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A
second aborted effort to establish Houston in East
Texas came in 1836 when the Republic
of Texas established a stockade and blockhouse two miles west
of Palestine,
in Anderson
County, and named the site Houston for Sam
Houston, the hero of San
Jacinto. The fort covered an acre of the townsite. After the fort
was abandoned in the early 1840s, Houston became Fort Houston,
presumably to avoid confusion with the town established by the Allen
brothers on Buffalo Bayou. The settlement declined when nearby Palestine
became the seat of Anderson
County.
Old
Fort Houston has another claim to fame in Texas.
In 1836, the fort became a refuge
for members of the Parker
family when they were attacked by Comanche, Kiowa and Kichai Indians
at Fort
Parker in Limestone
County. In the raid, the Comanche seized four captives, including
Cynthia Ann Parker, who remained with the tribe almost 24 years and
gave birth to Quanah
Parker, the powerful Comanche chief.
The morning after the raid, the 21 survivors, led by James Parker,
started for Fort Houston. It took six days to travel the 60 miles.
Fort Houston's lands were acquired in 1857 by John H. Reagan,
who achieved fame as a U.S. congressman and Confederate postmaster
general. Today, Fort Houston and a cemetery where many its residents
were buried are marked by Texas historical markers in the Palestine
area.
All Things Historical
Jan.
27, 2002 Column |
Forum:
The Reagan home (shown below) was in the Centennial
book. Somebody just told me the Reagan home was razed in 1946.
According to the Fort Houston marker shown in the book, Fort Houston
was a fort and stockade built about 1836, abandoned in 1841. The site
of Fort Houston is "now a part of the historic home of John H. Reagan
which is called Fort Houston." Mr. Bowman says Fort Houston's lands
were acquired in 1857 by John H. Reagan. TexasOnline says In 1857
John H. Reagan bought 600 acres, which included the old site of the
fort and town, and his home became known as Fort Houston. Nobody says
anything about it being gone. - Sarah
Reveley, February 25, 2009 |
1936 photo of
the John H. Reagan Home
From "Monuments Commemorating the Centenary of Texas Independence",
State of Texas, 1938 |
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Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
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