The object of writing this thesis was to present a brief history of the development of Texas minerals other than petroleum and sulphur.

"At the present time the textile industry in Texas is seeking to normalize itself after running at a peak production for the last ten years. It is one of the most competitive of our industries. The mills in Texas have always had to compete with the large mills located in the Eastern states, which have many advantages over the Texas mills. ... It has been only recently since the manufacture of synthetic fibers began in Texas, and it has not yet been fully completed. At the present time only the ingredients for synthetic fibers are produced in Texas. ... Cotton and wool manufacturing may develop gradually, but in the field of synthetics appears the greatest opportunity for a future textile industry in Texas."

This thesis includes information on the topography, historical background, military contribution after statehood, social history, economic development, government organization, and early towns and settlements of Roberson County.

This dissertation develops and utilizes a methodology for combining data drawn from the manuscript census returns and the county tax rolls to study landless farmers during the period from 1850 until 1880 in three Texas Brazos River Valley counties: Fort Bend, Milam, and Palo Pinto. It focuses in particular on those landless farmers who appear to have had no option other than tenant farming. It concludes that there were such landless farmers throughout the period, although they were a relatively insignificant factor in the agricultural economy before the Civil War. During the Antebellum decade, poor tenant farmers were a higher proportion of the population on the frontier than in the interior, but throughout the period, they were found in higher numbers in the central portion of the river valley. White tenants generally avoided the coastal plantation areas, although by 1880, that pattern seemed to be changing. Emancipation had tremendous impact on both black and white landless farmers. Although both groups were now theoretically competing for the same resource, productive crop land, their reactions during the first fifteen years were so different that it suggests two systems of tenant farming divided by caste. As population expansion put increasing pressure on the …

"This work examines the fundamentalist controversy in Texas from 1920 until 1929. Stressing the role of J. Frank Norris as the state's fundamentalist leader, it studies the manifestations of the controversy in both the religious and the secular institutions of the state. Since the movement met little organized resistance in Texas, the fundamentalists won significant victories. The study is organized topically. The first part is a general introduction to the controversy on both the state and national level. The second part portrays Norris as the leader of fundamentalist forces. The third and fourth parts examine the conflict within the Protestant denominations especially among the Baptists and Methodists and its impact upon secular institutions. "-- leaf 1

"The development of newspapers in Dallas can be classified into certain definite dates: 1849-1865---the founding of the first newspaper to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War; 1865-1885--the postwar period and the expansion of newspapers; 1885-1906--the development of the present newspapers, the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald, and others; 1906-1942--the advent of sensational journalism and the emergence of the newspaper as big business; and 1942 to the present--a decade of unprecedented growth and entrenchment."--leaf iv.

This study examines the impact of the citizens of the La Reunion colony on the development of Dallas and Dallas County. The French, Belgian, and Swiss families that formed the utopian colony broughta blend of European culture and education to the Texas frontier in 1853. The founding of La Reunion and a record of its short existence is covered briefly in the first two chapters. The major part of the research, however, deals with the colonists who remained in Dallas County after the colony failed in 1856. Chapters three and four make use of city, county, and state records along with personal collections from the Dallas Historical Society Archives and the Dallas Public Library to examine the colonists effect on the government and business community. Chapter five explores the cultural development of the area through city and county records and personal collections.

This study analyzes the prisoner of war program in Texas and evaluates the Army's role in carrying out this assignment. Additional questions were, how were POWs treated? What problems did they create? How did civilians react to the presence of 50,000 prisoners?

"This study concerns the examination of the historical importance and achievements of a small cotton mill located in the agrarian Texas community of Itasca, Texas. Newspaper clippings and numerous interviews with former mill employees and Itasca citizens supplied factual material pertaining to the Itasca mill; however, company records provided the basic research material for this paper... The company offices have since been destroyed, and most of the records are now in the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas...In the final chapter, the author concludes that this mill, like numerous other southern mills, fell under the influence of northern companies because of undercapitalization which severely limited available operating capital. Even though the mill eventually prospered, it never managed to free itself from the influence of northern commission companies. In the final analysis, the Itasca company proved to be different from other cotton duck mills in the South in its development of a line of unique decorative fabrics sold by mail as well as through thirteen company-owned stores."-- leaf 1.

The work traces the early history of the Texas State Department of Highways. Beginning with the first efforts to create a department, the study focuses on the period between 1917 and 1923. Much attention goes to the legislative background of the early actions of the department. Subsequently, the work examines various statistical measures of the department's performance. This includes comparisons between Texas and nearby states, and the national highs, lows, and averages. Concluding the study is an examination of the department's immediate goals and long range plans in the years after 1923. The general conclusion of the study is that the department played a useful role in the development of state roads in Texas.

This paper discusses the influence of religious aspects in rural thought and how they played in the activities of agrarian movements and farm protest movements. The religious orientations of major agrarian reformers in Texas is discussed, as well as the similarities between Protestant religious institutions and agrarian institutions, specifically the Farmers' Alliance and People's Party of Texas.

The aim of this thesis is to narrate and analyze lynching and atypical violence in Denton County, Texas, between 1920 and 1926. Through this intensive study of a rural county in north Texas, the role of law enforcement in typical and systemic violence is observed and the relationship between Denton County Officials and the Ku Klux Klan is analyzed. Chapter 1 discusses the root of the word lynching and submits a call for academic attention to violence that is unable to be categorized as lynching due to its restrictive definition. Chapter 2 chronicles known instances of lynching in Denton County from its founding through the 1920s including two lynchings perpetrated by Klavern 136, the Denton County Klan. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between Denton County Law Enforcement and the Klan. In Chapter 4, seasons of violence are identified and applied to available historical records. Chapter 5 concludes that non-lynching violence, termed "disappearances," occurred and argues on behalf of its inclusion within the historiography of Jim Crow Era criminal actions against Black Americans. In the Prologue and Epilogue, the development and dissolution of the St. John's Community in Pilot Point, Texas, is narrated.

This dissertation describes the various military outposts on the Texas frontier between 1866 and 1886. It is arranged geographically, with each chapter covering a major fort or geographical area and the smaller posts associated with it. Official military records and government reports serve as the primary sources of data. In 1866 when the United States Army returned to the defense of Texas after four years of civil war, the state's frontier lay open to depredations from several Indian tribes and from lawless elements in Mexico. The army responded to those attacks by establishing several lines of major forts to protect the various danger areas of the frontier. To extend its control and protection to remote, vulnerable, or strategically important points within its jurisdiction, each major fort established outposts. Two main categories of outposts existed in Texas, subposts and picket stations. Subposts served as permanent scouting camps or guarded strategic points or lines of communication. Picket stations protected outlying locations, such as stage stations, that were particularly vulnerable to attack. Because Indians raiding in Texas usually operated in fairly small groups, garrisons at outposts were similarly small. Company-sized detachments generally garrisoned subposts, and picket stations seldom held more than a dozen …

"The object of writing this thesis was to present a brief though fairly detailed history of the oil industry in Texas. The material and facts contained herein were gathered from various sources including books, newspapers, magazines, bulletins, radio programs, letters, and authorized conversations. The main body of this thesis is composed of seven chapters, each of which deals with a certain phase of the oil industry of its effects."--leaf iii

This thesis shows the social and economic history of the El Paso area from the time of Spanish settlers through present day.

"This paper is the result of a study of the oil industry in Cooke County Texas. Consideration was given to the following factors: the physiography and geology of Cooke County, the first oil developments, opening of various fields, the Tydal Refinery, and the benefits of the oil industry to the county in terms of employment, busines establishments, schools, and social efforts. Both persona and documentary source were utilized for obtaining data on the present problem. Primary sources included statements made by land owners of Cooke County, oil operators, drillers, refinery personnel, business men, civic leaders, and the superintendents of schools, both in Gainesville, Texas, and in Cooke County. Secondary sources included newspapers, oil publications, and books on geology and the oil industry. "-- leaf vi.

Muenster, Texas, in Cooke County, began in 1889 through efforts of German-American colonizing entrepreneurs who attracted settlers from other German-American colonies in the United States. The community, founded on the premise of maintaining cultural purity, survived and prospered for a century by its reliance on crops, cattle, and oil. In its political conservatism and economic ties to the land, Muenster resembled its neighboring Anglo-American communities. Its Germanic heritage, however, became pronounced in the community's refusal to accommodate to the prohibitionism of North Texas regarding alcoholic beverages and in the parishioners' fidelity to the Roman Catholic faith. These characteristics are verified in unpublished manuscripts, governmental documents, local records, and interviews with Muenster residents.

This thesis details the history of Burkburnett, Texas through the early 1800s through the early 1950s.

When a new government is established, sovereign and national in its character, all of the land within its jurisdiction belongs to the people, not as individuals, but as a whole, except that which may have been theretofore acquired by individuals under such rights as may be respected by the new government. The land which has not been acquired by individuals is known as the public domain, and is subject to such disposition as the new government might determine. This thesis will review the public lands of Texas and how those lands have been used with a strong focus on the endowment of these lands to the public education system.

The study of the economic development of the Rio Grande Plain has been divided into the following seven chapters: (1) Physical Aspects of the Rio Grande Plain, (2) Grazing, (3) Development of Farming, (4) Development of Transportation, (5) Growth of Major Urban Centers, (6) Development of Natural Resources, and (7) Present Trends. In each chapter except Chapters I and VII, effort has been made to locate the origin of that particular industry and trace its development. In order to understand the development in the raising of livestock, farming, transportation, natural resources, and the growth of major cities of the region, it would be well to understand the physical aspects of the region.

This study examines neglected aspects of the educational history of Texas. Although much emphasis has been placed on the western, frontier aspects of the state in the years after Appomattox, this study assumes that Texas remained primarily a southern state until 1900, and its economic, political, social, and educational development followed the patterns of the other ex-Confederate states as outlined by C. Vann Woodward in his Origins of the New South. This study of the educational history of Texas should aid in understanding such developments for the South as a whole. For the purposes of this study, "education" is defined in terms of institutions specifically created for the formal education of the young. Additionally, the terms "public education" and "private education" are used extensively. It is a contention of this study that the obvious differences between public and private schools in the last half of the twentieth century were not so obvious in the last half of the nineteenth, at least in Texas. Finally, an attempt has been made to confine the study to those areas of formal schooling which are today commonly called primary and secondary, although this was difficult because of the lack of definition used in naming …

During the Great Depression, for the first time in its history, the federal government provided relief to the unemployed and destitute through myriad New Deal agencies. This dissertation examines how "general relief" (direct or "make-work") from federal programs—primarily the Emergency Relief and Construction Act (ERCA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)—was acquired and administered by the government of Texas through state administrative agencies. These agencies included the Chambers of Commerce (1932-1933), Unofficial Texas Relief Commission (1933), Texas Rehabilitation and Relief Commission (1933), Official Texas Relief Commission (1933-1934), Texas Relief Commission Division of the State Board of Control (1934), and the Department of Public Welfare (1939). Overall, the effective administration of general relief in the Lone Star State was undermined by a political ideology that persisted from, and was embodied by, the "Redeemer" Constitution of 1876.

During the mid-nineteenth century, the citizens of Texas were forced to keep their mentally disturbed family members at home which caused stress on the caregivers and the further debilitation of the afflicted. To remedy this situation, mental health experts and Texas politicians began to create a system of healing known as state asylums. The purpose of this study is to determine how Texas mental health care came into being, the research and theories behind the prevention and treatment programs that asylum physicians employed to overcome mental illness, in addition to the victories and shortcomings of the system. Through this work, it will be shown that during the 1850s until the 1920s institutions faced difficulty in achieving success from many adverse conditions including, but not limited to, overcrowding, large geographical conditions, poor health practices, faulty construction, insufficient funding, ineffective prevention and treatment methods, disorganization, cases of patient abuse, incompetent employees, prejudice, and legal improprieties. As a result, by 1930, these asylums were merely places to detain the mentally ill in order to rid them from society. This thesis will also confirm that while both Texas politicians and mental health experts desired to address and overcome mental illness in Texas, they were …

This theses traces the history of Cleburne in Johnson County, Texas through its founding during reconstruction through the early 1900s.