The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965 Page: 3
574 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Edward Dixon Westfall
Westfall's ire, when his papers did not arrive on time (and
they frequently did not), was duly recorded: "i just can't help
feeling ruffled when i go to the post office and find they have not
yet reached there."
As one reads he wonders: is the keeping of a personal journal
a thing of the past? Who takes time presently to record each day's
events? Perhaps an ambassador, a president, a cabinet member
does-someone who is fully aware that his journal will be the basis
for memoirs eventually to be published as a contribution to his-
tory; but does the modern tradesman, businessman, housewife,
farmer, teacher, or librarian keep a journal? Would the average
Texas citizen of the mid-twentieth century feel that observations
such as those quoted above were important enough to transmit to
a permanent record? It can safely be assumed that Westfall was
too modest to feel that his observations and records were a major
contribution to history. His modesty, however, did not extend to
his shooting prowess. On many days he boasted of the number
of jackrabbits or gophers he had killed, or of the number of
birds he got-"seven with five shots."
Was keeping a journal Westfall's substitute for the inter-office
memo, the reports, the business letters, the forms, the telephone
conversations-the means by which so many persons currently
translate their thoughts and observations into words? Westfall did
not have modern compulsions, and his personal contacts were
limited by the times in which he lived. There was no phone;
church was a goodly distance away; and there was no automobile
to shorten the space between friends. It required a demanding
hike even to visit the neighbors, and he had to take a train in
order to see his friends in San Antonio. It seems likely that to
Westfall his journals were a means of self-expression. One might
propose that, living in the nineteenth century, he had more time
in which to write than is currently the case. After all, he had no
television, nor radio, and few other entertainments. So much more
of his time, however, was involved in making a living. When he
wanted a fire, he had to chop the wood. He first had to shoot the
birds when he wanted his wife to make his favorite bird-pie; when
he needed meat, he killed a hog.
Perhaps the journals Westfall kept will make no overwhelming
contribution to the history of his times, but if a historian were
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965, periodical, 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101198/m1/21/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.