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Sep 12, 2018 · On April 11, 1829, Sam Houston and his bride of eleven weeks, Eliza Allen, abruptly ended their marriage. Neither would speak publicly of the cause for the rest of their lives. Eliza returned to her parents’ home in Sumner County.
Eliza (née Allen) Houston Douglass (December 2, 1809 – March 3, 1861) was the first wife of Sam Houston. Their marriage, over after just eleven weeks, ended Houston's career as governor of Tennessee. Houston resigned and went to the home of his foster father John Jolly, a leader of the Cherokee people.
A historical article that explores the secretive and turbulent marriage of Sam Houston and Eliza Allen, and its impact on Houston's life and career. It reveals the few facts and the many speculations about the cause of their separation and the silence they maintained for decades.
Eliza Allen (January 27, 1826 – after 1851) was an American writer from Maine who, in 1851, published a memoir called The Female Volunteer; Or the Life and Wonderful Adventures of Miss Eliza Allen, A Young Lady of Eastport, Maine.
In his personal life, Houston was first married to Eliza Allen while Governor of Tennessee, a union which quickly ended in scandal and eventual divorce. Prior to his divorce in 1837, he lived for several years with a young Cherokee widow named Tiana Rogers.
Eliza Allen, Sam Houston's first wife, was born to Laetitia and Colonel John Allen, a wealthy Sumner county couple who believed that Houston was an acceptable match for their daughter. After Houston and Eliza's eleven-week marriage soured in 1829, Eliza went into seclusion and Houston left Nashville to live with the Cherokees in Arkansas.
Feb 27, 2010 · Historians agree that Houston was motivated by his failed marriage to Eliza Allen, a woman half his age. There is less agreement on what caused the marriage to collapse so catastrophically. A Post story in 1871 attempted to explain “Why Sam Houston Exiled Himself.”
