The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 119
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
of a cowboy song who also won the Medal of Honor. The song was "The
Cowboy's Sweet By and By." The decoration came for bringing aid to
Fort Apache when it was besieged by Geronimo in 1881. In addition to
his other accomplishments, Barnes played a major role in saving from ex-
tinction the longhorn, without which this book-and thousands of others-
would never have been written. As an officer in the United States Forest
Service, Barnes got a small appropriation from Congress that enabled
him to travel 5,000 miles, rounding up twenty cows, three bulls, and three
steers in Texas. He shipped them to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge
in Oklahoma, where their numerous progeny can still be seen.
The author's greatest contribution is in documenting the complicated
provenance of popular cowboy songs, such as "Strawberry Roan" and
"Home on the Range." He shows how these songs achieved early success
and passed into the oral tradition, with the writer often getting ignored.
Because of lax observance of copyright laws, editors and compilers of song-
books often reprinted lyrics, listing authors as unknown, when the original
editions showed clearly whose work they were. This problem reflects the
close affinity between the oral tradition and the kind of songs that were de-
liberately composed. Another plus for the volume is its splendid illustra-
tions of singers, writers, and the music itself.
University of Maryland WALTER RUNDELL, JR.
Texas In 1776. By Seymour V. Connor. (Austin: Jenkins Publishing Com-
pany, 1975. Pp. III. Maps, bibliography, index. $14-95.)
As the title suggests, Texas In 1776 is a Bicentennial offering which
traces the history of Spanish Texas during those years when the British
colonies sought and achieved their independence. Although Texas had lost
its basic importance to Spain as a buffer against French expansion, its set-
tlements had grown and even prospered. Most of its approximately 2,500
inhabitants were clustered around the mission settlements of San Antonio,
La Bahia, and Isleta on the Rio Grande in far West Texas. The rest were
scattered among abandoned missions and decaying presidios from East to
Southwest Texas, a remnant of Spain's futile effort to penetrate the Apache
barrier.
Upon the recommendations of the Marquis de Rubi, Spain in 1772
consolidated her line of defense with a cordon of presidios along the entire
northern limits of New Spain. This delimitation of her northern frontier
was a momentous historical event for it gave official recognition to the fact
that Spanish conquest had ceased. The closing of the western missions, the119
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977, periodical, 1976/1977; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101204/m1/137/?rotate=0: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.