AUSTIN, Texas — At the beginning of the Ken Paxton impeachment proceedings in the Senate Tuesday, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who is presiding over the trial, swore in each Texas senator individually using the Sam Houston Bible.
Patrick said the Sam Houston Bible is rarely brought out, but this situation warranted it.
“We do it at inaugurations and other special occasions and this is a very significant and serious occasion that will be in the history books,” he said. “I thought it appropriate to bring out the Sam Houston Bible.”
Instead of swearing everyone in at one time, each Texas Senator individually placed their hands on the Sam Houston Bible to be sworn in.
What are the origins of the Sam Houston Bible?
According to the state, the Sam Houston Bible has been used for the last 150 years by chief justices of the Texas Supreme Court have used it to swear in top elected officials.
On its website, the Texas Judicial Branch said that according to legend, Sam Houston himself once owned the bible and gifted it to the Texas Supreme Court. It was used to swear him in as governor in 1859.
Other governors sworn in over the years include James Hogg in 1891, William P. Hobby in 1917, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson in 1925, Ann Richards in 1991 and former President George W. Bush in 1995. During his inaugural speech, Bush described the Bible as "Sam Houston's own, simple and worn.”
Sam Houston’s signature was in the Bible but was ripped out sometime before 1937, possibly by souvenir seekers.
On the first page of the Bible is an inscription that reads, “Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas, 184-” with the last number of the date missing because of damage at some point through the years. Water stains mostly likely happened when the first Texas Capitol burned down in 1881 and someone saved the Bible from the fire.
There is a hand-drawn cross on the back of the pocket-sized Bible’s sheepskin cover and an antique Texas Supreme Court seal on the front.
There are a couple of signatures still visible. According to the Texas Judicial website, the two signatures were written in back in 1932 by two young girls, Lucille Clendenin and Marjorie Ann Easley. As the website has it, they put their names in while those who were watching over the Bible were distracted by post-inaugural activities.
There are many newspaper articles and stories about the Sam Houston Bible. You can read a whole lot more about it on the Texas Judicial website.
Tuesday also happens to be 186 years to the day that Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas.
The Texas Judicial website said origins of the Bible aren’t known, but the Supreme Court of Texas continues using it today.