Research Ready: October 2012

Each month, we post a processing update to notify our readers about the latest collections that have finding aids online and are primed for research. Here’s the scoop for October:

Mary and Oscar Du Congé at work
Mary and Oscar Du Congé at work. Their papers document their work, family, and social life in Waco, Texas.
Bolt Family Homestead and Legion Valley massacre scrapbook photo, 1985
Dr. Johnie Reeves at a vista overlooking the Colorado River and the Comanches’ route after the Legion Valley massacre of 1868. Legion Valley is on the other side of the Cedar Mountains in the distance.
  • William Carley Family Collection, 1834-1936, undated: Documenting the Carley family from 1836-1936, this collection includes records about William Carley’s experiences moving to Texas in 1836, his service in the United States-Mexican War, and other events in the life of the family.
  • Oscar “Doc” Norbert and Mary “Kitty” Jacques Du Congé Papers, 1908-1987: This archives consists of manuscripts pertaining to the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Du Congé. Oscar  was the first African-American Mayor of Waco, and his wife, Mary, was a schoolteacher and secretary who was a leader in the community, a socialite, and a volunteer member of many Catholic religious organizations.
  • Wilhelm Esch Collection, 1870-1943: This collection contains certificates of  appointment and of honorable discharge for German-American soldier Wilhelm Esch, photographs and books concerning military life in World War I, items related to the Order of the Elks and miscellaneous WWII items including ration books.
  • Guyler (Lydia Ann English) [Mrs. William] Papers, 1860:  A correspondence between
    Mrs. Lydia A. Guyler (Mrs. William) from General Sam Houston, in response to Mrs. Guyler’s request for Houston to name her daughter.
  • Adolf Hitler Papers, 1938-1943: Our Hitler Papers contain two documents signed by the Chancellor of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.
  • Benjamin Judson Johnson Papers, 1942-1960: These papers include correspondence, legal documents, literary productions, and artifacts relating to Benjamin’s experience in the U.S. Naval Air Force during World War II.
  • Jones Family Papers, 1857-1867, 1920, undated: The Jones family records consist of correspondence, legal, and financial documents, including fourteen Civil War letters from family members in the 10th Texas Infantry.
  • Luper Family Papers, 1909-1990: The Luper Family Papers are comprised of correspondence, literary productions, and other materials pertaining to a Baptist missionary family and their experiences during the mid-1900s in Portugal, Brazil, and central Texas. (This finding aid is updated with additional materials that came to The Texas Collection after we initially announced the finding aid in June 2012.)
  • Harry Hall Womack, Jr. Papers, 1940-1948: Womack’s papers consist of correspondence and literary productions relating to his experiences in the 1940s. These include medical school, a tour as a doctor in the Army during World War II, and the beginnings of his marriage and family.

The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo and the Sacrifice that Forged a Nation

Blood of Heroes

Please join The Texas Collection for a
book talk by author James Donovan on his recent publication,
The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo—
and the Sacrifice that Forged a Nation

Thursday, October 25, 2012
4 pm
Bennett Auditorium
Baylor University

Book signing and reception to follow at
The Texas Collection

Campus map

www.baylor.edu/lib/texas/bloodofheroes

Alamo postcard
Alamo postcard, circa 1920s, given by Mrs. J.R. Milam. From The Texas Collection postcard collection

“…Donovan has pulled together one of the best accounts ever of the Alamo siege, the attack, the massacre of James Fannin’s men at Goliad and Sam Houston’s ultimate victory over the Mexican army on April 21, 1836 at San Jacinto.”
—David Hendricks, mysanantonio.com

 

Looking Back at Baylor: The "Baylors" of '99

Baylor Football, 1899
The Baylors of 1899 gather for a team photo. Football started as an intramural competition between the classes but a school team soon developed to compete against other institutions.

This piece by former Texas Collection director Kent Keeth originally was published in The Baylor Line in October 1975, then was reprinted in Looking Back at Baylor (1985), a collection of Keeth and Harry Marsh’s historical columns for the Line. Blogging about Texas periodically features selections from Looking Back at Baylor, with hopes of sharing Keeth’s work with a new audience.

We took this excerpt from “The Baylors of 99” in honor of Saturday’s football game versus TCU, the first match-up of the teams since TCU became part of the Big 12.  In this piece, TCU 1899 graduate Charles Edward Bull  recalls the first time the schools competed at football. This was written before TCU was TCU, before Baylor became the Bears, and before the flying wedge was banned for safety reasons.

The time was September 1899. “See you in Manila” was still the popular cliche of the period. It was the day of the first football game ever played between TCU (then called AddRan) and Baylor, when both schools were located in Waco.

We had challenged them to a game, and—to our surprise—the Baylors accepted. We were cocky, and they were ascairt of us. [Baylor blogger’s aside—wouldn’t TCU like to think we were scared?! We may not have been the Bears yet, but as you’ll see, we held our own in this game!]

Came the big game, and the TCU team took the trolley cars to the Baylor field…a bed of white sand with a little bit of McLennan County black land mixed in, a perfect mixture for punkin’ yams and stingy, glistening white sandburs—or bricks. Sad to relate, the yams had not been planted but the sandburs had come up volunteer.

Baylor Football, 1900s
The Baylors play football on what is probably Carroll Field in a 1900s game. Note the lack of pads, helmets, or well-manicured playing field—and their festively striped socks!

Somebody flipped a two-bit piece, and we elected to receive. Blue-eyed Bill Doherty from Galveston took the kick-off and stiff-armed three or four men before they downed us on their 40. By a series of end runs, we worked the ball down to their 20, but we fumbled and the Baylors took over.

The game seesawed up and down across the middle for 30 minutes. At half-time, we all took off our shirts and picked stickers from each others backs, consoled by the thought that the Baylor team was doing the same thing.

Later in the game, one of their men got hit and came up with his face stuck all over with burs. “Get me out of that yaller jacket nest,” he yelled.

As we walked back toward the field for the second half, I decided to make friends with my adversary, a six-foot senior weighing upwards of 300 pounds by the name of [Ernest M.] Rasor.

“Mr. Rasor, my parents are Baptists,” I said. “Then, what the h— are you doin’ with that gang o’Campbellites?” he asked. I resented the word “gang”—made me mad. The attempted truce was off.

After every scrimmage both sides raked and picked sandburs. The official would take the ball and start scraping it on the ground; it, too, was thorny as a porcupine …..

About the middle of the second half I thought a cyclone had struck. The Baylors just played leapfrog and piled on top of me. I started counting them, hoping every thud would be the last; then I lost count.

When they untangled the heap, someone doused me with water and I sat up half dazed.

“A flying wedge hit you. How do you feel?” Bill Doherty asked. I wanted to lie down again. “Sleepy,” I said.

Later we were on the Baylor 15….. “X … Y … Z … 8 … 7 … 3,” counted Jim Ray.

The whistle blew, and we all stood up. People came crowding onto the field. “Games over,” said the official timekeeper. “A tie—0 to 0.”

“How did you like our brand of football, Mr. Rasor?” I asked my opponent.

“You outwinded us. But next time it’ll be different,” he replied.

“Not with a dull Rasor,” I retorted.