A campaign by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the 1930s to preserve the stories of early West Texas settlers resulted in the newspaper receiving over 1,500 forms, letters, and notes from self-identified pioneers detailing their experiences on the frontier.
Containing autobiographical information of West Texas settlers, forms, letters, notes, printed material, and photographs compose the West Texas Pioneers Collection, 1931-[ca. 1934]. Forms, letters, and notes sent to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram by self-identified pioneers detail their experiences as early settlers of West Texas, including encounters with Native Americans, trail drives, dust storms, wagon travels, and cattle rustling. Some responses also contain clippings and photographs. The bulk of the collection has been arranged alphabetically by the sender’s surname.
An index of the collection’s biographical material A-C, published in
This collection is open for research use.
West Texas Pioneers Collection, 1931-[ca. 1934], Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.