Thomas William House, Sr.

Thomas William House Sr. (March 4, 1814 – January 17, 1880) was a merchant and cotton factor in Houston, Texas. He also invested in and organized transportation and utility companies in the Houston area. He was a veteran of the Texas Revolution and provided financial assistance to the Confederacy during the American Civil War. He was mayor of Houston, Texas in 1862. Family life House was born on March 4, 1814, in Stoke St Gregory, Somerset, England. His family are of Anglo-Saxon, possibly Norse, origin (from the Old English and Old Norse hūs). In 1840, House married Mary Elizabeth Shearn, the daughter of his business partner, Charles Shearn. One of their sons, Edward Mandell House, served President Woodrow Wilson's administration. Early business life In May 1835, House emigrated to New York City. There, he became a successful pastry maker. Later House accepted an invitation from the owner of the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, to run the bakery at the hotel. In 1838, he opened his own store, House and Loveridge, a bakery and confectionary in Houston, Texas. The next year he formed a new partnership with Charles Shearn, later the chief justice of Harris County. The store produced and sold Houston's first ice cream. The new firm sold candy and dry goods, while buying and selling wholesale with people from the Texas hinterlands. House started offering factoring service around this time, exchanging store goods in exchange for cotton. The store took orders for staples, such as flour and sugar, but also iron castings and percussion caps. House imported goods from Boston, New Orleans, and New York, but made direct cotton shipments to Liverpool, England.