George Smith Houston, a representative and a senator from Alabama, was born near Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee on January 17, 1811. He moved with his parents to Lauderdale County, Alabama and attended an academy there. He studied law in Florence, Alabama, and Harrodsburg, Kentucky and was admitted to the bar in 1831. Houston commenced practice in Florence and in 1832 became a member of the Alabama State House of Representatives. He settled in Athens in 1835 and became the State's Attorney for the Florence Judicial District in 1836. He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1841 - March 3, 1849). He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1848 and was elected to the Thirty-second and to the four succeeding Congresses serving from March 4, 1851 until January 21, 1861. During his tenure he served on the Committee on Ways and Means (Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses), Committee on Judiciary (Thirty-fifth Congress). He presented credentials as a senator-elect to the United States Senate on February 9, 1866, for the term ending March 3, 1867, but was not permitted to take his seat. He became Governor of Alabama in 1874 and held that office until 1878, when he was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1879 until his death in Athens on December 31, 1879. He is interred in Athens City Cemetery.