A. Personal & Family Collection

Classification

Identifier: A

Staff Only

The Family and Personal Collection offer sources for the study of a variety of topics such as agriculture, economic conditions, the Civil War, the role of Texan women, and family history in Texas history. Such collections contain diaries, letters, land records, memoirs, and other papers collected by, and centered on, an individual or successive generations of a family. Among the collections is material from Karle Wilson Baker, Stephen F. Austin, Archie P. McDonald, and local NAACP leader Arthur Weaver. These collections document the social, cultural and economic history of East Texas from European colonialism to the present day and provide a view into southern culture and life.

Found in 372 Collections and/or Records:

Day Family Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0234

Scope and Contents

Photographs of mostly Nacogdoches schools and people.

Dates: 1899-1940s; Event: Donated in 2004

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Kelsey Harris Douglass Letters

Collection

Identifier: A-0132

Scope and Contents The collection includes seven letters written by Kelsey H. Douglass to his wife Minerva while he was a member of Congress in Houston. The letters are mostly concerned with getting things done at home during Kelsey's absence. These letters were laminated with the intent of preserving them. Unfortunately the lamination is starting to turn darker in color. There are also two letters from Minerva Douglass' aunt and uncle, Jesse and Mary Childress Benton. One letter was written from Nachitoches,...

Dates: 1837-1840, 1987; Event: Donated in 1988

Found in: East Texas Research Center

William A. Droddy Diary

Collection

Identifier: A-0072

Scope and Contents Droddy’s diary begins on May 17th, 1846 at Little Cow Creek in Jasper (now Newton) County. From there, he goes to muster in Jasper, but having missed the company, fellows them to Bevilport. From there, they take a boat down the Neches River to Beaumont, and from there, they travel to Galveston, Port Isabel, then up the Rio Grande as far north as Camargo. It concludes September 2nd, 1846. The diary relates mainly camp experiences: hunting, gambling, singing, drinking, election of...

Dates: 1823-1891

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Marylois Dunn Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0106

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of manuscripts; galley proofs; correspondence from editors, friends, and fans; reviews; newspaper clippings; and other memorabilia.

Dates: 1967-1975, 1982

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Easley-Thornton Family Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0245

Scope and Contents

The majority of the collection consists of both the Easley and Thornton family photos from 1900-1937. A few interesting photos include those of the newly built Canton Court House in 1937. This collection also contains a blank marriage license, personal letters, and postcards.

Dates: 1900-1937; Event: Donated in 2007

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Benjamin Franklin Duren Common Book

Collection

Identifier: A-0189

Scope and Contents

Most of the book contains lyrics to songs and medical remedies of the time. The year listed in the finding aid is the year that it was written in the book by B. F. Duren, with the exception of 1884 and 1889 which was written in by Mollie Duren.

Dates: 1853-1889; Event: Donated in 1995

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Durst Family Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0089

Dates: 1829-1977

Found in: East Texas Research Center

J. Elbert Reese Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0119

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other materials relating to J. Elbert Reese's extensive civic and community activities.

Dates: 1896-1985

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Allen Thomas Garrard Autobiography

Collection

Identifier: A-0112

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a brief autobiography of Allen Thomas Garrard, 'Daily Sentinel' newspaper clippings on Garrard, his obituary, and genealogical data on the Garrard family.

Dates: 1946-1961

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Henry Parks Garrison Letters

Collection

Identifier: A-0057

Scope and Contents Typescripts of correspondence between Garrison and family members during his Confederate military service. Includes material on politics, camp conditions, social life, combat, inflation, and family matters. His letters encompass the years of 1860 to 1863 and relate to his family the details of army life, battles he fought during the Civil War, and the hardships suffered by the Confederate troops. The letters convey his hopes for a quick end to the rebellion and that the...

Dates: 1860-1863

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Rector-Stockwell Family Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0256

Scope and Contents

The material in this collection consists of genealogical research on the decedents of Emanuel and Mary Strahan. The researched was conducted by Barbara Oliver Stockwell and Lorene Hobbs Rector. Both women are third generation Strahans.

Dates: 1751-1990

Found in: East Texas Research Center

William F. Price Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0026

Scope and Contents Most of the collection consists of papers of Elijah and Temperence Price, but there are also papers relating to the Blount & Price mercantile business, George Fulton Crocket and his family, and S[tephen] W[illiam] Blount & Co., all of San Augustine. Crocket and Blount, along with Travis Gustavus Broocks and Mathew Cartwright, jointly operated a steam mill near San Augustine which appears to have had facilities for sawing lumber and grinding grain. The papers include correspondence;...

Dates: 1837-1867

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Peyton Forbes Edwards Ledger

Collection

Identifier: A-0066

Scope and Contents

Stamped "General Index - Peyton F. Edwards" the ledger serves as an index to Dockets D and E of an unidentified record of judgments. The names included in the index are those of Nacogdoches residents of the period.

Dates: circa 1873

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Elliot A. P. Evans East Texas Houses Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0207

Scope and Contents

The collection contains photographs, postcards, correspondence, and newspaper articles pertaining to Mr. Evans' research on East Texas Homes.

Dates: 1944-1973; Event: Donated 10/1985; Event: Photos and negatives of Louisiana houses transferred to Northwestern State University, 1985

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Quillian Garrison Research Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0042

Scope and Contents This collection consists of correspondence, notes, copies of documents such as military records, Bible records, obituary notices, census data, deeds, death certificates, and newspaper clippings used by Miss Quillian Garrison to do the research for her book Descendants of Caleb Garrison, Sr. and His Wife, Sarah Fleming 1797-1966. Many of the descendants of Caleb Garrison lived in East Texas. The town of Garrison in Nacogdoches County is named for the Garrison family. There...

Dates: 1831-1973

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Edwin W. Gaston, Jr. Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0048

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of correspondence with publishers, biographical material, reviews, newspaper clippings, and galley proofs relating to Gaston's books: The Early Novel of the Southwest (1961), Conrad Richter (1965), and Eugene Manlove Rhodes: Cowboy Chronicler (1967).

Dates: 1946-1977; Event: Donated in 1977

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Goss Family Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0187

Dates: 1859

Found in: East Texas Research Center

J. Roy Gray Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0152

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of original deeds and other documents relating to the von der Hoya family in Nacogdoches. One item of interest is a conveyance of property in Nacogdoches from Thomas J. Rusk to Bennett Blake which includes the Red House. The Red House was the Old Spanish Barracks until 1832, and in 1845 it became Nacogdoches University.

Dates: 1830-1881; Event: Donated in 1960

Found in: East Texas Research Center

John Gurnett Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0183

Scope and Contents

The letters concern an incomplete Spanish land document for land in Nacogdoches County.

Dates: 1787, 1860; Event: Donated 5/1997

Found in: East Texas Research Center

Francois Arsene Gutziet Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0121

Scope and Contents This collection includes personal correspondence between Nona Gutzeit and Mrs. Frank G. Trau, both members of the Daughters of American Colonists National Society, which provides a brief genealogical outline of the Gutzeit family. The collection includes legal documents relating to the property of F. A. Gutzeit in Medina County and Bexar County, Texas. Also included are the death certificate of F. A. Gutzeit's sister, Marguerite Clemence Phillipps, and a warranty deed for property willed to...

Dates: 1854-1951

Found in: East Texas Research Center