'Texas Tornado' Signature Flourish

Subject: 'Texas Tornado' Signature Flourish Wed 23 May 2007, 11:27 pm

Hello everyone ...

On 25 October 2000, the late Gerald Harris -- an exemplary student of North-Texas history and a committed poster on the Dallas Histical Society message board -- wrote on that forum the following*:

"Several weeks after returning from Grapevine Springs, through his [Sam Houston's] two annexation represen- tatives, he sent an ultimatum that the US only had one chance at getting Texas as a state (Congress wanted Texas to earn statehood through years of territorial status) because France and England had jointly pledged to guarantee the independence of Texas against Mexico, the USA, and any other country provided Texas would refrain from being annexed to the USA. A copy of the letter is on the site mentioned above; however the original in Houston's own handwriting is more impressive but I left it in the Barker Library in Austin. Especially impressive is his signature finished with a flourish and a Texas Tornado at the bottom."

What of flourishes which are associated with signatures? An example of the 'tornado' flourish beneath Houston's signature -- which Mr. Harris writes of above -- may be viewed at the bottom of the following Webpage:

http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/Reference/index.html

Here is an example of a more 'conventional' (?) flourish which Houston added to his signature, in a letter written to Anna Raguet (1838):

http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~l381ss02/process/documentation.html

The correspondence of Houston which Gerald Harris referred to in his posting was (I believe!) written in 1843. Was the 'Texas Tornado' flourish, then, a later ornamentation which the General adopted? Was it a touch which he seems to have originated?

I must confess that I have paid little attention to historic signatures over the years, beyond that of John Hancock. Might there be any historic graphologists out there, and/or those who are familiar with the characteristics of Sam Houston's signature over the course of time?

Thanks for any information!

Holly

* This posting was copied from an address which Mr. Harris presented to the descendents of John Neely and Margaret Beeman Bryan at their reunion held that year. Its subject was the importance of the Council of Grapevine Springs and Houston's efforts associated with and following the Council to Texas' accelerated (?) annexation by the United States.