Haynie, Samuel G. (1806–1877)

Samuel Garner Haynie, physician and mayor of Austin, was born to Reverend John Haynie and Elizabeth Brooks in Knoxville, Tennessee, on April 23, 1806. The family relocated to Tuscumbia, Alabama, where they lived for nearly twenty years before settling in Independence, Washington County, Texas, in 1837. By 1839, Samuel volunteered to suppress the Córdova Rebellion, and settled in Austin, where he practiced medicine. He was a close friend and personal physician of Samuel Houston. His father served as the first Chaplain of the State Legislature of Texas following annexation to the United States. Haynie married Hannah Maria Evans on February 7, 1841. They had three sons and five daughters that lived to adulthood. Haynie was an Odd Fellow and Free Mason. Samuel Haynie represented Travis County in the Republic of Texas Fifth Congress, 1840–42, and in the Second Legislature, 1847. He owned the Austin Drug Store and served as postmaster of Austin from August 15, 1846, to March 14, 1852. He became director of the Sons of Temperance in 1850, and was elected mayor of Austin in 1850 and 1851. Abner Cook designed Haynie an impressive two-story home west of the Capitol that became known as the Haynie-Cook House, and designated with a historical marker in 2010. In 1852, he resigned as mayor, and purchased Baker and Townsend Drug Store before establishing a large mercantile firm, Samuel G. Haynie & Co. with his brother. Haynie was one of two commissioners in charge of the erection of the new Capitol building in 1855. He opposed secession in 1859, and worked as superintendent of the Austin Blind Institute in 1861. The people of Austin elected him mayor again in 1863 and 1864. In 1867 he owned and operated the Avenue Hotel, served as superintendent of the addition to St. David's Episcopal Church in 1870. He graduated from the Medical Department of Soule University at Galveston in 1871, and practiced medicine until his death, on May 20, 1877. Haynie is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Travis County.