Rambles and Scrambles in Texas - Personalized Limited Edition

Texas! Texas! It stirs the heart like the sound of a trumpet!" Discovering things nobody knew before is one of the pleasures of bringing rare works of Texas history back to life. This book is in numerous Texas history bibliographies, but none of them provide any information about the author. State librarian C. W. Raines provided only this enigmatic notation: "Texas, descriptive and historical. By a facile pen." We had some digging to do and dig we did, so we could dish on the author, Dr. Frederick Page, the mystery travel author who visited the Republic of Texas. A few quick facts: The author, Dr. Frederick Page, was a Harvard trained physician living in Louisiana. His book was published in 1845 and details a journey he took through Texas in 1838.  Rambles & Scrambles in Texas, on the surface, falls into the "travel book" category. And Page's "facile pen" makes it shine as a road trip narrative. In the early years of Texas independence, few people traveled here for pleasure. Not that there wasn't interest. In fact, people in the United States couldn't get enough information about the Lone Star Republic. But the fact was, Texas was far away and filled with too many dangers for people to make the trek without good reason. So if a man of means decided to see what Texas held, you can be sure his ultimate purpose was to become a man of even greater means. That's what brought Dr. Frederick Page to Texas in 1838. He had certain business ventures in mind. One of them was coal mining. In late 1839, Dr. Page and his business associates established the Trinity Coal and Mining Company. Its charter was signed by President Lamar in early 1840. Their aim was to mine coal along the Trinity River in what was then Montgomery County, now Walker and San Jacinto Counties. It is our privilege to bring Rambles & Scrambles in Texas back to life for today's Texans. This limited edition is just 254 copies, one for each county in Texas, and the jacket is personalized with your name or that of your recipient.    Physical Details Rambles and Scrambles in Texas  Limited Edition of 254 copies Each one is hand numbered 142 pages Jacket personalized with your name (or any name you choose) Personalization The jacket will be personalized with your name (or any name you choose)