The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 333
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Sage of Cedar Bayou
ancestors, what was more natural than that the youth should sub-
merge his poetic impulses and ship before the mast? Before
sailing date, however, the friendly captain was replaced by a
stranger who turned out to be a tyrannical master, and the
high-spirited Sjolander brothers, with two others of the crew,
"jumped ship" while the cargo was being lightered into port
at Galveston.
Taking passage on a boat, they sailed across Galveston Bay
and up Cedar Bayou, well out of reach of the brutal captain.
"Had we been caught," Sjolander chuckled, "we would have been
placed in irons and forced to work our passage back to England
without pay." Ten miles up Cedar Bayou they landed at a
busy village of the same name (it had been a post office from
ante-bellum days), isolated by land but accessible by water to
all that intricate and extensive littoral where so much Texas
history has been made. Cedar Bayou is one of those numerous
deep, narrow tributaries which finger out into the back country
from Galveston and Trinity bays. It forms the boundary between
Chambers and Harris counties, entering the Bay opposite
historic Morgan's Point. "I was entranced by the Bayou," Sjo-
lander said in 1934. "Trees almost meeting over the water; vines
and flowers everywhere, and I made up my mind to stay here."
Those memories are woven into one of his sweetest songs:
On Cedar Bayou's flowery banks
Where summer always stays,
And where the reeds in solid ranks
Move when the south wind plays,
And all the birds with glad hearts sing
To them that they love best--
Oh, there we do our sweethearting
And there our lives are blest.
Where the prairie, sown with hopes,
Shines golden-green for miles;
And where the fleecy Gulf-cloud roams
A dream-ship far above--
Oh, there we build the happiest homes,
And work, and pray, and love.
Where earth gives us the most and best
For cares that we bestow;
And where no earthly joy we miss
From love's abundant store.5
0"Cedar Bayou," ibid., 35.333
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/373/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.