The Fourth of July, 1836

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD

Part 2: Sam Houston Comes Home

by Bob Heinonen

It was the 4^th of July, 1836, and only seven weeks since Texas gained it independence at the Battle of San Jacinto, that the town of San Augustine was planning a celebration. What made this day most special in San Augustine was that Sam Houston was coming home to recuperate from the wound he had received in the battle and that he would make a speech. Sam had been taken to New Orleans for treatment of a serious ankle wound after the battle.

“It was arranged to have General Houston meet his friends at San Augustine on the fourth of July, 1836. It was a joyous reunion. The fearless pioneers, who had left home and kindred and all their attendant attractions to aid in reclaiming a vast and fertile empire from the predominance of Indians, came together to salute their friend, the successful leader of a revolution, with the laurels of San Jacinto fresh upon his brow. Honest and stout hands were clasped, and true hearts thrilled in response to the promptings of sincere friendship. It was a scene one could never forget.”[i]

John Salmon Ford had arrived only a few weeks earlier – too late for the Battle that won independence for this new country. He was only 21 years old but was already a doctor and eager to establish his medical practice. John Ford was caught up in the excitement of the times.

This was the first time Ford had seen Houston. “Houston was then a splendid specimen of manhood. A form and features which would have adorned the walks of royalty, a fund of conversational powers almost unequaled, the matchless gift of oratory, a vast grasp of intellect – all marked him a great man.”[ii]

In his autobiography, John Salmon Ford describes the events of this special July 4^th:

The gentleman chosen to welcome the general was Colonel Jonas Harrison, long and familiarly called “Old Jonas Harrison, the Hunter.” Memory paints him now as he stood in his brown, home-spun clothes, slouched hat, and coarse boots, to receive the Washington of Texas. The mental question was “Old chap, what can you say worthy of this memorable occasion?” He drew himself up to his full height, and in a short address combined eloquence and logic so deftly and ably that all were assured a master stood before them.

General Houston replied in the happiest manner. The two held the audience entranced, unconscious of aught save the enthusiasm engendered by their burning words. At this moment when more than fifty years have been measured upon the sundial of time, the grand Old Hunter looms up before the mind’s eye as the equal, if not the superior, of General Houston in oratory. A few months thereafter a mighty mind was eclipsed, a gifted tongue silenced in death; the man of the people was gathered to his fathers. Few of this day know of him.”[iii]

Houston stayed in Philip Sublett’s home during the month of July, 1836.[iv] “Sam Houston did not go to the army. He sat in tranquil San Augustine with his bandaged leg on a pillow, one of Phil Sublett’s Negroes in attendance and a Miss Barker reading from a novel. Miss Barker had journeyed from Nacogdoches to cheer the wounded hero. He said (but not to Miss Barker) that her blue eyes reminded him of Anna Raguet, who stayed at home.” History tells us that Anna Raguet was one of Sam Houston’s favorite ladies before he married Margaret Lea who he met while convalescing in New Orleans. Sam “… passed the warm July days in seclusion…”[v]

Sam and Philip Sublett must have been very good friends. Phil had submitted the resolution appointing Sam Houston commander and chief of the San Augustine and Nacogdoches districts on October 6, 1835. This was to remain in effect until the Consultation could meet and make other decisions. It was also Phil who, on August 15, 1836, nominated Sam for president of the Republic of Texas. .[vi]

Meanwhile, “Ford practiced medicine in San Augustine for some eight years. At first he made only night calls for folk who could not afford the higher prices of established doctors. The poor liked him. He listened to their troubles. He collected when they could pay. Once, in a dangerous and tedious operation, he removed a bone from a small boy’s brain for a trifling charge. Word soon got around that he was a good doctor and before long his list of patients included some of the most prominent citizens in the county.”[vii]

In late 1836 or early 1837, John Ford became a teacher in the newly formed Sunday School.

In 1838, he became a part of the newly formed Thespian Corps and wrote a three-act comedy called The Stranger In Texas. He comically answered his tongue-in-cheek reviewer by writing a drama called The Loafer’s Courtship. In his autobiography, Ford says “It drew a large house, and increased the writer’s head vanity to an alarming extent. He imagined the lightning had striken him and developed in him a genius of sublime proportions. Young simpletons often enjoy their juvenile follies more than old fools do their worn crotchets, and fancied achievements.”[viii]

Thus began John Salmon Ford’s long, sometimes controversial, sometimes illustrious, and always visible, career.

Next Month - Part 3: The Early Years of the Republic

Bob Heinonen the founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.