Founder of The Bryan Museum in Galveston JP BRYAN- Chapter 1

A conversation with a bonafide Son of Texas tracing lineage to the Founding of the Republic of Texas

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi everyone, I'm Katie r H'sSheriff Fryar and this is my heart of
Texas. This time we're talking toTexan. Make that supersized capital T Texan.

(00:32):
JP Brian of Houston born in theBayou City, raised in Freeport,
Yes, and East coastal Texan,but only by where his boots are with
ranches and residents also in the farreaches of the Transpacus. JP Brian is
a citizen of the entire state bygeography, but most important by attitude.

(00:58):
When you travel abroad to go outsideof text, people ask you where you're
from, and you say, I'mfrom Texans and you do that with a
sense of real pride. And whatdistinguishes us is our history. In our
history, I have to tell you, is under packed by those who would

(01:21):
like to revise it. And tomean many of those people who we think
are heroes and who I believe areheroes. I asked all of you that
are listening to join us in ourefforts to preserve and promote the great history
we all share. Scratch the serviceof any Texan and you will find a

(01:42):
pride. But for JP. Morgan, it's deep in his bones. Naturally,
his great great great grandfather was marriedto Emily Austin Brian Perry, the
sister of Stephen F. Austin,who helped pioneer the deathbed wish of their
father, Moses Austin to settle threehundre settlers on a Spanish land grant that
ultimately gave birth to the Republic ofTexas. But you'll hear in this conversation

(02:07):
it's not about pedigree. It's aboutthe accomplishments of those who struggled to make
Texas over hundreds of years, hisown evolution as collector, historian, oil
man, financeer, preservationists. Comingto a point in our focus, the
Brian Museum in Galveston and this founderof it about as Texan as you can

(02:30):
be, because it's not who youare but what you do past, present
and future. So you carry aTexas pride that is a familial pride at
generation's long pride. Texas pride issomething else, yes, but you're not
the way we normally think of Texaspride. You're very quiet about it,

(02:50):
and yet you're resolute almost in advancingTexas history, protecting Texas history, and
certainly this museum is a lot ofthat is it not. Well, absolutely,
it exemplifies I think, very impressivefashion what was accomplished on this landscape,

(03:13):
all text by people whose performance was, in my judgments, really exceptional.
There was created on that landscape someof the greatest history in the entire
world. You know, the peoplewho were settling here, at least the
Anglo settlers who were coming in,they were coming off the back of the

(03:35):
War of eighteen twelve and before that, the Louisiana Purchase. They were bringing
a certain not just a pioneer spirit, but a certain American independence and sense
of pride, even though people fromother countries then started joining in. Is
that the basis you think of whyTexas is so different from so many other

(03:57):
states? Well, I think theythe defining difference of Texas as a state
had to do with just a sortof collision of various events. But clearly,
the incentive that drove people who werecoming to the western part of America

(04:21):
was a desire for freedom. Itproved undeniably that pre important document, the
freedom, the Declaration of Independence ofour Constitution, the Bill of Rights could
travel in Texas. There was enoughearly settlement by the Spanish that provided the

(04:48):
Foothold or the foundations for the beginningof a more ambitious settlement by those people
from the United States who were andby the same freedoms that they had enjoyed
through the Revolution and were extending theirdesire to be free and express themselves on

(05:14):
land, which was unusual for mostof these people who came from Europe where
land was owned by the crown orthose affiliated with it. Texas history didn't
just begin, though, with theIndependence and the Old three hundred coming in
on the Austin Colony. We goback centuries. This is a target rich

(05:36):
environment in this state. If youare interested in history, the West is
the history that we in the WesternTexas try to explain in a conferhensive fashion
begins at the ninety eighth parallel,which Bodhue runs right to fiddle the cop

(05:57):
Bowl in Dallas. But obviously therewere early Indian nations. They found that
a desirable place to settle and formtheir own cultures. None more I guess,
famous than the Apache and Comanche Indians, at least in terms of their
opposition to two Western settlements. Yeah, but even they came in from the

(06:21):
high plains into Lower Texas. Inthis part of East Texas. The European
colonization of Texas was even before theAnglo colonization of Texas. Absolutely so.
I mean we've the Spanish where theirbuilding missions from East Texas to the Pacific
Ocean, and in some ways weare as much or if not more Spanish

(06:46):
Catholic as we are Protestant Anglo.You could see it in things such as
the naming of buildings and sites.Theologic sites are legal system, our foundational
business is ranching and agriculture all Cameishback. But even the Texas Rangers themselves

(07:09):
came from an old Spanish ranger typeof tradition. Well they did, and
of course Steven f formed first rangering, as he called it, company model
off of what the Spanish and otherearlier settlers used as a means for protecting

(07:30):
the frontier or their home. Factlybecause they didn't have armies, they're looking
after them except into locations such asBehar and El Paso. You know,
love of Texas history and certainly yourvast knowledge of it, that's one thing.
I mean, what's so impressive atthe museum is that the founder you

(07:53):
went about it the right way withcurators and historians and collecting books and artifacts.
A passion is beyond the history senseof you. You are a collector
and when did this begin for you? Well, my collecting habits were found

(08:15):
the beginning when I was about nineyears old. My interest was in collecting
antique guns. Now I didn't havethe resources at the time to be very
avid collector, but I was astudent, so they have a subject as
a child, and I used togo to an antique gun store in Houston

(08:37):
and look at what they're had tooffer. Finally I bought my first collectable,
four barrels sharp pistols, and Ibought several other guns from that same
location or from that same business overthe years. My dad was a very
active collector, and I guess wasfrom him that I got a sense of

(09:05):
it's okay to collect because it isa fairly selfish. But the reward when
you can do something like we've beenable to do at the museum and that
spirit and have artifact that can trulybe inspirational, and when you understand their

(09:28):
use and what their purpose was andhow they were all manufacture. Individuals put
part of their own personality into thoseitems and also how they were used by
the individuals made the history. Youget derecided as a kid around these things.

(09:50):
I don't look at the item asjust a gun or a spur,
or a walking stick or a sword, because I the first of all,
the history of how the item wasmade in large measure, not everything.
Some still maintain a mystery, butto me they have a personality. It's

(10:11):
hard to have a reciprocal relationship withit innate objects, but you do.
You get inspiration or interest in what'spainted objects as a painting. It's the
same thing with guns and spurs andso forth. They all have their own

(10:33):
art form because they were created byhand, and then they had incredibly different
uses, and so I do understandthe importance, but also something about the
people that have used them. Youhad saddles on display at the oil company
downtown and curators on staff. Yes, we did. That's actually how we

(11:01):
finally segued into having an actual museum, because we did create that environment within
our office, and we brought schoolchildren and we'd grown enough as a business.
We occupied over thirty thousand square feet, so we decorate all the offices
with historical artifact, and then wecreated a gallery in the middle of the

(11:26):
office, you ran out of space, or you just decided you were running
out of work and deciding to Wereally ran out of work, or we
decided after a while to downsize ourcompany so we didn't have as much space
in which exhibit the art. Weran a fair collection still, as a

(11:50):
matter of fact, the gallery sectionwas still there, and we got a
lot of visitation from people who werebringing their client to Houston, Texas for
the first time, and we're tryingto emplain the story of Texas and the
settlement of the West, and sowe offered a venue in which to do

(12:13):
that and became very popular. Wehad a lot of meetings and events from
outsiders that wanted to bring their clients, etc. And then we recognized that
there was an opportunity to reach schoolchildren, especially those that were in the

(12:35):
school district around where our office werein downtown Houston, and many of those
children were underprivileged, had never seenmany of the artifactor engaged in any experiences
that a lot of children benefit from. Most of them have never been out
of their community. So we gota chuck wagon, but it in the

(13:00):
room had a cook come going whatit was like to go up the trail.
Then all the artifacts and all thoseexperiences began to make a lot more
sense to them, and their appreciationlevel of history transform from a position when
you are or a belief. Whenyou would ask all these children, you

(13:20):
say, what do you think ofhistory? They universally respond by saying it's
for en And we said, andactually it's not. It's high adventure and
this is why. And when theylaugh, they had a change statitude.

(13:41):
So I thought, well, weneed to do this on a much larger
scale, especially now. I thinkit's critical because of the incredible immigration we
have in Texas today or we're experiencing. These people know nothing about our history,
and it's our history. It makesus different and distinguishes us, and

(14:05):
as can be a source of enduringinspiration to those who have a chance to
be exposed to it. And thusthe Brian Museum inspired and inspirational and making
Texas history live. We'll be rightback with that. And there were bands

(14:43):
like Corner Parker's band was kind ofwest out by Amarillo and there, but
like there's a the penttheca Commanches wereout here by Fredericksburg and Houston, and
they were traded with the Germans.So when you saw them coming riding man,
they were just they had German silvereverywhere, they had conscos and and
stuff in the hair, so youcould tell who they were just by all

(15:03):
the kind of the flashy wares ofthe Quahata Commanches were kind of a little
bit further and they kind of hadmore traditional dress. On stage at the
Brian Museum in October was Nakona BurgessNative Commanche, grandson of the grandson of
the legendary Comanche warrior in chief KwantaParker. Do you see the symmetry of
this twenty first century friendship between descendantsof very different nineteenth century ancestors Steven F.

(15:28):
Austin, Anglos Europeans and Tejanos.That's just some of the history alive
and celebrated at this gem of amuseum in Galveston. Why did you settle
on Galveston? Well, anyway,it wasn't intended. I guess that's true
about a lot of things in life. They you know, are very few
people I know that started off warningto be a you know, an Indian

(15:54):
chief for a Baker, lawyer orwhatever. They normally evolve into that as
the life's events shape shape those ideasor opportunities. So our ambition once we
decided that we could actually do somethingimportant by establishing a museum using the artifact

(16:21):
and telling and comprehensive fashion of thestory to set them of the West,
based on the experience we'd had allthese years at our office. We wanted
it to be in Huston, ofcourse, and in the museum district,
but in truth, we just couldn'tfind anything we could afford, or any
building that was historic that we couldhouse enough of what we had. We

(16:42):
needed a place that was much largerthan anything available. So we were down
in Galveston's good research at the RosenbergLibrary with our curator and our head of
historical research. We left the library, went past the just actually went the

(17:07):
wrong way, and the party wentby the Customs House, which was built
in Galveston eighteen finished in eighteen sixtyfive, beautiful Georgians style building, had
it for sales time. So hesaid, now that's the kind of building
we love to have, which hewas in Houston. On our drive back,

(17:30):
we started off with that, dude, well, why would we ever
want to be in Galveston even thoughit was a beautiful building, by the
time we got to Houston, wesaid, well why not. We started
seriously considering that opportunity. However,Galveston Island reality in the form of Hurricane

(17:52):
Ike and eight feet of water inthe basement of the old custom House next
to that deal when one of J. P. Bryant's curators suggested us bookie
looking building on twenty first Street,what was once the old Galveston Orphans Home,
which had weathered the nineteen hundred GreatStorm. So we finally got the
Filter to come over from Texas Cityas a hot July afternoon. She resisting

(18:18):
the invitation to come show a civilian, finally did and we walked in and
it was just love at first sight. He was writing this judgment about it
being spooky looking. It was.It's a Gothic style of Victoria, more
Victorian in its first iteration. Butit suffered in the nineteen hundreds from the
rough severely damaged. But the exteriorwhere cleaning and other things that were mainly

(18:45):
superficial. The interior was excellent scapeand beautiful, being restored by an individual
who had tended to make it upprivate castle. So he had done a
lot of work and making sure thatthe building was completely restored. It actually

(19:11):
lived there for a number of yearsuntil his wife decided that she preferred to
live in Maine breather than Galveston.And in your basement you have a basement
that well feat sailing ship mock up. I mean you're able to encompass the
history of the Texas coastline as well. In New Orleans, Mississippi headed this

(19:32):
way because certainly that's the way alot of the European immigrants as they started
coming in, it was this upperTexas coastline where they did. So it
actually worked out, didn't it.First of all, Galveston was the Queens
city until the nineteen Hunter Storm.There was more wealth in Galveston than any

(19:55):
other city proportion the population in theUnited State state. It was a wall
street of the West immigration. Overfour hundred thousand people immigrated through Galveston on
their way to the West or justlooking for an opportunity to settle in tech.
It was an incredible location with alot of families who were quite successful.

(20:19):
It was a financial center of Gulfof Mexico and it was behind behind
New Orleans's largest boredom Gulf Coast shipmore cotton from there in the eighteen hundreds
than late eighteen hundreds than they didfrom New Orleans. So and of course

(20:40):
the building being an orphanies gave ita special feature. And we've just done
a really interesting display of the orphanexperience in the building. And it's very
touching. From the moment my sisterand I walked through the door and walked
to the cafeteria to dining room.You know, we knew we were home

(21:08):
when we walked into where the diningroom was, with all that polished wood
and these long tables and food beingserved family style, boys on one side,
girls on the other, and happykids and we ate, and you
know, I'm thinking this is prettygood. Whether it's the building itself or

(21:33):
the precious artifacts, rare books andmaps, the Brian Museum reflects JP Brian's
fascination with the people who created andor lived our Texas and Western history,
a foundational passion not unlike that ofthe Spanish missionaries who brought Christianity to this
land five hundred years ago. What'syour reference to one of the catechisms that

(21:57):
were sacraments that were translated into thenative language, but also the book we
have on display is a basic ofOxta, a book about his travels from
Texas after he washed the shore therein fifteen twenty eight. It's the first

(22:18):
book written about Texas and seeing itrare and it's beautiful work, and so
we have it where you can openit page by page and look at it.
And we're beginning to do more andmore of this transfer to technology and

(22:40):
where you can get a more personalexperience as you're viewing items in the museum.
I would say, sir, themost important thing we're doing, though,
is our educational outreach, and wewant to be more than just a
building housing artifacts that provides you interestingand hopefully inspirational experience of looking at or

(23:04):
understanding the importance of the settlement ofthe western half of America, but really
taking the museum to children all overthe state of Texas and helping them get
greater insight and the incredible historical ritywe all share in our history. I

(23:25):
mean we have, and there arethose who would disagree with me, but
in my judgment, we have thegreatest history of the state in the Union
and the empirical evidence to support that. There are more books that have been
written about the history of Texas thanany state in the Union. As a
matter of fact, there are morebooks that have been written about the history

(23:48):
of Tectus and all the other statesin the Union. That's if maybe you
leave out California or part of thebook that were written about them. But
it's an amazing story. You havesome of your exceptional favorites. I know
we talked briefly or I heard youspeak briefly about Texas Rangers. Is that

(24:08):
where it starts with you or doesit go back even further? Oh?
No, Texas Rangers would be youknow, in my judgment anyway, just
another important evidence of humans that areindividuals who accomplish extraordinary things. To me,
they were the greatest frontier fighting forcein the United States and maybe world

(24:32):
history. And of course, youknow, we're dealing with some very bad
characters. They responded in like kindand frequently they dealt harshly with the perpetrators
of whatever crime they were trying todeal with. But overall their conduct their

(24:59):
results were truly amazing. But thereare some incredible tahnos that are part of
our early history and sort through therevolution, and without their participation, guys
like once once again, we wouldhave never won the Texas Revolution, so

(25:22):
it's that simple. In Spanish law, it's an important, important part of
our league system, especially as itapplies to land and water right, and
it's the reason that we are ableto enjoy the benefit of oil revenues offshore,

(25:42):
unlike the East Coast. And thereason for that is the Spanish always
believe that you control the sea oras far into the gulf as you could
see the top of the mass,and that would be roughly twelve miles.
That's just one of the many benefits. Matter of fact, community property concept

(26:07):
is not something you find under commonlaw English law. That's why women are
able to own property in Texas inthe marriage relationship is because of the community
property and also adoption, which iskind of interesting because we're in a museum
and the Spanish law were the firstto recognize the adoption of children. As

(26:38):
I said, history is deep inthe bones of this Texan who is flourished
in business and the aggregation of likeminded doers and investors in every aspect of
it. He's not stopping now.We're so grateful that he gave us his
valuable time and shares his vision ofthe future of our Texas past. As

(27:00):
we continue our conversation in chapter two, but in closing this first chapter,
thank you Za bound to all ofthe staff, the curators, the audio
video team of the Brian Museum forthe clips of their programs. You can
make your connection to them at Thebrianmuseumdot org. And as always, thank
you to KTRH producers Jeff Biggs andJacob Dantone for their digital mastery. From

(27:26):
my heart of Texas, I'm SheriffFryar. Stay tuned.