source: Book Two - page 02.jpg
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION:-

These few paragraphs of introduction may help you read BOOK 2 which covers a
wider range than did BOOK 1 (Pioneer Days).

BOOK 1 had 54 pages; 14 chapters. BOOK 2 has 70 pages; 18 chapters. BOOK 1 con-
sisted largely of first generation family history. BOOK 2 throws more light on
the second generation. Sidney promises a BOOK 3 and that may begin to do justice
to the third generation. We suggest that Sidney get the help of Louis Shinn
who has a chapter in this book (Chapter 16 - The Last 25 Years on the Doumecq
Plains. Louis has the gift of seeing, recalling and telling. One sentence in
his chapter gives a great tribute to the Doumecqers--so far as he knows no one
on the Doumecq Plains went on relief during the depression. That in a nutshell
shows the sturdy character of the residents of the Doumecq Plains.

We promised in BOOK 1 that in BOOK 2 we would give the story of the trip of
John E. Cochran and wife to Tennessee, Cuba and the Panama Canal. You will see
by the Table of Contents that the first four chapters have been given to those
trips. Those chapters are worth reading and re-reading. Mr. Cochran has eyes
to see and a pen to tell. We think the people in Tennessee will read with
great pleasure the comments he makes on conditions today.

Some who get this book will consider the group picture the best thing in the
book. It took a lot of preliminary photographing to reduce some pictures, enlarge
others and bring out the tin types. We wish that instead of 44 faces we could
have given 88. Do not blame Ethel Cochran-Shinn for the selection. She furnished
enough pictures but we had to take only part of them. We think there are great
possibilities in reproducing old pictures. We wish we had a Pickard group. Some
Pickard descendant may wish to make a collection.

We are much impressed with the future possibilities of getting a complete geneol-[sic]
ogy of the Pickard family. Mr. Cochran has a fine chapter on the Pickards but
to date we have not had the pleasure of finding all of the family dates. We had
intended to give more family data in this book but it takes time to get the
correct dates. Often times it requires trips to cemeteries to get dates on the
tombstones. Winter is no time to collect dates on tombstones.

-2-