Historic Issues of EL REGIDOR Available in Chronicling America and the Texas Digital Newspaper Program

Posted by & filed under Featured, Grants, National Digital Newspaper Program, Texas Digital Newspaper Program.

Today begins a series of blog posts highlighting titles digitized in Chronicling America, the Library of Congress’s repository of historic American newspapers, by the UNT Libraries’ Digital Newspaper Unit from 2016-2018. The Digital Newspaper Unit has received National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work with the Library of Congress in building access to historic Texas newspapers. The 2016-2018 award cycle focused on non-English newspaper content. El Regidor is also available on the Portal to Texas History as part of the Texas Digital Newspaper Program.

This essay was prepared by our own Sarah Lynn Fisher, Texas-NDNP project coordinator, and Brooke Edsall, Digital Newspaper Unit Imaging Lead.

El Regidor

In 1888 Pablo Cruz founded El Regidor (also available on the Portal), a weekly Spanish-language newspaper, with Cruz serving as both publisher and editor. El Regidor reported on issues concerning Tejano people in San Antonio, giving first-person, eyewitness accounts of Texas politics. In his editorials, Cruz detailed the Mexican immigrant’s struggle to obtain United States citizenship. Cruz, himself a naturalized Mexican immigrant, used El Regidor as a platform to publicize his social and political goals for the Mexican immigrant community (Orozco 2019).

In 1893 El Regidor measured 13 inches by 20 inches, typically published four-page issues, and aligned itself with the agrarian populist People’s Party (Barnes 2019). The Party’s support of small landowners and opposition to centralization of power resonated with Cruz and his immigrant readers. However, following the Party’s attempts to limit the voting rights of Mexican immigrants in Texas, which culminated in the pivotal 1897 civil rights case In Re Ricardo Rodríguez (Acosta 2019), Cruz abandoned the Populist movement. El Regidor remained independent until 1906, when it declared itself to be Republican. Its circulation grew from a modest 1,200 in 1896 to nearly 10,000 at the end of its run in 1915 (Kanellos & Martell 2000). The paper included national and international newswires, focusing on the politics of Mexico in particular. The last page of every issue from 1904 to 1915 is dominated by advertising for medicines and local merchants.

Cruz used his paper to voice discontent with those who questioned and violated civil rights of barrio residents by encouraging them to unite against behavior such as educational segregation of children of Mexican ancestry (Menchaca 2011). In 1901, Cruz started a campaign through El Regidor to raise funds for the defense of Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican man charged with the murder of Sheriff Morris of Karnes County. Cruz, convinced the murder of Sheriff Morris was justified, advocated for Cortez in the pages of El Regidor. The campaign was a success – funds were allocated to hire Judge B. R. Abernethy of Gonzalez and Samuel Belden of San Antonio to conduct the defense and Cortez was eventually pardoned in 1913 (Martinez 2003).

Cruz died in 1910. His wife, Zuelma P. de Cruz, edited and published the paper, suspending publication in 1915. After Cruz’s death, El Regidor’s masthead still credited “Fundador, Pablo Cruz.” (Orozco 2019). Col. Francisco A. Chapa, who published El Imparcial , took Cruz’s place as an activist in the community, particularly in the effort to defend Gregorio Cortez. Cruz’s son, Pablo Cruz, II, was a founding member of a Mexican American fraternal organization that eventually organized as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

For more information about the National Digital Newspaper Program, you can visit the NEH NDNP page.

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References

Acosta, T. P. (2019). IN RE RICARDO RODRIGUEZ. In Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved from https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqitw

Barnes, D. A. (2019). PEOPLE’S PARTY. In Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved from http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wap01

Kanellos, N., and Martell, H. (2000). Hispanic Periodicals in the United States, Origins to 1960: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography. Houston: Arte Publico Press.

Martinez, A. L. R. (2003). The Voice of the People: Pablo Cruz, El Regidor, and Mexican American Identity in San Antonio, Texas, 1888-1910. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/handle/2346/8830

Menchaca, M. (2011). Naturalizing Mexican immigrants: A Texas history. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Orozco, C. E. (2019). CRUZ, PABLO. In Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved from https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcr65

A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas. (1907). Vol. 1. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury01unse

For more information about the National Digital Newspaper Program, you can visit the NEH NDNP page.

 

Announcing the Recipients of the 2019 Rescuing Texas History Award!

Posted by & filed under Rescuing Texas History.

Congratulations to our awardees of the 2019 cycle of the Rescuing Texas History program!

In May 2019, The Portal to Texas History announced the latest call for applications to our Rescuing Texas History program, in two tracks: for newspaper and non-newspaper applications. This program is intended to offer up to $1,000 worth of digitization services by the UNT Libraries’ Digital Projects Unit to build access to partners’ local materials. We’re proud to announce that we’ve selected 49 total projects this year. We are thrilled for these partners and wanted to provide everyone a sneak peek of where the new materials are coming from.

Private Collections of TB Willis Private Collection of the Ritchie Family University of Dallas
Dr. Pound Historical Farmstead Moody Medical Library at UTMB Brownsville Historical Association
Tarleton State University Interurban Railway Museum City of Quanah
Friench Simpson Memorial Library Lone Star Flight Museum Kerr County Historical Commission
Murphy Historical Society Private Collection of the Curtis Estate McCulloch County Historical Commission
Texas Lutheran University Private Collection of the Litzler Family History of West Museum
Dr. Pepper Museum Fannin County Historical Commission Rosenberg Library
Austin History Center, Austin Public Library Ben E. Allen Real Estate Solar Engineering Magazine
Dallas Firefighters Museum Dallas Municipal Archives Melissa Public Library
Mexic-Arte Museum Mineola Landmark Commission Fannin County Museum of History
Private Collection of Mike Cochran Private Collection of JK Johnson Private Collection of the Koenig Family
Fort Davis Historical Society – Overland Trail Museum Travis County Historical Commission Private Collection of MM Davis
St. Mary’s Louis J. Blume Library San Antonio College Library Carrollton Public Library
Denton Public Library Erath County Genealogical Society Ennis Public Library
Forney Historic Preservation League Port Arthur Public Library Smith County Historical Society
Southwestern University Gillespie County Historical Society Tarrant County Archives
Temple College-Hubert M. Dawson Library Montgomery County Library

 

Among this year’s new Rescuing Texas History projects are photos from the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas, and insights into the evolution of solar energy from the 1970s and 1980s. Additionally you will have access to The Junior Ranger, the student newspaper from San Antonio College Library with issues dating back to 1926, along with 14 years of the Carlton Citizen from Erath County. This is just to name a few, so keep your eyes peeled for new and fascinating Texas history materials!

Take a Ride on the Katy Flyer! (Part I)

Posted by & filed under Featured, General, Texas Digital Newspaper Program.

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas passenger train, eventually called the “Katy train,” the “Katy Flyer” or the “Texas Special,” first crossed the Red River from Oklahoma to Texas in 1872. After this crossing, the city of Denison was established on September

Missouri - Kansas - texas Railroad's beautiful Spanish Mission style depot in the "Alamo City" in May 1962. This was the San Antonio home of the KATY's famous trains, the "Texas Special", "The Bluebonnet" and "The Katy Flyer"

MKTR’s home of the KATY’s famous trains, the “Texas Special”, “The Bluebonnet” and “The Katy Flyer.“

23, 1872, according to Folklore in Motion. The Katy train is mentioned frequently in the Texas Digital Newspaper Program collection, in newspapers ranging from 1891 to 2009, and it served Texas as a passenger train until 1965, at which point passenger service ended due to air and car transportation, according to this KXAS-NBC 5 news clip, digitized by UNT Libraries’ own Special Collections.

According to the Texas Historical Commission Marker for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad: “On Christmas Day 1872, over 100 passengers rode the first Katy train into Denison, a new townsite named for M-K-T Vice President George Denison. The construction and acquisition of branch lines soon extended the Katy east to Greenville, west to Rotan and Wichita Falls, and south to Galveston and San Antonio. By 1904, the system had over 1,000 miles of track in Texas. The railroad transported cattle, cotton, and other crops to market. It also carried passengers on such trains as the ‘Texas Special’ and the ‘Katy Flyer’ before passenger service ended in 1965.”

Mentioned in newspapers from across Texas, the Katy Flyer featured prominently in daily life, as these excerpts from 1919-1920 newspapers demonstrate. In August 1919, one-hundred years ago, the Katy train resumed full service after having been briefly suspended during World War I for fuel savings. For North Texans, the resumption of the Katy train’s passenger schedule, even with one trip per day, was extremely important news in trade, agriculture, and travel, as these excerpts illustrate!

July 28, 1919, Bonham News: “Board of Trade and Katy Train: Organization still going after this train. Train promised August 1. The Board of Trade through its secretary, has been right in after the Railroad Commission about the Katy train, discontinued some time since. The following telegram is given exactly as received, and the public is invited to read it, and draw its own conclusions.

Photograph of "Katy Flyer" rolling down the railroad tracks in Denison, Texas.

Photograph of “Katy Flyer” rolling down the railroad tracks in Denison, Texas.

Austin, Texas, July 28, 1919 C.R. Inglish, Bonham Texas: Your letter Friday, train matter. Full hearing has alredy been held and commission’s order requiring reinstatement goes into effect August first. Nothing now before the commission indicating that order will not then be complied with, hence see no necessity for further hearing. Earle B. Mayfield, Commissioner. It has been whispered around that an effort would be made to postpone this train service, but the above does not sound like it. The Board of Trade did not ask for the full service enjoyed before, but a train down from Denison in the afternoon and back in time to catch the Texas Special north.”

The Bonham Board of Trade rejoiced when the Katy train resumed service to their city, on August 8, 1919: “Katy Train is Put on Again: For some time the Bonham Board of Trade has been working on the proposition to get the train on the Katy back. It was abandoned during the war. This train, known by many as the Fannin County Flyer, made two round trips from Denison to Bonham every day. However, it seems it will make only one now.” (Bonham News, August 8, 1919)

Better late than never, the first day the Katy train was back in business, it reached Denison a few hours after midnight on August 1, 1919: “Katy passenger train No. 4 scheduled to arrive in the city at midnight Thursday was delayed several hours in reaching this terminal. The slipping of tires on the engine caused more than three hours delay just north of Dallas Thursday evening.” (Denison Herald, August 1, 1919)

In our next post, we will step back in time to ride the Katy Flyer with the people who rode in the fall of 1919 to early 1920!

 

7 Million Pages: New Places, New Partners, New Papers

This masthead reads "DIOGENES" in large print, with a drawing of a man traveling toward a city.

Posted by & filed under Featured, Grants, Milestones, Texas Digital Newspaper Program, TexTreasures.

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program has now reached 7 million pages of newspapers preserved and accessible! This represents newspapers from 198 Texas counties, contributed by 178 partners, printed in 11 languages, spanning 1813 to the present. Many Texas communities have contributed newspapers to this million pages.

First page of the September 10, 1921 issue of the Goose Creek Gasser.

First page of the September 10, 1921 issue of the Goose Creek Gasser.

The Baytown Sun, digitized by the Sterling Municipal Library in Baytown, represents the largest single-title newspaper run in the Texas Digital Newspaper Program. This project spans over 22,000 issues, comprised of over 376,000 pages, starting in 1921 and moving up to 2016. Baytown was formed by a combination of three different cities and is situated primarily in Harris County. The newspapers from this collection also document Goose Creek, one of the original cities out of which Baytown grew.

First page of the May 2, 1941 Hockley County Herald.

First page of the May 2, 1941 Hockley County Herald.

Through the support of a Tocker Foundation grant awarded to the South Plains College Library, the Hockley County Herald and the Levelland Sun have been made accessible, thus far spanning 41 years in just under 45,000 pages. Levelland became the Hockley County seat in 1921 and has supported a newspaper since 1925, with the publication of the Herald. South Plains College opened in 1958, and it supports a student community population of nearly 10,000. These newspapers document the history of Levelland as it has grown from a small agricultural community to an oil and petroleum processing hub in Hockley County.

In 2018, Bill Patterson, publisher of The Denton Record Chronicle, granted permission to UNT Libraries to build access to the newspaper’s most recent years. We have loaded the first set of PDF ePrint editions thus far, documenting Denton’s past six years. We will continue to add to this collection as we are able to obtain funding to digitize the physical and microfilm issues.

The Texas Borderlands Collection hosts newspapers from counties near and along the Texas-Mexico border. This collection represents a three-year endeavor and includes interesting and unique titles from across Texas, contributed by multiple different partners. The Museum of South Texas History has contributed 11 newspaper titles, written in both Spanish and English, mostly spanning 1898-1923, with Diogenes from 1923 comprising the bulk of the collection. The McAllen Monitor has been loaned to UNT Libraries by the McAllen Public Library for addition to the Portal, and it represents McAllen and South Texas during the first half of the twentieth-century. You can read more about the Borderlands Collection in different blog posts we’ve produced over the past few years, especially if you’d like to learn more about some of the individual titles.

In May 2019, the Center for Research Libraries awarded the Texas Borderlands Collection with the Primary Source Award, selected from the Access Category. The Texas Borderlands Collection has been digitized through the support of three grants from the Institute of Museum and Library, awarded through the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

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These titles and communities are just a few of the new additions to the Texas Digital Newspaper Program, and we encourage you to browse the collection to see what else you can find.  We are continually building onto this collection, so if you don’t yet see a date or title you need, keep looking because the collection keeps growing. We are excited, proud, and enthusiastic about the achievements this past million pages have represented, and we look forward to new titles, new milestones, and new partners during the next million newspaper pages!

 

The Early Frontier: Ghost Merchants of Uribeño

Posted by & filed under Featured, Texas Digital Newspaper Program, TexTreasures.

The Texas Borderlands Newspaper Collection hosts materials from border and near-border counties in south and west Texas. This collection includes 62 titles and spans 1859-1998.

This blog post will explore one newspaper title in particular, from the early colonial city of Uribeño, Texas. If you tried to find Uribeño in Google Maps right now, you would have some trouble because it no longer exists. We’ll return later to the reason behind this, but for now, let’s travel back to 1908, when the community was prosperous enough to support a newspaper office.

El Aldeano (“The Village”) was first published in 1906 for the city of Uribeño , and the issues we have available in the Borderlands collection are from its second year, 1908. In this Spanish-language publication, you can read ads for stable and pasture of animals, learn about the importance of cod liver oil to good health, or, perhaps most interestingly, learn about the merchants who ran businesses in Uribeño and its neighboring towns. Julian Treviño, in Laredo, served the people of Uribeño in wholesale and retail, as “the friend of poor and rich and the most popular both because it sells at the cheapest prices.” Manuel Garcia, also in Laredo, paid for an advertisement to say, “I have a complete assortment of clothes and I can therefore offer footwear from the best brands, such as Leopard, Friedman, and Sovereign, etc., and hats–Stetson, Falcon, Blue Ribbon, and Durham. Clothes made to the latest fashion, and I take care of custom orders,  work requests, and all kinds of fabrics.” Marketing to the wider farm and ranching community, Andres Bertani advertises, “Clothing made, footwear, hats, plough cultivators; wire for fences and all kinds of flours, corn, oats, and sacate.”

If you are interested in imagining daily life in Uribeño, you can read about the Zapata County settlements in the Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 70, 1999, which explains, “The Spanish-Mexican colonial ranch house is a simple, masonry structure and notably most, if not all, of the building’s significant architecture features are all associated with defense. The exclusive predominance of fortified ranch architecture through the mid-19th century attests to the dangers of living on the colonial frontier. . . .Many settlers were killed or captured while protecting their homes and possessions. The inhabitants of the frontier were subjected to an unusually high number and long duration of threats, including: 1) the harshness of the natural environment; 2) the retaliation of Native tribes to non-native settlement; 3) the War for Mexican Independence; 4) a power struggle between the Texians and the Tejanos from 1836 to 1848; and 5) the vigilante actions of Texas Rangers in the Rio Grande area after statehood.”

After the residents and city survived into the mid-20th century, the area was chosen as the location for the Falcon Reservoir. According to Uribeño: The Forgotten Town, compiled by Jo Emma Quezada, “Uribeño was one of the original 5 Zapata County settlements, traced its origin to 1803, when Porción 41 was granted to José Clemente Gutierrez de Lara (1770-1805) for his service in the Spanish army. He built a ranch on Porción 41, which was named as Uribeño later but inundated by the waters of Falcon Reservoir in the 1950.” UNT Libraries’ Special Collections houses this volume about Uribeño’s history (Call number: F394.U75 M37 2002), and if you ever have interest in learning more about this early colonial community, you can request it at any time.

The Borderlands Newspaper Collection has been digitized through the support of a TexTreasures grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC).

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