Putnam, Ralph

Ralph Putnam, a high school Latin teacher from Denver, created the Ralph Putnam and George Creamer Collection consisting mainly of historic documents from the Texas Republic period as well as materials from Unitarian pastor Dr. Alfred P. Putnam, Ralph Putman’s ancestor. Upon Ralph Putman’s death, his former student, lawyer George Creamer, settled his estate and took the collection in lieu of payment. Creamer, a famous Colorado lawyer, who argued in front of the Supreme Court to bring about the one-man one vote ruling, willed the documents to his nephew Eric Hoffman. Hoffman donated the collection to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in 1994.

Mississippi native Daniel Perry III (1791-1869) moved to Texas with his wife Eliza and two sons Samuel and James in 1832. Shortly after their arrival, Eliza died, and in 1833 Perry married Louisa Anne Morton. In March 1836, he joined the Texas army as a captain and organized a company of volunteers from the Fort Bend area. This company merged with Captain William S. Fisher’s company on March 11. Perry fought in the battle of San Jacinto, staying with the unit until June 1836, and served in the Texas Navy during the early 1840s. His wife, Louisa, and two of his children by her died during the cholera epidemics of the 1840s, and he married Jane Hogue Hamblen in 1851. He worked most of his life as a farmer, rancher, and estate manager. Additionally, he signed the petition that created Fort Bend County and served as associate land commissioner and justice of the peace for Fort Bend County. Unable to work his plantation by himself, Perry and his family moved to Houston following the Civil War. Perry died in Houston in 1869.

Perry’s only surviving daughter, Laura Ann, married Charles C. Bryant the editor of the Corpus Christi Caller . Bryant was a Confederate veteran, who suffered a wound at the Battle of Shiloh under General Bragg. The couple had several children, including Mary Louise, who married Buck Weems of Colorado.

Alfred Porter Putnam (1827-1906) was a Unitarian pastor and historian, who founded the Danver Historical Society. A native of Danver, Massachusetts, Putnam served as the pastor of Brooklyn’s Church of the Savior for twenty-five years in the late 19th century. He published historical writings and many of his sermons as pamphlets, including A Noble Life: A Discourse Commemorative of Abiel Abbot Low (1893), Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith (1875), and A Sermon Preached at the Church of the Saviour (1865).

Source:

LifeontheBrazos.com. “Daniel Perry.” LifeontheBrazos.com. http://lifeonthebrazosriver.com/DanielPerry.htm (accessed August 20, 2010).

From the guide to the Putnam, Ralph and Creamer, George Collection 95-012., 1804, 1830-1945, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)