Sam Houston was born in Virginia in 1793. He received his education at the College of William and Mary, then studied law at the University of Pennsylvania. Afterward he practiced law in Tennessee. During this period he served in the Tennessee legislature and served in the Mexican War
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When Texas achieved statehood in 1845, Houston was elected its first governor, which position he held for one year. He next went to Texas as a delegate to the Mexican Cession Congress, where he took his seat as a member of Congress in 1849. Then, in 1850, when Texas achieved statehood, Sam Houston became the first President of the Republic of Texas.
In 1859 he moved to Huntsville, Texas where he practiced law and raised cotton and corn until his death on June 2, 1863.