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Speak
for Yourself, Robert
by Archie P. McDonald |
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Likely
in high school, or perhaps in college, everyone learns that Miles Standish, company
man and soldier in Plymouth Colony, asked John Alden to present his suit for the
favor of the fair Pricilla, who ended up with Alden, not Standish. Well, Texas
had just such a case. Here is what happened:
Sam Houston was a man of
many loves. First there was a Tennessee wife, who left Houston and returned to
her father (and younger boyfriend) after a few months of marriage. That sent a
drunken Houston to western Arkansas, really Oklahoma, and an Indian wife. Later
in life he married Margaret Lea of Alabama, but in between, there was Anna Raguet
of Nacogdoches.
Anna
Raguet was half Houston's age when he courted her in the 1830s, including the
months he was away leading the Texas Revolutionary army and serving as president
of the Republic. Houston often sent love letters to Anna via another resident
of Nacogdoches, Dr. Robert Anderson Irion, his secretary of state. And you guessed
it: Anna eventually married Irion, and not Houston, in 1840.
Irion
was born in Paris, Tennessee, in 1804, and educated at Transylvania University
in Lexington, Kentucky. He began a medical practice in Vicksburg in 1826, but
moved west in 1832 when his first wife, Ann A. Vick, passed away.
Like
many another "Gone To Texas" immigrant wanting to start life anew, Irion lived
first in San Augustine,
then transferred to Nacogdoches. He practiced medicine again, but like nearly
everyone else in Texas then, Irion received several land grants from the Mexican
government and also worked as a land surveyor.
When the Texas Revolution
began, Irion became a member of the Committee of Safety and Vigilance Committee
in Nacogdoches and later served as commander of forces there. Irion was elected
to the first Texas congress, and his friend and president of the Republic, Houston,
appointed him secretary of state for the Republic of Texas. When Mirabeau B. Lamar
succeeded Houston as president of the Republic, Irion returned to Nacogdoches
and the practice of law. He died on March 2, 1861, and was interred in Oak Grove
Cemetery in Nacogdoches.
Houston moved on to other loves, but Irion stayed married to Anna. Their
union produced five children, and Texas' own version of the Familiar Triangle. |
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
>
April 23, 2007 column
A syndicated column in 70 East Texas newspapers
(This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association.
Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books
on Texas). | |
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