Independence Texas Sam Houston home
— the small town that held the Houston family quiet.
Not only on a wall.
Independence Texas Sam Houston home, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Independence is a crossroads in Washington County, north of Brenham, where Sam Houston bought a small house for his wife Margaret and their children in the 1850s. Margaret stayed on after Sam died in Huntsville, and is buried in the cemetery beside her mother. The town also held the first campus of Baylor University, founded 1845. Only foundations remain on the hill, and the church Margaret attended still stands across the road.
The place, in three passes.
Independence sits in Washington County, Texas, about ten miles north of Brenham along FM 50. The community was settled in the 1820s and became an early centre of Texas religious and educational life. Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, kept a small home here for his wife Margaret Lea Houston in the 1850s. Margaret was raised in Independence and is buried there beside her mother Nancy Lea in the cemetery behind Independence Baptist Church.
The most visible remains in Independence are the four limestone columns of Old Baylor's main building, standing on a hill at the edge of town. Baylor University was chartered in Independence in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas, and the men's campus operated there until 1886, when the university moved to Waco. The columns and a few foundation walls are preserved in Old Baylor Park, which is open to the public daily during daylight hours.
The Texas Baptist Historical Center and Museum, beside Independence Baptist Church, holds Houston-family records and is open by posted hours. The church itself, founded in 1839, still meets in its 1872 building. The Margaret Lea Houston grave is in the cemetery behind the church, marked by a tall white obelisk. Old Baylor Park, with the limestone columns, is a short walk uphill. Plan an hour for the church and museum, and another for the park and cemetery.
