Nonfiction/History

From the Cumberland Gap to San Saba County, Texas

The Adams surname has contributed some very famous individuals to the history of the world. American history just before and immediately after the Revolutionary War has provided such patriotic names as Samuel Adams, as well as two Presidents: John Adams (cousin of Samuel Adams) and his son, John Quincy Adams.

But there were many other Adamses who were not so well-known, except in the frontier areas where they eventually made their homes. They came with large families and a willingness to work hard to provide for them, and to fight for their security if need be. These Adamses made significant contributions to the settlement and development of the American frontier when it was most needed. One of these men was William Smith Adams, whose great-grandfather closely followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. From his early home in Lincoln County, Kentucky, William Smith Adams followed the lure of available land for more than a thousand miles by ox-drawn wagon to San Saba County, Texas, by way of Missouri, braving the hardships and dangers of the wilderness all along the way.

From the Cumberland Gap to San Saba County, Texas

The Adams surname has contributed some very famous individuals to the history of the world. American history just before and immediately after the Revolutionary War has provided such patriotic names as Samuel Adams, as well as two Presidents: John Adams (cousin of Samuel Adams) and his son, John Quincy Adams.

But there were many other Adamses who were not so well-known, except in the frontier areas where they eventually made their homes. They came with large families and a willingness to work hard to provide for them, and to fight for their security if need be. These Adamses made significant contributions to the settlement and development of the American frontier when it was most needed. One of these men was William Smith Adams, whose great-grandfather closely followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. From his early home in Lincoln County, Kentucky, William Smith Adams followed the lure of available land for more than a thousand miles by ox-drawn wagon to San Saba County, Texas, by way of Missouri, braving the hardships and dangers of the wilderness all along the way.

The Life of a Central Texas Ranching Legend

One of my first experiences as a Boy Scout was to attend summer camp at Camp Billy Gibbons, located in San Saba County, Texas. The name of the man for whom the camp was named meant nothing to me at that time, other than that it was a really cool place. Camp Billy Gibbons was located in a very remote but beautiful area, situated along the junction of Brady Creek and the San Saba River. Little did I realize that 11 years later I would marry one of the great-granddaughters of Billy Gibbons, an Irish immigrant during the last Potato Famine. It was then that I began to learn about the man himself – a self-made man who was not only a hugely successful pioneer livestock rancher, but a banker, owner of real estate across the state, and more importantly, a generous man who was a benefactor of schools, churches, the Boy Scouts, and people in need throughout the area he now called home. He was truly a legend in his own time.

The Life of Job Wigley, Sr. and His Descendents

Having a unique and interesting surname such as “Wigley” was sometimes embarrassing to me when I was very young because it was so easy for people to make fun of the name. However, in later years, I found an unusual name to be quite convenient when I began to do genealogical research. Through immigration, the Wigley name has been propagated throughout the English speaking world. Today, over 4,000 Wigley families live in the United States, and almost 3,000 families remain in England. Other concentrations are located in Australia, Wales, Canada, and New Zealand. This book starts at the beginnings of the Wigley name in England, then focuses primarily on one of the Wigley families who immigrated to the New World as part of British colonization: specifically Job Wigley and his descendants, who came to Westmoreland County in the Northern Neck of Virginia, shortly before the Revolutionary War.

Whenever the name Boone is mentioned, the public immediately thinks of the name “Daniel Boone”, and associates it with exploration of unknown territory by an early American frontiersman. However, Daniel was not the only Boone who helped push the American frontier from sea to shining sea. There seemed to be a natural proclivity for exploration in the Boone family. They were typically among the first to move into new regions in search of land, adventure, and personal freedom. This book traces the life of one of those “other” Boones, Hezekiah Boone, son of George Boone IV, and the cousin of Daniel Boone. In only two generations, Hezekiah and his son Mordecai Boone moved their families from Pennsylvania, through multiple locations in Virginia, to Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and finally to Texas, where many of their descendents remain. Affiliated family lines of Wigley, Burt, McGee, Adams, Lane, Altizer, McGregor, Gibbons, Bustinza, and Cavazos are also included.

To an American public opinion, anchored in the belief that Islam is all Arab, “Understanding Islam - The Persian Imprint” demonstrates it to be off the mark.

The truth is that Iran (the Persia of old) fractured Islam’s identity twice: causing it to be non Arab, first; and provoking its schism later.

Further, the World identifies Islamic Men of Science, and their stellar achievements, as Arab whereas, in fact, they were all Persian and Turkomen.

A book whose time has come.

Before the White Man, the discovery and exploration by Hernando de Soto, landing at Port Charlotte, Florida in 1539, until after the Second Creek War of 1836.

The Principal Chiefs of the Confederacy, with their portraits, are covered. (The Upper Towns - War Towns, known as “Red Sticks” and the Lower Towns - Peace Towns, known as White Towns). Full descriptions of the Muscogee Peoples, the Creeks, with emphasis on their physical appearance, life, habits, ceremonies, dress, communities, customs and symbols. Their own political intrigues with ever-encroaching Spain, Britain, France and the New Colonists.

A Glossary on Muscogee Words and Spanish Words. Maps. The Battle at Horseshoe Bend with Andrew Jackson and his Tennessee Militia, Cherokee and Creek allies against Menawa and his “Red Stick” Creek warriors. The adventurer William A. Bowles, British Loyalist, who settled in among the Creeks in then Spanish north Florida and became their Director General; his capture of Fort Marks and wars in West Florida, taking scalps.

This is not “a book.” It is an adventure.

Eight men served as President of the United States between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln and all eight have been forgotten. William Henry Harrison and John Tyler are two of them. Harrison only served a month in office and Tyler died as a member of the Confederate Congress and this has ruined their historical reputations. But no presidency has been irrelevant in American History and Harrison and Tyler have a story to tell. This book brings their ignored presidencies to life.

No History is as convoluted as is Egypt’s.

A foreign religion, Islam, and a foreign language, Arabic, neither of which she wanted, fractured her identity. She claims to be Arab. Which she is not.

Governed by foreign rulers since Alexander, no native-born assumed power till Nasser in 1953.

The recipient of USA free wheat for a population of 65 million: forecast to reach the 100 level come 3001.

Michael John Fitzgerald - From Immigrant to Officer in the Indian Fighting Army

The story of Michael Fitzgerald is the story of a nine-year-old Irish boy who traveled across the Atlantic without his parents to live in the slums of Baltimore. At the age of seventeen, young Michael enlisted in the Army at Fort McHenry and began a military life that would take him to key areas of America’s growth. He was a young Army private in the Artillery sloshing through the Florida Everglades in the Third Seminole War. He and his family were held prisoners by the rebellious mob in Charleston, South Carolina after Major Anderson fled with the folks at Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. For his efforts as a field medic he became a hospital steward and helped care for the thousands of men wounded and killed at Antietam. For his actions in Frederick during this time he became a commissioned officer, serving on the West Coast and the Great Plains. During his career he married four wives, the first two in the frontier wilderness.

Michael Fitzgerald was a witness and participant in American History. This book follows Michael’s life and directs our attention to how and where his life intersected with the making of America.