For almost 200 years, would-be Texas governors were sworn in on a historic Bible that belonged to one of the Lone Star State's most famous Texans, Sam Houston.
But in recent years, Texas Supreme Court archivists that care for the Sam Houston Bible have collected evidence claiming it never belonged to the state hero, the Associated Press reported.
At the center of the dispute is whether or not Houston - who defeated Mexican forces in the Battle of Jacinto that won Texas' independence - ever signed the Bible. Legend has it the book's flyleaf with Houston's signature on it was torn out by a janitor during a dominos game in the court's basement.
"You would think that if he (Houston) had given the bible to the court, and journalists are writing stories about it in the late 1800s, they would have mentioned that," Black Hawthorne, Texas Supreme Court clerk and the bible's custodian, told the AP.
History says the book was published in 1816 and belonged to Houston, who served two terms as president of the once-independent Republic of Texas in the 1840s, according to the AP. Houston also served as the state's seventh governor.
There is no doubt the flyleaf, like many other pages in the bible, was torn. But the year Houston's signature went missing is unknown. In the 1940s, a state Supreme Court justice said he saw Houston's signature at the bottom of the page, the AP reported.
Furthermore, the janitor in question was thought to be the same one who stole thousands of pages from the court's archives in the '70s. But a newspaper clipping from decades before, in 1941, already mentioned the torn page, court archivist Tiffany Shropshire told the AP.
There's also doubt if the handwriting on the rest of the torn page is Houston's. The top of the flyleaf reads, "Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas."
Shropshire had three Houston historians study the handwriting. The historians, who are not handwriting experts, all said it resembled Houston's penmanship. But Shropshire also found a possible match with the handwriting of John Hemphill, the Supreme Court's first chief justice, the AP reported.
The mystery of whether the holy book belonged to Houston may not be solved anytime soon. On Tuesday, the state's incoming governor, Greg Abbot, is expected to use it at his inauguration, just like Governors Rick Perry and George W. Bush did before him.
Anyone who touches the worn, sheepskin Bible is asked by the court to wear white gloves.
"But I'm not going to ask the governor to put on gloves," Shropshire said.
