Across the River

People wander into our lives indiscriminately. We meet them and then they pass out of our sphere of association and become bookmarks for our experiences. The truly important people in our lives are remembered and presented in stories that we pass along to younger generations long after the subject person is gone. The mind is a wonderful thing. Given a handful of facts and our imaginations, we can reintroduce ourselves to people from our past. I introduce Alexander Boutwell to you in these pages. In my imagination he lives again. Alexander lived a life exemplifying the Wild West during the later part of the 19th century. His life parallels the history of Texas as well as the conflict of living through the Civil War. He was bigger than life. It appears that he lived through enough experiences which, when spread among many men, would have represented numerous full and colorful lives. I don't know if I would have liked Alexander. I don't know if he was a good or bad man. I only know that in my mind's eye he is a hero of the west, more particularly Texas. In the midst of this early frontier development, the United States struggled through the internal conflict of the Civil War. Into this world Alexander Boutwell also lived and made his mark on the Town of Gainesville, Texas and Burneyville, Indian Territory. As he did, he became a footnote in history. This is his story.