Steamboat House
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1858 by Dr. Rufus Bailey, 1858-62 president of Austin College, as a wedding gift for son. Unusual house caused such joking, however, the couple refused to live in it. In 1862, after Sam Houston left governorship of Texas, he rented Steamboat House, and here he died in 1863. His funeral was held in the upstairs parlor. In 1933 Houston businessman J. E. Josey bought house and gave it to state. Texas Centennial Commission restored building, moved it here 1936.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. Rufus Bailey, president of Austin College, built this oddly steamboat-shaped house in 1858 as a wedding gift—so mocked by neighbors that the newlyweds refused to live in it. Its fame instead comes from its most famous tenant: Sam Houston, who rented it after leaving the Texas governorship over secession, and who died in an upstairs room in 1863 with his funeral held in the parlor above. Saved and restored for the 1936 Texas Centennial, the house was moved to its present site as a shrine to the state's towering founder.
Why it matters
As the place where Sam Houston—soldier, president of the Republic, and Unionist governor—spent his final days, the Steamboat House ties one modest dwelling to the whole arc of Texas's fight for independence and its agonized entry into the Civil War.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Sam Houston
- · Rufus Bailey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Woodland, Home of Sam Houston
Huntsville, TX
Sam Houston loomed over Texas from its birth as a republic — the general who won independence in 1836 and the new nation's first president. In 1847, while serving as a U.S. Senator, he and his wife Margaret built this whitewashed log home they called "Woodland," a "bang up place" where four of their children were born and where Houston spent what he considered his happiest years. His story darkened at the end: a Unionist governor who opposed secession, he was pushed from office when Texas joined the Confederacy in 1861.
Forrest Lodge No. 19, A.F. & A.M.
Huntsville, TX
Chartered in 1844, Forrest Lodge No. 19 is one of just 25 Masonic lodges founded under the Republic of Texas and the eighth oldest in the state. Its early rolls included Sam Houston and historian Henderson Yoakum, and member William Martin Taylor earned the title "Father of the Texas Work" for a handbook that standardized Masonic ritual across the state. Through fires, rebuildings, and a century of civic life, the lodge shared its halls with churches, schools, and the Red Cross and funded scholarships and relief.
Walker County
Huntsville, TX
Walker County was carved from Montgomery County in 1846, the year Texas joined the Union, and first honored Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, a leading advocate of annexation. In 1863 the county was pointedly rededicated to Captain Samuel H. Walker, the daring Texas Ranger who fell fighting in Mexico during the U.S.-Mexico War. Huntsville has served as its county seat throughout.
Walker County
Huntsville, TX
Carved from Montgomery County in 1846, Walker County was first named for U.S. Senator Robert J. Walker, then rededicated to honor Samuel H. Walker, the Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero. Its seat, Huntsville, began as an Indian trading post and got its first courthouse in 1848; after fire destroyed a later one, the present courthouse rose in 1888. Today the county holds part of the Sam Houston National Forest and is home to Sam Houston State College, the oldest state-supported college in Texas.