The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 344
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
had been sorted, the county clerk furnished steel boxes in which
they could be stored. Thus after some hard but pleasant work
by volunteers the documents were placed in accessible shape
and preserved for future research.
The writer was so interested in the archives that all his
spare time was given to studying them. Then, when he was
asked to give a talk to the Lion's Club of Laredo on April 21,
1936, the subject selected was the activities in Laredo during
the Texas Republic. At about this time Thomas S. Sutherland
went to Laredo in connection with the work of the historical
records survey under the WPA. He read the paper alluded to
above and at once became interested in these archives. He
discussed the possibility of getting an index to or possibly a
transcription of the archives made as a part of the records
survey and took the matter up with those in charge. With the
cooperation of Ike Moore, then state supervisor, a project to
index the records was started, with one man on the job. Mr.
Sutherland was transferred to San Antonio but did not give
up hope of getting a transcript made. Some time later three
workers were assigned to transcribe the records, and the in-
dexing was discontinued. The work continued for about a year
under WPA directions. In the early part of 1940 the Historical
Records Survey took over the project, and a force of five
workers under the immediate supervision of Ricardo de la
Garza as unit foreman was placed on the job of transcribing.
Later in 1940 the work of the Historical Records Survey was
taken over by the State-Wide Records Projects, a branch of the
WPA. De la Garza, who had been promoted to unit super-
visor, State-Wide Records Projects for Webb County, was put
in immediate charge of the work. He had a personal interest
in the preservation of these archives, being a direct descend-
ant of Captain T6mas SAnchez, who founded Laredo in 1755.
Webb County was the co-sponsor for the work, and the writer
assisted as technical supervisor.
The earliest document contained in the archives is dated
1749, but the real records begin with 1768, the year Laredo
started functioning as an incorporated town under Spain, and
extend down to the close of the Mexican regime in 1846. After
1846 there is a miscellaneous collection of papers dealing with
local and border interest up to about 1875. Although no accu-
rate count has been made of the papers, it is estimated there
are some eight thousand documents in the collection. A com-344
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/399/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.