Charles Heuermann, an employee of Hugo-Schmeltzer and son of one of the company founders, served as a witness to the sale agreement signed by Mr. Schmeltzer and Miss Driscoll in 1904. When the threat of demolition loomed over the convento in 1908, Adina de Zavala obtained the keys to the building from Heuermann and barricaded herself inside. She held out for three days until the State agreed to settle which DRT chapter would become the site's official custodian (Shiffrin, 282).

The court finally settled the case in favor of Driscoll's Alamo Mission Chapter in 1909. However, Governor Colquitt, after fighting another court battle for the right of the State to make improvements at the site, embarked on the restoration of the convento in 1912. When funds ran out and state business called the governor to Panama, the lieutenant governor Asbury Bascom Davidson gave in to the San Antonio DRT and allowed the upper walls of the convento to come down (Shiffrin, 331-332).

The Heuermann Papers provide some first-hand insight into the fight carried out in the courts, and in public opinion, between Adina de Zavala and Clara Driscoll over the fate of the Alamo convento. The letters show that Heuermann not only supported de Zavala's cause, but shared her views on historic authenticity being the most fitting monument to the Alamo heroes.

Correspondence, forms, notes, and a newspaper article, 1904-1916, make up the Charles Heuermann Papers. The papers consist of twenty-five items, primarily handwritten or typed.

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Courtesy of the San Antonio Conservation Soicety Foundation