Black Fox Bradley Tennessee United States

Sam Houston had been appointed by Andrew Jackson in 1817 had as sub-agent in managing the business relating to Jackson's removal of the Cherokees from East Tennessee to a reservation in what is now Arkansas.

He has had differences with John C. Calhoun, now Secretary of War, who had chided him for appearing dressed as a Cherokee at a meeting.

More significantly, an inquiry had begun into charges related to Houston's administration of supplies for the natives.

Offended, he resigns in 1818.

The son of Major Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton, Houson's ancestry is often traced to his great-great grandfather Sir John Houston, who built a family estate in Scotland in the late seventeenth century.

His second son John Houston emigrated to Ulster, Ireland, during the English plantation period.

Under the system of primogeniture, he did not inherit the estate.

After several years in Ireland, John Houston emigrated in 1735 with his family to the North American colonies, where they first settled in Pennsylvania.

As it filled with Lutheran German immigrants, Houston decided to move his family with other Scots-Irish who were migrating to lands in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

The Shenandoah Valley has many farms of Scots-Irish migrants.

Newcomers include the Lyle family of the Raloo area, who had helped found Timber Ridge Presbyterian Church.

The Houston family had settled nearby.

Gradually John developed his land and purchased slaves.

Their son Robert inherited his father's land.

His youngest of five sons was Samuel Houston, who became a member of Morgan's Rifle Brigade and was commissioned a major during the American Revolutionary War.

At the time militia officers were expected to pay their own expenses.

He had married Elizabeth Paxton and inherited his father's land, but he was not a good manager and got into debt, in part because of his militia service.

Their children were born on his family's plantation near Timber Ridge Church, including Sam Houston on March 2, 1793, the fifth of nine children and the fifth son born.

Planning to move on, as people did on the frontier to leave debts behind, the elder Samuel Houston patented land in Maryville, the seat of Blount County in East Tennessee, near relatives.

He died in 1807 before he could move with his family, and they moved on without him: Elizabeth taking their five sons and three daughters to the new state.

Having received only a basic education on the frontier, young Sam was fourteen when his family moved to Maryville.

In 1809, at age sixteen, Houston ran away from home, because he was dissatisfied working as a shop clerk in his older brothers' store.

He went southwest, where he lived for a few years with the Cherokee tribe led by Ahuludegi (also spelled Oolooteka) on Hiwassee Island, on the Hiwassee River above its confluence with the Tennessee.

Having become chief after his brother moved west in 1809, Ahuludegi was known to the European Americans as John Jolly.

He became an adoptive father to Houston, giving him the Cherokee name of Colonneh, meaning "the Raven".

Houston learned fluent Cherokee, while visiting his family in Maryville every several months.

Finally he returned to Maryville in 1812, and at age 19, Houston founded a one-room schoolhouse in Knox county between Maryville and Knoxville.

his was the first school built in Tennessee, which had become a state in 1796.

In 1812, Houston reported to a training camp in Knoxville, Tennessee, and enlisted in the 39th Infantry Regiment to fight the British in the War of 1812.

By December of that year, he had risen from private to third lieutenant.

At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814, he was wounded in the groin by a Creek arrow.

His wound was bandaged, and he rejoined the fight.

When Andrew Jackson called on volunteers to dislodge a group of Red Sticks from their breastwork, Houston volunteered, but during the assault he was struck by bullets in the shoulder and arm.

He returned to Maryville as a disabled veteran, but later took the army's offer of free surgery and convalesced in a New Orleans, Louisiana hospital.

Houston had become close to Jackson, who was impressed with him and acted as a mentor.