Baker, Anne Watts Collection, 1860-1896 and undated

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10605/353417

Biographical Sketch

Anne Watts Baker collected the Newcomb diaries and other material pertaining to the Reynolds and Matthews families of Shackelford County, Texas.

Born in Mansfield, Connecticut, Samuel Pierce Newcomb (1839-1870) moved to Missouri in 1855 and then Texas the next year. As an organizer of Stephens County in 1860, Samuel served as the first county clerk. In 1862 he married Susan Emily Reynolds (b. 1848), with whom he had one child. Samuel fought for the Confederate Army during the Civil War and in 1864 he joined the state militia to protect the frontier from Native Americans raids. The Newcombs moved to Fort Davis in Stephens County, Texas, where Samuel helped establish the school at which he taught in 1865. Following the war, the family built a home near Stone Ranch, where they had lived with Susan’s family. Samuel founded a general store near Fort Griffin before dying of measles in 1870. Following her husband’s death, Susan lived with her parents in Weatherford and traveled to Missouri. She would later marry would later marry Nathan L. Bartholomew. Source: Hunt, William R. "Newcomb, Samuel Pierce." Handbook of Texas Online.

Scope and Content

Because of the fragile nature of the original materials in the Anne Watts Baker Collection, digitized copies of the material are available among the Southwest Collection Digital Collections. The inventory below has linked each item to its digitized surrogate. Photocopies and typescripts of the material are available in the Samuel P. and Susan E. Newcomb Papers, and are also available on microfilm.

The collection contains diaries of Samuel P. Newcomb and his wife Susan E. Newcomb, plus correspondence, legal material, and a scrapbook. It also includes genealogical material on the Newcomb and Matthews families. The materials describe the Newcomb's lives, focusing primarily on their time in Stephens County, including Samuel’s school, encounters with Native Americans in the region. A small portion describes Susan’s life following Samuel’s death by measles in 1870.

Organization

The Anne Watts Baker Collection, 1860-1896 and undated is organized by the following series:

Correspondence

Diaries

Genealogical Material

Legal Material

Scrapbook

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Use of original documents from the Anne Watts Baker Collection is restricted and requires the permission of the Southwest Collection Archivist to view. Digitized copies of the documents are available among the Southwest Collection Digital Collections, and should be used instead.