Houston Sam

Sam Houston of Texas Asked for Help in Touching Letter


[SAM HOUSTON]. Ralph W. Van Fossen, Autograph Letter Signed, to Sam Houston, January 28, 1854, Rochester, New York. 4 pp., 5" x 7.75" Smudges obscure a few words in the top lines of each page; otherwise very good.


In this interesting letter, the son of Houston's good friend John Van Fossen asks the senator's support in obtaining a settlement for his pay as recorder of surveys in Detroit, Michigan. When the author was ill, Surveyor General Charles Noble (1797-1874), whose district included Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, assured him that his pay would continue because of his past productivity. When Democratic President Franklin Pierce replaced Noble with Leander Chapman (d. 1870) in April 1853, Van Fossen resigned but had trouble settling his pay accounts with the new Democratic appointee. He turned to his father's old friend Senator Sam Houston for assistance.


The author mentions Houston's motto of "Try me," which was an inscription on Houston's personal seal. The motto became associated with Houston in the events leading to a duel in 1826, in which Houston seriously wounded General William A. White.


Complete Transcript

Rochester, N. Y. Jany 28th 1854

Saml Houston

Dear sir

The former intimacy existing between yourself and my father, I trust, you will regard as sufficient apology for addressing you on the present occasion. My object in writing is to solicit your aid in the settlement of an account for services performed in the Surveyor Generals office at Detroit.

For three years ending the 21st of April last, I was employed as recorder of surveys in that office. My salary was $800 pr. year, to be earned at a given rate per. folio, and if in any one quarter my writing exceeded the rate allowed pr. year the excess was credited and allowed in making up the account for the succeeding quarter.

In January 1852 I was taken severly ill. During my confinement the Surveyor Genl Chas Noble Esqr. came to my room, and the prospect of my immediate recovery not being favorable, he stated to me in the presence of my family and in the most positive terms that during the time I had been in the employ of the Government he had found me one of the most faithful and attentive clerks in the office and that he did not expect nor should he require me to make up for the time lost in consequence of sickness. My illness was of so serious a nature that I did not fully recover until the latter part of that year, yet I was regularly at my desk and performed my duties as far as I was able during the whole time I remained in the employ of the Government, and nearly all of the time I performed full office duties. During the 3d quarter of 1852 my health was so bad that it was not possible for me to perform full office duties and my vouchers were made in accordance with the circumstances. On the 21st of April last Leander Chapman Esqr. took possession of the office as Surveyor Genl. Entertaining political sentiments quite different from that gentlemen, I resigned my place from that date, and at the close of the quarter called on him for a settlement of my account, explaining to him the facts in the case, and stating that I was about to leave the state. Without the least regard to my explanation, he caused vouchers to be made having no reference to the arrangement under which I acted as a clerk, or to the amount of work for which I was entitled to receive pay. He requested me to sign them whether this was intended for an insult, or the result of willful ignorance of the facts, I am not able to state, such a proceding must be attributed to either one or the other of these causes.

After having repeatedly called his attention to the matter by letter, I received under date of October 29th last a letter from him stating that my account has been examined, and that a memorandum was found on my voucher of the 3d quarter of 1852 of an overdraft of $64.12 which amount was subsequently to be made up in work by me. I now state on my honor that no such overdraft was made by me nor was there ever any such understanding between myself and Mr. Noble, the then Surveyor Genl that such an allowance was made I do not deny, but it was in consequence of illness, and in conformity with the most positive assurances of the Surveyor Genl as before stated.

Having early learned to regard you as a man of honor, and feeling unwilling to submit quietly to injustice, I have presented my case to you with the more freedom, and trust that you will at your convenience lay the matter before the Secretary of the Interior.

As you were at one time somewhat familiar with my fathers family, it may not be uninteresting to you to know, that my father has for years struggled with adversity in some form, for the last six years his health has been much improved, at times he has not even hoped to stay long with us on earth, for some months passed however, he has greatly improved, and as usual is interested in all of the political movements of the day. Our family have within the last six years suffered greatly from sickness, and we have followed three of its members to their final resting place. The Keepsakes you once sent them, are all preserved, and I think their several mottoes have been faithfully regarded. My own, if I mistake not, was your favorite motto of Try me, it has been my constant companion from the day I received it. And I believe it has never yet witnessed dishonor in the wearer.

Very Respectfully Your obd servt

R. W. Van Fossen



Ralph W. Van Fossen (1815-1883) was born in New York, the son of John Van Fossen (1788-1858) and his wife Eliza Lester (1792-1874). The elder Van Fossen had served as a quartermaster in the War of 1812 and later joined with Sam Houston in fulfilling a government contract to feed the Cherokee in the 1830s. John Van Fossen was also an early settler of Michigan, where he became railroad commissioner of the state in 1840 and founded the Ypsilanti Sentinel newspaper in 1843. Ralph Van Fossen lived in western New York in the 1840s. In the early 1850s, he worked in the office of the district surveyor-general in Detroit, Michigan, before again settling in western New York. He later returned to Michigan, where he served as postmaster at Ypsilanti from 1861 to 1864. Complaints about his performance led to his removal in June 1864, shortly before his term expired. His removal allegedly caused "an unsettled condition of his mind," which twice caused his confinement for "lunacy." By mid-1867, Van Fossen was a ward of Washtenaw County, which eventually placed him in the Michigan Asylum for the Insane in Kalamazoo. In 1880 or 1881, he was sent to the Eastern Michigan Asylum in Pontiac, where he died.


Samuel Houston (1793-1863) was born in Virginia and left home at age 16 and lived with the Cherokee. He enlisted to fight the British in the War of 1812 and came under the tutelage of Andrew Jackson. After the war, he settled in Tennessee and began to practice law. In 1822, he was elected to Congress and served from 1823 to 1827. He was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson during his term in Congress. In 1827, he became governor of Tennessee but resigned in 1829 before his term ended after his wife left him amid rumors of alcoholism and infidelity. In the early 1830s, Houston was in Washington to expose the frauds committed by government agents against the Cherokee. When a Congressman accused him of impropriety, he beat the Congressman with a cane on Pennsylvania Avenue. He was arrested and found guilty but given a light fine, and he left for Mexico. By 1835, he was a major general in the Texas Army, and he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in March 1836. In the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836, Houston surprised Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and won a decisive victory that secured Texas independence. Houston served as President of the Republic of Texas from October 1836 to December 1838, and again from 1841 to 1844. After the annexation of Texas to the United States, Houston served as U.S. senator from 1846 to 1859. In 1859, Houston became governor of Texas but resigned less than two years later because he refused to take the Confederate loyalty oath. He retired from public life and died at his home.



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