Books by Mary Foster Hutchinson

Holy Heritage traces the journey of the Anglican faith from its first flowering on the ancient island of Brittania through its emigration in the sixteenth century to the New World and transplantation to a wild, neglected area of a strange land called Texas. There, in 1856, after a long, historic struggle for survival, this faith was firmly planted as the Parish Church of Saint Matthew in a tiny village called Dallas. The reader is invited to accompany that first parish through the struggles of the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, following its transformation into a cathedral church. Each tenure of its nineteen fascinating deans is detailed along with the parallel growth of the city each served, never forgetting the frontiersmen whose struggles made it all possible. Here, the reader will also learn why an Irishman called Alexander Charles Garrett is called the Apostle of Texas as well as which of the pioneer Dallas clerics was the first man to climb Mount McKinley, wrote a book in Japanese, was born in Scotland, and was killed in action during the Civil War and what happens next.

Eleazar Louis Ripley Wheelock had fortunate beginnings as the grandson of the founder of Dartmouth College. But he would not take the easy route in life. His personal odyssey would lead him through poverty in pioneer Ohio, climactic battles in the War of 1812, law studies in Kentucky, peril on the Arkansas frontier, and finally, in 1824, an arduous journey to a new land that would define the man: Texas. There he became a settler with Robertson's Colony and subsequently led a life of adventure as a captain of the Texas Rangers, silver miner, founder of a fort and town, Indian agent, surveyor, rancher, land agent, lawyer, and political hopeful.Texian Odyssey is a valuable addition to the record of largely forgotten settlers who came to Texas by the thousands and created a great state out of nothing but courage and sweat.