The city of Houston, Texas, is named after Sam Houston, an American general and statesman who became the first president of the Republic of Texas in 1837, after the territory’s declaration of independence from Mexico.
In 1836, brothers John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen purchased the land to establish the townsite that became Houston, naming it after General Houston, who led the Texan Army to victory in the Battle of San Jacinto against the Mexican army that same year. It was considered to be the decisive battle that led to the independence of Texas from Mexico, before its annexation by the United States.
Samuel Houston was elected again as third president of the Republic of Texas in 1841 and was later one of the first representatives for Texas in the United States Senate. Houston also served as the seventh governor of Texas and, having earlier in his life been the governor of Tennessee, is the only person ever to have been governor of two different US states.
