Margaret Lea Houston | |
|---|---|
 Margaret Lea Houston, c. 1839 | |
| First Lady of Texas | |
| In role December 21, 1859 – March 15, 1861 | |
| Governor | Sam Houston |
| Preceded by | Lucadia Christiana Niles Pease |
| Succeeded by | Martha Melissa Evans Clark |
| First Lady of the Republic of Texas | |
| In role December 21, 1841 – December 9, 1844 | |
| President | Sam Houston |
| Preceded by | Hannah Este Burnet |
| Succeeded by | Mary Smith Jones |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Margaret Moffette Lea April 11, 1819 Marion, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | December 3, 1867 (aged 48) Independence, Texas, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Yellow fever |
| Resting place | Houston-Lea Family Cemetery Independence, Texas, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 8, including Sam Jr., Andrew, and Temple |
| Education | Judson Female Institute |
Margaret Lea Houston (April 11, 1819 – December 3, 1867) was First Lady of the Republic of Texas during her husband Sam Houston's second term as President of the Republic of Texas. They met following the first of his two non-consecutive terms as the Republic's president, and married when he was a representative in the Congress of the Republic of Texas. She was his third wife, remaining with him until his death.
She came from a close-knit family in Alabama, many of whom also moved to Texas when she married the man who was an accomplished politician in both Tennessee and Texas, and who had won the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. The couple had eight children, and she gave birth to most of them while he was away attending to politics. Her mother Nancy Lea was a constant in their lives, helping with the children, managing the household help, and always providing either financial assistance or temporary housing. With the help of her extended family in Texas, Margaret convinced her husband to give up both alcohol and profane language. He believed his wife to be an exemplary woman of faith and, under her influence, converted to the Baptist denomination, after he had many years earlier been baptized a Catholic in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Following the Annexation of Texas to the United States, Sam Houston shuttled back and forth to Washington, D.C. as the state's U.S. senator for 13 years, while Margaret remained in Texas raising their children. When he was elected the state's governor, Margaret became First Lady of the state of Texas and was pregnant with their last child. Her brief tenure came on the cusp of the Civil War, at a time when the state was torn apart over the debate of whether or not to secede from the United States, while her husband worked in vain to defeat the Texas Ordinance of Secession. There was an attempt on his life, and angry mobs gathered in the streets near the governor's mansion. With no government protection provided, she lived in fear for her family's safety.
Her husband was removed from office by the Texas Secession Convention for refusing to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. Margaret became a wartime mother, whose eldest son joined the Confederate Army and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Shiloh. Her husband died before the end of the war. In her few remaining years, she became the keeper of the Sam Houston legacy and opened his records to a trusted biographer. When she died of yellow fever four and a half years later, Margaret could not be buried with her husband in a public cemetery in Huntsville for fear of contamination, and was instead interred next to her mother on private property.