Dates: 1867-1979
Size: 3.75 cubic feet
Access: Open for research
Collection Number: Special Collections 52
Cataloging Subjects:
Geographic terms:
Processed by: Penny Clark, Kerstan Bordelon and Charlotte A. Holliman
Lance Rosier was an acclaimed naturalist, who devoted his life to the study and preservation of the Big Thicket, a heavily wooded area north of Beaumont, Texas. He is credited with being one of the first people to recognize the need for the creation of a national park in the Big Thicket. Although he had only a modest formal education, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the plants of the Big Thicket, gained through exploration of the area on foot and study of horticultural tomes. Rosier was descended from a family who were early settlers in Hardin County, Texas. He was born near Saratoga in 1896 and spent his entire life in this area.
As he was growing up, his constant exploration of the Big Thicket made him realize the beauty and biological splendor of the Thicket. He recognized that this was a region blessed with a wide abundance of wildlife and a multitude of varieties of plants including carnivorous plants and orchids. He also recognized that the Big Thicket was rapidly being destroyed especially with the development of the lumber and petroleum industries.
Rosier was an early, perhaps the earliest advocate, for the creation of a national park in the Big Thicket. He was part of an early band of environmentalists, known as the East Texas Big Thicket Association, which sought to preserve the save the Thicket. They could see that although the Thicket had beauty, it was not the obvious beauty of Yellowstone or Yosemite. Instead they would need to document the biological diversity of the area.
Rosier, with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Thicket, was a natural to guide scientists, Hal B. Parks and Victor L. Cory, through the area. They produced a small book, Biological Survey of the East Texas Big Thicket. Although the National Park Service did some research on the Big Thicket’s merits for a national park the movement was halted by World War II. Lance Rosier continued his work in the Thicket, giving tours to anyone who was interested and educating them about the unique qualities of the Thicket. He led Texas politicians Price Daniel and Sam Rayburn on tours as they explored possibilities of making the Big Thicket a Texas state park.
In the 1960s he worked with a new Big Thicket Association to lobby for the preservation of the Thicket and the creation of a Big Thicket national park. He was well-known to political luminaries Ralph Yarborough and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
Although Rosier died in 1970, his dream was fulfilled in 1974 when Congress passed a bill establishing an 84,550 acre Big Thicket National Preserve. The Preserve was a so-called string of pearls consisting of nine land units and several corridors. The Lance Rosier Unit at 25,024 acres is the largest and most diversified preserve in the Thicket. It encompasses the land where Rosier was born and roamed as a child.
The collection is primarily composed of materials belonging to Rosier and documenting his work in researching and publicizing the Big Thicket, especially the plants and flowers of the region. One of the most noteworthy items in the collection is a Congressional Record in which Ralph Yarborough discusses Rosier’s life and work. This part of the collection also includes books, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and a small notebook of Rosier’s plant specimens.
The collection is also composed of papers documenting his mother’s family, the Jordans, long-time citizens of Hardin County. The collection includes his uncle, Robert E. Evans’ papers documenting Evans’ work as an oilfield labor organizer in Texas in the early 20th Century.
[Identification of item]. Lance Rosier Papers, University Archives and Special Collections, Mary and John Gray Library, Lamar University.
Box 1
Folder 1: R.A. Chambless Life Insurance Policy 1904
Folder 2: catalogs and patterns for ladies’ clothing and costumes c. 1905
Folder 3: Postcards c. 1908
Folder 4: Postcards c. 1908
Folder 5: Deed recording the sale of land in Hardin County, Texas by David M. Jordan and Susan Jordan, 1867
Folder 6: Deed of partition of the community estate of T.C. Jordan and Mary A. Jordan 1902
Folder 7: Thomas C. Jordan papers 1904-1906
Folder 8: Field notes of [Jordan family?] property at Saratoga 1903
Folder 9: [Vines Hotel ledger?] 1902-1903
Folder 10: Mattie Jordan papers 1903-1908
Folder 11: Mattie Jordan Evans’ papers 1909, 1948
Folder 12: Mattie Jordan Evans’ papers 1951-1954
Folder 13: Robert E. Evans’ papers 1909-1930
Folder 14: Manuscript, “History of the Labor Movement in the Oil Industry of Texas from 1898 to 1936” by R.E. Evans
Folder 15: Robert E. Evans’ memoirs of being president of the Oil Field Workers’ Union
Folder 16: Oil Workers’ International Union papers 1907-1921
Folder 17: James E. Rosier application for hospital care c. 1944
Folder 18: C.W. Rosier request for grazing lease in Hardin County, 1956
Folder 19: Typescript on ferns n.d.
Folder 20: Comic strip on the destruction of carrier pigeons n.d.
Folder 21: “Common Poisonous Plants,” published by the U.S.D.A., n.d.
Folder 22: Article, “the North Texas Species of Hymeno-Callis [common white spider lily] reprinted from Field and Laboratory April 1951
Folder 23: “Culture of Paint Oil Crops for the South (possible alternatives for cotton),” paper presented by Henry A. Gardner 1938
Folder 24: Partial book on tung oil c. 1940
Folder 25: “Fresh Water Mussels Common to East Texas Rivers and Streams,” by Hal B. Parks, 1940
Folder 26: Wrightia a botanical journal August 1945
Folder 27: “Noteworthy Plants of Texas,” journal articles 1946
Folder 28: “Plants, Culture of Fruits, Vegetables, Grain Grasses, and Cereals,” catalog of Government Publications, 1946
Folder 29: “Pupil Activities in Forestry,” a publication of the Texas Forest Service, 1947
Folder 30: “Genus Ruella in Texas,” by B.C. Tharp and Fred A. Barkley reprinted from the American Midland Naturalist 1949
Folder 31: The Armadillo: Its Relation to Agriculture and Game by E.R. Kalmbach published by the Game, Fish and Oyster Commission, 1943
Folder 32: Additions to the Orchids of Texas by Donovan S. Correll, c. 1947
Folder 33: Poisonous Grassland Plants published by Phillips Petroleum Company, 1957
Folder 34: The American Forestry Association’s Social Register of Big Trees, [Champion trees], 1966
Folder 35: Incomplete typescript of history of plant cultivation in Texas n.d.
Folder 36: papers giving Latin names and locations of trees and plants in the Big Thicket n.d.
Folder 37: Name tags from events identifying Lance Rosier as “Mr. Big Thicket.”
Folder 38: Membership card to Beta Beta Beta Biological Society, Lamar, 1969
Folder 39: [List of contributors to the Big Thicket Association?] n.d.
Folder 40: Big Thicket Association promotional materials n.d.
Box 2
Folder 1: Big Thicket Association papers 1967
Folder 2: Big Thicket Association papers 1969
Folder 3: Big Thicket Association papers 1969
Folder 4: Big Thicket Association papers 1970
Folder 5: Big Thicket Association papers 1973
Folder 6: Big Thicket Association papers 1979
Folder 7: East Texas Nature Club 1959
Folder 8: National Audubon Society 1968
Folder 9: Nature Conservancy c. 1970
Folder 10: Outdoor Nature Club 1967-1968
Folder 11: Texas Conservation Council 1970
Folder 12: Texas Explorers Club 1965-1967
Folder 13: Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs 1965-1967
Folder 14: Texas Forest Service 1958
Folder 15: Partial typescript of a play “Gusher, So Lived an Oil Town,” c. 1940
Folder 16: The Plan for Visitor Use and General Development Big Thicket National Preserve, USDA, 1977
Folder 17: Ghost Light on Bragg Road
Folder 18: Newspaper clipping on an ivory-billed woodpecker 1969
Folder 19: Visitors to Lance Rosier in the Hospital 1970
Folder 20: Correspondence Unknown individuals
Folder 21: Correspondence A-B
Folder 22: Correspondence C
Folder 23: Correspondence Victor L. Cory
Folder 24: Correspondence D
Folder 25: Correspondence William O. Douglas 1969
Folder 26: Correspondence E
Folder 27: Correspondence F
Folder 28: Correspondence G
Folder 29: Correspondence H
Folder 30: Correspondence J-K
Folder 31: Correspondence L
Folder 32: Correspondence M
Folder 33: Correspondence N-O 1969-1970
Folder 34-35: Correspondence P
Folder 36: Correspondence R
Folder 37: Correspondence S
Folder 38-39: Correspondence T
Folder 40: Correspondence W
Folder 41: Correspondence Ralph Yarborough 1968-1970
Folder 42: Correspondence Z
Box 3
Folder 1: Congressional Record memorializing Lance Rosier 1970
Folder 2: Lance Rosier’s social security card
Folder 3: Lance Rosier’s draft card 1942
Folder 4: Unemployment Compensation card 1938-1939
Folder 5: Promissory Notes co-signed by Lance Rosier 1953-1958
Folder 6: Poem about the Tranquility of a Hermit’s Life n.d.
Folder 7: Obituaries of Lance Rosier 1970
Folder 8: Greeting from the Big Thicket (L.J. Fisher)
Folder 9: Woodland photograph (Unidentified)
Folder 10: Walter McCreight photographs documenting his paintings c 1940
Folder 11: Woodland photograph (Unidentified)
Folder 12: Photographs of people and places in the Big Thicket
Box 4
This box contains books relating to Big Thicket plants.
Folder 1: The Birds of America by John James Audubon, 1946. Inscribed, “To Lance with the hope that it will bring you as much pleasure as do the birds in person.” Larry Jene Fisher Christmas 1948
Folder 2: “Catalogue of the Flora of Texas”, periodical bulletins published by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (Division of Botany and Agriculture) 1937 [Includes annotations by Lance Rosier]
Folder 3: “Texas Plants: A Checklist and Ecological Summary”, by Agricultural Experiment Station (Division of Botany and Agriculture) 1962
Folder 4: Wild Flowers by Homer D. House, Inscribed, “To Lance Rosier: An appreciation for many hours guidance in our Big Thicket” –Larry Jean Fisher Nov. 1939”
Folder 5: “The Destruction of the Big Thicket”, An Audubon Magazine Report by Edwin Way Teale, with opening statement by Ralph. W. Yarborough 1972
Folder 6: Grammar School Reader by William H. Elson and Christine Keck 1910
Box 5
This box contains books on the fauna and flora of the Big Thicket.
Folder 1: Unlikely Creatures of the Big Thicket by Louis Hofferbert (created for Lance Rosier, “Mr. Big Thicket), 1973
Folder 2: Louisiana Trees and Shrubs by Clair A. Brown, 1945
Folder 3: Cornell’s Physical Geography, 1888
Folder 4: Longleaf Pine by W.G. Wahlenberg, Forrester (Southern Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service)1946
Folder 5: Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of the Southwest, by Robert A. Vines 1960 (Inscribed to Lance Rosier from Robert A. Vines and Jess Anthony)
Folder 6: Civics: Texas and Federal by Henry F. Triplett and Ferdinand A. Hauslein 1912
Folder 7: A Dictionary for Boys and Girls (Webster’s Elementary Dictionary) 1936
Folder 8: The Insect Book by Leland O. Howard 1903
Box 6
Folder 1: A Notebook of Botanical Specimens Preserved by Lance Rosier n.d.