The Houstons of Michigan
The earliest of our Houston ancestors now known were from Pennsylvania who arrived in the New World and settled along the southern border of that state. This emigration came about in the 1700's because of events in Britain. Initially, in the 1600's, Protestant British rulers had encouraged many Scots to settle in northern Ireland on lands confiscated by the Crown from Irish nobility. However, by the early 1700's, under a Catholic King James the First who had succeeded a Protestant Elizabeth the First, the Catholic religion was reintroduced everywhere in Britain and these same Scotch settlers in Ireland felt the pressures from a Catholic administration to conform.
When William Penn offered free land and religious freedom, the disgruntled Scotch-Irish moved again in great numbers to Pennsylvania from northern Ireland. Many of these Scotch-Irish settled along the Pennsylvania border adjacent to Maryland. Among them was John Houston, born about 1700. He had left County Tyrone or Ulster in Ireland for a new home in the southwest corner of Franklin County PA on a date after 1728 [ because his son William was born then in Ireland, but sometime before 1751 when he was listed as a taxable resident of Franklin County, PA]. He and his descendents were there for four generations.
In 1825 William Huston, the third of three successive William Houston's, purchased from the Federal Government an 80 acre tract in township 24 in Richland County Ohio . In William's family was an eleven year old James Johnston Houston. He was to be my great great grandfather. This name change to Houston from Huston prevailed thereafter.
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| James Johnston Houston | Sarah Elizabeth Myers |
James, his father and his brother also a William, initially worked in the Ohio flour and saw mills. In 1836, at age 22, James married Sarah Coleman Myers. Together they were to have ten children, five sons and five daughters. The first son, born in June 1840, was my great grandfather Alman Jasper Houston.
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| Alman Jasper Houston | Alman Jasper Houston | Alman Jasper Houston |
In Ohio's Richland County James Houston worked as a blacksmith and after James moved his family to Wayne County Michigan in the early 1850's, he continued in that trade, and introduced his older sons to the same skills.
The Civil War had been in progress for over a year, and it was August 1862 when Alman J. Houston and his younger brother William Henry Houston enlisted in the 24th Michigan Infantry Regiment. On separate pages can be found a detailed record of the actions in which this regiment took part. Alman's Civil War service is notable because of an article written by him that is also included on this website. Of note too is a letter written by his younger brother, William Henry Houston, to their eldest sister Lovina only shortly before William was shot in the head and killed by a Confederate at Gettysburg.
The regiment had marched to Gettysburg some 493 strong. By the end of the first day's battle fewer than 100 men answered roll call, the 24th having incurred approximately 80% casualties. Among these was Alman J. Houston who had been wounded and then captured by the Confederate enemy. His regiment has the dubious distinction of having the highest losses of any of the 400 Union regiments eventually engaged at Gettysburg.
After the Civil War Alman returned to Detroit Michigan were he became a mail carrier or postal clerk. In 1865 he married Harriet Booth and they produced two sons naming the first William Henry Houston after Alman's dead brother. This second William was my grandfather, born April 1867.
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| William Henry Houston | Arthur J. Houston |
The two sons of Alman and Harriet
Alman and Harriet divorced in 1897, but eight days before his death in 1903 following a kidney operation, they remarried. Alman's estate consisted of a life insurance policy worth $3000. Of this, he willed one-third to his two granddaughters who were living, in Detroit at the time, with their mother Dora. These small girls were Gladys Ruth Houston and Grace Houston. Gladys was to be my mother.
My mother was the eldest daughter of William Henry Houston, Alman's eldest son. William and Dora his wife had first married in Milwaukee near Dora's family home in 1894. William brought his new wife back to Detroit where both Gladys and sister Grace were born.
'Dora', later changed to 'Dorothy', had emigrated to the United States, and arriving in New York on November 13,1882 aboard the vessel Cimbria was accompanied by her parents, two sisters, and a baby brother. Her father's name was John C. Pauls, a farmer, of Mecklenburg Germany. He was dyslexic and wrote his German in mirror form. The Pauls family spoke little or no English. As many German emigrants of the time did, they settled in Wisconsin.
William Henry and Dora lived at first at 456 Cass Avenue, Detroit. In 1896, the city directory gave his occupation as jeweler. William Henry Houston was an alcoholic and they soon separated. In 1901 he lived alone in a hotel and his failure to support his family is confirmed by the terms of his father's will in 1903. In December 1905, Dora died of pneumonia. Grandfather continued his drinking, abandoning his daughters for others to raise. He was last seen by Gladys about 1914 but may have been alive as late as 1920 when he asked other relatives for money. His last known address was 1177 14th Ave, Detroit.
ALMAN'S SIBLING HOUSTON'S of NOTE
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| William Henry ...brother | George Frank....brother | Sarah Elizabeth ...sister |
I met my great great aunt Sarah in 1930 at her home in Detroit. She was then frail and tiny. She died in 1934 at the age of 90.
In 1917, during World War One, The U. S. Navy decided to construct a fleet of wooden coastal craft called Eagle Boats similar to the torpedo boats of WW2. The Ford Motor Company was selected for this new program. Soon afterwards they sent to Detroit a small group of Naval officers to supervise construction. Among them was my father, Lieut jg. Robert Earl Davenport USN, age 24.
As was the practice in America in those days, people lived in boarding houses [run usually by widows] rather than hotels whenever prolonged stays were required. In such houses , rooms were furnished, residents shared baths, and meals were provided in a large family setting. The term 'boarding house reach' is derived from aggressive behavior at such tables. On my father's first meal there, an argument developed when he usurped the seat of an establish female resident. That woman was Gladys Ruth Houston, age 22.
That was the beginning, and it culminated in marriage in 1919.
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| RRobert Earl Davenport in 1919 | Gladys Ruth Houston about 1940 |
