History Harvest Uncovers Clues to San Angelo's Past

On Saturday, Jan. 18 The Tom Green County Library and Humanities Texas hosted the History Harvest, a first-year event that left San Angeloans unsure of what to expect as they carted in old photos and letters for digitalization.  

“We’ve been working on this since early summer,” said Mike Gillette, Executive Director of Humanities Texas. “The success of this one has a lot to do with local organizations.”

Organizations like the West Texas Collection, Fort Concho, Texas Archive of Moving Images, San Angelo Genealogical and Historical Society, and the Concho Valley Archaeological Society were present to assist and recruit people.

Eight stations manned by a variety of members from those organizations assisted people as they came in with anywhere from two old photos to plastic tubs full of letters.

“They can preserve them in copies,” Gillette explained while gesturing to the stations. “Most of them are even willing to have their things shown online.”

Gillette explained that there is a lot of significant history that lies in private hands. The History Harvest is intended to be a way to get that history available to the public with the blessing of the owners.

However, local San Angeloans managed to surprise Gillette with the amount of valuable items that were brought forward.

“The quality of some of those photos are just great,” he barely contained his excitement. “A couple brought letters from the World War II and the Civil War.”

The Wright couple were the ones Gillette spoke of. They sat at one of the stations with a small stack of letters from Pat Wright’s father when he served in Europe. William Wright upped the ante with letters that his great great grandfather wrote while serving in the confederacy.

“My great great grandfather was in the Calvalry,” said William Wright. “They didn’t censor letters at that time, so he describes exactly where he is.”

Letters of that sort are invaluable because they give a ground-level view of the exact happenings of the Civil War.

“At the beginning he was excited to see the Yankees desert,” Wright re-tells some of the letters. “As time went on he became concerned because some of his friends were deserting.”

The Civil War was practically the last time that such letters could be sent home in that manner. The Wrights explained that in the World War II, Pat Wright’s father couldn't  say where he was and what he was doing in his letters.

“The letters were from my father to my mother,” Pat Wright said. “Mom died in 2002, and since I was a baby at the time, they were addressed to her and me.”

Such a collection of valuable history could not just simply lie in folders and tubs, so the Wrights brought them up to be digitized and shared. “We really appreciate the event,” he said.

In addition to the organizations interested in preserving family and personal histories in the region, one of the organizations was present to encourage people to learn more about their history.

The San Angelo Genealogical and Historical Society teaches people how to learn about their family’s background. They offer courses and resources to those interested in finding out exactly who their family was and how their ancestors lived.

“We have speakers in each meeting,” explained Flo Knight, Historian of the Society. “There are about 160 to 170 of us, but we’d love to have more.”

The group meets every second Tuesday at Trinity Lutheran Church at 7:00 p.m. 

Also present was the Concho Valley Archaeological Society, with a small collection of artifacts that they have found.

Arnetta Cooper, secretary of the Society, explained that the Archaeological Society doesn’t just meet and talk about Archaeology, but they go on trips to conduct digs. 

“We go to Big Bend and get off the beaten path,” she said. “We did a lot of the excavation at Fort Chadbourne.”

Fort Chadbourne has not had as much excavation as Fort Concho, allowing for a better archaeological find in current times.

Cooper explained that the Archeological Society figured that a History Harvest would overlap interests with the Society, and thus far that paid off as they had a few interested parties.

It is likely that the Tom Green County Library will have an exhibit in the future with all the items brought in, so keep an eye out for that in the future.