A Guide to the Katherine McGowen Brashear Sheet Music and Autograph Albums, 1838-1861

Biographical Note

Born into a family that would become prominent in the civic life of Houston, Texas, Katherine McGowen Brashear also married into a family with important ties to the area. Her mother, Sarah Robinson, a Pennsylvania native, came to Texas in the late 1830s, soon after her marriage to (Belitha?) Christopher. A widow by 1840, in that year she married Alexander McGowen, who came to Texas from Alabama in 1839. McGowen represented Harris County at the 1845 convention that approved the annexation of Texas to the United States and later served three terms as mayor of Houston.

The McGowen’s daughter Katherine, one of eight children, was born in Houston in 1844. In 1862 she married John J. Brashear, who soon after joined the Confederate Army, serving through the end of the Civil War. After his return home, Brashear practiced law in Houston, also serving as Harris County Judge. The couple had six children; one of them, Sam Houston Brashear, continued the family tradition of public service when he was elected mayor of Houston in 1898. Katherine McGowen Brashear died in 1914 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

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Scope and Content Note

Consisting of three autograph albums and a collection of sheet music, the Brashear papers provide a window on the religious and social life of Katherine McGowen and her mother.

Sarah McGowen kept an autograph album containing two entries from 1838, probably shortly before her first marriage, while in Natchez, Mississippi. Most of the entries date from 1845-1852 during her residence in Houston and touch on religious themes. Several of the inscriptions came from Methodist clergymen, including Orceneth Fisher, George Rottenstein, and Henry P. Young.

The two albums of Katherine McGowen were used during her teen years, ending the year before her marriage. Inscriptions from friends, usually in verse form, overflow with emotion and sentiment, bestowing wishes for future happiness and asking for her remembrance.

The bound volume of sheet music used by Katherine McGowen gathers works published from the 1830s to the 1850s. The selections include several works by Texas composers, particularly those of Charles Gustave Fitze, along with popular favorites of the period, patriotic songs and tunes and classical reductions.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

No restrictions. The collection is open for research.

Usage Restrictions

Please be advised that the library does not hold the copyright to most of the material in its archival collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to secure those rights when needed. Permission to reproduce does not constitute permission to publish. The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of copyright, literary property rights, and libel.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Katherine McGowen Brashear Sheet Music and Autograph Albums, 1838-1861, Col 13529, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Maurice, Alexander, and Norman Adams in memory of their mother, Mary McAshan Adams, 2006 June.

Processing Information

Processed by Warren Stricker, 2006.

Finding aid edited and encoded by Caitlin Donnelly, 2010 November.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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