Mystic Sails, Texas Trails: Captain Grimes, Shanghai Pierce, Range Wars, and Raising Texas

This four-generation saga, written with Mickey Herskowitz, begins with Richard Grimes, who became a sea captain at the astonishing age of 21, and made the first of his fortunes carrying passengers from Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, to the West Indies. In 1821, he heard of the land grants being developed in the territory west of New Orleans and the port of Matagorda. It was the final year of Spanish rule, and the Captain began to sail and trade in the waters of what was now known as Mexican Texas, in the heart of the colony granted to Moses Austin. By 1836, he was sailing 2,400 miles to bring settlers, troops, gunpowder, whiskey and provisions to aid Texas in its struggle to free itself from Mexico.

After the war, as the new republic was coming to life, the Captain pursued maritime trading along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. When his son William Bradford Grimes joined him after years of schooling in the north, he made he gradual transition from life at sea to land and cattle baron. After the Civil War, Bradford established the legendary WBG ranch and led the first trail drives from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail.

Bradford eventually passed on the WBG Ranch to his children to move to Kansas City, where he became hugely successful in banking and the mercantile business.

Author: Robert Davant, Mickey Herskowitz
Publisher: Texas Review Press
Published: 10/10/2017
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.62d
ISBN: 9781680031478

About the Author
ROBERT DAVANT, who resides in Brenham, Texas, is a descendant of Captain Richard Grimes, who owned and commanded sailing ships trading principally in the West Indies, Europe, and the Caribbean, later transporting gunpowder and other support to the men fighting for Texas Independence. An attorney, oilman, and rancher, he has founded and chaired two oil companies and currently heads a Texas corporation with landholdings in Galveston and Brazoria Counties.

MICKEY HERSKOWITZ, of Houston, is the author or co-author of 65 books, including best sellers with Bette Davis, Mickey Mantle, Dan Rather, and others. He is a Hall of Fame sports columnist and one of two Texans to ever win the National Headliners Award for excellence in sports writing. For six years he held the Warner Chair of Journalism at Sam Houston State University.