“The Rebels: Sons of Texas” by Elmer Kelton

“The Rebels” by Elmer Kelton
1990, A Forge Book
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1526-7

I’ve become a huge fan of Elmer Kelton. Step back into the 1830’s and he will tell you a story of the Lewis family as they meet up in Texas. Years earlier Michael and Andrew left Tennessee for Texas. Times were hard. Stephen Austin had brokered a deal with Mexico for American settlers to come to Texas to live.

It had been 15 years since the brothers had built up their farms and in “The Rebels: Sons of Texas” more family from Tennessee were traveling west to join them. Frank, their cousin, his wife Hope and their children brought a wagon and in the other wagon Andrew and Michael’s brother James and their sister Annie.

Their lives were difficult. Times were fraught with tension as Mexico became concerned with the number of American settlers in Texas. Living in a foreign country with hardly any rights gnawed at the settlers and eventually it became war. This is where they cried, “Remember the Alamo”.

Elmer Kelton showed me the history of the state of Texas in a way I just hadn’t seen it before. He brings the life and times into such a clear focus that you can’t help but gain a better understanding of what people were like in those days.

This is the third in the trilogy of The Sons of Texas. Click on the titles of the first book, "The Sons of Texas" and the second book, "The Raiders: Sons of Texas" to see the reviews I wrote for those books. It would be so cool if Elmer would write more about the Lewis family. I feel I've come to know them.

“The Raiders: Sons of Texas” by Elmer Kelton

“The Raiders” by Elmer Kelton
1989, A Forge Book
ISBN: 0-765-31525-4

I am a huge fan of Western stories by Elmber Kelton. “The Raiders” is the second in a trilogy called, “Sons of Texas”. I’ve got the 3rd book, “The Rebels” sitting at my side, ready to go and past due at the library. I am considering just letting the fines accumulate so I can finish it up.

Andrew and Michael Lewis came from Tennessee to Texas. “The Raiders” takes place 10 years after they arrived in Texas. Michael has married Marie, but he’s got his father’s wanderlust in his veins. There are times as he gazes off to the west and the urge to travel is upon him. Andrew is concerned for Marie and Mordecai, their son, when his brother leaves, especially now that Marie is pregnant again. Michael does not appreciate Andrew’s concern and is forever telling him to mind his own business.

What Marie and Michael figure is that Andrew needs his own wife. But going out to find a wife in the early days of Americans in Texas is hard.

There are many adventures. Dangerous situations that come to show the truer natures of the people involved in these stories.

Elmer Kelton’s stories have a different sort of rhythm than a romance or a mystery. These stories are not rushed. There’s a really natural flow. This stuff really happened to people, our ancestors from all parts of the world, as they settled the land of Texas.

“Many a River” by Elmer Kelton

“Many a River” by Elmer Kelton
2008, A Forge Book
ISBN: 978-0-7753-2050-6

What happens when 2 young brothers find their family torn apart viciously during an Indian attack? After their mother and father were murdered Jeffrey, the older brother hides and Todd, the younger brother is kidnapped by the Indians.

In “Many a River” by Elmer Kelton, the story follows the lives of these two boys as they cope, as they adjust, as they cling to survival in the aftermath of the destruction of their family. Neither knows the other is alive.

Years pass and the Civil War explodes upon the country. One brother is with Union sympathizers and the other with people of the Confederacy. Follow this incredible story of life during the 1800’s in Texas and New Mexico.

“The Day the Cowboys Quit” by Elmer Kelton

“The Day the Cowboys Quit” by Elmer Kelton
1992, Bantam
ISBN: 0-553-29669-8

I was surprised to even think of a cowboy going on strike, but that’s exactly what these cowboys did. Texas, time enough for men who fought in the Civil War to be middle-aged. It was a time of transition from when cowboys worked small herds to when the bankers from the East came flooding West to form huge ranches.

The hero in our story is Hugh Hitchcock. He has a wise head on his shoulders, but even so through loyalties to other cowboys is pulled in many directions, towards the individual cowboys who want to strike for better wages and better respect to the man, Charlie Waide, who ran the W’s ranch. Charlie’s arm was twisted by the bankers. He was forced to side with the big ranchers and Hugh ended up on the other side with the cowboys.

Hard fought battles, but in the end it was loyalties that won out, it was respect for the individual and it had a really good ending.

I’ve enjoyed all the Westerns I’ve read by Elmer Kelton and will keep my eyes peeled for more. I sure would like to read more with Hugh Hitchock in them.

“Sons of Texas” by Elmer Kelton

“Sons of Texas” by Elmer Kelton
1989, A Forge Book
ISBN: 0-765-31021-X

"Sons of Texas” by Elmer Kelton is a good western yarn. What gets better is that it is the first of 3 books Elmer has written about the Lewis family.

In this first book we’re introduced to the head of the family, Mordecai who is a wanderer. His family, wife and children, live in Tennessee. He makes forays out to find a better place to live. Along the way in this dangerous frontier country he comes upon situations he doesn’t talk about at home. He knows it is dangerous, but the wanderlust in his veins beats hot and uppermost in his mind is to find the best place of all to live.

His sons are growing up. Joseph is content to work the farm, but the next sons, Michael and Andrew are getting the itchy feet their father has, Michael more so than his brother Andrew. Both boys are skilled woodsmen. Michael can shoot with unerring skill and Andrew, a year younger than Michael, is the best tracker around.

Mordecai comes home from Texas and announces he’s going to make another trip. This time to gather up the wild horses that run free. Bringing them back to Tennessee will bring the family a lot of money. He needs men and horses to come with him and finds a group willing to brave the frontier.

Michael is not permitted to join his father in this adventure, but slips away after the group is gone to join them some days later on the trail.

What follows is a terrific adventure. There is danger. The choices the people make in this story are probably similar to the ones you and I would make if we were in the same position. And, the danger doesn’t always come from where you expect it to come from.

I’ve been a fan of Elmer Kelton’s work for some time and am looking forward to reading the other 2 books in this series.

“Jericho’s Road” by Elmer Kelton

“Jericho’s Road” by Elmer Kelton
2004, A Tom Doherty Associates Book
ISBN: 0-765-30955-6

“Jericho's Road” by Elmer Kelton is a continuation in the saga of Andy Pickard, who grew up as a Comanche. They kidnapped him when he was a toddler after his mother was killed. When he was about ten years old he was rescued and had to learn to live in western society. He brings to these stories the wisdom of two races. In this story he and Farley Brackett are both Texas Rangers who get assigned to patrol some really rough country; right on the border between Texas and Mexico.

Andy and Farley generally get on each other’s nerves, but they link together in this story to help the folks living along the borders. There are cattle barons on both sides of the Rio Grande and they are mostly all very tough customers. It doesn’t help that the people who are in charge of the Rangers are crooked as all get out.

A large part of the country in Texas is controlled by Jericho and people live uneasy lives. Into this already tense situation enters a blood feud between Jericho in Texas and Lupe Chavez in Mexico.

Before the war the Chavez family had extensive holdings in Texas, but they retreated across the river to Mexico and the holding in Texas was acquired by a Texan, Big Jim McCawley who married Lupe’s sister Juana. Once upon a time Lupe and Jericho had been friends, but times had changed.

Now, the feud and Andy and Farley are in the thick of it. One son dies and revenge is all that is on their minds. Both Andy and Farley show what they are made of when they come to the rescue of the people they’ve sworn to protect.

This is the third book I’ve read in this series. It doesn’t matter that I’m reading them out of sequence at all. I’m enjoying each and every one of them and it’s getting to where I know I’m going to be reading a really good western when I crack open a book by Elmer Kelton.

“The Way of the Coyote” by Elmer Kelton

“The Way of the Coyote” by Elmer Kelton
2001, A Forge Book
ISBN: 0-312-87318-2

I’m reading them out of sequence, but this is still terrific. “The Way of the Coyote” is more in the story of Andy Pickard and Rusty Shannon. Andy, once known as Badger Boy when he lived with the Comanche Indians, is growing up. Now, he’s living with Rusty, who rescued him. They are in Texas during the reconstruction after the Civil War in the late 1800’s.

While Andy lived with the Comanche it was considered a good trait to be tricky the way a coyote is tricky. Andy had to bring that way of thinking with him to help out in this story.

A little boy is kidnapped by the Comanche and Andy takes up the quest of rescuing the boy. There’s also trouble for everybody during this time of carpetbaggers who are bedeviling Texans. A pair of low-down brothers take a dislike to Rusty and whichever way he turns there seems to be trouble.

I love the way the story flows; the way Elmer Kelton writes. I’m glad he’s written a number of books because I will be on the lookout for more of them. I’m recommending “The Way of the Coyote” as a terrific read. It is a really good Western.

“Hard Trail to Follow” by Elmer Kelton

“Hard Trail to Follow” by Elmer Kelton
2007, A Forge Book
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1522-9

I have a particular fondness for Westerns, though it’s been awhile since I read one. “Hard Trail to Follow” by Elmer Kelton was the absolutely perfect Western. I had never read anything by Mr. Kelton before and this was just one of those books where I let Spirit guide me in the library. I'm really glad I did too. This is an absolutely terrific book. I’m looking forward to reading others by Elmer Kelton. He's written a bunch of them.

Andy Pickard was a Texas Ranger in earlier days. Not now, though. His life was steering towards marriage, rough scrabble farming and a brother-in-law he absolutely could not stand. He was trying real hard to get along with Farley because he did love Bethel, but she was of a mind to stay near by her mother who was on her death bed. Who wasn’t budging from the farm was Farley, Bethel’s brother and Andy’s future brother-in-law. Those two went way back and Farley and Andy had even been Texas Rangers together in the past. But, they grated on each other’s nerves then and they grated on each other’s nerves now.

What changed everything was a bad guy who wasn’t really a bad guy and this is where the story took off. Luther Cordell had hooked up with a crew of two others; one bad through and through, the other just a young guy gone off on the wrong foot. Luther ends up in jail with the loot from a bank robbery and Milt, the really bad guy comes for him. The young one, Buster, ends up getting shot.

This is a really nice story of the searching for a bad guy who the Texas Ranger, Andy, realizes as things wind along isn’t a bad guy anymore.

You will like this novel. And, it is a love story too. It’s not mushy. You wouldn’t expect that from a Western. It’s just right.