I should like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could borrow another life to spend at home. — Hazlitt
Home was quite a place when people stayed there. — White
William Hazlitt and E. B. White are two men of our past whose quips, quotes, witty remarks, wisecracks and proverbs are often quoted today and I believe will be for many years to come.
These quotes deal with travel and/or our homes. In this column I want to focus on travel; travel that is near and far. My daughter, who lives not to far from us back home, tells me Im in a little trouble with the local Chamber of Commerce there. In recent columns for a couple of back east papers I focused on favorable places to travel in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. In the Chambers view I am only supposed to talk about places to travel in the good old home state.
In both columns I said it is important for one to travel within ones home state and know as much as one can about home before venturing beyond the borders. Now I would like to focus on you local Texans and traveling to somewhere quite near which I think is well worth the 25-mile or so day-trip.
My focus is on The Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center located on FM 1011, off of SH 146 three miles north of Liberty.
This facility is a library, and I understand a goodlibrary. It is also a research center and when we were there a few people were hard and work using the books and other items for their research. It is, however, for the average Texan and out-of-state visitor, much more than that.
The site includes the Cleveland-Partlow House, the Gillard-Duncan House, the Norman House, and the 1898 St. Stephens Episcopal Church that was moved there from downtown Liberty.
It also includes the Jean and Price Daniel House, built in 1984 and patterned after the original 1856 plans for the Texas Governors Mansion.
It houses many mementos of the public life of Governor and Mrs. Price Daniel.
Of course the main building is the modern library and research center building in the middle of the complex. It is an attractive two-story building. There are rooms on the second floor containing mementos about General Sam Houston, Governor Daniel and Congressman Martin Dies.
There one finds the private executive record of Sam Houston and the Jean Houston Baldwin Collection of Sam Houston images which is the largest known collection of photographs and other illustrations of General Houston.
It is only a few miles away and well-worth the time expended to see this part of Texas history and learn some facts about the history of the ten counties in this area of the state.
It is open Monday thru Saturday and admission is free. Traveling near, as well as far, can be educational and fun.
Such are the people, places and things that have touched my life in my West Virginia home!
