By Kathleen Tatum
Matagorda County TXGenWeb
Albert Clinton Horton was born September 4, 1798 in Hancock County, Georgia, son of William and Mary Thomas Horton.
His father died when he was very young and later his mother married Colonel Samuel Dent, moving to LaGrange, Franklin County, Alabama in 1823.
Albert Horton married Eliza Holliday in 1829, daughter of General Thomas Holliday. Eliza was born in North Carolina in 1815, but was living in Alabama with her brother-in-law and guardian, W. J. Croom, father of Colonel John L. Croom of Matagorda, Texas.
Horton and his wife moved to Greensboro, Alabama where he served one term in the Alabama State Senate in 1832.
Albert Horton came to Matagorda County, Texas, April, 1835, when he purchased several leagues of land in the northern part of Matagorda County, which is now part of Wharton County.
In addition, he was granted a league and labor of land on January 19, 1838.
After making his family comfortable in their large, new home, in the town of Matagorda, (The S. M. Dale, F. L. Rugeley and now present [1987] Robert J. Sisk home that is still standing), he joined James W. Fannin, Jr. with his recruited cavalry of men, arriving at Goliad on March 16, 1836.
March 17, Horton had a skirmish with the cavalry of General Jose Urrea.
On the morning of the retreat from Goliad, Horton was sent to examine the crossing of Coleto Creek.
His group decided it was impractical to attempt to rejoin Fannin’s army which had been completely surrounded, for fear of losing all of his men, of which he was criticized by some.
Horton served in the Texas Army from February to May 1836.
He represented Matagorda, Jackson and Victoria Counties in the Senate of the First and Second Congress, 1836 to 1838.
In the election held on September 3, 1838, he was candidate for Vice-President of the Republic of Texas, but was defeated. January 1839 he was one of five commissioners appointed to select a location for the capital of Texas.
Horton represented Matagorda County in the Convention of 1845 and was elected Lieutenant Governor on December 15, 1845.
He was not inaugurated until May 1, 1846, after a recount and tabulation of the votes showed that he had received more votes than Nicholas H. Darnell, whom the Legislature had declared elected.
During Governor James Pinckney Henderson’s leave of absence to command Texas troops during the Mexican War, Horton acted as Governor of the State of Texas from May 19, 1846 to July 1, 1847.
The Hortons were Episcopalians, where he was elected Vestryman and Warden in 1839.
They joined the Baptist faith later and he was President of Baylor University.
He was regarded as one of the wealthiest men in the State, but after the Civil War he lost about four hundred slaves.
Cotton, sugar and other farm products dropped in price causing him to lose very heavily on his plantation.
Albert Clinton Horton died October, 1865 at his summer home in Matagorda and is buried in the Matagorda Cemetery.
There were six children born to this union, but only two lived to maturity.
The death of his oldest son, William Holliday Horton, was reported in the September 6, 1837 issue of the Matagorda Bulletin.
The paper indicated he died “Monday” at the age of 13 years and 7 months.
His daughter, Patience Louisiana Texas Horton, born 1837, married in Wharton County, January 13, 1853 to Colonel Isaac Newton Dennis who was born in Dallas County, Alabama, June 25, 1829.
He was a law graduate of Cambridge, Massachusetts and admitted to the bar at Cahaba, Alabama in December, 1850. He came to Texas in 1852.
He represented Wharton and Matagorda Counties in the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Legislatures.
To this union, was born one child, Patience Horton Dennis, who married Judge Wilie C. Croom.
They had one child, Linda Croom who married Frank Hodges.
After Patience’s death, Isaac Newton Dennis married Sadie Hinton in 1865 and after her death, he married Maggie Knox in 1869, by whom he had four children.
He died March 25, 1910.
Albert Clinton Horton’s other child that lived to maturity was a boy, Colonel Robert John Horton who was born March 24, 1844 in Matagorda.
At the age of eighteen, he entered the Confederate Army as a volunteer.
On December 30, 1863 he was in Captain Rugeley’s company that participated in an attack on the enemy on Matagorda Bay and was one of the men that endured the suffering of the night of the disaster when the norther blew in capsizing the boats and freezing and drowning many men.
Robert John Horton married Miss Mary Hawes, September 12, 1864 at Matagorda while he was home on furlough. Mary was the daughter of Judge Hugh Hawes.
Soon after the marriage, he resumed his duties in the army and at the close of the war he established his home in Matagorda, moving from there to Saluria Island and then to Goliad.
In 1886 he returned to Wharton and lived there until his death, October 2, 1904.
His last request was to have his many old army buddies escort his remains to the final resting place.
His widow, Mary Horton, died June 24, 1912.
They were the parents of six children: Mrs. Albert (Carrie) Foote of Houston; Mrs. Jim (Mary) Davis of El Paso; Mrs. J. E. (Loula) Irvin; Mrs. Alex (Renie) Rugeley; Mrs. T. J. (Lida) Abell of Wharton and A. C. Horton, Jr. of Wharton.
The Official Texas Historical Marker for Albert Clinton Horton was dedicated October 10, 1987, at the Matagorda Cemetery, Matagorda, Texas.