History Research is Like a River

After all these years I remain surprised by how overlooked the Trinity has been. Why has no one written a book on the history of the most important river in Texas in human terms, since more people drink from its waters than any other? I am not the only one to note this; just today, I discovered an article on the Trinity that reads, "There are no solid basin-wide scientific studies about the Trinity River, no social-cultural analyses. No books." I explain the reasons behind this in my forthcoming book, but this is no conspiracy. It has been nearly ten years since I first began sharing my research on the Trinity, originally on wsmcfarlane.com. Almost immediately, stories came flooding in from readers who had been waiting to learn more and share their own history of the river that flowed through their family stories.

Readers wrote me emails or commented on my posts, in some cases correcting what they believed to be errors, such as the number of people who had drowned in the Trinity. This correspondence has been a welcome contrast to the often solitary work of research and writing. The surprises, whether from discoveries or someone else's perspective, are what make history an exciting career.

One example of the comments and questions that have helped shape my research on the Trinity River.

The information I have shared has in turn, flowed through news stories and educational websites like a river. Even before my book is published, I have seen this, though in some cases, there are unanswered questions. One example is this image I posted from the Houston County Historical Commission that has since been reproduced elsewhere online:

This Trinity River baptism image from the Houston Historical Commission raises more questions than it answers.

I found this image in the archives of the Houston County Historical Commission. It included the title "River Baptizing at Westmoreland Bluff," but no other information was provided. I have not spoken with anyone who could tell me where Westmoreland Bluff was located. It is only mentioned in a handful of sources talking about the region's geology and steamboat stops. Based on this information, and the fact that it was a bluff, hence topographically higher, I have located the approximate location of the Bluff on my map of hidden history on the Trinity here. But this only answers the question of where. It is unclear exactly when it was taken--likely around 1900, since other sources in the collection I found were from that time period. Nor does it answer which congregation this was or who any of the people are in the picture. We can assume that to be baptized in the Trinity, the Most Holy Trinity as the Spanish named it, was a turning point in their lives.

By posting this image once more, we, rather than I, can answer more of these questions.