Texas Originals

In 1888, the historical novel Remember the Alamo was published to popular and critical acclaim. The novel's unlikely author was Amelia Barr, a British writer who lived in Texas in the mid-nineteenth century. To support herself after her husband and three of her children died of yellow fever in Galveston, she launched a remarkably successful writing career. In her memoir, completed at age eighty, she wrote that she hoped her life story might help "any sad or doubtful woman to outleap her own shadow, and to stand bravely out in the sunshine to meet her destiny."

Sarah Horton Cockrell played a pivotal role in Dallas's early economic development. In 1872, she raised funds to open the first iron bridge over the Trinity River, thereby connecting Dallas to major roads south and west. By the time of her death in 1892, she owned almost a fourth of the city's downtown. She is now remembered as "Dallas's first capitalist."

The singer who first performed the song "Ol' Man River" is an obscure figure today. Baritone Julius Bledsoe was among the first African Americans to appear on Broadway, but he made few recordings and his fame was soon eclipsed by the great Paul Robeson, who succeeded him in the role of Joe in the classic musical Show Boat. A critic from the New York Morning Telegraph described him as "a singer who can pick the heart right out of your body—if you don't look out."

Texan Margo Jones revolutionized American theatre. At a time when few professional drama companies existed outside New York, Jones fought for regional productions and new voices. Determined to create the best theatre in America, she said, "I saw no reason why I couldn't have it in Houston." In 1947, in Dallas, Jones founded America's first modern professional resident theatre, which in turn launched the regional theatre movement throughout the nation.

Poet, politician, and historian, Mirabeau B. Lamar is claimed by Texas, although he was a Georgia native and lived there for three decades. In 1838, Lamar became the second President of the Republic of Texas, inheriting a nation beset by problems that included a bankrupt treasury. Undaunted, Lamar promoted his vision of Texas as a prosperous, sprawling empire.

As a public official, suffragist, and educator, Annie Webb Blanton devoted her life to women’s rights. She said, "Everything that helps to wear away age-old prejudices contributes towards the advancement of women and of humanity." In 1918, Blanton was elected State Superintendent for Public Instruction, becoming the first woman in Texas to hold a statewide elected office.

A champion of historic preservation, prominent Texan architect O'Neil Ford decried architectural flamboyance and cliché. He was also a passionate advocate for education and the environment. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Ford to the National Council on the Arts. Ford died in 1982, but his ethic of simplicity, integrity, and restraint continues to inspire. "Architecture is scale and proportion," he often said. "The rest is décor."

His thousands of admirers called him a saint. His adversaries—and there were many—called him the Devil's apostle. But Waco publisher and journalist William Cowper Brann preferred to be known by the name of the weekly journal he published, the Iconoclast.

Born near Houston in 1918, Mary Kay watched her mother work long hours to support the family. At a time when few women worked outside the home, Mary Kay, too, pursued a career. She flourished as a saleswoman but quit when a man she had trained was promoted above her. In 1963, Mary Kay Ash launched her cosmetics business in Dallas with nine independent beauty consultants. Today, 2.5 million women sell her products in thirty-five countries.

Author of more than forty Westerns, the writer Elmer Kelton depicted the South Texas Plains with both romance and realism. These were qualities that Kelton knew well, having spent his entire life in the region. Kelton once explained, "I can't write about heroes seven feet tall and invincible. I write about people five feet eight and nervous."

Rabbi Henry Cohen once said, “Other men play golf for recreation. My hobby is helping people.” Cohen is perhaps best known for his role in the Galveston Movement, which brought Jewish immigrants into the Port of Galveston to settle throughout Texas and the Midwest. Cohen met immigrants at the dock and provided advice and assistance, sometimes purchasing clothing and supplies for them with his own money.

Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca first set foot on land that would become Texas in 1528, when his crude raft ran aground near Galveston Island. Cabeza de Vaca then embarked upon what one scholar described as "the most remarkable [journey] in the record of American exploration."

Connecticut-born Frederick Law Olmsted is best known for his design of New York's Central Park. But his book A Journey through Texas (1857) remains one of the most thorough and engaging nineteenth-century travel accounts of the state.

Physician and pioneering activist Héctor P. García was once described as "a man who in the space of one week delivers twenty babies, twenty speeches, and twenty thousand votes." A proud member of the Greatest Generation, García sought the inclusion of Mexican Americans into mainstream America.

Charles Goodnight liked to point out he was born in 1836, the year the Republic of Texas was founded, and moved here in 1845, the year Texas joined the United States. A legendary rancher and trailblazer, Goodnight became known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle.

Over the course of her life, Jane Y. McCallum compiled a remarkable record of public service. She was a leader in Texas women's fight for suffrage. She helped the Texas League of Women Voters fight for education, health care, and child labor laws. She served as executive secretary of the Women's Joint Legislative Council. She also served as Texas Secretary of State under two different governors.

Tejano leader José Antonio Navarro lived under five the six flags of Texas. Born in 1795 to a prominent family in San Antonio, Navarro grew up along with his city. In the 1820s, he championed Stephen F. Austin's colonization efforts. When trouble arose between the Texans and Mexico's government, Navarro was one of two Tejanos to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836.

Born in 1904 on her grandparents' ranch in Roma, Texas, pioneering folklorist and educator Jovita González felt a deep commitment to the people and culture of South Texas. She traveled throughout Cameron, Starr, and Zapata counties, interviewing residents of the borderlands. González captured the voices of ordinary Mexican Americans seeking to preserve their cultural traditions during a period of tumultuous change.

In 1683, Franciscan priest Damián Massanet left Barcelona to serve as a missionary in the New World. Massanet spent several years building missions in Mexico. Then, in 1690, he accompanied General Alonso De León, governor of the state of Coahuila, to establish a Spanish presence in Texas. Massanet's Tejas mission lasted for only three years, but it marked the first step in Spain's efforts to bring the lands of Texas under the Spanish flag

In the 1920s, writer Winifred Sanford's stories of the Texas oil boom captured the anxieties of a state on the verge of modernization.