Robert Anderson Irion, son of John Poindexter Irion, was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, on July 7, 1804. He graduated from Transylvania University as a doctor of medicine in March 1826. After practicing medicine in Vicksburg, Mississippi for six years, Irion arrived in Texas, settling first in the new town of San Augustine and later in Nacogdoches . On September 14, 1835, he was elected to the Committee of Safety and Vigilance for Nacogdoches. In April 1836, he became commandant of Nacogdoches Municipality. He was senator from Nacogdoches in the First Congress of the Republic of Texas and was appointed Secretary of State by President Sam Houston on June 13, 1837. Barnard E. Bee succeeded Irion on December 13, 1838. Dr. Irion married Anna Raguet on March 30, 1840, and practiced medicine in Nacogdoches until his death on March 2, 1861. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Nacogdoches. Irion County, Texas, is supposedly named for him.
Anna W. Raguet Irion was born on January 25, 1819, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, the eldest of eight children of Henry and Marcia Ann Towers Raguet. She was reared and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lived until she came to Texas with her father in 1833. Arriving in Nacogdoches, she became acquainted with General Sam Houston. Houston, infatuated with Anna’s personality and beauty, courted her from that point until 1840, with serious thoughts of marrying her. However, Houston did not secure a divorce from his first wife, Eliza Allen, until April 8, 1837. The divorce did little to satisfy the scruples of the young Anna and she abandoned any plans she may have had for marrying Houston. She died on November 7, 1883, and is buried in the Raguet family plot in Marshall, Texas.
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Source:
- Walter Prescott Webb, et. al., editors. The Handbook of Texas, Vol. 1-2. Austin: The Texas Historical Association, 1952.
From the guide to the Irion Family Papers GA1-2., 1825-1929, 1825-1873, (Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library)
