Nesbitt Memorial Library

Section 2

Articles

Section 2 - Articles

"Back to the Days of Santa Anna." The Texas Druggist, volume 51, number 2, March 1930, pp. 37-40. A celebration of Zumwalt's Drug Store in Columbus, probably written by Oscar Zumwalt.*

Baker, Rollin Harold. "The Biological Survey of Colorado County—1937-1939." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 4, number 3, September 1994, pp. 127-154. The author's reminiscences with two appendices, one containing the original reports resulting from the survey, the other containing the obituary of a fantastically successful local deer hunter.

Baker, Rollin Harold. "Colorado County Wildlife Under Siege." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 10, number 2, July 2000, pp. 67-75. Remarks on the changes in Colorado County’s wildlife wrought by the infusion of man.

Baker, Rollin Harold. "The Ice Age Megafauna of Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 10, number 2, July 2000, pp. 77-86. What is revealed about the history of the county’s fauna by the fossil record.

Baker, Rollin Harold. "The Molding of a Champion Athlete: Wallace of Eagle Lake." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 1, January 1993, pp. 38-44. The story of future All-American Bill Wallace's athletic feats at Eagle Lake High School.

Baker, Rollin Harold. "The Texas Beaver: Described From Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 1, November 1989, pp. 24-27. The history of beaver in Colorado County.

Baker, Rollin Harold. "Tom Waddell's Wildlife 'Family'." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 7, November 1990, pp. 214-219. The story of a game warden's struggle to save and revive the deer and other animal populations.

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Becker, Beverly. "Letters From the Front and Other Writings." El Palacio Magazine of the Museum of New Mexico, volume 96, number 2, Spring 1991, pp. 16-23. Contains excerpts from letters written by John Samuel Shropshire during the Civil War.   GA S-3 174

Boethel, Paul Carl. "The Widow's Plight and Place." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 1, January 1993, pp. 33-37. A look at the way two Oakland area plantations were run by the widows who inherited them.

Bostick, Sion Record. "Reminiscences of Sion R. Bostick." The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, volume 5, number 2, October 1901, pp. 85-96. Recollections of a man who lived in Columbus and joined Sam Houston’s army there; mostly concerned with his military experiences and his role in the capture of Santa Anna after the Battle of San Jacinto, but with a few paragraphs about his school days in Columbus.

Boswell, Angela. “Married Women’s Property Rights and the Challenge to the Patriarchal Order: Colorado County, Texas.” Chapter (pp. 89-109) in Janet L.Coryell, Thomas H. Appleton Jr., Anastasia Sims, Sandra Gioia Treadway, eds., Negotiating Boundaries of Southern Womanhood: Dealing with the Powers That Be. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2000.  GA B-2 213

Boswell, Angela. “The Social Acceptability of Nineteenth-Century Domestic Violence.” Chapter (pp. 139-161) in Philip D. Dillard and Randal L. Hall, eds., The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1999.  GA B-2 214

Boswell, Angela. "Teresa E. Wooldridge Ivey: Constructing an Ideal Southern Lady." Chapter in Kriste Lindenmeyer, ed. Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: Women in American History. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 2000.  GA B-2 215

Broome, Fiona. "More Eerie Places Around Austin: Columbus and the Twenty-Year Feud." Chapter (pp. 131-149) in The Ghosts of Austin: Who They Are and Where to Find Them. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 2007  Wild ghost stories, based somewhat on the violent history of Columbus, but with augmentation by the author, who received the added information ethereally.  Call # T 133.1 BRO

Bruce, Jaquelin Smith. "Reminiscences of the Past." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 1, November 1989, pp. 3-19. Recollections of early days in Eagle Lake by a longtime physician, originally published in six installments in a local newspaper in 1923.

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Campbell, Randolph B. "Reconstruction in Colorado County, Texas." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 5, number 1, January 1995, pp. 3-30. Reprint. Chapter (pp. 27-62) in Randolph B. Campbell. Grass Roots Reconstruction in Texas, 1865-1880. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. The political machinations inside the county during Reconstruction.

Carver, Purvis M. "Robert L. Smith, The Farmer's Improvement Society: A Self-Help Movement in Texas." Negro History Bulletin, volume 29, Fall 1966, pp. 175-176, 190-191. Concerned mostly with Smith’s life after he left Colorado County, and probably impaired because, as the editor notes, he "had to delete a large number of footnote references."

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"Charlie Rau Is Columbus Chief." The Texas Fireman, volume 7, number 12, August 1949, pp. 15-16. Brief biographical sketch of the longtime Columbus fire chief.  GA Texas-7 265

"Colorado County Marker Relates Early History." County Progress, volume 36, number 10, October 1959, page 10. Simply a transcription of the 1936 historical marker on the courthouse square, with a very brief introduction.*

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"Columbus Has Unique Fire Department History." The Texas Fireman, volume 7, number 12, August 1949, pp. 13-14. Apparently, being unique is not the same thing as being interesting. GA Texas-7 265

Corbin, Gladden and Marlene, photographers. "Versatility in Eclectic Decorating." Antiquing in Texas, Fall 1980, pp. 28-29. Two page layout with four photographs of the home and interior furnishings of Sidney Greak in Columbus.*

Cousins, Kelly. "Terror in the Texas Pecan Grove." Famous Detective Cases, volume 3, number 5, July 1936, pp. 18-21, 98-103. A sensational account of the 1935 double lynching at Columbus, focusing on the case from a law enforcement standpoint. The article contains a transcript of a portion of the confession of one of the hanged men.*

Crawford, Ann Fears and Crystal Sasse Ragsdale. "Texas’s Rose." Chapter (pp. 38-49) in Women in Texas Their Lives Their Experiences Their Accomplishments. Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1982.  Call # T 305.4 CRA

Crouch, Barry A. "The Freedmen's Bureau in Colorado County, Texas, 1865-1868," Part 1. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 5, number 2, May 1995, pp. 71-104. First installment of a detailed look at the activities of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in Colorado County.

 

Crouch, Barry A. "The Freedmen's Bureau in Colorado County, Texas, 1865-1868," Part 2. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 7, number 3, September 1997, pp. 147-175. Second installment of a detailed look at the activities of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in Colorado County.

Crouch, Barry A. "The Freedmen's Bureau in Colorado County, Texas, 1865-1868," Part 3. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 1, January 1998, pp. 3-31. Final installment of a detailed look at the activities of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in Colorado County.

Curtis, W. T. "Columbus Baptists Start Enlargement." The Texas Evangel, volume 4, number 5, May 9, 1940, pp. 17-21. History of the Baptist church in Columbus, written with appropriate attention to sources. GA Texas-7 263

Darden, Fannie Amelia Dickson. "Dillard Cooper's Remembrances of the Fannin Massacre." American Sketch Book, volume 7, number 2, 1882, pp. 103-111. Reprint, in abridged form and with other alterations, Andrew Jackson Sowell, Rangers and Pioneers of Texas (n. p., 1884. Reprint, New York: Sentry Press, 1964), pp. 160-168. Reprint, Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 9, number 3, pp. 133-140. The experiences of a Columbus man in the Texas Revolution, summarized from interviews with the author. The article was originally printed in Colorado Citizen, July 30, 1874.

 

Darden, Fannie Amelia Dickson. "Legend of Eagle Lake, Texas." American Sketch Book, volume 7, number 2, 1882, pp. 99-102. Reprinted in William Mark Stein, comp. "Legends of the Lake." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 4, number 3, September 1994, pp. 157-159. Silly legend featuring Indians, eagles, and true love.

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Davis, Joe Tom. "Columbus: A Walk Into a Proud Past." Chapter (pp. 88-173) in Historic Towns of Texas, volume 2. Austin: Eakin Press, 1996. The best short history of Columbus, and well illustrated. Call # T 976.4 DAV

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Dodds, Estelle. “Pioneer Texas Farming,” Farm and Ranch, volume 54, number 16, August 15, 1935, pp. 2, 7. Contains scattered information about the Tait family’s Sylvania Plantation, including many of the slave rules and a picture of the family homes in town and on the ranch. GA F-1 10

Doolin, Jim. "A Unique Hand-Drawn Confederate Patriotic from Columbus, Texas." Confederate Philatelist, volume 51, number 4, October-December 2006, pp. 5-7. Item about two letters written from the little-known and seldom referenced Confederate hospital in Columbus in 1863. As philatelists would expect, the article is really about the envelopes. The likely historically valuable content of the letters is nearly ignored.* [possibly the entry in GA Columbus-2 101 "Confederate Envelope"]

Fitterer, Gary P. "Braddock and Moore: Two of Texas’ Worst." True West, volume 46, number 12, December 1999, pp. 18-24. The same story told in William M. Stein’s 1993 article "The Conflict Between H. H. Moore and Sheriff Light Townsend Concluding With the Story of the Rock Which Triggered the Deaths of Four Men," told in virtually the same way. Only some words were changed to protect the guilty.

Flachmeier, Emily Jo. "Joseph Jefferson Mansfield." The Junior Historian, volume 15, number 4, January 1955, pp. 15, 18. Nice outline of the politician's life, wherein the author, in high school at the time, reports that in his early years, Mansfield worked as a "general flunkey" for the railroad.*

Flachmeier, Emily Jo. "The Master of Sylvania." The Junior Historian, volume 16, number 5, March 1956, pp. 1-4, 8. Brief account of the life and career of Charles William Tait.  Bill Stein-3 78

Flachmeier, Jeanette Hastedt. "Fannie Baker Darden." Chapter (pp. 59-64) in Evelyn M. Carrington, ed. Women in Early Texas. Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company, 1975. Reprint. Austin: Texas State Historical Society, 1994. Error-filled brief account of the Columbus writer’s life. Call # T 920.72 WOM

 

Flachmeier, Jeanette Hastedt. "Dilue Rose Harris." Chapter (pp. 101-107) in Evelyn M. Carrington, ed. Women in Early Texas. Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company, 1975. Reprint. Austin: Texas State Historical Society, 1994. Later expanded by the author into a small book (see Section 1).  Call # T 920.72 WOM

 

Fling, Joe C. "Supreme Sacrifice: Colorado County's World War II Dead." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 5, number 3, September 1995, pp. 111-169. Accounts of the careers and deaths of the county’s several citizens who were killed in World War II.

Fox, E. A. "Eagle Lake, Queen City of Colorado County." The Texas Magazine, March 1911, pp. 65-68. Reprint. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 3, September 1996, pp. 160-162. A report on the condition of Eagle Lake in 1911.

Glass, Olive Jewell with Media Lynn Dawson and John Gladys Mosby. "Beyond the Dream: A Celebration of Black History; Discovering the Past, Understanding the Future." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 3, September 1998, pp. 181-182. Recollections of black high school football, by three local women.

Gordon, Jennifer. "Magnolia Days are Here Again." Texas Highways, volume 21, number 4, April 1974, pp. 24-26. Article promoting a Columbus festival, with the usual bevy of misstatements regarding the town's history.*

Grissom, Ouida Boulden. "Letter to the Southern Pacific." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 4, number 3, September 1994, pp. 169-170. Nostalgic recollection of a Columbus girl’s relationship to the railroad

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Gross, Jean and Anders Saustrup, eds. "From Coblenz to Colorado County, 1843-1844: Early Leyendecker Letters to the Old Country." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 6, August 1990, pp. 171-206. Long letters by a German man and his wife to parties in Germany describing their voyage and their new surroundings, exhaustively footnoted.

Hale, Leon. "Time for a Blowout." Texas Parade, volume 33, number 12, May 1973, pp. 34-36, 38. Promotional item regarding the sesquicentennial celebration in Columbus, with an illustration by Charles Shaw.*

Harrison, Robert Henry. "The Epidemic of 1873, in Columbus, Texas." Chapter (pp. 109-124) in Greensville Dowell, Yellow Fever and Malarial Diseases Embracing a History of the Epidemics of Yellow Fever in Texas, Philadelphia, 1876. Reprint. William Mark Stein, ed. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 3, September 1992, pp. 131-158. Detailed medical study of the most remembered epidemic in county history, with, in the edited reprint, a list of its victims.

Harrison, William Henry. "Rancher to Bank President." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 5, number 2, May 1995, pp. 105-106. A prominent local citizen recounts how he unexpectedly became a bank president.

Herring, Klaus. "Beauty on the Colorado." Texas Country, volume 2, number 1, July 1985, pp. 10-11. Another in the seemingly endless series of ridiculous articles rehashing old legends and myths, this one with the additional defect of poor writing. GA Texas-7 261

Hillboldt, Charlie. "Cow Man of the Old School." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 3, February 1990, pp. 92-93. Brief remarks by an old cowboy on the cattle business, originally published in the March 3,1939 edition of the Eagle Lake Headlight.

Hodge, Larry D. "From Rags to Riches." Texas Parks & Wildlife, volume 61, number 9, September 2003, pp. 52-53. The story of how Colorado County hunting guides Marvin Tyler and Jimmy Reel invented the "Texas rag spread," a method of hunting geese.*

Hodge, Larry D. "Easy Geese." Texas Parks & Wildlife, volume 61, number 10, October 2003, pp. 48-52. Goose hunting in and near Colorado County.  *

Horton, Joel. "Columbus." Texas Co-op Power, volume 48, number 9, May 1992, pp. 8-10. Yet another promotional article, this one involving the celebration of the quincentennial of Christopher Columbus' voyages, laced with inaccuracies.  *

Irvine, Laura J. "Sketch of Colorado County." American Sketch Book, volume 7, number 2, 1882, pp. 85-96. Reprint. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 1, January 1998. A brief history of the county and information about its condition in 1882. One of the first, if not the first, published histories of the county, this one, at least, was apparently based on the recollections of still-living long-time residents who were interviewed by the author.

Johnson, David. "James Monroe Daniels: A Preliminary Portrait." Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History, Inc., volume 30, number 1, January - March 2006, pp. 14-16. Sketch of the life of a man who spent several years as an influential citizen of Columbus, and then was killed in Lampasas while serving as a state policeman. *

 

Jones, Tommie. "Discover Columbus." Antiques USA, volume 9, number 2, May/June 1981, pp. 5-8. The same old promotional material, with the same old erroneous "history."  GA A-2 133

Kent, Shauna Thompson. "The Prairie Sentinel." Houston Home & Garden, August 1978, pp. 109-113. A romantic look at the John Stafford home and its history.  *

Kilgore, Daniel Edmond. "Two Sixshooters and a Sunbonnet." Chapter (pp. 59-71) in Francis Edward Abernathy, ed. Legendary Ladies of Texas. Dallas: E-Heart Press, 1981. The best of the biographical sketches of Sally Scull, though the author gives her last name as "Skull."  Call # T 920 ABE

Koliba, Bernice. "The Last Three Years of Zimmerscheidt School." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 1, January 1992, pp. 39-40. Brief reminiscence of a rural school by its last teacher.

Kretzschmar, Angelina Genzer. "William and Marie Bergmann Schmidt, My Great-Great Grandparents and the Cemetery They Started in 1872." The Journal of the German-Texan Heritage Society, volume 27, number 4, Winter 2005, pp. 328-334. Family history, with considerable information about the Riesing Cemetery.

Lemann, Nicholas. "Where Have All the Young Folks Gone?" Texas Monthly, volume 14, number 1, January 1986, pp. 236-237, 318-326. Reprint, Paul Burka, ed. Texas, Our Texas. Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1986. Nicely done piece on the decline of Garwood’s economy and population. The reprint is a hardbound version of the magazine’s "Sesquicentennial Collector’s Issue" with the advertising omitted.  Call # T 976.4 TEX

 

Leshner, William. "'The White City on the Sap'." The Texas Magazine, April 1910, pp. 75-76. Reprint. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 1, January 1996, 57-58. A report on Rock Island in 1910.

Leslie, Candace. "Year-round Cheer at Columbus' Santa Claus Museum." Texas Highways, volume 41, number 12, December 1994, pp. 34-37. Well-illustrated promotional article on a Columbus museum.  *

 

 

"Letter from William B. Dewees to his Mother." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 10, September 1991, pp. 313-316. The Columbus pioneer's earliest days in Texas, in what may or may not be his own words. The letter was published in the July 7, 1923 edition of the Eagle Lake Headlight, and credited therein to the Lockhart Daily Post. Its origins are otherwise unknown. It is not one of the so-called letters in Dewees’ Letters from an Early Settler of Texas.

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Leyendecker, Crockett. Translated by Sabine Hübner. "Pekan-Nüsse und Langhornrinder." Die Augst, number 2, 1992, pp. 19-24. Article on the Leyendecker family in Texas, written in English then translated and published in a German regional magazine. Much of the article was written by Mary Ann Pickens, though she is not credited. In German.

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Magnolia Homes Tour, Inc. "Walking Tour Focuses on Columbus' Heritage." Heritage, volume 6, number 1, Spring 1988, pp. 28-30. One of the many articles promoting tourism in Columbus. If you have read one, you have read them all.

Mahon, Frances Ann. "Reminiscences of Mrs. F. G. Mahon." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 9, number 1, January 1999, pp. 41-46. School days and other experiences related by a woman who came to the county in 1860.

Maret, James. "Columbus in the Days of 1874." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 2, May 1998, pp. 113-114. Recollections of an early citizen, reprinted from the Weimar Mercury, March 9, 1917.

McCarty, Letitia Madeleine. "Looking Backward." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 1, November 1989, pp. 20-23. Recollections of early days in Eagle Lake, originally published in a 1905 newspaper.

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McCoy, Elizabeth. "Magnolias and Mansions." Texas Parade, volume 32, number 12, May 1972, pp. 50-51. One of the earliest articles regarding the Magnolia Homes Tour in Columbus, filled with the usual nonsense. *

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McCullar, Michael. "Magnolia Home." Texas Architect, volume 28, number 3, May/June 1978, pp. 43-47. One of the many articles regarding tourism in Columbus, and, like most, promotional rather than informative.   GA Texas-7 259

Metzke, Raymond Albert. "Reminiscences of Boyhood in Columbus." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 2, May 1992, pp. 91-121. Events and places in Columbus in the second decade of the twentieth century remembered more than fifty years later. An absolutely invaluable primary source as well as an engaging story.

Murray, Myrtle. "John F. Miller Colorado County." Chapter 23 in a series, "Home Life in Early Ranches of Southwest Texas." The Cattleman, volume 26, number 6, November 1939, pp. 55-58. Nice piece about the Miller Ranch south of Columbus. *

Neal, Benjamin Harris. "Pioneer Days When Sturdy Men Laid Strong Foundations." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 3, February 1990, pp. 94-98. A physician's account of his arrival and early days in Texas, originally published in a 1917 newspaper.

Osborn, William S. “A History of the Cane Belt Branch of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 101, no. 3, January 1998, pp. 303-319.

Osborne, Holly W. "Long-Time Deputy Still Going Strong." The Texas Lawman, volume 46, number 2, May 1977, pp. 40-41. Brief account of the career of Otto Strunk, who at the time had been a Colorado County law enforcement officer for 69 years. *

Parsons, Chuck. "19th Century Shining Star: James W. Guynn." Texas Ranger Dispatch Magazine (on-line magazine), number 10, Spring 2003. Brief biographical sketch of a Columbus man who served with Leander H. McNelly's rangers, This well-done piece by a veteran "Wild West" writer and McNelly biographer includes transcriptions of letters Guynn wrote while with McNelly.  *

Parisi, Phil. "Courthouse Jubilee." The Medallion, April 1990, pp. 4-5. One of the many articles promoting tourism in Columbus. Not worth the effort it would take to find it. *

Patterson, Leland W., Raymond Wells McCausland, and Joe D. Hudgins. "Site 41 CD 122, A Long Occupation in Colorado County, Texas." La Tierra, volume 16, number 4, October 1989, pp. 33-37. Results of an archaeological dig for Indian artifacts in northern Colorado County. Highly technical and well illustrated.  GA T-3 179

Pitre, Merline. "Robert L. Smith: The Accommodationist." Chapter (pp. 179-187) in Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares. Austin: Eakin Press, 1985. The best existing biographical sketch of the Oakland school teacher who became a noted black political figure, but one that could be improved upon.  Call # T 976.4 Pit

Pitre, Merline. "Robert Lloyd Smith: A Black Lawmaker in the Shadow of Booker T. Washington." Phylon, volume 46, September 1985, pp. 262-268. A shorter and otherwise slightly altered version of the chapter on Smith in Pitre’s Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares.  *

 

Rau, Laura Ann Dick. "Nancy Millar Alley." Chapter (pp. 13-17) in Evelyn M. Carrington, ed. Women in Early Texas. Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company, 1975. Reprint. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1994. Biographical sketch of the author’s great-great-great grandmother.  Call # T 920.72 WOM

"Sam K. Seymour Jr.: LCRA's Human Dynamo." Lower Colorado River Review, volume 4, number 3, 1979, pp. 22-23. Flattering biographical sketch of the longtime Lower Colorado River Authority director.   GA L-4 221

Schoellmann, Elizabeth and William Mark Stein. "A Rock Island Reader." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 3, September 1992, pp. 160-177. Items on Rock Island's first two years, extracted from pages of the Colorado Citizen.

Seaholm, Ernest Mae. "The Angus McNeill Family." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 2, May 1998, pp. 51-78. The experiences of an important slave-holding family, which produced two high-ranking Confederate officers.

 

Seaholm, Ernest Mae and William Mark Stein, eds. "Richard V. Cook and the Battle of Sabine Pass." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 8, February 1991, pp. 243-260. Letters and recollections regarding the Civil War Battle of Sabine Pass and the participation of a Colorado County company in it.

Sheehy, Sandy. "The Country Doctor is Alive and Well." Texas Co-op Power, volume 64, number 8, February 2008, pp. 6-13. The medical practices of three Weimar physicians, Robert Youens, Jorge Duchicela, and Olga Duchicela.

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Sherley, Connie. "Columbus—A Texas Classic." Texas Highways, volume 36, number 5, May 1989, pp. 2-9. One of the many articles promoting tourism in Columbus. Not much history, and that rose-colored. Several fine photographs by J. Griffis Smith.  GA Texas-2 70

Smith, Robert Lloyd. "The Elevation of Negro Farm Life." Independent, August 30, 1900, pp. 2103-2106. A second, extremely useful article on the Farmer’s Improvement Society, offering different statistics from those in the article published in Outlook (see below) six months earlier.  *

Smith, Robert Lloyd. "Uplifting Negro Cooperational Society." The World Work, volume 16, July 1908, pp. 1-3.  *

Smith, Robert Lloyd. "Village Improvement Among the Negroes." Outlook, March 2, 1900, pp. 773-774. The effect on Oakland's black community of the establishment of the Farmer's Improvement Society, written by its founder.  *

Smith-Rodgers, Sheryl. "Weimar—Where Baseball Rules." Texas Co-op Power, volume 60, number 2, August 2003, pp. 6-11. Well illustrated with photographs, including one on the cover. *

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Sonnichsen, Charles Leland. "All In The Family." Chapter (15 pages) in I'll Die Before I'll Run. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951. Reprint, New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1962. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. The first published account of the feuds at Columbus. This well respected historian's account is reliable, though neither thorough nor detailed. Sonnichsen ties the 1890 murder of the Stafford brothers to the series of shootouts involving the Townsends and the Reeses that began in 1898, but offers little justification for doing so. He probably formed his initial impression of the feud in interviews with some former residents of Columbus who then lived in or near El Paso, as did he. These individuals, however, lived in Columbus for a very short time when they were children, and were apparently close friends with the Reeses. Both facts almost certainly colored their perceptions. One of the people he interviewed, Ralph Grimes, was apparently a witness to the murder of the Staffords. It might have been Grimes’ conviction that the Stafford murders were part of the subsequent feuding, formed as a young man who had not lived in Columbus for nearly a decade when the feud actually began, that influenced Sonnichsen to believe that it was. Sonnichsen interviewed several people in Columbus, including one man, Henry Thomas, who had direct knowledge of the Stafford family. In Hallettsville, he found a man he identified as Doc Houchens who was associated with the Reeses. In his notes, Sonnichsen also refers to a chapter on this feud in Claude Leroy Douglas’ Famous Texas Feuds (Dallas: The Turner Company, 1936. Reprint, Austin: State House Press, 1988), but no such chapter exists.  Call # T 976.4 SON

 

  Spellman, Paul N. "Trouble in Colorado County." Chapter (16 pages) in Captain J. A. Brooks: Texas Ranger. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2007. Accurate, brief account of the feud at Columbus, included in a biography of one of the Texas Rangers who had to deal with it. Actually, only the first half of the chapter deals directly with the feud. Spellman interviewed the author of this bibliography, who had researched the subject for twenty years or more, and accurately reported what I said, so how can I take exception to his work? It's a lovely job.  Call #: T 363.209 SPE

 

Stein, William Mark. "The Alleyton Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 3, September 1992, pp. 158-159.

Stein, William Mark. "A Bar Bet Gone Wrong." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 7, November 1990, p. 234. The story of a tragic shooting incident in Weimar.

Stein, William Mark. "Beyond Boosterism: Establishing the Age of Columbus." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 2, May 1992, pp. 71-90. An examination of the primary sources regarding Montezuma, Beeson's Crossing, Columbus, and other early place names in Colorado County.

Stein, William Mark, comp. "Bibliography of Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 5, number 1, January 1995, pp. 31-66. Listing of 219 books, pamphlets, and articles with significant historical or genealogical content relating to Colorado County, together with some illustrations, expanded and brought up to date for this listing.

 

Stein, William Mark. "Capital Punishment in Colorado County History." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 5, June 1990, pp. 131-166. A survey of the cases in the county's history in which the death penalty was ordered, complete with confessions and other testimony.

Stein, William Mark. "Capsule History of the First Century of Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 1, January 1993, pp. 45-50. Brief, very general history of the county, originally written for a brochure that was never produced.

Stein, William Mark. "Colorado County Black High School Football." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 3, September 1998, pp. 161-180. Football at the three county black high schools.

Stein, William Mark. "Colorado County Protects Womanhood: The Murder of Geraldine Kollmann and the Subsequent Lynching of the Accused." Southwestern Historical Quarterly, volume 108, number 4, April 2005, pp. 440-466. The story of the infamous 1935 double lynching.

 

Stein, William Mark. "Columbus High School Cardinals." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 3, September 1998, pp. 119-160. Football at Columbus High School, with the scores of every game, all-time records, team photographs, etc.

Stein, William Mark. "The Conflict Between H. H. Moore and Sheriff Light Townsend Concluding With the Story of the Rock Which Triggered the Deaths of Four Men." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 2, May 1993, pp. 55-72. Illustrated by Charles Shaw. The sensational story of a once-notorious Colorado County outlaw and the sheriff who pursued him.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 1. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 1, January 1996, pp. 3-34. First installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1821-1828.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 2. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 1, January 1996, pp. 35-51. Second installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1828-1836.

 

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 3. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 2, May 1996, pp. 63-94. Third installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1836-1845.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 4. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 3, September 1996, pp. 115-149. Fourth installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1846-1852.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 5. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 7, number 1, January 1997, pp. 3-59. Fifth installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1852-1860.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 6. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 7, number 2, May 1997, pp. 75-142. Sixth installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1861-1865. With a lengthy appendix summarizing the military careers of all known Colorado County Confederate soldiers.

 

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 7. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 9, number 1, January 1999, pp. 3-39. Seventh installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1865-1870.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 8. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 10, number 1, January 2000, pp. 3-62. Eighth installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1870-1878.

Stein, William Mark. "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," Part 9. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 10, number 3, June 2001, pp. 135-181 Ninth installment of a detailed, chronological history of the county, covering the years 1878-1883.

Stein, William Mark. "Fremont McCollum and the Garwood State Bank." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 4, number 3, September 1994, pp. 119-126. The story of a bank robber and an often-robbed bank.

 

Stein, William Mark. "The German Draft Revolt in Colorado, Austin, and Fayette Counties." The Journal of the German-Texan Heritage Society, volume 14, number 3, Fall 1992, pp. 221-224. An address given by the author to the annual meeting of the German-Texan Heritage Society in New Braunfels on September 13, 1992. Not as thoroughly researched as it should have been.

Stein, William Mark. "The Glidden Ax Murder." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 10, September 1991, pp. 307-312. An examination of a brutal, unsolved crime from 1912.

Stein, William Mark. "Home Games Tuesday and Friday Nights: Five Years of the Herder Truckers." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 1, January 1992, pp. 1-38. The complete history of the best-known semi-professional baseball team in the county's history, includes the scores of every known game, an all time roster, some financial statements, and accounts of their playing and later days by some of the players.

Stein, William Mark. "Indigent Care and the County Poor Farm." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 3, September 1993, pp. 111-122. A look at how the poor were cared for in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

 

Stein, William Mark. "Leroy Wilkinson A New Hero of San Jacinto." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 7, November 1990, pp. 211-213. The story of a Colorado County man who died of wounds received at San Jacinto but who has been omitted from previous lists of the battle's fatalities.

Stein, William Mark. "Presidents Visit Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 2, May 1993, pp. 105-106. Slight article, included as filler, and with at least one major omission, the 1936 visit of a sitting president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Stein, William Mark. "Prime Circuit: The Glory Days of the Stafford Opera House." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 4, March 1990, pp. 103-125. A detailed look at the productions staged at the theatre in Columbus from 1887-1893, with brief remarks about theatres in Weimar and Eagle Lake.

Stein, William Mark. "Sen Katayama in Garwood." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 2, December 1989, p. 66. An account of the famous communist's brief residence in Colorado County.

 

Stein, William Mark. "The Slave Revolt, Revisited." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 10, September 1991, pp. 317-318. A look at the possibility that the 1856 slave revolt was a figment of the slave owners' imaginations.

Stein, William Mark. "The Wild Man of Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 1, November 1989, p. 28. An account of the 1898 capture of a hermit who lived in the woods of southern Colorado County.

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Civil War Letters of Benjamin Marshall Baker." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 8, number 1, January 1998, pp. 33-37. Letters written by a member of Hood’s Texas Brigade in August and September 1861.

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Civil War Letters of John Samuel Shropshire." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 7, number 1, January 1997, pp. 61-70. The first complete printing of a series of letters written by an officer in the Confederacy’s New Mexico campaign.

 

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Garwood Brochure, c. 1905." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 7, number 3, September 1997, pp. 177-181. Reprint of the text of a brochure advertising the small Colorado County town to persons in Iowa.

Stein, William Mark, comp. "Legends of the Lake." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 4, number 3, September 1994, pp. 155-168. Reprints, with comments, of the five known published versions of how Eagle Lake got its name.

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Letters of Charles William Tait, 1848-1864." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 2, May 1996, pp. 95-110. Letters written by an important plantation owner to relatives in Alabama, with many details of plantation life.

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Looking Backward: Letters to the Weimar Mercury." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 1, January 1996, pp. 53-57. Brief recollections by Isaac Sellers, Mordecai G. Flournoy, Cordelia Simmons, Seaborn T. Stapleton, and James W. Holt, in response to a contest sponsored by a newspaper.

 

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Miscellaneous Letters." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 7, number 3, September 1997, pp. 182-184. An assortment of historically significant letters, written by Elizabeth Beeson, William E. Burnet, Robert E. Stafford, and Annie Naill.

[Stein, William Mark, comp.] "Reminiscences of James Williams Holt." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 6, number 3, September 1996, pp. 151-160. Reminiscences of a one-time school teacher, who came to the county in 1849.

Stein, William Mark, ed. "The Experiences of George McCormick in Waul's Texas Legion." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 2, December 1989, pp. 35-65. Civil War letters of a Columbus attorney and state attorney general.

Stein, William Mark, ed. "The Sally Scull Divorce Papers." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 2, number 2, May 1992, pp. 122-126. Edited transcriptions of the petition, answer, and decision in the first divorce of a famous Texas character.

 

Stein, William Mark, ed. "The Slave Narratives of Colorado County." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 1, January 1993, pp. 3-32. Three narratives by former Colorado County slaves, and some statistics on slave holdings.

Stein, William Mark and Elizabeth Schoellmann. "A Handbook of Colorado County Newspapers." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 9, June 1991, pp. 275-300. A survey of the county's newspapers and some other publications, with a brief history of each.

Stein, William Mark and James Wesley Sewell. "Historical Atlas of Columbus." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 3, number 2, May 1993, pp. 73-104. Text by Stein, maps by Sewell. A thorough look at the town's geography, and therein its growth.

"There's Still A Lot of Life In Those Old Columbus Homes." Texas Architect, volume 23, number 2, March-April 1973, pp. 3-7. Standard promotional material for the Columbus sesquicentennial, with many photographs, particularly of the home known as Raumonda.  GA Columbus-3 195

 

Tindol, Robert. "Colorado County Courthouse." County Progress, volume 70, number 2, February 1993, page 14. History of the courthouse, extracted from the 1991 Colorado County Historical Commission booklet, but muddled by this author.  *

Thomas, Henry Calhoun. "A Sketch of My Life." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 3, February 1990, pp. 71-91. Colorful recollections of a cattleman who worked for the Stafford family. Very useful and informative, though the text was based on a typewritten transcription. The location of the original manuscript is unknown.

Tolbert, Frank X. "The Strange Sage of Sally Skull, Who Was Left Out of All the Previous History Books." Chapter (pp. 214-218) in An Informal History of Texas. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961. The earliest of the biographical sketches of Sally Scull, and the least useful.  Call # T 976.4 TOL

Trimble, Vance H. "In The Pocket of His Overalls." Inside Detective Magazine, September 1943, pp. 12-15, 56-59. An account of the 1943 murder in Colorado County that led to the execution of Bruce Elton Jordan.  *

 

Wiese, Nanette. "Happy Birthday, Columbus." Texas Highways, volume 20, number 4, April 1973, pp. 20-23. A rehashing of the legends, written to promote the sesquicentennial celebration in Columbus.  GA Texas-2  69

Williams, John. "Artist with a Camera." Lower Colorado River Review, volume 4, number 3, 1979, pp. 14-20. A look at Columbus photographer Patsy Hodge and her photography, illustrated with some of her photographs.  GA L-4  221

Wooten, James Harbert, Jr. and William Mark Stein. "Hospital Care in Columbus." Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 1, number 8, February 1991, pp. 261-270. The history of the various hospitals in Columbus, with inside information by one who was there.

 

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Zumwalt, Oscar Abraham. "Brief History of Columbus." First published in Colorado County Citizen, Columbus Texas, 1935, pp. 1-8. Reprinted with a revised supplementary section in Naylor's Epic Century Magazine, October 1936, pp. 65-68. Reprinted in abridged form in Mary Farrar Holland, Stories That Have Been Told, 1948, pp. 89-92. Reprinted with annotations by William Mark Stein in Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, volume 4, number 1, January 1994. A generally unreliable, very cursory look at the history of Columbus, mostly based on the recollections of William B. Dewees as they appeared in Letters From an Early Settler of Texas and on a 1913 newspaper article. This was the first widely-read article that deals with Colorado County history, and as such is singularly important. It is especially unfortunate that so much of the article is nonsense, for it is the cornerstone of the sort of promotional history purveyed by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce.

 

Zumwalt, Oscar Abraham. "The Columbus Opera House." First published in Colorado County Citizen, Columbus Texas, 1935, pp. 9-11. Reprinted in greatly abridged form in Mary Farrar Holland, Stories That Have Been Told, 1948, pp. 93-94. Tremendously confused, the source of all the myths about the Stafford Opera House, but with one scrap of information found nowhere else. Zumwalt quotes advertisements for upcoming shows from the March 7, 1889 edition of the Colorado Citizen. No copy of that edition is now extant, so the information cannot be verified. However, since the advertisements are seemingly quoted, and since they are plausible, it may be assumed that the information they convey is correct.