Mary Starr Barkley Papers

An Inventory to the Collection

Creator Note

Mary Starr Barkley was a life-long resident of Austin whose penchant for local history led her to write numerous colorful books, articles, and essays about her hometown and Central Texas. Known to friends and colleagues as "Mamie", she liked to refer to herself as a "housewife-historian".

Barkley's roots in Austin extended back four generations. She was born in 1907 to James Patrick Starr and Mary Ellen Dolan Starr (Nellie), devout Irish Catholics who belonged to St. Mary's Parish in Austin. Mary attended St. Mary's Cathedral School until her graduation in 1923. Her close ties to the Catholic Church greatly influenced both her historical research and her charitable activities throughout the rest of her life.

Mary attended the University of Texas for two years and then went to work for Austin National Bank where she met her future husband, Fred C. Barkley. The two were married in 1930. During World War II, when Fred was in service, Mary began to write fiction and essays. One of her favorite personal anecdotes concerns the time in 1946 that she sent out three articles and received a check for each one. "After that", she said, "I could never quit writing." She regularly sold stories, essays and articles to magazines such as The Cattleman, Farm and Ranch, Catholic Digest, the Houston Chronicle Sunday Magazine, and the Atlanta Journal Magazine.

Mary Starr Barkley wrote predominantly about Austin and the surrounding communities. She liked to set out at about nine o'clock in the morning one day each week and drive to communities within a fifty mile radius of Austin. She conducted a substantial amount of her research through oral interviews and enjoyed talking to "old timers" who could tell her all about the history of their communities. Barkley's method of history writing was to weave human interest stories into traditional date-oriented narratives; she called this style her "trademark". Barkley also carried a camera with her during her travels and took many of the pictures that accompanied her articles.

In addition to her work as an amateur historian, Barkley was involved in several organizations, many of which were affiliated with the Catholic Church. In 1950, she helped organize the Seton Hospital Auxiliary to which she ultimately gave over 17,000 hours of her time during a 30-year period. In 1950, Barkley also helped organize the Friends of the Adoration Convent, a group that served as both the auxiliary and the fundraising arm of the Austin Adoration Convent. In her later years, she served as the Chair of the Travis County Historical Survey Committee, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the historical buildings within Travis County.

Barkley was the author of several published works including: Fifty Years of the Seton Hospital (1952), One Hundred Years: The History of St. Mary's Cathedral (1952), The History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899 (1963), A History of Central Texas (1970), St. Mary's Church (now a Cathedral) (1972), The History of St. Mary's Cathedral, 1874-1974 (1974), and numerous essays and articles published in local and national periodicals. She also wrote a book on the history of the Austin National Bank, and tried her hand at fiction. In addition to her activities as a writer, Barkley conducted extensive genealogical research about her own family and composed an unpublished family history, "A Four Staff Family".

Principle organizations Barkley belonged to include: Seton Hospital Auxiliary, the Travis County Historical Survey Committee, the Adoration Convent, Austin National Bank, and St. Mary's Cathedral Parish.

Mary Starr Barkley succumbed to cancer in 1981.

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Scope and Contents

Correspondence, notes, printed material, photographs, creative works, and scrapbook material (1836-1977, undated) document the life and work of Mary Starr Barkley; especially well-documented are her activities as a genealogist, an amateur historian, an author and a volunteer. Arranged into four series (Personal, Research, Creative Works, and Organizational Affiliations), the bulk of the material is undated with the exception of the material related to Organizational Affiliations, the bulk of which is dated 1969-1977. Original groupings have been retained as much as possible.

Personal material in large part relates to Barkley's genealogical research, which culminated in "A Four Staff Family", a narrative on the Starr, Boland, and O'Hern families. The unpublished manuscript(undated)includes photographs and assorted scrapbook material. Also related to the manuscript are correspondence, photographs, printed material, notes, financial documents and legal papers (1884-1979) that document primarily the lives of those family members who lived in Texas; material on family members from Tennessee and Ohio is also present. Of particular interest is the material on Mary Dolan Rousseau's grocery business, which was located in Austin at the turn of the twentieth century.

Research material (1836-1974, undated) consists of clippings, notes, correspondence, photographs and printed materials accumulated in the course of researching assorted topics in the history of Texas from the early part of the nineteenth century onward. The bulk of the research material relates to Travis County, the majority of which relates to Austin. Historical buildings are also particularly well documented. Bastrop, Burnet, Hays and Williamson counties and the state of Texas, as a whole, are also represented by material in this series.

Notes, drafts, and publication material document many of Barkley's Creative Works [1891-1977, undated). Especially well represented are A History of Central Texas (1968-1970, undated) and her history of the Austin National Bank [1891-1976, undated). Also represented are A History of Travis County and Austin 1839-1899(1960-[1963] and [1968]) and St. Mary's Church (now a Cathedral) (1874, 1968-1972, undated). The series also contains material on other works including drafts and clippings of essays and articles by Barkley (1946-1970, undated) and drafts and notes for fictional works.

The items constituting Organizational Affiliations (1938-1980, undated) relate to Barkley's volunteer activities with three Austin organizations: Travis County Historical Survey Committee (TCHSC) (1939-1980); Seton Hospital Auxiliary (1950-1978, undated); and Friends of the Adoration Convent (1958-1968). Correspondence, minutes, foundation documents, printed material, notes, rosters, and photographic material document Barkley's work as a Chairperson for the TCHSC. Although the date span included begins in the 1930's, the earlier material is exclusively research material accumulated in the process of determining the placement of markers. The bulk of the material dates from the years during which Barkley was directly affiliated with the organization (1966-1977). Especially well-represented in this subseries is the correspondence between Barkley and Texas congressmen J.J. "Jake" Pickle leading up to the placement of the historic marker at St. Mary's Cathedral. Materials about Seton Hospital Auxiliary, an organization that Barkley helped found, include correspondence, minutes, foundation documents, membership logs, creative works, printed material and photographic material. The bulk of the material is composed of membership logs detailing the years of Auxiliary membership for the years 1950-1962. Barkley's creative work provides a history of the Auxiliary ([1975?]) and the records of the creation of and fundraising for the Sister Mary Rose Memorial (1966-1970). Finally, correspondence, foundation documents, scrapbook material, creative works and photographs relating to the Friends of the Adoration Convent document the first decade of the organization. The scrapbook materials (1958-1960) are particularly useful in understanding the foundation of the group as well as the activities by which it supported the convent.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

None.

Restrictions on Use

None.

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Related Material

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Separated Material

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

The collection was donated by Fred C. Barkley. Jr., 1982 September 21.

Preferred Citation

Mary Starr Barkley Papers (AR.V.006). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Texas.

Acquisition Information

Donor #: DO/1955/104

Processing Information

Original finding aid author(s)is unknown.

Final processing and finding aid revisions/encoding by Susan Rittereiser 2010 June.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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