“Sometimes the most widely recognized figures in our history are the least known,” Cantrell said two weeks ago to the Sons of the Republic of Texas, 12 of whose members had gathered for lunch at the bar at Trudy’s on 30th Street to listen to Cantrell speak about Austin’s life and his new biography, Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas (Yale University Press, 512 pp., $29.95). Cantrell’s lecture fell on receptive ears; the Sons of the Republic of Texas are descendants of the original Texas pioneers, so it seemed fitting for one audience member to ask about (Austin’s) cousin Mary. Whatever happened to her? And was Austin ever treated by Dr. Harvey Whiting? (Dr. Harvey Whiting’s descendant was curious to know.)
A popular nighttime bar is a still, eerie place during the day, but Cantrell effortlessly filled the void. He assumed that we wanted to be privy to a dialogue betwen historians, one of them dead, who fundamentally disagree about how their subject should be depicted. The assumption made Cantrell animated and vibrant; it was apparent that he has wrestled with Eugene C. Barker’s classic The Life of Stephen F. Austin (1925) the way most of us would argue with a living person. Barker, Cantrell explained, used Austin as a case study in Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis of westward expansion. That’s why he devoted only six pages to Austin’s life before he came to Texas. Cantrell spends four chapters on Austin’s life before Texas. “He was a human being, he wasn’t a chapter in westward expansion,” Cantrell pleaded. Barker’s hero worship of Austin was an immediate turn-off for Cantrell, who explained that Barker was indebted to the Austin family for giving him access to vital papers. Thus, he didn’t print the empresario’s shortcomings. Which also meant that he wasn’t able to discuss Austin’s noble personality traits. (In a note on his sources, Cantrell does state in his biography that “Barker’s book remains a valuable resource, especially for political matters.”) “Barker,” who died in 1956 after a long and illustrious career at the University of Texas, “would have liked Dragnet: Just the facts, ma’am.”
Gregg Cantrell will be a panelist on the “Mighty Men: Three Biographies” panel on Sunday, November 7 at 2pm during the Texas Book Festival at the Texas Capitol in Capitol Extension Room E2.012.
This article appears in Carol Keeton Rylander.