Paul C. Crusemann collection

The bulk of the collection consists of unrelated items having to do with the affairs of Elisha Marshall Pease, Texas governor from 1853 to 1857, and his wife Lucadia Christiana Niles Pease. Included also is a significant collection of historical documents, such as a letter from George Washington, an original copy of the public Treaty of Velasco, other notable papers from the time of the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas, Pease's diary for October 1836 to January 1837 with a summary of his later activities, and an extensive autograph collection.

The collection is composed of documents, autographs, and miscellaneous instruments by and to persons prominent in Texas and American history. Paul C. Crusemann, grandson of Governor and Mrs. Elisha Marshall Pease, maintained the collection until 1966, when he donated it to the University. Many of the documents, including an 1836-1837 diary, relate to Governor Pease. The collection contains an original copy of the Treaty of Velasco, which ended the Texas Revolution in 1836. This copy may have belonged to ad interim President David Gouverneur Burnet, one of the signers. Also contained in the collection is a letter from General Santa Anna to President Burnet, notifying him that Mexican troops had been ordered out of Texas in compliance with the Treaty. Other letters bear the signatures of important figures in early Texas--William Barret Travis, Sam Houston, Branch Tanner Archer, Thomas F. McKinney, George T. Wood, James Pinckney Henderson, Thomas Jefferson Rusk, Hardin Richard Runnels, and John Austin Wharton, to name a few. National figures are also represented by their letters: George Washington, Andrew Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas, and others.

Includes typed transcripts of most items.