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xiii PREFACE This book is written primarily for the layman, so I have given few scientific names of plants or animals; also, I have not given references. While I have done voluminous research in order to be factual as to people, places, and events, much of what I have written has come from my own experience, what I have read, and people with whom I have spoken over a period of many years. This book is a series of essays about a river and its environment, and the kind of people such environs produce, which includes myself. I have expressed my personal opinions, often strongly, on many subjects, for I have put down the memories and thoughts that were evoked by what I saw and did while on the river. It is expected that some readers will differ and, regrettably, be offended , for we all have different backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences. A work designed to offend no one and to please everyone must inevitably be insipid and generic and in no way reveal the heart and soul of the writer, nor do service to historical accuracy. Anyway, there is enough diversity of topics that if the reader comes upon one which does not suit his fancy, he can just skip it and go on to another. Since I have no time nor taste for all that goes with fame, nor desire the lifestyle money provides, it is difficult to justify the years, expense, and labor involved in compiling this book. Reading the reasons the great biographer/ historian, Plutarch, gave for his monumental work on the lives of the great Greeks and Romans, I concluded that perhaps my motives were the same: “It was for the sake of others that I first commenced writing, but I find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it for my own. The virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of looking glass in which I may see how to adjust and adorn my own life; to study their stature and their qualities and select from their actions all that is noblest and worthiest to know. My method is by the study of their history to habituate my memory to receive and retain images of the best and worthiest characters.” Yet, this conscientious historian presented his subjects realistically with all their faults and foolishness as well as their virtues so that we might view them as fellow human beings, emulate their virtues and avoid their foibles. The Neches River and the people and events associated with it are worthy of remembrance, and I hope that I have presented them in a way that will do them honor and justice. ...

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