a Cherokee ceremony. The ceremony was modest since it was Tiana'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. Houston went to Texas in 1832, and left Tiana behind.
At some point, Allen had decided that she wanted to try again at their marriage, but by that time Houston had cooled to her.
He tried unsuccessfully to divorce Allen in 1833 in the Mexican State of Coahuilla and Texas.
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.
Allen's return to Allendale
Allen secluded herself when she returned to Allendale. She shut herself in her room and refused to eat. She dressed plainly and focused her energy on the care of her younger sisters. Her mother gave birth to her tenth child and a week later died in November 1832. In April 1833, John Allen died in an accident. She moved into Gallatin with the family and a few servants. She was said to be well-respected among her family and her few intimate friends.
Although she did not wish to see Houston again, she was glad to hear of good news and of his successes, such as when he became the president of the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...
. She became upset when others spoke ill of him. Most of what has been written about Allen since the spring of 1829 is speculation. Those who knew her depicted her as an "intense but controlled personality inclined, in later life, to detachment."
Second marriage
On November 8, 1840, Allen married Dr. Elmore Douglass, a widower with numerous children. Some sources say he had three girls.
Author James L. Haley said Douglass already had ten children when he married Allen. Together they had one son and three daughters, only one of whom survived into adulthood.
Their children were: Harriet Louise Douglas who was born September 2, 1843 and died on September 26, 1853. William K. Douglas was born on June 23, 1848 and died on February 25, 1849. Susie Miller died January 19, 1879.
Their daughter Margaret Allen Douglass married Dr. W. D. Haggard.
Through her husband, she gained a social life again. He liked to entertain and she was a charming hostess.
Death
Before her death, she asked that her letters and papers were burned, all images of her destroyed, and that she be buried in an unmarked grave. She died on March 3, 1861 of stomach cancer. She was interred at the Gallatin Cemetery. Eliza and Elmore were buried together near their youngest daughter, Susie Miller Douglass.
Her gravesite remained unmarked for 100 years. Nothing in her writing has been found.
In response to rumors of Allen's character after her death, Josephus C. Guild of Gallatin states that Allen "was a modest, retiring lady from her early youth until her death. There was not, nor is there now
nyone whobelieved that Houston's wife was guilty of any impropriety, or ever in her intercourse, either before or after her marriage, did anything affecting her unsullied honor." He mentioned governors, a judge, generals, and a colonel who "sympathized with her in her misfortune".
Popular culture
* Allen is the subject of the historical novel ''The Raven's Bride'' by
Elizabeth Crook
Elizabeth Crook (born April 9, 1959) is an American novelist specializing in historical fiction. Her nonfiction work has been published in anthologies and periodicals such as Texas Monthly and Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
Biography
Born ...
.
*
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 – December 15, 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the "Golden Age". Fontaine appeared ...
portrayed her in ''
Man of Conquest
''Man of Conquest'' is a 1939 American Western (genre), Western film directed by George Nicholls Jr. and starring Richard Dix (actor), Richard Dix, Gail Patrick, and Joan Fontaine. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Academy Awar ...
'', a 1939 American
Western film
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
* She was portrayed by
Claudia Christian
Claudia Christian (born Claudia Ann Coghlan August 10, 1965) is an American actress, singer and author, known for her roles as Commander Susan Ivanova on '' Babylon 5'', as Captain Maynard on Fox's ''9-1-1'', and as the voice of Hera on the N ...
in ''
Gone to Texas
Gone to Texas (often abbreviated GTT), was a phrase used by Americans emigrating to Texas in the 19th century. During the Panic of 1819, many left the United States and moved there to escape debt. Moving to Texas, which at the time was part of M ...
.''
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Eliza
1809 births
1861 deaths
People from Gallatin, Tennessee
Sam Houston
19th-century American women