"All the more desirable coastal land of the New World had been acquired by the 1840s and '50s. The Scots-Irish entered this country through the Mid-Atlantic States rather than New England. They settled first in Virginia and Maryland and then moved on to Kentucky and Virginia. Some went further south from there, while others moved west. Raiders and Horse Thieves is the story of my early childhood in Cedar Creek, Texas (Bastrop County), during the final days of World War II. Due to Reconstruction and the Great Depression, economic growth in this central Texas County had been severely restricted. The residents maintained the pioneer values and lived the lifestyle of a much earlier period. This is a true story of the human will to persevere, against Nature and against one another. I describe growing up in a ramshackle old house called The Holcomb Place, in Cedar Creek, Bastrop County. All the elements of life in rural Texas are there: drought; storms; rattlesnakes; religion; guns. . . ."—Jackie Ellis Stewart
From the book:
"It was Judy who found the family plot hidden among a clump of young mesquites. The larger headstone was broken; lying face down and embedded in the earth. A number of smaller markers had once surrounded it, but time and the weather, as well as grazing animals and invasive vegetation, had worn them down to indecipherable sandstone lumps. The men were able to pull the larger marker free; they used Joe's handkerchief to clean off the inscription. Sure enough: Absalom Ellis."