Texas Heritage Society

News and Meeting Information

Texas Heritage Society - March 18, 2010 Meeting

Texas Historian James P. Bevill and The Paper Republic -

The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas

It has just been announced, The Paper Republic is the

Winner of the 2009 Summerfield G. Roberts Award from the

Sons of the Republic of Texas

Congratulations James P. Bevill ! ! !

The March meeting of the Texas Heritage Society is scheduled for March 18, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.  The meeting will be held at 18 West Shaker Court in The Woodlands.  See map here.  The March meeting will feature Texas historian James P. Bevill.  Mr. Bevill is the author of the fabulous new Texas history book, The Paper Republic, which was published in November of 2009 by Bright Sky Press.  Texas Heritage Society President, Kameron Searle, has reviewed Bevill's book and writes that, "The Paper Republic is destined to become a classic on the history of the Republic of Texas." 

In researching the money and the economy of the Republic of Texas, Bevill has added a whole new dimension to our understanding of the overall history of the Republic of Texas.  James Bevill's 352-page book is also one of the most beautiful Texas history books we have ever seen.  James Bevill has agreed to bring copies of The Paper Republic to sell and will be glad to sign copies of this amazing new book.  James Bevill is a very interesting speaker and has many interesting historical anecdotes about the early history of Texas that he has discovered over his years of research.  Come to this meeting, and we can assure you that you will learn some things about the Republic of Texas you never knew before. 

James P. Bevill graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University  of Houston - Clear Lake.  He is a First Vice President - Investments in the River Oaks office of UBS Financial Services in Houston, Texas.  Mr. Bevill is also a past President of the Texas Numismatic Association and an authority on the currency issued by the Republic of Texas.  Because of his extensive historical research into the history of the Republic of Texas, Mr. Bevill was recently elected an Honorary Member of The Sons of the Republic of Texas.

Submitted by Melinda Cagle and Kameron Searle

Texas Heritage Society -   December 2009 Meeting

Photos courtesy of Pat Spackey

The December meeting of the Texas Heritage Society was held on December 10, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.  See THS 2009 Christmas Party invitation here.  The meeting was held at 18 West Shaker Court in the Woodlands.  The December meeting was a Christmas party and our speaker was First Vice President and Civil War historian, Hewitt Clark, who spoke about "Texas Secession." 

We also reviewed two very successful Texas Heritage Society events that occurred since our last meeting: 1) Tour of Texas History #3 - "The Mier Expedition" and 2) the Anson Jones Texas Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony.  Pat Spackey was kind enough to bring the original House Resolution No. 1123 - Montgomery County - "Birthplace of Texas Flag" that she was recently given by the City of Shenandoah, Texas.

A special meeting of the members was held to discuss and make amendments to our Certificate of Formation - Nonprofit Corporation as part of the 501(c)(3) tax exemption application process.

For more photos of the 2009 Texas Heritage Society December Meeting and Christmas party, click here.

Submitted by Melinda Cagle and Kameron Searle

Thursday, December 10, 2009 

The December meeting of the Texas Heritage Society is scheduled for December 10, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.  Get your invitation to the THS Christmas Party here.  The meeting will be held at 18 West Shaker Court in the Woodlands.  See map here.  The December meeting will be a Christmas party and our speaker will be First Vice President and Civil War historian, Hewitt Clark, who will speak about "Texas Secession." 

We will also review two very successful Texas Heritage Society events that have occurred since our last meeting: 1) Tour of Texas History #3 - "The Mier Expedition" and 2) the Anson Jones Texas Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony.  We are hoping Pat Spackey will bring the original House Resolution No. 1123 - Montgomery County - "Birthplace of Texas Flag" that she was recently given by the City of Shenandoah, Texas.

We will also be holding a Special Meeting of the members to discuss and make amendments, if necessary, to our Certificate of Formation - Nonprofit Corporation as part of the 501(c)(3) tax exemption application process.

Submitted by Melinda Cagle and Kameron Searle 

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The September 24, 2009 meeting of the Texas Heritage Society was held in The Woodlands, Texas.  Texas Heritage Society President, Kameron Searle, was our speaker and a business meeting was held.

Kameron Searle's presentation was about: "Facts are Stubborn  & The Significance of Primary Sources to Accurate Historical Research in Texas."  As an example, Searle presented his paper, "Sam Houston Rode a Gray Horse."  Searle's paper is an example of how one historian or author gets a detail incorrect and future researchers don't bother to check to see if the information is true.  Over time the error is repeated by later writers and the repeated error becomes fact in the retelling. 

In Searle's example, he pointed out that most of Sam Houston's biographers and many Texas historians have incorrectly advised their readers that Sam Houston rode into the Battle of San Jacinto on a white stallion and that this was the horse killed under Sam Houston during the battle.  Searle believes Marquis James is responsible for the original error in the color of Houston's horse in his Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Sam Houston, The Raven. 

Many primary sources, including at least one source by Sam Houston, himself, and several eyewitness accounts of participants in the Battle of San Jacinto prove conclusively that Houston rode into the Battle of San Jacinto on gray stallion, not a white stallion.  Searle says this fact does not change the history of Texas in any dramatic or significant way, but the lesson is important.  To much Texas history is based on hearsay, folklore, legend and myth and much of the history of Texas could benefit from a fresh look at the primary sources created contemporaneously with the events under discussion.

Searle is not a revisionist as that term commonly implies today.  Too many revisionists have tried to impose the moral, cultural and political ideas of the 21st century on the their historical subjects in the distant past. For the most part, these revisionists do this to either make a political statement today or advance an academic agenda.  As the term "revisionist" has become tainted, Searle believes himself to be a "correctionist" historian focusing on correcting factual errors that have crept into Texas history.

Facts are stubborn things;

and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion,

they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.  

John Adams

Borrowing from a quote from American founding father, John Adams, Searle says facts are indeed stubborn things and they are out there waiting to be discovered in as yet untapped primary historical sources in archives, libraries, museums, courthouses, etc. throughout Texas and the United States.  Too many historians take the view that "there is nothing new under the sun," but that is because they are relying almost exclusively on the same old histories of dubious accuracy which have been "under the sun" for decades and which have already been "hashed and rehashed" thousands of times already.

History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another.

Max Beerbohm

The problem is that historians for decades have taken the easy route and relied almost exclusively on secondary sources.  These historians relied on the secondary sources and then did not check the validity of those sources.  This is how we end up with so many Sam Houston biographies and Texas histories that inform their readers that Sam Houston was riding a white stallion into the Battle of San Jacinto.

"A history, whose author draws conclusions from other than primary sources or secondary sources actually based on primary sources, is by definition fiction and not history at all." 

Kameron K. Searle

Searle believes the future of Texas history should not be revisionism; it should be correctionism. 

Among the other topics discussed were ideas of members regarding the ongoing development of the THS web site, ideas for future publications of the Texas Heritage Society including The Journal. First Vice President, Hewitt Clark, provided more details about the Tour of Texas History #3 - The Mier Expedition planned for October 30, 2009 and October 31, 2009.  

Thursday, June 22, 2009

Organizational Meeting 

Dr. Craig Livingston, professor of history and military science at Lone Star College in The Woodlands will address the Organizational Meeting for the Texas Heritage Society, Inc. on June 22, 2009 in The Woodlands.  Dr. Livingston is calling the program "A Musical Connection to History" and it will be presented by the musical group, Lord Stirling's Fife and Drum Corp.

Lord Stirling's Fife and Drum Corp. with hosts Melinda and Carrol Cagle

Dr. Livingston, who is a pubished writer, is the recent recipient of the Mormon History Association's J. Talmage Jones Award of Excellence. He is current president of the Lone Star College Faculty Senate. A musician and Scots-Irish history enthusiast, Dr. Livingston also plays the bagpipes. 

6:30 p.m., 18 West Shaker Court, The Woodlands, Texas.

Photograph courtesy of Pat Spackey

Some of the Founding Members of the Texas Heritage Society

at the Organizational Meeting Held on June 22, 2009

Submitted by Melinda Cagle

For more informationabout the organizational meeting and election of officers of the Texas Heritage Society, click here.