What a Texas-sized battle over state history means
Early Texas history once marched across land owned by the Pinkerton family for four generations.
On their way into the history books, the famous feet of Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and other icons first tramped from the Red River down the historic road of Trammel’s Trace. What began as a smuggler’s route became, in the chaotic decades around Mexican independence, a primary causeway for Anglo immigrants (white, English-speaking immigrants) looking to settle beyond America’s southwest frontier.
The trail passed right through a pasture on Pinkerton land in Rusk County, Gary Pinkerton’s father mentioned one day. Mr. Pinkerton was hooked.
“I began to feel history rather than just learn about it,” says the retired human resources director.
He spent 10 years driving the back roads of East Texas and combing through historical records. What began as a family history project became a forensic historical investigation. Eventually, it became a book.
“The more I researched, the more I learned things that just weren’t true – myths and legends that had floated around,” he says.
For J.P. Bryan, his love of Texas history was sealed with the he acquired as a boy: a Moore’s Patent Front Loading Revolver and a Sharps
