Forest McNeir of Texas

Forest McNeir (1875-1957) grew up at Smith Point on Galveston Bay in Chambers County, Texas. He actually drew the map we used for the book’s cover, showing that world he grew up in.

Forest McNeir was still boy when his father died. It fell to him to help take care of his his mother, grandmother, and little brother. Something he mostly did with his shotgun, hunting and selling the fowl they killed. Once they were both equipped, Forest and his brother Paschal were acknowledged far and wide as the equal of grown men when it came to putting dinner on the table. It wasn’t just hunting. The McNeir boys took every opportunity to earn a buck and Forest tells us all about their business ventures in these pages.

Forest went on to become a builder in Houston. Some of the houses he built are still standing in Houston’s fine old neighborhoods. But he never gave up shooting. He won gold in trap shooting at the 1920 Olympics. He tells you all about that. (He was inducted into the Trap Shooting Hall of Fame posthumously.)