Texans need to remember our history, including its warts. And not all of it is found in museums. Harris County is steward to a great many documents, and taxpayers should do more than just, well, pay for their upkeep.

Unknown to many, there was a "Second Battle of the Alamo," and it was fought in Houston. By the late 19th century, the famed site of the 1836 battle during the Texan Revolution had become home to a grocery store, and parts of it had fallen into disrepair. Preservationists stepped in to protect the site. But when a debate broke out among them over whether the convent portion of the Alamo site ought to be razed, the dispute landed in court, and the case was moved from San Antonio to Houston.

The story of how an early preservationist, Adina de Zavala, and others saved the Alamo - in Houston - can be found in the Harris County District Clerk's historical documents room. The District Clerk's Office has preserved records from this case and thousands of others because like any historical documents, they capture a community's past that otherwise might be lost. In the historical documents room, for instance, visitors can view records showing that it was not until 1954 that a woman served on a state district court jury in Harris County. Other documents reveal that in modern times, the first African-American didn't serve on a Texas jury until 1958.

Preserved in the room are a number of documents from slavery-related cases, and are a treasure trove for researchers or any resident interested in our city's past. In a case with similarities to the plot of the Oscar-winning movie "12 Years a Slave," Emeline, a freed former slave, was re-enslaved in Houston, but successfully sued and regained her freedom in 1848. Documents like these offer important context to the historical changes that have come about in modern times, such as legal challenges that finally allowed all people, not just white men, to serve on juries.

Of the many records in the historical documents room (in the county Civil Courthouse at 201 Caroline), it's the Alamo case that especially intrigues me. Reviews of the documents are not in high demand - perhaps because it's not widely known that my office keeps these records.

In the early 1900s, the Alamo's poor condition attracted the attention of a number of early preservationists. Clara Driscoll, daughter of a wealthy Texan, studied and traveled in Europe extensively, a number of histories recount. She returned to San Antonio with strong feelings about the importance of preserving the state's historic sites. With talk in the air of building a hotel on the Alamo site, Driscoll worked with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to buy the property. She put up most of the money. Driscoll concluded that the convent portion of the Alamo complex was built after the Battle of the Alamo and shouldn't be preserved. She urged the DRT to have it razed.

De Zavala, also a DRT member, disagreed - strongly - and became leader of a DRT splinter group. She said the evidence indicated that the convent had existed in 1836 and that it needed to be preserved. The two sides went to court. In 1908, de Zavala, the strong-willed granddaughter of Lorenzo de Zavala, the first vice president of the Republic of Texas, took the fight to a new level. She barricaded herself in an Alamo barrack for three days. The court sided with Driscoll's faction, saying that it represented the DRT and could decide the future of the Alamo site. But this faction abandoned plans to raze the convent - de Zavala had made her point.

It turns out she was right. Historians have concluded that Anglos and Tejanos fighting for Texas' independence made a last stand in the convent and the chapel after the Mexican army overran the Alamo walls March 6, 1836.

Everyone has met a neighbor or acquaintance who wrongly associates Mexicans in Texas only with illegal immigration. We forget that Tejanos, citizens of Mexico living in Texas, played key roles in the fight for Texas' independence and that they and their descendants continued to make significant contributions in the republic's and the state's history in subsequent decades.

Clara Driscoll is rightly called the woman who saved the Alamo. But studying the case teaches us that de Zavala also deserves credit - that there were two women who led the fight to preserve the historic site.

Come read about this case and others. The District Clerk's historical documents room is a largely untapped resource where Houstonians can learn about key events that shaped our community.


Daniel is the Harris County district clerk.