Oklahoma Journeys
Week of August 29, 2009
Temple Houston
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He was the youngest son of Sam Houston - a dead-shot gun fighter, a flamboyant dresser, a one-time captain of steamers, a county and district attorney in the Texas panhandle, and finally, one of great attorneys in Woodward in the Oklahoma Territory. Temple Houston left an indelible mark on Oklahoma on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.
From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.
Temple Houston was born in 1860, the last child of Sam Houston. While a teenager he traveled throughout the east working a number of jobs, then in 1877 he returned to Texas and graduated from Baylor University with a law degree. In 1894 he moved his family to Woodward in the Oklahoma Territory. Besides being known for his flamboyant and unorthodox dress and behavior, he was also a dead-shot gun fighter. His first statewide fame occurred in Guthrie, the territorial capitol, where he became enraged at a roulette table where a kid was being taken for all his money. Houston pulled a gun, shot up the place, drove everyone out, returned the kid’s bank roll to him, and then sauntered down Main Street in Guthrie as eyes on the lookout for any hidden gunman.
In 1899, he and Jack Love, who later at statehood was elected one of three original Corporation Commissioners, got into a free-for-all in a Woodward saloon, where he shot and killed Ed Jennings, the brother of notorious bank robber and later candidate for governor, Al Jennings.
Temple Houston is still remembered by lawyers today for his defense in May 1899 of Minnie Stacy, who was being prosecuted for running a bawdy house in Woodward. He had ten minutes to prepare her defense, and his summation was printed word-for-word in the Woodward Democrat newspaper, and today is known as the Soiled Dove Plea.
He said this, “You heard with what cold cruelty the prosecution referred to the sins of this woman, as if her condition were one of her own preference. The evidence has painted you a picture of her life and surroundings. Do you think that they were embraced of her own choosing? Do you think that she willingly embraced a life so revolting and horrible? Oh no, gentlemen, one of our own sex was the author of her ruin, more to blame than she.
Let us then judge her gently. What could be more pathetic than the spectacle she presents? An immortal soul in ruin! Where the star of purity once glittered on her girlish brow, burning shame has set its seal and forever. And only a moment ago, they reproached her for the depths to which she had sunk, the company she kept, the life she led. Now, what else is left her? Where can she go and her sin not pursue her? Gentlemen, the very promises of God are denied her.”
After the trial was over, the all-male jury promptly found her not guilty.
On August 15, 1905, Temple Houston died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of only forty-five. He is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Woodward. One of the most elaborate floral arrangements at his funeral was from Minnie Stacey.
This is but one of the fascinating stories that make up Oklahoma history. More await you at the Oklahoma History Center, NE 23rd Street, just east of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.