Legend has it that Sam Houston stopped overnight in
the village en route to Texas and gained many admirers in the area.
Thus, the town was named for the founder of the new state of Texas.
June 1846 marks the City of Houston's official birthday. Although years
before that date, a number of families lived in what is today's Houston's
city limits.
May 7, 1860, Houston was in its early growing stages
when the Civil War broke out, and its progress was short lived. The
springs that fed Brushy Creek made the location attractive to the Union
Army since the area could amply supply their cavalry units.
Records are conflicting; however, four years later the
town had twice been burned. Houston was caught between crossfire's as
it was pillaged and burned by the Union Army, Confederates, and bushwhackers.
The countryside had become a bleak and desolate wasteland. All but one
home had been burned, and families moved either north or south, according
to their strong beliefs about the war.
In 1865, a return to normalcy brought back many Houstonians
to their homes and community. With a bitter war behind them, most residents
were eager to rebuild and looked confidently toward the future.
Houston is the hometown of Emmett Kelly, Sr., who was
known as "Weary Willie", the world-famous clown. Emmett
Kelly, Sr. was born in Sedan, Kansas, on December 9, 1898. His family
moved to a farm east of Houston when Kelly was six-years old. He attended
school in the Ozark community, east of Houston. When he was twenty years
old, Kelly's first professional appearance was at the "Old Settlers
Reunion" in Houston. He later became world-famous "Weary Willie"
hobo clown. He died in 1979 in Sarasota, Florida, and is buried in Lafayette,
Indiana. In honoring Houston's famous son, the Houston Area Chamber
of Commerce hosts an annual Emmett Kelly Clown Festival. Emmett Kelly's
son, Emmett Kelly, Jr., (who took over the stage as "Weary Willie"
upon his father's retirement) and grandson Joey Kelly, come back every
year to make special appearances and join the activities of the festival.
The festival is always the first weekend in May. The festival's eighteenth
anniversary will be in 2005.
