Gustav Dresel's Houston Journal
168 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:01 Jan 1954
ISBN:9780292725546
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Gustav Dresel's Houston Journal

Adventures in North America and Texas, 1837-1841

University of Texas Press

This is the travel diary of a young German businessman who came to Texas and worked for several years in Houston and the surrounding areas. His diary, originally published in German as Texanisches Tagebuch, gives a fascinating view of life in the Texas republic.

The travel diary, published for the first time in English, of a young German businessman who spent a couple of years in and around Houston just after the establishment of the Texas Republic. His journal is so crowded with glimpses of camp meetings, street fights, drinking sprees, and wilderness jaunts that it seems unlikely that he did a lick of work. A valuable find. New Yorker

Born in Rheingau, Gustav Dresel (1818-1848) spent most of his adult life in Texas and the Gulf Coast states.

Max Freund (1879–1980) was a professor of German at the Rice Institute (now Rice University).

  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Voyage from Le Havre to New York, May 17-June 17, 1837
  • Sojourn in New York, June 17-November 19, 1837
  • Journey to Philadelphia and Washington on the Susquehanna, November, 1837-April, 1838
  • Journey from Washington to Fort Madison, April-May, 1838
  • Sojourn in Iowa Territory
  • Voyage to New Orleans
  • Voyage to Texas, July 12, 1838
  • Voyage to Velasco, Galveston, and Houston, August, 1838
  • Sojourn in Houston, August, 1838-January, 1839
  • In New Orleans Again, January, 1839
  • Trip to Natchez
  • In Port Gibson
  • Expedition from Mississippi through Louisiana, August, 1839
  • In Texas Again
  • Progress to Alabama Village and Visit with the Indians
  • Sojourn in Montgomery County
  • A Short Stay in Houston
  • Renewed Sojourn in Montgomery County
  • Wagon Train to Houston, November, 1839
  • A Yuletide Excursion
  • Life and Activities in Houston
  • Falling Sick
  • Back to New Orleans, November, 1840
  • Voyage from New Orleans to Hamburg, June 21- August 12, 1841
  • Postscript, January, 1847
  • Appendix: The Dresel Family at the Time of Gustav Dresel's Death
  • Notes
  • Index
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