Big D Auction Features Historic Lone Star Letters
Sunday, January 11, 2009
300 Texas-related items will be offered for auction by Heritage Auction Galleries
From DallasNews.com, the online edition of The Dallas Morning News:
Joseph Pulsifer was a strong supporter of the Texas War of Independence, but he had his limits.
In 1835, on Christmas Day, two men who had purchased and consumed a great deal of liquor at Pulsifer's Beaumont pharmacy threatened him with a knife.
Pulsifer knew he was on his own, because any local official capable of upholding the law had gone to fight the Mexican government.
"I made a pass to go into the back part of the store to get a pistol," he confided in a letter to his sister. That failing, he tried reasoning with the men - he would let them buy another bottle if they would leave.
He concluded his account of the incident with the lament: "Such things as these are done at this time with impunity, for there is no one to administer the law."
The averted fracas is one of the more colorful incidents depicted in a book of letters Pulsifer either wrote or received from 1832 to 1836.
The compilation is among 300 Texas-related items that will be offered for auction this month by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas.
And what would a collection of Texana be without a certain Texas mission being represented?
Also on the block Jan. 24 will be a printed broadside of Col. William Travis' plea on behalf of the Alamo's defenders. The poster is one of only three known to remain.
Pulsifer's 249-page book is unpublished and is little known except among Texas historians. What makes it special is it combines the personal with the broad sweep of historical events, an auction house official said.
"It's so rare that you get a single book that has so much content, just page after page of details about their personal life and what was happening in Texas at the time," said Sandra Palomino, Heritage's director of historical manuscripts.
"It's among the most important items I've handled."
Surviving manuscript
The Pulsifer book was one of about a dozen he wrote after emigrating from Massachusetts in the 1830s. After he died childless in 1861, the books were passed to his sister and her descendants, one of whom was living in Galveston during the 1900 hurricane.
The disaster destroyed all of the Pulsifer books except the one dealing with the Texas War of Independence.
The surviving manuscript was eventually passed to Zulieka Semans, who treasured the book and kept it wrapped in a drawer.
While dealing with her husband's long illness in the 1950s, she spent hours at her dining room table, using a magnifying glass to read the tiny script.
She transferred it into longhand and then typed it, her daughter, Suzanne Semans, recalled. Her mother also tried, unsuccessfully, to get it published.
Before she died in the 1980s, the elder Semans entrusted it to her daughter, asking her not to let it out of her hands.
About that time, Judith Linsley, a Beaumont historian, heard about the book from a Semans family friend.
Linsley regarded it as an amazing stroke of luck. She was writing a book about the city's history, and Pulsifer was considered one of Beaumont's most prominent early residents.
"I think that was the first time anybody outside the family knew about its existence," Linsley said. "Without that, I don't think it would ever have seen the light of day."
The manuscript was used as a basis for Linsley's book, and one of its letters was published in a historical magazine. But, other than appearing at an exhibition at the public library, the book has remained private.
Suzanne Semans, who runs a dance studio in Houston, said that she decided to sell the book partly because she has no immediate family to give it to. The auctioneers assured her it would end up in the hands of someone interested in Texas history, she said.
Could fetch $150,000
The financial benefit was a consideration, too, she said. Palomino said the book could fetch $150,000.
Linsley said she doesn't fault the family for not donating the book to a museum.
"If she was a millionaire, I'd ask her to do it, but I think her mother would be happy if she knew it would help her be financially secure," she said.
The Beaumont historian said the auction may revive plans to get the book published, something that could benefit the public at large.
"It's hard to overvalue a book like this," Linsley said. "It's emotionally intense, and yet it is such good history."
(Pictured: David Boozer of Heritage Auction Galleries holds a print of Col. William Travis' plea for aid to the Alamo. Photo by Brandon Wade, Special Contributor to the Dallas Morning News.)
From DallasNews.com, the online edition of The Dallas Morning News:Joseph Pulsifer was a strong supporter of the Texas War of Independence, but he had his limits.
In 1835, on Christmas Day, two men who had purchased and consumed a great deal of liquor at Pulsifer's Beaumont pharmacy threatened him with a knife.
Pulsifer knew he was on his own, because any local official capable of upholding the law had gone to fight the Mexican government.
"I made a pass to go into the back part of the store to get a pistol," he confided in a letter to his sister. That failing, he tried reasoning with the men - he would let them buy another bottle if they would leave.
He concluded his account of the incident with the lament: "Such things as these are done at this time with impunity, for there is no one to administer the law."
The averted fracas is one of the more colorful incidents depicted in a book of letters Pulsifer either wrote or received from 1832 to 1836.
The compilation is among 300 Texas-related items that will be offered for auction this month by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas.
And what would a collection of Texana be without a certain Texas mission being represented?
Also on the block Jan. 24 will be a printed broadside of Col. William Travis' plea on behalf of the Alamo's defenders. The poster is one of only three known to remain.
Pulsifer's 249-page book is unpublished and is little known except among Texas historians. What makes it special is it combines the personal with the broad sweep of historical events, an auction house official said.
"It's so rare that you get a single book that has so much content, just page after page of details about their personal life and what was happening in Texas at the time," said Sandra Palomino, Heritage's director of historical manuscripts.
"It's among the most important items I've handled."
Surviving manuscript
The Pulsifer book was one of about a dozen he wrote after emigrating from Massachusetts in the 1830s. After he died childless in 1861, the books were passed to his sister and her descendants, one of whom was living in Galveston during the 1900 hurricane.
The disaster destroyed all of the Pulsifer books except the one dealing with the Texas War of Independence.
The surviving manuscript was eventually passed to Zulieka Semans, who treasured the book and kept it wrapped in a drawer.
While dealing with her husband's long illness in the 1950s, she spent hours at her dining room table, using a magnifying glass to read the tiny script.
She transferred it into longhand and then typed it, her daughter, Suzanne Semans, recalled. Her mother also tried, unsuccessfully, to get it published.
Before she died in the 1980s, the elder Semans entrusted it to her daughter, asking her not to let it out of her hands.
About that time, Judith Linsley, a Beaumont historian, heard about the book from a Semans family friend.
Linsley regarded it as an amazing stroke of luck. She was writing a book about the city's history, and Pulsifer was considered one of Beaumont's most prominent early residents.
"I think that was the first time anybody outside the family knew about its existence," Linsley said. "Without that, I don't think it would ever have seen the light of day."
The manuscript was used as a basis for Linsley's book, and one of its letters was published in a historical magazine. But, other than appearing at an exhibition at the public library, the book has remained private.
Suzanne Semans, who runs a dance studio in Houston, said that she decided to sell the book partly because she has no immediate family to give it to. The auctioneers assured her it would end up in the hands of someone interested in Texas history, she said.
Could fetch $150,000
The financial benefit was a consideration, too, she said. Palomino said the book could fetch $150,000.
Linsley said she doesn't fault the family for not donating the book to a museum.
"If she was a millionaire, I'd ask her to do it, but I think her mother would be happy if she knew it would help her be financially secure," she said.
The Beaumont historian said the auction may revive plans to get the book published, something that could benefit the public at large.
"It's hard to overvalue a book like this," Linsley said. "It's emotionally intense, and yet it is such good history."
(Pictured: David Boozer of Heritage Auction Galleries holds a print of Col. William Travis' plea for aid to the Alamo. Photo by Brandon Wade, Special Contributor to the Dallas Morning News.)
posted by Chris and Frank at 2:09 PM
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