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Inventory of the Alexander Thomson Letter Texas MSS 00115 ., 5 Aug. 1832

Title: Inventory of the Alexander Thomson Letter 5 Aug. 1832

According to the biographical information received with the letter and other sources, Alexander Thomson, Jr. was born 29 Aug. 1785 in St. Matthews Parrish, S.C., the only son of Alexander and Lucy (Fontaine) Thomson. Thomson lived in Georgia in his youth, and married Elizabeth Dowsing in Lincoln County, Ga. 31 July 1805. Thomson and his family left Georgia in 1814, moving to Giles County, Tenn., where Thomson rented land from Sterling Clack Robertson, who later became a land , second only to Stephen Austin in the size of his holdings. Thomson emigrated to Texas, and settled at Washington, Tex. around 1830, becoming one of the first settlers in what is now Burleson County in east Central Texas. According to the biographical note, Alexander Thomson and his wife had twelve children, but other sources state they had thirteen. The Thomson letter is addressed to his son William D. Thomson, who later served as the first county clerk of Milam County, and Engrossing clerk of the House of Representatives, First Congress, Republic of Texas, which convened at Columbia, Tex. on October 3, 1836. Alexander Thomson died 1 June 1863 (the biographical note gives May 1865), and was buried in a family graveyard at Yellow Prairie, Tex.. The Alexander Thomson letter, dated 5 Aug. 1832, from Texas, Austin's Colony, is handwritten in ink on both sides of a sheet of paper measuring 31 cm. by 37 cm., originally folded in half to form four pages, each measuring 31 cm. by 18 and a half cm. The text of the letter recounts recent events in Austin's colony which, in retrospect, have direct bearing on the brewing struggle for independence of the colony from Mexico. In the letter Thomson details the build-up of hostilities between Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn, born in Virginia, but in service to Mexico, who was made commander of Fort Anahuac. Fort Anahuac had been established in May 1831 in what is now Chambers County, Tex. by the Mexican govenment to collect customs duties, and to enforce the decree of 6 April 1830 that forbade further colonization by immigrants from the United States. On a high bluff overlooking the mouth of the Trinity River, Anahuac was an essential port of entry for early Texas colonists. As the Fort had been built, Bradford had angered colonists by conscripting labor and supplies from them for the construction. In 1832, he unjustly imprisoned William Barret Travis, Patrick C. Jack, Munroe Edwards, and other colonist. The letter vividly recounts the explosion of anger and artillery in June 1832, which followed after entreaties failed on the prisoners' account. Further hostilites, however, were prevented by the mediation of Colonel José de las Piedras, commanding Mexican troops stationed at Nacogdoches, who ordered Bradburn relieved of command, and the prisoners handed over to the civil courts. The letter details the subsequent show of support by the colonists, led by Stephen Austin, for General Antonio López de Santa Anna, seen as a champion at that time of the colonists republican ideals. Accompanying the letter are three items: a picture labeled apparently taken of an unidentified portrait oil painting; a one page, undated and unsigned biography of Alexander Thomson, on St. Louis Southwestern Railway Lines letterhead; a photocopy (ca. 1980) of a booklet prepared by Ralston P. Haun in Coleman, Tex. around 1936, which includes a transcription of the 5 Aug. 1832 letter, as well as other family letters and papers, the current disposition of which are unknown. empresario Alexander Thomson,

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Inventory of the John W. Anderson Diary Ragan MSS 00124., 1861-1866 (bulk: 1867)

Title: Inventory of the John W. Anderson Diary 1861-1866 (bulk: 1867)

John W. Anderson was born 1 April 1834, one of the eight children born to F. D. Anderson and Mary Silver Anderson of Hanford County, Md. John W. Anderson received his M.D. from the University of Maryland, and soon after accepted the offer of help to establish a medical practice from his uncle Joseph Silver, arriving in Mt. Pleasant, Ala. Sept. 1854. After a break with his benefactor in 1856, Anderson relocated to Sparta, Ala., establishing a successful medical practice, soon afterwards marrying Rosalie Josephine Witter. By the time of the diary four children had been born to the marriage, with only two surviving infancy, Francis Eugene Anderson (Frank) and Gertrude Corinne Anderson (Gertie). Rosalie's brother, Robert W. Witter, Jr. founded a small weekly newspaper in Sparta, Ala., called Anderson accepted the offer of a partnership in the paper, eventually completely abandoning his increasingly neglected medical practice in 1857. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Anderson impulsively enlisted in a company of infantry mustered in Sparta, Ala., to answer the call to defend Fort Pickens, Fla. After the company was sent back home without seeing action, Anderson travelled to Montgomery, Ala. in Feb. 1861, and obtained an office with the newly established (4 Feb. 1861) Confederate States of America Provisional Government as Corresponding Clerk in the office of C. G. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy. Anderson was later appointed (16 Aug. 1862) Recording Clerk of the Senate of the Confederate States of America. With Anderson's help, his brother-in-law, Robert B. Witter, had also obtained a position (Jan. 1862) with the Confederate government in the First Auditor's Office. Both Anderson and Witter also held the military rank of private in Company F of the Virginia 3rd Regiment, a sort of Home Guard, and lived with their families in Richmond, Va. fairly continuously during the rest of the war, after the Confederate Capital was transferred to that city in June 1861. Periodic trips to Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and Maryland, often to escape Richmond, and occasionally to visit either the Anderson family in Baltimore, or the Witter family in Pensacola, enrich the diary with descriptions of railroad and boat travel, hotel living, sightseeing and the ever-present wide-flung battlefield that the war had made of the South. After the war was over, economic conditions were even worse for the Anderson family, and, among other occupations, to make ends meet, Anderson eventually returned to newspaper work accepting a position in Nov. 1865 as a typesetter with the . The John W. Anderson Diary 1861-1866 (bulk: 1867) consists of: the original diary for the years 1861-1866, handwriten by John W. Anderson in 1867 as a fair copy presentation gift to his sister Minnie Anderson, in a notebook made by A. Drury, measuring approximately 24 x 19 cm. The notebook is bound in cardboard, covered in paper, with quarter leather corners and backstrap, and housed in the repository under Restricted access in a phase box; a complete photographic copy (with negatives) of the diary pages made in 1988, housed in polpropylene sleeves in three three-ring clamshell album boxes; and a photocopy of the photographs of the diary made on archival quality paper. The Spartan. Richmond Examiner

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Inventory of the the Mariposa Ranch Papers Dykes MSS 00082., 1890-1962

Title: Inventory of the the Mariposa Ranch Papers 1890-1962

Hacienda de la Mariposa Hacienda de la Mariposa La Hacienda de la Mariposa Cámara Ganadera de Coahuila was situated in the state of Coahuila, District of Monclova, 27 miles north of Músquiz, 50 miles southwest of Sabinas and 90 miles from Eagle Pass, TexasWith capital backing from the Learmonth family, a Scottish entrepreneur in Australia, David Harkness McKellar, an emigrant from Australia and New Zealand in the late 1880s, purchased over 250,000 acres in Coahuila and founded in 1890.The ranch sat in an open valley formed by a fork of the Santa Rosa Mountains which marked the western and northern boundaries, and protected it from winter winds. These mountains yielded cedar and oak timber for fencing and building purposes. On the southern boundary, the Sabinas River, a clear, ever-flowing mountain river, was stocked with fish. Pasture arroyos provided additional watering areas, in addition to ten natural springs, one of which was a mineral spring. Grasses and forage plants thrived, growing much taller than in Colorado or southern Texas. Nutritious Gramma grass abounded, as did Bermuda, mesquite, sotol, palmetto and guajillo, all much sought after by stock. The ranch was sold in the early 1960s by Alden Scott McKellar, a grandson of its founder, David Harkness McKellar.Correspondence, diaries, minutes, proceedings, printed material, financial documents, legal documents, photographic and audio material, maps, charts, graphs, and lists chronicle the history of and document the hard work and political savvy of the McKellars, contending with both the Mexican Revolution and land reform as they managed their ranch.Three series, personal correspondence, business correspondence, and diaries provide a record of the ranch's earnings, business analyses, ranch operations and expenses, accompanied by literate expositions on local as well as national Mexican politics. Personal correspondence (1902-1955) includes a handwritten bound volume of letters from Ernest F. Black to the Learmonth brothers, Stanley Learmonth and James Allen Learmonth, in Australia dated December 29, 1902 to September 30, 1907. Business correspondence (1882-1955; bulk: 1903-1955) documents activities relating to every facet of ranch operations such as ordering supplies and cattle sales, most correspondents being factors in Texas, Missouri, New Mexico in addition to local factors in Músquiz, Coahuila, as well as with the and Mexican National Land Mortgage and Investment Company. Also present are 11 handwritten bound volumes of outgoing correspondence (1890-1918) by Stanley Learmonth, James Allen Learmonth, and Ernest F. Black. Other significant correspondents include Sara Scott McKellar and Jésus M. Palacios. A total of 22 handwritten bound volumes of diaries and cattle records (1921-1962) recount the daily activities of the Mariposa Ranch, including weather conditions, rainfall, ranch and family activities, and visitors. Also present are maps, plats, organizational documents, contracts, Mexican political tracts as well as the organizational charter handwritten on vellum. An interview with Alden Scott Mckellar and photographic prints and negatives are also included.

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