Favorite Texas History Books

These are mostly rather specialized due to my interest in the 19th century German immigration to Texas:

The Diary of Hermann Seele. Seele came to Texas in 1843 and became the first schoolteacher for the newly settled town of New Braunfels. He was young, idealistic, intelligent, and had considerably writing skill. His descriptions of the voyage from Germany to Texas include memorable details of the water, food, and personalities of his fellow voyagers.

Roemer's Texas, 1845 to 1847. Vivid eyewitness descriptions of the landscape, wildlife, weather, Indians, and settlers of various nationalities by Ferdinand Roemer.

Perilous Voyages: Czech and English Immigrants to Texas in the 1870s. The railroads came late to Texas, and didn't start building extensively until after the Civil War, when the state made grants of land to the railroad companies to help provide the massive amounts of funding needed to develop railroad lines that crossed the state. This book is about a railroad project to encourage Europeans to immigrate and settle on railroad lands. The project was not necessarily conceived in bad faith, but attracted its share of snake-oil salesmen. This book is about one of them, William Kingsbury, and the rancor he left in his wake. It includes a promotional tract Kingsbury wrote and part of a diary of one of the settlers.

Isaac's Storm. Everyone's heard of this one. I mooched my copy through Book Mooch, and it was saturated with a perfume I'm allergic to, so I had to stop reading after a few chapters. They were awfully good chapters though, and I will start reading again once the scent has disappeared from the book.

Another good one is a book I borrowed from the library, the title of which I can't recall at the moment. It was about Sam Houston, David Crockett and James Travis, if I recall correctly. The section on Travis really brought the man to life. Anybody remember the title?

Head's up about Isaac's Storm. It's largely historical fiction, not true "history". Unfortunately, they teach his fictional account as "history" in many of the schools. Just shows you what a good NY publisher can do for an author. (I heard that the Cline family almost sued him for misrepresentation of Isaac and Joseph.)

Have to give him credit for a good writing style though - some of the passages are beautiful. My favorite line is "Galveston became Atlantis." Ah, the imagery.

Oh, dear. The opening chapters seemed to be well documented. Have historians criticized the book, too? Sometimes families are sensitive about anything they feel puts an ancestor in a bad light, true or untrue.

The most glaring error is estimating the wind speed as 150 mph. I have never spoken to anyone in the NOAA who agrees. They concur with Cline's estimated 120 mph winds. The actual record book (in Cline's hand) documents the aenometer blew away at 84 mph.

I still have not found proof that Isaac's wife was pregnant.

The whole chapter titled Mrs. Hopkins is named for the wrong woman. Mary Louise Hopkins gave her oral history interview under her married name. Her MAIDEN name was Bristol - therefore Mrs. Hopkins would be her mother-in-law. Mrs. Bristol would be her mother. (poor research.)

Nine year old Emma Beal was nineteen. (more poor research)

The whole paragraph about Isaac Cline taking his wife's ring and having the stone reset is false. The author admits it is pure conjecture in his end-notes. He (Larson) thinks it seems what Cline would have done..... no proof that he actually did. Naturally, I'm curious who actually cut Mrs. Cline's finger off to get the ring. She is buried in Galveston - one of the few who have a headstone from 1900 Storm.

Isaac and his brother Joseph were not at odds in life.

The "hubris" that Larson writes into Cline seems a lot more like Larson to me (having met the fella. Not arrogant, but very self-confident. A natural born winner.) Cline was first and foremost a scientist, and he erred in his scientific theory about Galveston not being in danger of a storm - based on the scientific facts he had available to him at the time.

The strongest storm to hit Galveston in previous recorded history was half the strength of the 1900 Storm. HALF.

Just my two cents.

Wow! You've really done your homework. I feel there should be quite a sharp line between history and historical fiction - and Larson obviously crossed it. I wonder if he just wrote too fast and was careless, or if he really felt it was okay to inject personal conjectures as if they were fact. His endnotes suggest the latter. There are ways of introducing speculation into a narrative and making it clear to the reader within the narrative that it is speculation. A note at the end isn't sufficient, because many readers won't bother with the endnotes - and very few will read them before they've finished the book.

Even with historical fiction, many readers will assume that details which seem factual are.

Thanks so much for the insights! I must admit, I'm a nut case for the Galveston 1900 storm story. I thought Isaac's Storm was fascinating, but my favorites still are the 'letters/memoirs/oral history' books including
Through a Night of Horrors and, of course, A Weekend in September. I also enjoyed the novel, The Windows of Heaven.

My latest 'local history obsession' is the Texas City disaster. I've had Disaster at Texas City for years. . . but just scored City on Fire by Bill Minutaglio cheep at Half Price Books.

So, the 1900 Storm is kind of my "specialty". Just about any Galveston history.

A Weekend in September is probably the most factually written of all the 1900 Storm tales. A good example of non-fiction written in a novelistic style.The Windows of Heaven is excellent, fiction, but told with such beautiful language.

Weems actually interviewed Storm survivors and send them drafts of their stories as he wrote them. His papers are in the Rosenberg Library/Galveston, including his drafts, correspondence with survivors, original handwritten notes, etc.

I haven't read Bill's book City on Fire yet, so can't comment about it. (I have it, just never got around to reading it.) But Ron Stone's book is well-regarded. There is also a Texas City locally printed volume of survivors stories (over 200) from the 50th commemoration of the Disaster. It's pretty rare, but should be available in Texas City library.

I just noticed the touchstone for City on Fire is leading to the wrong book, but I don't know how to change it.

I read City on Fire not too long ago, and I thought it was extremely interesting. I haven't read any other books on the disaster, though, so I can't compare facts, perspective, etc.

Janice Woods Windle's True Women is fiction but well researched. There is a foreward by Gov. Ann Richards.

True Women is well researched in many respects, but readers should not treat it as nonfiction. For example, there was indeed a person in Seguin with the improbable-sounding name of Pink Rosebud, but not the attractive and civic-minded prostitute who appears in the novel. Pink Rosebud was in fact a man whose full first name was "Pinckney," and he was often in trouble with the law.

Hello, all. I am a recent import to Texas and have just joined your group. Forgive my posting to an old thread. I am enjoying reading through all your topics here.

margad, (1), could the Travis book you mention be Three Roads to the Alamo. It is about Crockett, Travis and Bowie, (rather than Houston). I've not read it, but it showed up in recommendations as I was adding some of the books mentioned in this thread to my wishlist.

New "home" state, and new books to look forward to reading. Ain't life grand!

Countrylife -

Three Roads to the Alamo is an excellent read. Enjoy it!!

I just re-read Cantrell's Stephen F. Austin: Empressario of Texas. One of the best Texas biographies written. I recommend it highly.