Diana ‘Tiana’ Houston

Diana Rogers was a Cherokee woman

Preamble - Curator Note

In the Cherokee syllabary sounds starting with "D" and "T" are represented by the same characters. Pronunciation depends on dialect or sometimes context, so "Diana" and "Tiana" are the same name. English ears might hear a "D" since they are familiar with the name Diana while Cherokee ears might hear "Tiana" although neither is a name seen connected with any other Cherokee woman of her time.

“Historians have long identified Houston's Indian wife by a variety of names and spellings, among which the most prominent have been Tiana and Talihina. But there is good reason to believe that these names are misapplied, that the name of his wife was clearly, and only, Diana or Dianna. Just where Diana died, where she was buried, and who Tiana and Talihina were are all a part of the controversy that lives on today.

Just where the name Talihina originated is not known. It is said to be a Choctaw word meaning either "iron road" or "railroad…"4

Unquestionably, the documents most pertinent to her true identity are two affidavits presented by her, one in 1833 and the other in 1836.

The first of these notarized statements declares: "Know all men by these present, that I Diana Gentry, widow of late David Gentry, of Frog Bayou; Do by these present authorize, constitute, and appoint Samuel Houston late of the Wigwam my true and lawful attorney. ..."8

In the other, which concerns a dispute over a slave, she states: "On the 20th of November 1834, Joseph Rogers, a Cherokee, executed to his sister Dianna Houston, formerly Dianna Rogers, a Bill of Sale... ."' Both affidavits were signed by her with an "X."

From these statements it is perfectly clear that Houston's Cherokee wife was named Diana, or Dianna.

But was there a Tiana Rogers who might have created confusion in the memories of people? Indeed there was, and it can be clearly established that she was not the wife of Sam Houston. The matter of Tiana's mistaken identity is compounded by the existence of at least five men by the name of John Rogers who were closely connected with the Cherokees during their early years of settlement in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Tiana Rogers was the wife of one of them.”

Endnotes referenced:
4 Gregory and Strickland, Sam Houston with the Cherokees, pp. 34-35.
8 Affidavit by Diana Gentry, June 27, 1833, Ltrs. Recd., Cherokee Agency West, 1832-33, National Archives (M234, Roll 78). It is interesting, and perhaps significant, that in this 1833 affidavit Diana gives no indication whatsoever that she was the wife of Sam Houston, identifying herself as "Diana Gentry, widow of late David Gentry...."

Extracted from: Hoig, Stan. Diana, Tiana, or Talihina? The Myth and Mystery of Sam Houston's Cherokee Wife, article, Summer 1986; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2031531/: accessed April 12, 2023), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.)
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Biography

There are many varied stories about Tiana or Diana Rogers, the Cherokee woman with whom Samuel Houston lived from about 1830-1832. She left no descendants and is found in few contemporaneous records. Most of what is published about her is undocumented at best. Her name appears in English-language records as Diana or Dianna; no record of it written in Cherokee syllabary is known.

Tiana/Diana Rogers was born about 1800 in the Cherokee Nation (East), the daughter of John Rogers, a white man, and Jennie Due, a Cherokee. She had at least four full siblings, John Rogers, Jr., Anna Rogers [Flowers, Irons], Joseph Rogers, William Rogers and Susanna Rogers [Miller] and a number of half-siblings. [1] She married David Gentry, also a white man, about 1820. They were the parents of two children, Gabriel and Joanna. Both died young and left no descendants. [2] The Gentrys moved to the Cherokee community in Arkansas; David Gentry died while fighting the Osage, about 1828. Gen. Sam Houston, the former governor of Tennessee arrived in the western Cherokee Nation in 1829. Already a friend of many Cherokee, in 1831 he was granted Cherokee citizenship and married the widowed Diana Gentry. [3] Houston set up a trading post near Fort GIbson

Wigwam Neosho (possibly named after the nearby Neosho River which passed through Fort Gibson, Sam Houston’s cabin and trading post at Fort Gibson images from the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey, Fred Q. Casler, photographer, May 5, 1934

where he and Diana lived until 1833 when Houston left her and went to Texas. They had no children. About 1836 Diana married another white man named Sam McGrady. [4] They apparently separated before Diana's death from pneumonia in 1838. There are varying claims regarding her final resting place. Some believe she was originally interred at Wilson Rock Cemetery. Those remains were moved to Fort Gibson National Cemetery in Sept. 1904. A headstone was set up over the grave, bearing the inscription" "Talahina, Indian wife of General Sam Houston.' (This headstone has since been replaced.) Cherokee historian Emmet Starr wrote, "her last resting place is unknown, but somewhere near the vicinity of her home near Rex, Oklahoma...

The Rand-McNally New Commercial Atlas Map of Oklahoma, 1913 from the https://dc.library.okstate.edu/digital/collection/OKMaps/id/3854/
(Curator note: Rex is shown just a few miles northwest of Fort Gibson in the far southeast corner of Wagoner County, follow the link above for a clear enlargement)

"The bones interred in the National cemetery at Fort Gibson and foisted on the public as those of Samuel Houston's Cherokee wife were those of a woman whose maiden name was Coody, who was never the wife of Houston. [5]

Photograph of Talahina R. Houston's Grave Marker, Fort Gibson, OK. She was the wife of General Sam Houston.
Source: Talahina R. Houston's Grave Marker, photograph, Date Unknown, (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1623867/: accessed April 14, 2023), The Gateway to Oklahoma History,

Just one example of the confusion around the death and burial of Diana.
The article in the center is clipped from The Fort Gibson Post, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, 28 Sep 1899, Thu • Page 1 on the left; the article on the right is clipped from The Muldrow Press, Muldrow, Oklahoma, 26 Aug 1904 (note the differences in the details)

From the National Parks Service (and still more confusion)

“The graves of two remarkable women are found in the Officers Circle at the center of the old cemetery grounds. Talahina Rogers Houston was the second wife of General Sam Houston. Talahina, a Cherokee, died of pneumonia in 1833 and was originally buried in Muldrow, Oklahoma, roughly 60 miles southwest of the fort. In the late 1890s, the Fort Gibson newspaper launched a campaign to have Talahina reinterred at the national cemetery, arguing that the wife of the president of the Republic of Texas deserved a more dignified resting place. The Department of War approved the request, and a formal burial, complete with funeral parade, accompanied the transfer of her remains to the national cemetery.”

Site Plan, Fort Gibson National Cemetery, Courtesy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, History Program

Research Notes

Rootsweb posting by Willard Gentry:

"Tiana's name as it appears in the official documents found in the War Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs is spelled both "Diana" and "Dianna" Rogers. Her name among the Cherokee was "Tiana", supposedly because the Cherokees had difficulty pronouncing the "d" in Diana, so we will use it here. The name "Talahina" found on her gravestone seems to have no foundation in fact." ... Narrative goes on to say (citing Starr) that Tiana was daughter of John Rogers by his step daughter Jennie Due (daughter of Elizabeth Emory and Robert Due), and that Tiana was born between 1796 and 1803.[6]

(Added by Geni curator dvb)
Willard Gentry from "CHEROKEE DAVID" GENTRY and his Wives as published in Journal of Gentry Genealogy @ https://www.gentryjournal.org/archives/jgg0304a.htm

David Gentry married Tiana Rogers in about 1820. She was about twenty years younger than David, born about 1796. He had two children by Tiana. Of David's five children, only one survived long enough to marry. David continued to move successively westward as the Cherokees were forced out of Arkansas into Indian territory in Oklahoma. While living there, David is said to have died in an insignificant border skirmish with Osage Indians in about 1829.

After David's death, Tiana married Sam Houston, whom she had known earlier when he was living in Indian Territory. This marriage, in an Indian ceremony, is said to have taken place about 1830, in spite of the fact that Sam was not yet divorced from his first wife. This was during a period in Houston's life after he was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1826 and then resigned the governorship in 1928 and retired in exile to the Cherokee territory in Arkansas. Subsequent to this, a biography of Tiana in "Pitter's Cherokee Trails", comments, "Several years later Houston, being a restless soul, took off to liberate the Republic of Texas. He asked his Cherokee wife to go with him but Tiana wanting to settle down refused to leave [her home in eastern Oklahoma]. Later both Tiana and Houston remarried and in 1838 Tiana Rogers Houston died of pneumonia." Tiana was buried in an unmarked grave, but in 1904 at the urging of her supporters, the remains of Tiana were exhumed from her supposed grave and reburied in the "Officers Circle" at Fort Gibson National Historical Cemetery, Muscogee County, Oklahoma, where her headstone is marked, "Talahina R. wife of Gen Sam Houston".
Source: Gentry, Willard. “CHEROKEE DAVID’ GENTRY and His Wives.” Edited by W. M. Gentry, Journal of Gentry Genealogy - Vol. 3 Issue 4A, Aug. 2020, https://gentryjournal.org/.

Historian William Seale has this to say in his book titled Sam Houston's Wife, page 23 (among other references):[citation needed]

"Sam Houston bought an interest in a trading post, and by Cherokee law took an Indian wife, a blacksmith's widow named Diana Rogers Gentry who was part Cherokee and whose family Houston had known as a boy. At their Wigwam Neosho, she and Houston operated an apparently successful business and maintained small herds as well. Diana Rogers Gentry is a baffling character in Houston's life. Some years his senior she seems to have offered him temporary peace in which he tried to regain hiss emotional strength."

Here is Emmet Starr's version:

"Samuel Houston resigned the governorship (of Tennessee) April 16, 1829, and immediately repaired to Tahlonteeskee, capital of the Cherokee Nation (West). He was adopted into the Cherokee Nation by "An Act Conferring Citizenship in the Cherokee Nation on Samuel Houston" approved October 31, 1831. He then married Tiana Gentry nee Rogers and settled northeast of and near the "Lower Falls" of the Verdigris River where he operated a small trading station. He was deputed by the government of the United States and the Cherokee authorities to induce the "Texas Cherokees" to return to the Cherokee Nation in December, 1832. He told his wife and friends he intended to stay in Texas.... His wife refused to leave her home and kinsmen, so he went alone... " [7]

In his earlier book "Cherokees "West" Starr goes on to say that Tiana Gentry was the half-sister of John Rogers who was the last chief of the "Western" Cherokee. He says that Sam and Tiana located west of and near Fort Gibson. Houston had no children by his marriage to Tiana. She lived several years after his departure for Texas. [8]

James' 1929 (?) biography of Samuel Houston first mentions "Tiana Rogers" on page 140 when describing the efforts of Houston's first wife to encourage him to return to her: "Again they were at opposite poles, Eliza entreating, Houston holding aloof. What caused this? Had Tiana Rogers taken the vacant place in his heart?" [more coming...][9]

Haley's 2002 biography of Samuel Houston says that she appears in the historical records as "Diana" and that there is no contemporaneous record of "Tiana" or "Talihina". Haley also writes that when she established her relationship with Houston that she was a widow in her 30s, widow of a white blacksmith and half sister of Houston's friend, John Rogers. Haley writes that the formality of her relationship with Houston is debatable. There is no record of a formal marriage ceremony. He suggests that because the Cherokee were soon to grant him citizenship and because Diana herself was not full blood, that the Cherokee may not have required any formal ceremony. And technically, because his divorce with his first wife was not yet final, he could not marry her through the US courts. Haley indicates that this relationship ended and he left her Wigwam Neoshe with its farm, orchard and trading business.[10]

Who was Buried in National Cemetery?

On September 3, 1904, the remains of what was believed to be Tiana Rogers was exhumed from the grave at Wilson's Rock. A large crowd of people stood by as the remains were carefully removed and taken to Ft. Gibson for further investigation. "The bones were that of a very tall and large framed woman. A tortoise-shell comb was in the grave. All large bones were there, lower limbs and arms with skull in two parts, frontal and back with portions of upper and lower jaw which contained a number of teeth in an apparently perfect state of preservation. Most of the teeth were fine showing a high state of intelligence and moral qualities. It also showed large social organs, all showing that the woman was a person of much more than ordinary talent and ability. The shell comb was circular shape about seven inches across."[11]

Fort Gibson, I.T., Sept. 8--The re-interment of the body of Talihina (Tiana) Rogers, the Cherokee wife of General Sam Houston, at the national cemetery here was a notable event. It is probable that his is the last interment that will ever take place in the officers' circle in the old cemetery and the event attracted thousands of people.

The body of the Cherokee woman has rested in a grave at Wilson's Rock on the banks of the Arkansas river near Fort Smith for half a century. The identity of the grave was fully established two years ago and since that tme a number of Cherokees and others have been interested in removing the body to the national cemetery. At last permission was secured from the war department to transfer the body to the national cemetery. Because she was once the wife of a United States army officer, she was entitled to be buried within the circle surrounding the ag [sic] staff in the cemetery. The re-interment was augmented with a great deal of ceremony. Garfield post No. 5, G.A.R., attended in a body and took part in the ceremonies. There was a great crowd of people, for Talihina Rogers was famous among the Cherokees. After the services there were speeches, in which were recounted some interesting chapters of Cherokee history. the casket containing the body was opened and the crowd passed by looking in at the few bones, all that was left of a noted character.

Robbers had been at the grave before the funeral directors exhumed the bones. It is understood that there were some jewels in the grave with the woman when she was buried, and this probably accounts for the robbery. Not a piece of jewelry was found when the body was exhumed.[12]

Sources

1. ↑ Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979. p. 305 & 307. Digitized edition at https://archive.org/details/historyofcheroke00lcstar/page/n5
2. ↑ Starr, HIstory, p 317
3. ↑ "Sam Houston's Cherokee WIfe Honored by Son," article in the Muskogee Times Democrat, Sept. 26, 1919, cited in Gregory and Strickland, Sam Houston with the Cherokees.University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1967. p. 41
4. ↑ Gregory and Strickland, "Sam Houston," p. 49
5. ↑ Starr, Emmet. Cherokees "West." self-published, Claremore, OK, 1910, pp. 143-144
6. ↑ Willard Gentry as cited by "Medicine Woman" in GENTRY-L (Rootsweb mailing list) 3 May 2003; link
7. ↑ Hampton, David K. and Baker, Jack D., eds. Old Cherokee Families Notes of Dr. Emmet Starr. Baker Publishing Co., Oklahoma City, OK. 1987, Vol. 1, Note C995, p. 137.
8. ↑ Starr, Emmet. Cherokees West, Claremore, OK: Emmet Starr (1910), pp. 139-144.
9. ↑ Marquis James, The Raven, A Biography of Sam Houston, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company (1929), p 140...And especially starting on page 150. Link
10. ↑ James L. Haley, Samuel Houston, Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press (2002), p 70; link
11. ↑ Gregory and Strickland, Sam Houston With The Cherokees
12. ↑ "Special to Daily Leader ," in The Guthrie Leader, Guthrie, OK, Sept. 8, 1904

See also:

Iron Head Vann, From Iron Head on David and Tiana (Rootsweb GENTRY-L mailing list dated 2 May 2003); cites [Emmett] Starr, History of the Cherokee, p 305-307, 317
Haley, James L. (2002). Sam Houston. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3644-8. Pages 56, 70, 75. 90, 2020, 256
Source: S-635683283 Repository: #R-1098475140 Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Page: Ancestry Family Tree Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=64270433&pid...
Repository: R-1098475140 Name: Ancestry.com

Source: The WikiTree Native American Project @ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rogers-3887
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DIANA TA-LI-HI-NA ROGERS (JENNIE5DUE, ELIZABETH4EMORY, MARY3GRANT, LUDOVIC2, JOHN1GRAUNT) was born Abt. 1795, and died Abt. 1840.
She married (1) DAVID GENTRY Bef. 1820.He was born Abt. 1780.
She married (2) SAMUEL HOUSTON, GOVERNOR 1830.He was born March 02, 1793 in Rockbridge Co, VA, and died July 26, 1863 in Huntsville, TX.
She married (3) UNKNOWN Abt. 1838.He was born Abt. 1800.

• from Don Chesnut's web page; www.users.mis.net/~chesnut/pages/cherokee.htm

Talihina : given as the name of the Cherokee wife of Samuel Houston; the form cannot be identified.

• Clan: Ani'-Gilâ'hi = Twisters, Braids, or Long Hair Clan (Mary Grant)
• Starr's Notes: C995

More About DAVID GENTRY:

• Occupation: Blacksmith

Notes for SAMUEL HOUSTON, GOVERNOR:
Ka’lanu
Tah-lohn-tus-ky

• from Don Chesnut's web page; www.users.mis.net/~chesnut/pages/cherokee.htm

Ka’lanu : "The Raven"; the name was used as a war title in the tribe and appears in the old documents as Corani (Lower dialect, Ka’ranu) Colonneh, Colona, etc. It is the Cherokee name for General Samuel Houston or for any person named Houston.

• Aka (Facts Pg): Go-la-nv
• Burial: Oakwood Cem, TX
• Occupation 1: November 1836, President of Texas
• Occupation 2: March 1846, elected to Senate for Texas
• Occupation 3: 1859, elected Governor of Texas
• Starr's Notes: C995
• Translation: Go-la-nv = Raven

Children of DIANA ROGERS and DAVID GENTRY are:

	i.	 	GABRIEL7 GENTRY, b. Abt. 1820.

• Clan: Ani'-Gilâ'hi = Twisters, Braids, or Long Hair Clan (Mary Grant)

	ii.	 	JOANNA GENTRY, b. Abt. 1822.

• Clan: Ani'-Gilâ'hi = Twisters, Braids, or Long Hair Clan (Mary Grant)

Source: Hicks, James R. “Cherokee Lineages: Register Report of Ludovic Grant” Genealogy.com, Sites.Rootsweb.com, 2023, https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/h/i/c/James-R-Hicks-VA/BOOK-0001/0015...
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(Curator note: regarding the death and burial and reinterment see the article attached to the media tab Hoig, Stan. Diana, Tiana, or Talihina? The Myth and Mystery of Sam Houston's Cherokee Wife, article, Summer 1986; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2031531/: accessed April 12, 2023), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society. as it still appears an open issue. Find a Grave cites no sources for this information)

She was the daughter of Capt. John "Hellfire Jack" Rogers and Jennie Due and sister of John Rogers, Jr., Anna Rogers [Flowers, Irons], Joseph Rogers, William Rogers and Susanna Rogers [Miller]. She married David Gentry, Gen. Sam Houston and Sam McGrady. She died of pneumonia at Wilson Rock and was originally interred at Wilson Rock Cemetery. Her remains were moved to Fort Gibson National Cemetery in Sept. 1904. A headstone was set up over the grave, bearing the inscription" "Talahina, Indian wife of General Sam Houston.' (This headstone has since been replaced) In death, the whites attributed an Indian name to her she had never had, thus the name 'Talahina' on her headstone."
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On September 3, 1904, the remains of what was believed to be Tiana Rogers was exhumed from the grave at Wilson's Rock. A large crowd of people stood by as the remains were carefully removed and taken to Ft. Gibson for further investigation. "The bones were that of a very tall and large framed woman. A tortoise-shell comb was in the grave. All large bones were there, lower limbs and arms with skull in two parts, frontal and back with portions of upper and lower jaw which contained a number of teeth in an apparently perfect state of preservation. Most of the teeth were fine showing a high state of intelligence and moral qualities. It also showed large social organs, all showing that the woman was a person of much more than ordinary talent and ability. The shell comb was circular shape about seven inches across."
(from the book, Sam Houston With The Cherokees)
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On a rainy Sunday afternoon at 1:20, the funeral procession started from Hefferan House headed by the supreme hearse of O.H. Farley & Co. of Muskogee. A fine casket was enclosed in a metallic lined box, draped in a brilliant American flag. Pallbearers were A.W. Chapman, J.M. Davis, J.B. Doyle, H.R. Estes, William Harper, and G.A. Tatome. Between four and five hundred people attended the funeral of Tiana Rogers, including Secret Service men. The remains were laid to rest at Ft. Gibson National Cemetery in the circle around the flag among army officers and their wives.
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Sam Houston's Cherokee Wife Buried in National Cemetery

Special to Daily Leader
Fort Gibson, I.T., Sept. 8--The re-interment of the body of Talihina Rogers, the Cherokee wife of General Sam Houston, at the national cemetery here was a notable event. It is probable that his is the last interment that will ever take place in the officers' circle in the old cemetery and the event attracted thousands of people.

The body of the Cherokee woman has rested in a grave at Wilson's Rock on the banks of the Arkansas river near Fort Smith for half a century. The identity of the grave was fully established two years ago and since that tme a number of Cherokees and others have been interested in removing the body to the national cemetery. At last permission was secured from the war department to transfer the body to the national cemetery. Because she was once the wife of a United States army officer, she was entitled to be buried within the circle surrounding the ag [sic] staff in the cemetery. The re-interment was augmented with a great deal of ceremony. Garfield post No. 5, G.A.R., attended in a body and took part in the ceremonies. There was a great crowd of people, for Talihina Rogers was famous among the Cherokees. After the services there were speeches, in which were recounted some interesting chapters of Cherokee history. the casket containing the body was opened and the crowd passed by looking in at the few bones, all that was left of a noted character.

Robbers had been at the grave before the funeral directors exhumed the bones. It is understood that there were some jewels in the grave with the woman when she was buried, and this probably accounts for the robbery. Not a piece of jewelry was found when the body was exhumed.
(The Guthrie Leader, Guthrie, OK, Sept. 8, 1904)
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Talahina Rogers - Tiana's second husband was General Sam Houston, a free sprit, who later became the President of the Republic of Texas. His other titles included, Governor of Tennessee, governor of Texas, U.S. Congressman, Senator, schoolmaster and frontier lawyer. They later separated after Houston left for Texas.
Tiana died abt 1838 fr pneumonia and in early 1900's she was reburied at Ft Gibson in Okla
Tiana's first husband was David Gentry, a mixed blood prosperous blacksmith.
Tiana's second husband was Sam Houston,
Tiana's third husband was Samuel McGrady, a whiskey runner between Ft. Smith and Ft. Gibson.

Source: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3012951/talahina-houston: accessed 13 April 2023), memorial page for Talahina “Tiana” Rogers Houston (1799–23 Dec 1839), Find a Grave Memorial ID 3012951, citing Fort Gibson National Cemetery, Fort Gibson, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, USA; Maintained by MillieBelle (contributor 46628380).