The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 33, July 1929 - April, 1930 Page: 13

The Beginnings of the State Historical Association

giving some facts not carried over to the bound volumes. First
among those now historic names comes that of Lester G. Bugbee,
the corresponding secretary and treasurer. In any study of the
first years of the Association, two names stand out together-
Garrison and Bugbee. Dr. Garrison was more than founder; he
was a true father to the organization. He it was who planned,
inspired, and governed the course of the Association's infant de-
velopment and so fixed in it that admirable character which we
inherit today; but he, overloaded as he was with his regular duties
as head of the department of history, would have found himself
bitterly handicapped in his efforts without the intelligent self-
sacrificing helper so fortunately provided. lugbee did the drudgery
which made the directing force effective. Together the two were
like a well-matched team pulling ahead wi h a single mind. The
younger man, first as student and then as instructor in history,
had imbibed to the full the spirit of tho older, and the main
business of the Association under these circumstances went straight
ahead, straight but slowly, and painfully. Keeping up THIE QUAR-
TERLY was the main business. It was like the house that Jack
built. In the spare time of the long term, and all of the time in
the summer vacations, the faithful secretary-treasurer went at his
task systematically, advertising the aims and needs of the organi-
zation in order to get members, in order to get money, in order to
get out THE QUARTERLY. THE QUARTERLY never failed to come
out, but sometimes Dr. Garrison had to help out finances from his
own pocket, and of course the secretary-treasurer's services had
to be a gift. In addition to such pressing duties as these, he bore
also a part in editing, besides contributing some of the best material
which went into its make-up. To those of us who know all of this,
those early numbers have a deep human interest. After four years
of such labors, we lost his services. In 1901 he was obliged to ask
for a year's leave of absence from the University on account of
failing health, and the following year he died, a victim of tubercu-
losis. His loss was a hard blow to the Association, as well as to
the department of history in the University and to the field of
Texas historical writing, where he was making his mark. My own
personal knowledge of him was slight, though full of admiration,
but from one of his most devoted followers, Dr. Barker, I have