Portrait of Mrs. Luther T. Lambert, visible from the chest up. She is wearing a white shirt with a black bow tie. There are handwritten notes on the back that say "L. T. Lambert, 813 Lakey, 12 x 16, Color as original, Dec. 23."

Portrait of Dr. E. D. Moton, visible from the chest up, wearing a dark-colored suit with pens in the jacket pocket. The photograph is in an oval frame and handwritten notes on the back say: "had 2 daughters, Annetta and Myrtle, lived in Quakertown" and "Dr. E. D. Moton, first black doctor in Denton."

When the first Europeans set foot on the North American continent, they clashed, both physically and culturally, with the native inhabitants. The Indian practice of taking, adopting, and sometimes torturing captives offended the Europeans more than any other practice. The treatment afforded to captives varied from tribe to tribe and tended to change as the Indians adapted to the new environment and adjusted to the increased pressure thrust upon them by the advancing whites. The primary sources used were Indian captivity narratives. The 111-volume "Garland Library of North American Indian Captivities" has made many of the better known narratives more readily available.

Presidential reconstruction in Texas proceeded under the direction of provisional governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton, a Texas Unionist. Texas Unionists had deep political roots in pre-war politics and sought to reconstruct along moderate lines. Following the constitutional convention of 1866, conservative James Webb Throckmorton won the gubernatorial race against Unionist Elisha Marshall Pease. Throckmorton's administration did very little to curb the intense violence directed at Unionists in Texas, and the conservative legislature passed legislation repressive to blacks. Texas Unionists grew increasingly radical, and Throckmorton clashed with the federal military over the question of authority. After the Radicals in Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, Throckmorton was removed as governor, and E.M. Pease was appointed in his place, ending presidential reconstruction in Texas.

This report was submitted to the Denton County Commissioner’s Court on December 12, 2023. The independent research contained herein was inspired by a collaborative community effort to highlight the emerging historical narrative of the St. John's freed-persons community of Pilot Point, its unexplained disappearance in the 1930s, and the events that led to the community's cemetery becoming landlocked and inaccessible to the public for more than eighty years.