Sallie B. Capps Papers:

A Guide

Biographical Note

Sallie A. Brooke Capps, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. John Brooke, was born, spent her childhood, and was educated in Sherman, Texas. She attended North Texas Female College, later named Kid Key College.

In 1887, she married William Capps, and they made their home in Fort Worth. William Capps became a prominent attorney, businessman, and the editor of The Fort Worth Record. William and Sallie B. Capps had three children: Alba (Mrs. Henry G. Lucas), Mattie Mae (Mrs. Frank M. Anderson), and Count Brooke.

Sallie B. Capps was actively involved in the promotion of education during much of her life. She helped to organize the Fort Worth Kindergarten Association and was also its president from 1905 until 1919. For many years she was a vice president of the Texas Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associations. From 1911 until 1929, Sallie B. Capps served as secretary for the board of regents of the College of Industrial Arts, now Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. A dormitory there was named in her honor.

Sallie B. Capps was a longtime member of and dedicated volunteer for St. Andrew's Episcopal Chirch in Fort Worth. She was also a charter member of the Fort Worth Woman's Club.

In 1910, the Capps family purchased a home at 1120 Penn Street, Fort Worth, which has since become a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark called the Pollock-Capps House. Mattie Mae Capps continued to live in this house after her marriage to Frank M. Anderson. Sallie B. Capps died there in 1946 at the age of eighty-one.

Sources:

• Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth), 16 July 1946.
• Makers of Fort Worth (Fort Worth), 1 September 1914.
• Schmidt, Ruby, ed., Fort Worth and Tarrant County: A Historical Guide (Fort Worth: Fort Worth Historical Society, 1984).

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Scope and Contents

Journals, correspondence, literary works, clippings, financial records, diaries, scrapbooks, broadsides, reports, programs, handbooks, and grade reports. Encompassing the years 1869 through 1943, the papers reflect the life of Sallie B. Capps as a young lady in Sherman, Texas, as a wife and mother in Fort Worth, and as an activist dedicated to furthering the progress of education in her area of Texas.

Among the papers reflecting her personal life are journals, diaries, clippings correspondence, programs, and reports. A presidential inauguration program 91909) for William Howard Taft is also included.

The educational work of Sallie B. Capps is represented primarily in the form of correspondence and various printed material. The 1909 Club Woman's Argosy contains a photograph of Sallie B. Capps and an article mentioning her as the president of the Fort Worth Kindergarten Association. Other printed material illustrates her involvement in the Texas Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associations, a forerunner of the PTA.

From 1911 until 1929, Sallie B. Capps served as secretary for the board of regents of the College of Industrial Arts (hereafter referred to as C.I.A.). Papers from this period primarily include correspondence, handbooks, and programs. Much correspondence deals with the selection of a C.I.A. president in 1924. This correspondence is arranged according to the nominee who is the subject of each letter: Annie Webb Blanton, Lindsen Blayney, C. D. Judd, R. J. Turrentine, and E. V. White. Correspondence relating to the C.I.A. board study of rules governing faculty in 1928 is arranged alphabetically according to the 28 colleges that responded to the survey. Miscellaneous C.I.A. correspondence and printed material is arranged chronologically. Of special interest is information regarding the first major controversy at the C.I.A. in 1925, involving the resignation of president Lindsey Blayney. Also included is printed material from C.I.A. quarter centennial events in 1928.

Papers relating to William Capps primarily reflect his business and political involvement from 1914 to 1916, especially a conflict with Frank Norris concerning prohibition. Most of the material regarding the Capps children reflects their school activities and includes grade reports, scrapbooks, diaries, and yearbooks. The Bristol School yearbook of 1909 contains a photograph and 2 entries concerning Mattie Mae Capps.

The photographs series mainly contains snapshots and negatives of the Capps family and their acquaintances. Only one photograph is dated. A formal, undated photograph features William and Sallie B. Capps with other C.I.A. dignitaries.

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Restrictions

Access

Open for research.

Literary Rights

Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures must be obtained in writing from Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.

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Separated Material

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Administrative Information

Provenance

In 1974, Historic Fort Worth, Inc. donated the Sallie B. Capps Papers without restrictions to the Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Library. The papers were delivered by Mrs. Richard Lee Brown, who stated that the former owners of the Pollock-Capps House had left the papers behind after the house had been purchased by the Fort Worth Junior League for Historic Fort Worth, Inc. The papers were originally called the Pollock-Capps Papers; however, the name was changed when it was determined that the Pollock family had no connection to the papers.

Citation

Sallie B. Capps Papers, Box number, Folder number, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library.

Acquisition

Gift; 1974.

Processing Information

Arranged and described in 1989 by Holly Wells.

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Container List

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