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The Winning of America Series: Book 5 of 6 With his unmatched ability to bring our vibrant early history to life, Allan W. Eckert now presents his latest saga of the battle for the North American wilderness. Here, in all its fascinating human drama, is the struggle to control the "gateway to empire" — Chicago Portage, the vital link between the East and the untapped riches of the west. Caught up in the turbulent sweep of events are two men--John Kinzie, a successful trader with a heroic taste for a new frontiers who fought to live in mutual respect with the Indians, and Tecumseh the Shawnee leader, a man of unparalleled wisdom and courage who would see his dream of a united Indian empire betrayed. As the British move toward the war 1812 both men and their people would be trapped in a tragic conflict that would threaten the land they so passionately loved. SOFTBACK & HARDBACK By Allan Eckert -
Winning of the West: Book 3 Gold Fever focuses upon the early phase of the Gold Rush era, beginning in early 1848 and concluding in September, 1849. Allan Eckert, a widely admired historian, relates in compelling detail the intriguing chain of developments in this great national obsession, including the following profoundly influential ones:- Gold's initial discovery
- The early-spring local gold rush
- The entire country's evolving response to the California gold rumors
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Greenup County, bordering the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky, is rich in history and culture. Settlers first arrived in the mid-1700s and carved farms from hardwood forests. Lucy Virgin Downs, the first white child born west of the Alleghenies, lived in Greenup County, as did Jesse Boone, brother of Kentucky icon Daniel Boone. The 20th century brought industrialization and economic diversification to the historically agricultural area. Ashland Oil, a Fortune 500 company, maintained corporate headquarters in Greenup County. Two steel mills, a large rail yard, an excellent hospital, and a number of surface mines also provided employment to many people who continued to work their family farms, too. This economic progress was mirrored in every aspect of country life as education, health care, and recreation all improved dramatically. Today Greenup County’s history is appreciated by both longtime residence and cultural tourists. James M. Gifford serves as chief executive and senior editor of the Jesse Stuart Foundation, a regional publishing house. Dr. Gifford’s coauthors, Anthony and Suzanna Stephens, are eastern Kentuckians. The authors gathered photographs from dozens of personal and library collections.SOFTBACK By James M. Gifford, Anthony and Suzanna Stephens -
Growing Up in the Last Small Town: A West Virginia Memoir is a humorous and poignant account of Bob Barnett, a bad student and undersized athlete coming of age in the 1950’s, but it is also the story of all of us who grew up in small towns across America between 1940 and 1960. It was a time of simple pleasures that included shedding winter coats on the first day of spring, playing baseball until dark, watching four-hour children’s matinees on Saturday, and breaking plates in the town dump, our favorite playground. It was a time when we wrote term papers, ate fish sandwiches at the Fireman’s Carnival, cheered our high school teams, and lived for soak hops and dances –a time when getting the right date for the prom was more important than the election of the president. The story is set in the unincorporated pottery town of Newell, West Virginia and captures the rhythm of life in small towns that we thought would never change. But change came quickly. Television became a staple of modern life in the 1950s offering Elvis, the evening news, and a vivid view of our changing world. School consolidations robbed the towns of their souls, supermarkets eliminated the need for corner grocery stores, and the closing of mills and factories brought an end to small towns as we knew them. The generation whose story is told in this book grew up in the last small town in America. SOFTBACK By Bob Barnett -
This collection of early poems shows the literary promise of a boy who spent his childhood roaming the hills of eastern Kentucky, listening to the foxes and screech owls, to the river and the wind. By Jesse Stuart -
A unique and personal book bound for its own kind of immortality. Head o' W-Hollow has a permanent if modest historical value. Jesse Stuart has a "rattrap memory" for turns of speech, and he has given a socio-historical record of daily life in his remote world — now so much less remote and more changed. By Jesse Stuart REVIEWS "Stuart's first book of short stories remains haunting, powerful, and humorous." "A unique book, bound for its own kind of immortality." — Robert Penn Warren "The most honest writing that has ever been done about Kentucky mountain people." — The Nation -
The Big Sandy Valley — sometimes called Kentucky's last frontier — has been shaped by a series of extraordinary individuals and families over the course of the past 200 years. Hidden Heroes of the Big Sandy Valley profiles and celebrates an exclusive group of these people. The book contains 22 biographical essays and one cultural essay by 17 authors. The people who are profiled in this book are true representatives of millions of people who have populated the Big Sandy Valley for more than two hundred years. HARDBACK Compiled and edited by James M. Gifford -
The Sparks family, salty old Peg Sparks, his wife Arn, and their 16-year-old son Sparkie lived in the Plum Grove Hills in a one room cabin. They don't have a lot, but they would not turn a stray hound dog away from their door and certainly not a stray boy like pale, spindly Didway Hargis, who has run away from his wealthy home in town. SOFTBACK By Jesse Stuart COLLECTOR EDITIONS ARE AVAILABLE; PLEASE CONTACT THE JSF DIRECTLY -
Jesse Stuart Junior Book "What lies in the world outside of Clearwater Valley?" Sunny Logan always wondered. Twice each day, for the two years he had been going to school, he hurried to the railroad tracks. There he could watch Huey the engineer drive his engine No. 5 along the Eastern Kentucky Railroad. Sunny would not miss seeing Huey for anything in the whole world. SOFTBACK By Jesse Stuart -
Jesse Stuart Junior Book Set (9 Books)- Andy Finds a Way
- Beatinest Boy
- Bluetick Pig
- Come to My Tomorrowland
- Huey the Engineer
- Old Ben
- Penny's Worth of Character
- Red Mule
- Rightful Owner
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Jesse Stuart was a paradox. For a period of his life, Jesse slept with a loaded gun under his pillow, yet he also carried a typewriter with him wherever he went. He courted woman with mud on his boots and pistols on his hips, but he had wildflowers in his hands and envelops completely covered with chicken-scratched poems in his pockets. He was petty yet often kind, mean-spirited but truly helpful to beginning writers, clannish yet hospitable to visitors HARDBACK By James M. Gifford -
This book examines Jesse Stuart's life in a broad historical context and shares his enduring legacy through his broad range of accomplishments as an author, educator, conservationist, spokesman for Kentucky and Appalachia, compulsive correspondent, world traveler, father, husband, and community-minded neighbor. In a broad historical context, it shows how Stuart has immortalized himself through personal relationships as well as through people who read his books. SOFTBACK & HARDBACK By James. M. Gifford
