Texas: 1903-1918. A collection of 16 letters sent to Robert E. Cofer, judge, Texas State Senator, and University of Texas School of Law Professor from Gainesville, Texas. Generally good to very good, with toning and creasing. Includes the following:

1) Hall Family Correspondence. Two letters (2.5 pp) by Florence J. Hall of El Paso, TX, together with three letters (approx 2pp total) by her father F.J. Hall, El Paso Chief of Police. The letters relate to properties owned by the Hall family in Gainesville and managed by Thomas. Includes several discussions of a house they were renting to African American tenants: "We received the check you sent for $6.45 which was the rent from the negro house after paying the taxes...We realize there is no demand for those lots now but we thought that if we could get anything out of them it would be better than keeping them..." One letter heavily stained but still readable.

2) 2pp letter from State Senator H. Bascom Thomas of Sulphur Springs, TX, on Texas State Senate letterhead dated 1909. Thomas writes to Cofer exploring the possibility of running for Governor: "I honestly believe...I can be as easily elected governor as I can be elevted Lt. Governor...I have spoken all over Texas this summer with Colquitt, Poindexter, Johnson & others & the receptions given these men were childs play compared with the receptions given me." A year later, Thomas was expelled from the State Senate for making false accusations concerning the enforcement of an Anti-Lobbying Bill. Lower left hand margin soiled/stained.

3) 3pp letter from John E. (Cluge?) sent from Washington DC in 1918. The writer was a former student of Thomas at the University of Texas law school; here, he writes about his experiences clerking in the United States Congree, including witnessing Wilson's State of the Union Address, and plans for his return to the University at Austin.

4) 1pp letter sent by W.A. Barclay from Mexico in 1903, on the letterhead of the Grand Hotel of Mexico City. At the time, Cofer was a judge in Gainesville. The letter concerns Barclay's upcoming trial for a debt: "I am surprised that a court would let you try me for a debt...there is, often times & in fact most frequently no justice in courts."

5) Two letters, each 1/2 pp, sent from Chief Deputy Fish and Oyster Commissioner of the State of Texas, sent in 1909. Concerning oysters and local politics: "I am writing you to ask if you will need a few, say a hundred for Christmas. I mean oysters that its against all law to let any of our people living in the interior of the State to eat, as they might expect they had the right to get this grade all the year round..."

6) 1904 letter from John W. Hopkins, Superintendant of the Galveston Public Schools, asking for Cofer's help getting local Democrats elected (1pp); Brief 1905 note from W.L. Blanton of the State House of Representatives; Brief 1907 letter from W.B. Jaynes, clerk for a US Senator from Texas, on US Senate letterhead; Brief 1916 note from M.M. Johnson, Travis County Justice of the Peace; Brief 1903 note from R.B. Keasler, County Judge of Hopkins County; Brief note from R.B. Cousins, State Superintendent of Education, sent in 1909. Item #8122

Price: $250.00