Here’s what students, teachers and librarians at one school in Austin had to say about Kate James: Portrait of a Texas Pioneer:
4th Grade teacher: We are just about to begin our Texas History studies. Thank you for giving our students such a great reference point for the Pioneer years!
4th Grade student (boy): Miss? That was just WONDERFUL.
4th Grade student (girl): Were you really there? You made it seem so real.
Librarian: Your show is such a special look at an important time in our state's history.
Excerpts from Kate James: Portrait of a Texas Pioneer:
"In November 1855, my father, R. D. Jones, arrived in Dallas County, Texas from Tennessee, having left there in September driving through in a covered wagon drawn by two horses. With him came his wife Martha Eliza (King) Jones and nine children, four boys and five girls. Two sons were born after they came. Although I was not quite four years old at that time I remember our old home and many things that happened on that long journey."
"Our first impressions of Texas were the vastness of the prairies and the long range of vision. It seemed we could see where the sky and earth met. It was so different from the home we had left which was surrounded by hills and towering pines. Another thing was the great quantity of winter grapes and blackhaws that grew along a stream which I suppose was Spring Creek. What a feast it was to us children!" ~Mrs. Kate James