Houston, Samuel Rutherford, 1806-1887

Samuel Rutherford Houston (1806-1887) of Rockbridge County, Va., was a planter, school teacher, and a Presbyterian minister, as his father and grandfather had been. He received his theological training at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, after graduating from Dickinson College. He was posted to a mission in Scio, Greece, in 1834, and served there with the Rev. George W. Leyburn. Houston's first wife accompanied him to Greece and died in Egypt in 1839, leaving a son Rutherford (b. 1835). They returned to Natural Bridge, Va., in 1841 and Houston married Margaret Paxton (b. 1817). They had nine children.

Rutherford Houston was also a Presbyterian minister. He eventually settled in Fincastle, Va. He graduated from Washington College in 1855 and entered Union Theological Seminary around 1857. He married Margaret "Maggie" Steele, and they, too, had nine children.