Friday, March 2

Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday, March 2.

It was the full moon last night, the first of two this month. There will be four full moons between January 1 and March 31. January and March are hogging them all and poor February gets none.

     Today is the birthday in 1793 of Sam Houston, born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. His father owned a plantation, but was a poor manager and planned to move to the new state of Tennessee and leave his debts behind. When Sam's father died before the move, his mother moved anyway along with her eight children.
     Young Sam grew restless clerking in his brother's store and at age sixteen ran away to live with the Cherokees. He learned the language and was adopted by the tribe with the name Raven. Sam fought in the War of 1812 and impressed Andrew Jackson who became his mentor. He later clashed with Jackson over Jackson's harsh treatment of the Indians.
     He studied law and entered politics, eventually being elected governor. He had to resign during his second term when his wife made embarrassing remarks about him. No one knows exactly what the remarks were, but he split up with his wife, not divorcing her for several years. Meanwhile he entered a common law relationship with a part-Cherokee woman.
     He worked in Washing DC for awhile, but financial problems convinced him to move to Texas, then a part of Mexico. He had to convert to Catholicism to own land there. He joined the movement to make Texas an independent country. The Mexican government sent General Santa Ana to put down the rebellion. Santa Ana first wiped out the Texans at the Alamo then headed east to destroy the little army commanded by Houston. Houston outmaneuvered the Mexicans at the San Jacinto River and managed to capture General Santa Ana.
     Houston became the new republic's first president. He eventually became governor when Texas became a state after the Mexican War. Though he was a slave owner, he was opposed to the south seceding from the Union, and was eventually removed as governor because he would not agree to secession. In one of his last speeches he said, "Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche, and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South."
     Houston died in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War at the age of 70.

     It's also the birthday in 1904 of Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel). He was born in Springfield, Mass. and attended Dartmouth College and later Oxford University. While at Dartmouth he was caught drinking in his room with friends. This was during Prohibition, a double no-no. He wasn't expelled, but the dean said he had to give up editing the college humor magazine. One of his professors encouraged him to keep writing under a pseudonym. He chose his mother's maiden name. His father had wanted him to study medicine, so he threw in the "Dr."
     He developed his "Green Eggs and Ham" writing style when an editor challenged him to come up with a book only using the 250 words a first grader would recognize. Seuss had a unique art style. His figures were rounded and droopy and he loved drawing complex architectural objects.
     He tried at first to get people to pronounce Seuss correctly: rhymes with Joyce, but eventually gave up, saying, "Oh well, it rhymes with Mother Goose."
     My favorite Dr. Seuss book is "I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew," in which a nice guy realizes he sometimes needs to get tough.

     There's your poem for the day right there.

     See you on Sunday, for more Squibs from @jmcdonnell123