"Sam Houston made us free; Sam Colt made us equal"

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Mon Jun 11 05:58:09 UTC 2007


This is an interesting Texas saying. There appears to be only one Google  hit
for the whole saying (the TIME magazine citation below), but the last part
("Sam Colt made us equal") has about 250 Google hits. The first part is usually
 replaced with "God created man."
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26 June 1952, Dallas Morning News, part I, pg. 4:
_Gene Howe,_
_Salty Writer,_
_Shoots Self_
AMARILLO, Texas, June 25 (UP). -- The body of 66-year-old Gene (Old Tack)
Howe, chairman of the board of the Amarillo Globe-News Publishing Company, and
one of the saltiest humorists in the Southwest, was found Wednesday on a
country  road, where he had committed suicide.
...
He was the youngest son of the late Ed Howe, an Atchison, Kan. editor and
publisher with such a gift for homely philosophy that he was called the "Sage of
 Potato Hill." Gene Howe won as much fame with a column called "The Tactless
Texan."
(...)
A .38 caliber Colt revolver was clutched in his stiff right hand; there  were
powder burns about a wound in his right temple. Mrs. W. J. Flesher, a
Randall County justice of the peace, officially pronounced it suicide.
...
Associates, searching through his columns Wednesday for some hint as to  what
he had intended to do, noticed only this, the last paragraph of Tuesday's
column:
...
"Some refer to old-time sayings as 'idioms.' Here is one of the earliest in
Texas: 'Sam Houston made us free and Samuel Colt made us equal.'"
...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
...





    _TIME.com: Old Tack -- Jul 7, 1952 -- Page  1_
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888739,00.html)
TIME Magazine -  Time - Jul 7, 1952
one day last week, at the end of His column, he  tacked on one of His
familiar aphorisms: "an Old Texas saying: Sam  Houston made us Free and Sam Colt made
us ...
...




...
_http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888739,00.html_
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888739,00.html)
Monday, Jul. 07,  1952

Far beyond the Texas panhandle, Gene Howe, publisher of the Amarillo  Globe
and News, was fondly known as "Old Tack." His folksy daily column,  "The
Tactless Texan," was the most popular newspaper column in the state,  and across
Texas he was known as "Mr. Panhandle, Amarillo's one-man  Chamber of Commerce."
(...)

One day last week, at the end of his column, he tacked on one of his
familiar aphorisms: "An old Texas saying: Sam Houston made us free and Sam  Colt made
us equal."

...
...

_Independent Long Beach (Newspaper) - June 26, 1952, Long  Beach,..._
(http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0039/6792312/45573853.html)
Subscription -  Independent Long Beach - NewspaperArchive - Jun  26, 1952
here is one of the earliest In Texas: 'Sam  Houston made us FREE and Samuel
Colt made us equal.'" Howe  went to work at His father's Newspaper so early
that ...
...
...

_Ada Weekly News, The (Newspaper) - October 2, 1958, Ada,  Oklahoma_
(http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0028/6799714/52484580.html)
Subscription -  Ada Weekly News, The - NewspaperArchive - Oct 2,  1958
Armour Texas' two-Sam do-it-yourself LAW  was summed up like this: Sam Houston
made US free, Anc Sam  Colt made US equal. Nordyke record store in' Dallas had
...



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