Texas History for Children

I'm referring to Anna J. Hardwicke Pennybacker’s textbook, A History of Texas for Schools. I have the copy used by my grandmother, Ida May DeRyee. In a blog earlier this month, I gave the impression that Mrs. Pennybacker was actually my grandmother. Not so. Please forgive my error.

Anna Pennybacker wrote her history of Texas with the enthusiasm of a teacher who enjoys her topic and wants you to experience the excitement of the clash of events in our past. My mother, Eugenia Baird Crossley was a historian and a storyteller as well. Perhaps all good history teachers are really tellers of tales. One hundred years later, Pennybacker's style is a bit stiff, yet she brings the history of Texas to life. I wonder what she would write about recent years. Miriam Ferguson? Ann Richards? George Bush? Or Rick Perry?

Melba G. reminds me that Anna Pennybacker had a career that extended far beyond her textbook. She was the third president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and the only Texan (so far) to hold that position. Melba tells me that Dorothy Kemp from the Kingsville/Corpus Christi area (and president of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs from 1994-96) had a little old-fashioned outfit - including shoes - from the 1900 era. Dressed in this get-up, Ms. Kemp gave programs all over the state of Texas, performing as Mrs. Anna Pennybacker. So there is indeed a close connection with Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, Texas history, and South Texas.

Anna embraced such causes as women’s suffrage, child welfare and immigration status. A pacifist, she became a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and urged the United States to renounce war as an instrument of national policy. She passed away in 1938. A biography, “Call Her a Citizen” by Kelley M. King, was published in 2010 (thanks, Paige).

Dac Crossley
November 16, 2011

“I feel with all the strength of my woman’s being that war is a relic of barbarism.”- Anna J. H. Pennybacker

Comments

[Dac Crossley]

Caroline, I have that one also. A favorite back in the fourth or fifth grade in Kingsville - still available. And hard to beat as a story of the Texas revolution.

[Caroline Clemmons]

Dac, I wish I had my first Texas history book, but I don't. Since it was a school book, I had to turn it in at the end of the year. I do have one that used to be given to all Texas students called TEXAS HISTORY MOVIES. It's paperback and has been reprinted, but I have an original for each of our daughters to save.