19th-Century Fashion of the Starrs

By Megan Maxwell, site staff

The Starr Family Home State Historic Site is currently displaying three 19th-century dresses in its opening exhibit, “Fashion of the Starrs.” The three dresses represent different time periods in the lives of the women who lived in the site’s Maplecroft mansion. Each of them also tells a story.

The lavender dress with its two bodices—one for daytime and one for evening wear—dates to around 1870. The dress belonged to Sarah Fry Clapp, Clara Starr’s mother. The dress was probably first worn by her in the 1860s and later altered to keep up with changing fashions. Mrs. Clapp may have just liked the dress, but it was also a cost-saving measure to re-use the dress during the economically stressed times just after the Civil War. The changes to the hemline, including the removal of a bottom ruffle, and the expansion of the bodice are easily visible, telling us that the outfit was altered more than once. Sweat stains indicate that the dress was worn a lot, possibly for dancing in a hot, crowded ballroom.

The black dress is one of our favorite collection pieces. It, too, belonged to Mrs. Clapp and was altered accordingly so she could continue wearing it. It’s easy to see why. It is an elaborate late 1870s formal dress with nearly 20,000 beads, 250 silk tassels, and 175 feet of cording decorating it. Black was very fashionable, especially for older women to wear. With the organdy collar pulled back, you can see that two separate rows of buttons were added to accommodate Mrs. Clapp’s increasing size and allowed her to continue wearing a dress she liked. She wore this dress when her portrait was painted and also for photographs. The fragile condition of the original dress made it too damaging to display on a mannequin, so we had a replica made so it could be displayed in all its glory.

The pink silk dress dates to 1895, when the Starrs’ oldest daughter, Clara, was married to Ben Pope. The bride’s wedding dress is in the same style. It isn’t recorded which one of the Starr girls the pink dress belonged to, but the big puffed sleeves were the height of fashion in the mid-1890s. This may have been another favorite dress special enough to save for future generations. Dirt stains around the hem suggest that it was worn often while it was in style.

Starr Family Home is located in Marshall on the corner of Travis and S. Grove streets, in the Texas Forest Trail Region.

Discovering Family History at Fort Griffin

By Jane E. Lenoir, Fort Griffin State Historic Site

If you’ve ever worked in an office for any length of time, especially an office that deals in things of the past, bits of information come across your desk that may not be significant at that moment, but which you decide to keep for later study. This being the case, where do you put them? In my office, those bits end up in one of the hidey holes. In our site manager Mitch’s office, they accumulate between books on a shelf full of binders. (I know this explanation seems roundabout, but bear with me…I’m getting there).

I decided to start a scrapbook, so I dug out all the materials on that shelf, and I found a wonderful surprise. There was a thin, self-bound book that said: “Arlina Francis Rogers was at Ft. Griffin in a wagon train going to California, May, 1869.” Enclosed was a bit of Rogers’ genealogy and a copy of the journal of Edward Hawkins Rogers, Arlina’s uncle. As I read through the booklet, I realized I had read a part of this story before from an old clipping in my grandmother’s scrapbook. These were my cousins.

Arlina Francis (Rogers) Degman, her husband George Washington Degman, and three of their children: Ella Mae (Degman) Reneau, John Herman Degman, and Susie Belle (Degman) Miller. Taken 1897, Collin Co., TX.

Edward Hawkins Rogers was born in Tennessee in 1820, and his mother was the sister of my great-great-great grandfather, John Hawkins Goode, Sr. When my great-great grandfather, John Hawkins Goode, Jr., lost his first wife in 1852, he moved from Kentucky to Texas and joined his Rogers cousins in the Peters Colony. I found letters and a bit of family history written by Margaret, a sister of Edward Hawkins Rogers, who she refers to as Hawkins.

In 1847, Hawkins’ brothers Clayton and William and some of their neighbors migrated 800 miles to settle in the Peters Colony of Texas, 25 miles north of the village called Dallas. Each family man was to receive 640 acres of land, a rifle, a supply of ammunition, and a one-room log cabin. There was no agriculture in the area in 1847. The Rogers brothers’ land was in the western part of Collin County. By 1854, Hawkins had moved in and acquired land in Denton County. The area, which was near the village of Rock Hill, was known as the "Rogers Settlement." They built a house for a school and Methodist church and called it Bethel. Several of the Rogers family members are buried in Bethel Cemetery. When the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad (Frisco line) was built through this area, the town of Frisco was built and Rock Hill became a ghost town.

In 1868, Hawkins and his brothers William and Andrew organized a wagon train with about 100 families to move to California, starting May 7 from Denton County, Texas, and ending November 13 in California. The following is an excerpt from the journal kept by Hawkins concerning the time they passed through Fort Griffin (grammar and spelling was left as shown in the transcription.)

SATURDAY the 22nd, To Ft. Griffin 14 miles.
SUNDAY the 23rd, Lay by at Ft. Griffin's. Good deal of excitement about Indians. Train talks about breaking up.
MONDAY the 24th, still at Griffin, made two ox yokes, cut my hand very bad.
TUESDAY the 25th, Still here.
WEDNESDAY the 26th, Went into a new train Hickos (Hickox) commander. Traveled 15 miles over rocky, hilly country. Scattering mesquite. Camped at Deadman's Creek. Country rocky and poor.
FRIDAY the 28th, Started and got about a mile and stopped by soldiers on account of some guns bought by some of the boys turned back to where we camped.
SATURDAY the 29th, Lay by for order from post. Train nearly Secesh and cursing the Yankees and yet it was an old Secesh that had run from Arkansas that informed against them.
SUNDAY the 30th, Traveled 14 miles camped on red land.
MONDAY the 31st, Traveled 20 miles over the best land I have ever seen since we left Denton Co .. It was a strip of red land but no timber except a few Scattering mesquite.

At the end of the story is the following:
   
The above was transcribed by me at Arkansas City, Kansas August 1917 From a manuscript from my uncle W.A. (Andy) Rogers of Alameda, California. Some of the words are guessed at. J. E. SHEETON

The journal relates the whole seven month trip with mention of interesting sites, Indians, weather, illness, and the loss of his child born on the journey. They named her Arizona. She lived about two weeks and was buried beside the trail near Apache Gap in Ft. Bowie, Arizona.

In a letter from Hawkins in 1903, he says old age “is not as disagreeable as I used to think it would be." He walked to the top of a 1,000-foot-tall mountain on his 83rd birthday and back, plus a three-mile round trip without sitting down. Our ancestors were a tough bunch.

Fort Griffin State Historic Site is located 15 miles north of Albany on U.S. Hwy 283, in the Texas Forts Trail Region.

Eisenhower Birthplace Discovers Historic Photo

By Robin Gilliam, Site Manager

Since February is Black History Month, the Eisenhower Birthplace was pleased to recently find some related history. In the mid-1940s, Denison's citizens learned that General Eisenhower had been born in their city. The birthplace site was purchased to become a shrine to the hero of World War II, but the home and grounds needed an upgrade. The carpentry class from Anderson/Terrell, Denison's segregated black high school, came to the site in 1946 to build a new picket fence for the front yard, as shown in the recently discovered photograph below.

The instructor was Smith Hughes, and the photograph of his students probably came from the school annual. We don't know who contacted the teacher or invited his class to undertake the project. The original site sign is visible near the woman standing on the porch. Terrell's African American students were finally moved to the all-white Denison High School in the mid-1960s.

Eisenhower Birthplace is located in Denison, approximately 75 miles north of Dallas. The site is part of the Texas Lakes Trail Region.

Parlor Chats at Fulton Mansion

By Cassie Dieterich, Fulton Mansion Educator

Throughout the year, Fulton Mansion hosts multiple community-wide events and public programs free of charge. The Parlor (Book) Chat Series is similar to a book club, but with a historical twist. Visitors read the book-of-the-month and then chat about it with Mansion staff, who ties each book to the Fulton story.

In the first chat of the series on January 23, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh was discussed. Mansion staff linked Diffenbaugh’s novel to one of the many Victorian floral dictionaries and also shared information about Harriet’s Garden. Upcoming parlor chats include:

• Monday, February 27 at 10 a.m.—The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton
  Kelton is a renowned Western writer who bases much of his fiction on ranching and frontier events throughout Texas history. The director of the Blackland Museum will share special documents and artifacts from the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company, George Fulton’s ranching enterprise.

• Monday, March 19 at 10 a.m.—Debut of the official Fulton Mansion Souvenir Book
  Join us for this sneak peek of the long-awaited Fulton Mansion Souvenir Book. Fulton Mansion Site Manager Marsha Hendrix will lead this chat on the triumphs and challenges of writing the Fulton Mansion story.

Chats are free (cost of books not included), but seating is limited. Please call 361.729.0386, ext. 26 if you’d like to reserve a seat. Both The Language of Flowers and The Day the Cowboys Quit are widely available in stores and online.

For more information about this and other programs at Fulton Mansion, visit us online at www.visitfultonmansion.com. Fulton Mansion is located in the resort area of Rockport-Fulton, 30 miles north of Corpus Christi. The site is part of the Texas Tropical Trail Region.

Maxey House and Starr Family Home Celebrate Reopenings

After undergoing necessary restoration for more than a year, both the Sam Bell Maxey House and the Starr Family Home recently reopened their doors. Visitors can now experience the significant upgrades made to preserve these historic Texas gems.

Officially reopened at a ceremony in Paris on January 13, the Sam Bell Maxey House showcased its comprehensive exterior preservation work, including an exterior repainting; repairs to framing, wood siding, doors, and windows; stabilization of the pier-and-beam foundation; roof replacement; and installation of a new central heating and air conditioning system. The restoration project allows visitors to experience the elegant structure as the Maxey family did in the 19th century. A new interpretive plan is also underway to identify additional improvements to help educate visitors about the Maxeys’ experiences in the home.

The Starr Family Home in Marshall officially reopened on November 30. Upgrades to the main house, Maplecroft, included the addition of a central air conditioning/heating system, accessibility improvements, extensive carpentry repairs, and a complete repainting of the home’s interior and exterior based on a professional analysis of historic paint colors. Interior rehabilitation projects ranged from period-appropriate lighting fixtures to a visitor orientation area with changing exhibits. Other buildings at the site have also been repaired and repainted, and restrooms are now available to visitors.

In an ongoing effort to restore the Starr Family Home to its 1870s splendor, the site will temporarily close for tours January 25–February 8. During this time, the home will undergo a series of restoration projects, including installation of ingrain carpeting and chandeliers in the dining room and parlor, reconversion of a bathroom to its original use as a nursery, and overall painting and sprucing of the bedrooms.

Sam Bell Maxey House is located in Paris at the corner of Church and Washington streets in the Texas Lakes Trail Region. Starr Family Home is located in Marshall on the corner of Travis and S. Grove streets, in the Texas Forest Trail Region.

Victorian Holiday Cards at Varner-Hogg

By Sue Miller, Varner-Hogg Plantation site manager

Last month, a group of creative, young visitors joined Varner-Hogg Plantation staff in celebrating the Christmases of the past by making authentic Victorian holiday cards based on examples from the 1800s.

During the craft, students learned that Christmas cards were not commercially produced on a large scale until the 1860s, and that many were small, homemade, and only printed on one side, like a postcard.  Cards also lacked the famous images of Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa commonly seen today, and were covered in ornate pictures of flowers, nature, and children, as well as elaborate bits of fabric, fringes, and tassels.

After comparing several card samples, our eager designers went to work making their own Victorian Christmas cards, complete with dainty embellishments of lace doilies, ribbons, feathers, birds, and even a picture of the Loch Ness Monster! Once each student placed the finishing touches on their creation, the group was treated to a batch of homemade cookies and cider provided by the Varner-Hogg Friends group, leaving everyone with full bellies and a unique memento to share with friends and family in the spirit of a 19th-century holiday season.

Varner-Hogg Plantation is located approximately 60 miles south of Houston and is part of the Texas Independence Trail Region.

Fulton Mansion Student Interns Get to Work

By Marsha Hendrix, Fulton Mansion site manager

The Friends of Fulton Mansion, with funding from the City of Rockport, are participating in a new student intern program in partnership with the Aransas County Education Foundation and the Aransas ISD. Three high school seniors began training in December to give tours and perform other special projects. These paid interns will work 10-15 hours per week during the school year, and potentially have the opportunity to continue working through the summer. The students are Victoria Garner, TJ Hill, and Johnna Ashcraft.

Each student will work on special projects during their internship. Johnna, as marketing specialist, will post to the Fulton Mansion Facebook page and distribute event materials throughout the community. Victoria will research and propose two new products for the gift shop as our retail specialist. TJ will gather materials about nearby places to eat and visit as our visitor services specialist.

Intern Johnna Ashcraft selects slides of the mansion restoration to have digitized for research projects and exhibits.

Fulton Mansion is located in the resort area of Rockport-Fulton, 30 miles north of Corpus Christi. The site is part of the Texas Tropical Trail Region.