Archive for June, 2011
Welcome to the Journey
Thank you for visiting my genealogy site for the book, Trek to Texas: 1770 – 1870. Yes, this is an actual book, though the number of copies are scarce, which is one thing that prompted the idea for putting it onto the Internet. To the best of my knowledge, one copy went to each “branch” of the family, my Grandmother’s copy being handed down to me. It was originally written by my grandmother’s cousin, Pearl Foster, and copyrighted in 1966. One copy resides in the Texas History section of the Northeast Campus of Tarrant County College. A portion of the book has also been quoted by the Grapevine Historical Society’s Newsletter.
The original book was researched by visiting libraries, archives, and city and county records, pouring over dusty books, interviewing family members and compiling records, photos and stories, then lovingly hand-typed on a manual typewriter. All in the days before the Internet, this was an amazing feat!
In the spirit of Pearl’s hard work, I’ll be re-typing each of the 200 pages – mostly because of the time it would take to proofread an OCR scanned version of the typewriter text would be harder than just re-typing everything. I apologize in advance that the project may take longer this way.
To read the book in its entirety, you can start at the Title Page and Introduction by clicking the Book category in the navigation menu. Each new page added will be in traditional linear format.
Update, June 16, 2011 -
I want to thank everyone who has contacted me and offered additional information/offers to help. It’s so great to hear that so many copies of the book still remain with members of the family! I want to assure you that I have not dropped this project, however due to an injury with my shoulder and other commitments it was placed on hold for much longer than I anticipated. I will be updating the site again soon to finish the book text.
Phase 2 of the project will include scanning the original pages of the book, as well as scanning and adding as many of the original photos from the book as possible – I have 3 large boxes worth of photos of the Foster and Wright families to sort through and scan, as well as all of Mrs. O’Donnell’s original research and other (as yet) unpublished works.
Trek to Texas
1770 – 1870
Pearl Foster (O’Donnell)
Copyright 1966
History of early Texas pioneers
Tarrant – Denton – Cass & other counties
Dedicated to
Charles Edwin Wright, Jr.
William Richard Wright
John Thomas Wright
Besides the Story
It’s strange how much a book can hold
Besides the story that is told!
Dear memories lie there between
Its leaves, and dreams that might have been
The seeds of truth, for all we knew
When first we read those chapters through.
Old scenes, not noted in the plot,
Arise to mind; perhaps a spot
We loved in childhood, one where first
Earth’s beauty on our senses burst;
Perhaps a line may bring again
An hour of fragrant April rain,
And such enchantment as youth had
For every carefree girl and lad.
A name inscribed in faded ink
May take us to a lost world’s brink:
Strange, strange, how much a book can hold
Besides the story which is told!
Dear memories have prompted the writing of this chronicle about the neighbors, families and the ancestors of my father Ambrose Foster. He left us for a better world Thanksgiving 1949 and his last wish was to hold his first great grandchild in his arms. His first great grandson was born July 15, 1950.
May my critics judge the contents only and not on my ability as a typist, and remember my lack of training as a writer. A few words omitted and other minor errors have not been changed because of the tremendous job of typing a full page without error.
~Pearl Foster