Midkiff: A Texas Family, Town and Way of Life

From award-winning Western writer Elmer Kelton: "The story of the pioneering Midkiff family could, with individual variations, be the story of any number of Texas ranch and farm families. It is an account of sacrifice, hard work, and determination shared by so many who moved into sparsely-settled areas of rural Texas to make a home against challenging odds. They had to endure many obstacles: long distances from town, poor or non-existent roads, recurring droughts, undependable markets for what they produced and a perennial shortage of money. The days were long, the work physically demanding, the rewards all too often elusive. Though this is primarily one family's story, it could almost be a day-to-day account of any rural pioneer family of Texas in the 19th and 20th centuries."From Mike Cox, author of Texas Ranger Tales: "T.O. "Oscar" Midkiff stepped off the Texas and Pacific in Midland with three things: his saddle, $2.50 in cash, and a determination to become 'a real cowboy.' "Mary Lou Midkiff has traced her husband John's family from their roots in Tennessee and Georgia to Texas in a book that reads more like fiction than the carefully researched and documented history that it is."Midkiff, Mary Lou is the author of 'Midkiff: A Texas Family, Town and Way of Life', published 2005 under ISBN 9780976395508 and ISBN 0976395509.