New York aids Texas Revolution

This bit of history really does seem too strange to be true. It involves the family of John Wilkes Booth, the son of Abraham Lincoln, and Sam Houston. The full transcript of this episode of Stories from Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or […]

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Sal from Fort Worth sent me
a letter in which he advised
that I should look into the story
of how the Bowery Theatre in New
York City back in 1836
raised money for the
Texas Revolution.
Sal is 98 years old and I am
grateful that he is still an
avid student of history and
took the time to write.

(00:21):
Thank you, Sal.
I pursued your lead vigorously
and I found historical
gold.
Let's begin here on a roundabout
way to the Bowery Theatre.
Robert Todd Lincoln was nearly
killed in 1835
when he almost fell off a train
platform in New Jersey.
He was saved by the strong

(00:41):
arm of Edwin Booth,
who grabbed him by his coat collar
and pulled him to safety.
Edwin booth saved the life
of Robert Lincoln.
If that fact sounds strangely
familiar to you, It is
because of another fact.
More firmly rooted in your memory
that upstages it.

(01:02):
A year after this event,
John Wilkes Booth, Edwin's brother,
would assassinate Abraham Lincoln,
Robert's father.
The two events were not connected
except by randomness.
Our story today has more of these
coincidences that occur so
frequently in history that they seem
almost miraculous.

(01:23):
As you may know, Edwin Booth and
John Wilkes Booth were
both actors but Edwin was
considered the finest of his era.
Edwin and John's father Junius
Brutus Booth was before
that considered the finest actor of
his time.
Walt Whitman loved his mastery of
the stage.
In senior Booth's time he

(01:43):
was a passionate supporter
of the Texas Revolution.
He was known to use his
Shakespearean trained voice to
mount tables and bars in New York
City to explain at length to
the patrons.
Just why they should support the
Texas Revolution against Mexico.
In January of 1836, he convinced
Thomas Hamblin, the manager of the

(02:04):
Bowery theater, where he was
primarily headlining plays
in those days to
host some fundraising evenings
under the heading of a
triumph for Texas,
a GoFundMe of the 19th century.
They raised money by putting on the
play Venice Preserve.
Booth plays Pierre, who is

(02:26):
a headstrong revolutionary,
giving speeches about the need to
overthrow dictators in
the name of God-given freedom,
speeches not unlike those that were
soon to be delivered at the Alamo
and San Jacinto.
The question that begs to be asked
here is how did Junius
Booth develop such a
love for Texas all the way from New

(02:46):
York City and given that he was
British by birth?
It turns out that he knew
Sam Houston personally,
from Houston's early days as a U S
congressman from Tennessee.
Booth frequently performed in the
theaters in Washington, DC, and
they became, as we would say today,
drinking buddies.

(03:06):
Booth even coached Houston on
his oratorical style to make him a
more effective congressional
orator.
Naturally, some years later, when
Booth was aware that Houston was
in Texas endeavoring to overthrow
Santa Anna, he wanted to help.
He did what he could to rally
national sentiment for the Texas
cause from the stage of

(03:28):
the Bowery Theater and from
tabletops and bars, where
he sold patrons on the
righteous cause of Texas freedom.
When Sam Houston returned to
Washington as a Texas Senator
in 1846,
he and Booth again rekindled their
bromance and commenced bar
hopping on occasion.

(03:48):
Once again, here is
a description of the two of them in
those days.
When in Washington, Junius Brutus
Booth and General Sam Houston of
Texas were great cronies.
It was a picture worthy of punch
to see this eccentric pair
take their afternoon promenade
along Pennsylvania Avenue.

(04:09):
Houston stood six feet,
four inches and booth about
five feet, five inches.
As it was winter, Houston's ample
shoulders were covered with a
large gray blanket that reached
to his heels.
His grizzled head was mounted by a
huge Mexican sombrero.
Booth was fashionably attired in a

(04:30):
brown long skirted overcoat
with buttons high up in the small of
his back and his classic head
held up a high crowned
silk hat.
And thus they marched.
Little Booth, clinging to the arm
and with difficulty, keeping pace
with the sturdy strides of
the hero of Santa Sena.
They were on pleasure bent

(04:51):
and were soon lost to view
of the amused pedestrians.
Oh, I would have loved to have seen
that.
I'm WFStrong. These are stories from
Texas by way of New York
and Washington DC.
Some of them are
true.