VICTORIA COUNTY, TEXAS (A part of the TXGenWeb project and the USGenWeb Project.)

The Victoria Regional History Center has recently been established at the Victoria College/University of Houston-Victoria Library. The Center, located on the 2nd floor of the VC/UHV Library, now consolidates the library's books on regional history (formerly shelved in the Local History Room on the 3rd floor) with the Archives/Special Collections department (formerly located in the basement).

Currently, the History Center is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm (closed lunch hour as necessary), and by appointment for other times. We hope to be able to extend the Center's hours in the future. For now, in the evenings and on weekends, other library staff on duty will retrieve books from the Center upon request.

The Center's staff includes Sheron Barnes and Yvonne Moczygemba. Sheron, who has worked at the library for 12 years as a Library Assistant in the Archives, attained her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Texas in December, 2000 and was hired as the Special Collections Librarian in March, 2001. Yvonne, who also teaches at Aloe Elementary School, works part-time for the Victoria Regional History Center as a Library Assistant. She has been employed at the library for 2 1/2 years.

Contact Sheron Barnes at email , phone (361)570-4176.
Special Collections Librarian
Victoria Regional History Center
Victoria College/University of Houston-Victoria Library
2602 N. Ben Jordan, Victoria, Texas 77901-5699

The Local History Collection is really a circulating collection of books related to the history of Texas. The collection is especially strong in county histories and the military history of Texas.

Primary and microfilmed records are housed for Victoria, Goliad, Dewitt, Calhoun, Jackson, Lavaca and Gonzales Counties. These records include deeds, marriages, probate minutes, tax rolls, commissioners court minutes and naturalizations from the formation of the county to approximately 1900. Records for other Texas counties can be borrowed from other depositiories. (Index at reference desk on first floor and also Archives Department.)

The following newspapers contain scattered issues covering a wide range of dates. Contact the Periodicals Department for more information.

Periodicals Department: Civil War Records on microfilm

• Compiled War Records of Confederate Soldiers who served in organizations from the State of Texas, Sixth Texas Infantry. Also Sixth and Fifteenth (Consolidated Volunteer Calvary and Infantry.)

Sidney Weisiger Collection:

• Mr. Weisiger was an historian and a journalist for the Victoria Advocate. He wrote about local and area residents and gleaned a great deal of interesting information about early activities in Victoria and the surrounding counties. (Index at reference desk on first floor and also in Archives Department.)

Fimble Obituary Collection:

• Dates range from 1901 to 1944. Indexed Collection of newspaper obituaries, a few weddings and other articles about community activities.

John L. Jarratt Archaeological notes:

• Mr. Jarratt has been described as Victoria's avocational archaeologist. His papers reflect some of the first serious archaeological work in Victoria County on various sites.

J. D. Mitchell Collection:

• Pioneer Entomologist and conchologist.

Gilbert Onderdonk Collection:

• Pioneer pomologist, proprietor of the Mission Valley Nursery.

George Tyng Collection:

• Newspaper editor, businessman and civic leader of the frontier southwest.

Alexander H. Phillips Collection:

• Pioneer lawyer, judge and legislator.

A. B. Peticolas Collection

• Attorney, artist, diarist and Civil War soldier.

Florence Shelley Chilton Jordan Collection:

• Mrs. Ben Jordan's civic, historical and cultural activities in Victoria spanned more than 50 years. The collection is a vast array of information on various local organizations in which she was involved. Her husband, Ben T. Jordan, was mayor of Victoria for 14 years.

Mary Margaret Pickering Berthelot Collection:

• Mrs. Berthelot's papers include information on various organizations in which she was involved, genealogical information on John Howland Wood and the Wood family, Mrs. Berthelot's teaching career, and information on her husband, Paul P. Berthelot, who was a postmaster in Victoria.

Records of the Campus:

• Victoria College annuals, newspapers and administrative information, records of its growth from its existence on the Pattie Welder High School campus to date.
  
• University of Houston-Victoria: Records of the history of its development from a center to a degree-granting institution, newspapers, and administrative information.

Clubs and Organizations

• Bronte Club of Victoria: One of the oldest existing women's clubs in Texas. The Victoria Public Library owes its beginning to the Bronte Literary Club. The collection includes minutes of meetings (1880* to present), scrapbooks, yearbooks, and miscellaneous correspondence and historical information. (* Some contend it began as early as 1873.)
  
• Women's Clubhouse Scrapbooks
• Morning Study Club (founded by Mrs. Ben Jordan): Scrapbooks 1952-1988, miscellaneous club information.
• Currer Bell Club
• Junior Bronte Club
• Daughters of the American Revolution
• Daughters of the Republic of Texas
• United Daughters of the Confederacy
• University Forum
• Victoria Fine Arts Association

Extensive Photography Collection

Special Collection of rare Texas Historical Publications and other rare books

Sanborn Insurance Fire Maps, 1907, 1912 and 1928 (have been revised.)

Civil War Maps:

• Topographical maps, prepared by military engineers in the Confederacy. Includes DeWitt, Matagorda, Wharton, Victoria, Calhoun, Lavaca, Jackson, and Goliad Counties.

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion

• Reprinted by Historical Times, Inc. from the 1927 original. U. S. Documents N 16.6

The War of the Rebellion:

• A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Reprinted by Historical Times, Inc. from the 1901 original. U. S. Documents W 45.5

Territorial Papers of the United States

• U.S. Documents GS 4.13 (can be checked out for three weeks at a time.)

CIS US Serial Set Index

• Especially important as an index to the American State Papers and to private relief actions of Congress.

Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of U. S. Government Publications, 1900-1971.

County School Records for Victoria, Lavaca, and DeWitt counties.

Alphabetical File of Texas Volunteers in the Mexican War spanning 1844-1848:

• Compiled by Charles Spurlin, Director of Local History, VC/UH Library. Includes date of enrollment, date of enlistment, date mustered out.

Many more manuscripts, papers and photographs and other historical materials relative to Victoria County and surrounding area are also found here.

• Bound volumes of the Confederate Veteran magazine (1893-1932), published monthly in the interest of Confederate veterans and kindred topics. E482.C73
• Also the cumulative index to the Confederate Veteran magazine (1893-1932.) E482.C73

We would like to give credit and special thanks to Patsy Hand for researching this information and providing it to us. This section on location of local and area records will continue to be updated.