When I was eight years old, my dignified and mysterious great-grandfather gave me a pair of tiny leather moccasins, with a crabbed handwritten note claiming he’d received them from an Indian chief.
For years, they hung neglected in a closet, gathering dust. But one day, I decided to find out the story behind them. Within weeks, I had uncovered bleak and ugly chapters of the family history, leavened with flashes of resilience and strength. More remarkably, I learned that my ancestors had crossed paths with men who led the kind of extraordinary lives the world may never see again.
One man went from being an apex predator of the Great Plains—a brutal and highly evolved warrior capable of astounding acts of violence—to a Gilded Age statesman who addressed Congress and hosted the sitting President for dinner. Another lived the classic American dream, landing at Ellis Island in pursuit of his destiny then grasping it on the Texan frontier. Within two generations, his offspring would run one of the world’s largest capitalist empires, driven partly by the vigorous libertarian principles he espoused.
My great-grandfather’s family knew both of these men well. More importantly, they knew and loved the small town that these men helped forge, and where their destinies collided. I traveled there to understand how such a tiny dot on the map could unite such operatic, Biblical destinies. What I found there by turns charmed, disgusted, moved and frightened me.
This is the story of these men and the town of Quanah, Texas. It’s also the story of America’s “growing up”—and the violence and abandonment that a turbulent adolescence inflicts on those who experience it.
About the Author
A native Texan, Taylor Chapman has spent his entire life fascinated by stories and storytelling. After studying English and photography at Yale, he spent four years as a schoolteacher before enrolling at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he became fascinated with America's ever-evolving image of itself. He first visited Quanah in 2011, then moved there in 2013.