How This Website Came To Be

    I lived in Saltillo as a boy from 1938 to 1945 with my uncle Jack Turner and his wife Minnie Ola (Turrentine). I left the town 59 years ago, but the memories I have of it are vivid, and they are pleasant. Some of the things I experienced when I lived in Saltillo seem as if they took place yesterday. When I was in the area in June of 1999 to attend a Minter Family reunion, I visited the town and found it almost unrecognizable from how I remembered it. The trees seemed taller, one didn't feel the expanse of  the open prairie. Buildings and things seemed closer together than as I recalled them. I think this is a function of being young, like when you thought your 22 year-old teacher was an old woman. But a few landmarks, which provided datums for my observations were still there -- the highway, railroad, school, Baptist church and Stout's Creek. But gone were the railroad depot, stores, cotton gin, railroad water tower, pea shed, and the railroad pond. Only one house of the four I had lived in still existed, and it was the first.

    So as you can see,  I have a personal connection to the town. But in spite of my interest and link to Saltillo, it never entered my mind to create a website for it. But something changed that, which had to do with my ancestors.  The Minters in earlier times were numerous around Pine Forest, Texas, which is just down the road southwest of Saltillo about 9 miles. They in fact help found Pine Forest in 1856. So as things often happen, I by chance linked up with some Minter descendants, cousins, around Christmas of 1998. I learned a lot from these kin folk about my ancestors of which I previously knew little. One thing led to another, and I finally created a website devoted to the Minters called "The Minters of Pine Forest, Texas." It has evolved into a big site with more than a hundred screen pages, and it is still growing.

    In the process of creating the Minters's website, I did two historical/topographic maps: one of  Pine Forest proper and one of the surrounding area, both of which turned out pretty well. Saltillo was on the fringe of the latter map. It was also about this time that I ran across a short history of Saltillo written by Jewel McAfee under the title of  "The Parade of Pioneer Families," which was published in the Hopkins County Genealogical Society's Hopkins County Heritage, Vol 15, No. 3, September, 1998.  From this article I also learned that a group of  former residents of the town meet each year in Saltillo for a reunion, of which I am currently trying to find more about. Also, in setting up the Pine Forest Minters's website, I used some stories I had written of which were set in Saltillo. So with these things in mind, I begin to think about creating a website for Saltillo. I pondered the idea for a while, and then I asked myself, "why not?"  And . . . you know the rest of the story. I want this site to be about Saltillo, and not just me. It is just in the beginning stage, but I hope you like what you see so far.

Dr. Thomas J. Minter

4920 Waterville--Swanton Rd.

Swanton, Ohio 43558-8970

Telephone: 419.825.2943

July 4, 1999

Left: My Saltillo School picture of 1945, the year I left Saltillo. I was 14 years old.