Recollections of Early Texas
Recollections of Early Texas

Author: John Holmes Jenkins

Publisher: Univ of TX + ORM

Published: 2010-07-05

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0292749376

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“[A] firsthand account by one who measured up to the demands of danger and hardships and lived to write about it . . . Invaluable . . . Well documented.” —Library Journal As a teenager in the 1950s, John Holmes Jenkins set to work on collecting and editing his great-great-grandfather’s writings about his experiences on the Texas frontier. John Holland Jenkins joined General Sam Houston’s army at age thirteen after losing his stepfather at the Alamo. In addition to fighting the Mexicans, he faced peril from Indian warriors as well as the everyday difficulties of pioneer life. His reports on the events of the time were included in newspapers with very small readerships—and, his descendant would discover, were sometimes used word-for-word in respected history textbooks without any credit given to the source. This volume includes these memoirs of the Texas Republic and early statehood, along with illustrations, notes, biographical sketches, a bibliography, and an index. “Fascinating . . . A commendable job.” —The New York Times “[These reminiscences] light up for whoever will read the earliest days of early English-speaking Texas.” —J. Frank Dobie, from the foreword

Recollections of a Tejano Life
Recollections of a Tejano Life

Author: Antonio Menchaca

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 0292748655

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San Antonio native, military veteran, merchant, and mayor pro tem José Antonio Menchaca (1800–1879) was one of only a few Tejano leaders to leave behind an extensive manuscript of recollections. Portions of the document were published in 1907, followed by a “corrected” edition in 1937, but the complete work could not be published without painstaking reconstruction. At last available in its entirety, Menchaca’s book of reminiscences captures the social life, people, and events that shaped the history of Texas’s tumultuous transformation during his lifetime. Highlighting not only Menchaca’s acclaimed military service but also his vigorous defense of Tejanos’ rights, dignity, and heritage, Recollections of a Tejano Life charts a remarkable legacy while incorporating scholarly commentary to separate fact from fiction. Revealing how Tejanos perceived themselves and the revolutionary events that defined them, this wonderfully edited volume presents Menchaca’s remembrances of such diverse figures as Antonio López de Santa Anna, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, General Adrián Woll, Comanche chief “Casamiro,” and Texas Ranger Jack Hays. Menchaca and his fellow Tejanos were actively engaged in local struggles as Mexico won her independence from Spain; later many joined the fight to establish the Republic of Texas, only to see it annexed to the United States nine years after the Battle of San Jacinto. This first-person account corrects important misconceptions and brings previously unspoken truths vividly to life.

Women and the Texas Revolution
Women and the Texas Revolution

Author: Mary L. Scheer

Publisher: University of North Texas Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1574414690

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"Historically, wars and revolutions have offered politically and socially disadvantaged people the opportunity to contribute to the nation (or cause) in exchange for future expanded rights. Although shorter than most conflicts, the Texas Revolution nonetheless profoundly affected not only the leaders and armies, but the survivors, especially women, who endured those tumultuous events and whose lives were altered by the accompanying political, social, and economic changes.

We Pointed Them North
We Pointed Them North

Author: E.C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2015-02-16

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0806186801

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E. C. Abbott was a cowboy in the great days of the 1870's and 1880's. He came up the trail to Montana from Texas with the long-horned herds which were to stock the northern ranges; he punched cows in Montana when there wasn't a fence in the territory; and he married a daughter of Granville Stuart, the famous early-day stockman and Montana pioneer. For more than fifty years he was known to cowmen from Texas to Alberta as "Teddy Blue." This is his story, as told to Helena Huntington Smith, who says that the book is "all Teddy Blue. My part was to keep out of the way and not mess it up by being literary.... Because the cowboy flourished in the middle of the Victorian age, which is certainly a funny paradox, no realistic picture of him was ever drawn in his own day. Here is a self-portrait by a cowboy which is full and honest." And Teddy Blue himself says, "Other old-timers have told all about stampedes and swimming rivers and what a terrible time we had, but they never put in any of the fun, and fun was at least half of it." So here it is—the cowboy classic, with the "terrible" times and the "fun" which have entertained readers everywhere. First published in 1939, We Pointed Them North has been brought back into print by the University of Oklahoma Press in completely new format, with drawings by Nick Eggenhofer, and with the full, original text.

José María de Jesús Carvajal
José María de Jesús Carvajal

Author: Joseph E. Chance

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Published: 2012-08-31

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1595341234

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José María de Jesús Carvajalis both a biography of a Mexican postrevolutionary and a study of the development of a new border between Mexico and the United States during the crucial decades of the early to mid–nineteenth century. The work examines the challenges faced by Carvajal, a bilingual, bicultural character in confusing times, against the historical backdrop of the history of colonial Texas and northern Mexico. Chance has chosen to focus on a political-military figure whose career stretches from the Texas Revolution to the French Intervention. Carvajal played a key role in the violent struggle between the liberal and conservative political factions that vied for control of the Republic of Mexico from 1830 to 1874. He was the leader of a mercenary army that invaded Mexico from the United States in 1851 in an unsuccessful attempt for the creation of the so-called independent Republic of the Sierra Madre. In addition, he played significant roles in the struggle for Texas Independence and formation of the ill-fated Republic of the Rio Grande; and he opposed the American occupation of northern Mexico during the Mexican-American War, the War of Reform that solidified liberal control of Mexico under the leadership of Benito Juarez, and the French Intervention into Mexico. Carvajal’s life and exploits have been largely overlooked by contemporary historians. This work sheds new light on several important chapters in the history of Texas and northern Mexico.