Houston

state. In 1832 he represented his county in the
state legislature and he held the office of district
solicitor repeatedly during the next ten years.
Elected to Congress, he took his seat in 1841,
and, save for the years 1849-51, served there un-
til the secession of Alabama.

Houston was opposed to secession, and during
the ten years preceding the Civil War worked
without ceasing to prevent the destruction of the
Union. In 1850 he was the Unionist candidate
for Congress, on a platform denying the consti-
tutional right of secession, and was elected. He
supported Douglas in 1860 and served as a mem-
ber of the Committee of Thirty-three. When Ala-
bama seceded, however, he bowed to the will of
his state and surrendered his seat in Congress.
He was the author of the statement which the
Alabama delegation presented to the speaker of
the House at the time of its withdrawal from
membership in that body. Although he refused
to serve in the Confederate army, he also refused
to take the oath of allegiance to the government
of the United States. This independence did not
alienate the people of Alabama from him, for in
1865 he was elected to represent the state in the
United States Senate, though he was not per-
mitted to take his seat

In 1874 Houston became governor of Ala-
bama, the first Democrat to be chosen for that
office after the Civil War. The state was bank-
rupt and the people were burdened with debt and
discouraged. With shrewd business sense and
untiring energy the Governor set to work to bring
order out of chaos. He adopted a rigid program
of retrenchment and reform. Offices were abol-
ished, state employees were discharged, and sal-
aries and appropriations for state departments
were drastically reduced. It was the Governor
who recommended the establishment of a state
debt commission and became the most influential
member of that commission after it was organ-
ized. In 1878 he resigned his executive position
to take the seat in the United States Senate to
which he had been elected by the state legislature.
He died in office one year later.

Houston was married in 1835 to Mary Beatty
and in 1861 to Ellen Irvine. He was the father
of ten children.

[T. M. Owen, Hist, of Ala. and Diet, of Ala. Biog.
(1921), vol. Ill; B. F. Riley, Makers and Romance of
Ala. Hist, (n.d.) ; W. L. Fleming, Civil War and Re-
construction in Ala. (1905); Memorial Addresses on
the Life and Character of George S. Houston (1880) ;
A. B. Moore, Hist, of Ala. and Her People (1921), vols,
I and II; Biog. Dir. Am. Cong. (1928) ; S. R. Houston,
Brief Biog. Accounts of Many Members of the. Houston
Family (1882), p. 289; Washington Post, Jan. i, 1880.]

H.F.

HOUSTON, HENRY HOWARD (Oct. 3,

i820-June 21, 1895), railroad executive, the son

Houston

of Samuel Nelson and Susan (Strickler) Hous-
ton, was born on his father's farm at Wrights-
ville, York County, Pa. He was a great-grand-
son of John Houston who emigrated from Ireland
about 1725 and settled near Gap, Lancaster
County, Pa.; his grandfather was Dr. John Hous-
ton of Pequea, Pa., who served as a surgeon in
the Colonial army. Henry attended the schools
of Wrightsville and Columbia, Pa., and at the
age of fourteen obtained employment in the gen-
eral store of John S. Futhey, Wrightsville, re-
maining there until 1839. From 1840 to 1843 he
was employed by James Buchanan at Lucinda
Furnace, Clarion County, Pa. In the latter year
he joined Edmund Evans in rebuilding and op-
erating Horse Creek Furnace, on the Allegheny
River, in Venango County. Returning to Co-
lumbia in January 1845, ne remained there until
1846, when he started upon a tour of the South-
ern and Western states. In 1847 he became a
clerk in the canal and railroad transportation
office of David Leech & Company, Philadelphia.
After three years he resigned to take up the or-
ganization and management of the freight line of
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company between
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. On Nov. 23, 1852,
he was appointed general freight agent of the
Pennsylvania Railroad and held this office until
July i, 1867, when he resigned because of poor
health. Subsequently he was one of the promot-
ers of the Union Line, a private organization
which ran through cars over the lines of the
Pennsylvania Railroad and its connections to the
West. He was similarly connected with the Em-
pire Line, which furnished like facilities in con-
nection with the Lake Shore Railroad and its
allied roads. These fast freight lines proved very
efficient in the development of freight business
and incidentally contributed to the development
of the country, since prior to their organization
there had been no interchange of freight cars be-
tween railroads. He became a member of the
board of directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company in March 1881 and remained as such
until his death. He was also a director in many
other railroad and transportation companies. In
the early days of the Pennsylvania oil fields, he
made careful investments which resulted in hand-
some profits, so that he became known as a
prosperous producer and operator in petroleum.
Interested also in Western gold mines, he ac-
cumulated a large fortune.

He was actively connected with many other
interests besides those of a commercial nature,
frequently taking a prominent part in movements
connected with public welfare. He contributed
largely to the development of Wissahickon

262