O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4
Celebrating 75 Years of Preserving and Revisualizing the History of Texas
J oin supporters at the 2014 A
Special Evening with Texas
History as the San Jacinto
Museum of History remembers
the opening
of the
museum 75
years ago,
honors the
Dow
Chemical
Company’s
support of
the Jesse H. Jones Theatre for
Texas Studies and the San
Jacinto Day Festival and Battle
Reenactment in recent years,
and looks ahead to the
museum’s future.
The evening will offer the
first glimpse of some of the
museum’s newest acquisitions,
as noted below, and will feature
the vocal talents of the San
Jacinto College Central Chorale,
along with a salute to veterans,
an excellent dinner, and the
presentation of the San Jacinto
Star award. Guests will hear an
update on the museum’s plans
for the property acquired last
year.
The annual dinner will take
place on November 6 at the
monument; for patronage
information and reservations,
contact Carolyn Campbell at
ccampbell@sanjacinto-
museum.org.
Special Evening Celebrates Museum’s Past, Present, and Future
Gifts Enhance Museum’s Collections
T his summer, the
museum has been very
fortunate to acquire a
wide range of new artifacts from
generous Texas donors. One of
these items is a Harper’s Ferry
1819 model musket that is said
to have been used by a Texian
solider at the Battle of San
Jacinto. The Model 1819 Rifle,
donated by David Read from
Garland, Texas, to the museum,
was the first breech loading
military arm produced in large
quantities and adopted as a
regulation weapon by the U.S.
military. It was also the first
firearm successfully made with
completely interchangeable
parts. This particular Model
1819 Rifle is a Second
Production Type made from
1826 to 1838. A trained shooter
could fire between two and
three rounds from the gun at
ranges up to 200 yards,
depending on conditions.
Two other recent
acquisitions, a complete uniform
worn by Henry Rossen in the
U.S. Naval Armed Guard in
World War II and a series of
five watercolor illustrations by
noted Texas artist Bruce
Marshall, are also of note. The
uniform includes summer and
winter versions, sweater, long
underwear, hats, duffel bag, and
even leg warmers and fingerless
gloves. The U.S. Navy Armed
Guard was a service branch of
the United States Navy that was
responsible for defending U.S.
and Allied merchant ships from
attack by enemy aircraft,
submarines and surface ships
during World War II.
The paintings were executed
to illustrate Marshall’s 1999
book, Uniforms of the Republic of
Texas: and the Men That Wore
Them, 1836-1846 and are titled
“Republic of Texas Cavalry,”
“Colonel Juan Morales,” “Lt.
Colonel William Travis,”
“Moses Austin Bryan” and
T he fog rolling in after
one of our frequent
summer storms, a
pack of feral hogs tracking
across the battlefield, misty
rainbows and some of the most
beautiful sunsets that can be
imagined are a small sampling
of the fantastic images that
have been captured by the San
Jacinto Monument Cam that is
mounted 540’ in the air,
directly beneath the 220-ton
“Lone Star of Texas” perched
atop the monument. Thanks
to BrandExtract, Union Pacific
Railroad, Enstep Technology
Solutions and the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department who
provided funding and services
for the installation of the
camera. Visit http://www.
earthcam.com/usa/texas/
laporte/?cam=sanjacinto to see
for yourself.
View Over Battlefield
Continued on page 3, see GIFTS
Two-color printing does not do justice to this scene from the San Jacinto Cam as ships pass the Reflection Pool at sunset.
SAN JACINTO NEWS OCTOBER 2014
T o d a y ’ s H e r o e s o f S a n J a c i n t o
N e w a n d R e n e w i n g M e m b e r s
Texas Forever Lifetime Members
Ms. Joan Lyons Mr. George Peckham
Monument Society
Mr. Edward H. Andrews
Museum Circle Lt. Gov. and Mrs. David Dewhurst
Mr. and Mrs. R. Gideon Hixon Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Kelsey
Independence Society Mrs. Cletus Brown
Mr. and Mrs. Townes G. Pressler
Family Freedom Society Mr. Jack Edward Boteler
Mr. and Mrs. L. Clay Fisher Mrs. J. W. Hershey
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Jones Mr. Gerard D. Kendall
Mr. Tom Marsh Ms. Danette Merryfield
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph B. Thomas Mr. Hong Tran
Ms. Lucy White Turoff
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C o r p o r a t e M e m b e r s
L e t t e r f r o m t h e P r e s i d e n t
Dear Supporter,
While an organization moves forward to accomplish its stated mission, specific
projects must be completed along the path to reaching the organization’s goals. As
with any non-profit organization, the San Jacinto Museum needs to fund its special
projects while continuing to provide regular services to the community; fulfilling the
financial obligations in our annual budget while taking on new opportunities is
sometimes challenging.
Taking on new projects is always an exciting process, often strenuous, and
sometimes even arduous, and there is never a dull moment. But something very
important happens along the way; we meet other interesting and dedicated people,
who are working to improve their communities. And sometimes those leaders will
see a commonality of interest and partner with you for community betterment.
A recent example of this would be the decision by the city of La Porte, Texas, led
by their City Council and Mayor Louis R. Rigby, to fund the beginning of a vital
archeology project on the 13 acres of land adjoining the San Jacinto Battlefield
which the San Jacinto Museum purchased late last year. Thus far archeologists
have located an early dwelling or homestead, found U. S. Army cartridges which
may have been used in an early reenactment of the Battle of San Jacinto at the
beginning of the 20th century, and are carefully examining a small area for other
possible archeological finds. In addition, they have located a large flat area of the
property that would be appropriate on which to build a San Jacinto Museum annex
and visitor center. With better facilities on site, more tourists will visit this region.
Established in 1892, the City of La Porte has long been associated with the San
Jacinto Monument. As a Works Progress Administration project requiring that all
labor come from cities and towns within a radius of twenty miles, there is no doubt
that citizens of La Porte worked on the construction of the Monument.
Certainly the generous financial support given by the City of La Porte
demonstrates their appreciation of the importance of history and they in turn deserve
our recognition and gratitude.
Your support through special gifts, grants, attendance at fundraising events like
the Special Evening with Texas History, and renewed membership allows the San
Jacinto Museum to continue our exhibit and educational activities, while taking on
special projects that will improve and expand our opportunities to engage the
community with Texas history.
Larry Spasic,
President, San Jacinto Museum of History
San Jacinto Corporate Society B & D Contractors
October 1-31, 2014 Museum artifacts are part of the online exhibit Remembering Through Archives, part of the Gulf Coast Reads
simultaneous reading of Stephen Harrigan’s Remembering Ben Clayton. http://www.gulfcoastreads.org
November 6, 2014 A Special Evening with Texas History, honoring the contributions of the Dow Chemical Company.
February 7, 2015 Annual Member Lunch, at the Lancaster Hotel, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Program and hotel tour by Miki Norton.
March 14, 2015 4th Annual Texas Independence Fun Run/Walk; 10K, 5K, and 1K kid’s components, registration begins November 1,
2013, online at http://www.active.com
April 18, 2015 San Jacinto Day Festival and Battle Reenactment.
April 21, 2015 Commemorative Ceremony of the Battle of San Jacinto; San Jacinto Dinner.
Upcoming Events
Workers install new speakers, wiring, and acoustic fabric panels in the Jesse H. Jones Theatre for Texas Studies.
SAN JACINTO NEWS OCTOBER 2014
A s part of the celebration of the 75 year history of the San
Jacinto Museum, a series of exhibits take a look at the
museum’s past. In the lobby through the beginning of
November is a review of the collecting history of the museum
through some of the artifacts that have been donated over the
years, and the people who gave them to the museum. For the
holiday season, this exhibit will change: “In the season of giving,
we will display some of the wonderful artifacts that have recently
been given to the museum,” said curator Elizabeth Appleby.
Other exhibits look more closely at the opening of the museum.
A freestanding display uses photographs from the dedication and
opening to take visitors back to April, 1939, while two online
exhibits give viewers who are not able to visit in person a look at
the event, and at the culture of the 1930s, at http://sanjacinto-
museum.smugmug.com. The I10 rest stop exhibit near Winnie will
also change to reflect the 75 years of the museum in late October.
“Colonel Sidney Sherman.” These
colorful images of soldiers involved in the Texas Revolution are
valuable not only for their artistic quality, but for the well-
researched uniform ensembles worn by the figures in the works.
Several new gifts have been received by the Albert and Ethel
Herzstein Library, including materials from the San Jacinto Inn
from the family of Gladys Poe, who was a manager and one of the
former owners of the popular restaurant located next to the San
Jacinto Battleground, and a photograph collection showing the
World War I military service of Pvt. Herman August Bergman.
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Dow Chemical Company Joe and Maudeen Eccles Foundation
Lyondell Chemical Company Monument Inn
Office Systems of Texas Radoff Family Foundation
Sellmark
T h a n k Y o u t o R e c e n t D o n o r s
GIFTS continued from page 1
Lobby, Online Exhibits Look at Museum’s 75 Year History
O ne of the unsolved questions about the aftermath of the
Battle of San Jacinto is the question of who was present
at the time of the capture of Antonio López de Santa
Anna on April 22, 1836. The answer is perplexing, as contemporary
accounts are inconsistent when listing the names of the captors.
The earliest written first-person account is James Sylvester’s
letter published in the Telegraph and Texas Register on August 2, 1836:
“When we arrived at Vince’s, I proposed to take down the Buffalo
Bayou, when four others immediately joined me. …Our party
consisted of Messrs. Miles, Vermillion, Thompson and Mason.”
You can see a copy of this paper on the Portal to Texas History.
Although Sylvester does not mention Joel Robison (sometimes
listed as Robinson) or Sion R. Bostick, they are both recognized as
having been part of the party involved in the capture. A letter from
Joel W. Robison was published in the 1859 Texas Almanac., stating
“The party I was with consisted of six, all privates, so far as I know.
Their names are as follows: Miles, Sylvester, Thompson, Vermillion,
another whose name I do not recollect, and myself.” Reminiscences
of Sion R. Bostick” were printed in the Quarterly of the Texas State
Historical Association, Vol. 5 no. 2 (Oct. 1901), and include “Capt.
Moseley Baker told me on the morning of the 22nd to scout around
on the prairie and see if I could find any escaping Mexicans. I went
and fell in with two other scouts, one of whom was named Joel
Robinson, and the other Henry Sylvester. … All three of us who
had captured him were angry at ourselves for not killing him out on
the prairie…” There is not a known account of the capture of
Santa Anna by either Charles or George Mason, Alfred Miles, or
Joseph Vermillion, or by anyone named Thompson or Thomson.
Although some of the accounts of Texian soldiers who were
present when Santa Anna was brought into the Texian camp state
how many Texians brought the Mexican general in, they do not list
who those men were. Edward Miles was present in the camp then,
but his correspondence with Francis W. Johnson in 1879, in the
Rosenberg Library, about that event shows Edward was not one of
the capturing party.
It is not clear which Thompson was one of the capturers. A
recent correspondent with the Herzstein Library provided a copy of
a June 30, 1836, muster roll of J. G. W. Pierson’s company from the
Thomas Jefferson Green Papers, University of North Carolina,
which includes marginalia by the name of J. P. Thomson that he
was one of the captors of Santa Anna. The Battle Roll includes the
names of James B. Thompson and Charles P. Thompson, but there
is no J. P. Thompson or Thomson recognized as having been on
the battlefield at San Jacinto.
So the question of who exactly captured Santa Anna will have to
remain unanswered, pending further archival revelations.
Who Captured Santa Anna?
San Jacinto Museum of History
Association
One Monument Circle La Porte, TX 77571-9585
San Jacinto
Museum of History
Board of Trustees 2014
Robert B. Hixon, Chair
Sadie Gwin Blackburn
Nancy T. Burch
Tom M. Davis, Jr.
Dr. J. Frank de la Teja
Verlinde Hill Doubleday
James B. Earthman, III
Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton
Frank G. Jones
Ann H. Kelsey
Michael N. Lamb
Townes G. Pressler, Jr.
David C. Randall
Arthur A. Seeligson
Hon. Mark White
CONTACT INFORMATION:
San Jacinto Museum
of History Association
One Monument Circle
La Porte (Houston), TX 77571-9585
Phone: 281/479-2421
Fax: 281/479-2428
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.sanjacinto-museum.org
The San Jacinto Museum of History
Association was chartered in 1938 to preserve
and revisualize the early history of Texas.
© 2014 San Jacinto Museum of History
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Return Service Requested
SAN JACINTO NEWS OCTOBER 2014
Museum Contributes to Texas Artisan Database
M useum staff are excited to announce that a
significant portion of the museum’s artifact and
archival collections will be included in the
William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive that is
being created and maintained by the Bayou Bend Collection
and Gardens and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. This
freely-searchable online archive documents the “lives, work,
and products of
Texas artisans and
artists through
1900.” The
Archive plans to
include census
records, city
directory entries,
newspaper articles,
artifacts and other primary source materials of the 19th
century, as well as later research and publications about Texas
artisans and artists. The initial project included materials
from Bayou Bend and The Heritage Society at Sam Houston
Park, but the plan is to eventually include items from
collections across Texas. Staff members from San Jacinto are
already working with the archive’s organizers to upload
hundreds of items from our collections to the database. You
can visit the database at http://texasartisans.mfah.org/cdm/
to check on the progress of this exciting project.
Card photograph of San Jacinto veteran Madison G. Whitaker, taken by Galveston photographer P. H. Rose. San Jacinto aficionados may recognize Rose as the creator of the 1879 composite photograph of San Jacinto veterans; this photo of Whitaker was used for the composite.