Lawyer donates rare Lamar papers to his alma mater

John B. Stevens Jr., a Beaumont lawyer and Lamar alumnus, has presented Lamar University with first editions of “The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar” and other rare documents chronicling the man regarded as the father of Texas education.

“It is my great honor to be able to present these very special works that are rare and very special to our university’s namesake,” Stevens told officials, faculty, staff and community leaders attending a ceremony Thursday (Sept. 7, 2006) marking the contribution.

The ceremony took place in the Quadrangle, near the sculpture of Lamar (1798-1859), created by Beaumont artist David Cargill and the Mary and John Gray Library, in whose archives the papers will be housed. The series is regarded as Lamar’s most prominent work and a leading publication archiving Texas history.

“This is a tremendous resource for Lamar University,” President James Simmons said in response to Stevens gifts.

“These documents chronicle Texas history at a time when its leadership was just made up of dreams and hopes,” said Stevens. “They had little or no money. They just had a love of freedom to inspire the people to follow them and pledge their lives and their sacred honor. And what has come of that? A great nation, then a great state and a great educational institution.”

“Anything related to Texas history is directly related to Mirabeau Lamar,” Stevens said in an earlier interview. “I don’t believe any of our Texas forefathers compiled such an extensive set of manuscripts chronicling Texas’ road to independence. Many owe much to Mirbeau B. Lamar, and he is often taken for granted.”

At the conclusion of his presentation, Stevens announced a surprise gift: A signed and numbered edition of Philip Graham’s “The Life and Poems of Mirabeau B. Lamar,” published in 1938 and which he described as the pre-eminent work that is not only the greatest chronicle of Lamar’s poems, but also one of the best biographies of Lamar.

“The first 1,000 of this issue of the book were numbered, and Lamar University already has No. 441,” Stevens said. “The first 300 were numbered and signed. You do not have a numbered and signed one – until today. It is my great honor to present No. 219.”

It was Simmons’ leadership, Stevens said, that inspired him to make the contributions.

“Our family has a very special feeling toward President Jimmy Simmons, who is a great man, who is inspiring, who is honorable and who is dedicated . . . to making the university the very best that it can be,” he said. “I believe these documents . . . are not only historical in the sense that they chronicle the types of people and the thought processes that went into the founding of a nation and a state, but I believe these types of virtues – chivalry, romance, honor, courage – are necessary for a state, a country or a university to endure and prosper. It is for us to take that legacy forward.”

Stevens introduced members of his family attending the ceremony: his father, John Stevens Sr. of Beaumont, who attended Lamar, was a cheerleader at the university and now is a popular program host for Lamar public radio KVLU; his mother, Nell Rudiger of Sugar Land, who enrolled at Lamar after rearing five children, earned a degree and became a teacher; and his wife, Marcia, fine arts supervisor for the Beaumont school district, who earned a master’s degree from Lamar.

Stevens recalled Simmons was his music professor and that he played woodwinds in the band when Simmons was its director.

“John, I want to take partial credit for your ascendancy to this judgeship because when he was a student in my band, I advised John that he probably should become a judge, not a clarinet player,” Simmons quipped during the ceremony.

Stevens graduated from Lamar in 1974 with a degree in government and history. He went on to post-baccalaureate studies at the University of Texas and to receive a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1979. He earned a master of social sciences from Syracuse University in 2001.

He began his legal career in the Jefferson County district attorney’s office, where he served as an assistant district attorney from 1979-81. Stevens spent four years in private practice, then began a 20 year career as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

He resigned from that post to become a candidate for judge of Jefferson County Criminal District Court. After receiving the Democratic nomination for the post, he is unopposed on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Stevens is now with the law firm of Reaud, Morgan & Quinn.

He was born in Port Arthur, grew up in Groves and graduated in 1970 from Port Neches-Groves High School. He and his wife have two daughters. Kara and Alison.

Stevens’ interest in history – especially Texas history – led him to begin collecting Texana about 10 years ago. He is a member of the Texas State Historical Association and, locally, serves on the boards of the 100 Club of Hardin and Jefferson Counties and the Salvation Army.

In announcing donation of the Graham book, Stevens read this passage: “The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy, and, while guided and controlled by virtue, the noblest attribute of man.” Simmons had cited it as one of his favorite Lamar quotes.

In addition to being known as an advocate of education, as third president (the second elected president) of the Republic of Texas, as a military hero and as Lamar University’s namesake, Lamar was also a statesman, diplomat, businessman, newspaper publisher, philosopher and poet, Stephen Doblin, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said in presenting a biographical sketch of Lamar.

“A lot of us who attended Lamar know very little about Mirabeau Lamar,” Stevens said. “We know he was called the father of Texas education, he was a president, and he was also known as the poet laureate of the Southwest, but he also has a distinct connection to Beaumont.

“When he traveled from Georgia to help the Texans fight for liberty, he ascended in meteoric fashion from one day a private, the next day a colonel . . . at the Battle of San Jacinto, then, 10 days later, secretary of war, and, two months later, vice president of a new nation. Is this dramatic, or what? I just can’t imagine anyone in our history who rose so quickly.”

During a skirmish the day before the battle, Mexican troops had knocked Secretary of War Thomas Rusk off his horse and surrounded him. Lamar jumped on a horse and rode through enemy lines to rescue him. “That was such a dramatic, courageous thing that, overnight, he was appointed to lead the cavalry the next day,” Stevens said.

The Beaumont connection is that when Lamar led the cavalry into the Battle of San Jacinto, the man leading the infantry was Henry Millard, founder of Beaumont and whose wife, Mary Beaumont, the city is named after. “You would have to imagine that he and Henry Millard looked at each other as they were progressing across the field and wondered where their dreams were going to take them.”

The collection includes first editions of “The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar,” Volumes 2 through 6, soft-bound editions published between 1921 and 1927, as well as a special hard-bound edition of Volume 1, published in 1968 by Pemberton Press of Austin and whose preface chronicles the life of Lamar.

Completing the collection is the “Calendar of The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar,” published in 1914 as an index, or chronology, of the papers. This component is important because it was a precursor to publication of the papers, which began a decade later, and was the first hint of the papers’ magnitude. In 1988, the late publisher John Jenkins, of Pemberton Press, compiled a list of 225 Texas history books every research library should have. “This was on that list and is essential to any Texana collection,” Stevens said.

Said Stevens: “I have come to realize that the quality of a university is judged largely by its resources, including the quality of items in the library as well as the faculty and staff. Lamar is the leading institution in Southeast Texas, and we all have a vested interest in it.”

He urged others to consider contributions to Lamar. “You may have or know of people who have rare documents relating to Texas history or Lamar University or other areas of educational interests that will serve this university and inspire its students,” Stevens said. “I urge not only of art and other fine works like books, but monetary contributions as well. It is up to us to continue the great heritage of this university and make it the best it can be.”