HISTORICAL 111 lliiffl.l
Vol. XLV APRIL, 1942 No. 4
PUBLISHED BY
THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN, TEXAS
THREE TYPES OF
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION
EUGENE C. BARKER
A Comanche Prisoner in 1841 . . . . Col. Wilson T. Davidson
Texas County Histories (Concluded) . . H. Bailey Carroll
Texas Collection Walter Prescott Webb
Letters and Documents
Affairs of the Association
Book Reviews
Book Notes and Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index
1897—The Oldest Learned Society in Texas—lB97
PRESIDENT:
Harbert Davenport
VICE-PRESIDENTS
Herbert Gambrell
P. I. Nixon
George A. Hill, Jr.
Earl Vandale
RECORDING SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN:
Walter P. Webb
TREASURER:
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY:
Charles W. Ramsdell
Mrs. Coral Horton Tullís
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL:
President Harbert Davenport
Vice-President P. I. Nixon
Ex-President W. E. Wrather
Recording Secretary and Librarian
Vice-President Herbert Gambrell
.
Walter P. Webb
Vice-President George A. Hill, Jr
Treasurer Charles W. Ramsdell
State Librarian Fannie Wilcox
Vice-President Earl Vandale
ADINA DE ZAVALA
„ _ ,«nAns
AnnaPowell (1940)
f (1940)
L. W. Kemp
J
GEORGE A J>u (1941)
FELLOWS^
Members
(1941)
J. EvBTTS HALEY (1942)
H^
IR. L. Biesele (1942)
AMELIA Williams (1943)
[ Claude Elliott (1944)
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE:
Harbert Davenport
Eugene C. Barker
Charles W. Hackett
E. W. Winkler
Rudolph L. Biesele
Walter P. Webb
Charles W. Ramsdell
THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
MANAGING EDITOR:
Walter Prescott Webb
ASSOCIATE EDITORS:
Charles W, Hackett
Rudolph L. Biesele
H. Bailey Carroll
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT:
W. A. Whatley
STUDENT EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
James H. McLendon
Charles Cumberland
Andrew F. Muir
Van Mitchell Smith
The Association waé organized March 2, 1897. The annual dues are three dollars. The
Quarterly is sent free to all members.
Contributions to The Quarterly and correspondence relative to historical material should
be addressed to Walter P. Webb, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
Other correspondence may be addressed to The Texas State Historical Association, Austin,
Texas.
The publication committee and the editors disclaim responsibility for views expressed by
contributors to The Quarterly.
Entered at the post-office, Austin, Texas, as second class mail matter.
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by published work, special aptitude for historical investigation may become
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on the nomination of the Executive Committee. The number of Fellows shall
never exceed fifty." The present list of Fellows is as follows:
Asbury, Prof. S. E.
Barker, Prof. Eugene C.
Biesele, Prof. R. L.
Bolton, Prof. Herbert Eugene
Casis, Prof. Lilia M.
Castaneda, Dr. Carlos E.
Clark, Prof. J. L.
Cox, Prof. I. J.
Crane, Judge R. C.
Curlee, Miss Abigail
Davenport, Mr. Harbert
Dunn, Dr. William Edward
Dobie, Prof. J. Frank
Elliott, Dr. Claude
Emmett, Mr. Chris
Estill, Prof. H. F.
Gambrell, Prof. Herbert P.
Garrett, Dr. Kathryn
Geiser, Prof. S. W.
Hackett, Prof. Chas. W.
Haley, Mr. J. Evetts
Hill, Mr. George A., Jr.
Holden, Prof. W. C.
Kemp, Mr. L. W.
Miller, Prof. E. T.
Neu, Dr. C. T.
Nixon, Dr. P. I.
Potts, Dr. C. S.
Powell, Dr. Anna
Ramsdell, Prof. Chas. W.
Raymond, Dr. Dora Neill
Richardson, Prof. Rupert N.
Schmitz, Rev. Joseph
Schoen, Dr. Harold
Shelby, Miss Charmion
Smither, Miss Harriet
Tucker, Mr. Philip C. 3rd
Villavaso, Mrs. Ethel Rather
Webb, Prof. W. P.
West, Miss Elizabeth H.
Williams, Dr. Amelia
Williams, Judge O. W.
Winkler, Mr. Ernest Wm.
Wrather, Mr. W. E.
Zavala, Miss Adina de
The constitution provides also that "Such benefactors of the Association
as shall pay into its treasury at any one time the sum of one hundred dollars,
or shall present to the Association an equivalent in books, MSS., or other
acceptable matter, shall be classed as Life Members."
The Life Members at present are:
Arnold, Mr. M. L.
Baker, Mr. Hines H.
Beazley, Miss Julia
Blount, Mrs. Guy
Bobbitt, Mr. R. L.
Buchanan, Mr. A. A.
Carroll, Mr. H. Bailey
Carroll, Mr. J. Speed
Cartwright, Mr. and Mrs. J. I.
Clark, Mr. J. F.
Courchesne, Mr. A.
Cox, Mr. I. J.
Crane, Mr. R. C.
Curlee, Miss Abigail
Davidson, Mr. W. S.
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Gilbert, Mr. John N.
Gleason, Rev. Joseph M.
Graves, Mr. Ireland
Gutsch, Mr. Milton K.
Hanrick, Mr. R. A.
Harris, Mr. Beverly D.
Hefley, Mr. W. T.
Hutcheson, Judge J. C, Jr.
Hyde, Mr. James H.
Jones, Mr. Roland
Magruder, Mrs. Hamilton
Maresh, Dr. Henry R.
Milbry, Mrs. C. H.
Moody, Col. W. L.
Moore, Mrs. John M.
Morehead, Mr. C. R.
Morris, Mr. J. S.
Parten, Mr. J. R.
Pew, Mr. John G.
Powell, Miss Anna
Randall, Dr. Edward
Scarbrough, Mr. and Mrs. Lem
Schmidt, Mr. John
Sinclair, Mr. J. L.
Staiti, Mrs. H. T.
Stone, Mr. Hugh Lamar
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Tenney, Rev. S. M.
Thompson, Mr. Brooks
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Todd, Mr. Chas. S.
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Williamson, Judge J. D.
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Young, Mr. Eldon
Kenyon College
PATRONS AND SUSTAINING MEMBERS
Patrons contribute to the work of the Association $500, payable over a
period of five years; Sustaining Members $250. The List of Patrons and
Sustaining Members follows:
Rarker, Mr. Eugene C.
Blaffer, Mr. R. L.
Clayton, Mr. W. L.
De Golyer, Mr. E.
Denman, Mr. Leßoy
Francis, Mr. W. H.
Hager, Mr. Dilworth S
Hill, Mr. George A., Ji
Hughes, Mr. J. K.
Hutcheson, Mr. Palmer
Karcher, Mr. J. C.
Maercky, Mr. P. George
Perry, Mrs. Hallie Bryan
Russ, Mr. Leon F.
Moss, Mr. H. S.
Shepherd, Mr. James L., Ji
Smith, Mr. E. L.
Suman, Mr. John R.
Stark, Mr. H. J. L.
Webb, Mr. W. P.
Weiss, Mr. W. C.
Wheelock, Mr. Lloyd
Wilson, Mr. W. D.
Wrather, Mr. W. E.
American Liberty Oil Company
Houston Oil Company
CONTENTS
Three Types of Historical Interpretation ------
„-■.- Eugene C. Barker , - 323
A Comanche Prisoner in 1841 - Col. Wilson T. Davidson - - 335
Texas County Histories (Concluded) - H. Bailey Carroll - - 343
Texas Collection Walter Prescott Webb - - 362
Letters and Documents ------ 378
Affairs of the Association 383
Book Reviews: Burnett, The Continental Congress; Debo, The
Road to Disappearance; Murphy, Henry de Tonty: Fur
Trader of the Mississippi; Brooks, Diplomacy and the Bor-
derlands: The Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819; Perkins, Hands
Off: A History of the Monroe Doctrine; Abernethy, Three
Virginia Frontiers; Dyer, "Fightin' Joe" Wheeler; Redfield,
The Folk Culture of Yucatan ---- - 384
Book Notes and Acknowledgments - • - - 396
Contributors - - - - - - - -_.__ 399
Index to Volume XLV - -- 401
THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Vol. XLV APRIL, 1942 No. 4
THREE TYPES OF
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION
This monument and this Library and Museum which are the
occasion of our celebration today commemorate a great event.
Whether or not the battle of San Jacinto was precisely the
"Sixteenth Decisive Battle of the World," it was decisive, and
it had momentous consequences. Immediately, it restored the
fleeing colonists to their homes and 'relieved Texas of a ruthless
invading army. More remotely, if we follow the chain of suc-
ceeding events, it carried Texas into the United States, and led,
in part, to the Mexican War and the expansion of the United
States over California and all the rest of the Great Southwest.
It would be beside the mark to ask whether another chain of
circumstances welded at the forge of time might not have
brought similar results to pass, had victory been reversed at
San Jacinto. Such speculation lies in the realm of fiction or of
philosophy. Historically, it was the battle fought here, and not
some other event, that started the succession of happenings
that ended in the addition of nearly one-third its present area
to the continental territory of the United States.
So this beautiful and awe-inspiring monument is appropriate;
not only to the men who won victory here, but to the results
which victory brought to pass.
But I am most grateful for the Library and the Museum that
shall grow at the base of this majestic shaft. They will become
the storehouse of books and manuscripts and artifacts, an ever-
increasing body of material for the accurate writing and in-
terpretation of history.
It is this matter of the accurate writing and interpretation
of history that brings me to the subject of my reflections here
today. There is too much inaccuracy in both writing and in-
terpretation-- and particularly in interpretation. I have no
quarrel with differences of conviction growing out of the honest
consideration of all the facts that an honest investigation can
discover. Such differences are inevitable. It is the careless in-
terpretation, founded upon incomplete assimilation of the facts,
and the contrived interpretation, based upon falsification, against
which we need to guard.
I can illustrate the sort of differences that develop in different
minds where all the essential facts are known by the written
history of the campaign that preceded this battle of San Jacinto.
Thirty-eight years ago, in 1901, I wrote a brief narrative of
the San Jacinto campaign. It was the second piece of writing,
I think, that I ever published. Since then Mr. Clarence Whar-
ton, Mr. Marquis James, and Colonel Andrew Houston have
published books or parts of books on the subject. We were all
about equally acquainted with the local facts, I think, when we
wrote. We know the movements of the Mexican and Texan
armies —if the Texan force can be called an army. We know
that the Texan force was made up of volunteers, undrilled and
largely undisciplined, some of them not enrolled in any com-
pany organization, some going away daily and others arriving
and taking their places. We do not know at any point, after
the movement from Gonzales, the precise number of men in
Houston's camp. The puzzle is to determine what was Houston's
plan of campaign. Should he have attacked an inferior Mexican
force on the Colorado? Why did he move up the Brazos from
San Felipe? Did he intend from the beginning to fall back to
the Sabine in the hope of inviting intervention by the United
States? I doubt that any amount of industrious investigation
can ever answer these questions convincingly.
Mr. Wharton and Mr. James believe that Houston's intention,
which he would naturally have kept to himself at the time and
never have admitted afterward, was to fall back to the Sabine.
Colonel Houston and I certainly agree in part, I think, though
we may express it in different ways, that the immediate plan
was purely opportunistic; to hold some sort of force together
at all cost; to drill it as well as possible; and to be ready to
use it if opportunity offered. Looking backward with such
knowledge of the situation as I have, I must admit that I am
not qualified to condemn the General's procedure.
Houston declared thirty years later that he avoided the enemy
until he was in a position to make one battle decisive. As a
statement of actual procedure, this covers the case completely;
but as an explanation of policy, it leaves something to be de-
sired. No sane human mind could have anticipated Santa
Anna's separating himself from his major army and dashing
with an inferior force far in advance of the Texan army.
Houston did not lead him there or drive him there. He set no
trap. He merely shut the trap that the impetuous Napoleon
of the West set for himself and marched into. The opportunist
was ready to take advantage of the opportunity. But, with the
colonies abandoned from the Guadalupe to the Trinity, what
would he have done if Santa Anna had not entrapped himself?
In such dilemmas the conviction of the historian varies di-
rectly with his boldness and assu'rance. For myself, I am not
confident enough to say what Houston ought to have done, or
what I would have done; and I am only mildly annoyed or
ironically amused when an armchair historian-commander tells
me now what he would have done then. In such differences of
opinion there is no danger.
The other two types of interpretation which I have mentioned
are not so innocent or amusing. As an example of the interpre-
tation that is more or less contrived to deceive, I venture to
cite the expositions that we have been reading in the papers
and hearing over the radio for the past few years of the origin
of the Constitution and the functions of the Supreme Court of
the United States. All of this language has not issued from
the historian, but he has laid the groundwork for it, and
in a measure is responsible, therefore, for the license of the
expositors.
To destroy respect for the Constitution and all its works, we
are told first, as a portentous discovery, something that most
intelligent Americans have known for a hundred and fifty years
--namely, that the Constitution was written by fifty-five edu-
cated, experienced, and successful men. The average human
intelligence, for a space of six generations or so, saw nothing
sinister in that fact; but recently we have learned—had the
opportunity to learn if we believe what we are told--that we
have been blind and stupid. See how foolish we have been.
These men who wrote the Constitution owned property. Some
of them owned state and continental securities, representing
money or goods or service which they had advanced to the
government. By the Constitution, they created a government
which could pay these debts. Some had lent money on mort-
gages, and they Wrote a Constitution forbidding the states to
pass laws impairing the obligation of contracts. Some owned
land on the frontier, and they planned a government strong
enough to protect the frontier and thereby enable them to
start a boom in western lands. Some were merchants and
shipowners, and created a government with power to regulate
commerce with foreign nations and thereby enable them to
employ their ships and carry on trade for profit. Finally, lest
perchance some might have escaped in this classification of self-
seekers who sought direct profit through the Constitution that
they devised, the greater part of the members of the convention
that framed the Constitution were lawyers, and they, we are
assured, drew advantage from their employment by the capi-
talists whose interests the Constitution safeguarded and en-
larged.
To the expounders of this doctrine of the economic interpre-
tation of the Constitution it is futile to reply that education
and experience are desirable qualities for the establishment of
stable and orderly government; that the will and the ability
to pay its debts a're indispensable to a government that must
draw its strength from the confidence of its citizens; that neither
peace nor justice could exist in a free society resting on the
unilateral abandonment of contracts; that land is a national
asset only when employed; and that foreign commerce benefits
the producer of cotton and wheat and cattle as well as the ship-
owners and merchants who distribute them. Like stump poli-
ticians, they ignore such axiomatic observations and reiterate
their sensational implications. If you believe them--and, un-
fortunately, many do--the Constitution has been a covenant to
protect heartless wealth and an instrument of oppression to
the poor.
This style of interpretation is designed to undermine respect
for the Constitution as a whole by impugning the motives of
its makers. But, happily, most Americans still regard the Con-
stitution as a rather useful document, even if its framers may
not have been wholly disinterested. To overcome such resist-
ance, the attack is shifted from the whole to a vital part--the
authority of the Supreme Court to void an act of Congress
that the majority of the Court conceives to be unwarranted
by the Constitution.
The attack on the Court is founded on three assertions:
first, that the framers of the Constitution -- interested and
selfish though they are said to have been--did not give, and
did not intend to give, the Court the power to declare an act
of Congress void; second, that they not only did not intend
the Court to exercise such power, but definitely voted that it
should not; and third, that this power which the Court has
wielded since 1803 was usurped and fastened on our system of
government by the decisions of Chief Justice John Marshall. The
falsity of these assertions has been proved by evidence so clear
that it could be understood by the average district court jury;
but they are still fluently proclaimed in high places by men
and officials who really know the facts. Such men do not
thoughtlessly disregard the facts; they disregard them by design.
Another type of historical interpretation, less pernicious, is
that which carelessly explains complex social and economic con-
ditions by unsound generalizations. This is an indolent practice
sometimes indulged in by the best of historians. No doubt even
I am guilty; but I am not guilty of the example that I am
going to cite.
We must all have heard during the past few years that the
evils which we suffer were brought upon us by the "disappear-
ance of the frontier." This somewhat mythical event was pro-
claimed by the Census Bureau in 1890. It simply meant that
it was no longer possible to draw a continuous line separating
territory that had fewer inhabitants than two to the square
mile from areas that had more.
The explanation of the potent influence of the frontier, when
expressed, runs like this: Prior to the disappearance of the
frontier, it is claimed, the discontented inhabitants of the in-
dustrializing East could go West, obtain free land, and main-
tain independence and self-respect on a small ranch or farm;
after the frontier vanished, free land no longer existed and
they remained to swell the teeming population of the cities
and to become the victims of the industrial revolution. Briefly,
in other words, mobility of population was retarded the bold
statement implies that it was stopped; urbanization increased:
private industry became unable to provide jobs for all; henc€
the necessity for WPA and other forms of government relief.
The explanation is too simple. It ignores the fact that there
remained in the hands of the government in 1890 more than a
hundred million acres of land subject to homestead settlement;
that the transcontinental railroads owned vast areas that they
offered at a moderate price; that much land is still available
on conditions that the average pioneer would have thought
alluring if not irresistible. It ignores also the fact that the
policy of our present government favors reduction rather than
expansion of tilled acres; that it prefers idleness and relief to
subsistence farming, which is the sort of farming that the "dis-
appearance of the frontier" might have affected. It ignores,
finally, the fact that few people would be willing now to subject
themselves, even relatively, to the hardships and privations that
the pioneer welcomed as milestones on the road to comfort and
contentment, if not to affluence and wealth.
Few of us now have any conception of what those hardships
were, and even contemporary descriptions are hardly adequate
to quicken our imagination to a vivid reconstruction of the
picture. I read a revealing document the other day, part of
the United States Treasury Report for 1832. The writer was
describing with enthusiastic approval the ease with which gov-
ernment land, sold then for $1.25 an acre, could be acquired
in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. A laborer could earn 75 cents
a day, board himself for 25 cents a day, and buy eighty acres
in 200 days. Wages of mechanics were higher, and a skilled
workman might save $100 and buy a farm in six months. School
teachers with thirty pupils paying $3.00 a quarter could collect
$90 every three months, could board for a dollar a week, and
buy eighty acres in a year.
Many of the colonists who settled Texas started with little
more equipment than their bare hands. Jesse Burnham, one of
Austin's first colonists, tells of his experiences, which must have
been typical of no small number. He ma'rried in Tennessee at
the age of twenty. He had three knives and forks made by a
local blacksmith, paying for them by splitting rails, and putting
handles on them himself. His wife sold her wedding stockings
for plates--stockings which she herself had knit. She spun and
wove sheets and a tick for a feather bed; and they used gourds
for cups. He acquired a piece of land, and their housekeeping
began. He arrived in Texas twelve years later with all his
possessions, including wife and children and household goods,
loaded on three horses. In Texas, the family lived for many
weeks on deer and other game, He saw no bread for nine
months, until a man who had planted corn with a stick sold
him twenty bushels in exchange for a horse. He ground the corn
in a mortar and sifted it through a perforated deerskin, stretched
over a hoop. Having neither jars, jugs, nor cans, he stored wild
honey in skins. He tells of amputating a man's leg "with a dull
saw and a shoe knife, the only tools we had," he explained. "I
heated and bent a needle to take up the arteries with. I was to
have the management of it, and hold the flesh back, Tom Wil-
liams was to do the cutting of the flesh, Bostick was to saw the
bone, and Kuykendall was to do the sewing. I took his suspenders
off and bandaged the leg just above where we wanted to cut.
I put a hair rope over the bandage, put a stick in it, and twisted
it just as long as I could; then I was ready to begin operations.
When Mr. Kuykendall began to sew it he trembled, so I took
the needle and finished it." Strangely, as we should think, the
patient lingered eleven days after the operation.
Families began life in Texas in wigwams, palisades bound
together with wattles, stuccoed with moss and clay, and roofed
with earth and straw. Jonas Harrison, a man of learning and
culture, wrote Stephen F. Austin from East Texas in 1832:
"Strange as it may appear to those that are in the habit of
handling money, there are in these districts many good citizens
--very good livers--who do not handle five dollars in a year."
Noah Smithwick's first meal in Texas was "dried venison
sopped in honey." He settled in De Witt's Colony in 1827. He
tells how they raised corn without plow or hoe. They burned
cane brakes in the winter. In the spring they punched holes
in the land thus cleared, dropped in the grain, and when the
young cane began to sprout they beat down the tender shoots
with the same sharp stick that had punched the holes for the
corn. Few of the settlers had wheat bread, because they had
no money to buy it with. "Money was as scarce as bread," he
wrote. "Pelts of any kind passed current and constituted the
principal medium of exchange."
Austin announced to his first colonists that he would accept
in payment of fees: "horses, mules, cattle, hogs, peltry, furs:
beeswax, home-made cloth, dressed deerskins" -- any kind oí
property, he said, that would not be a dead loss to him.
Here are glimpses of pioneer life in 1834, within thirty miles
of Houston:
'March, 1834. The spring opened fine, no cold weather, corn
up and growing. . . . Father had two bushels of corn left.
He said if there was no cold weather at Easter he would have
it ground. We had been without bread three weeks. Mother
made a cheese every day. Father killed a deer on Saturday.
He cut up the meat and dried it over a fire, and we ate it for
bread. Mother and I had been spinning. Father needed plow
lines, and there was not any rope in the country. The men
made their ropes out of hides and the hair from the manes
and tails of horses. ... I spun thread and mother made the
plow lines." . . .
June, 1834. "The crops were very promising. There were
plenty of roasting ears for cooking. We had been three weeks
without bread. By the last of June the corn was too hard to
cook. Uncle James said that if he had a piece of tin he could
make a grater. Mother gave him a tin bucket. He unsoldered
it, drove holes in it with a nail, fastened it on a board, and
grated meal for supper. . . . Mrs. Roa'rk had a Mexican
utensil for grinding corn, called a metate.
It was a large rock
which had a place scooped out of the center that would hold a
peck of corn. It had a stone roller. It was hard work to grind
corn on it, but the meal made good bread. Some of our neighbors
had small mills, called steel mills. . . . When the neighbors
would meet, the first word would be, 'Is your corn getting
hard? Have you had any bread? Send to my house and get
meal or corn.' "
At a barbecue on the Fourth of July: "We ate barbecued
meat, all sorts of vegetables, coffee, fowls, potatoes, honey, and
corn bread, but no cakes, as there was no flour in the country."
And the writer adds: "The whiskey gave out early in the eve-
ning, and there was no fuss or quarreling."
At a neighborhood dance: "We got there before dark. It was
only two miles in the bottom. The house was a double log cabin
with a passage between the rooms. . . . Before dark a servant
came in with a bunch of cane, each piece about twelve inches
in length. He laid the pieces of cane on a chair, got a knife,
split them, took out tallow candles, and lighted up the house."
A small volume could be filled with similar quotations and
descriptions.
I hope that I am not understood to advocate a return to
such primitive living as either possible or desirable. Emphat-
ically not. But such documents abundantly illustrate" the fal-
lacy of the explanation that the "disappearance of the frontier"
had much to do with the development of our present social and
economic conditions. And I do believe that a little clearer con-
ception of the realities of the frontier might inspire greater
patience with the imperfections of the present.
And now, Mr. Chairman, after distant--and you may think
dubious--wanderings, I return to the monument, the Library,
and the Museum which we are dedicating here. It would be
interesting to trace the development of the ideas that produced
this particular form of memorial, and I hope that it may be-
come the subject of an early publication by your competent
director. It should include also the history of the San Jacinto
Museum of History Association and the related agencies con-
cerned with the administration and upkeep of the memorial.
I could not presume to enumerate all of those who contributed
their thoughts and efforts and knowledge to the erection of this
monument. Officially, credit is due the Commission of Control
for Texas Centennial Celebrations. Members of this Commis-
sion were: Honorable Walter F. Woodul, then Lieutenant Gov-
ernor of Texas; Honorable Coke R. Stevenson, Speaker of the
House of Representatives; Mr. John K. Beretta, of San Antonio;
Mr. James A. Elkins, of Houston; Mr. Karl Hoblitzelle, of
Dallas; General John A. Hulen, of Fort Worth; Honorable Pat
M. Neff, of Waco; Mr. Wallace Perry, of El Paso; and Mr.
Joseph V. Vandenberge, of Victoria. The Commission of Con-
trol was assisted by the Advisory Board of Texas Historians,
composed of Mr. L. W. Kemp, of Houston; Professor J. Frank
Dobie, of the University of Texas; and Dr. Paul J. Foik, of
St. Edwa'rd's University.
To the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Historians credit
belongs for the eight dignified, informative inscriptions at the
base of the monument. Mr. Kemp's modesty leads him to ex-
aggerate the assistance that he received from twenty-five con-
sultants ; but the simple truth is that all of the thought and at
least ninety-eight per cent of the words are his. In fewer than
six hundred words these inscriptions recite the essential his-
tory and significance of the Texas revolution. They are a fine
example of compression and repression, and at least this once
they shall be read aloud:
The early policies of Mexico toward her Texas col-
onists had been extremely liberal. Large grants of land
were made to them, and no taxes or duties imposed.
The relationship between the Anglo-Americans and
Mexicans was cordial. But, following a series of rev-
olutions begun in 1829, unscrupulous rulers succes-
sively seized power in Mexico. Their unjust acts and
despotic decrees led to the revolution in Texas.
In June, 1832, the colonists forced the Mexican au-
thorities at Anahuac to release Wm. B. Travis and
others from unjust imprisonment. The battle of Ve-
lasco, June 26, and the battle of Nacogdoches, August
2, followed; in both the Texans were victorious. Ste-
phen Fuller Austin, "Father of Texas," was arrested
January 3, 1834, and held in Mexico without trial until
July, 1835. The Texans formed an army, and on No-
vember 12, 1835, established a provisional government.
The first shot of the revolution of 1835-36 was fired
by the Texans at Gonzales, October 2, 1835, in resist-
ance to a demand by Mexican soldiers for a small
cannon held by the colonists. The Mexican garrison
at Goliad fell October 9; the battle of Concepción was
won by the Texans, October 28. San Antonio was cap-
tured December 10, 1835, after five days of fighting in
which the indomitable Benjamin R. Milam died a hero,
and the Mexican army evacuated Texas.
Texas declared her independence at Washington-on-
the-Brazos, March 2. For nearly two months her
a'rmies met disaster and defeat; Dr. James Grant's
men were killed on the Agua Dulce, March 2; William
Barrett Travis and his men sacrificed their lives at the
Alamo, March 6; William Ward was defeated at Re-
fugio, March 14; Amon B. King's men were executed
near Refugio, March 16; and James Walker Fannin
and his army were put to death near Goliad, March
27, 1836.
On this field on April 21, 1836, the Army of Texas
commanded by Gene'ral Sam Houston, and accompanied
by the Secretary of War, Thomas J. Rusk, attacked the
larger invading army of Mexicans under General Santa
Anna. The battle line from left to right was formed
by Sidney Sherman's regiment, Edward Burleson's
regiment, the artillery commanded by George W.
Hockley, Henry Millard's infantry and the cavalry
under Mirabeau B. Lamar. Sam Houston led the in-
fantry charge.
With the battle cry, "Remember the Alamo! Re-
member Goliad!" the Texans charged. The enemy,
taken by surprise, rallied for a few minutes, then fled
in disorder. The Texans had asked no quarter and
gave none. The slaughter was appalling, the victory
complete, and Texas free! On the following day Gen-
eral Antonio López de Santa Anna, self-styled "Na-
poleon of the West," received from a generous foe the
mercy he had denied Travis at the Alamo and Fannin
at Goliad.
Citizens of Texas and immigrant soldiers in the
army of Texas at San Jacinto were natives of Alabama,
Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ken-
tucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont,
Virginia, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, and Scotland.
Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the
decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas
from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the
Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United
States of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
Nevada, California, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyo-
ming, Kansas and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the
present a'rea of the American nation, nearly a million
square miles of territory, changed sovereignty.
It is a pleasant thought to me that the first inscription com-
memorates, in a world torn by racial rancor and international
strife, the generous Mexican policy which invited our alien
ancestors to establish free homes in Texas.
But, happily, the authorities who planned this monument
looked farther than the erection of a magnificent structure of
steel and stone, adorned with appropriate inscriptions. In the
provisions for the Library and Museum, they conceived an ever-
growing memorial. And not less happy was the selection of the
Trustees who were drafted to form the San Jacinto Museum
of History Association to administer this living soul of the
monument. It was rare judgment that placed upon the first
Board of Trustees a granddaughter of the victorious general
who won the independence of Texas; the architect of the monu-
ment; the historian whose patient investigations have given
him a personal acquaintance with nearly every man who fought
in the battle of San Jacinto; and a grandson of a distinguished
citizen who fought as a youth at San Jacinto and sixty-one
years later served as a commissioner in the purchase of the
battlefield by the state.
I have already confessed my own appreciation of the Library
and Museum. I venture the hope that the Library may become
a treasure house of Texana, reflecting the state's whole miracu-
lous development. Books, pamphlets, maps, letters, diaries, ac-
count books of plantation and store, old newspapers, programs
of such ceremonies as these are the very essence of history,
and the surest corrective to the sort, of misinterpretation that
I have described.
I have a hope, too, for the Museum. Besides the relics of
more comfortable pioneer living, I wish that it might exhibit--
if not in the main hall, in some properly obscured annex--the
homely artifacts of frontier life: the hand-forged knives and
forks; the gourd cups and dippers; the hewn tables, stools, and
benches; the frows for riving boards; the candle moulds and
bullet moulds; the wrought iron clevis and pin which, accom-
panied by a file rasping on a hoe, was the frontier equivalent
of a jazz dance orchestra, in default of music. Such memorials
of the past are veracious historical sources, and cannot be easily
misconstrued. Moreover, they invoke the gratitude of the hum-
ble and contrite heart for the comforts that we enjoy, remind-
ing us of the courage and hardships of pioneers, the rock
whence we were hewn.
The University of Texas.
FOOTNOTES:
1939.
Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, IV, 237-345 (April,
1901).—Ed.
A COMANCHE PRISONER IN 1841
Col. Wilson T. Davidson
Grandmother Angelina Smith was well content with life in
the small town of Austin a little over a hundred years ago.
Her husband, James Smith, was the first Chief Justice of Travis
County. Her town, though small, was now the capital of a great
new-born republic. To add to her satisfaction, she had "three
of the smartest children" in town--at least she thought they
were--Caroline, my mother, aged eleven, Fayette, who was soon
to celebrate his ninth birthday in a tragic way, and Lorena,
the youngest, who was seven.
As a sincere member of the Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Smith
was not only a regular attendant at its meetings, enjoying the
services and the short social contacts that always came, but in
some way she had acquired the library of a Presbyterian clergy-
man, and oddly enough, took great interest in poring over
various subjects in these volumes.
How suddenly was the whole scheme of life disrupted for
Angelina! On the morning of January 21, 1841, the Chief
Justice, entirely unarmed, the idea of hostile Indians never
entering his mind, mounted his horse, taking his son, Fayette,
up behind him. He rode up the river to the present site of the
old Confederate Home, to look out for some hogs that were
rooting around in the nearby woods.
He had just reached his destination when a band of five
Comanche Indians suddenly swooped down upon him, shooting
with bows and arrows and one or two guns. One arrow struck
his left arm, breaking it, and, continuing its course, struck
my Uncle Fayette on the forehead. The thoroughly frightened
horse became unmanageable, and dashed under a live oak tree,
where both the riders were swept off by an overhanging limb.
The Indians ran up at once, completed the killing of Grandfather
Smith with bows and arrows, and took Fayette captive.
As the day wore on, Angelina, unperturbed, went about her
usual affairs. Was not her boy entitled to have a good time out
in the woods on his birthday ? But when the pair failed to return
by nightfall Angelina became thoroughly alarmed, and called
in some of her neighbors. The next morning a searching party
found the judge's body as it had fallen.
What became of the Indians? Pursuing a northwesterly
direction, they had joined another twenty of their tribesmen.
The next morning the group set out on their usual course to the
northwest. Time meant little to them; they moved along slowly,
making only ten or twelve miles a day. For camp, they stopped
near a stream if it was to be found, and for food they lived off
the country—wild turkey, rabbit, deer, and buffalo.
At the end of about a month, the Indians fell in with the
main body of their tribe, including a number of squaws. By
this time they were well out on the higher country. Fayette
said the squaws treated him with great cruelty, throwing him
into bunches of prickly pears. The object of this treatment,
he afterwards learned, was to toughen him, or make "a good
Indian" out of him.
In the meantime, William Smith, a brother of Grandfather
James Smith, set out on horseback to look for his nephew.
After several days he met a group of Tonkawa Indians, re-
maining with them several weeks. They were sedentary In-
dians, not as bloodthirsty as the Comanches.
Reaching Santa Fe, William explained his mission to the
alcalde and to several American traders who were in town.
He then took the Santa Fe trail, went to St. Louis, thence down
the Mississippi to New Orleans and thence back to his home
in Texas. He probably passed the Comanches and his nephew
somewhere in Texas, where they had been following their weary
way, reaching at the end of three or four months the country
near the Texas-New Mexico border. But this apparently futile
trip served a useful purpose, as we shall see later on.
Now the squaws had found a new method of discipline for
their recently acquired boy. It was to make him wade through
the slush and slime and mud of a pond where the buffalo had
been accustomed to come for water and to lie in to cool them-
selves. Fayette later declared this was easy compared to his
experiences with prickly pears. The treatment, however, was
kept up until a number of sores broke out on his body, and
the Indians, thinking he would never be of any use to them,
started to leave him.
Just at this time, however, some Mexican Comancheros ap-
peared on the scene. Word of a captive American boy had gone
Tom Santa Fe to Taos, some miles north, an American, Mexican,
md Indian trading village. Here lived John Rowland, an Ameri-
can who had married a Mexican. Hearing of the American boy's
plight, Mr. Rowland gave some Mexicans sixty dollars and told
them to go out and find the child.
From all accounts they were just in time. Those Mexicans
spoke a little English, and Fayette declared it was a joy to
hear these imperfectly spoken words in place of the gutterals
of the Comanches.
Setting out on the return trip, Fayette asked one of the
Mexicans how far it was to Taos.
"About a hundred years," he replied.
Then Fayette asked him if he did not mean "miles, and he
replied "Yes."
The final lap of the journey seemed interminable. It was now
spring; the Mexicans loitered along as though they indeed had a
hundred years in which to make the trip. Finally they reached
the trading post of Taos, and Fayette was turned over to Mr.
Rowland. Naturally he was well pleased with the outcome of
the mission and treated the boy with great kindness, and
Fayette was overjoyed at the sight of a white face, and made
himself as useful as he could around the place, acquiring after
some months a fair speaking acquaintance with the language of
the Mexican residents.
Mr. Rowland wanted to adopt his newly acquired boy, but
nothing was ever done about it. He explained afterwards that
he would have written to Fayette's mother immediately but
for lack of direct communications between Texas and New
Mexico. He did, however, write as soon as he had an oppor-
tunity to send the letter by way of St. Louis.
During all this time Grandmother Angelina prayed constantly
never losing faith that she would see her son again.
Late in the summer the Santa Fe expedition arrived and
Fayette saw some of its members, but could get no news from
Texas, so slow was the means of transmission in those days.
Months went by; the year 1841 and the spring and summer
of 1842 passed. During all the long and weary waiting Grand-
mother stood firm as the rock of ages in her faith--calm and
unperturbed.
"Don't ask me why; I just feel it. I am as sure that I'll get
my boy back as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow morning."
In mid-summer of 1842 an overland train left for Missouri,
and Mr. Rowland placed Fayette in charge of a friend to make
the first lap of his journey homeward. The train arrived at
Independence, Missouri, on September 16, 1842. On September
17 the following letter was sent to Fayette's mother:
Independence Jackson County Mo.
Sept 17 1842
Mrs. Angeline Smith
Dear Madam
Your Son La Fayette arrived here yesterday
under care of Mr. Peter Duncan, under whose charge
he was placed by John Rowland of Touse New Mexico
--to be placed under my protection at this place.
La Fayette gives the following account of himself
i- e, About two years ago he was riding behind his
father (not far from Austin Texas) hunting some
hogs--when the Comanche Indians came upon them
and shot his father--the arrow striking La Fayette
on the forehead & entering his father's arm. In en-
deavoring to make their escape, the horse they were
riding ran under the bough of a tree, which knocked
them both off. The Indians here came up with them
& murdered his father and carried him off as pris-
oner -- He remained with the Indians about three
months -- receiving from them the most cruel & bar-
barous treatment that could be inflicted, he was stripped
of his clothing & treated with so much cruelty that he
was unable to travel or even stand alone -- the Indians
then threw him into a mud hole & left him to perish--
On the same day that he was left--a Party of Mexi-
can traders--sent out by Mr. John Rowland to trade
with the Comanche Indians with express orders to
purchase any American Prisoners they might have,
met with the same party of Indians -- the Indians
knowing they could get something for your son (if
alive) returned to the place they had left him, and
sold him to Mr. Rowland's company for the sum of
Sixty Dollars in silver--he was taken by the company
to Mr. Rowland (an American) at Tous where he re-
ceived every attention that he could bestow upon him,
Mr. Rowland wrote to you a short time after receiv-
ing your son--but received no answer, La Fayette was
with Mr. Rowland some fifteen or eighteen months,--
La Fayette says that his Father was a small man--
named James Smith--his mother's name Angeline--&
that he had two sisters, Caroline & Lorino--Caroline
was older than him & Lorino younger and that when he
was quite small his sister Caroline threw some hot ashes
on his back which has left a scar--he says that his
mother's relations live near Taladego Alabama -- &
that he had two aunts named Julia &
Amelia -- &
that Amelia is dead-- He says that his Father's re-
lations lived in Texas & that his father was a Justice
of the Peace in Alabama and a Judge at Austin, Texas
La Fayette's recollection about his relations is rather
imperfect -- but I suppose the above statement (as
given by himself) will be sufficient for you to identify
your son, He is now in fine health and is a very
sprightly and intelligent boy -- You may rest assured
that he will be well treated and receive every atten-
tion that I can bestow upon him, I intend sending him
to a good school & furnish him with good comfortable
clothing until you can send for him -- You will please
write immediately and inform me when you will be
able to send for him.
He expresses a strong desire to return to you and
says that he thinks he would know you. The account of
his sufferings while with the Indians is truly affecting
--he suffered much but is now sound & healthy
With the hope that your son may soon be safely
returned to you, I remain
Truly Your friend
& Obt Srvt
Lewis Jones
A letter written at the same time to Fayette's grandfather,
Elijah Stamps, at Talladega, Alabama, in which he gave the
same details concerning the captive boy, has been lost.
The postmaster at Talladega helped to spread the good news,
as is shown by the following letter:
Talladega Ala Oct 12th 1842
Dear Madam.
I enclose you a letter from a gentleman of Inde-
pendence Mo. informing you of the wonderful restora-
tion of your son Lafayette. It is impossible for me to
describe to you the feelings of joy which was mani-
fested upon the receipt of this letter with all your
friends and acquaintance of which number I claim to
be one. I have copied the letter and sent it to your
father this morning and would wait to see him before
I sent the letter to you but I know you would blame
me for every moment's delay.
I am with Great Respect
Your Obdt Servt.
James Sawson
P M
Talladega Ala
N. B.
Your Father and relations
are all well as far as I know
At long last, the news did reach Fayette's mother, who was
then living at the old town of Washington-on-the-Brazos. She
received the glad tidings of her son and the news that her
father, Josiah Stamps, would start at once to meet her son and
accompany him home.
After writing a letter to Mr. Jones, she set out for Alabama,
so as to be at hand upon the return of her son, as the following
letter will indicate:
Independence Mo. Feby Bth 1843
Mrs. Angeline D. Smith
Dear Madam
Your letter of the 9th Deer, and also one
from Jno. Stamps of the 29th Dec. have been reed,
and knowing that you feel much anxiety to see your
son Fayette, and thinking that your father may not
write to you until after reaching home I have thought
it probable that a letter would reach you from this
place sooner than you could obtain information from
any other source
Fayette's Grandfather Stamps arrived here the first
week in January, remained with me a few days and
then left for home (Talladega) accompanied by Fay-
ette where they expected to meet with you and your
family on their return. Your Father informed me that
he had written to you before he left home & that he
had no doubt but you would immediately set out for
Alabama.
Fayette & your father were both well--I kept Fay-
ette at school until your father arrived--treated him
as one of my own children--and delivered him over to
your father --free of all expense -- not one cent has
been charged by any one, and none will be to pay--
But I want you to collect the sum ($300.00) appro-
priated by Congress for the release of Texian pris-
oners--and appropriate it to Fayette's individual bene-
fit--in giving him a thorough education--he has the
natural mind and if properly cultivated will make a
man of splendid talents--do not consider me as dic-
tating to you in this matter--I feel deeply interested
in Fayette's welfare and as I have no doubt but Con-
gress will give you the sum to him for his own benefit
--I want it appropriated, as before mentioned--This is
all I ask to be done, it would be a source of much grati-
fication to me, if I could hear of this being done--and
of its being appropriated entirely
to
his
education.
I feel assured that you will not object to receiving
the money for him for this purpose--
The suffering which he endured while a Prisoner
and all the circumstances connected with his history,
the manner in which he came into my hands--all have
excited in my bosom an interest for his welfare--(I
must say) equal to that felt by a fond
parent
--
Your brother-in-law Wm Smith never came to this
place--i Was informed by a man calling himself Col.
Warfield that he came as far as St. Louis--and re-
turned to Texas--I addressed you a letter relating the
circumstances and that Col Warfield had a demand for
Fayette purporting to be from Genl. Houston, which
from several circumstances I believed to be a forgery,
but supposing that you reed, my letter, respecting it
I will add no more on this subject--
I suppose that by this time your son is at his
Grandfather's -- and will be anxiously awaiting the
arrival of his mother & sisters--
I will attend to your request respecting Mr. Row-
land--as I expect to have an opportunity to sending
him a letter in the spring
Tell Fayette that my family all unite with me in
sending their love to him--and that he must be a
good boy and devote all the energies
of
his
mind
to
study
--
Very Affectionately
Yours
Lewis Jones
In the meantime, Josiah Stamps having received his letter
from Mr. Jones, which was dated the same day as Mr. Jones'
first letter to Angelina, had started on his trip to Independence,
Missouri. Making a bee line to the Mississippi River he sold his
horse and took the first boat for St. Louis, from whence he went
to Independence. Remaining only a few days in Independence,
he and Fayette started to Alabama.
Shortly after they arrived there, Angelina came in from
Texas. She clasped her long-lost son to her breast.
Returning by stage to New Orleans, thence to Galveston and
Houston by boat, they took an old-fashioned stage for the town
of Washington-on-the-Brazos.
In school Fayette acquired a knowledge of the three R's and
later joined a large mercantile firm, clerking in the fall and
winter and going out on the road in spring and summer. In
later years he became very prosperous as a merchant in Wash-
ington and afterwards in Navasota, and as a plantation owner
in the Brazos River bottom. It was always difficult to get
Fayette to talk about his adventures with the Indians, and as
long as he lived he shunned the sight of mud holes and prickly
pear.
In thinking of my grandmother's supreme faith and confi-
dence in the return of her son, some of our modern scientists
would probably explain her unbreakable faith by saying that
it was all due to the effect of the constant repetition of a
request upon the subconscious mind, etc.
But I can hear Grandmother exclaiming: "Oh, fiddle sticks!
Go on with your science! The Good Lord in Heaven answered
my prayers, and that's all there is to it!"
Austin, Texas.
FOOTNOTES:
Comancheros.
which was used in the Texas trade in the 1830's. Gulick and Elliott, Lamai
Papers, No. 123. On April 14, 1840, President Lamar appointed Rowland
temporary representative of Texas in Santa Fe, to act until the Santa Fe
Commission should arrive. Ibid., No. 1773.
sion of Mrs. Bessie Pitts, 1426 Kirby Bldg., Dallas, Texas. Photostatic
copies of the letters may be found in the Archives of the University of
Texas Library.
TEXAS COUNTY HISTORIES
EDITOR'S Note : The following is the fourth installment of Dr. Carroll's
compilation of works dealing with the history of Texas counties. As stated
in the first installment, which appeared in the July, 1941, Quarterly,
Dr.
Carroll requests that any person having knowledge of any additional item
dealing with a Texas county write to him giving as full a statement of its
nature as is possible. It is expected that the information thus received
will be utilized in subsequent reprintings of this bibliography. Letters
may be sent in care of The Texas State Historical Association, University
Station, Austin, Texas.
Books and Pamphlets
Green, L. M., History
of
Smith
County.
Tyler, 1917. 30pp. 4to.
Wraps. Advts. thru text.
Johnson, Sidney Smith, Some
Biographies
of
Old
Settlers,
His
-
torical,
Personal
and
Reminiscent.
Tyler, Johnson, 1900. v,
400pp. 8vo. Title page says "Volume I." No Volume II.
Schoemann, L. R., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Smith
County,
Texas.
IT. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1917. 51pp. 8vo.
Fold map.
Articles
Allen, Imogene, "Economic Conditions of Smith County" in
Texas
History
Teachers'
Bulletin,
XIV, No. 1, pp. 47-52.
Efnor, Kate, "Historical Sketch of Smith County, Texas," in
American
Sketch
Book,
V, pp. 145-161.
Smith, Margaret, "History of Tyler and Smith County," in The
Alcalde
(Tyler, 1915).
Stanley, Mildred, "The Cherokee Indians in Smith County," in
Texas
History
Teachers'
Bulletin,
XII, No. 1, pp. 119-125.
Theses
Henderson, Adele, Smith
County,
Texas,
Its
Background
and
History
in
Ante-Bellum
Days.
M. A. Thesis, University of
Texas, Austin, 1926. iii, 118pp. 4to. Map.
Jones, Mrs. Georgie Cooper, A
History
of
Smith
County,
Texas,
in
the
World
War.
M, A. Thesis, University of Texas, Austin,
1932. v, 380pp. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Ewell, Thomas T., A History of Hood County, Texas, . . . Also
A Sketch of the History of Somervell County. Granbury, The
Granbury News, 1895. 161pp. Bvo. Appendix.
Inventory
of
the
County
Archives
of
Texas:
Somervell
County,
No. 213. San Antonio, Texas Historical Records Survey, 1940.
63pp. 4to.
Articles
Vincent, James U., "Somervell County," in James U. Vincent,
A
Pen
Picture
of
General
Robert
Tombs
with
Glimpses
of
the
Mental
Characteristics
of
Hons.
A.
H.
Stephens
and
Benj.
H.
Hill
(Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal Job Printing Company,
1886), pp. 26-27.
Articles
Hartsfield, Loy W., "A Brief History of Breckenridge and the
Stephens County Oil Fields," in West
Texas
Historical
Asso
-
ciation
Year
Book,
XII, pp. 100-123.
Theses
Hartsfield, Loy W., A
History
of
Stephens
County,
Texas.
M. A.
Thesis, University of Texas, Austin, 1929. 271pp. 4to. Map,
Theses
Watkins, Ira Lee, The
History
of
Sterling
County.
M. A. Thesis,
Texas Technological College, Lubbock, 1939. 128pp. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Featherston, Edward Baxter, A
Pioneer
Speaks
(Vera Feather-
ston Back, ed. and compiler). Dallas, Cecil Baugh and Co.,
copyright, 1940. xvii, 239pp. Bvo.
Contains an excellent chapter on early Stonewall County, pp.
103-114.
Patton, L. T., Geology
of
Stonewall
County,
Texas.
Austin, Bu-
reau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas, 1930.
77pp. Bvo. Map.
F hasten
A^hitmire, Jerome R., The
History
of
Stonewall
County
Texas.
M. A. Thesis, Texas Technological College, Lubbock, 19áb.
156üd. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Xoungblood, 8., and A. B. Cox, An
Economic
Study
of
a
Typical
Ranching
Area
on
the
Edwards
Plateau
of
Texas.
College
Station, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin No.
297, July, 1922. 437pp. Bvo Illus
This is an exhaustive economic history of button County.
Books and Pamphlets
Reliable
Facts
for
the
Homeseeker
about
Stvisher
County,
Texas.
Tulia, Tulia Commercial Club, 1909. 32pp. 4to. Illus. Cover-
titlf»
Books and Pamphlets
Hawker, H. W., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Tarrant
County,
Texas
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils in
cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1920. 47pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Paddock, B. 8., Early
Days
in
Fort
Worth:
Much
of
Which
I
Sato
and
Part
of
Which
I
Was.
[Texas Printing Company],
n. d. 33pp. Bvo.
An excellent associate item on Tarrant County.
Tarrant and Parker County: History of Texas, Biographies of
Prominent Citizens. Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company,
1895. 658pp. 4to. Illus.
Terrell Capt. J. C, Reminiscences
of
the
Early
Days
of
Fort
Worth.
Fort Worth, Texas Printing Company, 1906. lOlpp
Bvo. Illus. m
,
_
An almost indispensable associate item on Tarrant County.
Winton, W. M., and W. S. Adkins, The
Geology
of
Tarram
County.
Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology of The Univer-
sitv of Texas, 1920. 122pp. Bvo. Illus., plates, maps.
A sH:i.flJ.p.!
Efnor, Kate, "Sketch of Tarrant County, Texas," in America?
Sketch
Book,
VI, pp. 56-70.
Theses
Berrong, Verna E., History
of
Tarrant
County
from
Us
Begin
-
nings
Until
1875.
M. A. Thesis, Texas Christian University,
Fort Worth, 1938. 80pp. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Biggers, Don, From
Cattle
Range
to
Cotton
Patch.
Abilene,
Abilene Printing Company, n. d. 156 pp. 8 vo.
An excellent associate item.
Smith, William G., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Taylor
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1918. 40pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Articles
Cannon, Jesse, "Abilene and Taylor County," in The
Standard
Blue
Book
of
Texas,
19H-1915
(New York, A. J. Peeler and
Company, [1915]), pp. 23-24.
Books and Pamphlets
Christner, D. D., and O. C. Wheeler, Geology
of
Terrell
County.
Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of
Texas, 1918. 57pp. Plates, map.
Books and Pamphlets
Rice, Thomas D., Soil
Survey
of
Titus
County,
Texas.
U. S,
Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils. Washington,
Government Printing Office, 1910. 27pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Theses
Pierce, B. C, Titus
County,
Texas:
its
Background
and
History
in
Ante-Bettum
Days.
M. A. Thesis, University of Colorado,
Boulder, 1932. 122pp. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Henderson, G. G., Geology
of
Tom
Green
County.
Austin, Bu-
reau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas, 1928.
116pp. Bvo. Illus.
Articles
Bitner, Grace, "Early History of the Concho Country and Tom
Green County," in West
Texas
Historical
Association
Year
Book,
IX, pp. 2-23.
Holt, R. D., "The Saga of Barbed Wire in Tom Green County,
in West
Texas
Historical
Association
Year
Book,
IV, pp.
32-49.
Manuscripts
Crane, Judge R. C, of Sweetwater, Texas, has a manuscript
History of Tom Green County, Judge Crane wrote this as an
address to be delivered before the Texas State Historical
Association.
Books and Pamphlets
Austin and Travis County, Texas: Charms of Capital City and
Environs. Austin, Democratic Statesman office, (c. 1876).
16pp. Bvo.
Brown, Frank, Prospectus
of
the
Annals
of
Travis
County
and
the
City
of
Austin.
Austin, Von Boeckmann, Schütze & Co.,
1901. 48pp. Bvo.
Haney, Lewis H., and George S. Wehrwein (eds.), A
Social
and
Economic
Survey
of
Southern
Travis
County
(By members
of the Texas Applied Economics Club in cooperation with the
Division of Public Welfare, Department of Extension). Austin,
University of Texas Bulletin, No. 65, 1916. 149pp. Bvo.
A History of Texas: History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop,
Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Chicago, Lewis Publish-
ing Co., 1893. 826pp. 4to. Illus.
Contains biographical material.
Mangum, A. W., and H. L. Beldon, Soil
Survey
of
the
Austin
Area,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1905. 30pp.
Bvo. Fold map.
Sellards, E. H., Mineral
Resources
of
Travis
County.
Austin,
Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas,
1930. [27] pp. Bvo.
Travis
County
Annual,
1890.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1890, 48pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 1.
Travis
County
Annual,
1891.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1891. unp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 2.
Travis
County
Annual,
1892.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1892. 46pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 3.
Travis
County
Annual,
1895.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1895. 48pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 4.
Travis
County
Annual,
1894.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1894. 48pp
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 5.
Travis
County
Annual,
1895.
Austin, A. Schutze, 1895. 50pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 6.
Travis
County
Annual,
Austin, A. Schutze, n. d. unp. Bvo. Advts.
wraps. No. 7.
Travis
County
Annual,
1900.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1900. 48pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 8.
Travis
County
Annual,
1901.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1901. 48pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 9.
Travis
County
Annual,
1902.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1902. 64pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 10.
Travis
County
Annual,
190
U.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1904. 64pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 11.
Travis
County
Annual,
1912.
Austin, A. Schütze, 1912. 64pp.
Bvo. Advts. wraps. No. 12.
Articles
Swisher, Mrs. Bella French, "History of Austin, Travis County,
Texas," in American
Sketch
Book,
VI, pp. 312-325.
Theses
Armer, Annie Augusta, The
Vegetation
of
Lake
Austin
Silt,
1928-29;
An
Ecologic
Study.
M. A. Thesis, University of
Texas, Austin, 1929. 42pp. 4to. Plates.
Hardy, Mrs. Aloise (Walker), A
History
of
Travis
County,
1832-1865.
M. A. Thesis, University of Texas, Austin, 1838.
viii, 256pp. 4to. Plates, maps.
Manuscripts
Bartholemew [E. C], Scrapbook. A scrapbook of clippings from
newspapers of the 1860s regarding Travis County. Unp. 4to.
University of Texas Archives.
Brown, Frank, Annals of Travis County. MS. in 15 folder
volume bindings in University of Texas Archives.
The typed copy is paged by chapters. Total pages, 2753.
Theses
Bowles, Flora G., The
History
of
Trinity
County.
M. A. Thesis,
University of Texas, Austin, 1928. 188pp. 4to. Illus.
Books and Pamphlets
Lapham, J. 8., and others, Soil
Survey
of
the
Woodville
Area,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1902. [10] pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Books and Pamphlets
Getzendaner, F. M., Mineral
Resources
of
Uvalde,
Zavala,
and
Maverick
Counties.
Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology oí
The University of Texas, 1931. [47] pp. Bvo.
Inventory
of
the
County
Archives
of
Texas:
Uvalde
County,
No.
232. San Antonio, Texas Historical Records Survey, 1941.
143pp. 4to.
Articles
Baylor, H. W., ''Early Elections in Uvalde County," in Frontier
Times,
VII, May, 1930, p. 367.
Books and Pamphlets
Roberts, J. R., and J. P. Nash, Geology
of
Val
Verde
County.
Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology of The University oí
Texas, 1918. 51pp. Plates.
Books and Pamphlets
Gore, A. W., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Van
Zandt
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chem-
istry and Soils in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station. Washington, Government Printing Of-
fice, 1928. 35pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Manning, Wentworth, Some
History
of
Van
Zandt
County.
Des
Moines, lowa, The Homestead Company, c. 1919. 220pp.
Bvo. Illus.
Books and Pamphlets
Carter, W. T., Jr., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Victoria
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chem-
istry and Soils in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station. Washington, Government Printing Of-
fice, 1927. 61pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Rose, V. M., Some Historical Facts in Regard to the Settlement
of Victoria Texas; its Progress and Present Status. Laredo,
Daily Times Print., [Pref., 1883]. 216pp. Bvo.
Theses
White, Frank Edd, A
History
of
the
Territory
that
Noiv
Con
-
stitutes
Waller
County,
Texas,
from
1821-188
b.
M. A. Thesis,
University of Texas, Austin, 1936. 154pp. 4to. Plates, maps.
Books and Pamphlets
Crane, William Carey, Centennial Address Embracing the His-
tory of Washington County, Texas, at Fair Grounds, Bren-
ham, July ¿, 1876. Brenham, Banner-Press, 1939. 50pp. Bvo.
Cover-title.
Meyer, A. EL, and others, Soil
Survey
of
Washington
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1913. [27] pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Pennington, Mrs. R. E. (May Armanda Williams), The
History
of
Brenham
and
Washington
County.
Houston, Standard
Printing and Lithographing Company, 1915. 123pp. Bvo. Illus.
Articles
Efnor, Kate, "Historical Sketch of Washington County," in
American
Sketch
Book,
IV, pp. 195-227.
Wedemeyer, C. H., "Washington County History/ in Proceed
-
ings
of
the
Fourth
Annual
Reunion
of
Old
Settlers'
Associa
-
tion
of
Bell
County
(Belton, Journal-Reporter, 1902), pp.
[30-33].
Wedemeyer, C. H., "Early History of Washington County,"
(continued from "Washington County History," above) in
Proceedings
of
the
Fifth
Annual
Reunion
of
Old
Settlers'
Association
of
Bell
County
[1903] (Belton, Journal-Reporter,
1904), pp. 22-24.
Theses
Brackett, Eunice Sarah, Ecology
of
the
Plants
of
Washington
County.
M. A. Thesis, "University of Texas, Austin, 1939.
48pp. 4to. Illus.
Books and Pamphlets
Falvella, James William, A Souvenir Album of Laredo "the
Gateway to Mexico:" Historical, Pictorial and Descriptive
Stories of Laredo, Webb County, the Military and other
Forces on the Rio Grande Frontier and a Pictorial and De-
scriptive
Story
of
our
Sister
City,
Nuevo
Laredo,
Mexico.
[Laredo, Penn Publishing Co., c. 1917]. [42] pp. Bvo. Illus.
Advertising thru text.
Laredo, Texas-Mexico: the Gateivay City: A Historical Sketch
of Laredo and Webb County. Laredo, Laredo Times, 1925.
[56]
pp.
Bvo.
Illus.
fldg.
pi.
Advts.
Mangum, A. W., and Ora Lee, Jr., Soil
Survey
of
the
Laredo
Area,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1906. [23]pp.
Bvo. Fold map.
Books and Pam^hkts
Graham, J. 0. (compiler), The Book of Wharton County, Texas,
Containing Outstanding Facts about its History, Industries,
Resources, Developments, and Opportunities, n. p., Philip
Rich, 1926. 234pp. Bvo. Advts. thru text.
Theses
Roades, Ora Ellwood, A
History
of
Wharton
County,
Texas,
in
the
World
War.
M. A. Thesis, University of Texas, Austin,
1938. 280pp. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Bean, A. H., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Wheeler
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry and
Soils, in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Station. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1932. 34pp.
Bvo. Fold map.
Theses
Perkins, William Coy, A
History
of
Wheeler
County,
Texas.
M. A. Thesis, University of Texas, Austin, 1938. 129pp. 4to.
Maps, Tables, Illus.
Books and Pamphlets
Carter, W. T., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Wichita
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry and
Soils, in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Station. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1929. 52pp.
Bvo. Fold map.
Morgan, Jonnie R., The
History
of
Wichita
Falls.
Wichita Falls,
The Economy Co., (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) printers, 1931.
221pp. Bvo. Illus. Frontis.
The first 48 pages deal with the early history of Wichita
County.
Wichita Falls Country Emigration Association, The
Famous
Wichita
and
Red
River
Valley
Country.
Dallas, Worley,
printer, n. d. One sheet folded into Bvo. size. Illus. map.
Articles
Disiere, Lucile, "Wichita County and Wichita Falls," in Texas
History
Teachers'
Bulletin,
XIII, No. 1, pp. 81-85.
Theses
McKee, Lena, The Indigenous Monocotyledones and Dicotyledones
of Wichita Falls, Texas, and Vicinity. M. A. Thesis, University
of Texas, Austin, 1928. 65pp. 4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Lapham, J. E., and others, Soil
Survey
of
the
Vernon
Area,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1902. [18] pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Ross, Chas. P., and T. L. Rouse (compilers), Early-Day
History
of
Wilbarger
County.
Vernon, The Vernon Times, 1933.
208pp. Bvo. Illus. Much of the text was written by J. E.
Collins.
Articles
Smith, Ruby L., "Early Development of Wilbarger County," in
West
Texas
Historical
Association
Year
Book,
XIV, pp. 52-72.
Theses
Wilson, Torrence Bennent, A
History
of
Wilbarger
County,
Texas.
M. A. Thesis, University of Texas, Austin, 1938. v,
122pp. 4to. Photos, map.
Books and Pamphlets
Hawker, H. W., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Willacy
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemis-
try and Soils, in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station. Washington, Government Printing Of-
fice, 1926. 57pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Books and Pamphlets
Epitomist
Journal,
January 15, 1906. Issued by Epitomist Cot-
ton Bureau, Austin, Texas. This issue is devoted entirely to
Williamson County.
Griffith, John H., Early History of Texas, Early History of
Williamson
County,
The
Webster
Massacre,
Williamson
County
Court House Sketches, Sketches of Early Days in Taylor.
Taylor, Compliments of the City National Bank, n. d. 19pp.
Bvo.
Griffith, J. H., Williamson
County
Court
House
Sketches,
n. p.,
n. d. 4pp. Bvo. Wraps.
A History of Texas: History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop,
Travis, Lee, and Burleson Counties. Chicago, Lewis Publish-
ing Co., 1893. 826pp. 4to. Illus. Contains biographical ma-
terial.
Makemson, W. K., Historical Sketch of First Settlement and
Organization of Williamson County. Georgetown, Sim Print,
[1904?]. 26pp. 12mo.
Mangum, A. W., and H. L. Beldon, Soil
Survey
of
the
Austin
Area,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1905. 30pp.
Bvo. Fold map. Applies in part to Williamson County.
Norvell, Estelle Mae, Students'
History
of
Williamson
County.
n. p., [c. 1915]. 48pp. Bvo. Illus. Cover-title.
Sellards, E. H., Mineral
Resources
of
Williamson
County.
Austin,
Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas,
1930. [22] pp. Bvo.
Templin, E. H., and others, Soil
Survey
of
Williamson
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chem-
istry and Soils, in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station. Washington, Government Printing Of-
fice, 1934. 55pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Articles
Griffith, John, "Some Early History of Williamson County," in
Frontier
Times,
XIII, May, 1936, pp. 409-412.
Swisher, Mrs. Bella French, "Sketch of Williamson County,
Texas," in American
Sketch
Book,
IV, pp. 106-123.
Theses
Hinds, Walton, History
of
Williamson
County,
1716-1870.
M. A.
Thesis, Southwestern University, Georgetown, 1928. 115pp.
4to.
Books and Pamphlets
Inventory
of
the
County
Archives
of
Texas:
Wilson
County.
No. 247. San Antonio, Texas Historical Records Survey, 1939.
100pp. 4to.
Lyman, W. S., Soil
Survey
of
Wilson
County,
Texas.
U. S.
Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils. Washington,
Government Printing Office, 1908. 26pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Patterson, C. L., Wilson County, Diversified Farming Area of
Southwest Texas, n. p., 1939. 32pp. Bvo. Illus.
Books and Pamphlets
Babb, T. A., In
the
Bosom
of
the
Comanches.
Dallas, Worley
Printing Company, c. 1912. [Reprinted Dallas, Hargreaves
Printing Company, 1923.] 145pp. Bvo. Illus. Ports.
Contains much Wise County material.
Cates, Cliff Donahue, Pioneer History of Wise County from
Red Men to Railroads: Twenty Years of Intrepid History.
Decatur, 1907. 471pp. Bvo. Illus., front, ports, advts.
Scott, Gayle, and J. M. Armstrong, The
Geology
of
Wise
County,
Texas.
Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology of The
University of Texas, 1932. 77pp. Bvo. Illus. Map.
Articles
Irvine, Laura J., "Sketch of Wise County, Texas," in American
Sketch
Book,
VII, pp. 292-298.
Books and Pamphlets
Crouch, Carrie J., Young
County:
History
and
Biography.
Dallas, Dealey and Lowe, 1937. 339pp. Bvo. Illus.
Williams, Henry C, The
Indian
Raid
in
Young
County,
Texas,
October
13,
186
U.
Houston, The Union National Bank, 1935.
10pp. Bvo. Cover-title.
Articles
Calvin, Avis, "Young County's Indian Problem," in Texas
His
-
tory
Teachers'
Bulletin,
XII, No. 1, pp. 46-51.
Hunter, John Warren, "Great Indian Raid in Young County,"
in Frontier
Times,
11, September, 1925, pp. 1-8.
Books and Pamphlets
Getzendaner, F. M., Mineral
Resources
of
Uvalde,
Zavala,
and
Maverick
Counties.
Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology of
The University of Texas, 1931. [47] pp. Bvo.
Smith, Harold, and others, Soil
Survey
of
Zavala
County,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry,
in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1940. 40pp.
Bvo. Fold map.
Batts, R. L., "Defunct Counties of Texas," in The
Quarterly
of
the
Texas
State
Historical
Association,
I, pp. 87-91.
Braman, D. E. E., Braman's
Information
About
Texas.
Phila-
delphia, J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1857. 192pp. Bvo.
Contains information about the following counties: Ander-
son, pp. 24-25; Burleson, pp. 25-26; Coryell, pp. 26-28; Dentón,
pp. 28-29; Ellis, p. 29; Goliad, pp. 30-31; Gonzales, pp. 31-32;
Hays, pp. 32-33; Henderson, pp. 33-35; Johnson, p. 36; Kerr,
p. 36; Medina, pp. 37-39; Matagorda, pp. 39-47; Llano, pp.
47-48; Navarro, pp. 48-49; Orange, pp. 49-50; Parker, p. 51;
Polk, pp. 51-52; Robertson, pp. 52-53; Rusk, pp. 53-54; Smith,
p. 54; Travis, pp. 54-55; Van Zandt, p. 55; Washington, pp.
55-57; Young, pp. 57-60.
Burns, Edward Allen, History
of
Fiscal
Administration
in
Texas
Counties
as
Regulated
by
Law.
M. A. Thesis, University of
Texas, 1940. 127pp. 4to.
Carter, W. T., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
the
Central
Gulf
Coast,
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office,
1910. [71] pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Aransas, Bee,
Brazoria, Calhoun, De Witt, Goliad, Jackson, Karnes, Mata-
gorda, Refugio, Victoria, and Wharton.
Carter, W. T., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
North
-
west
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919. [176] pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Bailey, Coch-
ran, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Floyd, Foard, Garza, Hale,
Hardeman, Haskell, Hockley, Kent, King, Knox, Lamb, Lub-
bock, Lynn, Motley, Stonewall, Terry, and Yoakum.
Carter, W. T., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
the
Panhandle
of
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau
of Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1910.
[55] pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Armstrong,
Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Childress, Collingsworth, Dallam,
Deaf Smith, Donley, Gray, Hall, Hansford, Hartley, Hemp-
hill, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer,
Potter, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, Swisher, and Wheeler.
Carter, W. T., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
the
Trans-Pecos
Area,
Texas.
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Chemistry and Soils in cooperation with the Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station. Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1928. 66pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Brewster,
Culberson, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Pecos, Presidio,
Reeves, and Terrell.
Carter, W. T., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
West
Central
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Soils in cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Station. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1922.
[90] pp. Bvo. Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Andrews,
Borden, Coke, Concho, Crane, Dawson, Ector, Fisher, Gaines,
Glasscock, Howard, Irion, Jones, Loving, Martin, Midland,
Mitchell, Nolan, Reagan, Runnels, Scurry, Sterling, Taylor,
Tom Green, Upton, Ward, and Winkler.
Coffey, George N., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
South
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909. [17] pp.
Bvo. Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Cameron,
Duval, Hidalgo, Nueces, San Patricio, Starr, Webb, and Zapata.
Crawford, Wilbur F., and Monta J. Moore, Prospectus
of
Twelve
Texas
Blackland
Counties.
Galveston, Clarke and Courts, 1895.
28pp. 12mo.
Contains information on the following counties: Bell, pp. o-5;
Bosque, pp. 5-7; Ellis, pp. 7-8; Falls, pp. 8-9; Freestone, pp.
9-10; Hill, pp. 10-11; Limestone, pp. 11-13; McLennan, pp.
13-15; Milam, pp. 15-16; Navarro, pp. 16-17; Robertson, pp.
17-19; Williamson, pp. 19-21.
Cross, F. M., A
Short
Sketch-History
from
Personal
Remin
-
iscences
of
Early
Days
in
Central
Texas.
Brownwood, Green-
wood Printing Company, 1912. (sth ed.) 133pp. 12mo. Cover-
title: Early Days in Central Texas.
Contains information on the following counties: Milam, pp.
3-6; Bell, pp. 7-27; Coryell, pp. 28-29; Lampasas, pp. 30-31;
Hamilton, pp. 31-42; Comanche, pp. 43-77; Brown, pp. 77-89.
De Cordova, J., Texas,
Her
Resources
and
Her
Public
Men.
Philadelphia, E. Crozet, Cor. Thirteenth and Market, 1858.
371pp. Bvo.
Contains information on the following counties: Milam, pp.
201-208; Burnet, pp. 208-211; Coryell, pp. 212-213; McLen-
nan, pp. 213-214; Fayette, pp. 214-216; Washington, pp. 216-
218; Bastrop, pp. 218-220; Austin, pp. 220-222; Goliad, pp.
222-224; Liberty, pp. 224-226; Harris, pp. 226-234; Galveston,
pp. 234-245; Montgomery, pp. 246-248; Comal, pp. 248-250;
Robertson, pp. 250-252; Burleson/p. 252; Bandera, pp. 252-254;
Live Oak, pp. 254-255; San Saba, pp. 255-258; Travis, pp.
259-267; Bexar, pp. 268-274; Lampasas, pp. 274-276; Guada-
lupe, pp. 276-278; Bosque, pp. 278-279; Williamson, p. 279;
Jasper, pp. 279-280; Tyler, p. 280; Orange, p. 280; Newton,
pp. 280-281; Matagorda, pp. 281-282; Brazoria, pp. 282-283;
Bell, pp. 283-284; Falls, p. 284; Anderson, p. 284; Walker,
pp. 285-286; Brown, pp. 286-287; Fort Bend, pp. 287-288;
Calhoun, p. 288; Cooke and Young, pp. 289-296; Hays, pp.
297-298; Erath, pp. 300-301; Henderson, pp. 303-305.
Fenley, Florence, Oldtimers:
Their
Own
Stories.
Uvalde, The
Hornby Press, 1939. 254pp. Bvo. Illus. Map.
Contains information and stories about the following counties:
Uvalde, Edwards, Real, Kinney, Medina, Maverick, Zavalla,
and Dimmit. [Not arranged according to counties.]
Franks, J. M., Seventy
Years
in
Texas:
Memories
of
the
Pioneer
Days,
Indian
Depredations
and
the
Northwest
Cattle
Trail.
Gatesville, Texas, 1924. 133pp. Bvo. Frontis, (port.)
Although the book deals in the main with Coryell County
there are scattered references to other central Texas counties,
principally Bell, Brown, Coleman, Hamilton, Mills, and Mon-
tague.
Fulmore, Z. T., The
History
and
Geography
of
Texas
as
Told
in
County
Names.
Austin, Steck Co., printers, c. 1915. [Fac-
simile reproduction, Austin, Steck Co., 1935.] 334pp. Bvo.
Illus.
Fulmore, Z. T., The
History
and
Geography
of
Texas
as
Told
in
County
Names.
Revised edition. Austin, c. 1926. 225pp. Bvo.
Index
to
Probate
Cases
Filed
in
Texas.
Separate volumes for
each county in Texas are contemplated. San Antonio, State-
wide Records Project.
To date the indices are available on the following counties:
Atascosa, Camp, Chambers, Coleman, Franklin, Gregg, Lib-
erty, Marion, Morris, Newton, Orange, Robertson, San Saba,
Trinity, and Waller.
Johnson, Frank W., A
History
of
Texas
and
Texans.
Edited
and brought to date by Eugene C. Barker with the assistance
of Ernest William Winkler. 5 volumes. Chicago and New
York, The American Historical Society, 1914. 4to.
Volume II is devoted entirely to histories of Texas counties.
Kocher, A. E., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
South
Central
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Soils. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1913. [112]
pp. Byo. Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Bandera,
Blanco, Burnet, Comal, Crockett, Edwards, Gillespie, Kendall,
Kerr, Kimble, Llano, Mason, Menard, Schleicher, Sutton, and
Val Verde, and parts of Hays, Real, and Travis.
Kocher, A. E., and others, Reconnoissance
Soil
Survey
of
South
-
west
Texas.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1911. [Ill] pp. Bvo.
Fold map.
Contains information on the following counties: Atascosa,
Bexar, Dimmit, Frió, Kinney, La Salle, Live Oak, Maverick,
McMullen, Medina, Uvalde, Wilson, and Zavala.
Lake, Mrs. Mary Daggett, "Streamlining a County's History," in
The
Junior
Historian,
11, No. 1 (September, 1941), pp. 4-7.
McConnell, Joseph Carroll, The
West
Texas
Frontier
or
a
De
-
scriptive
History
of
Early
Times
in
Western
Texas.
[Jacks-
boro, Gazette Print, c. 1933.] 334pp. Bvo.
Contains information regarding the histories of the following
counties: Bexar, pp. 114-115; Travis, pp. 115-116; Comal,
pp. 116-117; Dentón, p. 117-119; Gillespie, pp. 119-120; Hays,
p. 120; Medina, p. 120; Williamson, pp. 120-122; Cooke, pp.
122-125; Bell, pp. 125-127; El Paso, pp. 127-128; McLennan,
pp. 128-131; Tarrant, pp. 131-134; Hill, pp. 134-136; John-
son, pp. 137-139; Bosque, pp. 139-140; Coryell, 141-143;
Burnet, pp. 143-144; Uvalde, pp. 144-145; Bandera, pp. 145-
146; Kerr, p. 146; Llano, pp. 146-147; San Saba, pp. 147-
149; Lampasas, pp. 149-150; Comanche, pp. 150-152; Erath,
pp. 152-153; Parker, pp. 153-157; Wise, pp. 157-159; Young,
pp. 159-162; Jack, pp. 163-165; Palo Pinto, pp. 165-180;
Brown, pp. 180-181; Blanco, pp. 181-182; Mason, pp. 182-
183; Hamilton, pp. 183-184; Montague, pp. 184-186; Clay,
pp. 186-188; Stephens, pp. 188-191; Kendall, pp. 191-192;
Coleman, pp. 192-194; Hood and Somervell, pp. 194-196;
Menard, p. 198; Eastland, pp. 196-197; Shackelford, pp. 197-
198; Presidio, pp. 198-199; Tom Green, p. 199; McCulloch,
pp. 199-200; Callahan, p. 200; Taylor, p. 200; Throckmorton,
pp. 201-202.
[Madray, Mrs. I. C], A
History
of
Bee
County,
with
Some
Brief
Sketches
About
Men
and
Events
in
Adjoining
Counties.
Bee-
ville, Beeville Publishing Company, 1939. iv, 135pp. 4to.
Numerous illustrations from old photographs. No title page.
Contains information regarding the following counties:
Goliad, p. 123; Refugio, p. 123; San Patricio, p. 125; Live
Oak, p. 128; Karnes, p. 132.
McAlister, S. 8., "The County and Its Functions," in S. D.
Myres, Jr., The
Government
of
Texas,
Dallas, Southern Meth-
odist University, 1934, pp. 130-137.
Mixon, Ruby, "The History of Texas Counties," in Southwestern
Historical
Quarterly,
XLIV, pp. 344-349. (Reprinted in The
Junior
Historian,
I, No. 1 (January, 1941), pp. 8-10.)
Moore, Francis, Jr., Map
and
Description
of
Texas,
Containing
Sketches
of
its
History,
Geology,
Geography
and
Statistics.
Philadelphia, H. Tanner, 1840. 143pp. 24m0.
Contains information concerning the following counties:
Austin, pp. 42-44; Bastrop, pp. 44-51; Brazoria, pp. 51-55;
Colorado, pp. 56-57; Fannin, pp. 58-60; Fayette, pp. 61-65;
Fort Bend, pp. 65-68; Galveston, pp. 68-72; Goliad, pp. 72-75;
Gonzales, pp. 75-78; Harris, pp. 78-81; Harrison, pp. 81-83;
Houston, pp. 84-85; Jackson, pp. 86-88; Jasper, pp. 88-90;
Jefferson, pp. 90-92; Liberty, pp. 92-94; Matagorda, pp. 94-97;
Milam, pp. 97-100; Montgomery, pp. 100-102; Nacogdoches,
pp. 102-105; Red River, pp. 106-108; Refugio, pp. 108-110;
Robertson, pp. 111-114; Sabine, pp. 114-116; San Augustine,
pp. 116-118; San Patricio, pp. 118-122; Shelby, pp. 122-124;
Travis, pp. 125-132; Victoria, pp. 132-135; Washington, pp.
135-137.
Paddock, Buckley 8., A
Twentieth
Century
History
and
Bio
-
graphical
Record
of
North
and
West
Texas.
Chicago, Lewis
Publishing Co., 1906. 704pp. 4to. Illus.
Contains short histories of the following counties: Tarrant,
p. 310; Johnson, pp. 310-311; Parker, p. 311; Wise, p. 311;
Cooke, p. 311; Grayson, pp. 311-313; Clay, p. 313; Jack, p.
314; Palo Pinto, p. 314; Young, p. 314; Wichita, p. 315; Baylor,
pp. 315-316; Taylor, p. 316; Jones, p. 316; Haskell, p. 137;
Hardeman, p. 317; Wheeler, p. 317; Hemphill, p. 317; Lips-
comb, p. 318; Roberts, p. 318; Donley, p. 318; Hall, pp. 318-
319; Carson, p. 319; Potter, p. 319; Randall, p. 319; Deaf
Smith, p. 319; Dallam, p. 320; Hale, p. 320; Tom Green, p.
320; Scurry, p. 321.
Raht, Carlysle Graham, The
Romance
of
the
Davis
Mountains
and
the
Big
Bend
Country.
El Paso, Raht, [1919]. 381pp.
Bvo. Illus.
The
Resources
and
Attractions
of
the
Texas
Panhandle
for
the
Homeseeker,
Capitalist,
and
Tourist.
Battle Creek, Mich.,
Wm. C. Gage and Son, 1890. 100pp. Bvo. Fold map. "Com-
pliments of Passenger Dept., Union Pacific."
Contains information concerning the following counties: Tar-
rant, pp. 58, 82; Wise, pp. 58-60; Montague, pp. 63-64; Clay,
pp. 64-65; Jack, pp. 65-66; Wichita, pp. 66-68; Archer, pp.
68-69; Baylor, pp. 69-70; Knox, pp. 70-71; Wilbarger, pp. 71-
73; Hardeman, pp. 73-74; Tom Green, pp. 74-75; Childress, pp.
76-77; Donley, pp. 77-78; Wheeler, pp. 78-79; Potter, p. 79;
Hale, pp. 79-81; Crosby, pp. 81-82; Oldham, pp. 82-83.
Rock, James L., and W. I. Smith, Southern
and
Western
Texas
Guide
for
1878.
St. Louis, A. H. Granger, 1878. 282pp. Bvo.
Illus. Fold map.
Contains information concerning the following counties: An-
derson, pp. 42-43; Angelina, pp. 43-44; Aransas, p. 44; Atas-
cosa, pp. 44-45; Austin, pp. 45-46; Bee, pp. 46-47; Bell, pp.
47-48; Bandera, pp. 48-49; Bastrop, pp. 49-50; Bexar, pp. 50-
51; Blanco, pp. 51-52; Bosque, p. 52; Brazoria, pp. 52-53;
Brazos, pp. 53-54; Brown, p. 54; Burleson, pp. 54-55; Burnet,
p. 55; Caldwell, pp. 55-56; Calhoun, pp. 56-57; Cameron, p.
57; Camp, pp. 57-58; Chambers, p. 58; Cherokee, pp. 58-59;
Coleman, pp. 59-60; Colorado, pp. 60-61; Comal, pp. 61-62;
Comanche, pp. 62-63; Concho, p. 63; Cooke, pp. 63-64; Coryell,
pp. 64-65; Crockett, p. 65; De Witt, pp. 65-66; Dimmit, p. 66;
Duval, p. 66; Edwards, pp, 66-67; El Paso, p. 67; Encinal,
p. 67; Erath, p. 67; Falls, pp. 68-69; Fayette, pp. 69-70; Fort
Bend, p. 70; Freestone, pp. 70-71; Frio, p. 71; Galveston, p.
71; Gillespie, p. 72; Goliad, pp. 72-73; Gonzales, pp. 73-75;
Grayson, p. 75; Gregg, pp. 75-76; Grimes, p. 76; Guadalupe,
pp. 77-78; Hamilton, pp. 78-79; Hardin, pp. 79-80; Harris,
pp. 80-81; Harrison, pp. 81-82; Hays, p. 82; Hidalgo, p. 83;
Hill, pp. 83-84; Hood, p. 84; Houston, pp. 84-85; Jack, pp.
85-86; Jackson, p. 86; Jasper, pp. 86-87; Jefferson, p. 87;
Karnes, pp. 87-88; Kendall, p. 88; Kerr, p. 89; Kimble, pp.
89-90; Kinney, p. 90; Lamar, pp. 90-91; Lampasas, pp. 91-
92; Llano, pp. 92-93; La Salle, p. 93; Lavaca, p. 94; Leon,
pp. 94-95; Liberty, pp. 95-96; Limestone, p. 96; Live Oak, pp.
96-97; Madison, p. 97; Marion, pp. 97-98; Matagorda, p. 99;
Maverick, pp. 99-100; McLennan, pp. 100-101; McMullen, p.
101; Medina, pp. 101-102; Menard, pp. 102-103; Milam, pp.
103-104; Montgomery, pp. 104-105; Morris, p. 105; Nacog-
doches, pp. 105-106; Navarro, pp. 106-107; Newton, p. 107;
Nueces, pp. 107-108; Orange, pp. 108-109; Palo Pinto, p. 109;
Panola, pp. 109-110; Parker, pp. 110-111; Polk, pp. 111-112;
Rains, p. 112; Red River, pp. 112-113; Refugio, p. 113; Rob-
ertson, pp. 113-115; Rockwall, p. 115; Runnels, p. 115; Rusk,
pp. 115-116; Sabine, p. 116; San Augustine, pp. 116-117;
San Jacinto, p. 117; San Patricio, pp. 117-118; San Saba,
p. 118; Shelby, p. 119; Smith, pp. 119-120; Tarrant, pp. 120-
121; Travis, pp. 121-122; Trinity, pp. 122-123; Tyler, pp. 123-
124; Uvalde, p. 124; Van Zandt, pp. 124-125; Victoria, p. 125;
Walker, p. 126; Waller, pp. 126-127; Washington, pp. 127-
129; Webb, p. 129; Wharton, pp. 129-130; Williamson, pp.
130-131; Wilson, pp. 131-132; Wood, p. 132; Zapata, pp. 133-
134; Bowie, pp. 134-135; Cass, p. 135; Collin, pp. 135-136;
Dallas, p. 136; Delta, pp. 136-137; Denton, p. 137; Fannin,
pp. 137-138; Franklin, p. 138; Titus, p. 138; Hopkins, p. 138;
Hunt, pp. 138-139; Kaufman, p. 139; Upshur, p. 140.
Shipman, Alice Jack, Taming
the
Big
Bend.
[Austin, Von
Boeckmann-Jones, 1926]. 215pp. Bvo. Illus.
A history of the counties of the Big Bend area.
The
Texas
Almanac,
in various years from 1857 to the present,
contains much information on Texas counties. The publication
is sometimes called "The Encyclopedia of Texas." It is now
published by the A. H. Belo Corporation (The
Dallas
Morning
Neius),
Dallas, Texas.
Texas State Historical Association, A Plea
for
County
Historical
Societies,
n. p., n. d. Bpp. Bvo.
Timm, Charles A., Some
Observations
on
the
International
Boundary
Commission,
United
States
and
Mexico.
Bureau
of Research in the Social Sciences. Austin, University of
Texas, 1935. 27pp. 4to.
Webb, W. P., "Suggestions for the Study and Writing of Local
History," in Eugene C. Barker, Texas
History
for
High
Schools
and
Colleges
(Dallas, Southwest Press, c. 1929), pp.
633-640.
West
Texas:
Its
Soil
and
Climate
from
San
Antonio
to
El
Paso.
Houston, General Passenger Dept, Southern Pacific, n. d.
48pp. Bvo.
Contains information on the following counties: Bexar, pp.
3-8; Medina, pp. 8-17; Uvalde, pp. 18-20; Kinney, pp. 20-22;
Maverick, pp. 22-24; Val Verde, pp. 24-38; Pecos, pp. 38-40;
Brewster, pp. 40-41; Presidio, pp. 42-43; Jeff Davis, pp. 43-48.
Wilbarger, Josiah, Indian Depredations in Texas: Reliable Ac-
counts of Battles, Wars, Adventures, Forays, Murders, Mas-
sacres, etc., etc., Together with Biographical Sketches of
Many of the Most Noted Indian Fighters and Frontiersmen
of Texas. Austin, Hutchings Printing House, 1889. 672pp.
Bvo. Mus.
[Facsimile Reproduction, Austin, The Steck Company, 1935.]
Each account is lifted with the county in which the event
described occurred.
The University of Texas.
TEXAS COLLECTION
It is doubtful if all members of the Association have become
acquainted with the activities of the Junior Historians. The
organization was founded three years ago, and last year began
the publication of The
Junior
Historian,
a magazine unique in
the history of American periodicals. Its uniqueness lies in the
fact that practically all the articles in it are written by young
people of high school age. Up to the present time forty-four
chapters of Junior Historians have been formed in the high
schools of Texas, and others are in the process of formation.
The Junior Historian program is the only phase of the activities
of this Association that has continued to grow under the im-
pacts of the war.
It is doubtful if young people could sustain by their own
writings a magazine of art, literature, or science. Their knowl-
edge of these subjects is not sufficient for the purpose. They
can maintain a high standard of achievement when writing
about their own communities. The Junior Historians do just
that. For example, there is in Fort Worth a boot-making estab-
lishment whose products are known wherever American boots
are worn. Jean Justin of the Paschal High School in Fort
Worth wrote the history of Joe Justin, who came to Texas in
1877 and established the name of the Justins as bootmakers.
Julia Gill of Henderson High School has likewise told of the
settlement at Harmony Hill in Henderson County.
The Junior Historian movement was launched as an experi-
ment in Texas youth, an experiment based on confidence in the
ability of young people. The experiment is now far enough
along to warrant a final decision. Does the Association desire
to continue the organization? Six issues of the magazine will
be published this year. The printing cost will be approximately
$600, or $100 an issue, and this cost will probably increase.
Income from subscriptions has not been sufficient to cover this
cost, and probably will not be for several years. Should the
Association continue to support the Junior Historian movement?
be a fine thing if a group of five or ten Texans would sponsor
the movement and underwrite the printer's cost for that time.
By then there should be at least two hundred chapters with an
average of twenty-five members each, a total of five thousand
young people engaged in collecting and preserving the history
and traditions of Texas.
The Junior Historian movement has spread beyond Texas.
Chapter 41 was organized at the New Mexico Military Institute,
Roswell, New Mexico. The school sponsor is Captain Charles F.
Ward, and the lay sponsors are Major Maurice G. Fulton and
Captain Paul Horgan. All of these men are recognized historians.
The following brief address was delivered by Dr. P. I. Nixon,
Vice-President of the Association, on behalf of the entire mem-
bership upon the occasion of his presenting a parchment copy
of Lynn Eliot's poem, "The Sixth of March," to the Alamo on
the one hundred and sixth anniversary of its fall:
The heroism and the hardihood of the men who sac-
rificed their lives here at the Alamo has been applauded
in song and story for 106 years. There has been only
one perfect sacrifice. The men of Travis and Bowie
came as near to perfection in their selfless sacrifice as
any group of men has ever done, before or since. They
made the complete sacrifice. Their example has been
an inspiration to all Texans and all Americans in times
of stress, and even now in far-away Bataan Peninsula
it is a source of courage to our matchless MacArthur
and his little band of indomitables.
Natural it was then that men and women should set
out to set down the ideals, the spirit and the achieve-
ments of these men of the Alamo. Some have suc-
ceeded better than others. All have added something
to the story that never grows old with the telling and
all must have been convinced that words are inadequate
as mediums of expression of the deepmost sentiments
of their hearts.
Among those who have made recent contributions to
the ever-growing literature of the Alamo is our fellow-
San Antonian, Lynn Eliot. Mr. Eliot's poem appeared
in the July, 1941, issue of the Southwestern
Historical
Quarterly.
To give this praiseworthy poem a wider
and well deserved recognition, this association has pre-
pared a special printing done on parchment. As Vice-
President of the State Historical Association, it is an
honor to present this framed copy to the Alamo.
A copy of this poem, suitable for framing, appears in the
March issue of the Junior
Historian.
Mrs. William A. Perry, 1620 East Seventh Street, Okmulgee,
Oklahoma, desires information about Robert Montgomery, who
was appointed by Houston as assistant surgeon of Rangers,
December 14, 1836.
Teachers of Texas history in high school should examine
a workbook prepared by Pauline Yelderman of Rosenberg High
School and published by the Steck Company of Austin.
The following letter from Judge O. W. Williams of Fort
Stockton is published not because Judge Williams would want
it published but because it will give genuine pleasure to the
many Texas students who count him as friend and mentor:
I have just received some five or six copies of the
Christmas number of the Junior
Historian,
presumably
from you. I know very little about the affairs of the
Historical Association, and the Junior
Historian,
but it
appears to me very probable that the financial situa-
tion is hard for both.
So I am enclosing my check to you for $100, to be
applied by you to the relief of either or both as you
may elect. And, if you can spare them, please send me
ten or twelve copies of that last number of the Junior
Historian.
The way of the historian is hard, as you may have
learned, and the schools should help.
Dr. Francis Trevelyan Miller, 38 West 73rd Street, New York,
writes that he is collecting material on General Douglas Mac-
Arthur. He states that MacArthur spent his boyhood in the
West and in Southwest Texas. He desires information about
young MacArthur's residence in Texas between 1880 and 1899
when he entered West Point. Dr. Miller thinks that MacArthur
was a Texas normal school student and that he attended West
Texas Military Academy around 1896. Any information about
MacArthur's residence in Texas, either in army posts along the
frontier or in normal school or in West Texas Military Academy
would be welcomed by Dr. Miller.
Waldemar Kuhlmann, Route 4, Fredericksburg, writes that
the last work of the sculptress, Elisabet Ney, stands in the
Fredericksburg cemetery, a marker for the grave of Mrs. Eliza-
beth Schneer. Kuhlmann suggests that a replica of this bit of
Ney art should be made and the original placed in the Ney
Museum in Austin.
If any doubt had ever existed concerning the interest of Texas
people in their local history and the sources thereto, the re-
sponse to the publication of "Texas County Histories: A Bibli-
ography" in The
Quarterly
would unquestionably dispel the
doubt. Each installment has brought forth letters from all over
the state and from other states. Many members of the Asso-
ciation have responded, but what is probably more encouraging
are the letters from those who are not members but who write
now for membership or for information about the Association
with a view to membership. Probably every Texas county has
its resident authority and local historian, and it is encourag-
ing to report that through the County History Bibliography
the Association has contacted some of these lay historians for
the first time. All members of groups having local historical
interests in Texas should become actively identified with the
work of the Association.
Mrs. Ella Stevens Watson of Hillsboro has long been known
to the Association as an authority on Hill County, but corre-
spondence reveals a similar interest and much information in
the hands of Miss Emma Martin, 504 King Street, Itasca, and
Mrs. C. I. Coffin of Itasca.
Letters giving information about theses and local history
researches have been received from the following librarians in
State Teachers Colleges: Gretchen Howell, East Texas State
Teachers College, Commerce; Mrs. Beatrice Gregg, Sam Houston
State Teachers College, Huntsville; E. B. Jackson, Southwest
Texas State Teachers College, San Marcos; Tennessee Malone,
West Texas State Teachers College, Canyon; Mildred Wyatt,
Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, Nacogdoches; and
the Librarian of Sul Ross State Teachers College, Alpine.
Correspondence received from other librarians includes Guy B.
Harrison of the Texas Collection of Baylor University, Waco,
and Ike Moore, Director of the San Jacinto Museum of History,
Houston, who made numerous helpful suggestions concerning
the listings and furnished the collation of a previously unknown
Colorado County item of 1877.
Scores of Texas newspapers have carried news items regard-
ing the list and its applicability to their particular area. From
several sources it has been called to the Association's attention
that John McCarty, editor of the Amarillo News-Globe,
Ama-
rillo, has a remarkable collection of books, pamphlets, tran-
scripts, and source materials dealing with Panhandle counties.
Other Texas editors and newspaper men who have written
giving specific information and expressing appreciation are:
H. S. Hilburn of The
Herald,
Plainview; Homer Steen of The
Hesperian,
Floydada; Joe Pickle of the Big Spring Herald,
Big
Spring; W. G. Hayden, Big Spring Weekly
News,
Big Spring;
Silas B. Ragsdale of the Galveston Daily
News,
Galveston; the
Rusk Cherokeean,
Rusk; and Sam Acheson of the Dallas Morn
-
ing
News,
Dallas.
On Johnson County helpful letters have been received from
Herman Brown, Cleburne, and from Charles H. Bryant, 1501
West Woodard Street, Denison. Mrs. Max Weinert, Seguin,
gives information concerning Guadalupe County, while August
Oberkampf, Anderson, does likewise for Grimes County. Ar-
thur C. Repp, 3107 Buena Vista, San Antonio, writes regarding
Lee County. Fannie J. Anderson, 7438 Santa Clara Drive, Dal-
las, writes that she is writing an historical novel based upon
the way-of-life in Bosque County in the '70's and '80s.
And interest in history in Texas, as distinguished from Texas
history, is not confined to the state itself. From Clarence C.
Brigham, Director of The American Antiquarian Society, Wor-
cester, Massachusetts, comes information about a new Orange
County item, while Louis Lenz, Box 1406, Shreveport, Louisiana,
reports on a previously unrecorded De Witt County history of
1900. Out-of-state letters of inquiry and comment have also
come from Mississippi, Florida, New York, New Mexico, Wis-
consin, and Washington, D. C.
Wilbert H. Timmons, graduate student in Latin-American
history and assistant in the Department of History, reported
for midshipman training at the Northwestern University Mid-
shipman Training Station on January 22. He is due to com-
plete his training and receive his commission as ensign in the
Naval Reserve in June.
Thomas E. Cotner, graduate fellow in Latin-American his-
tory, left the University in mid-February to go to Washington,
where he will be Assistant Specialist in Inter-American Educa-
tional Relations in the United States Office of Education.
Joe B. Frantz, an assistant in the History Department last
semester, left the University at mid-term to accept a position
at the San Jacinto Memorial Museum.
Nelson Klose, graduate student and assistant in the History
Department last semester, has been accepted for midshipman
training, which he will begin next October. Until he begins his
naval training he will be in the University taking courses in
mathematics and science as a preliminary to his training in
the Navy.
W. R. Hogan passed his final oral examinations for the doc-
torate in History at The University of Texas March 4 and pre-
pared to enter the nation's armed service immediately.
One of our ex-graduate students in history now holds a com-
mission, but not in the regular armed forces. Miss Virginia
Nierman has recently been commissioned as lieutenant in the
Women's Motor Corps, at San Benito, Texas, where she is
teaching this year.
Mary Jane Garrett, who graded in the Department of His-
tory during the last long session and worked toward the
Master's Degree, is now teaching in the Kerrville school sys-
tem. She was on the campus during the last session as sponsor
of a girl's debate squad.
H. G. Van Sickle, graduate student in Latin-American studies,
left the University late in February to take a teaching position
in Tulane University, where he will have classes in Latin-
American history. The position is temporary and Mr. Van
Sickle plans to be back at his studies next fall.
At the present rate of exodus, graduate historians will be
scarce next year. Most of those who have not already gone are
making no plans to be here for the coming year; apparently
the war is taking a particularly heavy toll among the graduates.
Two works of interest to Texas historians are in preparation
by Ph. D. candidates at The University of Texas, but there is
grave danger that the work in both cases will be interrupted
by the war. Raymond Estep is working against time to com-
plete his dissertation on Lorenzo de Zavala before he is in-
ducted into the army in the spring. Because of the exhaustive
nature of the study of de Zavala's political career, both in
Mexico and Texas, Mr. Estep's completed work should be of a
great deal of value. José Antonio Navarro is the subject of the
other study of interest to Texas historians; J. D. Matlock has
uncovered new material of interest concerning this Texas pa-
triot, but apparently he will be unable to complete his work
before going into the armed service.
It is lamentable that two such scholarly works should be
interrupted by the war, and it is to be hoped that they will be
completed at the conclusion of the present conflict.
The relation of automobile tires to history, and to historical
meetings is brought out in a letter from N. C. Belk of Lamar
College, Beaumont. In reference to the spring meeting, Mr.
Belk says, "I am making an effort to get a good delegation down
there. We have a number who would like to make the trip but
tires are old on our cars and we are afraid to take the chance.
Just today, however, lady luck seemed to smile on our effort
and I ... hope that we shall be able to get one car rigged
up with good tires. In that case, four or five of our members,
including one or two juniors, will make the trip."
Estelle Grimeland Nelson, Calamus, Iowa, formerly of Waco,
desires information about Norwegian settlements in Hender-
son and Van Zandt counties.
Members who are teaching history in the colleges of Texas
could render a real service by calling to the attention of their
better students the publications and work of the Association.
Most teachers are reluctant to urge students to "join up" with
any movement; because of this modesty the few who would
make good members are deprived of an opportunity to learn
of the work. Gordon Greenwood of the engineering firm of
Freese and Nichols, Fort Worth, writes:
Thank you very much for making available to me
membership in the Association. I have had several
very interesting hours following the Quarterly,
and I
am sorry that I was denied any contact with the Asso-
ciation during my undergraduate years, due to igno-
rance on my part. I can't understand why the mem-
bers of the faculty with whom I came in contact
did not tell the students of my time more about the
work of the Association.
Those who have taught long realize that students have a good
protective covering against such activities as do not appeal to
them. To the few who have a flair for history and for investi-
gation teachers can render a real service by putting them in
touch with real students and scholars. It is assumed that a
graduate student in history plans to follow the profession of
the historian. If this be true, he hopes, on completing his work,
to find employment as a teacher. At present, owing to war
conditions, employment is no serious problem, but under normal
conditions it is not so easy to find a job. People are employed
because they are recommended by those who know them and
have confidence in them. The graduate student, busy with his
studies for three or four years, has little opportunity to meet
former graduates who are holding positions in various parts of
the state. He feels that there is a considerable gap between
him and his prospective employer. He often wishes that he
could make the acquaintance of department heads and teachers
in the various institutions in a natural manner. The Associa-
tion offers this opportunity and it is the only organization that
does. The employer is equally anxious to know prospective
teachers in order that he may form his own judgments and
not have to depend on written recommendations, most of which
are favorable.
The Association plays its role by bringing the older and
younger historians together in a natural manner. The head
of a department in X College does not need a teacher now,
but he may need one next year. He recalls that excellent paper
read by a graduate student at the annual meeting. He con-
siders first the people he knows. The Association offers an
opportunity for the older students, alumni, to touch hands with
the new. The Association breaks up the isolation of the indi-
dividual and makes him feel that he is a member of a group
brought together for mutual benefit.
The geographic position of Texas with reference to the other
states makes the Association particularly valuable. It per-
forms, or may perform, for Texas what the Mississippi Valley
and the American Historical perform for the region and the
nation. The professors of European history could find some
advantage in attending the meetings of the Association and
might find it to the advantage of their graduate students to
have them attend. European historians have to have jobs, too,
and it so happens that in Texas they usually secure them
through men whose major field of study was either American
or Texas history, and most of these are members of the Texas
State Historical Association. There is no reason why European
historians should not have sections at the annual meeting de-
voted to their field. It will be noted that the spring meeting
has a section on the Far Eastern problem. The Texas State
Historical Association could well be an association of all his-
torians in Texas, though its publications are properly restricted
to Texas and Southwestern history.
Roman T. Kuonen, University of Oklahoma, Norman, is writ-
ing a thesis on "Border Troubles Between the United States
and Mexico, 1915-1917." He desires information about the Co-
lumbus raid, the Pershing punitive expedition and lesser excur-
sions across the international border. Though there is consid-
erable source material in print, this story cannot be adequately
done without much field work. Fortunately, many men are still
living who had experience in this troublesome period, and some
of them will talk.
S. W. Geiser of Southern Methodist University at Dallas de-
sires to know the location in Texas of the following places or
hamlets. The dates indicate the time the places appear in the
records. Knoxville, probably in Cherokee County; "Marzenna,"
1861, possibly Mariana in Polk County; Mormon Mills, 1875,
possibly on the Colorado above Austin in the vicinity of Burnet;
Prairie Valley, 1879, possibly between Fredericksburg and
Mason; Sullivan Springs, 1859; Vermont, 1870.
The story of the Ole Ringness disc plow was told in the
October, 1941, issue of the Quarterly.
F. L. Lewton, Curator
of the Division of Crafts and Industries, Smithsonian Institu-
tion, throws more light on the subject. Dr. Lewton says:
In the periodical Agricultural
Engineering,
v. 7,
pages 172-175 (1926), R. G. Ingersoll has a very in-
teresting article entitled: "The Development of the
Disc Plow." In this article the author says that the
first patent obtained in the United States for a disc
plow was granted to George Page of Washington,
D. C., in 1847. He made a revolving moldboard for a
plow, and is believed to have laid the foundation on
which is built modern disc tillage. Later patentees
were B. C. Hoyt, 1856 and 1858; J. S. Godfrey, 1868;
and J. M. Cravath, 1867, who received the first patent
for a "purely disc plow." Mr. R. G. Ingersoll is vice-
president of the Ingersoll Steel & Disc Division, Borg-
Warner Corporation, Straus Building, Chicago, Ill.,
and I am sure would be glad to know about Ole Ring-
ness. The origin of his idea for a disc plow, as told in
The
Southwestern
Historical
Quarterly,
is most inter-
esting, and I do not believe this story of origin has
ever been brought to anyone's attention before. I shall
bring it to the attention of the Agricultural History
Society here.
While working in the Library of Congress last summer,
Homer L. DeGolyer of Dallas discovered a very interesting
map and guide published in 1859, which is not mentioned in
either Hafen or Wagner-Camp. The map is entitled
"Map of the United States West of the Mississippi
showing the Routes to Pike's Peak, Overland Mail
Route to California and Pacific Rail Road Surveys,
to which are added the new State & Territorial Bound-
aries, The Principal Mail & Rail Road Routes with all
the arrangements &
corrections made by the Congress
up to the date of its Issue. Compiled and drawn from
U. S. Land & Coast Surveys and other reliable sources
by D. McGowan C. E. & Geo. H. Hildt C. E."
The map was published in St. Louis in 1859 and copyrighted
in March of the same year.
Although the map shows the Overland Mail, or Butterfield
route through Texas, it gives but five stops: El Paso, Ft. Chad-
bourne, Ft. Belknap, Sherman, and Preston. The guide which
accompanies it gives a list of twenty-six stops and mentions
another within the bounds of the State of Texas which com-
prises the fifth and sixth divisions of the nine on the route
from San Francisco to St. Louis. They are as follows:
"Fifth Division. Franklin to Waco tanks, 30 miles:
Comulos de los Alamos 30 miles, Piney 56, Delaware
Springs 24, Pope's Camp [Pecos River] 40, Emigrant
Crossing 65, Horse Head Crossing 55, Head of Conche
70, Concho Creek 30, Grape Creek 22, Fort Chadbourne
30, Total 458 miles Time 126 h. 30 m.
"Sixth Division. Ft. Chadbourne to Station No. 1,
12, Mountain Pass 16, Phantom Hill 30, Smith's 12,
Clear Fork of Brazos 26, Francis 13, Ft. Belknap 22.
Murphy's 16, Jacksboro 19, Earharts' 16, Connolly's
16, Davidson's 24, Garnesville [Gainesville] 17, Dia-
mond's 15, Sherman 15, Colbert's Ferry Red River
13½. Total 282½. Time 56 hours 20 minutes.
"Note. Fifth Division. No water on the route be-
tween Franklin and Pope's Camp, and between Horse
Head Crossing and the Mustang Ponds [the 27th,
near the Head of Concho] except at the stations."
Wanted--Information about John Horse. Herschel Boggs,
author of the history of Fort Concho, has sent the following
inquiry from Kenneth W. Porter, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie,
New York:
Dear Mr. Boggs:
In the personal section of the Quarterly
I noted a
statement that you were writing a history of Ft. Con-
cho and in the process of your research had been in-
interviewing members of the Seminole Negro scouts. I
wonder if you happened to hear anything about John
Horse (Juan Caballo), or Gopher John, who was for
about thirty years chief of the Seminole Negroes and
co-leader with Wild Cat in the migration from the
Indian Territory to Mexico, 1849-50. John Horse re-
turned to the United States at Eagle Pass, in Decem-
ber, 1870. He never served with the scouts; as one of
the present-day Seminole Negroes expressed it, "John
Kibbitts commanded the scouts and John Horse gave
advice." It is rather hard to round up information
concerning an illiterate who lived in remote parts of
the country and died about sixty-four years ago, and
that is my apology for approaching you in this matter.
I suppose you saw Joe Dixie at Brackettville, the
first of the "original" scouts to be enlisted and the
last to die--he died less than a fortnight before I
reached the place. I understand that the last of the
old "Indian fighting" scouts, Gregorio Frausto, is still
living in Del Rio; my informant is John Jefferson, also
of Del Rio, ex-scout, ex-cavalryman, and grandson of
John Horse.
This inquiry about the Seminole Negroes brings to mind a
recent visit on the ranch which is managed by J. Evetts Haley.
At the time the cook at the ranch house was one of the Semi-
nole Negroes who originally came from Fort Brackett. His
Indian relation was indicated by a reserved dignity and a
coppery cast, and, according to report, by a refusal to be
crowded too much. The fact that his name was John does not
necessarily connect him with the Horse family.
Around the campfire at night the cowboys began to tell
stories of John. It seems that the owner of the ranch came
out from Houston, bringing with him a rather portly Negro
cook who in John's opinion put on intolerable airs. He kept
coming into John's kitchen and made adverse comment on the
substantial meal that John was preparing. "I don't think that's
the right kind of food to fix fo' lunch," said the Houston cook.
"What kind would you fix?" asked John.
"Oh, some thin sandwiches and sliced ham and salad."
At the next remark by the Houston cook, John seized a long
kitchen knife, and while appraising the breadth of his visitor's
abdomen, said: "I'm running this outfit and if you don't get
out of my kitchen, I'm goin' to git me a mess o' yo' chitlins."
Later, John undertook to measure his prestige with J. Evetts
Haley. The ranch has a new cook.
The Steck Company contributed Yoakum's History
of
Texas
in their reprint edition in the last book auction. Mention of
this was not made in the list of donors.
Robert A. Campbell, 413 South White Street, New Orleans,
wants information about an uncle, Frank Hughes, who owned
"a very large ranch" in Texas, lived in San Antonio about 1903,
and did business with the "Old Cattlemen's bank there."
At intervals Donald Coney, University librarian, sends out a
list of books recently acquired by the mausoleum in which they
are buried. Recognizing that few people wait with bated breath
for the next instalment of a book list, the librarian lightens the
list, if he does not illuminate it, by putting down something
interesting he has thought of or borrowed. His prologue of
December 3 is on book collecting. He calls attention to Colton
Storm's article in Publishers'
Weekly
decrying the attitude of
the collector who buys only for a rise in the market. The fol-
lowing anecdote he quotes from The
Saturday
Review
of
Lit
-
erature,
for November 29:
It seems an English lord purchased a custom-bound
book from the great English binder, Sangorski, for
$5,000. ... A week after the book was delivered the
lord came back to Sangorski with a grave complaint.
"Your precious binding has cracked straight down the
back," he exclaimed. Sangorski grabbed the book from
the lord's hands, examined it for a moment, and turned
on his customer in a rage. "You've been reading
this
book," he cried.
A few days ago the membership of W. E. Justin, Presi-
dent of the Justin Boot and Shoe Company, Fort Worth, was
received in the office. The appropriateness of Mr. Justin's mem-
bership in the Association goes without saying, but the method
by which he became a member, as explained in the letter to
this office, is worthy of note for the good example it sets. The
letter states:
In connection with another matter I happened to call
Mr. Justin's attention to The
Quarterly.
He was pre-
viously unfamiliar with it, but was immediately inter-
ested. I took his check, which I enclose herewith. The
Quarterly
should be a household word in Texas and
men who are as much a part of the Texas tradition as
the sons of Joe Justin, "the Cowboy Bootmaker," ought
to have had it called to their attention years ago.
The program of the Association is best advanced where some
member takes it upon himself to call The
Quarterly
to the
attention of associates or acquaintances who, in the very nature
of the case, ought to be interested in the traditions and historic
past of the state. Especially in the forthcoming months must
the Association rely largely upon the membership for services
similar to the one detailed above.
The Panhandle
Plains
Historical
Review
for 1941 brings to
light a trans-plains expedition that had been practically lost
sight of by historians. On August 9,1845, Lieutenant J. W. Abert
left Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River and on November 12
reached St. Louis. Abert's journal was published in Senate
Documents,
29th
Congress,
1st
Session.
It has been edited
by H. Bailey Carroll in a most able manner. The editor's intro-
duction whets the desire to know about Abert. A possible ex-
plantation of the neglect of Abert's journal is that historians
have been in the habit of following expeditions from east to
west. Abert went from the west to the east, and so almost
marched into oblivion. Some book collector could find himself
a niche by collecting American diaries and journals made by
people who traveled from west to east. It would be a small
collection, a view of the west in reverse. Copies of the Carroll
edition of the Abert Journal can be obtained by writing Editor
L. F. Sheffy, Canyon, Texas.
The exclusive Philosophical Society of Texas has issued its
Proceedings
for 1941. It contains the annual address by Dr.
Eugene C. Barker, "Life in the Republic of Texas." It is unfor-
tunate that this article cannot be available to a wider audience.
The Book Auction will be held. It is scheduled for the spring
meeting, Friday, April 10, at 2:00 p.m. Because of the war, it
was thought at first that the Auction would not be held this
year. Book lovers, however, protested vigorously against the
proposed cancellation. As usual, therefore, some excellent items
will be available for bids. Some members of the Association
have suggested that an effort be made this year to collect and
auction current books, with the Association's sending such cur-
rent items to army camps in the successful bidder's name. If
this suggestion is meritorious, the Association will be glad to see
that current books supplied by members will be appropriately
placed in the hands of soldiers.
Regular monthly meetings of local historical associations
indicate unusual interest and vitality. For over two years the
San Antonio Historical Association, perhaps as an outgrowth
of the sectional meeting of the Texas State Historical Associa-
tion at San Antonio, has presented excellent programs at its
monthly gatherings. The most recent meeting, held Friday,
March 20, was high lighted by Mrs. Donald E. Forker's paper,
"The Heritage of Texas is the Gentleman's Agreement." The
hostess for the occasion was Mrs. E. A. Holmgreen. Non-
member guests are invited to the San Antonio Association's
meetings.
Timely now and possibly a collector's item ten years hence
is the first booklet on one of our naval leaders, Admiral
Chester
W.
Nimitz,
His
Heritage
and
Training,
by Julia Estill of Fred-
ericksburg, Texas, who is a member of the Texas State His-
torical Association and the former sponsor of the Fredericks-
burg chapter of the Junior Historians. The reprint of an article
appearing in the Fredericksburg Standard,
the booklet dis-
cusses Nimitz's background and career. It is profusely illus-
trated with photographs, including one of the old "Steamboat
Hotel," and is an interesting addition to any library.
Attention is called to the appearance of new names on the
editorial staff of the Quarterly.
Four graduate students in the
Department of History have accepted appointment as editorial
assistants for the remainder of this year. They are Charles
Cumberland, James H. McLendon, Andrew F. Muir, and Van
Mitchell Smith. These men have assisted in preparing copy and
news items for the current issue of the Quarterly
and have
answered inquiries that come in to this office. As time goes on
this graduate student staff will have the opportunity of taking
over more of the work of the Association, a sort of laboratory
experience in editing and publishing historical material.
LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS
DR. JOHN SIBLEY AND THE LOUISIANA-TEXAS
FRONTIER, 1803-1814
Natchitoches April 20th. 1807
Sir
By the request of Major Freeman I have had the Boats and
what of the Public property that remained at the Conchatta
Village Brought down here, Corporal Read who was left with
three soldiers as a guard with the Boats etc. In consequence of
his behaving amiss by disposing of Some of the Property in his
Charge deserted to Nacogdoches, what was brought down with
the Boats are here subject to Mr. Freeman's Order. I sent Mr
Philebare our Indian Interpreter to bring them down, who man-
aged it in his own way with great discretion, he employed some
Indians to assist him at a small Expense which has been paid
by Mr Linnard at my request, they found considerable difficulty
in passing some Rafts, those that were last year broke are
again choaked. The River is very low for the Season.
We hear that Three Companies of Artilery [artillery] destined
for this place are in the River a small distance below and will
be here tomorrow.— A Mr Hesser formerly of German-
town near Philadel [Philadelphia] a Hatter by trade who is
married & Settled here, and who is esteemed a Man of Veracity,
Arrived here yesterday from Nacogdoches, where he has been
on business for Some Weeks past, he says "that the day before
he left Nacogdoches he Dined with Father Puelles the Priest
(a good Man) and that at Dinner he received a letter from
Governor Cordero at St. Antonio informing him (the Priest)
that Governor Herrera was not Coming to Nacogdoches, & that
all the troops except a Guard of between 20 &
30 that are now
at Nacogdoches & its Vicinity are ordered to be immediately
withdrawn to St. Antonio, and that no more troops are expected
to be sent to Nacogdoches, that no Warlike preparations are
making, but the Contrary, and it is the opinion of Mr Hesser
that the Post of Nacogdoches will be broken up & the Inhab-
itants all Ordered Away; no new Settlements even by native
Spaniards are permitted to be made, & the Inhabitants are
forbidden to improve Either their farms or buildings, and all
inhabitants who have not been Settled There before the Cession
of Louisiana, or more than five years, whether Spanish, French,
or American, are Ordered either to move Back towards St.
Antonio, or into the United States, and that Inhabitants of
the Spanish dominions are not permitted to come into the
United States Territory or trade or On Any private business
whatever, it is likewise the opinion of Mr Hesser & Several
Other Intelligent persons with whom I have lately conversed
from that Country that Spain will only oppose our taking
possession of the Country to the extent of Our Claims by Words
or threats; but never oppose force to force." I can
hear Nothing of Captain Pike, the Panis had heard nothing
of him or his Party about Six days Ago [manuscript illegible]
I am afraid some accident has befallen him. I cannot believe
he could have found any enemies unless it be Spaniards of the
St. Fee [Santa Fe] Settlement. If Mr. Freeman had Renewed
his voyage up Red River I Should like to have gone with him.
I Intend this Season to have a meeting with some heads of the
Hietans if I can.
I allow myself to Indulge the hope that you will approve of
my Son Saml. H. Sibley as an assistant to Mr Linnard.
I am
Sir with very great esteem
Your Obt. Servant
John Sibley
Genl. Henry Dearborn
Natchitoches July 3d 1807
About the 10th of May last I was informed by some friendly
Chata Indians that they had reasons to believe that a trav-
elling white Man had been murdered by a Creek or Conchetta
[Conchatta] Indian on one of the Branches of the Bayou Cos-
sachie between Red River and the Sabine about 40 Miles from
this place & near the Road that Leads from Oppelousas [Ope-
lousas] to Nacogdoches, I obtained from the Choctas [Choctaw]
what information I could relative to the place where the Murder
was said to have been committed, & immediately employed two
men who are Acquainted with the Country to go out & make
Search for the dead Body & They went, were gone three days
& returned & gave information On Oath that they had found
it, I then Caused a Jury of Inquest to be Summoned & went
with them to the place myself, we Examined the body & the
Verdict of the Jury was that they believed the Man to have
been Murdered, as they found in his body five wounds which
they believed to be Stabs of a Knife, the Jury took the decla-
ration of Some Indians of good Character which Strongly Cor-
roborated the belief that the Murder was Committed by the
Conchetta Indian, one of whom declared the Indian had Con-
fessed to him the Murder with all the Circumstances attend-
ing it, and farther that he Intended to Kill two more Ameri-
cans, and that he had lurked about Natchitoches for some days
to find an opportunity of Killing a Soldier, but was disappointed,
he could find none; the Jury reported they believed from infor-
mation they received the Murdered Man was of the name of
ONeal, and lived in some part of the Mississippi Territory, and
was travelling with a Horse Packed with goods from Oppolousas
[Opelousas] to Nacogdoches, the Indian took all his things &
Says he killed him by way of retaliation for the Conchetta that
was Killed by Watson at the Salt Works last December; all
the Indians of that tribe have Since disappeared from amongst
the Inhabitants, and are either at their Village on the Sabine
towards its Mouth, or gone over towards the Spanish Post of
the Accokesacos [Orcoquisac] on or near the Mouth of the River
Trinity. And the Inhabitants think travelling the Road between
this place & Oppelousas [Opelousas] dangerous. The Governor
of this Territory has been informed of all the particulars of
the affair that we know at present & it is presumed will
take Some measures to protect the Inhabitants and have the
Murderer punished; he has not yet been heard from on the
Subject.
About Eight Weeks ago the Caddo Chief sent two Special
Confidential Messengers to inform me that a party of Eight
Choctas [Choctaws] from the East Side of the Mississippi had
fallen in to a Camp of Nandacos at or Near the Salt Spring
high up on the Sabine River, and without provocation had Killed
& Scalped two women & wounded others, that the Nandacos
were under his protection, and he expected Satisfaction would
be given. I immediately employed a Man for the Purpose who
went round Amongst all the Chocta [Choctaw] Chiefs On this
Side of the Mississippi, they were Alarmed and greatly dis-
tressed—at the news & came immediately in here for Protec-
tion & advice to the number of near Three hundred Persons.
I met them & recommended it to them to delegate Some Chiefs
who were well known & respected by the Caddo Chief to repair
to his Town & in the name & in behalf of all the Chocta
[Choctaw] Nation living on the West Side of the Mississippi
express their Indignation to the Murders of those Women, &
Acquit themselves of all Knowledge or approbation of it, with
their desire to preserve inviolate on their part the peace they
made at Natchitoches on the 17th of May 1804, which was
Chearfully & unanimously Agreed to, and they sat off, I sent
Mr Philebare Our Caddo Interpreter with them, they were well
received by the Caddos who heard with pleasure their desire
to Continue in peace & amity, &
the Delegation returned well
Satisfied with their Mission, and a Chief was appointed to go
to the great Chacta [Choctaw] Nation, and request that the
leader of the party who Murdered the two Nandaco Women
Should be punished, And thus the Matter rests at present; I
was obliged to be at more expence of Provisions & Outfitts,
of Messengers etc, than I wished, when I urged The Choctas
[Choctaws] to go out hunting, and return to their Cornfields,
their reply was "when you Can tell us wheather If we go in
the Woods we are to be Killed & Scalped by those Offended
Nations, or to Kill a Deer we will go," all the other Indian
Tribes in the Vicinity felt anxious about the event between
the Caddos & their Allies, & the Chactas [Choctaws] and an
unusual number of them came in to see & hear the News
etc. About the Same time I received a friendly visit
from a Party at Panis, a Mr Lewis of Kentucky who has Spent
the last winter Amongst the Panis & Hietans came in with them,
the Great Panis Chiefs expressed through them a very great
degree of friendliness & affection for us, I treated them with
great kindness and made them some presents, I had then not
heard of the farther exploring of the River Arkensa & Red
River being postponed, And wished to prepare the way for the
friendly reception of the Party should they have visited the
Panis Nation. I sent some presents to the great Panis Chief.
—— They informed me that Governor Cordero of St.
Antonio had last Winter Sent for them, and a Minor Chief with
a Small Party had been to St. Antonio, had taken the Spaniards
by the hand had Received from them a Great Many Presents
in Arms, Amunition, Horses, Mules, Saddles, Bridles, Blankets
etc., and that they had brought home with them Three Stands
of Spanish Colours; but that the Great Chief had refused to
have them Hoisted in the Nation; but had Continued to use
an United States Flag which I gave him two years Ago, the
Great Chief sent to me for two other flags that they might
have one for each Village, I was Sorry I had none to Send
him.——I received likewise a very friendly Message from
a great Hietan Chief who with his hord had Spent Sometime
near the Panis Town. Mr. Lewis was in their Camp Some days,
he believes it Consisted of not less than three thousand Souls,
and that he saw not less than 5000 Horses and Mules. Many
of the Horses he says were large & very finely formed. I think
it probable I Shall receive a Visit from a Party of them in the
course of this Summer or Autum——Capt Pike & Doctor
Robinson will Announce to you I presume their Arrival at this
place with the most Correct Accounts from the Spanish In-
terior. I am Correctly informed there are about 200 Spanish
troops at the Accokesacos [Orcoquisac] near the Mouth of the
Trinity River, last year they only had there a Sergeant & Twelve
Men.————
Enclosed is an acct of Some Cash expenditures which Mr
Linnard has advanced for me for which Agreeable to his request
I have drawn on you for the Amt.
I am
Sir with great respect & Esteem
Your Obt. Hble Servt.
John Sibley
General Henry Dearborn.
FOOTNOTES:
fighter, and had won distinction for his ability in dealing with frontier
affairs. He had served on the frontier of New Spain since the creation of
the Interior Provinces in 1793. After the purchase of Louisiana in 1803,
Cordero was needed to place Texas in a state of defense, and in 1805 was
made governor of Texas. Homer S. Thrall, A Pictorial History of Texas
from the Earliest Visits of European Adventurers to 1879 (5th ed., rev.,
St. Louis, 1879), 528.
Louisiana, and to prohibit the entrance of foreigners; only fugitive slaves
were to cross the Sabine into Texas. The death penalty was imposed for
the disobedience of this order. In 1806, he re-enforced this order by refusing
petitions to buy needed supplies in Natchitoches, and decreed a policy of
restriction for immigrants from Louisiana, the expulsion of undesirable
immigrants who had entered Texas, and the concentration of colonists at
Villa de Salcedo, Béxar, or further west. Mattie Austin Hatcher, The
Opening of Texas, 100, 115-118.
ever, also an authority on the Indian tribes states that Sibley was mistaken.
They were different. "The Hietanes were those whom the Spaniards called
Yutas." Sibley describes the Hietanes as nomads intermittently occupying
the area lying between the Trinity and the Brazos, crossing Red River, to
the heads of the Arkansas and the Missouri, and as far as the Rio Grande.
Charles Wilson Hackett, Pichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana
and Texas, II, 74, 254-255.
bank of the Neches near its junction with the Angelina. They were on the
route from Opelousas to Nacogdoches.
called them Nadacos. They lived on the banks of the Sabine far north of
Nacogdoches. Sibley said that they considered themselves the same as
Caddos, had the same manners, customs, and language as the Caddos, and
intermarried with them. Charles Wilson Hackett, Pichardo's Treatise,
II, 158-160.
Texas after having been detained in Chihuahua as political prisoners by
the commandant general. Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, II, 3.
AFFAIRS OF THE ASSOCIATION
The forty-sixth annual meeting of the Texas State Historical
Association will be held in Austin, April 10 and 11. Papers
will be read by Colonel Paul Wakefield, M. L. Crimmins, Conde
A. Hoskins, Jack Counts, W. A. Philpott, Jr., Chris Emmett,
L. F. Sheffy, T. R. Havins, Duncan Robinson, Hattie Lee Stan-
ley, J. Frank Dobie, Clifford B. Casey, Ernest Wallace, and
Ohland Morton. The outstanding feature of the program, per-
haps, will be the dinner to be held Friday evening, April 10,
honoring Dr. Eugene Campbell Barker. At the dinner, on be-
half of the Association, J. Evetts Haley will present the Robert
Joy portrait of Dr. Barker to The University of Texas. Dr.
Homer Price Rainey, President of the University, will accept.
Other and as yet secret occurrences of interest will ensue.
On the program are the Junior Historian luncheon, at which
awards in the radio script and the Junior Historian essay con-
test will be announced; the Junior Historian reports; confer-
ence of sponsors; and Junior Historian tour of Austin. In con-
junction with the spring meeting is the first annual Texas
conference on Far Eastern Studies and the third annual sec-
tional meeting on the Preservation of Historic Buildings in
Texas.
BOOK REVIEWS
The
Continental
Congress.
By Edmund Cody Burnett.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941. Pp. xvii, 757. $6.00.
This volume is a product of ripe scholarship. Burnett's monu-
mental work, Letters
of
Members
of
the
Continental
Congress,
and the long list of his published articles on various phases of
the history of the period evidence a knowledge approaching the
encyclopedic. To him the topics are dynamic and the charac-
ters alive and active. This intimacy, it seems to this reviewer,
leads the author into a complimentary yet unwarranted assump-
tion of knowledge on the part of the reader. Delegates often
appear and disappear unheralded. One of the most valuable
contributions is the publication of a long list of hitherto obscure
or little known men, such as Burke and White of North Carolina,
and their actions on the stage of the Congress. The author
anticipates the lack-of-footnote criticism, but, to me, his expla-
nation is unsatisfactory.
The contents of the book, though divided into chapters with
vivid and illuminating headings, are developed chronologically.
There is a uniformity of excellence in treatment from the open-
ing chapter on causes to the last on "Passing the Torch," but
certain ones are exceptionally well done. "The Declaration of
Independence" and "In the Depths: The Shadow of Defeat"
stand out as two of the best.
The difficulties under which the Congress labored, such as
lack of authority, personal dislikes, divided loyalties, sectional
animosities and fears, recreancy in attendance, endless debates,
burdensome work, and distrust of the military are vividly pic-
tured. The language and spelling, unedited, are well nigh as
varied as the list of delegates, but that of doughty John Mont-
gomery of Pennsylvania (pp. 562, 585) must undoubtedly be
the most striking.
This volume is remarkably free from errors. Instead of
"fourfold" (p. 23) the author must have meant forty.
The
statement that a committee to draft a declaration of independ-
ence was appointed on June 11 (p. 173) is in conflict with
one later (p. 206). Thirty-one pages of index add much to
the value. The author has indeed related the "life story" of
the Congress, and the publishers have presented it in beautiful
format.
College of Mines.
J. L. Waller.
The
Road
to
Disappearance.
By Angie Debo.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941. Pp. xii, 399. Illus-
trations, maps. $3.50.
The University of Oklahoma Press has added another study
to its excellent series on the civilization of the American Indian.
The
Road
to
Disappearance
retells the story of early Creek
Indian life, shifting the emphasis to focus it upon the internal
life of the tribe, and brings to light the history of the Creeks
since the Civil War. This period of Creek history, according
to Miss Debo, has been almost a complete blank. The story of
their life has remained hidden in the tribal records, the ob-
scure newspapers published in their country, the reports of
government agents, and the memories of older Indians. The
title of the book emanates from the reaction of the older Indians
to enforced removal to the West, "The Indian is now on the
road
to
disappearance."
The Creeks were one of the Five Civilized Tribes and one
of the last of the five to relinquish native customs, language, and
institutions. Two centuries ago they were resting in savage con-
tentment. Encroachment by the avid white settler meant for
them first a protectorate, and then political destruction and
removal to the wilderness west of the Mississippi. There they
rebuilt, but all too soon found themselves encircled by whites
seeking land, minerals, and railway concessions. The Civil War
rent the Creek Nation in twain. Its people were nearly equally
divided in the fratricidal strife, and probably nowhere in the
United States did the conflict leave such bitterness, but they
survived and built again. But the encircling menace of a new
frontier hindered their progress, and the coming of the rail-
roads did more than all else to settle and build the Indian
country according to the white man's customs, likes, and ideas.
By 1906 the tribal government had been shorn of most of its
powers. The end came when the Creeks and their white and
Indian neighbors became citizens of the new state of Oklahoma.
The
Road
to
Disappearance
is an ambitious undertaking in
that it tells in one volume "the full Creek story from its an-
thropological beginnings to the loss by the tribe of its inde-
pendent political identity." Perhaps no writer other than the
author of The
Rise
and
Fall
of
the
Choctaw
Republic
should
have attempted it. An otherwise good narrative is unfortunately
marred at points by ambiguous construction.
The value of the book is enhanced by four maps, three of
which show Creek lands at various stages in the development
of their tribal history, and one from Frank G. Speck's "The
Creek Indians of the Taskigi Town," showing the towns of the
Creek Nation after their political rebuilding following the Civil
War. The index is adequate and the proofreading, on the
whole, carefully done. The bibliography, which lists several
collections, is not annotated, but the text and footnotes show
its value by actual use.
Edinburg Junior College.
Ohland Morton.
Henry
de
Tonty:
Fur
Trader
of
the
Mississippi.
By Edmund
Robert Murphy.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1941. Pp. xix, 129. Illus-
trations. $2.00.
From the introduction we learn that Henry de Tonty was a
many-sided man--"a soldier, an explorer, historian, and--mod-
estly, of course--a linguist, scout and guide, diplomat, Indian
leader and fighter. He was a notable publicist and pioneer of
the Mississippi Valley. Not least of all, he was a fur trader and
business man." He was well known to many important French-
men of the late seventeenth century--"La Salle, Hennepin,
Denonville, Frontenac, La Forest, Le Sueur, Joutel, Iberville,
Bienville, to mention only a few."
The story about Tonty is divided into ten chapters. The
first--on Tonty's early life--is one of two long chapters;
the ninth chapter, entitled "Royal Invasion of Tonty's Fur
Trading Domain," is the other. The second chapter lays the
beginnings of Tonty's American career with his departure for
America at the age of twenty-eight; he remained in New France
until his death in 1704. Other chapters deal with Tonty's Indian
and Canadian competitors, his work at Fort Saint Louis on the
Illinois River, his Arkansas post, his competition with the
Indians and the English, and with other activities. The tenth
chapter carries the title, "Imprint on the Mississippi Valley,"
and in it the author says: "By reason of Tonty's contributions
it may be said that he paved the way for the vanguard of
Americans lured to the west by 'manifest destiny.' American
advance into the Louisiana country was greatly facilitated by
the economic development of that region under France, and
in that development, Tonty had played a significant role." In
this last chapter "Tonty's place in history is admirably summed
up," as Professor Herbert E. Bolton says in the foreword.
The University of Texas.
R. L. Biesele.
Diplomacy
and
the
Borderlands:
The
Adams-Onís
Treaty
of
1819.
By Philip Coolidge Brooks.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1939. Pp. x, 262. Cloth,
$2.50; paper, $2.00.
Mr. Brooks indicates by the first part of the title of his
admirable study, Diplomacy
and
the
Borderlands:
The
Adams-
Onís
Treaty
of
1819,
that the agreement had a significance
much broader than is implied by the term "Purchase of Florida,"
which the settlement of 1819 has often erroneously been called.
The borderlands over which the negotiators chiefly wrangled
were not those of Florida but of the American West. Both
Adams and Onís regarded the treaty as the greatest diplomatic
achievement of their careers. In summarizing the importance
of this treaty, the author says: "By its terms the United States
received the Floridas, rounding out its domain east of the Mis-
sissippi; Spain was confirmed in her title to Texas; Santa Fé
was protected by the bending of the line to leave 360 miles
between that town and the border; and in the Northwest the
ambitious republic acquired all of Spain's rights north of what
is now the California-Oregon boundary, thus being for the
first time assured of a transcontinental domain."
Brooks points out that although the Spanish patriot assembly,
the Junta Central of Aranjuez, sent Don Luis de Onís as its
minister to the United States in the summer of 1809, the pro-
French policy of the Madison administration and the revolu-
tion in Spain restrained this government from recognizing his
credentials until December, 1815. Actually it was not until late
in 1817, after John Quincy Adams assumed his duties as Presi-
dent Monroe's Secretary of State, that any real progress was
made toward a treaty. Notwithstanding the numerous other
questions in controversy, Adams and Onis made the definition
of a boundary line between the United States and Spanish
North America a sine
qua
non
for a settlement. Despite the
temporary suspension and transfer of negotiations to Madrid,
Adams and Onis stuck tenaciously to their task until they
reached an agreement.
The Spanish foreign ministry, by successive instructions,
authorized Onis to propose various lines from the Mississippi
to the Sabine as the western limits of the United States, but
Adams insisted upon the Colorado River flowing into Mata-
gorda Bay as the minimum western delimitation. Onís resorted
to subterfuge in contending that the only Colorado the Span-
iards knew was the Red River passing by Natchitoches, Louisi-
ana. When news of Jackson's invasion of Florida reached the
capital in July, 1818, only Adams among the Washington offi-
cials defended Jackson, in order "to bolster his diplomatic
strategy." Uneasy lest the United States occupy other Spanish
territory, Onís expedited his discussions with Adams. At these
conferences Adams first mentioned extending the boundary line
to the Pacific Ocean.
In January, 1819, Onís received instructions to agree first
to the Colorado if necessary to avoid a rupture in the negotia-
tions, and second, to grant the extension to the Pacific. But
Onís offered only the Sabine as the western limit; then north
and west to the Pacific, however, the proposed line followed
approximately the course finally agreed upon. Adams regretted
giving up Texas, but he considered that concession requisite
for an agreement, since Onís concealed his instructions to yield
to the Colorado. Furthermore, Adams was securing a major
point in his demands--the first title by treaty of the United
States to land on the Pacific.
Adams and Onís, fearing that opposition to the provisions
of the treaty whereby Spain would retain Texas might jeop-
ardize the whole arrangement, then hastened to reach an ac-
cord. Two days after they signed the treaty on February 22,
1819, the United States Senate ratified it unanimously. The
treaty provided that ratifications should be exchanged within
six months. It was at first favorably received in Spain, but
the intrigues of court favorites soon produced such an adverse
reaction that the Spanish government did not approve the treaty
until October, 1820. Ratifications were finally exchanged in
Washington on February 22, 1821.
Brooks emphasizes the fact that the Adams-Onís Treaty pro-
vided for no "purchase" of the Floridas. The section relative
to the cession of the Floridas was nicely phrased so as to
satisfy both contracting parties. The author feels certain that
the Spanish ministry made use of Pichardo's Treatise
in prepar-
ing instructions to Onis. He suggests that possibly John Jacob
Astor influenced Adams to propose the extension of the bound-
ary line to the Pacific. The role played by the Spanish gov-
ernment in the negotiations, which historians have most neg-
lected in discussing the treaty, forms the dominant theme of
the narrative. Brooks is the first student to incorporate in a
single volume the results of a thorough examination of all
available materials in the archives of the United States, Spain,
England, and France bearing upon the treaty. Copious notes
at the end of each chapter testify to the prodigious extent of
his research. Reproduction of maps and the inclusion of help-
ful appendices contribute to the excellence of this compre-
hensive study.
Southwestern Louisiana Institute.
Grady D. Price.
Hands
Off:
A
History
of
the
Monroe
Doctrine.
By Dexter
Perkins.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1941. Pp. xii, 455. Illustra-
tions, index, bibliography. $3.50.
The volume under consideration is the most inclusive of all
the myriad of books on the Monroe Doctrine. It begins with
the evolution of the fundamental principles underlying the doc-
trine and ends with a cautious prediction of its probable role in
the years which lie ahead.
Dexter Perkins, the author of the book, and definitely an
authority on the Monroe Doctrine, incorporates many features
to stimulate and delight the reader. First, as fairness would
seem to demand, he gives full credit to John Adams for the
non-colonization clause and for the final form in which Monroe
issued the statement. Second, to Richard Rush and John Quincy
Adams he assigns joint responsibility for vigorously opposing
a co-declaration with England, and upholding an independent
course for the United States. In connection with the initial
issuance of the doctrine Adams said, "It would be more candid
as well as more dignified to avow our own principles rather
than to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of an English man-
of-war." Third, he develops in masterly fashion the negative
character of the doctrine prior to the Civil War. He gives
evidence sufficient to convince the most skeptical that there
was a real determination on the part of all, including Monroe,
not to allow the diplomatic statement of 1823 to involve the
United States in outside affairs, either in Europe or in South
America. Fourth, he shows with clarity how the so-called Roose-
velt corollary gave the doctrine some unpleasant implications,
and thus retarded the growth of Pan-Americanism, and pro-
moted apprehensive misgivings in the relationships between
the Americas.
In the treatment of the Monroe Doctrine, which itself is a
controversial subject, Perkins expresses his own personal opin-
ions without reservation. As a matter of fact, the subtitle of
the book might read An
Invitation
to
Controversy,
for it is
replete with controversial statements. I cite only a few: "It
is very likely," he says, "that the development of the period
from 1865 to 1895 would not have been materially different"
if the doctrine had never been issued. In referring to the same
years he says that "for this period of thirty years we must, in
the first place, rule Germany entirely out of the picture." Again
he asserts, "There is not the faintest similarity between the
policies of Conquest pursued in Eastern Asia by Japan, in
Europe by Germany, and the policy of international coopera-
tion and common defense pursued by the United States toward
the States of Latin-America." Such statements will no doubt
evoke many controversies.
The format is attractive, the type is readable, the pages are
not cluttered by notes, and, throughout the book, there is a
remarkable absence of mechanical imperfections. There are
ten illustrations, including four very clever cartoons repro-
duced from Punch,
Lustige
Blätter,
and the Cleveland
Plain
Dealer.
The style is lively; in fact, one wonders if it is not
too lively at times for historical precision. All in all, the book
is a fine piece of craftsmanship and historical writing.
Southiuest Texas State Teachers College.
Claude Elliott.
Three
Virginia
Frontiers.
By Thomas P. Abernethy.
University, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1940. Pp. xiii,
96. $1.50.
In 1937 the Graduate School and the Department of History
of Louisiana State University sponsored the first of the Walter
Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History. Dr. Thomas
Perkins Abernethy, Richmond Alumni Professor of History of
the University of Virginia, gave the annual lectures, three in
number, under this series in 1940 under the title noted above.
Specifically, the three frontiers of Virginia as chosen in the
lectures were the tidewater region, the piedmont and the valley,
and Kentucky. Professor Abernethy points out that "the tide-
water, the piedmont, and the transmontane regions of the Old
Dominion appear to be fairly representative of the first three
stages of the American frontier," and has treated them "as
iilustrative examples of the general theme." He asserts that
"the democratizing influence of the frontier" had various off-
sets, and "that much that has commonly been lauded as western
democracy was merely western self-interest and was not a par-
ticularly significant factor in the building of a 'government of
the people, by the people, for the people'."
In his first lecture Professor Abernethy considered the impact
of the frontier "upon those who were first to face it." He
warned his audience that certain areas of the frontier would
have to be subjected to detailed study before any generalizations
about the significance of the frontier could be made. "Only a
start has been made in that direction," he asserted. The sev-
enteenth century passed before the Virginians developed in-
stitutions congenial to their circumstances and environment.
During that part of the eighteenth century in which the
frontier of Virginia pushed westward through the piedmont
and the valley, some beginning was made by the political and
social institutions "to take on the color of the American scene."
At the conclusion of the second lecture, after having considered
many cross-currents, Professor Abernethy stated that the
"westward movement did not roll forward with an orderly
and irresistible force." In the lecture on Kentucky, which cov-
ered approximately the last quarter of the eighteenth century,
Professor Abernethy reached the conclusion that this third
Virginia frontier did not produce any legislation which was
"more enlightened than the contemporary legislation of Vir-
ginia," except "in the matter of manhood suffrage and repre-
sentation according to population." The statement that "the
one outstanding triumph of the popular party--the establish-
ment of the circuit court system--was a step in the wrong
direction" leaves little room for the well-known frontier thesis
to stand on.
Even if the very nature of this study, that is, a series of
lectures, did not preclude the use of footnotes, the soundness
of Professor Abernethy's earlier works would make footnotes
unnecessary. The style is clear, and the narrative moves ever
forward in a forceful and convincing manner. The memory of
Professor Walter Lynwood Fleming is indeed well honored by
these lectures.
The University of Texas.
R. L. Biesele.
"Fightin'
Joe"
Wheeler.
By John P. Dyer.
University, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1941. Pp. ix,
417. Illustrations. $3.00.
"Fightin' Joe" Wheeler was a curious mixture of a man. An
audacious cavalry raider like Moseby when operating as one
unit of a larger force, he proved time and again his inability
to "successfully conduct large scale, independent cavalry oper-
ations." Timid in imaginative planning, he was daring in the
execution of others' plans.
A West Pointer, Wheeler began his military career in the
Confederacy in North Alabama as a lieutenant. He rose rapidly
to a major-generalship and did most of his fighting in Ten-
nessee and Georgia, serving ably under Johnston and Hood. He
harassed Sherman's rear through Georgia and South Carolina
and on into North Carolina, where at the close of the war
he was captured by Federal forces.
Sometime after the war and his imprisonment, Wheeler en-
tered politics in Alabama as a somewhat unorthodox Bourbon.
Elected to Congress, he served until the Spanish-American war,
when he volunteered for service, even though it meant donning
the uniform of the United States Army; as he said to one of
his friends, he was almost afraid he'd shoot himself. As Major-
General of Volunteers, he saw actual service in Cuba; his
sixty-one years proved more than equal to the hardship of the
tropical campaign. His closing years, like those of many heroes,
were embittered with a controversy over his management of
Camp Wikoff after the war.
The career of General Wheeler is clearly and simply outlined
in this contribution to the Southern Biography Series of the
Louisiana State University Press. Dyer, a great story-teller in
his own right, has enlivened a rather factual treatment with
many Wheeler stories. Wheeler was primarily a man of action,
and his extant manuscripts give the biographer little insight
into the person. There is necessarily, therefore, relatively little
on Wheeler's personal life; it is the public character, the mili-
tary commander, the politician whom we meet in these pages.
The book itself is an attractive addition to the growing issues
of the Louisiana State University Press. There is a good index
and a critical bibliography of the useful type.
Agnes Scott College.
Philip Davidson.
The
Folk
Culture
of
Yucatán.
By Robert Redfield.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Social Anthropology-
Series, 1941. Pp. xxiii, 416. Illustrations, map, index. $3.50.
The basic culture of Yucatán represents a fusion of two
strong parent streams of culture--Spanish and Maya Indian.
In recent years this hybrid culture has been undergoing changes
due to contact with Western urban civilization; such a situa-
tion is very attractive to social anthropologists who are inter-
ested in the processes of cultural change, particularly those
involved in the transition from tribal to modern urban life. In
The
Folk
Culture
of
Yucatán
Redfield describes and analyzes
these changes that have occurred in Yucatecan culture in recent
years. The book is based upon a decade of cooperative research
sponsored by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Several
monographic reports on this work have already been published,
and others are scheduled to appear soon. Redfield's volume
embodies the results of all this work.
The method of investigation used in the Yucatecan field by
Redfield and his associates is a novel one. Four communities
were selected for study. These lie on a line extending from
the more heavily populated northwestern part of the peninsula
to the thinly settled jungle area of the southeastern interior.
The four communities include every type present in Yucatán--
a city (Mérida), a town (Dzitas), a peasant village (Chan
Kom), and a tribal village (Tusik). By proceeding in a north-
westerly direction from Tusik to Mérida it is possible to follow
the gradual transition from the culture of a Maya tribal group
to modern Spanish or Mexican civilization. The ethnic compo-
sition of the population shows a corresponding transition from
native Indian to Spanish white.
Essentially Redfield's book deals with the contrast between
tribal and modern society and the transition from the former
to the latter. Tusik is small, isolated, ethnically and culturally
homogeneous, and the customary ways of life are well organized
and have internal consistency. Group behavior predominates,
and religion--now as much Catholic as pagan--is still a vital
and cohesive element in the social structure. Mérida, on the
other hand, has all the characteristics of a modern urban com-
munity--heterogeneity, mobility, disorganization, individualized
behavior, and a high degree of secularization. The communi-
ties of Chan Kom and Dzitas occupy an intermediate position,
both spacially and culturally, and show how Mérida must have
developed out of a tribal community.
In his preface Redfield states that he has attempted to do
two things at the same time -- namely, to summarize facts
about present-day folk culture in Yucatán, and to set forth
some general ideas about the nature of society and culture.
He admits that these two may be incompatible, and this re-
viewer is inclined to agree that there are difficulties. The method
of presentation leaves something to be desired. There are special
chapters on economics, the family, religion, medicine, and
magic, etc., and in each of these there is a constant shuttling
back and forth from one Yucatecan community to another.
Thus some readers are likely to be confused and fail to get
a unified picture of the folk culture of Yucatán. Nevertheless
this comparative method does give admirable insights into the
nature of the changes that have taken place.
This volume will be of interest not only to anthropologists and
sociologists, but also to historians, political scientists, and even
to Mexican politicians. In regard to the latter group, for in-
stance, Redfield is able to show why the ejido
is not accepted
by the jungle communities of Yucatán. This book cannot be
ignored by those who wish to keep abreast of important social
changes now taking place in Mexico.
The University of Texas.
T. N. Campbell.
BOOK NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The
British
Empire,
1815-1939.
By Paul Knaplund.New York: Harper Brothers, 1941. Pp. 789. Appendix.
The University of Texas.
Mr. Knaplund has attempted to cover a vast field of material
within the covers of a single volume; therefore, one might excuse
some of the deficiencies of the volume to the nature of the
attempt. His regrettable word usage in several instances,
however, cannot be regarded as coming under this amnesty. His
wording of the Declaratory Act of 1766 (p. 4) is misleading con-
cerning the scope and general character of the act. He leaves
the student new to British history with the idea that this act
was an imperial surrender of the right of taxation over the
colonies in general. Students of American history will ques-
tion his implication that the collapse of the Confederate Gov-
ernment was due in so great an extent to a weak central gov-
ernment (p. 230).
Professor Knaplund has produced a book which brings togeth-
er a wealth of information on the last century of the British
empire. But the form of the book detracts to a certain extent
from the usefulness of the work for the average student; the
period treatment destroys its over-all continuity of the work.
An excellent bibliography and adequate index are contained in
the volume.
Van Mitchell Smith, Jr.
A
Memoir
of
an
American
Family.
The
Harrisons
of
Skimino
and
particularly
of
Jesse
Burton
and
Burton
Norvell
Harrison,
has been presented to the Association. This volume is edited
by Fairfax Harrison from material collected by Francis Burton
Harrison and privately printed for them in 1910.
The University of Texas.
Coral H. Tullis.
The University of Texas.
The Buffalo Historical Society of Buffalo, New York, has pub-
lished Volume II of The
Holland
Land
Company's
Papers.
The
reports of Joseph Ellicott as chief of survey 1799-1800 and
as agent 1800-1821 of the Holland Land Company's purchase
in western New York and of his successors in office to 1835
are included. The book is edited by Robert Warham Bingham,
Director of the Buffalo Historical Society.
Coral H. Tullis.
The University of Texas.
The Association has received from the Illinois State His-
torical Society Papers
in
Illinois
History
and
Transactions
for
the
Year
19
40.
A lengthy article entitled The
Great
Chicago
Fire,
October
8-10,
1871,
is a most interesting contribution
in the volume.
Coral H. Tullis.
The University of Texas.
The Massachusetts Historical Society published in 1941
Voyages
of
the
"Columbia"
to
the
Northwest
Coast,
1787-1790
and
1790-1793.
The logs of the voyages by petty officers with
introduction and notes by the editor, Frederick W. Harvey,
make up the book. It is both valuable and interesting.
Coral H. Tullis.
The University of Texas.
The Association received notice some time back of the publi-
cation of The
Denison
Guide,
a 29-page pamphlet, by the Works
Progress Administration under the sponsorship of the Denison,
Texas, Chamber of Commerce. The pamphlet was prepared by
the Federal Writers Project and traces, as the notice says,
"concisely but adequately, the development of the North Central
Texas city (population 13,850) situated four miles southeast
of the site of the proposed $54,000,000 hydro-electric flood
control dam on the Red River, for which authorization was
voted by Congress in 1938." The notice also describes Denison
as a "rugged Texas town" and pursues this theme throughout.
The Works Progress Administration has helped the writing
of other guides for Texas cities under local sponsorship.
R. L. Biesele.
Several times in its past issues the Quarterly
has acknowl-
edged the receipt of The
Historian,
the semi-annual publication
of Phi Alpha Theta, the national honorary fraternity for stu-
dents specializing in the study of history. This time the
Quarterly
announces the receipt of the autumn, 1941, number.
There are eight contributed articles by members in this, the
first number of the fourth volume. The quality of earlier
articles is maintained throughout, and The
Historian
thus
serves not only a useful purpose but also as a valuable in-
centive to the production of sound studies.
The University of Texas.
R. L. Biesele.
CONTRIBUTORS
Eugene
Campbell
Barker
needs no introduction to readers of
The
Southwestern
Historical
Quarterly.
Past editor of the
Quarterly,
editor of the Austin Papers, author of The
Life
of
Stephen
F.
Austin,
and teacher of young historians in
The University of Texas since the turn of the century,
Barker is one historian who has himself made history. A
significant part of the program of the spring meeting of
the Texas State Historical Association will be the occasion
of the presentation by the Association of Robert Joy's por-
trait of Dr. Barker to The University of Texas.
Colonel
Wilson
T.
Davidson,
whose uncle, Fayette, is the central
figure of "A Comanche Prisoner in 1841" in this issue, is
one of the early members of the Association. Born in
Bell County, Davidson graduated from The University of
Texas in 1891 and from the medical branch at Galveston in
1896. He is a veteran of the Spanish-American War, the
Philippine Insurrection, and the World War. He was deco-
rated for gallantry in action in the Philippines.
H.
Bailey
Carroll,
whose well-received "Texas County Histories"
is concluded in this issue, is editor of The
Junior
Historian
and past Assistant Director of the Texas State Historical
Association and now Professor of History at North Texas
Agricultural College. Those who know Bailey allege that
the jaunty tilt of his perpetual cigar has been disturbed
only twice in his entire career--once when he, in his authori-
tative study of the Santa Fé Expedition, discovered the spot
where the wagon trains were burned, and once when Dudley
Dobie beat him to the purchase of a prize bit of Texana.
Julia
Kathryn
Garrett,
Chairman of the Social Studies Depart-
ment of Paschal High School in Fort Worth, received her
doctorate from The University of California. She is author
of the popular Green
Flag
Over
Texas,
editor of the letters
of the Indian agent, Dr. John Sibley, and contributor of
many articles to the Quarterly
and other publications. Be-
cause of her interest in the Junior Historian movement,
much excellent work of her students has appeared in the
pages of The
Junior
Historian
magazine.
American policy, 157
Buck, Lieut. Beaumont B.,
16
buckskin scout costume, 244
buckskin, shrinking quality
of, 244
Buffalo, 238, 239
Buffalo Creek, 238f
Buffalo Historical Society,
397
Bullock Hotel, Austin (1840),
137
Bullock, Richard, 143
Burleson, Edw., 256
Burnet, David G., 142, 144,
256
Burnett, Edmund Cody, 384
Burnham, Jesse, 328
Burr, Aaron, 289
Burreson, Ole, 129
Butler, Jonas, 199
Butterfield Route, 372
Caballo, Juan, see John
Horse
California, Southern, 1850 -
1870 (rev.), 107
camel transportation, 277f
Campbell, Robt. A., 374
Campbell, T. N., 395
Campbell, Gov. Thos. M., 37,
50
Canuteson, Knut, 129
Canuteson, Ole, 129
"carpetbag Governor," 2
Carrizo, 2
Carroll, H. Bailey, 74, 164,
192, 199, 260, 280, 343, 376,
399
Carroll, Mary Joe, 79
Carpenter, Chas. B., 280
Carson, J. W., 57
Carter, Clarence Edwin, 216
Casey, Clifford B., 383
Cass, Lewis, 149, 152, 154,
156, 160
Cass-Irisarri treaty, 149, 151,
153, 156, 157, 158, 160
Castañeda, C. E., 106
Castillo Viejo, 150
Castro, Henry, 145
Central American animosity,
149ff
"Chambers, Jas. H., The
Original Journal of . . ."
(rev.), 122
Chance, Jos. B., 256
Chapman, Iva, 104
Chile, A History of (rev.),
315
Elkins, Jas. A., 331
Ellett, Mrs. Elizabeth F.,
252
Ellicott, Jos., 397
Elliott, Claude, 391
Emmett, Chris, 383
Emigrées in, the Wilderness
(rev.), 312
English, John, 256
English, Wm., 256, 257
Erie Canal, 238
Estep, Raymond, 368
Estill, Julia, 377
Eve, Joseph, Letters, 198
Extradition of Nationals
(rev.), 225
Far Eastern Studies, Texas
Conference on, 383
Farmer, A., 256
Farmers' Institutes, 43
fashions, Texas Republic,
244-253
Faulk, John H., 222
federal forts in Texas, 283
feed inspection, livestock, 51
Ferguson - Ball campaign
(1914), 68f
Ferguson, Jas. E., 68
feud fighting, 196
filibuster era, 149
filibusters, 150, 154, 156, 157,
160, 291
Fisk, Ethel N., 214
Fiske, John, Letters of
(rev.), 214
Flanagan, Jas. Wainwright,
191f
Flanagan, Webster, 24, 197
flour scarcity, Natchitoches
(1807), 300
Foik, Dr. Paul J., 331
Ford, Col. John S., Memoirs,
242
Forker, Mrs. Donald E., 377
"Fort Benton Journal, The,
. . ." (rev.), 122
Fort Brackett, 374
Fort Claiborne, 287
Fort Concho, 373
Fort Graham, 128
Fort Hancock, 193
Fort McIntosh, 14, 16
Forts, to be built by French,
138f; 140, 144
Foster family, 194
Four-Mile Prairie, settlement
at, 127
Fourth of July barbecue
(1834), 330
Hill, Dr. Robt. T., 280
Hillsboro, 365
Hillyer, Hamilton Briscoe,
early photographer, 190
Hillyer, Rev. John Freeman,
190
Historian, The, 398
historical interpretation,
types of, 323
History, Teaching of, . . .
(rev.), 321
History, Writing (rev.), 320
Hoblitzelle, Karl, 331
Hoffman, Fritz L., 317
Hogg - Clarke campaign
(1892), 33
Hogg - Flanagan campaign
(1890), 24
Hogg, Gov. Jas. Stephen, 24,
31, 33; platform (1890),
24
Holland Land Company' s
Papers, II (rev.), 397
Hogan, W. R., 196; 367
Holmgren, Mrs. E. A., 377
Holland, Francis, 256
Holley, Mrs. Mary Austin,
246, 249, 250
homeography, 191
Honey Grove, 279
Hopper, Rex D., 312
Horgan, Capt. Paul, 363
Horse, John, 373
Horton, John T., 199
Hoskins, Conde A., 383
Houston, Col. Andrew, 324
Houston, Sam, 127, 139, 140,
141, 143, 145, 242, 245, 247,
256, 341, 364; ball cos-
tume, 251; divorce case,
241; dress, 246, 247f; in-
augural costume (1841),
246; plan of campaign,
324ff; Turkish costume,
248
Houston, Sam, The Writings
of (rev.), 101
Houston, Mrs. Sam, 249
Houston Tap and Brazoria
R. R., 278
Howard, Capt. Hal, 16
Howell, Gretchen, 283, 366
Hughes, Frank, 374
Hulbert, Archer Butler, 212
Hulbert, Dorothy Printup,
212
Hulen, Gen. John A., 331
Hunt, Ben B., 285, 318
Huse, Anders, 129
tion, 23 ; troops' interven-
tion, 14, 17
Lassauix, Pierre de, 137
Law, Robt. Adger, 112
Lawther, Harry P., 71
League, H. H., 196
Legett, Judge K. K., 45
Lenz, Louis, 367
Leon, Alonso de, 205
Lesassier, Luke, 256
Lewton, F. L., 371
Librarian of Congress, An -
nual Report of, 122
Linnard, --, 378, 382
livestock feed inspection, 51
Livestock Feed Inspection
Bill, 52
Lockhart, 284
Lockhart, Dr. John Wash-
ington, 247
Long, Maj. S. H., 196
Long, Mrs. Jane, 245
Long Tide, On the (rev.),
209
Looscan, Mrs. Adele, 253
Los Adáes, presidio, 296
Louis Napoleon, 152, 160
Louis Phillippe, 136
Louisiana-Texas border ac-
tivities, 289 ; boundary con-
troversy, 287, 290; fron-
tier, 286-301, 378-382
Lovell, D. D., 2
Lovell, R. I., 228
Lubbock, Adele, 249
Lubbock, Francis R., 244,
249, 251, 254
Ludlow, Jas. C., 196
McCain, Wm, D., 281
McCarty, John, 366
McClellan, Mrs. Clay, 282
McClendon, R. Earl, 304
McCord, Judge Felix, 34
M'Coy, Jos., 256
McFarland, Alcalde Wm., 241
McGee, L. A., 121
McKie, Miss Blanche, 277
McKie Gift Scholarship Fund
in Law, 277
McKie, Judge W. J., 277
McKinney, Thos. F., 196
McKinney, Mrs. Thos., 250;
ballgown (1844), 249
McLean, Malcolm Dallas, 305
McLendon, James H., 377
McMahan's Chapel, 195
McMahan, Samuel B., 195
McNelly, Capt. L. H., 197
in (1807), 293
Ney, Elisabet, last work,
356
Ney Museum, 365
Nicaragua, 149ff; hostile
presidential manifesto, 154 ;
isthmian route, 149, 152,
157
Nicaragua, Lake, 154
Nierman, Virginia, 368
Nilson, Aslak, 129
Nimitz, Adm. Chester W.,
. . ., 377
Nixon, Dr. P. I., 363
Nordboe, Johan, first Nor-
wegian homesteader, 126
North Texas Agricultural
College, 194
Northwest Territory, 237
Norwegian - American His-
torical Association, 125
Norwegian immigrants, ill-
ness among, 127
Norwegian settlements, 125-
135, 369
Nunn, Curtis, 199
Nystel, Ole, Indian captive,
133
Nystel, Terjo, 129
Oberkampf, August, 366
Oliver, Lieut. Col. Max G.,
117
Olson, Jacob, 125
Olson, Joseph, 129
Olson, Knut, 129
Olson, Lars, 129
Omundson, Omund, 129
O'Neal, --, murdered by In-
dians, 380
O'Neal, Lenora, 285
Orcoquisac presidio, 298, 380
Ordinance of 1784, 237
Orleans Territory, 286, 287,
288
osage orange, 283
Osborn, W. M., 73
Ousley, Clarence, 60
Ousley, Wm. Gore, 156
Overland Mail Route, 372
Padgitt, Clint, 282
Panhandle Plains Historical
Review, 375
Paine, Thomas, 258
panic of 1819, 239
Paulson family, Norwegian
immigrants, l30 ; Paul, 129
peanut production, 42
Pearl Harbor, 284
Ross, Edw. Alsworth, 311
Ross, Jas. J., 256
Ross, Gov. L. S., 25
Round Mountain, 280
Rowland, John, 337
Royall, R. R., 257
Rusk, Gen., 127, 241
Russell, Judge John C., 20
Russia Through the Ages
. . ., (rev.), 228
Saladee, B. M., 283
Salcedo, Comm. Gen. Neme-
sio, 289, 293
Saligny, Count Alphonso
de, 136-146 ; colonization
scheme, 137 ; influence for
French recognition, 136;
"pig quarrel," 134; "pig
dispute," 146
Salmon, Richard, church col-
onizer, 279
salt manufacture, 287
salt works at Natchitoches,
294
Salveson, Knut, 129
Sam Houston Teachers Col-
lege, 366
San Antonio, Alluring (rev.),
210
San Antonio Historical As-
sociation, 376
San Antonio Rifles, 16
San Augustine, 241, 242;
committee, 242; Resolu-
tions, 242
San Bernardo Bay, 195, 288
San Felipe, 255, 283
San Jacinto Ball, Houston
(1837), 251; battle of, his-
torical significance, 323;
Monument, inscriptions,
332ff ; Museum of History,
282, 283, 323, 366 ; Museum
of History Association,
283, 331
San Juan River (Nicara-
gua), 150
Sánchez, Sheriff Darío, 7,
11, 12 ; charged with mal-
feasance, 20
Sánchez, Robt., 14
Sanford, Judge Allan, 282
Santa Fe bill (1841), 141;
expedition, 338
Saturday Review of Litera -
ture, 375
Saul, Thos. S., 256
Sawson, Jas., 340
Schlesinger, Arthur M., 123
U. S., IX (rev.), 216; X
(rev.), 219
Terry's Rangers, 6
Texan army, nature of, 324
Texan Statecraft, 1836-18 45
(rev.), 302ff
Texas Bibliographies, 195
Texas books, Philpott Col-
lection, 276f
Texas Centennial Celebra-
tions, Commission of Con-
trol for, membership of,
331; Exposition, 244
Texas Collection, Baylor Uni-
versity, 282, 366; Univer-
sity of Texas, 276
Texas colonization proposals
(1719), 203, 205
Texas Constitution of 1833,
255; Spanish translation,
256
Texas Convention (1832),
204; (1833), 240, 243;
(1833), roster of members,
256f; (1833), membership,
255-257
Texas Counties: Anderson,
80 ; Angelina, 80 ; Archer,
81, 281; Atascosa, 81;
Austin, 81, 283 ; Bailey, 82 ;
Bandera, 82 ; Bastrop, 83 ;
Bee, 83; Bell, 84; Bexar,
85, 284; Blanco, 86;
Bosque, 86, 366; Bowie,
86 ; Brazoria, 87 ; Brazos,
87; Briscoe, 88; Brown,
88 ; Burleson, 89, 284 ; Bur-
net, 89 ; Caldwell, 90 ; Cal-
houn, 90; Callahan, 90;
Cameron, 90 ; Camp, 91;
Carson, 91; Cass, 91;
Chambers, 91; Cherokee,
92, 127, 371; Clay, 92;
Coke, 92; Coleman, 92;
Collin, 93; Collingsworth,
93; Colorado, 94, 366; Co-
mal, 94; Comanche, 94;
Concho, 94; Cooke, 94;
Coryell, 95 ; Crockett, 95 ;
Crosby, 96; Dallam, 96;
Dallas, 96; Dawson, 97;
Delta, 97; Denton, 98,
archives, 122; De Witt,
98, 367; Dickens, 164;
Dimmit, 164 ; Donley, 164 ;
Duval, 164 ; Eastland, 165 ;
Ector, 165 ; Edwards, 165 ;
Ellis, 165; El Paso, 166;
Erath, 166; Falls, 166;
Fannin, 167, 279 ; Fayette,