Alkali Trails, Or, Social and Economic Movements of the Texas Frontier, 1846-1900
Alkali Trails, Or, Social and Economic Movements of the Texas Frontier, 1846-1900

Author: William Curry Holden

Publisher: Texas Tech University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780896723948

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For much of the first half century after statehood, West Texas remained a frontier wilderness and—unlike the expanding cities in East and Central Texas—sparsely populated with Anglo-American settlements. The scarce rainfalls, freezing blue northers, dusty winds, and scorching heat waves dissuaded many Texans from homesteading west of the U.S. Army's frontier fort system. For decades, only the hardiest attempted to forge their brand of civilization on the West Texas plains. Those who endured faced considerable difficulties in providing for themselves and their families. Many abandoned their homesteads in favor of larger, eastern towns where livelihoods were not so tenuous and the environment not so daunting. Yet as the nineteenth century advanced, so did the westward line of settlement. Cattle ranching ensured the rise of schools, churches, and towns as the great ranches of West Texas fed the nation's ever-growing demand for beef."Indispensable to students of Texas history and invaluable to those interested in the general social aspects of the vast subhumid region of the United States."—Walter Prescott Webb

Geology and Politics in Frontier Texas, 1845–1909
Geology and Politics in Frontier Texas, 1845–1909

Author: Walter Keene Ferguson

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2014-11-07

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1477300805

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Conservation and development of natural resources are issues of critical importance throughout the world. These issues have been matters of public concern in Texas since legislators first adopted the state-sponsored geological survey as a means of extending government funds to private citizens who would help develop and advertise the mineral and agricultural wealth of Texas. Walter Keene Ferguson examines the relation of politics to geological exploration during a critical period in Texas history—the first half-century of statehood. Although Texas shared its frontier experience with many other areas, it could not rely on federal aid in the form of land grants because the state government controlled the destiny of the public domain at all times. Acrimonious debate between farmers and urbanites of East Texas and pioneer ranchers of arid West Texas rendered the disposition of public lands even more difficult. As tools for developing and advertising resources, the geological and agricultural surveys of 1858 and 1867 fulfilled the demands of expectant capitalism made by politicians, speculators, and railroad entrepreneurs. Reconnaissance geologists publicized the wealth of Texas. Drought in 1886 and popular agitation against squandering of state land caused the emergence of a new concept of the geological survey as an instrument of land reform and public assistance. Lobbying by reformers and scientific organizations led to the formation of the Dumble Survey in 1888 and the University of Texas Mineral Survey in 1901. Stratigraphic analysis of the “individualities” of Texas geology helped the state realize its full economic potential and led to legislation to protect public mineral land from exploitation. The youthful oil industry finally removed geological exploration from the political arena. As part of the University, a permanent Bureau of Economic Geology was established in 1909 to extend the benefits of scientific research to private citizens and state organizations on a nonpartisan basis. Ferguson’s analysis of geological surveys in Texas contributes to an understanding not only of the geology and history of the state but of the urgent problem of evaluating the natural resources of underdeveloped regions.

The History of Texas
The History of Texas

Author: Robert A. Calvert

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-03-10

Total Pages: 565

ISBN-13: 1119581435

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The most comprehensive, best-illustrated survey of the Lone Star State—the new, updated edition of the classic text The History of Texas offers a sweeping exploration of the Lone Star State, covering its history from the pre-Columbian period, to the era of Spanish control, to nineteenth century watershed events, through the 1900s and into the new millennium. This engaging, student-friendly textbook looks at how people of diverse politics, identity, class, ethnicity, and race shaped the state’s past and continue to influence its present. Recent knowledge on the political, social, and cultural history of Texas provides insights on the celebrated figures, unsung heroes, and ordinary people of the state’s past. The sixth edition of this classic text has been revised and updated to reflect the latest scholarship in all fields of Texas history, among them New Indian History and cultural and gender studies. The text offers fresh perspectives on Texas history, including discussions of the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, the Second World War and post-war modernization, and the state’s transition during the 1960s and into the 1980s. Revised chapters provide wide-ranging coverage of Texas in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including recent statewide and national elections and political debates. This textbook: Connects events in post-World War II Texas to the larger U.S. historical narrative Offers substantial coverage of events occurring from 1900 to 2018 Uses a chronological approach to divide chapters into easily identifiable eras Includes engaging illustrations, maps, and tables, an appendix, and inclusive lists of recommended readings Features online resources for students and instructors, including a test bank, maps, presentation slides, and more Effectively organized to better meet the needs of instructors, The History of Texas is the ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in Texas history at colleges and universities across both the state and the nation.

The WPA Guide to Texas
The WPA Guide to Texas

Author: Federal Writers' Project

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Published: 2013-10-31

Total Pages: 615

ISBN-13: 1595342419

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During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors—many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures—were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison are among the more than 6,000 writers, editors, historians, and researchers who documented this celebration of local histories. Photographs, drawings, driving tours, detailed descriptions of towns, and rich cultural details exhibit each state’s unique flavor. Equaling the massive size of the state, the WPA Guide to Texas is just as expansive at 716 pages. From the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley, The Lone Star State’s landscape is as varied as its political and cultural past. Having been under the control of six different nations’ flags, the history section is particularly rich. The guide also includes a helpful list of books about the state.

Tejano West Texas
Tejano West Texas

Author: Arnoldo De León

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2015-07-24

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1623493056

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Featuring a side of Tejano history too often neglected, author Arnoldo De León shows that people of Spanish-Mexican descent were not passive players in or, worse, absent from West Texas history but instead were active agents at the center of it. The collection of essays in Tejano West Texas—many never before published—will correct decades of historiographical oversight by emphasizing the centrality of the Mexican American experience in the history of the region. De León, a true dean of Tejano history, showcases the continued presence and contribution of Mexican Americans to West Texas. This collection begins in the 1770s when settlers of Mexican descent first began migrating to Presidio and then to other sections of the Big Bend. De León then turns his attention to the nineteenth century when Mexican immigrants and other Texans searched for work throughout the West Texas hinterland, and his coverage continues onward through the twentieth century. Mexican American and Texas history scholars will find Tejano West Texas to be an invaluable addition to the Tejano narrative.

Texas Singularities
Texas Singularities

Author: Clay Coppedge

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2019-02-25

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1439666229

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Texas, that most singular of states, conceals an entire parade of peculiar events and exceptional people in the back pages of its history books. A Lone Star man once (and only once) tried to bulldog a steer from an airplane. One small Texas town was attacked by the Japanese, while another was "liberated" from America during the Cold War. Texan career choices include goat gland doctor, rubbing doctor, striking cowboy and singing cowboy, not to mention swatter, tangler and dunker. From gunslinger Sally Skull to would-be rainmaker R.G. Dyrenforth, Clay Coppedge collects the distinctive odds and ends of Texan lore.

Trails South
Trails South

Author: C. Robert Haywood

Publisher: Prairie Books

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0974622222

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History of the trails from Dodge City Kansas to points in Oklahoma and Texas used primarily for trade from 1880 through the turn of the century.

The Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877
The Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877

Author: Paul Howard Carlson

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1603446699

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The year 1877 was a drought year in West Texas. That summer, some forty buffalo soldiers struck out into the Llano Estacado, pursuing a band of raiding Comanches. Several days later they were missing and presumed dead from thirst. Although most of the soldiers straggled back into camp, four died, and others faced court-martial for desertion. Here, Carlson provides insight into the interaction of soldiers, hunters, settlers, and Indians on the Staked Plains.

The History of Texas
The History of Texas

Author:

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-01-28

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 1118617738

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The History of Texas is fully revised and updated in this fifth edition to reflect the latest scholarship in its coverage of Texas history from the pre-Columbian era to the present. Fully revised to reflect the most recent scholarly findings Offers extensive coverage of twentieth-century Texas history Includes an overview of Texas history up to the Election of 2012 Provides online resources for students and instructors, including a test bank, maps, presentation slides, and more

The Lonesome Plains
The Lonesome Plains

Author: Louis Fairchild

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9781585441822

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Loneliness pervaded the lives of pioneers on the American plains, including the empty expanses of West Texas. Most settlers lived in isolation broken only by occasional community gatherings such as funerals and religious revivals. In The Lonesome Plains, Louis Fairchild mines the letters and journals of West Texas settlers, as well as contemporary fiction and poetry, to record the emotions attending solitude and the ways people sought relief. Hungering for neighborliness, people came together in times of misfortune--sickness, accident, and death--and at annual religious services. In fascinating detail, Fairchild describes the practices that grew up around these two focal points of social life. He recounts the building of coffins and preparation of a body for burial, the conflicting emotions of the pain of death and the hope of heaven, the funeral rite itself, the lost and lonely graves. And he tells the story of yearly outdoor revivals: the choice of the meeting site and construction of the arbor or other shelter, the provision of food, the music and emotionally-charged services, and tangential courting and mischief. Loneliness is most recognized as a feature of life in the time of the early West Texas cattle industry, a period of sprawling cattle ranches and legendary cattle drives, roughly from 1867 to 1885. But Fairchild shows that it also characterized the lives of settlers who lived in West Texas from the beginning of permanent settlement of the Texas Panhandle (around 1876) through the population shift that occured around the turn of the century, as farmers and their families supplanted ranchers and their cattle. Fairchild draws on primary materials of the early residents to give voice to the settlers themselves and skillfully weaves a moving picture of life in the open spaces of West Texas during the frontier-rural period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.