CONTRIBUTORS
From the brief sketches of contributors that follow, something is revealed of the humanistic interest in their own social inheritance that is stirring among men and women over the State of Texas. If culture is a cultivation of the inherent rather than a grafting of the extrinsic—and history shows that it is—then surely no small debt will be acknowledged to these individuals by the growing number of children of Light who claim also to be children of Texas.
Stanley E. Babb, a young man of Galveston, has written some genuine poetry of the sea. He is literary editor of the Galveston News.
Julia Beazley of Houston is a gatherer of Texas folk-songs as well as of legends.
L. D. Bertillion’s business of mounting horns has carried him into many parts, and apparently he has always traveled with open ears. Only lack of space has prevented the inclusion of other legends of his gathering. He lives at Mineola.
Austin Callan, who used to live at Santa Anna, is a newspaper man.
John R. Craddock is a true product of the rangy West, and he is gathering all manner of folk material from the old-time Plains people. Only one to the manner born can seize a legend as he has seized “The Legend of Stampede Mesa.” At present Mr. Craddock is ranching in Dickens County. He has written good ballads and has been a student at the University of Texas.
Dr. Alex. Dienst of Temple is a well known scholar in Texas history. He has contributed to the Southwestern Historical Quarterly and is engaged on a bibliography of Texasana.
Bertha McKee Dobie has from childhood been familiar with the country of the Brazos and the San Bernard rivers.
Flora Eckert is a native of the Llano region. At present she is teaching in the Fredericksburg Public Schools.
A. W. Eddins, who is engaged in school work in San Antonio, has contributed to both preceding Publications of the Society. He promises more lore from the Mexicans.
Julia Estill is president of the Texas Folk-Lore Society and one of the most useful members that the Society has ever known. Last year she contributed an article to the Publications on German lore of Gillespie County. She is principal of the Fredericksburg High School.
Jord Leeper Gay has played tramp, cowboy, treasure hunter, and collegian. At present he is attending the School of Mines at El Paso.
Lillian Gunter is librarian of the Cooke County Free Library at Gainesville. There she has a county museum and is inspiring a widespread interest in local history.
Charles Heimsath is instructor of English at the University of Texas.
Frontier Times, issued monthly at Bandera, is, to one interested in Texas folk-lore and pioneer reminiscences, the most interesting magazine ever published within the borders of the state. Of it J. Marvin Hunter is editor and publisher. During the eight months that Frontier Times has appeared it has printed as many Texas legends, in addition to folk-lore of other forms. One who is interested in folk diction, folk metaphor, etc., will find in this magazine invaluable source material. Mr. Hunter compiled the two volumes of Trail Drivers of Texas published by George W. Saunders of San Antonio. He has written also a history of Bandera County.
Martin McHenry Kenney (1831–1907) was born in Illinois and at the age of three came to Texas with his parents, members of Austin’s colony. He was a forty-niner, captain of a company in the Confederate Army, a Texas Ranger, and for thirteen years Spanish translator of the State of Texas. He was a diligent student of Indian life and knew the Indians at first hand. He wrote “The History of the Indian Tribes of Texas,” which is included in Wooten’s Comprehensive History of Texas.
Edgar B. Kincaid is a ranchman of Uvalde County.
Edith C. Lane is an active member of the El Paso Archaeological Society.
E. G. Littlejohn is well known among Texas historians. He is the author of Texas History Stories, familiar to many school children of the state. He is secretary of the Texas Historical Society at Galveston and principal of the Alamo School. [[262]]
Adele B. Looscan, president of the Texas State Historical Association, has made many valuable contributions to the history of Texas and has largely encouraged the cultivation of literature in this state. Her home is in Houston.
Roscoe Martin is a student at the University of Texas.
J. W. Morris is a lawyer at Freeport. He has written various legends of the coast country that have been published in the Freeport Facts.
L. W. Payne, Jr. has perhaps done more than any other man to keep alive the Texas Folk-Lore Society. He was the first president of the Society, having been largely instrumental in founding it, and has been a constant contributor to its Publications. Dr. Payne is now gathering the folk-songs of Texas for a proposed volume. He is Professor of English at the University of Texas.
Fannie Ratchford is assistant in the Wrenn Library, in connection with which she has done interesting research.
Mrs. Bruce Reid, of Port Arthur, has put a series of legends into story form for children. She acknowledges her inspiration to Mrs. E. C. Carter, until recently Chief Librarian of the Memorial Library at Port Arthur. In this library Mrs. Reid’s folk-stories are read and told to children. Mrs. Reid has made extensive studies of birds.
R. E. Sherrill, a business man of Haskell, has written a history of Haskell County. Working through the public schools, he has stimulated a lively interest in the history and lore of his county.
John P. Sjolander, a veteran of seventy-three years, will long be remembered as a pioneer Texas poet. He was born of a noble family in Sweden, was educated in England, and came to Texas more than half a century ago—as a seaman. For a long generation he has lived at Cedar Bayou, cultivating poetry and the art of life. He has translated many folk-songs from the Swedish and has contributed to various magazines of this country and Sweden. A sketch of his life by Hilton R. Greer is to be found in Library of Southern Literature. Only some of his “Rhymes of Galveston Bay” are here reprinted.
J. S. Spratt, recent student of the University of Texas, lives at Mingus in Palo Pinto County.
Mary A. Sutherland is the author of The Story of Corpus Christi, an interesting history not only of her home city but of the lower Nueces country. She contributed to the Publications of 1923.
Victor J. Smith, a member of the faculty of the Sul Ross State Normal College at Alpine, is the acknowledged representative of the Texas Folk-Lore Society for the Big Bend country. He combines anthropology and folk-lore and contributed an article of such blend to the 1923 Publications.
As editor of The American Sketch Book, which she brought to Texas from the north and continued to edit under the sub-title of Texas Pioneer Magazine, Bella French Swisher was during the eighteen eighties rather prominent in Texas literary circles. Her romantic nature took her to California, to the stage, and to a young husband. She died some fifteen years ago.
In the note to “The Devil and Strap Buckner” something is said of the author’s life. Nathaniel Alston Taylor was born in North Carolina, 1835. He graduated from the University of Virginia, came to Texas, and served as colonel in Polignac’s Brigade during the Civil War. After the war he settled in Houston.
Louise von Blittersdorf is an enthusiastic worker in the Texas Folk-Lore Society. Her home is in Austin, and she is a student in the University of Texas.
J. O. Webb, Superintendent of Schools at Alvin, is writing a history of Galveston for his Master’s thesis at the University of Texas.
W. P. Webb perhaps knows more about Texas Rangers and frontier outlaws than any other man living. He has written various articles on Texas history and Texas folk-lore; at present he is working on a book having to do with Texas Rangers. Mr. Webb is Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Texas.
Mrs. S. J. Wright is the author of San Antonio de Béxar, Historical, Traditional and Legendary, which contains a number of legends pertaining to San Antonio. Mrs. Wright is a leader in Texas women’s club work. San Antonio is her home. [[263]]