Charles William Ramsdell

Charles William Ramsdell

Charles William Ramsdell, PhD, 1877-1942

• Father: Charles H. Ramsdell b. 21 February 1842, d. 13 July 1903
• Mother: Augusta Fredonia Halley b. 24 November 1850, d. 19 August 1918

• Charles William Ramsdell was born on 4 April 1877 in Salado, Bell County, Texas.
• Charles H. Ramsdell and Augusta Fredonia Halley appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Salado, Bell County, Texas, and also in the household widowed aunt Elizabeth Dubose, age 52.. Other members of the household included Charles William Ramsdell, Mimmie Ramsdell.
• Charles H. Ramsdell and Augusta Fredonia Halley appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Brazoria County, Texas. Other members of the household included Charles William Ramsdell, Robert Leroy Ramsdell, Frederick Lee Ramsdell, Marshall Albert Ramsdell and Alice Emma Ramsdell.
• He was a schoolteacher, according to the 1900 census.
• He was educated at the University of Texas, at Austin, graduating 1903 and went on to receive his PhD in 1910 at Columbia University in New York.
• The following appeared on 25 April 1904 in the Dallas Morning News: Charles W. Ramsdell, B.A., 1903, of the University of Texas, is in receipt of a letter from President Butler of Columbia University informing him that the committee on fellowships has nominated him to the university council for a fellowship in American history. This is one of eighteen fellowships that are maintained at Columbia University, which arte awarded on merit to college graduates over the United States. It pays $650 a year and contemplates advanced work in American history. Mr. Ramsdell secured the position on the basis of a recommendation from Dr. Garrison and the submission of his theses on "Presidential Reconstruction in Texas." He hopes to continue his work in this same subject until he secures his degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia. The university has sent a number of fellowship winners to Columbia and all have made distinguished records, justifying the confidence of the Columbia faculty in the quality of work done in Texas.
• He married Susan Griffith, daughter of Almeron Dickinson Griffith and Jessie Freemont Tedford, in 1906 in Austin, Travis County, Texas.
• Charles William Ramsdell and Susan Griffith appeared in the US federal census of 15 April 1910 in Austin, Travis County, Texas. Other members of the household included Mary Alice Ramsdell and Charles William Ramsdell Jr.
• Charles William Ramsdell registered for the draft on 12 September 1918 in Austin, Travis County, Texas, while living at 215 Archway in Austin and teaching at the University of Texas.
• Charles William Ramsdell and Susan Griffith appeared in the US federal census of 1 January 1920 in Austin, Travis County, Texas. Other members of the household included Mary Alice Ramsdell and Charles William Ramsdell Jr.
• He was a university teacher, according to the 1920 census.
• Charles William Ramsdell arrived in the Port of New York on 28 September 1927, destination Austin, Texas, aboard the SS Homeric, having departed Southampton, England, on the 21st.
• Charles William Ramsdell and Susan Griffith appeared in the US federal census of 1 April 1930 in Austin, Travis County, Texas, at 215 East 26th Street. Other members of the household included Mary Alice Ramsdell and Charles William Ramsdell Jr.
• He was a teacher at the state university, according to the 1930 census.
• Charles William Ramsdell died on 3 July 1942 at age 65 in Dallas, Texas, at Medical Arts Hospital . His death was officially witnessed by Mary Alice Ramsdell.
• At the time of his death Charles William Ramsdell was living in Austin, Travis County, Texas, at 4403 Barrow.
• His wife Susan Griffith became a widow at his death.
• He was interred at Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Travis County, Texas.
• The following appeared on 4 July 1942 in the Dallas Morning News: Dr. Charles W. Ramsdell, authority on Texas and southern history and professor of history at the University of Texas since 1906, died in a Dallas hospital Friday following an operation. His wife, son and daughter were at his bedside when death came. Dr. Ramsdell was the author of a number of history books, among them a history of Texas which has been used in Texas schools for years, and he was considered the most eminent authority on the hsitory of the South during and after the War Between the States. Born April 4, 1877, at Salado, Bell County, he later wrote a history of his own native county. He received his first degree, Bachelor of Arts, at the University of Texas in 1903, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia in 1910. He married Susan Griffith in 1906, who survives hiim, as well as their children, Dr. Mary R. Dye of Plainview and Charles W. Ramsdell Jr., San Antonio. Both his daughter and her husband are physicians, as is a brother, Dr. Robert Ramsdell, formerly of Dallas and now of Austin. Dr. M. A. Ramsdell, another brother of San Antonio is also a physician, and another brother, F. L. Ramsdell, lives in Philadelphia. Dr. Ramsdell taught in a dozen or more nationally prominent universities and colleges, mostly during summer sessions. He was a specialist in Southern history and contributed essays on the subject ot many books and publications. He served as president of the Mississippi Valley History Association and the Southern History Association and was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Southern History and was a member of the Texas Historical Association and the American History Association. The body was sent to Austin late Friday for services and burial.
• The following appeared on 6 July 1942 in the Dallas Morning News: Of and for the south and Texas, Dr. Charles W. Ramsdell contributed a life of historical research and teaching that will stand as a great and lasting influence on the cultural development of the wide region lying between the Rio Grande and the South Atlantic coastline. His diverse talents made him a rare combination of researcher, writer and classroom lecturer. With the true instincts of the old Scottish dominie, he took a personal interest in the young men and women who sat at his fee. It was an interest that followed on as his students went out into the world -- a loyalty that was returned by thousands of Texas Exes who sat in the classroom of the kindly, learned man during his generation of service on the faculty of the University of Texas. A football hero in his youth, he later served for many years on the university faculty athletic committee and was known for his uncompromising advocacy of clean sports. Possibly the school of history is more widely recognized, relatively, than any other division of the University of Texas today. This is to say that it is the peer of any in America and the superior of all but a few. Dr. Ramsdell must be listed among the foremost of the group of scholars who, yesterday and today, have established and maintained this splendid reputation in our great Southwestern institution of learning. His death will brigh sorrow to his many former students, to all who love the South and its traditions, and to the learned everywhere in the field of historical research and teaching.
• For additional biographical information, see The Texas Handbook Online.

• Last Edited: 4 Oct 2013