THE ARCHIVES of TEXAS JANUARY 24, 1839, Was Approved a Joint Resolution of The
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THE ARCHIVES OF TEXAS JANUARY 24, 1839, was approved a joint resolution of the third congress of the Republic of Texas providing for a library Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/3/3/187/2742297/aarc_3_3_h2hm4prx44473773.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 for the use of the republic and appropriating $10,000 for the pur- chase of books which were to be deposited in the office of the secretary of state.1 The first purchase made was an eighteen volume set of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia for $25O.2 This was the beginning of the Texas State Library. The Republic of Texas faced bankruptcy throughout its nine years of existence and there were no further expenditures for the library. However, Ashbel Smith, when he was charge d'affaires to England and France in 1842-1845, arranged with Joseph Hume, the librarian of the British parliament, a system of exchange of documents between the two governments.3 Exchanges were also proposed by some of the states of the United States.4 After annexation further accessions were provided for by an act of the second legislature in 1848, which authorized and required the ex- change of "copies of all Laws, Judicial Reports, Maps, Charts, and other productions of a Literary, Scientific, or political character, printed or published by order of the Legislature, or at the expense of the State," with the Library of Congress, the executive depart- ments of all the states of the Union and with foreign powers.5 It was not until 1856 that another appropriation was made for the purchase of books for the state library.6 After the Civil War and the reorganization of the government under the presidential plan of re- construction, the office of state librarian was created7 and a librarian appointed, only to be removed, with all other officials, by General 1 Gammel, Lazus of Texas, II, 86. 2 David G. Burnet to William H. Jack, November 16, 1839, in Letter Book No. 1, Department of State, 145, Texas State Library. 3 Ashbel Smith to Henry Barnard, March 29, 1839, m Blotter of Letters, January 11, 1839-September 26, 1839; Smith to Joseph Hume, August 28, 1842, November 17, 1842; Smith to William Pringle, December 10, 1842; Smith to Lachlan M. Rate [1842], all in Ashbel Smith Papers, University of Texas Library. Smith to Anson Jones, July 3, 1842, in Garrison, George P., ed., "Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas," in Annual Re-port of the American Historical Association, 1908, II, 975-976; George W. Terrell to Smith, August 20, 1842, ibid., 1006-1007; Smith to Jones, Sep- tember 19, 1843, ibid-, 1463- 4 A, G. McNutt to Samuel Houston, December 22, 1841, Domestic Correspondence, Texas State Library. 6 Gammel, Laws of Texas, III, 190-191. "Ibid., iv, 5!8. 7 Ibid., V, 958. 188 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST Sheridan as an impediment to reconstruction;8 and the library was again placed in the hands of a clerk of the state department and so remained until 1876. In that year the Department of Insurance, Statistics and History was created, and, in addition to his other duties, the commissioner of the new department was to have charge and con- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/3/3/187/2742297/aarc_3_3_h2hm4prx44473773.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 trol of the state library.9 Hardly was the new order inaugurated when the capitol building was destroyed by fire in 1881, and what was left of the library was without a habitation and almost without a name. It was not until 1891, three years after the completion of the present capitol, that the work of building the library began anew.10 In that year was created the office of historical clerk who was de facto librarian.11 In 1903, a Spanish translator and classifier of manuscripts, or archivist, was added to the staff.12 In 1909, the act creating the Texas Library and Historical Commission divorced the library from the Department of Insurance, Statistics and History and erected it into a separate department.13 The archives of Texas, which constitute a division of the state li- brary, had their origin during the following periods of Texas history: Spanish dominion in Texas, 1731-1820; Mexican dominion, 1821- 1836; Republic of Texas, 1836-1845; state of Texas, since 1846. Attempts at concentration and protection of these archives began as early as 1835. Under the provisional government, October 16 to March 1, 1836, steps were taken to collect the records of the several land offices and gather them into what later became the 'Election Register, 1866-1870, Book No. 263, 66-67; Handbook of Texas Libraries, 1904, 11; Thrall, H. S., A Pictorial History of Texas, 417-418. The librarian was Robert Josselyn, one-time secretary of President Jefferson Davis. "Gammel, Laws of Texas, vm, 1061-1062. 10 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History, 1893, 30-33. 11 Gammel, Laws of Texas, x, 113; Seventeenth Annual Refort of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History, 1891, 61-62. 12 General Laws of Texas, 28 Legislature, 1 Call Session, 1903, 70; Twenty-ninth Annual Refort of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History, 1903, x-xxvi. 13 General Laws of Texas, 31 Legislature, Regular Session, 1909, 122-127. The Bureau of Agriculture was created in 1887 and added to the department, the name being changed to Department of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History. In 1907 the Bureau of Agriculture was made a separate department. In 1905 banking was added to the depart- ment and the commissioner, in addition to his other duties, became superintendent of banking. This addition of new duties from time to time crippled the work in the library. Gammel, Laws of Texas, IX, 896-897; General Laws of Texas, 30 Legislature, Regular Session, 1907, 414-415; General Laws of Texas, 29 Legislature, Regular Session, 1905, 485, 501; Annual Refort of the Defartment of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History, 1887, 4; ibid., 1890, 4. THE ARCHIVES OF TEXAS 189 general land office.14 During the periods of the republic and of early statehood, several acts were passed for the return of surveys and other records of a public nature to the general land office.15 The motive of this concentration was to protect land titles. An attempt at concentration of archives in the state department began in the fifties. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/3/3/187/2742297/aarc_3_3_h2hm4prx44473773.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 In 1850 and for several years thereafter were transferred in whole, or in part, the archives deposited at Nacogdoches and San Antonio, capitals of departments of Texas under Mexican rule.16 The great majority of the documents transferred were from the Nacogdoches archives, to which were added many of those from San Antonio, known as the Bexar archives, after the passage of the acts of 1853 and 1856 which authorized the translation of the latter, and the transfer of originals and translations to the Department of State.17 Some two thousand legal-cap pages of translations were transferred along with many of the originals.18 In the state department was also concentrated a large part of the records of the defunct departments of the republic. The archives of Texas have suffered the vicissitudes which mark the history of the state. They had to be removed before the advance of the Mexicans in 1836 as the ad interim government of the Re- public of Texas and Houston's retreating army moved eastward and some of them were lost.19 In 1836, the seat of government was at Columbia; in 1837 ^ was removed to the newly created town of Houston, with a removal of archives in each case. In 1839, a fleet of fifty wagons brought the archives from Houston to the new frontier capital at Austin.20 In 1842, the renewed attempt of Mexico to con- quer Texas and frequent Indian attacks aroused a feeling of in- security with reference to the archives, and President Houston ordered their removal to the temporary capital at Washington-on- the-Brazos. Captain Thomas I. Smith on the night of December 30, with three wagons and twenty men, moved quietly into Austin and " "Journals of the Consultation," in Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 535; "Ordinances and Decrees, General Council," in Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 978-979. 15 Papers, 3 Congress, File No. 1047, November 28, 1838; Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 1386-1387; 11, 435; ill, 580, 935. 18 Executive Record Book, No. 275, 16; Gammel, Laws of Texas, III, 509-510. "Gammel, Laws of Texas, III, 1322-1323; IV, 468-469. 18 T hirty-first Annual Re-port of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and. History\ 1906, Part II, 71. 18 House Journal, 1 Texas Congress, 1 Session, 12-13, J9> Thirty-first Annual Refort of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History, 1906, Part II, 21. 20 Comptroller's Civil Service Records. THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST began loading papers from the land office. The town was soon aroused, the cannon was dragged from the arsenal to the middle of Congress Avenue, loaded, and Mrs. Angelina Eberly, so the story goes, touched it off firing at the intruders. A volunteer company soon collected, Smith surrendered, and the archives were returned and Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/3/3/187/2742297/aarc_3_3_h2hm4prx44473773.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 placed in the hands of a committee of the citizens. They were stored at Mrs.