Saving the Oldest Town in Texas

When Col. Benjamin Wettermark emptied the bank and skipped town in 1903, he left his wife, his children and his mansion behind. Saving the Oldest Town in Texas looks at the banker, the house designed by the best architect in Nacogdoches and the impact Col. Wettermark’s betrayal had on the woman who loved him and the town that trusted him. Over a hundred years later, Peggy Jensen wonders if she is brave enough to renovate a home that seems too far gone. She could almost say the same thing about herself. She is alone, stiffening up in all her joints, at loose ends after seven years watching her husband’s brilliant mind deteriorate. Her daughter talked her into moving to the Oldest Town in Texas, and Peggy wants to renovate a historic home. It is just her luck to fall in love with a deteriorating scandal-ridden mansion. The chapters alternate between the current day struggle to renovate the mansion and the turn-of-the century story of Col. Wettermark, his wife Daisy and his children. Peggy’s first friend is a born-in-Nacogdoches research librarian who discovers, literally, where the bodies are buried.

LINDA THORSEN BOND lived for several years in Nacogdoches, Texas, where she taught at Stephen F. Austin State University. She currently lives in Longmont, Colorado with her husband.