In 1812, Sam Houston took a job as a teacher to help pay off his debts. This is the Maryville, Tennessee, schoolhouse where Sam charged students eight dollars a term to take his classes.
In 1793, the United States was still a young country. Most of its 4 million people lived near the Atlantic coast. The great surge westward was still to come.
On March 2, Elizabeth Houston of Timber Ridge plantation gave birth to her fifth son. She named the boy Samuel. The name was a tribute to her husband, Major Samuel Houston. Two days later, President George Washington began his second term.
Timber Ridge lay in a sunny valley near Lexington, Virginia. Slaves worked in the fields and helped out in the large house. Major Houston, an inspector in the state militia, was seldom home. While he was gone, Elizabeth managed the plantation. While she was busy with her duties, a slave girl took care of Sam.
Four more babies arrived over the next few years. Left free to wander the nearby woods, Sam learned to hunt, fish, and swim. When he was eight, Elizabeth sent him to a log schoolhouse. Although he often cut class, Sam mastered the arts of reading and writing. At home, his father filled his head with stories of the young nation’s heroes. In his free time, the youngster read books on geography and history.
Major Houston paid his travel costs out of his own pocket. In time, his debts outstripped his income. The Houston family talked of selling out and moving west. The major’s sudden death in 1807 made the move even more urgent.
Elizabeth sold Timber Ridge and bought land in eastern Tennessee. The family piled its belongings into two wagons and headed west. The grueling three-hundred-mile journey to the new farm near Maryville took three weeks. This was truly the western frontier. The Cherokee Nation owned the land on the far side of the nearby river.
Sam’s older brothers carved a farm from the wilderness. Sam did his share of the work, but he was bored by farming. For a time, he went back to school. There, he fell in love with Homer’s epic work, The Iliad. Sam never forgot those stirring tales. Like Homer’s ancient Greek heroes, he believed he was destined for greatness.
As the farm prospered, Sam’s brothers invested in a dry goods store. After Sam quit school at sixteen, they put him to work as a clerk. Sam hated this job as well. When he felt too tied down, he vanished into the woods. One day, he did not return.
Weeks later, the Houstons heard that Sam was living with the Cherokee. Two of his older brothers set out to bring him home. When they reached the Indian village, they found Sam reading a book. The teenager refused to go home with them. He said he “preferred measuring deer tracks to [measuring] tape.”
In time, Chief John Jolly adopted the young man. Sam, in turn, learned the tribe’s language and customs. With the other young men, he played the rough ball game that later became lacrosse. He also took pride in his Cherokee name, Co-lon-neh (the Raven). In tribal lore, the raven was both bold and wise. To repay the Cherokee, Sam gave them powder and shot that he bought on credit.
In 1812, Sam took a job as a teacher to pay off his debts. Young Houston, the Maryville townsfolk sneered, had gone to the “Indian university.” The jeers did not bother Sam. He was weak in math, but he knew history and geography. More to the point, he was an inspiring teacher. The price to study with Sam was high—eight dollars a term. Parents paid one-third in cash, one-third in corn, and one-third in cloth.
In 1812, Sam Houston took a job as a teacher to help pay off his debts. This is the Maryville, Tennessee, schoolhouse where Sam charged students eight dollars a term to take his classes.
Years later, Sam remembered his teaching days with pride. He said he felt at that time “a higher … self-satisfaction than from any office or honor which I have since held.” Those good feelings lasted only six months. With his debts paid, Sam went looking for a more heroic career.