Page 6
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, July 21, 1971
THE BATTALION
‘Potential classic’
Book relates ‘write-in’
retention of state rights
how Texas surrendered mineral
rights to 90 per cent of its lands
in a salt mine dispute.
Laws were passed reserving
minerals on school lands yet un
sold, but the state Supreme Court
ruled in 1901 that unless land of
fice records describing tracts had
“mineral” written beside them the
statute was invalid.
A hurried “write-in” project by
which Texas in 1901 retained
mineral rights to state public
lands is one of a series of por
tions of a book written by a
GIVE
WE
GIVE
\&m
Texas A&M faculty member.
Dr. Thomas L. Miller’s book,
“Public Lands of Texas, 1519-
1970,” will be published by the
University of Oklahoma Press this
fall.
A $2,500 Association of Former
Students grant made publication
of the study possible.
Miller describes in the volume
“Land Commissioner Charles
Rogan acted quickly,” Miller said.
“He raised land prices to a pro
hibitive level and got land office
clerks to go through the records
and write in ‘mineral’ or some
times just ‘min.’ ”
Thee ourt held this to be suf
ficient to retain mineral rights,
so Judge Rowan saved Texas
mineral rights on 7,400,000 acres
of school lands. Excluding Per
manent Fund investments, the
state acquired from it $1.7 bil
lion revenue to run schools. Ta
bles in the book show land re-
cepits from 1835 to 1970.
The book tells the story of
Texas public lands from the time
that Spain claimed Texas until
the recent raising off the coast
of a Spanish treasure ship sunk
in 1553. Controversy over the
treasure disposition led to defeat
of Land Commissioner Jerry Sad
ler.
Also included among others is
a table showing land grant reci
pients and amounts, along with
other state land uses and devel
opments.
In a brief history of the Gen
eral Land Office and a biograph
ical sketch of each commissioner
is a section and picture on Earl
Rudder, the late Texas A&M
president, commissioner for sev
eral years.
A Texas historian who read the
manuscript said he was amazed at
the “tremendous amount of re
search that has gone into the
study. Relative to other studies
dealing with the subject, Miller’s
is a half century later, broader in
scope, takes advantage of pre
vious scholarship and develops
the subject differently.”
University of Oklahoma Press
director Edward Shaw said the
manuscript “holds the potan
of being a classic in the fieli'l
Member of the history hi
articles on Texas land grants,
positions and land usage, AI
vious book, “Bounty and l>;
tion Land Grants of Texas, 1:
1888,” was published in Ml
A native of Commerce, he t|
degrees from and taught at
Texas State and UT-Austis
addition to 24 years teachin;
Texas A&M.
FOR
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