From a letter directed to the Archer County Museum in Archer City, TX, 19 June 1985:
Dear Friends! We are interested in the life career of a local chemist and naturalist named William DeRyee (listed in the Handbook of Texas, Vol. 1). Among other things, Dr. DeRyee explored Archer county toward the end of the Civil War and eventually joined with other state office-holders in forming a mining company using prospects in Archer and Baylor counties. DeRyee's investigations of the copper ores in Archer county were copied and claimed as his own by a Hungarian officer, who sold an interest in the mine prospects to Minor Kellogg. Does your museum have information about Wm. DeRyee, his mining company, or whether Minor Kellogg actually purchased a part interest in any Archer county copper mines? We are particularly interested in any relic or notice of Dr. DeRyee. Presumably he traveled to Archer county in either 1864 or 1865, at the behest of the governor. Any information you may have, or can direct us to will be fully appreciated! Frank Wagner, Chairman Friends of the Corpus Christi Museum.[Ed. note:] Mrs. Ruby Robertson answered his letter, sending information on Archer county ores, but had nothing about Dr. DeRyee.
This is Mr. Wagner's reply:
Thank you for your generous letter and help! You may be interested to know that Dr. DeRyee (it was Dury in Bavaria) studied geology and mineralogy under Andreas Wagner in the University at Munich in 1844-47. He became acquainted with the most advanced techniques of chemical analysis for the detection of such ores, and when he fled his fatherland via Rotterdam in the summer of 1848, he joined a group of immigrants for Tennessee. At Kingston, Tennessee, he was retained by a lawyer to investigate stories of copper ores in the eastern mountains of Polk County. For all practical purposes, DeRyee discovered the grand extent of the Polk County copper deposits, some of which are producing to this day. In addition to his work on copper prospecting, he worked out a scheme to improve the yield of cottonseed oil by hulling the seed before expression of the oil. Cottonseed oil had been used as early as the 1820s for streetlights in New Orleans, but was only a marginal substitute for whale oil and similar natural oils. DeRyee worked out a system to produce it far less expensively, but there still was little market for it. After moving to Alabama, he decided to migrate to Arizona. On the way with his small family, he encountered a group of fellow German-speaking people in San Antonio, Texas and decided to remain in Texas. He invented a system of photography, which we have ascertained was based on cadmium iodide emulsified in gelatin, i.e. no silver was involved. He used the technique to print up Texas Cotton Bonds, during the hegemony of the Confederate States. He was an active inventor of interesting, but unused, weaponry during the Civil War. He developed a comparatively safe smokeless gunpowder based on guncotton, worked out a marine torpedo (actually a submerged mine)_, and an explosive bullet (a sort of tracer bullet). There were no people in authority in Texas at the time capable of understanding the idea of guncotton, the naval mine was rendered worthless by the Union capture of Vicksburg and New Orleans, and the explosive bullet was sent to the front lines in Louisiana where the whole stock was captured by the U.S. Army. Following the Civil War, he and several other Confederates, including the Governor, joined in forming the Texas Copper Mining & Manufacturing Co. Regrettably, no record remains of his journey to Archer County or where he visited while there. His samples were lost, too. A "Hungarian" named Roessler used some of DeRyee's descriptions to float a small issue of stock, part of which was purchased by Minor Kellogg. The latter recognized immediately DeRyee's priority, but continued his interest in the possibility of a copper mine for several years. We know nothing more of Kellogg's property rights in Archer County. Thank you again for your consideration. German historians of the 1848 revolutions are surprised and interested to know that DeRyee accomplished anything in the U.S. after departing Rotterdam. If you have any information regarding his adventures in north Texas, they certainly would be interested, too! Faithfully yours, Frank Wagner
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