John Houston (c1690-1754)

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OVERVIEW
Taken from Houston, 1882:7 et seq. The following quotation is excerpted from different passages of houston 1882, as the information about John Houston (c1680-?) was placed at several different points in the original, with considerable repetition.


 * The following is copied from a manusript found among the papers of Rev. Samuel Houston, of Rockbridge County, Va, the father of the writer:


 * "John Houston, my grandfather came from Ireland with is family when my father was nine years of age, about seventeen hundred and thirty-five (1735), bringing with him his mother, and wife, and all his childrn excepting the oldest son (James), who had received an education and was studing divinity, but died soon after the family left him of  consumption.


 * "My grandfather's children [excepting James] were as follows:


 * 1. Robert Houston
 * 2. Isabella Houston,
 * 3. Esther Houston,
 * 4. John Houston,
 * 5. Samuel Houston,
 * 6. Mathew houston.


 * "He remained after landing, in Pennsylvania, until his three oldest chilren were married; then removed to Virginia, and settled on 'Burden's  Land;' and, with his son (and son-in-law-, John Montgomery), was a principal founder of the congregation of 'New Providence' to which he gave the name.  In the cemetery of the dame, his mother, aged nienty seven (97), his wife, and himself, with several of his descendants, lie entombed.


 * "My grandfatherwas killed by a limb falling from a burning tree, as he walked under it, which with its point foremost, penetrated his skull, and in a moment dispatched his life."


 * "My mother (her maiden name was Todd), died in seventeen hundred and ninety-five (1795), and was buried near maryville, Blount County. My father died in Kentucky, and was buried in a churchyard near Whipperwill Creek, Logan County.


 * "(Signed) "Samuel Houston.
 * May 3, 1820

Houston, 1882:10 continues:


 * John Houston...emigrated to America about the year seventeen hundred and thrity-five (1735). Some of the copnay of those who came with him, haveing a considerable amount of money with them, and believeing from the donduct of the captain and crew of the vessel in which they sailed, that they designed robbing and murdxdering them, held a consultation, and determined to seize, and put in irons, the whole number.  This they did;  and some of the emigrants being skilled in navigation, took command of the ship, and after a sail o eight days, theywere all safely landed in the port of Philadelphia.


 * ...the Houstons settled, when they removed fro Pennsylvania, in Virginia, on what ws then known as the "Burden Tract", between the years seventeen hundred and forty-two, and fifty (1742-50).

Houston, 1882:14 continues:
 * His house stood near the place where "Old Providence Church" now stands. In its immediate vicinity the settlers erected a stockade fort, for their defrense, in the case of invasion by the Indans.  The father of the writer remembered having seen this fort when he was a boy (as early as 1760-1765), and having heard most thrilling accounts of the alarms and, not unfrequently (sic) of the curel massacres to which the early settlers were subjected from the inroads and assaults of the Indians.


 * John Houston was one of the first elders of the New Providence Church, and seems to have had a controlling influence over the people, as may be inferred from his success in removing the difficulties which attended the locating of their church edifice. Rev. Samuel Houston, a grandson, gives an account of htis in a letter about the year 1820 to Rev. James Morrison, a former paster of the church.


 * "Nothing...could be done in the way of building until the questsion of location should be settled. Several ineffectual  meetngs were held.  At last many became alarmed, lest it should end like the tower of Bable.  Another meeting, however, was called, at which my grandfather attended, and he employed such conciliatory argument as brought the stiff to yield and to agree to the site where the church now stands.  After agreement, it was propsed to give the church a name.  My aged ancestor said:  'Neighbors, we have heretofore had unpleasant and fruitless meetings;  but to-day, we have had an agreeable and successful one.  We are indebted to Divine Providence for it.  Let us call the Church Providence.  To this all assented. '"


 * (There is another origin of the name given by soe, but the above seems to be the true one.)


 * John Houston's name stands first on the list of subscribers. He signed, also, a call for the services of their first pastor, in the year 1753 (seventeen hundred and fifty-three).  The church had been organized in the year 1746 (seventeen hundred and forty-six)...The call is not only signed by John Houston "first", but by John Houston, Samuel Houston, Robert Houston, and Matthew houston, who were, in all probability, the sons of John Houston, Sr., since these were the names of his four sons...The name of John Montgomery is among the names of the signers also, no doubt the son-in-law of John Houston...

Ancestry


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