Texas History: Read all about the resilient women of early Texas

We’re all reading more these days.

At least as long as shelter-in-place directives prevail.

Not long ago, Think, Texas reader Mary Bradley asked for tips on books about Texas women in the 1800s. She was particularly interested in memoirs.

For fiction, I recommended Paulette Jiles’ recent novel "News of the World” as well as "True Grit’" by recently deceased author Charles Portis.

As for memoirs, Dilue Rose Harris’ "Life in Early Texas: Reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris" is rich with information about the era of the Republic. From roughly the same period, "Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick: A Journal of Early Texas.”

Now before you say, “Wait, Michael, aren’t the bookstores closed, and hasn’t Amazon delayed shipping books to concentrate on more essential materials?”

Yes, but you can still order from AbeBooks.com, which sources from book dealers all over the country, and likely your local bookstore does so as well. Here in Austin, BookPeople, for instance, is still taking orders to ship at BookPeople.com.

I posted Bradley’s request on the Think, Texas digital newsletter — which is free and comes out on Tuesdays and contains much more state history than you see here in these columns — and other kind readers quickly responded.

Stan Reid reminded me about the novel “Love Is a Wild Assault” by Elithe Hamilton Kirkland. Reid is not the first to recommend it, despite the title that seems better suited for a paperback romance. It’s about a girl named Harriet Potter who goes on a far-flung odyssey across early Texas.

Reid’s suggestion made me think about Elizabeth Crook’s more recent novel “The Which Way Tree,” a searing story about a girl in Central Texas tracking down the panther who killed her mother and disfigured the girl’s face. I give it four out of four stars.

Reid also mentions “True Women” by Janice Woods Windle, a historical novel that covers two dynastic family lines and marches across the decades from the Texas Revolution to modern times.

Cathy Andrews endorses “Travels and Adventures in Texas in the 1820s” by Mary “Polly” Crownover Rabb.

Andrews explains her personal connection.

“My husband, born in 1944, is a descendant of John and Mary Crownover Rabb, and he grew up hearing her stories retold by his father, John Rabb Andrews (1908-1985),” Andrews writes. “The Rabb family papers are well documented by the Texas State Historical Association and the University of Texas libraries. I have not been to the Bullock Texas State History Museum in a number of years, but the last time I was there it had an exhibit about pioneer life, and that exhibit included audio of material read from Mrs. Rabb’s writings.”

The next correspondent might be the best nonprofessional researcher I’ve ever encountered on the Texas beat. Among other projects, Elizabeth Jones has thoroughly documented her family picture albums down to the articles of clothing worn by her ancestors.

“I have been on the same search that Mary Bradley is on, and I have a few suggestions,” Jones writes, “although I don't think any one of them is a great reflection of early Texas women's experiences. I think women were far too busy to keep journals, or if they did, they didn't think they were worth preserving or sharing, or were too intimate, unfortunately.”

Nevertheless, she sent some titles that have been useful to her. The titles alone give you a sense of life for women in early Texas.

“Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine,” edited by Jo Ella Powell Exley.

“Another Year Finds Me in Texas,” edited by Vicki Adams Tongate.

“Surviving on the Texas Frontier, the Journal of an Orphaned Girl in San Saba County” by Sarah Harkey Hall.

“The Slave Narratives of Texas,” edited by Bonnie C. Tyler and Lawrence R. Murphy.

“The Uncompromising Diary of Sallie McNeill 1858-1867,” edited by Ginny McNeil Raska and Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill.

“The Texas Diary, 1835-1838" by Mary Austin Holley.

“Women on the Texas Frontier, A Cross-Cultural Perspective” by Ann Patton Malone.

“Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi, Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879,” edited by Bruce S. Cheeseman.

“Tandem Lives, the Frontier Texas Diaries of Henrietta Baker Embree and Tennessee Keys Embree (1856-1884),” edited by Amy L Wink.

“Calico Chronicle” by Betty J. Mills.

“Memoirs of Mollie McDowall (Mary Ann Nicholson) 1843-1931,” edited by Ethel Mary and Franklin Smith.

“The Autobiography of a West Texas Pioneer, Ella Elgar Bird Dumont,” edited by Tommy J. Boley.

“Women in Early Texas,” edited by Evelyn M. Carrington.

“Frontier Women” by Julie Roy Jeffrey.

“Westering Women and the Frontier Experience 1800-1915” by Sandra L. Myres.

Clearly, I have some book shopping to do.

“I am still on the look-out for a good journal by an early Texas woman,” Jones adds, “but I have had to take bits and pieces from all these sources to stitch together a picture that is still pretty full of holes.”

In a follow-up email, Jones makes one last suggestion. This one I heartily endorse, too.

“While it is not strictly about Texas women, it is about East Texas in the 1830s to 1850s,” Jones concludes. “It's the diary of a German-born merchant and land agent in Nacogdoches named Adolphus Sterne, so it has gossipy bits and details about what life was like at that time in East Texas. I haven't read it in a while, but as I recall, it was very enjoyable. It is called ‘Hurrah for Texas, the Diary of Adolphus Sterne 1838-1851.’ … Maybe I'll read it again since I seem to have time on my hands at the present.”

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