The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 1

THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
VOL. XLIX JULY, 1945 No. 1
Lester l/adstote 4ugbee
Cracker and J-istorian
EUGENE C. BARKER
W HEN I entered the University of Texas in September,
1895, Lester Gladstone Bugbee had just returned, after
two years of graduate work at Columbia College, New York,
to be tutor in history. I became a member of his class the
next year and was associated with him thereafter until his
untimely death in 1902. He was the most effective and inspiring
teacher that I met anywhere during my student career; and
possessed qualities of mind and industry that - given a normal
lifetime for their exercise --would have made him a great
American historian. Even in the six active years allotted him,
he made a permanent contribution to the critical study of
Texas history by acquiring the Bexar Archives for the Uni-
versity of Texas; published articles which changed the trend
of writings on the Anglo-American colonization of Texas and
the nature of the Texas revolution; and, as Secretary and
Treasurer, established the newly organized Texas State His-
torical Association on a self-sustaining financial foundation.
Happily, we have recently obtained access to some hundreds
of letters written to Bugbee, together with a few documents
of his own writing, and extracts from a series of letters that
he wrote during the last three years of his life. These materials
make possible a sketch of him containing something more
than a list of academic and official services.
Bugbee was born at Woodbury, a rural settlement a few
miles from Hillsboro, Texas, on May 16, 1869. His father was
Almond Bugbee, a native of Ohio who came South early enough
to identify himself with the southern cause and serve in the
Confederate army. His mother was Mary Fannie Nunn,
daughter of Captain W. M. Nunn, also of the late Confederate