Related Collections

J.T. Canales Estate Collection
Judge J.T. Canales was a leading South Texas Mexican American political leader, lawyer, judge, legislator, landowner, and one of the founders of L.U.L.A.C., the League of Latin American Citizens. His estate collection includes correspondence, historical and religious articles, land records and abstracts, over 50 maps and building plans, and other materials. The Canales family descend from the original Spanish Land Grantee Don Jose Salvador DeLaGarza of the “El Espititu Santo” Land Grant, portions of which are still owned by the Canales family today.

Tomas H. Molina Family Collection
The Molina Family was one of the earliest settlers of South Texas. Documents consist of family papers and photographs. Their love of baseball resulted in the collection of a large number of photographs and documents about the history of baseball in South Texas.

Claudia Maldonado Postcard Collection
The collection of graphic material consists of postcards, promotional publications and miscellaneous correspondence cards dated in the early 20th century. Most of the materials are addressed to Claudia Maldonado of San Diego, Texas.

Gray & Jesse Golden Collection
The collection of 2,325 Texanna volumes contains many rare and out of print editions that tell the history of South Texas from San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley.

Walter W. Meek, Jr. Collection
Walter Wilson Meek was born in 1849 to Sarah Poole Wilson Meek and Jeremiah Lee Meek of Richmond, IN. Walter, like his father who went to California to seek his fortune during the gold rush, went west to seek his fortune at an early age. Also like his father, he returned to Indiana when he found not great fortune. But, unlike his father the wild west lured him back again and he ultimately settled in San Diego (Duval County) Texas where he grew to be a prosperous rancher, merchant and banker. Walter, Jr. grew up to be an engineer and later Duval County Auditor. As auditor of the controversial county where George Parr was labeled the Duke and had a political empire made notorious by the controversial election that sent Lyndon Johnson to the Congress, both Meeks managed to stay out of jail when the political boss’ kingdom failed. Each of the Meeks was well educated and exceedingly literate so that correspondence is vivid and brings to life a long past era in a county that many study.