The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 439
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
RECORDS OF TEXAS CATTLE-BRANDS ARE NEEDED
Two years ago, the Texas Legislature enacted a law requiring that all
cattle-brands in use be re-registered in their respective county clerks'
records by October 1, 1945. The objective is to clear county records of
several thousand brands-many of them, particularly in the case of such
counties as Bexar, a hundred or more years old and long out of use.
One purpose of that clearance is to simplify and lighten the task of
entering newly recorded brands, by drastically reducing the volume of
recorded brands which must be examined each time to prevent duplication.
Another aim is to make such presently disused brands available to cattle-
men.
The occasion-technically of interest only to cattlemen-points to an
opportunity and need that persons and agencies devoted to the State's
history and folklore have long ignored or merely touched: collecting
complete photostatic records of all brands recorded in Texas, together
with the dates of their use and with their users' names, in one or more
central repositories such as museums, for ready reference by scholars and
other writers and students.
Admittedly, the job is stupendous and, in the aggregate, costly. For
example, some 3,000 brands each will be released in Bexar and Galveston
counties alone, exclusive of those remaining in use. The re-recorded
brands will be entered in new books and the old records simply filed in
storage.
Nonetheless, the work should be done. Nor should its financing be left
to a single institution or group. San Antonio's Witte Memorial Museum,
the State Memorial Museum at Austin, the Statehood Centennial Commis-
sion, the Old Trail Drivers' Association, the Texas Pioneers' Association,
the Texas Library and Historical Commission, the Texas State Historical
Association are a few of the agencies that could appropriately join in
supporting the job financially. Or it could be done by State legislative
appropriation.
The editorial was followed by a letter to Professor Webb
from Arthur L. Coleman, Assistant Editor of the Express.
I am enclosing a tear sheet from the Express of Sept. 15, containing
an editorial, "Records of Texas Cattle-Brands Are Needed." It is self-
explanatory.
Our hope, in advancing this suggestion, is that such organizations as
the Texas State Historical Association and such institutions as the Uni-
versity of Texas will be sufficiently interested to take up the idea and
effectuate it. I am bringing this suggestion to the attention of Mr. Holman
Cartwright, President of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers' Asso-
ciation, and Mr. Karl Hoblitzelle, of the Statehood Centennial Commission,
also. It is our hope that you and your colleagues in the State Historical
Association will consider it and ways in which it might be realized.
I shall be very glad to hear what you think and what decisions the
Association may reach concerning this.439
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/496/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.