It’s a debate as old as the republic itself: When can you truly call yourself a Texan?
After a decade? Two? Once you’ve visited the Alamo, or broken in your cowboy boots? Only if you’re born here?
To the people of Huntsville, all it takes is an oath—and a little water from Gen. Sam Houston’s homestead. Every March for Houston’s birthday the community gathers at his grave site to remember one of Texas’ founding fathers. But some attendees have another motivation. They’re there to be baptized a Texan.
Those ready to declare their allegiance to the Lone Star State kneel before Houston’s grave, raise their right hand, and swear to be loyal to Texas. A member of the community then touches their foreheads with water from Lake Oolooteka, a Texas-shaped pond at Sam Houston Memorial Park.
“It’s rather humorous,” says Huntsville-based historian Caroline Castillo Crimm. “It’s not anything religious. It’s not anything even political. It’s just for fun so people can claim to be Texan, whether they are or not.”
The tradition of celebrating Houston’s birthday—which falls on March 2, coincidentally also Texas Independence Day—dates back to the 1890s, when Sam Houston State University students would march down University Avenue, then just a dirt road, to visit his grave site. The ritual faded over the years, but in the early 1990s, Crimm, then a history professor at the university, and a few other faculty members ramped it up again. What started with Crimm and just a couple students has grown into an annual gathering of about 300 people that includes city and county officials, visitors, and Houston’s descendants.
“It just became a really good opportunity for students to realize the importance of Sam Houston not just to the university but to the town and to the community,” Crimm says.
The baptism ceremony was the brainchild of James Patton, the former county clerk and a longtime Huntsville historian who died in 2022. “He decided that those who were not Texans might want to become Texans by being baptized,” Crimm says. It’s become a hit, drawing longtime residents and those who just arrived.
Sam Houston himself wasn’t a native Texan, but Texas wouldn’t be Texas without him. Born in Virginia, Houston moved to Texas in 1832 and led the army that defeated Mexican Gen. Santa Anna at San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas’ war for independence. Houston went on to become the first and third president of the Republic of Texas. He helped Texas get annexed into the United States in 1845 and represented Texas in the U.S. Senate. He became state governor in 1859 and tried unsuccessfully to keep Texas from seceding from the Union and joining the Confederacy. He was forced out of office in 1861 and settled in Huntsville, where he died two years later.
It’s not hard to gauge the legacy Houston left on the state. Texas’ largest city bears his name as do many other places and monuments, like Sam Houston National Forest in New Waverly, Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, and the 67-foot-tall statue of him in Huntsville, known colloquially as “Big Sam.”
History and culture run deep in Texas. Crimm says being “baptized a Texan”—no matter how official you consider it—helps people feel part of it all.
“It’s a sense of pride,” she says, “a sense of belonging to history.”
How to participate
The 2025 General Sam Houston’s Birthday Celebration is Saturday, March 1. You can register to participate here. It costs $20 to be “Baptized a Texan,” which comes with a T-shirt, certificate, and “goody bag.”
To get an invitation to future baptisms, you can fill out this form.
How it works
The birthday celebration begins in the morning with a coffee reception at the Walker County Museum. Guests then meet at the Oakwood Cemetery on 9th Street in Huntsville, where a ceremony starts at 11 a.m.
Ahead of the ceremony, Sam Houston State University’s ROTC leads a march of students, faculty, and community members from campus to the grave site. Anyone is welcome to join.
At the cemetery, there are several speakers and musical performances and descendants of Sam Houston lay wreaths on his grave. Those who sign up to be “baptized” then kneel in front of the memorial, say an oath, and receive water across their foreheads. About 50 to 75 people sign up for the baptisms, a number that’s grown each year.
A luncheon featuring a Sam Houston birthday cake and a speaker follows at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. An additional $20 RSVP is required for the luncheon. Find more information on the day’s events here.
