Archie P. McDonald was born in Beaumont, Texas about 1936. He received his B.S. from Lamar University in 1958, his M.A. from Rice University in 1960, and his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1964. A history professor, he taught at Murray State College in Kentucky before joining the faculty of Stephen F. Austin State University in 1964. He served as Executive Director and Editor of the East Texas Historical Association, Vice President of Texas State Historical Association, Chairman of the Texas Committee for the Humanities, a member of the Advisory Board for the National Registry of the Texas Historical Commission, and a member of the Texas Sesquicentennial Commission. He has published many book reviews and historical articles, and has authored and edited a number of books on Texas history including FIGHTING MEN... THE WESTERN MILITARY HERITAGE; THE MEXICAN WAR: CRISIS FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY; TRAVIS; BY EARLY CANDLELIGHT: THE STORY OF OLD MILAM; THE TRAIL TO SAN JACINTO; THE OLD STONE FORT; and TEXAS, ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY STATE. He passed away August 16, 2012.

Nicholas Adolphus Sterne was born in Cologne, Germany on April 5, 1801. Because of political oppression he left Germany for New Orleans at the age of sixteen. He later moved to Nacogdoches, Texas where he became a merchant, land agent, and jurist. He died in 1852.

Sterne's diary describes the social, political, economic, cultural, and agricultural life in Nacogdoches and surrounding counties. Some of the names mentioned frequently include: Bennett Blake, George Bondies, Placide Bossier, A. W. Canfield, Charles Chevallier, Kelsey H. Douglass, John Durst, H. M. Eder, William K. English, C. M. Gould, Judge William Hart, James Pinckney Henderson, John Henry Holland, Archibald Hotchkiss, Sam Houston, Fritz von der Hoya, David Spangler Kaufman, Alexander MacDonald, James S. Mayfield, Kindred H. Muse, Albert Aldrich Nelson, William B. Ochiltree, James Ogilvy, Richard Parmalee, Henry Raguet, John S. Roberts, Thomas J. Rusk, William Reid Scurry, James H. Starr, Sterne Family, Charles S. Taylor, George Whitfield Taylor, Frost Thorn, Patricio de Torres. Most of the above were residents of Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and New Orleans.

(McDonald, A. P. "Sterne, Nicholas Adolphus." Nacogdoches County Families. Dallas: Curtis Media Corporation, 1985. p. 640; "McDonald, Archie P." Vertical Files: Biography. East Texas Research Center. Ralph W. Steen Library. Stephen F. Austin State University).