The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948 Page: 267
406 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
book properly. The Vandale library contains about 8,ooo items
and will require about 20,000 hours to catalog.
Mrs. Robert Singleton of Cooper, Texas, has sent to the Asso-
ciation a photostatic copy of a letter of June 5, 1849, in which
her great-grandfather, Nathan Foster Rogers, describes Texas,
and especially Hopkins County, in terms designed to persuade
his children in Kentucky to move to Texas.
Rogers was a surveyor who came to Texas in the 1830's and
did surveying for the Republic of Texas in Fort Bend County
and near Houston. In 1846, he and a daughter, Lemira Rogers
Smith, settled a community called Booneville (later Dike) in
Hopkins County. Excerpts from the 1849 letter indicate that
Rogers was hazy as to geography but enthusiastic about pros-
pects in his new location.
Prospects in our State is good altho the Gold Fever has set the
World upside down. Gold is discovered on the waters of the Arkan-
sas and in California the distance from this place is not more than
3oo miles. Our crops is backward on account of a cold frost and
raining all most the whole time of planting. Wheat crop is light
cattle horses hogs sheep and all the stock kine do well here. Come to
the land of milk and honey. Short winters and not very hot summers.
Vegetation grows here almost without work. There is health here
some sickness but most is by being imprudent going in the wet and
sun.
Excerpts from other Rogers letters written between 1849 and
1851 were printed in the Sulphur Springs Daily News Telegram
of February 12, 1947. They gave the number of barrels of Texas
"shuger and molasses" shipped to Houston in 1849-1850, de-
scribed the desirability of Hopkins County climate for raising
grain, told of salt in the dew that ruined Brazos valley and
South Texas grass for cattle, and analyzed the economic possi-
bilities of Northeast Texas.
The letter and the newspaper clippings have been deposited
in the archives of the University library.
The Beta Alpha Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, honorary his-
tory fraternity, was formally installed on the University of
Texas campus on November 23, 1947. The charter was presented267
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948, periodical, 1948; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101119/m1/335/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.