As best we know, Mahala was the baby (or next to the youngest) of at least twelve children of Pastor Isham/Isom Gwin and his wife, Mary Ann Canterbury Gwin, both born, raised, and married in Virginia, who then moved to what would become today's Wear Valley in Sevier County, Tennessee, where Mahala and most if not all of her siblings were born and raised.

When Mahala was still a young teen, her family moved to the free state of Indiana, settling in Orange County where in 1819 her father became the first pastor of Providence Primitive Baptist Church, which congregation has been faithfully and regularly meeting ever since.

Malala married John B. Houston/Huston, originally of Kentucky, there in Indiana, and had at least eight children, the family living variously in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. According to the source at www.gallda.com/houston.html, John and Mahala were married in Orange County, IN, on 27 Oct 1822, John dying about 1861 in Macon, Missouri, and she in Jefferson Township, Mahaska Co., Iowa, some 19 years later, about 1880.

Their nine known children, according not only to Gallda but also to our own website (gwingenealogy.net), included:

1. William C. Houston (1827-unk.), m. 1854 to Melinda Ella Tony;
2. Isom Houston (1834-1862), m. Sarah Ann Bowen (1835-aft. 1900);
3. Nancy Jane Houston (1836-1916), m. Edwin Mather (1825-1910);
4. Sarah A. Houston (1838-unk.), m. John S. Buster;
5. James W. Houston (1840-1885), m. ca. 1866 to Charlotte Alsup (1847-1920);
6. Eliza Houston (1842-aft. 1860);
7. David H. Houston ()1844-1863);
8. Mahala Angeline Houston (1848-1923), m. James Richard Allen;
9. John R. Houston (1851-aft. 1910), m1. Martha Jones, m2. Sarah Livonia Pringle.

Mahala's birth and death dates are approximate. HER CEMETERY IS UNKNOWN, but Gallda.com definitely places her death in Jefferson Twp. in the southwestern corner of Mahaska County. [I selected Pringle cemetery for three reasons: (1) Findagrave.com wouldn't let me proceed with this memorial without a cemetery entry; (2) their child #9, above, John R. Houston, who lived in Mahaska Co., had married a Pringle; and (3) Her daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Jane Houston and Edwin Mather, are buried there.]