The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990 Page: 33
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Colonel Edward M. House: The Texas Years
ship with his wife to resolve these differences, though in early 1912 he
wrote that "it has been a lifelong grievance of Mrs. House that I have
hidden my light under a bushel for she has imagined it a many pow-
ered lamp and now she feels certain that she is right." Given the ex-
tent to which Loulie adjusted to his political activities, she must, at least
in a general sense, have understood and approved of her husband's po-
litical goals.
When House and his new bride returned to Houston from a grand
tour of Europe in 1882, he took over the management of the family's
vast land holdings and three years later decided to move to Austin.
Austin was close to several large cotton plantations that House had
inherited and was also the home of the state land office, where he
conducted so much business. Its mild climate and beautiful setting
contrasted sharply with Houston, which in the late 188os remained a
muddy, sprawling commercial emporium, with long, torrid summers
and dangerous tropical diseases. Austin offered more physical comfort
as well as the more convenient pursuit of his business interests, and it
was, of course, the political capital of the state. But the desire to enter
politics may have been the least powerful of all the forces pushing him
toward this change. Prior to his move to Austin, House recalled, "I had
taken no interest in local or state politics but had continued to be en-
grossed in national affairs," and only gradually was he drawn into the
political ferment there. Austin promised a new beginning, where he
could escape from the shadow of his father and older brother and build
a different and more exciting life. Looking back in 1929, House specu-
lated that "it may be that my entire life was changed by this move."'"
A few years after moving to Austin, House hired the other most im-
portant woman in his life, Frances B. Denton, then only eighteen, as his
personal secretary. Her father, Dr. A. N. Denton, was the son of a fa-
mous Texas patriot and superintendent of the state Lunatic Asylum;
House considered him a close friend and the "greatest alienist" in
Texas. Saddened by the death of her fiance and troubled by an un-
stable family, Fanny may have sought through her employment with
House both security and an entre into a larger world. A beautiful
woman, with an oval face, broad mouth, and brown, pulled-back hair,
she was high-spirited and independent and gradually became virtually
a member of the family as well as House's confidante. She typed his cor-
1I House to Davld F. Houston, Jan. 30, 1912, House Papers (YUL).
16Richardson, Colonel House, 31-41; David G McComb, Houston A IHstory (Austin- Univer-
slty of Texas Press, 1981), 63-64, 70; "Reminiscences," 12 (1st quotation); "Memories," 35, 36
(2nd quotation)
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990, periodical, 1990; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101213/m1/59/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.