John A. Rutherford came with his family to the Direct area from Tennessee in 1835, a few months before the Texas Revolution. When Lamar County was formed in 1842, he was elected its Chief Justice by the Republic of Texas Congress. He was a surveyor, a farmer, and the first schoolteacher in Honey Grove. Taking his land grant along Red River and east of Petty, he became a wealthy man for his time. Though he opposed secession, he lost two sons in the Civil War. After the conflict, he began writing a daily diary which he kept until his death. It paints a marvelous picture of farm life in post-war...