Texas A&M University-San Antonio Digital Commons @ Texas A&M University-San Antonio Finding Aids: Guides to the Collection Archives & Special Collections 2020 Asbury (Samuel E.) Papers, 1812-1949 DRT Collection at Texas A&M University-San Antonio Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/findingaids A Guide to the Samuel E. Asbury Papers, 1812-1949 Descriptive Summary Creator: Asbury, Samuel E. (Samuel Erson), 1872-1962 Title: Samuel E. Asbury Papers Dates: 1812-1949 Creator Professionally employed as a chemist with the Texas Agricultural Abstract: Experiment Station on the Texas A&M campus, Samuel E. Asbury (1872-1962) was also interested in Texas history. He conducted extensive research about the state's past, particularly the Texas Revolution, corresponding widely and collecting historically important documents. Content Correspondence, legal documents, newspaper clippings, and other Abstract: published material related to Texas history make up the Samuel E. Asbury Papers. The bulk of the papers consist of typescript copies of correspondence and source documents produced and received by Asbury in the course of his historical research. Much of the research is related to the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas; particularly in-depth is material on the Goliad Massacre, Jonas Harrison, the Regulator-Moderator War, and John A. Williams. Identification: Col 872 Extent: 2.71 linear feet (7 boxes) Language: Materials are in English. Repository: DRT Collection at Texas A&M University-San Antonio Biographical Note Samuel Erson Asbury was born on 1872 September 26 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He received his college education at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Raleigh (now North Carolina State University), earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees in chemistry. Asbury spent several years as an assistant state chemist at the North Carolina Experiment Station before taking a similar job at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station on the campus of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University), serving from 1904 until his retirement. After coming to Texas, Asbury became interested in Texas history and began researching the state's past, particularly the Texas Revolution. He corresponded widely and began collecting historically important documents. Asbury was also interested in music and planned the production of a musical drama based on the Texas revolution, a work that was never completed. Asbury retired in 1945, but continued his historical research. He was a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association and a member of the Southern Historical Association at the time of death, which occurred in Bryan, Texas, on 1962 January 10. References Nance, Joseph Milton. "Samuel Erson Asbury." Handbook of Texas Online. http://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fas01. Scope and Content Note The products of many years of research into Texas history, correspondence, legal documents, newspaper clippings, other published materials, and biographical and genealogical information make up the Samuel E. Asbury Papers. The papers have been organized into two series, Research Material and Miscellaneous Material. The great majority of the papers falls into the first series and consists of typescript copies of the correspondence and documents Asbury produced and received in the course of research conducted in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Carbon copies were made of incoming and outgoing letters and of documents, clippings, and other items. Most of these items were labeled and numbered as part of Asbury's own filing system. A list of Asbury's files (which was discovered and added to the collection after the original processing) indicates that these papers represent a small portion of Asbury's collection of research material. The subject labels used by Asbury form the basis of the arrangement of the papers, and his document numbers are occasionally noted in the inventory, to distinguish similar items. In some cases, Asbury's subject designation has been changed to conform with more commonly used terms, and some related files have been combined under a single heading. The subject files have been arranged alphabetically. Those subjects with a significant amount of material are also arranged by type, often including research correspondence, letters to and from other historians, source material, copies of contemporary documents, and published material, both contemporary items and items published at a later date. Letters included in research correspondence often enclosed documents and other material; these items remain with the correspondence. The amount of material gathered under different subjects varies considerably. The most detailed research centers on the Texas Revolution and specific events and individuals associated with the conflict. General Texas Revolution material primarily consists of Asbury's inventory and collection of source materials to be found in libraries and archives in several cities and states, focusing on newspaper accounts. Annotated reference lists contain capsule summaries of newspaper articles available in individual institutions. Complete contemporary newspaper accounts of events leading up to and following the Revolution are particularly extensive among the items obtained from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mississippi. Research on the Siege of the Alamo includes correspondence with a number of other historians, including Amelia Williams, then working on her account of the event. Goliad Massacre material includes a detailed set of letters and documents pertaining to the garrison at Goliad, most of them obtained from fellow researcher Harbert Davenport. Rosters and some personal material of James Fannin are also included. Jonas Harrison, a Shelby County attorney who was a prominent participant in the Conventions of 1832 and 1835, is also the subject of detailed research. Included are a number of documents providing details of Harrison's life and career, used as the basis of Asbury's article on Harrison, which appeared in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1942. A significant amount of material concerning the life of John A. Williams, an east Texas resident who opposed the revolutionary events of the 1830s, is also part of the papers. Included are a number of items taken from the Nacogdoches Archives related to Williams and events leading up to the Texas Revolution. Asbury also dealt with the Regulator-Moderator War in some detail, obtaining several accounts of the east Texas conflict. One of the prominent players in that event, Robert Potter, is dealt with separately, providing accounts of his murder. Additional material on Potter, apparently set aside as a separate collection at an earlier date, were incorporated into the Asbury Papers in a revision of the arrangement in 1999. Other subjects which receive fairly detailed treatment include Samuel P. Carson, Ira and Seth Ingram, and the Battle of San Jacinto. "See" and "See Also" references are used in the inventory to link related subjects. The Miscellaneous Material series consists of a single folder of personal items. Restrictions Access Restrictions No restrictions. The collection is open for research. Usage Restrictions Please be advised that the library does not hold the copyright to most of the material in its archival collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to secure those rights when needed. Permission to reproduce does not constitute permission to publish. The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of copyright, literary property rights, and libel. Index Terms Personal Names Asbury, Samuel E. (Samuel Erson), 1872-1962. Harrison, Jonas, 1777-1836. Williams, Amelia Worthington, 1876-1958. Williams, John A., d. 1840. Subjects Goliad Massacre, Goliad, Tex., 1836. Regulator-Moderator War, Tex., 1839-1844. Locations Texas--History--Revolution, 1835-1836--Sources. Texas--History--Republic, 1836-1846--Sources. Genres/Formats Personal papers. Correspondence. Legal documents. Newspapers. Related Material Several collections at various Texas repositories contain materials relating to Samuel Asbury and his research. The most significant collections are listed here. Additional collections containing a small number of related items can be found by searching Texas Archival Resources Online. Samuel Erson Asbury Papers, 1872-1960, Cushing Memorial Library, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Samuel Erson Asbury Papers, 1920-1955, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Adele Briscoe Looscan Papers, 1633-1935, Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library, San Jacinto Museum of History, La Porte, Texas. Eugene Campbell Barker Papers, 1785 (1812-1959), Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. William James Battle Papers, 1870-1959, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. Texas State Historical Association Records, 1897-2004, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. Administrative Information Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Samuel E. Asbury Papers, 1812-1949, Col 872, DRT Collection at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Acquisition Information Received from an unknown source, 1967. Processing Information Processed by Warren Stricker, 1991 May. Finding aid revised by Warren Stricker, 1999 June. Finding aid edited and encoded by Caitlin Donnelly, 2011 January. Finding aid updated by Rebeka Delgado, 2020