Texas Illustrated Monthly. Vol. 1. No. 3

Dallas, 1879. Good plus.. [33]-48pp., as issued, approximately 16.5 x 11.5 inches. Profusely illustrated, including elaborate masthead with engraved map of Texas. Original newsprint self wrappers, folded. Some small edge tears, old folds, unobtrusive marginal chipping and fraying to spine and fore-edge, minor occasional foxing. Contemporary purple ink stamp belonging to land agent F.E. Roesler of St. Louis on front cover. An unrecorded periodical promotional for North Texas printed in Dallas in 1879. This issue is numbered three of an undetermined series of similar promotions encouraging immigration to Texas in the late-19th century, supposedly in a quantity of 30,000 copies, though that number is likely an editorial exaggeration. An editor's note on the second page advertises the first volume of the promotional, containing the first three issues, and mentioning an erratum in the second issue which was focused on Fort Worth (though no further details are provided on the content of the first issue). The text of the present work is mostly focused on touting the advantages of two particular Texas towns -- Sherman and Paris -- with further passages on stock raising in Texas, colonizing Texas, the Texas & Pacific Railroad, the Vandalia Line, and so forth. The text is enhanced with numerous engraved illustrations picturing various scenes in Sherman (Austin College, the Courthouse, various residences and businesses, and three large panoramic views at the centerfold), Paris (Paris Exchange Bank, Peterson Hotel, the Courthouse, various residences and churches, and more), and five scenes of Dallas featured in advertisements on the penultimate page highlighting the Grand Windsor Hotel, Dallas Female College, E.M. Kahn & Co., Leading Clothiers, and so forth.

The front cover of the present work includes an ink stamp from a St. Louis land & immigration agent named F.E. Roesler, with an office in Union Station. Roesler is mentioned sporadically in contemporary newspaper records from St. Louis, but is otherwise lost to history as a Texas land agent. The publisher of the present work, Charles Cutter, is even more obscure, with no mentions in contemporary Dallas or St. Louis newspapers. The effort by Cutter and Roesler to encourage immigration to Texas in the late-1870s must have been a losing and short-lived proposition. We could locate no copies of any issue of this hitherto-unknown Texas promotional in OCLC, nor in any sources we consulted through an extensive search.