This unique collection of short biographies of the Lone Star State’s most colorful characters includes headliners Father Miguel Muldoon, the Irish-Spanish Catholic priest and diplomat who helped convert Protestants in order to settle Austin, and six-foot-two prostitute and hotelkeeper Sarah Bowman, who fought as bravely as a man among the Rangers and was buried with full military honors. These are just two of the pioneers who helped build the state amidst wars with Seminoles and Mexicans, ...

To see Weeping Mary you've got to head to Texas. The grand state even boasts a Little Hope.Texas Towns is a smart volume full of peculiar places. Author Don Blevins is generous in his detailing of the counties, routes, and landmarks that distinguish the hundreds of villages with quirky names scattered throughout the Lone Star State. History is told-the dates these curious settlements began, early inhabitants, previous names of the villages, and how each town's name came to...

This unique collection of short biographies of the Lone Star State’s most colorful characters includes headliners Father Miguel Muldoon, the Irish-Spanish Catholic priest and diplomat who helped convert Protestants in order to settle Austin, and six-foot-two prostitute and hotelkeeper Sarah Bowman, who fought as bravely as a man among the Rangers and was buried with full military honors. These are just two of the pioneers who helped build the state amidst wars with Seminoles and Mexicans, ...

Within these pages are tales of fearless femmes who dared to dream and resolved to take action. In Bold Women in Texas History we meet eleven Lone Star women, including Mollie Kirkland Bailey, circus owner and mother of nine, who served in the Civil War as both a nurse and a spy; “Brave Bessie” Coleman, who traveled to France to get the pilot’s license that, because of her sex and her race, she was not allowed to earn in her home country; and Mildred “Babe” Zahari...

Combining 50 rare, beautiful, and diverse maps of Texas from the collections of the Library of Congress, informative captions about the origins and contents of those maps, and essays on Lone Star State history, this book is a collectible for cartography buffs and a celebration of state history for residents, former residents, and visitors.

On a bend in the Colorado River where it meanders through the Bay Prairie lies the town of Wharton. Caney and Peach Creeks spill into the river nearby and mark the boundaries of this small community. Stephen F. Austin first brought settlers here in the early 1820s, and the town of Wharton was organized in 1846. Named in memory of two brothers who fought in the Texas Revolution, the town sits astride trade routes that connect larger cities like Houston and San Antonio. Steamboats made their...

Within these pages, the Cherokee County's rich and varied history is illuminated by vintage photographs, and its past is brought to life in the faces of its early settlers. Created in 1836 from land held formerly by the Cherokee Indians, Cherokee County is situated in the northeast corner of Alabama, bordered by Georgia to the east.The families of the Reverend Whitefield Anthony and others settled at Mudd Creek in 1831 in what was to become Cherokee County. From these first families develo...

**A New York Times bestseller!“Lively and absorbing. . ." — The New York Times Book Review"Engrossing." —Wall Street Journal“Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston ChronicleThree noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head.**Every nati...

After an extremely hot and dry summer, Chicago got a spark that grew into something unimiginable and unforgettable on Oct. 8, 1871. On Oct. 8, 1871, what became known as "the Great Chicago Fire" was a massive firestorm that moved faster than most men could run, fueled by southwest winds of at least 30 miles per hour. The heat was so intense it melted stone and brick buildings in minutes and turned sand on the lakeshore into glass. A total of 18,000 buildings were destroyed. About 100,000 w...

2020 Philosophical Society of Texas Nonfiction Book Prize2019 Nonfiction Book Award Finalist, Writers’ League of Texas2021 Citation from the San Antonio Conservation Society"Harrigan, surveying thousands of years of history that lead to the banh mi restaurants of Houston and the juke joints of Austin, remembering the forgotten as well as the famous, delivers an exhilarating blend of the base and the ignoble, a very human story indeed. [ Bi...

Prairie Avenue evolved into Chicago's most exclusive residential street during the last three decades of the 19th century.Chicago's wealthiest citizens--Marshall Field, Philip Armour, and George Pullman--were soon joined by dozens of Chicago's business, social, and civic leaders, establishing a neighborhood that the Chicago Herald proclaimed a cluster of millionaires not to be matched for numbers anywhere else in the country. Substantial homes were designed by the leading architects of the...

"F ocuses on the lives of several prostitutes who worked in Death Valley area boomtowns between the 1870s and the early 1900s . . . Colorful and intriguing" ( Pahrump Valley Times).From the 1870s to the turn of the century, while countless men gambled their fortunes in Death Valley's mines, many bold women capitalized on the boom-and-bust lifestyle and established saloons and brothels. These lively ladies were clever entr...