some were graced with slender charm. Cosmetics were scarcely known and artificial adornments were frowned upon, though natural curls were much admired. The fact that during these early days, the Scotch-Irish seldom married outside their own circle preserved a degree of uniformity in physical features. It was probably due to this clannish nature that marriage of cousins was quite common among the Scotch-Irish, including the Houstons.

From the time of the Reformation in Scotland through the American Revolution, the history of the Houstons is interwoven with that of the Presbyterian Church. Established state churches were the rule under law in most of the colonies during the first century of development. Strictest enforcement of religious edicts existed in some of the New England colonies where the Puritans had migrated to practice freedom of their own religion to the exclusion of all others. In New Jersey, Virginia and the Carolinas, the English church was established and only Anglican ministers could legally preach and carry on religious services. But Pennsylvania early established freedom of religion.

Seemingly the bans on dissenters were seldom enforced in any of the southern colonies, and various faiths carried on their worship without much disturbance. However, when the Scotch-Irish swarmed into the country, in the early 1700’s bringing with them their Presbyterian faith, some of the Anglican ministers, particularly in Virginia, protested. Some Presbyterian preachers were arrested on ground that they had no license, but juries usually turned them loose. Soon, the attempt to exclude all but the Anglican church broke down.

The Presbyterians organized their first Presbytery in America in 1705. By 1746, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were strong enough to establish their own college, now the University of Princeton, where their preachers and statesmen were trained. This was a year after a group of Houstons took the lead in establishing Providence Church on the Virginia frontier.

The lives and destinies of the pioneer Houstons centered around the church, politically as well as religiously. Wherever there were Presbyterians there were likely to be Houstons and wherever Houstons were found—whether ministers or laymen, warriors or statesmen, farmers or craftsmen—almost always they adhered to the Presbyterian faith. It was only after the Revolution that the Houstons and their fellow Scotch-Irish be-