My absence from posting weekly blogs these past few months is not without cause. A few of you know I have finished my book, Blood of the Innocent, which is a fictional story that takes place here in Southeast Texas in 1875. I hope to release it in May this year. It is partially historic fiction. I say partially because, due to the nature of the story, I did not want to include actual people from early Beaumont history.

I have also been doing research about the historian, journalist, and author, Florence Stratton (1881–1938). Her contribution to this area is second to none, and I believe she deserves to be honored with a historical marker depicting her achievements. I have therefore started the process. It has been difficult to find accurate information about her in the months since I started this journey (I truly believe Florence likes her secrets), but as of this posting, I believe I have an accurate timeline of her life.

Accuracy resonates with me because I started this blog to share our rich history as precisely as possible, but that is hard to do on a weekly basis. Research needs to done on each subject, but even in-depth research can be wrong when a historic source is incorrect. Understandably, people make mistakes, but I want to provide as accurate an account as I can in my postings.

As my research is ongoing, I constantly discover more and more history from this area that few, including myself, have never heard of. This is what I feel is a priority to include on this blog. I do not call myself a historian. That is a label for people like Bill Quick (whose papers I have been honored to go through these past two Saturdays at the Sam Houston Regional Library), W. T. Block, Judith Linsley, and others who have documented our past.

As this blog goes forward, I want to promote more places, such as houses, museums, etc., by offering access for people to visit and learn about our past. I do have a few people whose history I want to delve into in the future. I will do this as accurately as possible.

I will say this however: my time spent in these places has been nothing less than awesome, and I am enjoying the ride.

Paul