Holden William Curry Reel 3 Transcript
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Oral History Interview of December 15, 1967 and December 18, 1967 William Curry Holden Interviewed by: Jimmy M. Skaggs Lubbock, Texas “REEL THREE” Part of the: Legacy Southwest Collection Interviews Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Copyright and Usage Information: William Curry Holden reviewed transcriptions of his interviews and approved their release upon his retirement from Texas Tech University in 1968. This oral history transcript is protected by U.S. copyright law. By viewing this document, the researcher agrees to abide by the fair use standards of U.S. Copyright Law (1976) and its amendments. This interview may be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes only. Any reproduction or transmission of this protected item beyond fair use requires the written and explicit permission of the Southwest Collection. Please contact Southwest Collection Reference staff for further information. Preferred Citation for this Document: Holden, William Curry Oral History Interview, “Reel Three,” December 15, 1967 and December 18, 1967. Interview by Jimmy M. Skaggs, Online Transcription, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library. URL of PDF, date accessed. The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library houses almost 6000 oral history interviews dating back to the late 1940s. The historians who conduct these interviews seek to uncover the personal narratives of individuals living on the South Plains and beyond. These interviews should be considered a primary source document that does not implicate the final verified narrative of any event. These are recollections dependent upon an individual’s memory and experiences. The views expressed in these interviews are those only of the people speaking and do not reflect the views of the Southwest Collection or Texas Tech University. 2 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Technical Processing Information: The Audio/Visual Department of the Southwest Collection is the curator of this ever-growing oral history collection and is in the process of digitizing all interviews. While all of our interviews will have an abbreviated abstract available online, we are continually transcribing and adding information for each interview. Audio recordings of these interviews can be listened to in the Reading Room of the Southwest Collection. Please contact our Reference Staff for policies and procedures. Family members may request digitized copies directly from Reference Staff. Consult the Southwest Collection website for more information. http://swco.ttu.edu/Reference/policies.php Recording Notes: Original Format: Reel to Reel 1/4” Audio Tape Digitization Details: originally digitized by Elissa Stroman January 2013, audio enhanced by David Rauch August 2016 Audio Metadata: 44.1k/ 24bit WAV file Further Access Restrictions: N/A Transcription Notes: Interviewer: Jimmy Skaggs Audio Editor: N/A Transcription: Jimmy Skaggs, John Clements Editor(s): Katelin Dixon, William Curry Holden, Elissa Stroman Interview Series Background: In the process of conservation and digitization, our Audio/Visual department transcribes existing interviews in the Southwest Collection’s holdings for a new generation of listeners to rediscover. Such interviews frequently cover topics relating to the founding of Texas Tech and the settlement of Lubbock. 3 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Transcript Overview: This interview features Dr. William Curry Holden. Holden discusses the founding of the Southwest Collection and the process of gathering and preserving early archival materials. Holden talks about J. Evetts Haley’s role in assisting with the Southwest Collection and the hiring of Seymour V. “Ike” Connor. Holden also discusses his tenure as head of the history department. Length of Interview: 00:53:59 Subject Transcript Page Time Stamp Founding of the Southwest Collection 5 00:00:00 Gathering archival materials 7 00:10:05 Working with the library to preserve materials 8 00:15:50 J. Evetts Haley and the Southwest Collection 9 00:20:40 Processing materials and hiring Seymour V. Connor 11 00:27:58 Texas Tech campus in the twenties and thirties 12 00:31:16 Texas Centennial 13 00:37:20 Tenure as head of department and becoming a dean 15 00:41:12 Library of Congress subjects Haley, J. Evetts, History--Study and teaching, Texas Tech University--History, Texas Tech University. Southwest Collection Keywords archeology, archives, higher education, history, Southwest Collection, Texas Tech Museum, Texas Tech University 4 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Jimmy M. Skaggs (JS): William Curry Holden interview, reel three, side one. I believe you were about to tell us about the Southwest Collection when the reel ran out, Dr. Holden, would you like to continue? William Holden (WH): Well, the Southwest Collection had a really devious origin. I would say, perhaps, the nucleus— or the germ of the idea took place about the year I came here, ’29-’30. At that time, Dr. Clifford B. Jones was the manager of the Swenson interest of the Spur ranch—the Swensons had bought the Spur ranch out in 1907, and Clifford’s father was the first manager after the Swensons and associates bought out the ranch with the idea of colonizing it and building towns and breaking up the parts of it that were too rough for farming into small ranches and things. And Mr. Charles A. Jones—Clifford’s father—was sent by the Swensons to take it over, and he served in this capacity for about six or seven years. Then Mr. Charles Jones was sent on down to—oh at the coast, the Swensons have big sulfur projects—Port Aransas—Aransas Pass, I believe is where it was.1 You know, today, they use sulfur in their refining processes of petroleum, and that thing has proven a gold mine to the Swensons. Well anyway, when they were developing that, they sent Mr. Charles Jones down to develop that—and Clifford had come here in 1907 as his father’s assistant manager, and so he was promoted to manager. By 1929, he had become very large in the development circles of West Texas—West Texas Chamber of Commerce, and all—there was not a state committee of any kind but what he was on it. He was well-known and highly respected. I met him some place—I’ve forgot where—but anyway, after I came here, and after I had finished Rollie Burns—no, the first thing I did after I came here—I started immediately the year we came here, in ’29, to get out Alkali Trails. I had to add some new chapters and take some out, and edit and spruce up the whole thing. We got it published, I believe, in ’30, and as soon as I got that out of the way, our next Rollie Burns showed up. That’s a story unto itself—remind me to come back to it sometime. JS: Yes sir, I had it on the list. WH: Then it took me about a year to do that [Rollie Burns] and get it published, and in ’32, then, I was ready to take on Spur Ranch. All the time, I was teaching fifteen hours. JS: My goodness. 1 Corrects to Freeport 5 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program WH: And [I was] also running the field camps in archaeology and the museum and so on. Then I remembered that Clifford Jones and the Spur Ranch, so I went over to see him and tell him about my interest in it, and he showed me all of the records which had been kept, fortunately—the old letter books and the journals and the payrolls—you know, you’ve seen them—Yes. Then I was very hesitant about asking if I could come over there and use them, and it wasn’t too long after that—one day I went up—interested in the library at that time. The library was on the ground floor in the west end of the administration building in what is now the registrar’s office. That was all the library we had, I guess—you could haul all the books in about four wheelbarrows. Then the cataloguing department was across the hall; the room has since been used for something else—kind of the— JS: —student offices? WH: No, that room has been eliminated, when they built that wing on there. They opened up a passageway, so where the passage is from that wing back to where they have the windows there today. Well that was cataloguing and all the rest of it. Well I went in there one day and lo and behold, here was all the [Spur] all this stuff. He’d brought it all over here—and incidentally, he was on the first board of Texas Tech, and to him, Texas Tech was the child he didn’t have— always has been. And when he saw I was interested, he just brought it over here and gave it to Ms. [Elizabeth Howard] West, the librarian. That is the first real archival material—and I used it in the old library. They let me go up there Sundays, when it was closed. My first wife, Olive, when we came, got it—she was a trained librarian, and so they hired her as soon as she got here, and she was, I suppose, the third in rank there—the librarian, assistant librarian, and then Olive. So I had access—even had a key to the library—and I ran those records all up there, usually on Saturday afternoons and Sundays—and I whipped that out in a year. We got it published, I think, in ’34 —I did it in ’33, and we got it published in the early part of ’34.