James Hamilton Wentworth
Until the War of Northern Aggression (some people now, incorrectly, refer to it as a Civil War) I was a young man with high ambitions, a wife and a little money. Sadly, my wife died at the age of 20. Loyalty to my state, Florida, called me to take up arms and join the fight, so I left my home and enlisted in the 5th Florida Infantry, which was then forming at Madison, Florida.
I served in the Confederate infantry as a Lieutenant when I was wounded and captured during Pickett’s charge during the 3rd day of the great Gettysburg battle. I spent the next two years in a Federal POW camp and consider myself very fortunate to have survived the terrible experience.
When I finally returned to Shady Grove, Florida, I found myself restless and seeking more than a quiet agricultural life in north Florida. In. I moved to Pensacola Florida and worked for two years on a fishing boat in the Gulf. I picked up and moved west toward a land of new opportunities. I have worked as a cowboy, cattle buyer, gambler and as a Wells Fargo detective. I even owned a small cattle ranch in Wyoming for a few years, but in a hard winter, most of my heard was wiped out and the bank took the ranch from me. I have now been in north Texas for a few years and am working, by various means, to raise enough money to start another cattle ranch somewhere along the Trinity or Brazos River.