Dr. Al Peters, a professor at Texas Wesleyan University , addressed the River Oaks Area Historical Society (ROARS) on March 2.  Dr. Peters received a BSE from Ohio State and an MSE from Kent State , both in Ohio , and a Ph.D. from UNT in Denton . He resides with his wife in the Eagle Mountain Lake area. He has been a member of the TWU faculty for 42 years, coming to Texas at the age of 23.

Members enjoyed his ‘show and tell” presentation featuring various forms of special and rare books purchased from used book stores, garage sales, antique shops and other various unusual book sources.  He looks for documents, maps and of course unusual or scarce books of a historical nature.  He has an inquisitive mind and likes to pursue various trains of thought for information and historical data in his research.  He advised that the two most read books ever published are the Bible and John Bunyan’s “Pilgrims Progress.”

The first item he showed the group was to exhibit a Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company certificate from 1830 reflecting the transfer of 177.5 acres, signed by three New York officers.  This was timely because Texas was celebrating Texas Independence Day for its 173rd year on the date of his address.

Dr. Peters also showed members a book bound in Hereford Cowhide, unusual because it had the brand on the cover, which increased its value. He remarked that River Oaks is known for its area of streets off Yale which are named for many colleges and famous east coast universities and asked if anyone knew why they were named in this manner He gave copies of “The Sailor’s Destiny” by Earl Vernon Ray as prizes to members who could answer his various questions concerning some of these famous college names. Member Wayne Butler commented that this sets himself off on a new tangent to discover how River Oaks came to name all those streets after famous institutions of learning.

Dr. Peters also presented the book “Reminiscences of the Early Days of Fort Worth” by Captain J. C. Terrell, an early pioneer of Fort Worth, to the Historical Society for display in the River Oaks Library’s historical exhibits.He advised that the best source of historical information on Fort Worth and Tarrant County that he has found is at the University of Texas at Arlington . He said that the best single source he knows of is “The History of Texas” by T. E. Arenbach based on frontier facts from 1846.  He told us that there were many other forts in this area, such as Fort Belknap, Fort Richardson , and Fort Graham etc. He also mentioned that a number of books are works of art and that quality paper is made of rag.  Rare books are seldom found in book stores. Some are printed through Vanity Press or Pride Books, usually in small quantities under 500 copies and often printed by universities.

This was a very informative presentation and was greatly enjoyed by all attending. After a few questions, President Mean Bittle thanked Dr. Peters for a most interesting program and presented him with a beautiful potted plant.