Tulare County Biographies

JAMES HOUSTON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Noteworthy among the pioneer settlers of Tulare county was the late James 
Houston, for over forty years a respected and valued citizen of Visalia. The 
descendant of a long line of Southern ancestry, he was also a native of the 
Southland, having been born in Tennessee. During young manhood he located near 
Pocahontas, Randolph county, Ark., this being at a time of an uprising of the 
Indians, and he valiantly took a hand in quieting these disturbances and other 
troubles that arose incident to border life. During the Sabine disturbances of 
1837 he enlisted in the United States army and as a lieutenant of the mounted 
gun militia of Arkansas rendered a service that was appreciated, as was 
evidenced in the fact that at the time of his discharge he received the brevet 
of major. Mr. Houston was a second cousin to the famous Sam Houston of Texas, 
and no doubt inherited his intrepid spirit from the same source as did his 
celebrated relative.
The marriage of James Houston united him with Frances Sebourn Black, a native of 
Virginia and the descendant of a prominent Southern family, being related to the 
Sebourns of South Carolina and to General Cobb, the latter a conspicuous figure 
in the Revolution. In 1859 James Houston brought his family to California across 
the plains by means of ox-teams. For a short time he mined at Hangtown, now 
Placerville, but in the spring of 1860 he came to Tulare county and made 
settlement in Visalia. Purchasing land near town he made his home thereon until 
1902, when his earth life came to a close, at the venerable age of ninety-three 
years. His wife survived him about three years, passing away in 1905 at the age 
of eighty-four years. Of the eleven children born to this worthy couple seven 
are living, as follows: Mrs. E. B. Townsend, of Visalia; Mrs. J. W. Oakes, also 
of Visalia; Miss Thalia Houston; Mrs. R. A. Robertson, of Kingman, Ariz.; Mrs. 
Ed Graham, of Berkeley; Mrs. John Wentworth, of Globe, Ariz.; and Andrew, an 
extensive cattle rancher near Phoenix, Ariz. The four children deceased are: 
Maria, who was the wife of A. H. Glascock, a well known citizen of Tulare 
county; Samuel T.; Mrs. Frances S. Chilson, and William, who was a well known 
attorney of Visalia.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 851-852