Texas History Notebook

Quanah Parker’s Surrender

Colonel Ranald Mackenzie had been searching for Quanah Parker and his band on the western side of Comancheria which is described as the area that the Comanche tribe once roamed. At its strongest point, the tribe roamed from the area which is now New Mexico to West Texas. Quanah’s band was the Quahada, one of several spellings of the name.

Tex Maule

Hamilton Prieleaux Bee “Tex” Maule was born on May 19, 1915 to 2nd Lieutenant Claude Wendell Maule (1889 – 1918) and Zelita Bee Maule (1891 – 1986). His father C. W. Maule had been serving in World War I when he contracted pneumonia and died in England after a short bout with the disease. The remains of 2nd Lt. Maule were removed for burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Tex, one of two children of the couple, was born in Florida, though his family had lived in San Antonio for many years. His grandfather, named Hamilton Prioleau Bee, was a long time Texas resident who worked in the insurance business. The 1920, 1930 and 1940 census forms show Tex residing in San Antonio. He was single, living with his mother Zelita in the 1920 and 1930 census reports and married with no children in the 1940 census.

Green DeWitt and the DeWitt Colony

Green C. DeWitt was born to Walter John DeWitt and Sarah Ann Holliday DeWitt on February 12, 1787 in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Walter John DeWitt is referred to as a Revolutionary War veteran. Not a great deal is known about the Walter John DeWitt family but they are presumed to have made their living as farmers. Green’s paternal grandfather DeWitt was born in New York, was of Dutch heritage, and his wife, Catherine Pierette Depuy de Brissac, appears to have been of French heritage.

Frances Rosenthal Kallison

Frances Rosenthal was born November 29, 1908 in Fort Worth, Texas to Mosco “Mose” Aaron Rosenthal (1877 – 1936) and Mary Neumegen Rosenthal (1878 – 1971) who were married in 1903. Frances’ father was a native Texan. He was the owner and operator of Rosenthal Furniture Company in Fort Worth for most of his adult life until he retired due to the illness which took him at the age of fifty-six. Frances was the couple’s only child.

Texas Woman’s University

The concept for Texas Woman’s University dates back more than one hundred twenty years. An article from March 24, 1897 in the Bryan Eagle, Bryan, Texas referenced a Dr. Ellen Lawson Dabbs (there shown as “Dobbs”) who advocated for the creation of a Girl’s Industrial College to be located in Bryan with the only stated opposition coming from a Mrs. Stoddard of Waco who favored that the location of the proposed school would be in Waco. Proponents of the Bryan site favored the location there in association with “A. and M. College” (now Texas A&M University) which was already in operation there, and served only male students. The female school was to be an annex to the existing college. Dr. Dabbs was quoted as saying, “The bill we wish is the only one having the ghost of a chance. This legislature is pledged to retrenchment and cannot afford to appropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if Mrs. Stoddard does permit it to go to Waco. That same bait was offered to me that it might come to Ft. Worth if the Woman’s Council would work for it, but I am not out on this as a local matter. I do not regard public funds as a private snap or even a town snap. I am working for Texas girls and the best interests of all concerned, and through you I beg all our people, men and women, to write their representatives at Austin and urge their support of this measure to open the Agricultural and Mechanical College to girls.”