Too Good to Be True: James Collinsworth and the Birth of Texas

What can a 14 year old boy do when his father dies and leaves seven children and a widow in her late fifties? He already knows about struggle and death. He knows that his maternal grandparents had been killed when Indians attacked their log cabin a few years before he was born. In that attack his mother had been kidnapped, carried hundreds of miles away and held captive by Creek Indians for over 3 years. His father had told him about being a soldier under George Washington during the cold winter at Valley Forge and also at Monmouth Court House. For most of the last 3 years his father had been away, a volunteer soldier with Andrew Jackson, fighting against Creek Indians and later in New Orleans, fighting against the British again. As the oldest male in the family, he knows his future could be bleak. Can he overcome? Can he be a leader in defeating a dictator and founding a republic? Can he be a friend of presidents? Can he be a Senator and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of his country? Can he dream big dreams? This is the true story of James Collinsworth--his highest highs and lowest lows, his friends and adversaries, his successes and failures. Everything is big in Texas--James helped make it that way. But sometimes, dreams can be Too Good To Be True.