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An old man on his deathbed tells his true life story to his children and grandchildren who have gathered around him. The dying man was James Bell Stephenson. He was born in the wilds of Florida in 1820 and made the long journey to Texas in 1826 to become a member of Stephen F. Austin's Colony. At sixteen, he joined the Texas army, becoming one of its earliest Texas Rangers. He witnessed Santa Anna's capture at San Jacinto. At age18 Stephenson was pinned down in a ravine with a handful of Texas Rangers who were surrounded by a horde of angry Comanche Indians. As Captain of the 20th Texas Infantry during the Civil War, he defended the port of Galveston and help provide supplies to the Confederate army. Stephenson was a founding father of Waller County, Texas and one of its first commissioners. The life he led was truly inspirational and definitely worthy of a place in Texas history.
Austin Colony Pioneers is a collection of many families that came to Texas in its earliest days and the German settlers and their influences upon the growth of Texas. The book is filled with many anecdotes, short stories, obituaries and articles gleaned from area newspapers. These early families intermarried and not only filled Austin’s original colony but their descendants went to every corner of America. The book traces many of these early pioneers into the present day and also gives their roots before they came to Texas. Colonel William Barret Travis of the Alamo has been a constant element of Betty’s historical research because her family was connected to him in many ways. There are descriptions of persons of historical note such as that of General George Custer and his command of Hempstead, Waller County, after the Civil War. There are stories of towns that once flourished and today are no more. The pages are packed with accounts such as the Bell-Schaffner feud and Shootout in Sealy, Texas and tales of infamous Six Shooter Junction, of Elizabeth Ney, the famous sculptress, and many other historical places and persons of interest.
They packed up their Bibles and left behind them a life that had been filled with turmoil, peril and oppression. The horizon ahead of them to the west, that new Promised Land of Stephen F. Austin called Texas, was their destination. T.H. Farenbach summed it up best in his book
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Becky stood up abruptly and began to walk back towards the Inn. He followed her and grabbed her hand. "Don't you see? I want to be free so that you and I can be together." Becky disengaged her hand from his. "I will not be just another plaything of yours. I think you should leave, Mr. Travis." "No. I'm not. I can't. He caught her hand again and pulled her against his chest, holding her tightly against his fast-beating heart. "You must know by now how I feel about you." He brushed her blond hair with his lips. "I can't leave," he whispered against her ear, "because I am in love with you, Rebecca Cummings." He pulled her chin up, and for the first time in all those months, he kissed her lips. "Did you hear what I said? Becky, I love you." When William Barret Travis, a young attorney from Alabama, arrives in Austin's Colony, he makes a huge impact on all of the settlers' lives, especially that of lovely Rebecca Cummings. As the colonists prepare for war with Mexico, the Texas pioneers struggle to free themselves from the bonds of tyranny until they finally win their independence at San Jacinto.
The New World held such promise for those who had the courage to leave their homes, braving the treacherous Atlantic to find new hope, new freedom-a new beginning. And most of all, land. Land of their own! In 1607, the Jamestown Colony in Virginia was founded. From those first few souls who survived the tremendous hardships, the land swelled with English immigrants. By the 1700's, a mass migration had also taken place from Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. Among those early immigrants were many of the author's own ancestors. From researching those families in Austin County, Texas described in her first book From Jamestown to Texas, Meischen discovered that a great many of those prominen...