The Junior Historian, Volume 25, Number 4, January 1965 Page: Front Inside
32 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
1897-THE OLDEST LEARNED SOCIETY IN TEXAS-1897
President:
GEORGE P. ISBELLVice-Presidents :
J. P. BRYAN
JOSEPH SCHMITZ SEYMOUR V. CONNOR
WAYNE GARDDirector:
H. AI EY CARROLL
Cor. Sec. and Treas.:
MRS. CORAL HORTON TULLISTHE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
Published by
The Texas State Historical Association
Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center
Box 8059, University Station
University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712
Editor:
H. BAILEY CARROLLFRANCES V. PARKER
BARBARA CUMMINGSAssociate Editors:
ALWYN BARRDAVID B. GRACY, II
RICHARD TAUSCH"No man is fit to be entrusted with the control of the PRESENT
who is ignorant of the PAST, and no People who are indifferent
to their PAST need hope to make their FUTURE great."
Issued six times during the school year in: September, November, December, January, March, and
May. Regular subscription $2.00; club subscription (five or more to Chapter members) $1.50
each. Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas.
YOURS FOR THE ASKING
by PRICE A. THRALLThe young historian's first question when
assigned a paper in Texas history is, "Where
do I get any information on this subject? The
library?" Yes, for background information on
your subject, but what you have here is some-
one else's ideas and his information.
Among the sources of local history most
valuable to any student of history-and the
least used by this group--are newspaper files,
tax records, county commissioners' records, and
the United States Census. Most newspapers
have a complete file of all issues, and the Uni-
versity of Texas has one of the most complete
files of newspapers that are no longer in pub-
lication. Here, by reading, one finds out about
the day-to-day life of the subject in his sur-
roundings. Your tax records reveal whether he
owned property, the location, and the type.
The U.S. Census records reveal a tremendous
amount of information, and your subject is
here by simply being born. The Assistant Mar-
shal in charge of the 1850 Census was required
to record the following information: each in-
dividual enumerated, if he were head of a
household, had to answer numerous questions.
In addition to age, place of birth, and sex, hewas also required to state his occupation, value
of his real estate, and say whether or not he
was literate. If he were a farmer, he answered
an additional six questions about his ranch or
farm. If he operated any industry which em-
ployed help, he had to answer eleven questions
about the enterprise. Regardless of occupation,
each family head had to say whether he was
married in the last year. The 1850 U.S. Manu-
script Census record for Texas consists of sev-
eral volumes, divided into six schedules as fol-
lows: white population, slave population, mor-
tality, agriculture, industry, and social statistics.
Thus far, not much use has been made of these
records in writing Texas history on the local
level. The non-population records especially
have been neglected. Yet the census data con-
stitutes the most complete single source of in-
formation in existence for students of state and
local history.
The census is the only source of history
which concerns the whole population. A man
got into the newspapers by doing the unusual,
into jail by committing a crime, and thence
into court records, and he left data, about
himself in tax records if he were prosperous.
[ continued on page 17]
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 25, Number 4, January 1965, periodical, January 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391258/m1/2/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.