The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858–1861 - Hardcover

Ely, Glen Sample

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0806152214 ISBN 13: 9780806152219

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016

Synopsis

This is the story of the antebellum frontier in Texas, from the Red River to El Paso, a raw and primitive country punctuated by chaos, lawlessness, and violence. During this time, the federal government and the State of Texas often worked at cross-purposes, their confused and contradictory policies leaving settlers on their own to deal with vigilantes, lynchings, raiding American Indians, and Anglo-American outlaws. Before the Civil War, the Texas frontier was a sectional transition zone where southern ideology clashed with western perspectives and where diverse cultures with differing worldviews collided.

This is also the tale of the Butterfield Overland Mail, which carried passengers and mail west from St. Louis to San Francisco through Texas. While it operated, the transcontinental mail line intersected and influenced much of the region's frontier history. Through meticulous research, including visits to all the sites he describes, Glen Sample Ely uncovers the fascinating story of the Butterfield Overland Mail in Texas.

Until the U.S. Army and Butterfield built West Texas’s infrastructure, the region’s primitive transportation network hampered its development. As Ely shows, the Overland Mail Company and the army jump-started growth, serving together as both the economic engine and the advance agent for European American settlement. Used by soldiers, emigrants, freighters, and stagecoaches, the Overland Mail Road was the nineteenth-century equivalent of the modern interstate highway system, stimulating passenger traffic, commercial freighting, and business.

Although most of the action takes place within the Lone Star State, this is in many respects an American tale. The same concerns that challenged frontier residents confronted citizens across the country. Written in an engaging style that transports readers to the rowdy frontier and the bustle of the overland road, The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail offers a rare view of Texas’s antebellum past.

About this title

About the Author

Glen Sample Ely is an award-winning historian and documentary producer. Ely earned his Ph.D. from Texas Christian University and is the author of Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity (Texas Tech University Press, 2011). His website is: TexasHistory.com

Review

Gold Award, Non-Fiction Book of the Year in History, Foreword Indies Awards
Founders Best Book Award, Westerners InternationalLowman Book Prize, Texas State Historical Association
Elmer Kelton Book Prize, Academy of Western Artists
First Place Book Prize, Texas State Genealogical Association
Richardson Book Prize, West Texas Historical Association
Bronze Award, Non-Fiction Book of the Year in Social Sciences, Foreword Indies Awards
Silver Medallion Book Award, Will Rogers Medallion AwardFinalist, Kate Broocks Bates Award, Texas State Historical AssociationFinalist, Ramirez Book Prize, Texas Institute of Letters
Southwest Books of the Year Selection, Arizona LibrariesBest of the West Book Selection, True West Magazine
"The research is thorough, organization and style are impeccable, and the writing is superb. Ely's masterly . . . definitive study deserves a wide audience." Western Historical Quarterly, Western History Association
"This is a monumental work . . . Ely's narrative is sweeping, comprehensive,and eloquent. The book is Texas and Western history at their best--beautifully written, painstakingly researched, and filled with compelling stories. I highly recommend it." Terrae Incognitae, The Journal of the Society for the History of Discoveries 

"The definitive study . . . sets a new standard . . . will stand the test of time, as the archetype for all who follow in his footsteps." True West Magazine

"An exhaustively researched, compelling story, sumptuously illustrated throughout. This is frontier history at its best."--Jerry D. Thompson, Regents Professor of History, Texas A&M International University.

"The impressive product of a twenty-five year labor of love, it is built upon the author's field research as well as his extraordinary command of private, local, state, and federal records."--Robert Wooster, author of The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900.

"No other book in the modern era matches the scope of Glen Sample Ely's. This book will be frequently cited and will become the starting point for many other studies."--Richard B. McCaslin, author of Tainted Breeze:The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas, 1862.

"Superb narration enhanced by maps and photographs and bolstered by exhaustive research in government, state, and museum archives."--Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University.

"A Masterpiece of Scholarship." Texas State Genealogical Society Book Award Judges

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0806152214
• ISBN 13: 9780806152219
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 440