Eliza Allen Houston Douglas
*alternate spelling Douglass ("Douglas" on her gravestone).

Daughter of Col. John and Laetitia (Sanders) Allen.
Married:
1) Gov. Sam Houston in Tennessee in 1829.
2) widower Elmore Douglass, a physician, in 1840.

Buried next to her youngest daughter, Susie Miller Douglas.
--by OBXr 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eliza Allen was born March 2, 1809, in Rockbridge, Virginia. Her father John Allen was from a family of merchants who married Laetitia Saunders cir 1808. Eliza was the oldest of their 9 children. The family moved to Gallatin, Tennesee where they were consided to be of the part of the aristocratic class in the area of Dixon.

At age 19 she married the famous Samuel Houston on January 22, 1829, in Gallatin, Tennessee when he was governor. They had such an unhappy union that his resignation as Gov of Tennesee, which occured in April 1829, was partly due to escaping this marriage by running away to live with his Cherokee family once more, and marrying Tiana Rogers, daughter of a chief. Tiana and Sam had no children.

Eliza made a public statement that Sam had been emasculated during the Creek War of 1814. Sam Houston remarried, however, in 1840 and had eight children with his young wife Margaret. History has never been sure as to the details of this separation. Sam and Eliza were only officially divorced in 1837, a divorce secured by the Tennesee legislature for her, and for Sam a Texas district judge awarded the decree, Sam claiming Eliza would not agree to div for so long.

Eliza'a mother died following childbirth in 1832 (baby also died two days later), and her father John in 1833. After her separation, Eliza moved home to help take care of her siblings, then later moved in with one or the other of her married sisters. She eventually married widower Dr. Elmore Douglass in 1840 and they had four children, adding to the two Elmore already had. The Douglass family was large and the families were intertwined in Gallatin. (Some siblings she helped raise are often listed as their own children due to the census).

Eliza moved with Elmore to Texas. Her second oldest sister Margaret was retarded and cared for by Eliza the rest of her life. Eliza raised step-children, along with the 4 of her own, only one of whom survived to marry, Susan.
--by Jean (48198157) 12-11-22.

From Walter T. Durham's book "Old Sumner" (1972):
"Eliza directed that all her correspondence and portraits be burned in the fireplace in her room, so she could see that they were destroyed, and requested that her grave be unmarked". No marker was placed for over one hundred years; now marked by family."
--submitted by Jean Irwin (48198157) 3-28-23