Thomas William House, early Houston businessman, banker and mayor, was born on March 4, 1814. He immigrated to Houston from England in 1838 and by 1853 had become one of Houston's most successful merchants and dry goods dealers. House married Mary Elizabeth Shearn and together they had eight children including Edward Mandell House, who was an advisor to Woodrow Wilson, and T.W. House, Jr., who in 1869 married Ruth Nicholson of Bastrop County. Together they had six children including Edith, Ellen and T. W. the third. Edith House, a native Houstonian, was one of the founders of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Ellen House married Walter L. Howze, parents of Mrs. Roy Needham.
Mary Ann, or Mollie, Nicholson was born in 1843. She married William McDowall in 1868, and they had one daughter, Ruth, born in 1869. William Nicholson, Mary Ann's brother born in 1838, was killed during the Civil War in 1864. Mary Ann returned to Bastrop in 1869 following the death of her husband, and after 1897 moved to Houston. She is noted as the first president of the Houston YWCA and taught music in Bastrop and Houston for many years. Mary Ann McDowall died in December 1931 at the age of 89. The donor of this collection, Mrs. Roy Needham, is a niece of Mary Ann Nicholson McDowall.
From the guide to the House-McDowall family papers MC123., 1838-1949, (Bulk: 1860-1890), (Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library, )
