Letters from an Early Settler of Texas
Louisville: Hull & Brother, 1854.
Hardcover. Good. Second edition (first issued in 1852 in an edition of 250 copies). 312 pp. in original blindstamped blue cloth, complete with three battle maps and a plate showing the death of Davy Crockett (not present in the first edition). Good only: early owner's name in red pencil on title page, rear free endpaper missing, wear to edges and head of spine, dampstaining visible on rear board, endpapers, and plates. Binding sound, text generally clean. Clark, Old South III: 298: “The preface states that the compiler, Cara Cardelle, pseudonym for Emmaretta C. Kimball, chanced to find among a friend’s papers a large stack of Texas letters with much information on the events of Texas history from 1819-1852. The letters were written by William B. DeWees to a friend in Kentucky....Although more of a history than a travel work, the thirty-one letters, written over a period of about thirty-three years, are unembellished pictures of the journey to Texas, personal incidents, and facts and events in Texas development.” Eberstadt (110: 252) describes the work as " a valuable first hand source book for the early days of Texas and the Southwest," noting that it includes description of a journey from Nashville to Arkansas in 1919, a buffalo hunt, a "trip to Nacogdoches and through the Caddo country; journey to San Antonio; the Toncoway Indians; capture and imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin; sufferings of the Texas settlers; with a history of their settlements; manners and customs; the Alamo; the Santa Fe Expedition; massacre of Dawson’s men; Indian depredations; the Cherokee War; Battle of Plum Creek, etc." Field 422, Rader 1131, Herd 671, Howes D-299.
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