Rare Maps, Early Texas History, and Serendipity

The Rees-Jones Collection continues to expand as excitement mounts for the 2025 groundbreaking of the much-anticipated library.

These articles by Pat Ward appear in the Fall 2024 issue of the SMU Libraries Newsletter.

Mapping early Texas history

An 1833 Texas map commissioned by Stephen F. Austin and presented to the Rees-Jones Library of the American West by Dallasite Salle Stemmons signifies the first major gift to the library by a donor outside of the Rees-Jones family. Labeled “Map of Texas with Parts of the Adjoining States” and published by H.S. Tanner of Philadelphia, it is acknowledged as “one of the first finely detailed and accurate maps of Texas published,” according to the Texas State Library. The cartographic treasure notes landmarks such as Austin’s Colony, DeWitt’s Colony (established by Green DeWitt and James Kerr), towns, missions, silver mines, trails, and droves of wild horses and cattle. It also contains notes on topographic features.Salle Stemmons with the 1833 Texas map.

Russell Martin and Salle Stemmons with the 1833 Texas map.“Of all the Stephen F. Austin maps of Texas, the 1833 edition is the rarest,” says Russell L. Martin, III ’78, ’86, director of DeGolyer Library (pictured left with Salle Stemmons). “Only two other copies are known, at the Texas State Library and at the Bancroft Library at Cal-Berkeley.”

Stemmons (pictured left), whose family’s civic leadership over generations contributed to Dallas’ growth as a commercial capital, had the map framed and on display in her home for decades. As she recalls, the artifact was discovered folded and tucked away in a book, a family heirloom with historic adjacency to Austin’s map. The book, Reise durch … Texas im Jahre 1834, was written in German – the language of many early Texas settlers – by her great-great-grandfather Eduard Ludecus and published in Leipzig, Germany. It is a compilation of letters he wrote while traveling from New York City to the ill-fated Dolores Colony in South Texas. Ludecus’ vivid eyewitness account is recognized by historians as a valuable source of information about life and culture in pre-revolutionary Texas. Stemmons donated the Ludecus book to the collection along with two manuscript maps of the Dolores Colony drawn by him, in addition to the map.

 

All roads lead to – Bullard, Texas?

The nineteenth-century map has already forged new connections since arriving to the Hilltop. This nearly 200-year-old Texas map that’s now part of the Rees-Jones Collection set the course for a serendipitous discovery of modern family connections by two alumni who are also SMU employees.

Sarah Bennett and Lana Phillips in front of Dallas Hall.At a summer viewing of the prized document in the Texana Room, SMU Libraries’ Digital Engagement Manager, Lana Phillips ’13, spotted a familiar locale. “That’s where I’m from,” she said, pointing to East Texas. Her declaration caught the attention of Sarah Bennett ’11, a writer and editor with SMU Marketing and Communications. “I mentioned my grandmother was from Bullard, and Lana said her family was from there, too,” Bennett says. After further research, the two found a common ancestor, and they later learned that their aunts had worked together – a notable coincidence given Bullard’s current population of 3,300.

“When I told my aunt the story about Sarah, she responded, ‘Oh, I know her aunt! I worked with her for 30 years in Tyler,’” Phillips recounts. “That was a surprise, because I had never been told that we had distant family still around in East Texas. What a small world!” Since this discovery, the two SMU graduates have gotten together to strengthen their “cousin connection.”

Already, the Rees-Jones Collection has encouraged discovery, research and connections that begin at SMU and extend to the communities beyond. SMU Libraries eagerly awaits the 2025 groundbreaking of the Rees-Jones Library of the American West – more details to come in the spring newsletter.

See the full articles and more in the Fall 2024 SMU Libraries Newsletter.