The Shumards in Texas

Benjamin Franklin Shumard was appointed State Geologist of Texas in 1858. His brother, George Getz Shumard, served as his Assistant State Geologist; both were experienced field geologists. Benjamin Shumard had served in federally sponsored surveys of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa conducted by Dale David Owen, in Oregon and Washington by John Evans, and in the Missouri Geological Survey. George Shumard had accompanied Captain Randolph B. Marcy into Texas on two of his federally sponsored expeditions of exploration (the Pacific Railroad Survey along the 32nd parallel) to drill wells exploring for water east of the Guadalupe Mountains. George Shumard gave most of the fossils he collected to his brother for description and publication. Although the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas ended with the Civil War, the Shumards made three principal contributions to the geology of Texas: 1. They advanced the knowledge of the State's Cretaceous rocks, even though they did not recognize the Balcones Fault Zone and arranged part of the section erroneously; 2. They determined that not all mountains in the Southwest were formed around granite cores; and 3. They discovered the marine Permian in Texas.