Founder of The Bryan Museum in Galveston JP BRYAN- Chapter 2

Continuing the conversation and insights on Texas history with the founder of The Bryan Museum in Galveston.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi everyone. I'm Katie r H'ssheriff Ryer and this is my heart of
Texas. We're resuming our conversation withJP Brian, founder of the Brian Museum

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in Galveston and perhaps the most inspirationalleader of a growing movement to preserve and
protect not only the history of Texasbut also the legacy of Texas for all
who now and will call it homefor generations to come. Are you afraid
that Texas history will be lost?It's not going to be lost, but

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we just have to use our tomake sure that doesn't happen. Billy forgiven
a good time now for a greatnight, huh, and I have a

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big, big riding on the plusfor the Brian family to put this together
singing in and out of course,And with all that said, Uh,
we're going to do a song.I think it's very appropriate. It's an
almost Sava day thing. You willremember it. Call and this goes for
everybody in this room. I thankyou all. Yes, Billy Gibbons of

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the legendary zz Top now part ofthe Brian Museum history, taking this stage
to perform after talking about the littleOld Bam from Texas before a gala crowd
in March twenty twenty two, andNakona Burgess, artist and historian in his
own right as the great great grandsonof legendary commandche Chief Kuana Parker on stage

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at the Brian Museum in October paintinga portrait of Quanta while interviewed by Appeals
Court Justice in Texas historian Ken Wiseand taking questions from the audience too.
But you know, being that there'sa lot of Native American painters out there,
and they all have different reasons forpainting. But you're literally painting like

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your family member. But you know, continuously, what does that mean to
you? Like how what mental scapethat you get into every time you're seeing
that picture and you're putting it oncampus. I love that everybody loves that
story. You know, it meansa lot to me growing up, Like
I said, I knew all aboutCorner Parker long before I've kneither of books
or anything out there by it.So just that and my dad, uh

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and my mom is the Parker.My mom's name is Leonora Parker. And
then but my dad, one timeI painted a painting and I won like
this big prize and it was QuantaParker and he goes your great grandfather,
You're still putting food on the table, and that's when yeah, you know,
and so yeah, so I meanhe's still providing, you know.
So you sell a painting, youmake a little bit of money, you
pay some bills and you know,and so yeah, so it's still it's

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still legit. You know, it'sno different than him going out and on
a buffalo hunt something like that andbringing back, you know, food for
the Fu family to tribe. Sohe's still doing it, all the things
that he did and the legacy thathe left. Whenever I painted Quanta Parker
painting, being a descendant, it'slike, you know, it's money in
my pocket and gas in my tank. P I coin of talk about the
descendancy. You've described the matrilineal featuresof commanding kingship and all that. So

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I'm my mom is named Leonora Parkerand her grandfather was Simmons Parker. And
Simmons Parker was a Comanche coo talkerin World War Two, and the Comanche
coo talkers were in the army andthey were at Omaha, they were in
Normandy and they were given a bigprivate recognition from the French government long before
they ever got to hear in theUnited States. But he was a co

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talk in World War Two and therewere like seventeen of them and it was
a double code. And so andhe's my grandfather was Coannta Parker's grandson.
So my granddad's father's name was BaldwinParker, and then of course his father's
Quana, and then Kuana's father isNocona. And so my younger brother's named
Quana Parker, Quana Parker Burgess.And so with Commanches, you're named on

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your mother's side, and so it'sthat you know who your relatives are because
in Commanche society there's a you know, men could have multiple wives, like
Quanta had eight wives and twenty sixchildren, so you had to know who
your bloodline was through your mother,and so they would name, you know,
they would get names from your mother'sside of the family so that you
could kind of keep all that stuffstraight and so so yeah, so that's

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kind of I just heard really thatsome old commandchy guy told me this bad
joke. It's kind of funny.I don't know what it's appropriate, but
anyway, all his children and kidsand so yeah, so that's that's kind
of my lineage. And then fromKuana. So, like I said,
my mom's name is the Parker,She's Leonora Parker. And then my dad

(05:15):
is the Burgess. And so sincewe lived by you know, these rules,
we've got to be Burgess. Lastyear's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured the I
Am Texas book by students, aGuinness record holder, and the initiation of
yet another new direction for the BrianMuseum. I Am Texas wrote a record

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that was already held in Brazil.Are a thousand student authors and illustrators in
the third through twelfth grade provided poetry, short stories, and artwork sharing their
love for Texas and what it waslike to truly embrace being a Texan.

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We have students from all walks oflife, all cultures. In this book,
we have eighth generation Texans. Wehave students published that literally moved to
Texas months ago, and we lovegetting to showcase that diversity. We were
also able to partner with New YorkTimes best selling author and illustrator team Brad

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Meltzer and Christopher Llopolis to showcase thisI Am Texas cover, which is a
part of the Ordinary People Change theWorld series of children's books. The Brian
Museum is about engagement of people fromevery culture of Texas in the West,

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and to do that requires moving beyondjust these walls, with a change in
status from private to public five ohone c three. Additionally, branded now
as the Brian Educational Institution, wedecided to change our overall heading of our

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objective our purpose here the Brian EducationalInstitution, of which OPUM is important part
of, but we want to emphasizefirst and foremost that we are an educational
institution. You have merged very welland very early with the I Am Texas

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biggest book on the book Guinness Bookof World Records, and the inspiration for
that emanated from the people who workwith you there at the museum. Yes,
well, we have an incredible staffand I can't say enough nice things
about Melissa Williams. It was heridea to create I Write and that was

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how we have an early relationship withher, and everybody that had the privilege
of working with her at that timewere quite impressed with what you've been able
to achieve, and this seemed likethe perfect combination to take the museum and
join it with her. Effort withI write, and so we couldn't be

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happier to have her in the leadershiprole for our museum in this entire educational
outreach. And you can see someof the things that we've been able to
achieve in the last several years,and it's truely impressive, and especially in
the against the backdrop of all theother things that we're now creating. And

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to accelerate this educational outreach, workingwith curriculums in various school districts or how
do you go about doing that?I know streaming and internet capability that really
makes it magical, but not ifno one's knowing where to go and how
to get involved with children, We'regoing to them. We have traveling exhibits

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that are going around to the veryschool district that will have like Charles good
Night exhibit has been traveling for twicesome time now, we're going to travel
our Tahano exhibit, and we're alsobringing school teachers in for training sessions and

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providing curriculum, and we're going tostart filming all the artifacts in the museum
and put this into an active,interactive curriculum that can be used with school
kids all over the State of Texas. Did you do you ever dream?

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I know you didn't as a nineyear old, but did you ever dream
busy man running a business and acorporation? And then now in what should
be your playtime years, this justkeeps ratcheting up, It keeps getting bigger
and bigger. Did you have anyvision of this? Are you just the
steam engine or are you along forthe right? I mean what you are

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very actively involved? Still, yes, probably a lot more so than I
should be at age. But Ilove history and I think it's being ignored
by too many of our educational institutionsbecause of our rush to stem. And

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I see history as one of themost critical disciplines educational disciplines that you can
experience, because there's only one that'sgoing to teach you how to live and
learn rather than learn and live.And it won't make you a better doctor,
Indian chief maker, or whatever.But it won't make you one,

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but it'll make you a better practiceor whatever it is you're doing in life
if you understand the history of yourprofession. So I think it's critical that
we make sure that it continues tobe elevated as an educational discipline and for
those people that live in Texas inthe west importantly to understand the history that

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we all care. If you're proudof any specific legacy, what would that
be. I would have to saythat the transformation with the museum from simply
being a museum where you come andenjoy the experience, our outreach, the

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ability to get our museum not justtwo people outside our city, but throughout
the world potentially. It is quiteexciting and I don't think I've ever been
involved in anything that could be astransformative in a very positive way, especially

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for children. Will be right backin talking with anyone for broadcast. It's

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the off topic conversation that often reveals, certainly as the four times great nephew
of Stephen F. Austin, JP, Brian has some personal and personable insights
on the twenty six year old manhistorically labeled the Father of Texas. Most
remarkable. When you think there's atwenty six year old man that took on

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the responsibility for setting these people inthis wilderness, it's an amazing story.
I think he wasn't moving around tothose places because it necessarily his choices.
He was really driven by the factthat he had a incredibly ambitious and successful

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father or something of a visionary,and he was working many times with his
father, and then became the judgein Arkansas Territory when they were still living
in Saint Louis, or near SaintLouis and Helena. Then he moved to

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Arkansas and for the little Rock andactually established down and little known fact.
And then his father's bank went broke, so he took a load of lumber,
floated it down the Mississippi to NewOrleans and try to get some money

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to restore the family. And wentto work for a lawyer there in his
office and learned the practice law andalso learned French and was very well,
you know, gifted in the legalprofession, did a good job. Wrote

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for the New Orleans newspaper Ticky Ewnand his partner and settlement Texas Hawkins was
his sort of sponsor and mentor andprovided funding for his father grant that he'd
gotten and this sort of deathbed wushfrom his dad was follow up on that

(15:07):
land grant and bring the suburbs Texasand Loston really didn't want to do it,
but he's encouraged by his mom,so he went gone to town and
in his own way. JP Bryanis also a founder of community as far
away as the West Texas town ofMarathon. Can we talk a little bit,

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just briefly about Marathon, Sure andthe Gauge Hotel. What was the
passion for Marathon and the Gauge foryou that you would purchase it? Well,
I hate to admit this, butI didn't purchase it be a hotel.
I wish I could say I lostthat a vision that saw the opportunity.

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We needed a house in town becauseour ranch was so promote No,
we had no electricity, and thatmeans you don't have a lot of things
like a washing machine in dryer,and my wife didn't show any inclination to
want to get the number two washedup rushboard. So we needed a place

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where we could got the town anduse the telephone and so forth, And
so we bought the hotel, thinkingthat that could satisfy that purpose. And
then after a while I found outimportantly about the architect who had designed the
hotel and his importance in architectural history, especially in the western part of Texas.

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And then by happenstance, found acarpenter who had done restorations of important
historical buildings on army basis all overthe United States. He's retired from the
Army and moved to well Altfine.So we set about restoring the hotel.

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And you know, they say,you know, you build it and they'll
come. Well, we restored it, not built it exactly. Nobody came
for years, and so my wifeand I followed that we'd love to Transpa
because we loved the long view andthe mountains and the stars, unbelievable part

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of the world. And we alwayswere pleased about how when people did come,
they were had taken they were bythis little special place in the western
part of our state. So wedecided to go down and just consider a

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charity because it made no money.And and finally, as years passed,
we restored and a lot of theof the houses around the hotel, and
you know, so there suddenly wefound out that we'd saved this not a
building, but the entire community,and that was quite rewarding. And so

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we began to look on the hoteland a whole different perspective. And then
suddenly, for some reason, morepeople begin to come there, and they
saw it as a destination place andso we've tried to respond by upgrading it
and providing, you know, betterfacilities and accommodations and other things for them

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agent But mainly we wanted to getout and see the country because it's just
so many other parts of Texas.It's truly unique and has some features school
never be exposed to any other place. I originally began this past as an
attempt to define what is Texas,what is it to be Texan, with
a belief that it's profoundly rolled intoTexan by choice. And I still believe

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that because whatever your geography or beginnings, Texans do profoundly acknowledge and resonate our
history. And in the case ofJP Brian keeping it, Oh, we're
making some progress and we're not goingto let our history die our thanks to

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the endearing and enduring multi generational nativeTexan JP Brian, and to the Brian
Museum and its add admission as theBrian Educational Institute in ensuring that our shared
history will continue to be made.The President of the Brian Museum, Melissa
Williams Murphy, the curators, theentire staff professionally ensure that and we are

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all invited to join the cause.You can start at Thebrian Museum dot org.
To KTRH producers Jeff Biggs and JacobDantone, my ongoing gratitude for your
work and talent, and from myheart of Texas to yours, I'm Sheriff
Ryer. Thanks for listening.