Sam Houston Document Signed as Governor of Texas (1860) Partly-printed DS as governor of Texas, one page, 14.75 x 12.5, July 19, 1860. Governor Houston grants “Joseph B. Tyres assee of Philip B. George...six hundred and forty acres...in Ellis County.” Signed boldly at the conclusion by Sam Houston as governor and countersigned by Francis M. White as commissioner of the General Land Office. In very good to fine condition, with scattered staining and somewhat irregular toning. Houston had been elected governor of Texas in 1859, becoming the only person to date to serve as governor of two states (he was governor of Tennessee from 1827 to 1829) and the only to be a former head of state to a foreign nation. After Lincoln's election to the U.S. presidency in 1860, the Texas Secession Convention convened and Houston fervently opposed secession. When Texas seceded in February 1861, Houston was forced from office for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Francis M. White served as a lieutenant in the Texan army during the Revolution and was present for the siege of Bexar and the Grass Fight. He was a member of the Texas House and served as commissioner of the General Land Office from 1857 until 1862.