Those Southern Lamars

A collection of factual stories about several illustrious members of the Lamar family including two justices of the United States Supreme Court, a President of Texas, a steamboat pioneer who went on to become a wealthy New York banker and later a Civil War blockade-runner and his firebrand, slave blockade running son.

Growing up in the North, the author was fascinated by the stories told by his mother of her big old southern family, stories that she had heard from her relatives as a young girl in the early 1900s. Many of these stories pre-dated the Civil War and painted a picture far different than life in the 20th century. This fascination led him to seek out some of the places and stories of his ancestors. In so doing he discovered that among the family members were two justices of the United States Supreme Court, a President of Texas, a steamboat pioneer who ran the Union blockade and his firebrand, blockade-running son who was one of the last to die in the Civil war.