Excerpt from Lots of Land

I've thought about this book a long time. The subject is one naturally very dear to me, for I have spent all of my adult life in the study of land history, in the interpretation of land laws, and in the direction of the states land business.

It has been a happy and interesting existence. Seldom a day has passed in these thirty years in which I have not experienced a new thrill as the files of the General Land Office revealed still another appealing incident out of the history of the Texas Public Domain.

It has long been an honest conviction of mine that at least some of those thrills should be passed on to the present generation of Texans. I have regarded my effort in the preparation of this volume as not only a gratifying hobby but a personal duty.

This book is the result. At first it was my idea to prepare a history of the General Land Office itself, but, as the material began to take shape, it seemed to me that the story was too big for such confinement. I have compiled pamphlets depicting the history of the public domains disposition, but I wanted in this book more than recital of land facts. I wanted the color of the people woven in, some of their laughter and tears, and a framework which would make it a continuous story rather than piecemeal history.

I wanted the story of the land as well as the history of the land. It is here, all of it. I consider it well done. I am proud of my part in it.

It comes at a timely moment when all Texans should be reminded of the immense land heritage which was and is theirs by the simple act of becoming Texas citizens.

This is the full story of how you got it, what was done with it, and what is left of it. It is the story of a people who won "lots of land" with their very blood, who struggled with it and among themselves for it, and who own it by a higher law than any government can enact.

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