Robert Houston
(1720-1761)

This plaque is erected in honour of General Sam Houston of Texas (1793-1863) whose ancestor John Houston and his family emigrated around 1730 from the Ballyboley area. The family settled at Timber Ridge, Virginia, where, with many others from these shors, they formed one of the Ulster-Scot communities which dotted the Great Valley of the Shenandoah. Sam Houston was the great-great-grandson of John Houston and the son of Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton. His father was a soldier during the Revolutionary War and Sam Houston served under General Andrew Jackson, later to be the seventh US President, during the War of 1812. He was also during his lifetime Governor of Tennessee. In March 1836, after the defenders of the Alamo, including those of Ulster stock, laid down their lives, General Sam Houston raised the fallen standard of Texas and led Americans to victory on the field of San Jacinto, Texan independence being secured there on April 21st, 1836. The city of Houston is named in honour Of one whose roots lay in these hills, The man the Cherokee called The Raven.

Ballyboley forest, Ballynure, United Kingdom where they lived near -1730)