Heritage, Volume 3, Number 4, Spring 1986 Page: 23
34 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Iron Rust on Old Yellow Paper
by Ron Stone
William Simpson pushed his hand through a
shock of white hair and laughed as he recounted
the day he discoverd there was an interest
in old yellow paper with iron rust on it
in the form of writing.
In 1965 Simpson and his wife went to an ancient
cabin in the deep piney woods of east
Texas to look at the early Texas furniture a
Mrs. Thomas wanted to sell. Simpson had
been selling antiques and knew of the growing
trend in buying Texas primitives. He remembers
that the house was a treasure trove, and a
deal was struck to buy most of Mrs. Thomas's
items.
An old humpedy-backed pine trunk caught
his eye, but it wasn't for sale because it was full
of old family papers. Bill Simpson knew the
trunk would bring a nice price back in Houston,
so he offered to go into Nacogdoches to
find some packing boxes to store the junk papers
inside.
After he returned with the boxes and began to
unload the trunk, the antique dealer saw
names like Austin and Houston on the papers
and offered to take some into the city to see if
anyone was interested. He put a small ad in
the paper that some historical documents
would be offered at his next auction. As it
turned out, Mrs. Thomas made $70,000 off
the contents of the trunk as document after
document sold at one of Simpson's auctions.
Now, nearly twenty-five years later, that trunk
load of old papers would bring twice or three
times as much.
About a thousand people in Texas are serious
document collectors. They may try for the signatures
of the old three hundred, or documents
signed by the men who signed the Declaration
of Independence, or the San Jacinto
soldiers. Others may go for Civil War era generals
and politicians or early governors. Some
collect signed documents for the same reason
one collects cigar bands or barbed wire; others
collect because they trace their lineage to
a man who played a significant part in Texas
history.
At the semi-annual document auctions in
Houston you can find representatives of many
of the old families. Generations removed from
Lamar, and Jones, and Austin and Houston sit
in a jumbled Main street store quietly nodding
a bid for another item signed by a famous ancestor.
One of the most prominent families
of Texas is now very large, with several
HERITAGE * SPRING 86branches. Some branches do not recognize the
others and often won't speak at family reunions.
In the Simpson galleries, they sit on
either side of the room and engage in spirited
bidding when a document comes up that they
need for their side of the families collection.
On one occasion a man came in just before an
auction. and asked Simpson if he would be selling
any documents by A. J. Hamilton, a provisional
Governor following the Civil War. Before
anyone could answer, a member of the
prominent family that had suffered at the
hands of the yankees asked "Why would anyone
want to collect that carpetbagging son-ofa-bitch?"
They were at each others throats
about to start the war anew when cooler heads
prevailed and they were separated before a
hunded year old feud was settled.
There is a lot of Texana around. All of the
known Houston letters, for example, would
fill twenty four volumes. A Houston letter or
signature generally sells for the low hundreds.
Austin died a young man and his writings are
harder to find; they sell for the low thousands.
You can collect the old three hundred for
around a hundred dollars each and a bit more
for the signers of the declaration. If some day
you open one of Aunt Tilly's trunks and find
something signed by Junius William Mottley,
who signed the Declaration and died at San
Jacinto, you can send your kid to college.
Mottley's signature is practically non-existent,
and collectors all over the state would beat a
path to your door for it. A Crockett letter
would make a house payment.
Most collections end up in the universities or
libraries or museums. After the collector enjoys
the thrill of the hunt and the joy of
ownership, he can turn it all over to an institution
and claim a nice tax break.A word of warning about taxes. Since the Deficit
Reduction Act of 1984, the government
says an appraiser can be fined and penalized
for overvaluing a collection. The bill was
aimed at modern art, not documents, since
modem art collections can have many values,
depending on the market place. Because of
this, the gifts to institutions were often abused
when too high a value was claimed for tax
purposes.
So, how much is that document in your family
worth? There is no easy answer. A letter from
Sam Houston is worth some money, certainly.
If it is a letter concerning some important
event, or some great thought, it's worth more
than one that says "The weather is cold today,
and the crops are not planted."
The rule of thumb is to ask someone. Take the
letter or document to a museum and ask them
to help you determine if it has value. Never
throw any document away that looks old. A
Kaufman Company called Lone Star autographs
offers in its catalogue a W. Lee "Pappy"
O'Daniel letter for $65.00, an Eisenhower
letter for $995.00, and a Jim Hogg letter for
$35.00. A "Ma" Ferguson letter will bring
$68.50 and one of her signed checks goes for
$35.00.
Serious collectors will keep up with William
Simpson in Houston or John Jenkins in Austin
during this sesquicentennial year as interest in
the State's history and items about it appear
with greater regularity and more people are
spurred to check the attics and basements for
the old letter Grandma told them about.
Simpson thinks people collect because man
has a desire to possess the essence of another
human being. The Roman historian Livy says
that people had little vials, and they would ask
the movers and shakers to breath into them.
They corked them and labeled them, "The
Breath of Ceasar".... "The Breath of a
Senator."
We have not changed, except for the sophistication
of it all. Now we treasure Brown ink
that is really iron rust on old yellow paper, to
give us the essence of man.
Ron Stone is an anchorman for Channel 2
in Houston and host of the highly regarded
"Eyes of Texas" program.
23mI
KNOW ALL MEN
h/i.nk these Presents shall .orune:
V^TE-^A~.A^..(: L(_ro/.*>:.. HAVING
^fs&-jef..g' .G^f<t -7 X yM'"{, :. / w.i+....
SIX HUNDRED AND FORTY ACRES OF
DONATION LAND,
1 IClUU,--AK tTlT ACTZ N CrsI.M, pAxrEI *rb r'. *t. ir.
SAID>7 I ia- . -I e^ f -.. .
ARE ENTITLED TO HOLD S ID LAND:
1n IT OAI0O ZE SOLDB, AiHBMATES, OR MOSa. Su6 -TD,
-U lS EXEMT FIM ElECOIlIN
*~ l {{I ' I "/l/lt' m V mwy, 1T .ll,
nsi >F *. _/o/t 9 f _mu- _r.t__~;~_ ___SP_! ;.;.S__=-. . A t~ : -
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 3, Number 4, Spring 1986, periodical, March 1, 1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45441/m1/23/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.