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This online collection consists of a small number of oral history interviews conducted by Dr. Emmie Craddock and her students as part of her graduate seminar, Social and Intellectual History of the United States. While her students produced the majority of these interviews in the spring of 1974, Craddock herself conducted several additional interviews during the spring of 1978.

Clara Louise Harrison Cape (1892-1995) was married to Edward Matthew Cape (1890-1972), son of early San Marcos settler John Matthew Cape. Her scrapbooks and knowledge of local history contributed to the research that produced "Clear Springs and Limestone Ledges: A History of San Marcos and Hays County for the Sesquicentennial." For the first part of the interview, Cape reads from a prepared statement that highlights what she remembered about San Marcos after arriving here in 1906 when she was about 15 years old. She talks about how different Texas was from Alabama, life as a student at the East End School, and the creation of Southwest Texas State Normal School. Cape then answers interviewer questions, discussing topics including the San Marcos River, native vegetation, the Depression, her family history, and being a friend of Lyndon Johnson.

In the 1974 interview, conducted by students Bobbie Vaughn and Stan Siler, Dr. Henrietta "Retta" Murphy talks briefly about her family, her education, and her first teaching job at Trinity where she was also Dean of Women. The focus of the interview is related to her experiences at Southwest Texas State, beginning with her arrival in San Marcos in 1919. Dr. Murphy discusses her memories and observations of the History Department, examples of discrimination she experienced as a woman on the faculty, and some memories from teaching troops on campus during WWII. She also talks about President C.E. Evans, President John G. Flowers, Professor Greene, and Lyndon Johnson.

John Matthew (J.M.) Cape II (1924-2013), grandson of early San Marcos settler John Matthew Cape, was born in his family home on the banks of the San Marcos River. He joined the family cotton business, working for 43 years as a cottonseed broker. Cape discusses growing up in San Marcos, his family’s business, the history of cotton in Texas including farms, mills, and gins, the current state of cotton oil production, and some of the changes he’s witnessed in the city and the surrounding areas.

In the 1978 interview, conducted by History faculty members Merry FitzPatrick and Ronald C. Brown, Dr. Henrietta "Retta" Murphy talks about her experiences at Southwest Texas State, from her arrival in 1919 when the school was still a Normal College, through her retirement in 1956.  She relates stories about President “Prexy” Evans, President Flowers, Lyndon Johnson, and mentions SWT professors H.M. Greene, James Taylor, Emmie Craddock, Alfred Nolle, and Betty Kissler among others. She also talks about her beliefs about education and teaching and offers examples from her years of teaching college students.  The interviewers and Dr. Murphy had a collegial relationship and they laughed through much of the interview.