The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 402
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
again, I have concerned myself only with the scientific books listed in
probate-inventories. The personal library of Elijah Hinsdale Buritt (d.
January 4, 1838) was especially rich in physical, mathematical, and en-
gineering treatises and included his own published works: Logarithmick
Arithmetick (1818), Astronomia (1821), Universal Multipliers (1830),
Geography of the Heavens (1833), and the Atlas to accompany the same
(1833). Elijah Burritt had unusual gifts as mathematician and astronomer.3
Members of the company of Connecticut mechanics and artisans, whom he
brought to Texas in 1837 to establish the "Texas Steam Mill Company" of
Houston, were also men' of mark in their crafts.4 It was nothing short of
tragic for Texas that the fevers of the country took off by death so many
leading members of the Burritt company; for the project was consequently
abandoned, and survivors returned to Connecticut.
If our Junior Historians, who have done so much good work in writing
of the early towns of Texas, would like to have an introduction to the use
of county archives, they could find much of interest on the character and
extent of private libraries in the days of the Republic of Texas by running
early probate-records for such inventories.
Professor Geiser also makes the following contribution re-
garding a character of the Texas Revolution:
MEMORANDUM AND INQUIRY REGARDING ROBERT HARRIS UPHAM
Dartmouth College Alumni Records show one Robert Harris Upham
(1810-?36), who attended Dartmouth for only one year (1825-26) as a
member of the Class of 1829. He was born July 12, 1810, and came to
Dartmouth from Claremont, New Hampshire. His preparatory work had been
done in Kimball Union Academy of Meriden, New Hampshire. The alumni
record has it that he was "killed at the massacre of the Alamo, 27 March,
1836," and with this the data end. As far as I know, Upham went to no other
college but studied law in his father's office and later at Steubenville, Ohio.
He was the son of George Baxter Upham (1768-1848), a graduate of
Harvard in the Class of 1789, who commenced the practice of law in Clare-
mont in 1792 and died there in 1848. He was in Congress from New Hamp-
shire in 1801-1803, and later served in various capacities in the New Hamp-
shire legislature. His wife was Mary Duncan (?1785-1866), of Concord,
New Hampshire. They were married in 1805 and had nine children: six boys
and three girls. Seven of the children lived to adulthood. George Baxter
Upham's genealogy and biography are found in F. K. Upham's (1892)
The Descendants of John Upham of Massachusetts [Weymouth, 1625], on
pp. 198-199; there is also a biographical sketch in Biographical Directory
of the American Congress, 1774-1927 (1928), s.v. "Upham."
The lists of those Texan patriots who died at the Alamo, at Goliad, on
the Agua Dulce, etc., give the name of no Robert Harris Upham. It is
3Albert J. Brooks, "Elijah Hinsdale Burritt, the Forgotten Astronomer,"
in Popular Astronomy, XLIV (1936), 293-299.
4Cf. S. W. Geiser, Field and Laboratory, XII (1944), 59n, 60n.402
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/446/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.