Manuscripts
Letters about Six years with the Texas Rangers
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Texas military history collection
Manuscripts
This group of items deals with Texas military history from 1833 to 1917. It includes an account book belonging to John H. Greenwood, the son of Garrison Greenwood, Texas pioneer, Texas Ranger, and the founder of Fort Houston (the Greenwoods moved to Texas from Illinois in 1833). The account book contains financial accounts for the Greenwood family from 1878 to 1888 and a 97-page reminiscence of the Greenwood family in Texas written by John H. Greenwood, which includes details about his father's involvement with the Texas Rangers and the Texas Revolution, Fort Brown, the siege at the Alamo and the Choctaw Indians. Greenwood also talks about Sam Houston, Antonio Santa Anna, and the attack on Fort Parker and abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker and Rachel Plummer by the Comanche. The other items in the group deal with Company K of the 4th Texas Infantry (which is now the U.S. 49th Armored Division) and their involvement in the punitive expedition into Mexico in 1916. These items include newspaper clippings, photographic postcards of the soldiers, a tintype, and poetry written by John H. Regan, a soldier in the 4th Texas. The group also includes one photograph of Company K.
mssTexasmil
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Stamp office letter book
Manuscripts
This letter book records correspondence sent out in 1827 and 1828 by the chairman of the Board of Stamps, Lt. Col. Hon. James Henry Keith Stewart. Stewart appears to have been a competent chairman and the numerous letters here, with useful index of recipients, contain much detail relating to such matters as the organization of stamp duties in Scotland and Ireland, forward estimations of annual stamp revenue, licensing arrangements for sellers of different products subject to stamp duty, the distribution offices for stamps and appointment of officials.
mssHM 80799
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This is my trip from Texas to California
Manuscripts
This typescript of Edward Hawkins Rogers' diary details his overland trip to California from Denton County, Texas. His group, which includes his wife and son, as well as several other emigrants, takes the Butterfield Overland Trail through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Rogers mentions the Butterfield Overland Stage Line stations as his group passes them. He talks about the hardships of the trail including the birth and death of his infant daughter, lack of food and water, and fear of attacks by Indians.
mssHM 66498
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The Lyman Wight colony in Texas, 1846-1858
Manuscripts
Typescript of a history of the Texas Wightites compiled by Heman Hale Smith (1887-1962). The essay traces the origins and development of Wight's Mormon community in Texas from its founding in 1846 through Wight's death in 1858. The essay draws on a variety of secondary sources and also includes transcripts of original correspondence. With bibliography.
mssHM 27981
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Recollections of Sixty Years of Engineering by John H. Quinton
Manuscripts
This typewritten memoir by Los Angeles engineer, John Henry Quinton, begins with his childhood in Enniskillen, Ireland. He continues with his decision to find work in America as an engineer after seeing an advertisement in a book for the Central Pacific Railroad Company. After a rough voyage at sea on board the steamship Circassian, he landed in San Francisco, California with $40 in his pockets in 1873. In California, Quinton writes about various ventures, from ill-conceived irrigation projects to the inception of a colony called the "California Colony," which was the foundation for the city of Fresno. At one point in the memoir, Quinton interjects with a note about his temperament. "I have already stated in these pages that I was endowed with a hasty temper as a boy, and showed it so frequently that my mother, who was a very wise woman, warned me that it would sometimes get me into serious trouble. Fortunately as I grew older I learned to retrain my temper, and although it came near getting me into serious trouble several times it never really got me into serious trouble" (p. 202). He concludes the memoir with a few kind words about Frederick Haynes Newell, the First Director of the United States Reclamation Project, and taking up work since he did in 1908.
mssHM 83618