Item description for 1963 Signed First Edition History of Travis County and Austin Texas

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