Description
1963 Signed First Edition History of Travis County and Austin Texas. Selling the<br>rare signed book. 6 3/8" x 9.25" 388 pages chock full of info, minor exterior<br>wear, clean interior. I would bet my life this signature is Authentic because of<br>where I got it from. This estate was full of books that were given by the<br>Authors to members of this family.<br><br>These books and many more I'll be listing shortly are from the estate of Homer<br>Garrison III, the son of Homer Garrison Jr.<br><br>GARRISON, HOMER, JR. (1901-1968). Homer Garrison, Jr., Texas Ranger chief and<br>director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, son of Homer and Mattie<br>(Milam) Garrison, was born in Kickapoo, Anderson County, Texas, on July 21,<br>1901, the eldest of nine children. After graduation from Lufkin High School he<br>went to work in the office of his father, who was district clerk in Angelina<br>County. Garrison received his first experience as a law officer at nineteen,<br>when was appointed a deputy sheriff of Angelina County. In 1929 he became a<br>state license and weight inspector for the Texas Highway Department, and he<br>joined the Texas Highway Patrol when it was organized in 1930.<br><br>When the Department of Public Safety was founded in August 1935 Garrison became<br>the first assistant director. Among his initial duties was the task of<br>developing a training program for DPS officers. At the request of the governor<br>of New Mexico, he was sent to that state to help organize the New Mexico State<br>Police. During World War II he was offered an appointment by Gen. Douglas<br>MacArthur to reorganize and supervise the Japanese national police system for<br>the War Department, but he declined in deference to his duties as director of<br>the DPS and chief of the Texas Rangers.<br><br>Among the many honors bestowed upon him during the nearly thirty years he served<br>as the head of the state law-enforcement agency was the presentation of the<br>sixth Paul Gray Hoffman Award, conferred annually by the Automotive Safety<br>Foundation for distinguished service in highway safety. In 1963 Governor John<br>Connally appointed Garrison director of civil defense and disaster relief for<br>the state of Texas and chairman of the State Defense Council. The same year the<br>governor also named him director of the Governor's Highway Safety Commission. In<br>May 1966 he was elected chairman of the resolutions committee and a member of<br>the steering committee of the Southern Region Highway Policy Committee of the<br>Council of State Governments; in January 1967 he was named a member of the<br>National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Council.<br><br>Colonel Garrison became director of the Department of Public Safety and chief of<br>the Texas Rangers in 1938. Under his leadership numerous major programs were<br>developed, and the organization grew to a total of some 3,400 employees. The<br>programs included crime control, police traffic supervision, driver licensing,<br>vehicle inspection, safety responsibility, accident records, safety education,<br>defense and disaster service, and police training.<br><br>Garrison married Mary Nell Kilgo on June 1, 1939, and they had one son. Garrison<br>died on May 7, 1968, and was buried in the State Cemetery, Austin. A Texas<br>Ranger museum at Fort Fisher was named for him.<br><br>BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ben Procter, "The Texas Rangers: An Overview," in The Texas<br>Heritage, ed. Ben Procter and Archie P. McDonald (St. Louis: Forum, 1980).<br>Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.<br>Bill Carter<br><br>"GARRISON, HOMER JR." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Wed Aug 7 11:36:57<br>US/Central 2002].<br><br><br>Mary Starr Barkley<br><br>was a life-long resident of Austin whose penchant for local history led her to<br>write numerous colorful books, articles, and essays about her hometown and<br>Central Texas. Known to friends and colleagues as "Mamie", she liked to refer to<br>herself as a "housewife-historian".<br><br>Barkley's roots in Austin extended back four generations. She was born in 1907<br>to James Patrick Starr and Mary Ellen Dolan Starr (Nellie), devout Irish<br>Catholics who belonged to St. Mary's Parish in Austin. Mary attended St. Mary's<br>Cathedral School until her graduation in 1923. Her close ties to the Catholic<br>Church greatly influenced both her historical research and her charitable<br>activities throughout the rest of her life.<br><br>Mary attended the University of Texas for two years and then went to work for<br>Austin National Bank where she met her future husband, Fred C. Barkley. The two<br>were married in 1930. During World War II, when Fred was in service, Mary began<br>to write fiction and essays. One of her favorite personal anecdotes concerns the<br>time in 1946 that she sent out three articles and received a check for each one.<br>"After that", she said, "I could never quit writing." She regularly sold<br>stories, essays and articles to magazines such as The Cattleman, Farm and Ranch,<br>Catholic Digest, the Houston Chronicle Sunday Magazine, and the Atlanta Journal<br>Magazine .<br><br>Mary Starr Barkley wrote predominantly about Austin and the surrounding<br>communities. She liked to set out at about nine o'clock in the morning one day<br>each week and drive to communities within a fifty mile radius of Austin. She<br>conducted a substantial amount of her research through oral interviews and<br>enjoyed talking to "old timers" who could tell her all about the history of<br>their communities. Barkley's method of history writing was to weave human<br>interest stories into traditional date-oriented narratives; she called this<br>style her "trademark". Barkley also carried a camera with her during her travels<br>and took many of the pictures that accompanied her articles.<br><br>In addition to her work as an amateur historian, Barkley was involved in several<br>organizations, many of which were affiliated with the Catholic Church. In 1950,<br>she helped organize the Seton Hospital Auxiliary to which she ultimately gave<br>over 17,000 hours of her time during a 30-year period. In 1950, Barkley also<br>helped organize the Friends of the Adoration Convent, a group that served as<br>both the auxiliary and the fundraising arm of the Austin Adoration Convent. In<br>her later years, she served as the Chair of the Travis County Historical Survey<br>Committee, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the historical<br>buildings within Travis County.<br><br>Barkley was the author of several published works including: Fifty Years of the<br>Seton Hospital (1952), O ne Hundred Years: The History of St. Mary's Cathedral<br>(1952), The History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899 (1963), A History of<br>Central Texas (1970), St. Mary's Church (now a Cathedral) (1972), The History of<br>St. Mary's Cathedral, 1874-1974 (1974), and numerous essays and articles<br>published in local and national periodicals. She also wrote a book on the<br>history of the Austin National Bank, and tried her hand at fiction. In addition<br>to her activities as a writer, Barkley conducted extensive genealogical research<br>about her own family and composed an unpublished family history, "A Four Staff<br>Family".<br><br>Principle organizations Barkley belonged to include: Seton Hospital Auxiliary,<br>the Travis County Historical Survey Committee, the Adoration Convent, Austin<br>National Bank, and St. Mary's Cathedral Parish.<br><br>Mary Starr Barkley succumbed to cancer in 1981.
