Ready to learn

[30th_il]

I find the more I learn, the less I know....

[mt155]

always good to have another Texan with us. Welcome from down south (Clear Lake, Tx).

Mike .T

[mt155]

Have you been to the new CW museum in Ft Worth? I believe that it is on the NW side of town.

Mike .T

[timewalker]

Originally Posted by mt155

Have you been to the new CW museum in Ft Worth? I believe that it is on the NW side of town.

Mike .T

I have been to the museum to pick up something at the gift shop. I haven't wandered through yet.

[Ashbel]

Yes. I have been to the new Civil War Museum. In fact, the last time I was there I had the pleasure of taking Ed Bearss. He was very impressed and said it was the best collection of Civil War materials he had seen outside of Richmond. Not a bad testimonial!

[mt155]

Thats a good compliment to have. I have family there and I'll have to make the 4 hour drive this summer and take a look. There's some good stuff in Waxahatchie also. John Paul Strain has a shop and lives somewhere in that area, if you like CW art.

Mike .T

[Ashbel]

mt155
You might also stop in Corsicana and visit the Pearce Collection of Civil War Documents at Navarro College. Also worth the trip.

[samgrant]

Hey Ashbel,

Is that your real name, or did you take it from Ashbel Smith?

sam

[Ashbel]

Sam
Good for you! Ashbel Smith.

Very few people know the name - even in Texas.

Here are a few of his accomplishments:
1. He was a physician
2. He was the ambassador to Great Britain and France for the Republic of Texas
3. He was a Colonel of the 2nd Texas Infantry
4 He was the founder of the Texas Medical Society
5. He was the founder of the first medical school in Texas
6. He was the first president of the Board of Regents for the University of Texas in Austin
7. His plantation near Galveston was in the center of a major oil field and his adopted daughter was the second richest woman in the South

In short, he was a true Renaissance Man of the 19th Century. One of my hobbies is being his unpaid public relations man.

Thanks for asking.

[samgrant]

Ashbel,

8. He was Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas
9. He served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War
10. He was wounded at Shiloh
11. He was president of the Texas Historical Society
12. He was Surgeon-General of the Republic of Texas Army
13. He was Sam Houston's roommate (!?) http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/...th&eligibility=
14. During the devastating epidemic of yellow fever in Galveston in 1839, he treated the sick, published factual reports of the progress of the disease in the Galveston News, and, after the epidemic abated, wrote the first treatise on yellow fever in Texas.
15. He has been called "the father of Texas medicine" and "the father of the University of Texas." http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/o...s/SS/fsm4.html
16. He negotiated a treaty between Texas and the Comanches, and negotiated another treaty in which Mexico recognized the independence of Texas
17. He helped found the Democratic Party in Texas
18. In 1878 President Hayes appointed him one of the two honorary commissioners from Texas to the Paris International Exposition.
19. Toward the end of the war he was put in charge of the defenses of Galveston
20. After the war he and William P. Ballinger were sent by Governor Pendleton Murrah as commissioners to negotiate peace terms for Texas with Union officials in New Orleans
21. He was/is my 2nd cousin (4X removed)

Good hobby, Ashbel!

sam

---