The Portal to Texas History 2026 Research Fellowship Awardee
Gary Borders
Project Title
Politics, Polemics & Murder: A History of the San Augustine Red-Lander, 1838-1847
Project Description
Using the Texas Newspaper Digital Program at the Portal to Texas History, Borders plans to expand a master’s thesis he completed at UT-Austin in 1987 into a book-length manuscript. The TNDP offers a trove of newspapers, including the original Red-Lander, that are digitally searchable, allowing him to complete his research more fully. His goal is not only to explore the history of this newspaper and its editors but also to tell the full story of San Augustine’s role during the Republic of Texas, when it was often called the “Athens of Texas” for its group of attorneys, prominent politicians, and two “universities” (essentially prep schools). Besides Houston, who represented San Augustine in Congress after his first term as president, the town produced the state’s first governor, James Pinckney Henderson, along with other notable elected officials.
Biography
Gary B. Borders is a longtime writer who spent more than 50 years in East Texas newspapers as a journalist, photographer, and publisher. He received his Graduate Certificate in Archival Management from UNT in 2024 and became a Certified Archivist last year. Borders is the author of six books, including A Hanging in Nacogdoches, published by the University of Texas Press. He has written for Texas Monthly, World Wildlife Fund, Texas Observer, Texas Highways, and other publications. For the past eight years, he has served as an archivist and reference librarian at LeTourneau University in Longview, which holds the R.G. LeTourneau archives. (The archive formed a partnership with the Portal to Texas History, and more than 2,000 digital items are now part of the Portal.)
