Temple Lea Houston

Temple Lea Houston
Temple Lea Houston as a young man in Texas
Texas State Senator from District 19 (based in Mobeetie in Wheeler County)
In office 1885–1889
Preceded by	Avery Matlock
Succeeded by	John Hall Stephens
Personal details
Born	(1860-08-12)August 12, 1860 Austin, Travis County Texas, USA
Died	August 15, 1905(1905-08-15) (aged 45) Woodward, Oklahoma
Resting place	Elmwood Cemetery in Woodward, Oklahoma
Nationality	USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Laura Cross Houston
Alma mater	Baylor University
Occupation	Lawyer

Temple Lea Houston (August 12, 1860 – August 15, 1905) was an attorney and politician who served from 1885 to 1889 in the Texas State Senate. He was the last-born child of Margaret Lea Houston and Sam Houston, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas.

Temple Lea Houston was the only one of the Houstons' eight children to be born in the Texas governor's residence in Austin. By the time he was seven, both his parents had died. He lived with an older sister and her family in nearby Georgetown, Texas. At the age of thirteen, Houston left home to join a cattle drive and later worked on a riverboat on the Mississippi River. Aided by a friend of his father's, he gained an appointment as a page in the U.S. Senate and worked in Washington, D.C. for three years.

Houston returned to Texas in 1877 at the age of seventeen to attend the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M University). He transferred to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he graduated in 1880 with honors in law and philosophy. He "read the law" with an established firm and was admitted to the bar. He was the youngest attorney in Texas when he opened his practice. That year he was appointed as the attorney for Brazoria County near Houston, Texas.

In 1882, Houston was appointed as the district attorney of the 35th Judicial District of Texas, which then covered a large part of the Texas Panhandle, based in Mobeetie, Wheeler County.