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In 1849, a young German bride and her husband stepped off a ship in Corpus Christi Bay to establish their home in the new frontier settlement. For the next three decades Maria von Blücher wrote letters home describing the hardships of droughts and Indian and bandit raids, the chaos of the American Civil War, the discomforts of pioneer living, the joys and heartbreaks of family life, and the development of a town that her descendants would help to build into a thriving city.
Her letters record above all the woman's side of pioneer life. Although they offer insight into political events and economic developments in Germany, the United States, and South Texas, their greater value lies in the picture they paint of the deprivations, cruel hardships, sacrifice, and dangers faced in everyday life. Maria's letters stand as a personal account of the pioneer experience and an elegant testimony to the role played by Germans in the settlement of South Texas. They provide an intimate look inside the homes and ranches, the schools and farmyards, the stores and churches of early Corpus Christi. They examine families and friendships, communities, congregations, and social unions.
In Maria von Blücher's Corpus Christi Bruce S. Cheeseman has edited and annotated more than two hundred of the nine hundred letters that are held in the von Blücher family's papers on deposit at the Special Collections and Archives of the Mary and Jeff Bell Library at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
In her life and in her letters, Maria von Blücher joined all of the courageous pioneer women who helped to lay the foundations of Texas communities. These letters unerringly draw a Texas landscape that is gone forever.
BRUCE S. CHEESEMAN is former director of the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur.
What Readers Are Saying:
"Maria is made of stern stuff. There are enough twists, turns and reversals of fortune to make an epic. It isn't too often that nonfiction stories are made into films, but this one ought to be."--The Dallas Morning News
"A touching, personal narrative that takes the reader deep into the joys, frustrations, tribulations, and triumphs of pioneer life, Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi is a superbly presented and highly recommended contribution to Pioneer Studies and Texas History supplemental reading lists and reference collections." --The Midwest Book Review
"With this book, Canales said, Cheeseman has given readers' a timely, rare glimpse of Corpus Christi's rough-and-tumble beginnings."--Corpus Christi Caller Times
"This is a fascinating book. Maria von Blucher's letters are highly informative reading for anyone who is interested in learning about the daily life of a woman and her family in nineteenth-century Texas, particularly from a German perspective. Maria von Blucher's correspondence can also be viewed as one of the earliest examples of writing produced by a women who wrote in the German language in Texas. Maria von Blucher's edited correspondence is a book well worth reading and rereading, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the story of the German experience in Texas."--German-Texan Heritage Society
"Maria's letters add a new voice to story of German Texas immigrants. In addition to being valuable sources of social history, the letters also document the process of language loss and acculturation on the frontier. Letters. . .is a well-organized, beautifully illustrated resource. Bruce Cheeseman selected passages that create a compelling psychological drama in a rich historical setting in an eventful era."--East Texas State Historical Association
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Allen Stetler
reviewed Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi: Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879 on August 22, 2016 Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi: Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879
Wow. You want to read a story about a life lived large? You want to read this.
Robin Olds lived the life I would have liked to live when I was a kid, before I realized there would be no more aerial dogfights between rival fighter pilots. It's all missiles over-the-horizon, now. Oh, sure, it'd still be hella fun to fly a modern jet fighter, but the glory days of the business are in the history pages. Which is where we now find Robin Olds, having died a couple of years back.
His memoir has it all, and I mean that. He grew up the son of a WW1 fighter pilot and some of the biggest names of military aviation sat at his father's dinner table talking about the future. Olds would live the future they dreamed, as a P-51 ace in WW2, then as one of the pioneers of jet fighters, and the leader of the famed F-4 Wolf Pack in Vietnam, where Olds downed four MiGs.
He also married a movie star, told President Johnson off to his face (sorta), and spent time as the commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy.
The book is stupendously well written. Lots of military memoirs are filled with boring details and skip the "lifestyle" elements of the writer's life. Not this one. This one is jam-packed with only the good stuff and reads like a thriller. The pages fly by as you read about his exploits, both in and out of the cockpit. He lets you know what life was like in the military without bogging you down, and his descriptions of aerial combat are just lean enough to not confuse.
One of the best things about it his the writing style (he's aided by his daughter and a professional writer), which is so easy that it's almost as if he's sitting on a bar stool next to you with a pint, amiably telling you whatever you ask. It's just easy to read and flows effortlessly.
And the story has an ending, which is a little odd for memoirs, which often just end abruptly. The last few pages are a brief reflection on his life, with a nod to how it all began and that at the end of it all, Olds is still at a bar in heaven, drinking beer with his pals, telling the stories they've always told, and having a grand old time.
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Add Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi: Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879, In 1849, a young German bride and her husband stepped off a ship in Corpus Christi Bay to establish their home in the new frontier settlement. For the next three decades Maria von Blücher wrote letters home describing the hardships of droughts and Indian , Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi: Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879 to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi: Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879, In 1849, a young German bride and her husband stepped off a ship in Corpus Christi Bay to establish their home in the new frontier settlement. For the next three decades Maria von Blücher wrote letters home describing the hardships of droughts and Indian , Maria von Blucher's Corpus Christi: Letters from the South Texas Frontier, 1849-1879 to your collection on WonderClub |