urn:taro:twu:00023 Katie Daffan Collection An Inventory to the Collection Finding aid prepared by Penny Bell, 2009 Texas Woman's University, The Woman's Collection
P.O. Box 425528 Denton, TX 76204-5528 Phone: 940-898-3752 Email: Womansc@twu.edu
Finding aid encoded by Penny Bell 2009 Finding aid written in English Description based on DACS Collection Summary Texas Woman's University, the Woman's Collection Daffan, Katie, 1874 - 1951 Katie Daffan Collection ca. 1900's-1930's Mss. 555c 2 folders Texas author, educator, journalist, club woman. A native of Brenham, Texas, Daffan was the author of several books on Texas and women's history. She served as president of the United Daughters of the Confederates, and Texas Woman's Press Association. This collection contains 160 unidentified photographs (circa 1900's - 1930's) attached to loose black pages of a photograph album along with several news clippings including an obituary. The photos show family outings, houses, and work such as feeding the chickens and gardening. Biographical Note

Katie Litty (Miss Katie) Daffan, author, teacher, journalist, and clubwoman, was born on July 29, 1874, in Brenham, Texas, daughter of Laurence A. and Mollie (Day) Daffan. She attended public schools in Denison and Corsicana, graduated from Hollins Institute in Virginia, and was a special history student at the universities of Texas and Chicago. She taught elementary school in Ennis and San Augustine and high school history in Houston, served as principal of a girls' school in Dallas, and taught summer sessions in the normal schools of East Texas. She was elected first vice president of the Texas State Teachers Associationqv and was named to the State Text-Book Board by Governor T. M. Campbell.qv When she was named superintendent of the Confederate Woman's Homeqv in Austin in 1911, she became the first woman in Texas appointed to head a state institution; she remained superintendent until her resignation in 1918.

Miss Katie was literary editor for the Houston Chronicleqv from 1921 to 1928 and feature columnist for the Ennis Daily News from 1936 to 1950. She also wrote or edited New Orleans (1906), Woman in History (1908), My Father as I Remember Him (1908), The Woman on Pine Springs Road (1910), As Thinketh a Woman (poems, 1911), Texas Hero Stories (1912), History of the United States (1924), and Texas Heros (1924), which was adopted as a textbook for third, fourth, and fifth grade students in Texas.

She served five terms as president of the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy,qv was third vice president general of the UDC, and was a life member of its executive board. In addition, she served as president of the Texas Woman's Press Association (1908-09), state historian of the Daughters of the American Revolutionqv (1909-10), state secretary to the General Federation of Women's Clubs (1909), and first vice president of the Texas State Historical Associationqv (1912, 1913, 1914); she was a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas,qv a charter member of Houston Pen Women, a board member of the Houston Public Libraryqv (1904-29) and of the Houston Board of Recreation (1922-29), and first president of the Houston Storyteller's Club (1922-29).

Miss Katie was twice appointed sponsor for Texas to the General Confederate reunions and in May 1913 was appointed sponsor for the South to the General Confederate Reunion held in Chattanooga, Tennessee-the highest social honor conferred upon a woman of the South. The Katie Daffan Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy at Denton was named in her honor. She was also secretary for life of Hood's Texas Brigade,qv in which her father had served.

Although reared a Baptist, she was converted to Catholicism in 1938. Throughout her life she was an ardent Democrat and in her last writing still spoke strongly in favor of states' rights and the "Brave Cause of the South." She was married briefly in 1897 to Mann Trice, then assistant attorney general for the state of Texas. They had no children. Katie Daffan died in Ennis on May 22, 1951, after being hit by a car near her home.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Virginia Duff, "In Memory of Miss Katie Daffan," Texas House of Representatives Journal (52d leg., reg. sess., 1951). Who's Who in America, 1946. Andrea Ivie Webb

Source: Handbook of Texas Online

 Scope and Contents of the Collection

The collection consists of news clippings and loose pages from a photograph album. Without corroborating evidence, we can only assume these are, in fact, the Daffan Family. The photos appear to have been taken between the 1900s-1930s.

Arrangement of the Collection Series 1: Biographical Materials Series 2: Photographs Access to the Collection:

Open for research.

 Publication and Copyright Statements:

Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Coordinator for Special Collections. Where copyright is unclear, all responsibility must be assumed by the user.

Provenance

Unknown. Texas Woman’s University apparently accessioned these records in 1983, but provides not hint to the source of this acquisition. The photographs contain no writing or indication of the location or family.

Processed/Encoded by:

Penny Bell 2009

 Biographica Materials 1 Daffan Family News clippings, 6 items.

Obituaries for Katie Daffan, L.A. Daffan, and Col L.A. Daffan.

"Citizen Katie", a retrospective of Katie Daffan's life, part one.

"Ennis Woman Heads Texas Division, U.D.C." United Daughters of the Confederacy.

"Daffan Memorial Cup to be Awarded", and article on Mrs L.A. Daffan Memorial Loving Cup, which Katie Daffan created in memory of her mother. It is given annually to a student that writes the best essay.

 Photographs 2 Unidentified photographs, no date, no names, 160 items Family Photographs of houses, groups of people , people at work at feeding chickens, gardening,and other scenes . With no identification, we can only assume that it is the Daffan family.