SouthWind Inn, Port Isabel, TX

A Pool of Thoughts: A Legacy Etched in American Soil

https://archive.org/details/for-publication-wd-4823

James Mapes Pool was born in Chandler, Minnesota, as the firstborn child of Dan and Vera Pool. He carries an unyielding pride in his heritage, a thread woven deeply into the fabric of his life and work. In the pages of A Pool of Thoughts, readers encounter his meticulously crafted chronicle of family history—corroborated by historians and kin alike.

Here, lives unfold alongside the people, places, and pivotal moments that shaped a young nation: the United States of America. These stories are not mere footnotes; they pulse at the heart of the American experience.Consider the Pool family farm, nestled just 5½ miles from Chandler. The weathered farmhouse that once stood there has long since vanished, but its spirit endures in these pages.

This was an era of transition: automobiles were novel luxuries rumbling onto rural roads, while families still harnessed horses to covered wagons. Births came with the aid of midwives under lantern light, and the horizon loomed harsh and unpredictable. It was into this world that James entered, his family forged in the crucible of survival—tending fields, milking cows, and mastering the rhythms of the land.”I have written this book,” Mr. Pool reflects, “to perpetuate memory, foster, and promote the principles and virtues of my Dutch, German, and Bohemian ancestry—factually and accurately.”

His forebears preserved a cherished library chronicling their settlements in Iowa and Minnesota, a testament to their enduring legacy. The book unfolds principally through the voices of his lineage: descendants of Dutch, Bohemian, and German colonists who arrived in America before or during 1635, their stories rippling forward through the centuries.What captivates most is the tapestry of collective authorship—ancestral writings intertwined with Mr. Pool’s own vivid prose. Take, for instance, the family’s foothold in Orange City, Iowa, dubbed “The Pool Lane” by settlers and neighbors alike. Here, homes were arranged in an innovative semi-circle, each with spacious yards buffered from barns and outbuildings. This pioneering layout birthed the very notion of a neighborhood: a welcoming crescent where one could enter from the north or south, drawing families into a shared embrace of community and land.