The Daughters of the Republic of Texas: 105 Years of Alamo Custodianship

Last week marked the 105th anniversary of the legislation that granted the Daughters of the Republic of Texas custodianship of the Alamo. The act, entitled “Providing for the Purchase, Care, and Preservation of the Alamo,” passed the Texas House of Representatives on January 23 and the state Senate on January 24th before being signed by Governor Lanham on January 26th, 1905.

Clara Driscoll, who, with Adina De Zavala, led the DRT's efforts to acquire the Alamo. (SC96.002)

The legislation appropriated $65,000 to Clara Driscoll, who had advanced that amount in personal funds to cover a DRT fund-raising shortfall and to purchase the Alamo convento (today the Long Barracks museum) in her own name. The act also placed title to the convento in the name of the State of Texas; turned custody of the property to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas; and transferred custody of the Alamo church, which the state had purchased in 1883, from the City of San Antonio to the DRT.

The legislation stated, in part:

Section 3: Upon the receipt of the title to said land [the convento], the Governor shall deliver the property thus acquired, together with the Alamo Church property already owned by the State, to the custody and care of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, to be maintained by them in good order and repair without charge to the State, as a sacred memorial to the heroes who immolated themselves upon that hallowed ground.

Several months after the Act was approved – on September 5, 1905 – Clara Driscoll transferred the title to the convento building to Texas; one month later, Governor Lanham conveyed it and the Alamo church to the DRT.

Alamo Plaza looking south, circa 1907. The Alamo church, on the east side of the plaza, is beyond the photograph on the left. It is obscured by the old mission convento, which merchants Charles Hugo and Gustav Schmeltzer purchased in 1880 and operated as a wholesale warehouse and grocery. (SC8317.4)

 

The 1905 legislation followed decades of efforts to preserve the Alamo and a five-year campaign on the part of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, led by Adina De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, to raise money for the preservation of the Alamo. Development of downtown San Antonio began in earnest following the Civil War. Photographs (like the one above) and maps (like this 1904 Sanborn map of Alamo Plaza, available as a PDF document) show the Alamo surrounded by commercial structures by the late 1800s and early 1900s. Additionally, the Alamo church was in deplorable condition following years of being repurposed, neglected, and damaged. San Antonians feared that the site would eventually be demolished altogether.

The Alamo church and the Hugo & Schmeltzer building (the old mission convento) in an undated photograph, circa 1877-1912. (SC95.044)

A photograph from the late 1800s showing a saloon immediately to the south of the Alamo church. (SC13523)

 

At the fourteenth annual meeting of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas – held in La Grange, Texas, in April 1905 – Second Vice-President Cornelia Branch Stone of Galveston described the Daughters’ efforts in the weeks prior to the passage of the “Alamo Purchase Bill.” Speaking on behalf of the absent Clara Driscoll, Stone reported that

the committee were [sic] well received by the Senate and House of Representatives, where they found many warm supporters of the measure. Miss Driscoll and Mrs. Stone addressed the Committee on State Affairs in both houses, and Miss De Zavala spoke to the House Committee on State Affairs, as the Alamo Purchase Bill has been referred to this committee. Every courtesy was shown by the two committees, and unanimous endorsement was given to the bill. The Senate was unanimous in support of the bill, and while there was some opposition in the House, the bill had so many strong supporters it was passed by a large majority. Those who most conspicuously advocated this measure were Speaker Seabury, Messrs. Kyle, Glen, Blount, Brelsford, Onion, Robertson, Hudspeth, Judge Terrell and others. [Sam Ealy Johnson, father of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was another supporter of the bill.] Mrs. Looscan and Miss De Zavala were present at the final passage of the bill. Mrs. Stone and Miss Driscoll, having been assured of its safety, left Austin after having spent a week there. The committee did good work, and were [sic] constantly advised by Judge Clarence Martin, whose wise counsel was of great value.

Adina De Zavala in 1924. (SC95.316det)

In another address to the Daughters assembled in LaGrange, Cornelia Branch Stone asserted that the legislation would “require renewed activity on our part to meet [the] demand” placed on them. This, indeed, has proven to be the case in the 105 years since the state granted custodianship of the Alamo to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

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

For further reading, DRT Library:

The general collections of the DRT Library contain books, annual meeting proceedings, vertical files, photographs, and other materials that document the history of the DRT and its custodianship of the Alamo. Additionally, the library also has several archival collections of personal papers and scrapbooks by, to, and about women who held leadership positions in the organization. Additional information about these materials can be found by searching the library’s online catalog. A few resources that describe the context of the DRT’s early preservation efforts and custodianship are listed below.

Preservation Pioneers: The Daughters of the Republic of Texas compiled by Laura T. Beavers

90 Years of the Daughters: History of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas

Saving San Antonio: The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage by Lewis F. Fisher

A Line in the Sand: The Alamo in Blood and Memory by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson

100 Years of Custodianship by Madge Thornall Roberts

“Alamo History Chronology,” a timeline compiled by the staff of the DRT Library

For further reading, other institutions:

Several other Texas repositories contain archival collections of personal papers by, to, and about early leaders of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Many of these collection, such as the Adina De Zavala papers at the University of Texas at Austin, can be found by searching Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO). Others, such as the Adele Briscoe Looscan papers at the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library and the Adina De Zavala papers at the University of the Incarnate Word, can be found through Internet search engines.

Adrian Woll Captures San Antonio and Takes Prisoners

On September 11, 1842, Mexican general Adrián Woll and his force of 12,000 men captured San Antonio. Woll’s expedition reflected Mexico’s refusal to recognize Texas independence and its belief that Texas was merely a rebellious province. The expedition was also part of continued border skirmishes between Texas and Mexico, which persisted from the end of the Texas Revolution (1835-1836) until the Mexican War (1846-1848). It followed six months after Brigadier General Rafael Vásquez’s raid on San Antonio in March 1842, and Texans responded to Woll’s attack by launching the Somervell and Mier expeditions.

When Woll’s forces captured San Antonio, several prominent San Antonio citizens also became their prisoners; they, along with Texas soldiers captured in the battles that followed, were marched to Mexico City and held in Perote prison.

Samuel Augustus Maverick, 1803-1870. (SC96.154)

Among the prisoners was Samuel A. Maverick, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who was also a businessman, landowner, and government official. Maverick had left his family, who had already fled San Antonio in advance of Vásquez’s raid, with friends near La Grange on the Colorado River. He returned to San Antonio in order to take part in the fall term of the Fourth District Court of Texas; he was defending Shields Brooks against the city of San Antonio in a dispute over an allegedly unpaid fifty-peso fee when Woll’s forces entered the city. Approximately sixty Anglo-Americans were captured, including Maverick and everyone else – the judge, jurors, court attachés, attending witnesses, and attorneys – who had also been in court.

Mary Ann Adams Maverick, 1818-1898. (SC96.153)

During his seven-month imprisonment, Samuel Maverick left behind his wife, Mary Ann Adams Maverick, who wrote in her memoirs, “I tried to follow [my husband's] advice and kept up at times a semblance of cheerfulness, but I was then only twenty-four years of age – and almost a child in experience. I had the care of three helpless little children [one of whom was seriously ill with typhoid fever] and the birth of a fourth to look to in the future – a refuge in a strange land and my husband a captive in the power of a cruel and treacherous foe.”

Waddy Thompson's letter to Samuel Maverick, March 16, 1843.

Two interesting items from the library’s archival collections of Maverick family records help document Samuel Maverick’s experiences in Perote prison. The first, shown above, is a letter written by Waddy Thompson, who was related to Maverick by marriage and who in 1843 was the U.S. minister to Mexico stationed in Mexico City. Thompson was instrumental in acquiring a release for Samuel Maverick and others. In the above letter, Thompson informs Maverick that his freedom had been secured:

Mexico March 16th 43

Dear Maverick,

I have this moment received a letter from President Santa Anna informing me that orders had this day been sent for the liberation of yourself Jones & Hutchison and that you are first to come here I am not sorry for this as it will not delay yr [your] departure for the Unites States & will offer me an oppertunity [sic] of serving you and you of serving the great city of Mexico

Yrs W THompson

On the back of the letter, Samuel Maverick noted “order of 16th[;] this recd 18th[;] chains taken off 19^th[;] Begin journey evng. of 22^nd[;] arrive at Puebla 25th.”

Document releasing Samuel Maverick from Perote prison, March 31, 1843.

The second related document in the Maverick family papers is Samuel Maverick’s prison release. On the reverse side, he copied a map of the route to Veracruz, where he boarded a U.S. Navy ship en route to the United States. Maverick made it back to Texas in late April 1843.

Detail of a map drawn by Samuel Maverick on the back of his prison release. To the right of this map he wrote, "Altitude of Mexico and of the Road to Veracruz, drawn from an engraved Map in the City of Mexico."

Detail of a second map drawn by Samuel Maverick on the back of his prison release, showing the altitudes of cities along his route from Mexico City to Veracruz on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Maverick Family Papers at the Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin, contains correspondence and journals that also document Samuel Maverick’s journey to Mexico City and his experiences in Perote prison as well as the effect of his absence on the rest of his family. Selections from these materials are quoted and discussed in Turn Your Eyes Toward Texas: Pioneers Sam and Mary Maverick by Paula Mitchell Marks and Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick: A Journal of Early Texas, arranged by Mary A. Maverick and her son, George Madison Maverick.

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

Theodore Gentilz, Texas Artist

Gentilz's work "Fandango," set in the Spanish Governor's Palace in San Antonio. (SC05.047)

Those who view libraries as having only “old books” and archives as having only “old papers” may be surprised to find that the DRT Library’s collections include, among other materials, more than 1,000 pieces of graphic and decorative art, paintings, prints, and posters. Notably, the library has the largest publicly accessibly collection of artwork by nineteenth-century Texas artist Theodore Gentilz.

Gentilz's manuscript map of Castroville was adapted for Henri Castro's promotional book, "Le Texas en 1845." (SC05.043)

Louis Theodore Jean Gentilz (May 2, 1819 – January 4, 1906) was born in Paris and graduated from the l’Ecole royale gratuite de dessin, de mathematiques et de sculpture d’ornements. He immigrated to Texas in 1844 with the second group of Henri Castro’s colonists and was one of the founders of Castroville. Gentilz served Castro as secretary and surveyor and led colonizers to settle new towns in Castro’s land grant. Gentilz moved to San Antonio probably sometime in the late 1840s. In 1849, the year his father died, Gentilz returned to Paris and married Marie Fargeix, bringing her and his younger sister, Henriette Adelaide, back to Texas. Three years later, Henriette married Gentilz’s friend Auguste Fretelliere. Beginning in the 1860s and continuing until 1894, Gentilz taught art at St. Mary’s College in San Antonio. He also gave art lessons in his home on North Flores Street near Salinas Street and prepared extensive instructional guides for teaching.

Theodore Gentilz with his art class at St. Mary's College. The Witte Museum has the original photograph. (SC889.52.1.5)

Gentilz produced a variety of paintings and drawings that reflected his Texas surroundings, including compositions depicting the customs of the Mexican population, for which he is most remembered today, and botanical studies of the native wildflowers of South Texas.

In Gentilz's painting "Tortilleras," the large, more modern figures of the tortilla makers are a departure from the relatively small forms seen in most of his compositions. (SC05.046)

Gentilz's depiction of Mission San Francisco de Espada, which is located south of San Antonio and now managed by the National Park Service as a part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

The extensive Gentilz-Fretelliere collection at the DRT Library contains family papers dating from 1793 to 1962. The materials have been arranged into seven series (groups of similar records):

• The Correspondence series includes letters, postcards, greeting cards, telegrams, and addressed envelopes.

• The Records series includes property, business, financial, personal, and family records.

• The Writings series contains manuscripts and notes.

• The Printed materials series includes ephemera, leaflets, pamphlets, catalogs, lists and charts, clippings, books, serials, prints, music, and maps.

• The Photographs series primarily contains images of people, but also includes pictures of animals; street scenes, city views, and river scenes; buildings; and plants and flowers.

• The Artifacts series contains tools and equipment; personal objects; clothing and textiles; decorative arts; models, molds, and sculpture; furniture; and packages.

• The Original art series includes preliminary sketches, finished compositions, design drawings, perspective projections, and sketches. Numbering more than 600, these pieces depict a variety of subjects such as figures, portraits, animals, landscapes, nature, and flora. This series contains pieces signed by Theodore and Marie Gentilz, their niece Louise Fretelliere, and their nephew Henry Fretelliere; art attributed to each and to niece Mathilde Fretelliere; and a large number of items, particularly drawings, the attribution of which requires further study.

For more information about this collection, please contact or visit the library.

Theodore Gentilz his wife and Marie in front of their home at 318 Flores Street, San Antonio. (SC889.52.1.3)

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

DRT Library Hosts the Texas Map Society

Members of the Texas Map Society examining some of the materials on display.

Last Friday, April 3, the Alamo and the DRT Library hosted members of the Texas Map Society as part of the organization’s three-day spring meeting in San Antonio. Attendees viewed some of the historic maps of Texas in the library’s collections, including:

Abraham Ortelius, Hispaniae Novae, 1579: Hispaniae Novae sivae magnae recens et vera descriptio is from an edition of Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum. This work is generally considered to be the first modern atlas because it was the first standardized compilation of printed maps to show contemporary, rather than classical, information.

Abraham Ortelius's 1579 map, Hispaniae Novae.

John Senex, A Map of Louisiana and of the River Mississipi, from A New General Atlas, Containing a Geographical & Historical Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms, and Other Dominions of the World, 1719: John Senex published this copy of an important map prepared in 1718 by the French cartographer Guillaume Delisle, one of a number of versions of Delisle’s works issued. The Delisle map, reflected in this Senex copy of it, was the earliest to show the beginnings of the shape of Texas as we know it and to use a variation of the name Texas, in identifying Mission de los Tiejas in east Texas on the Trinity River.

John Senex's A Map of Louisiana and of the River Mississipi, 1719.

Mapa de los Estados Unidos Mejicanos, 1837: Published in Paris by a man known only as Rosa, this map is an exceptionally rare European version of what is considered to be one of the most significant maps of nineteenth-century Mexico, Texas, and the southwestern United States. The document played a role in the convoluted development of John Disturnell’s treaty map showing the final boundary between the United States and Mexico after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

Stephen F. Austin, A Map of Austin’s Colony & Adjacent Country in Texas Drawn Principally from Actual Survey by Stephen F. Austin, 1820s: This is an early example of Austin’s Texas maps based on Mexican cartographic efforts and information provided by surveyors and residents.

Manuscript map drawn by Stephen F. Austin.

Attendees also enjoyed a light dinner on the Alamo grounds and a self-guided audio tour of the complex. The evening concluded with a presentation by Dr. Bruce Winders, Alamo historian and curator. He spoke about his personal collection of nineteenth-century school atlases and what these materials reveal about Americans’ perceptions of Texas at that time.

Dr. Bruce Winders during his talk, "The Power of School Atlases to Decode the Past."

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