Winner of the DRT Library Drawing Presented with Dickert Rifle Replica

Jackie Henry receives the rifle from DRT Library Committee Chairman Elaine Vetter (center) and DRT Library Director Leslie Stapleton (left).

Earlier this month, DRT Library Committee members and staff held a drawing for a replica of a rifle that was made by master gunsmith Jacob Dickert and used by an Alamo defender during the 1836 battle. Jackie Henry of Big Spring, Texas, was announced as the winner of the drawing, and this past Monday we were delighted to welcome her to the library to pick up her prize.

Ms. Henry was very excited about winning the replica rifle and said it will look perfect displayed on the mantle above her fireplace. She was also surprised by a visit from her sister, Joy Vazquez, who traveled to San Antonio to be a part of the event. Ms. Vazquez is currently the Parliamentarian of the Villa de San Agustin de Laredo Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas; she was joined by Ana Flores, President of the chapter; Gloria Guajardo, chapter Chaplain; and Carolyn Osborn, a friend from Pleasanton, Texas.

From left to right, Carolyn Osborn, Gloria Guajardo, Jackie Henry, Joy Vazquez, and Ana Flores.

After DRT Library Committee Chairman Elaine Milam Vetter presented Ms. Henry with the rifle, some holiday desserts were served in Alamo Hall. Ms. Henry and her guests were then treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the library, led by Director Leslie Stapleton, who also took the ladies to see the original Dickert rifle on display in the Alamo church.

Congratulations to Ms. Henry on winning the drawing. We hope you enjoy your prize and thank you for supporting the DRT Library!

Ms. Henry getting ready to take the rifle home.

 

Drawing for the Dickert Rifle Replica Held and Winner Announced

As part of this morning’s meeting of the DRT Library Committee, the drawing for a replica of the Jacob Dickert rifle used by an Alamo defender during the 1836 battle was held. Alamo shrine hostess and former DRT Library Committee Chairman Pam Bickerton pulled the winning ticket as committee members, DRT Library staff, and some Alamo colleagues looked on.

Congratulations to Jackie Henry of Big Spring, Texas!

Pam Bickerton reads the name of the winner of the drawing.

Current DRT Library Committee Chairman Elaine Milam Vetter called winner Jackie Henry.

Through ticket sales and donations, the library was able to meet its goal of funding a space utilization study of current library facilities. We look forward to moving ahead with this project during the coming months and will post updates here at “Inside the Gates.”

Special thanks to Larry Hollingsworth, who generously donated his time and expertise to the DRT Library. His beautifully and accurately constructed replica of the Dickert rifle made the drawing possible. Thank you also to everyone who purchased a ticket or made a monetary donation towards the space utilization study, and congratulations again to our winner!

DRT Library staff and committee members pose with the replica Dickert rifle during this morning's drawing.

 

Final Days to Enter the Drawing for a Replica of the Dickert Rifle Used at the Battle of the Alamo

Interested in owning (an exact reproduction of) a piece of Alamo history and supporting the DRT Library at the same time?

The original Dickert rifle in the Alamo shrine.

As we reported here in August, the Library is holding a drawing for a reproduction of a rifle used by an Alamo defender whose identity remains a mystery. Made by early-American master gunsmith Jacob Dickert (1740-1822), the original rifle was recovered after the 1836 battle and is exhibited in the Alamo shrine.

Hobby gunsmith Larry Hollingsworth has built an exact replica of the Alamo’s Dickert rifle that is currently on display in the library’s reading room and will be presented to the winner of the drawing.

Tickets for the reproduction Dickert rifle can be purchased between now and this Wednesday, December 8 at 5:00 pm. The cost is $10.00 per ticket or six tickets for $50.00. The drawing will take place on Thursday, December 9 during the Library Committee’s monthly meeting. All proceeds from the fundraiser will be used to subsidize a space utilization study of current library facilities; funds remaining after the study is financed will be used to implement recommended improvements.

For more information or to purchase tickets, please call the library at (210) 225-1071.

Dickert Rifle Replica Will Fund Space Utilization Project

John Wayne examines the original Dickert rifle in the Alamo church.

The majority of patrons who visit the DRT Library see only the reading room. In looking up from their research, they may observe the public access computers, books neatly arranged behind glass-paneled cabinet doors, and artwork carefully hung on the walls. Visitors who are led on a behind-the scenes tour of the library may be impressed with the secure and environmentally-controlled vault and the tidy rows of archival materials in acid-free boxes or books on shelves. However, what may not be readily apparent is a significant problem facing the DRT Library: a shortage of space for storing, handling, and working with library and archival materials.

Items in the Library’s collections document various aspects of Texas and San Antonio history from the 1500s to the present. Some of the special rare and one-0f-a-kind treasures document Austin’s Colony, the Battle of the Alamo, and the Texas Revolution, including:

• two original copies, of only thirteen known to still exist, of the Texas Declaration of Independence;
• items, including petticoats, that belonged to Alamo survivors Susanna and Angelina Dickinson;
• a letter written by Alamo defender Daniel William Cloud while on his way to Texas in December 1835;
• a letter written by Abishai Dickson, who was killed at Goliad, while traveling to Texas;
• a map hand-drawn by Stephen F. Austin in the 1820s; and
• a rare original copy of the Diario del Gobierno de la Republica Mexicana, the official newspaper of the Mexican government, announcing the fall of the Alamo on March 21, 1836.

The library reading room was built in 1950 as an addition to Alamo Hall, where the collection was originally housed. Two wings were added during the 1970s, and the climate-controlled vault was added in 1989. Movable shelving was also added in 1989 in order to accommodate the library’s growing collection. Together, the size and layout of these spaces enable proper storage of a sizable collection containing materials in a variety of formats. Additionally, the design of library spaces must also enable careful handling of items as they are removed from storage furniture, transported to other areas of the library, used by researchers, and processed or cataloged by library staff members. These issues are particularly acute with oversize materials such as maps, newspapers, artwork, and architectural drawings and plans.

In its current building with its current interior arrangement of spaces, the DRT Library lacks sufficient workspace for each staff member and a separate exhibit area for visitors to browse and explore. Additionally, while the collection continues to grow through generous financial and material gifts from our donors, the amount of storage space available for future acquisitions is increasingly limited.

An initial step towards solving these problems is to more efficiently use the space available in the current DRT Library building. The library plans to contract with an architectural firm specializing in library facilities and historic buildings. This company will conduct a study of how spaces within the Library are currently being used and recommend how they can be more efficiently utilized. A variety of factors, including cost, will determine the extent to which the firm’s suggestions are implemented.

You can help make this project possible.

The historic Dickert rifle in the Alamo shrine.

In order to fund the space utilization study, the DRT Library is holding a drawing for a reproduction of the Dickert rifle on display in the Alamo church. German immigrant Jacob Dickert (1740-1822) was a renowned master gunsmith working in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, during the colonial period, the Revolutionary War, and the Federal period. One of his rifles was used by an Alamo defender whose identity remains a mystery. The rifle was recovered after the 1836 battle and acquired by Francis W. Johnson, a leader during the Texas Revolution. According to an article in the Houston Post Sunday magazine printed on November 2, 1947, in 1839:

Johnson presented the rifle to William Carr Lane, first mayor of St. Louis and later governor of New Mexico. Lane later gave the gun to William L. Ewing, also a St. Louis mayor, who in turn presented it to Henry Koch, a Union soldier in the Civil War. Upon Koch’s death in 1920, the rifle passed to his nephew, Colonel [Walter F.] Siegmund, who was a collector of historical firearms. The colonel restored it to its original condition and for twenty years it was on exhibition at the Jefferson Memorial [the Missouri History Museum] in St. Louis. It was displayed at the Texas Centennial exposition in Dallas in 1936.

Siegmund returned the rifle to the Alamo as a gift in 1947. At that time, it was believed to be David Crockett’s famous rifle “Betsey,” a claim later refuted due to a lack of evidence.

Hobby gunsmith Larry Hollingsworth working on the Dickert rifle replica.

Hobby gunsmith Larry Hollingsworth is building an exact replica of the Dickert rifle at the Alamo, which will be presented to the winner of the drawing. Although he no longer maintains his Federal Firearms License, Hollingsworth has been constructing muzzle-loading guns since the 1970s. In addition to his muzzle-loading work, Hollingsworth works for DCP Midstream as a field operator.

Tickets for the reproduction Dickert rifle can be purchased between now and early December for $10.00 per ticket or six tickets for $50.00. The drawing will take place on December 9 in Alamo Hall. All proceeds from the fundraiser will be used to subsidize the space utilization study; funds remaining after the study is financed will be used to implement recommended improvements.

For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Elaine Milam Vetter, 2009-2011 DRT Library Committee Chairman, at chairman@drtl.org.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

The Alamo and DRT celebrate Texas Independence Day

The Alamo and the DRT commemorate Texas Independence Day with a ceremony in Alamo Plaza.

On Monday, March 2, the Alamo and the DRT celebrated Texas Independence Day with a ceremony in Alamo Plaza. The ceremony, held by the Alamo Mission Chapter of the DRT, featured a speech from DRT Library Director Leslie Stapleton. Mrs. Stapleton spoke about the library’s history and collection. Specifically, Mrs. Stapleton discussed the great primary sources that the library has in its archives.

Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director, speaks about the library's history and collection.

Among the one-of-a-kind documents is a letter written by Alamo defender Daniel William Cloud on December 26, 1835 to his brother, John B. Cloud. A lawyer from Kentucky, Daniel William Cloud joined David Crockett’s Tennessee Volunteers to help in the fight for Texas Independence. He describes what many of these young men might have been feeling when he writes,

If we succeed, the Country is ours. It is immense in extent, and fertile in its soil, and will amply reward all our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it.

This letter was donated to the library by the Cloud family in 1979. Click here for a previous post about the Cloud letter.

Another great document in the collection is a letter written by Abishai Mercer Dickson written to his wife from New Orleans on December 29, 1835 on his way to Texas. He writes to her,

My Dear, my lips have not been wet with spirits of any description since I left you and I do hope they never will again and I think this trip will not only wean me entirely from it but will give me a new constitution.

He closes the letter by writing:

I have some hopes of making a little fortune. I feel more anxious than I ever did.

Dickson joined the Alabama Red Rovers and served under Col. Fannin at Goliad, where he was killed by the Mexican army along with more than 340 other Texan soldiers.

Lastly, another unique document in the collection is Samuel Augustus Maverick’s copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Maverick was an early Texas land baron, legislator, and leading citizen of the Republic. He lived at the corner of Alamo Plaza and Houston Street and played a large role in the Siege of Bexar in December 1835. He was chosen as one of two representatives from the Alamo to go to the independence convention on March 1, 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Maverick left on March 2 but did not arrive at the convention until March 5. By that day, the Declaration had already been drafted and adopted. Maverick printed his name as well as the names of the other late arrivals to his broadside copy of the Declaration. Although one thousand broadside copies were originally printed, today only thirteen are known to exist. The DRT Library is fortunate to have two of these known copies. Click here for a previous post about the Maverick copy of the Declaration of Independence.

After the ceremony, Mrs. Stapleton invited all guests to visit the library, which is not usually a browsing collection, to view these and other special primary sources from the library’s collection.

Library visitors look at items on exhibit from the collection.

Letter from Daniel Cloud, Alamo Defender

First page of Daniel Cloud's letter to his brother, December 26, 1835.

One of the treasures in the DRT Library’s collections is a letter written by Daniel William Cloud, a twenty-two year old lawyer from Kentucky. Written on December 26, 1835 near Natchitoches, Louisiana, and addressed to his “beloved brother,” the letter primarily discusses the circumstances of various family members and acquaintances and describes the weather, soil quality, and business prospects Cloud and his traveling companion, Peter J. Bailey, observed as they traveled through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana on their way to Texas. In perhaps the most well-known and often-quoted section of the letter, Cloud explains his views on the causes of the Texas Revolution and his reasons for wanting to enlist (all punctuation and spelling in the original document have been maintained here):

Ever since Texas has unfurled the banner of Freedom and commenced a warfare for Liberty or Death, our hearts have been enlisted in her behalf. The progress of her cause has increased the ardor of our feelings, until we have resolved to embark in the vessel which contains the flag of Liberty and sink or swim in its defence. Our Brethren of Texas were invited by the Mexican Government while republican in its form to come and settle, they did so, they have endured all the privations & sufferings incident to the settlement of a frontier country and have surrounded themselves with all the comforts and conveniences of live. Now the Mexicans with unblushing effrontery call on them to submit to a Monarchical, tyrannical, Central despotism, at the bare mention of which every true hearted son of Kentucky feels an instinctive horror followed by a firm and steady glow of virtuous indignation. The cause of Philanthropy, of humanity, of Liberty & human happiness throughout the world call loudly on every man who can, to aid Texas. If you ask me how I reconcile the duties of a soldier with those of a Christian I refer you to the memorable conversation between Genl. Marion & DeKalb on this point, and the sentiments of the latter I have adopted as my own. If we succeed, the country is ours, it is immense in extent and fertile in its soil and will amply reward all our toils. If we fail death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our sides and choice guns they are; we know what awaits us and are prepared to meet it.

Along with Bailey, Cloud joined the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers and was killed when Santa Anna’s troops attacked the Alamo on the morning of March 6, 1836.

Second and third pages of Cloud's letter.

Final page of Cloud's letter, which he ends by telling his brother, "If I were with you, I could talk enough to tire you. I hope we shall meet."

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Susanna Dickinson: Alamo Survivor

Studying a historical person or event often involves exploring different types of materials, as each type contributes a distinctive perspective on the subject. For example, walking through a restored home places you where someone celebrated with their family and friends, experienced loss or tragedy, completed daily tasks, and much more. Additionally, historians can read letters, diaries, and other documents written by people who lived in the past and touch artifacts that they created and/or used. Researchers also use secondary sources written by scholars; these works synthesize information from disparate sources and place the experiences of an individual or group within a larger context.

Visitors to the Alamo can walk through the historic structures of the former mission, and the collections of the DRT Library complement this experience with a variety of primary sources, artifacts, and secondary sources. Such is the case, for example, with Susanna Dickinson, who, with her daughter Angelina, was among the women and children who survived the Battle of the Alamo. Mrs. Dickinson lived the rest of her life in Texas and died in Austin on October 7, 1883. You can read more about Susanna and Angelina in the Handbook of Texas Online.

Susanna Dickinson. (SC95.342)

Angelina Dickinson. (SC95.052)

The DRT Library has a copy of a photograph of Susanna and an ambrotype of Angelina. Both images show the women later in their lives (above). Moreover, two of the treasures at the DRT library are petticoats that belonged to each of these women. These clothes, which they did not own and wear until several years after the Texas Revolution, and the photographs were donated by one of their descendants, Mrs. R. E. Nitschke.

Angelina Dickinson’s petticoat.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries the word “petticoat” was used to indicate a “skirt, as distinguished from a bodice, worn either externally or showing beneath a dress as part of the costume (often trimmed or ornamented).” As authors C. Willett and Phyllis Cunningham note in their History of Underclothes (1992), petticoats and other undergarments have traditionally served several purposes for both men and women, including protecting the body against cold and creating fashionable shapes and silhouettes. To see how women’s fashions changed in Europe and the United States throughout the nineteenth century and over the course of Susanna’s and Angelina’s lives, see the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s thematic essay and online exhibit entitled “Nineteenth-Century Silhouette and Support.”

Lace detail, Angelina Dickinson’s petticoat.

Finally, the DRT Library also has a marriage bond for Almeron and Susanna Dickinson dated May 24, 1829 in Hardeman County, Tennessee. This document obligated Almeron Dickinson and co-signer B. D. Johnson to pay Governor William Hall $1,050, an amount owed only if the bride or groom changed their mind or if a legal or moral obstacle to the marriage presented itself.

Marriage bond, Almeron and Susanna Dickinson.

For Further Reading

Hansen, Todd. The Alamo Reader: A Study in History.

“Historic Sites — Alamo — Alamo Defenders”: the DRT Library has vertical files for Angelina, Almeron, and Susanna Dickinson.

Hollmann, Robert. Susanna Dickinson.

King, C. Richard. Susanna Dickinson: Messenger of the Alamo.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

September is Tejano Heritage Month

This month has been designated Tejano Heritage Month by Governor Rick Perry. According to the website of Texas Tejano.com, the organization sponsoring the festivities, the goal of the month-long commemoration is to “elevate and celebrate the lives and legacies of Tejanos” and to educate Texans about Tejanos’ contributions to the state’s history and culture.

Many Tejanos, or Texans of Mexican or Spanish descent, played an important role in supporting the Texas Revolution. Tejanos were also present at the Alamo in 1836, as seven men in Juan N. Seguin’s unit entered the garrison on February 23; remained after William B. Travis sent their commander to Goliad with a message requesting reinforcements; and were among the Alamo defenders killed in the March 6 attack. These men were Juan Abamillo, Juan A. Badillo, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, Damacio Jiménez (Ximenes or Jimenes), Toribio Losoya, and Andrés Nava. Scholars have identified two other Tejanos, José María Guerrero and Carlos Espalier, who are also known to have died defending the Alamo.

The DRT Library contains several primary sources relating to Tejano Alamo defenders. For example, the John W. Smith collection (COL 917) contains the papers of a prominent San Antonio businessman and politician. Smith also managed several persons’ estates, including that of Toribio Losoya. The documents regarding Losoya’s estate include a statement by Erasmo Seguin, Judge of the Probate Court of Bexar County, dated February 6, 1838 appointing Smith administrator “of all and singular the goods and chattels, rights, and credits of the said Torribio Lasoya [sic] deceased.” In other words, Smith was empowered to pay debts Losoya owed others and collect debts owed to him. A second document in this file contains the “field notes of a survey of an [sic] league of land” that includes measurements of boundaries, notations of landmarks, and a small map of Losoya’s Texas property.

Other materials about Tejano Alamo defenders Carlos Espalier, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, Toribio Losoya, and Andrés Nava can be found in the James B. Lefler Research Papers (COL 1127). Lefler was a historical researcher and Pennsylvania resident, and his collection contains copies of documents he gathered at other repositories, particularly the Texas General Land Office. As stated in the inventory to this collection, the documents concern “the grants awarded the heirs of the men for their service to Texas, and include certificates, surveys, patents, and documents submitted in support of land claims.” A complete inventory of the materials in this collection is available at the DRT Library.