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Citation:  [Identification of Item], House-McDowall Family Papers, MC123, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch:

Thomas William House, early Houston Businessman, banker and mayor, was born on March 4, 1814.  He immigrated to Houston from England in 1838 and by 1853 had become one of Houston's most successful merchants and dry goods dealers.  House married Mary Elizabeth Shearn and together they had eight children including Edward Mandell House, who was an adviser to Woodrow Wilson, and T. W. House, Jr., who in 1869 married Ruth Nicholson of Bastrop County.  Together they had six children, including Edith, Ellen and T. W. the third.  Edith House, a native Houstonian, was one of the founders of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.  Ellen House married Walter L. Howze, parents of Mrs. Roy Needham.

Mary Ann, or Mollie, Nicholson was born in 1843.  She married William McDowall in 1868, and they had one daughter, Ruth, born in 1869.  William Nicholson, Mary Ann's brother born in 1838, was killed during the Civil War in 1864.  Mary Ann returned to Bastrop in 1869 following the death of her husband, and after 1897 moved to Houston.  She is noted as the first president of the Houston YWCA and taught music in Bastrop and Houston for many years.  Mary Ann McDowall died in December 1931 at the age of 89.  The donor of this collection, Mrs. Roy Needham, is a niece of Mary Ann Nicholson McDowall.

Bibliography:

"HOUSE, THOMAS WILLIAM." The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho68

McDowall, Mollie. Memoirs of Mollie McDowall (Mary Ann Nicholson) 1843-1931. Austin, Tex.: National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Texas, c1978.

Scope and Content Note:

Correspondence, financial and legal documents, scrapbooks and albums, printed materials, creative works and photographs document the House and McDowall families from 1838 to 1949, who were prominent in Bastrop County, Texas.  Correspondence consists of two letters and two envelopes.  One letter dated in 1863 relates information regarding the Civil War and was sent from William Nicholson to his aunt Mrs. M. A. Crocheron in Bastrop, Texas.  A letter from Robert Weaver in Milford, Michigan, to his sister Mrs. Tipple in New York, touches on the climate in general, the high prices, scarcity of money and general dissatisfaction of the residents of the community.  Of interest is an envelope postmarked 1861 which contains a satirical cartoon on Abraham Lincoln.

The finaicla document is a single receipt for the sale of a Negro boy, later given to Mary Ann Nicholson, executed by H. M. Lester, administrator of the estate of Joseph R. Launer, to H. Brockburn, in 1862.  Legal documents are comprised of educational documents and a marriage license.  Educational documents include an 1885 University of Texas diploma issued to Ruth McDowall and a 1904 certification of completion of a teacher's course by Mrs. M. A. McDowall.  A marriage license issued in 1868 to William McDowall and Mary Ann Nicholson in Bastrop County, Texas, is also included.

Four albums in this collection are a scrapbook dating from 1910 to 1945 regarding the James Nicholson families, a 1931 birthday autograph book, and two photo albums containing photographs of family and relatives of William McDowall.

The printed materials series contains cards, memorial and funeral notices and an invitation to the wedding of Ruth Winfred McDowall and Richard D. Sanders in 1896.  A single postcard titled "General Sam Houston's First Residence on Caroline Street" and a calling card for Mrs. T. W. House are included.  Memorial and funeral notices date from 1880 to 1897 concerning the deaths of: T. W. House, James Nicholson and Mrs. Ruth McDowall Sanders.

Creative works are a typescript journal written by Mary Ann Nicholson McDowall chronicling the years 1843 to 1929, and a genealogical work ca. 1945 which traces both the T. W. House family from 1814 and the McDowall family.

The photographs series consists of family portraits of the McDowall family: an 1869 card photograph of Mary McDowall and her daughter Ruth, William McDowall, his mother Mrs. McDowall, and James Nicholson, father of Mrs. Mary McDowall.  Also included are photographs of General Lee ca. 1862, Sam Houston and the Bastrop Military Academy.

Archivist's Note:

A large collection of Texas currency as well as other items were donated by Mrs. Roy Needham and are included in the San Jacinto Museum's artifact collections.

HOUSE-MCDOWALL FAMILY PAPERS, 1838-1949 (Bulk: 1860-1890)

Manuscript Collection: MC123

Size: 31 items

Boxes: 1

Inventory

Series: Correspondence 

Series: Financial

Series: Legal

Series: Scrapbook and Albums

Series: Printed Materials

Series: Creative Works

Series: Photographs