All Texans, or their ancestors, started as something else. The families that came here molded the state and were molded by it. Anne H. Sutherland explores just how the experiences of two of the early Anglo land-grant families--the Robertsons and the Sutherlands--shaped Texas events and how the families handed down those experiences from one generation to another, transforming two Scots-Irish families into what in hindsight we have branded Anglo-Texans.

All Texans, or their ancestors, started as something else. The families that came here molded the state and were molded by it. Anne H. Sutherland explores just how the experiences of two of the early Anglo land-grant families—the Robertsons and the Sutherlands—shaped Texas events and how they handed down those experiences from one generation to another, transforming two Scots-Irish families into what in hindsight we have branded Anglo-Texans. The story of these two pioneering families, told through their letters, poems, diaries, and oral histories, embodies western expansion and political upheaval. Settling in central and southeast Texas, these families struggled to build a new Texas and make a life for their children. The Texas revolution and the Civil War acted as catalysts for the emergence of their Texan identity. A unique blend of family and Texas history, Sutherland’s Made in Texas: A Family Tale positions personal stories as windows of insight onto Texan identity. She peels back the layers of family tradition and textbook history to show how her forebears experienced the transforming events of the settlement of Texas and its war for independence. As new generations emerged, each contributed its own anecdotes and historical context from the time period. By placing the families within Texas history, Sutherland effectively and innovatively traces identity from the early nineteenth century to today. As settlers in the western wilderness, the Robertsons, the Sutherlands, and others like them actively shaped Texas, even as they were changed themselves.

In Sutherland Springs, Texas, Richard B. McCaslin explores the rise and fall of this rural community near San Antonio primarily through the lens of its aspirations to become a resort spa town, because of its mineral water springs, around the turn of the twentieth century. Texas real estate developers, initially more interested in oil, brought Sutherland Springs to its peak as a resort in the early twentieth century, but failed to transform the farming settlement into a resort town. The decline in water tables during the late twentieth century reduced the mineral water flows, and the town faded. Sutherland Springs’s history thus provides great insights into the importance of water in shaping settlement. Beyond the story of resort spa aspirations lies a history of the community and its people itself. McCaslin provides a complete history of Sutherland Springs from early settlement through Civil War and into the twentieth century, its agricultural and oil-drilling exploits alongside its mineral water appeal, as well as a complete community history of the various settlers and owners of the springs/hotel.

The “Runaway Scrape” is, among Texas historians, at once recognizable but often less understood. While shelves of books examine the fall of the Alamo and the revolutionary victory at San Jacinto, surprisingly little sustained attention has been given to the chaotic period from the early to late spring of 1836 when many settlers fled their homes in the face of Santa Anna’s advancing forces. In the final months of the rebellion-turned-revolution, fear of defeat prompted larger questions of what it meant to be a man or woman in an environment of wartime retreat. In Run for Your Lives! historian Linda English opens a new window into the Runaway Scrape, exploring the events and rhetoric through the lens of gender. English identifies the central question looming over men and women alike: Were you doing enough to support the rebellion? Texas men faced the pressure to be “manly”—not to turn away or retreat, but to meet the enemy on the battlefield. As demoralizing losses stacked up, the rhetorical appeals of Anglo Texan authorities employed even more fervent language, casting the enemy as depraved and a threat to the innocent women and children of the state. Appeals to masculinity also intensified with fear-mongering references to potential Indian attacks. At the same time, while many women ceded leadership decisions to their male counterparts, an increasing number competed for power and more decisive leadership within refugee groups. Accusations of “authoritative” or “brazen” women acting like men and “weak” or “unmanly” men acting like women abounded in an apparent scrambling of gender expectations. But as English argues, “a closer examination of the heated gendered rhetoric . . . indicates that it was delivered with a goal in mind”—recruiting converts and enlistments to the cause. Nevertheless, shifting of attitudes or expectations also proved short-lived. Postwar peace realigned the gender landscape, underscoring the temporary nature of revolutionary gender roles.