San Jacinto Museum of History

Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library

Manuscript Collections

Finding Aid

ADELE BRISCOE LOOSCAN COLLECTION

ADELE BRISCOE LOOSCAN PAPERS

1633 - 1935 (Bulk: 1881 - 1920)

Manuscript Collection: MC041

Size: 13.5 linear feet

Boxes: 36

OCLC No: 50151388

Acquisition: Mr. and Mrs. George A. Hill, Jr., Houston Public Library, Annie Hume, 1939 – 1940.

Restrictions on Access: None

Terms Governing Use: Open for research by appointment

Processed by: Sarah Canby Jackson, 2002.

Publication Rights: Copyright has not been assigned to the San Jacinto Museum of History. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Library Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Jacinto Museum of History as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Citation: [Identification of Item], Adele Briscoe Looscan Papers, MC041, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch:

Adele Lubbock Briscoe Looscan, the fifth child of Andrew Briscoe and Mary Jane Harris Briscoe was born on February 5, 1848, in Harrisburg, Texas. When only 20 months old, her father died of yellow fever in New Orleans and the family moved to her grandfather Briscoe's plantation near Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi. Her mother returned to Texas in 1852 and Adele grew up in Anderson, Galveston, Harrisburg, and Houston. She graduated valedictorian from Miss Mary B. Brown's Young Ladies' School at Houston in 1866.

In 1885 Adele Looscan began her long career as a club woman when she founded the Ladies' Reading Club and became its first president. Devoted to the study of history and literature, the club was one of the first women's clubs in Texas. In 1891 she helped to organize the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) and served as historian and chairman of the executive committee for nine years. In 1907 during the annual meeting in Austin, the DRT split into two factions over the control of the Alamo. Adina De Zavala, Adele Looscan and the other women on the executive board were successfully sued by the DRT. Looscan continued to oppose the DRT's proposed use of the Alamo and her argument eventually won. She was also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was a charter member of the Houston Pen Women, the Texas Woman's Press Association, and the Texas State Historical Association. Looscan served as president of the TSHA from 1915 - 1925.

Looscan expressed her interest in history, genealogy, and travel in her writing. She began to publish articles in the 1880s in newspapers and magazines under the pseudonym "Texan." She contributed three articles to Dudley G. Wooten's A Comprehensive History of Texas (1898) and wrote several articles for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly including “Harris County, 1822 - 1845" much of which was drawn from original documents in her possession. In 1905 Looscan self-published a tribute to her mother: A Brief Sketch Of The Life And Characteristics Of Mrs. Mary Jane Briscoe: Showing The Estimation In Which She Was Held By Her Friends And The Public Generally

In 1881 Adele Briscoe married Major Michael Looscan, a Houston attorney and Confederate veteran. They had no children. After her husband's death in 1897, she moved into her mother's home. After the death of Mary Jane Briscoe in 1903 and of her brothers Parmenas in 1906 and Andrew Birdsall in 1912, Looscan assumed a matriarchal role within her extended family. She assumed financial responsibility for an aunt of her husband’s after his death and maintained a correspondence with his niece for 23 years. Looscan continued an active correspondence with her nieces and nephews and cousins well into her later years. She became an invalid in 1929 and died in 1935.

Bibliography:

"DAUGHTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS." The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/DD/vnd3.html

"LOOSCAN, ADELE LUBBOCK BRISCOE." The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/LL/flo19.html

Davis, Ellis A and Edwin H. Grobe, eds. “Major Michael Looscan,” The New Encyclopedia of Texas, 852 - 853. Dallas: Texas Development Bureau, 1925.

Scope and Content Note:

Correspondence, creative and collected works, printed materials, financial documents, photographs, legal documents, scrapbooks and albums, works of art, surveyor's notes and sketches and maps document the life of Adele Lubbock Briscoe Looscan. The papers are divided into two groups: Personal Papers and Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The photographs are from all the fonds within the Adele Briscoe Looscan Collection.

Archivist's Note:

Other related papers from the Adele Briscoe Looscan Collection include the Mary Jane Harris Briscoe Papers, the Parmenas Briscoe Papers, the Andrew Birdsall Briscoe Papers, the Jesse Wade Briscoe Howe Papers, and the Michael Looscan Papers. All photographs are located in the Adele Briscoe Looscan Papers.

Adele Looscan's papers can also be found at the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Pubic Library, Houston, Texas, and the Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

ADELE BRISCOE LOOSCAN PAPERS, 1633 - 1935 (Bulk: 1881 - 1920)

Manuscript Collection: MC041

Size: 13.5 linear feet

Boxes: 36

Inventory

Group: Personal Papers

Correspondence: 1865 - 1933 (Bulk: 1892 - 1920)

Size: 6.2 linear feet

Boxes:16

Correspondence received documents Adele Briscoe Looscan's involvement with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), her interests in history, writing, and genealogy, and her management of financial and family affairs. The bulk of the correspondence concerns the DRT during its development, through the increasing controversy over the purchase and development of the Alamo property, the events leading to the split of the organization at the Austin meeting in 1907, and the aftermath of lawsuits and defeat. Of particular interest is the correspondence from Adina De Zavala (143), Hally Ballinger Bryan (64), Betty Ballinger (54), Nettie Houston Bringhurst (33), Rebecca Jane Fisher (80), Cornelia Branch Stone (64), Mrs. L. de L. Tuttle (15), and Marie Bennet Urwitz (24). Correspondence with fellow historians Samuel E. Asbury, Dr. Alex Dienst, and George Garrison records her interest in the Texas State Historical Association and in the history of Texas. Letters from participants in Texas historical events, among them Dilue Rose Harris (15), 1903 - 1909 and T. N. Waul (26) 1889 - 1902, document her desire to record firsthand accounts related to Texas history. Correspondence with William Gwinn Scarff (1894 - 1897), Sara Hartman (1894 - 1895) and A. C. Gray (1905 - 1906) deals with publication of her writings. Family correspondence documents her extensive genealogical investigations into the Harris and Briscoe families and her changing role in the family as her husband, mother, and brothers die. Letters from members of Michael Looscan's family, Mary and Michael Looscan and Winefred McAran, document Adele Looscan's generosity and sense of duty. Correspondence from family members brims with news while often seeking her advice and financial help. Her distant cousin Ki B. Venchiarutti (1901 - 1910) appeals to Looscan for help in selling inherited Texas lands especially after the death of Parmenas Briscoe.

Correspondence sent reveals her thoughts in responding to events in her life. Of particular interest are those letters sent to Mark Kelly (1871) and later returned. Letters sent to Mrs. J. J. McKeever and other members of the DRT document Looscan's deep sense of betrayal and hurt after the lawsuit. Third party correspondence is comprised primarily of letters sent to her to read. The envelopes are arranged in chronological order by year.

Series:   Correspondence:  Received