Scope and Contents

The Lesbia Word Roberts Collection consists of correspondence, cards, photographs, newspaper clippings, genealogical documents, scrapbooks, programs and miscellaneous artifacts compiled by Lesbia Word Roberts.  The materials have been divided into four series: Local History and Personal Documents, Genealogical Research & Records, Books and Artifacts and Oversized.

View the Lesbia Word Roberts image gallery.

Series I: Local History and Personal Documents, 1894-2006

This series includes letters, cards, photographs, newspaper clippings, postcards, newsletters, obituaries, court case records, sheet music, meeting agendas and a church directory. It also includes multiple scholarship certificates received by Lesbia Word Roberts and her handwritten valedictorian speech; materials related to the Tarrant County Historical Commission, The Petroleum Club, the Westbrook Hotel, Deborah and Mike Moncrief, the Fort Worth Horse Fountain, Perry Bass, Oil Legends of Fort Worth, Benjamin Johnston Tillar and Genevieve Eagon Tillar, Ramona Bass, R. L. Paschal High School, Texas Christian University Women Exes and the Watson court case.

Series II: Genealogical Research and Records, 1140-2003

This series includes research on Lesbia Word Roberts' family history relating to the Word and McGaughy family lines. The genealogy includes family trees, photographs of Lesbia Word Roberts’ family, newspaper clippings, transcriptions of deed records, probate data, census data, marriage and death records, letters, and family histories. There is also a family tree related to Powhatan and English settlers.

Series III: Books and Artifacts, 1762-2001

This series includes two scrapbooks from Lesbia Word Roberts’ days at Polytechnic High School, and multiple composition books and primers from 1901-1918. These include The Arnold Primer, First Journeys in Numberland, three Army and Navy Composition Books, Surpass Composition (poetry), Composition Book (1st grade), Composition Book (poems & Texas songs), Bird Composition Book and two “Culture Work, 1918” Books. There are also several yearbooks, from 1924-1962, from schools from which Lesbia Word Roberts either taught or attended, including Central High School (Robert Lee Paschal), Polytechnic High School, Texas Christian University and The Southwestern Graduate School of Banking. Lastly, this series contain artifacts, including a framed photograph of Lesbia Word Roberts with Jack Tunstill holding a copy of Oil Legends of Fort Worth on steps of Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, with Russell Rolmkan, Director of Cook’s Fort Worth Children’s Hospital. It also includes a fan from the Bain-Honaker House, Farmersville Historical Society, folders, an Oakwood Cemetery book, two plaques, a souvenir photo from Ireland and bound copies of a Word family genealogy and family tree.

Series IV: Oversized, 1918-2002

This series contains a 1945 Tax Map of Westover Hills and various scrapbooks. These include a Women of Rotary scrapbook from 2000-2001, an undated scrapbook for William E. Roberts, with loose clippings related to his position with Tarrant County, and a third scrapbook related to Texas Christian University.