Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 733 - 734 

ROBERT L. HOUSTON came to Park Township during its pioneer days, and in time to assist in the organization of its school districts. He is pleasantly located on sections 24 and 26, eight miles from the city of Wichita and four miles from Valley Center, and is one of the solid men of his township, owning 175 acres of valuable land in a good state of cultivation, and is largely interested in stock-growing, handling high-grade Messenger horses and Durham cattle. 

            East Tennessee was the early tramping ground of the subject of our sketch, and there he first opened his eyes to the light on the 24th of December, 1840. He was the fourth in a family of nine, the offspring of George B. and Lamanda O. (Munday) Houston, natives of the same State as their son. The paternal grandparents, Robert and Elizabeth (Blackburn) Houston, were natives respectively of Virginia and Tennessee. George B. Houston followed farming first in his native State, and about 1850 removed to Mahaska County, Iowa, and settled near Oskaloosa during the pioneer days. Subsequently he took up his residence in Chase County, this State, where his death occurred in 1872. In this latter section also he was an early settler, and endured, in common with the people around him, the hardships and privations incident to that time and locality. The mother survived her husband four years, and died in 1876, when fifty-six years old.

            Young Houston received his education in the subscription schools of East Tennessee, and labored on his father's farm until the outbreak of the Rebellion, being at this time in Kansas. On the 1st of September, 1862, he enlisted in Company K, 2d Kansas Cavalry, was mustered into service at Ft. Scott, and participated in the engagement with the rebels at Prairie Grove, Maizeville, Poison Springs, Saline, and several other unimportant battles and skirmishes. At the expiration of his term of enlistment he received his honorable discharge at Lawrence, in August, 1865, and was mustered out at Ft. Gibson, in the Indian Territory.

            After leaving the service, Mr. Houston made his way first to Colorado, thence into New Mexico, and returned to Leavenworth, Kan., in the spring of 1866. He was married in Chase County, this State, on the 12th of March, 1873, to Miss Sarah E., daughter of William and Mary (Burley) Morris, who was born in Chenango County, N. Y., in 1853, and was the second in a family of eleven children. The father of Mrs. Houston was an Englishman by birth and parentage, and is now deceased; her mother is a native of New York State, and is living in Chase County, this State.

            Mr. and Mrs. Houston settled in Park Township soon after their marriage, where Mr. H. had homesteaded 155 1/2 acres of land. He commenced in earnest its improvement and cultivation, and subsequently added to it until the farm comprised 235 acres, all of which has been enclosed and brought to a good state of cultivation. To the little household there have been added two children, bright boys: Leach L., born July 28, 1874, and Lonnie B., March 4, 1878. Mr. Houston cares very little about politics, but believes in Republican principles, and to these gives his honest support.

            A lithographic portrait of Mr. Houston is given as a fitting adjunct to this brief sketch.

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