- 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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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: -
Born April 5, 1909, Gertrude Ramey grew up on a small farm near Morehead, Kentucky. One of six children, their lives were full of fun, with books, and songs, in a family that turned work into fun. Her life was almost "idyllic" until at age nine, Armistice Day (Nov 11, 1918), "Spanish Flu" killed her mother, her older brother Taylor, and her sister Margaret. The following spring she had a vision or dream that she would some day care for lonely children like herself. During World War II (1944), her dream came true, and citizens of Boyd County (Kentucky) rallied to help her open a Children's Home. She wrote about her experiences hoping her friend, Jesse Stuart, would write a book about her life. But after Jesse's heart attack in 1954, this project faltered. Then after forty-five years of caring for others, Gertrude totally collapsed and needed others to care for her. Amidst the background of a work in turmoil, her mission continued and her legend lives on. SOFTBACK By Dr. Robert Emerson French -
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 -
It is a calm September evening in the Kentucky hill town of Blakesburg. Suddenly, the sky is filled with light, brighter than the moon. Thus, Jesse Stuart sets the stage for the small town citizens who have decided Judgment Day has come upon them in this rollicking novel. By Jesse Stuart -
In the fall of 1829, young Robert Wilmot Scott rode away from Frankfort Kentucky on a trip that would take him through nine states. His journal entries about those travels present a vivid picture of Jacksonian America and of the prominent people of that era. Excellent pen portraits of James and Dolly Madison, James Monroe, John Marshall, James Buchanan, Sam Houston, Edward Everett, John C. Calhoun, John Randolph, John Quincy Adams, and others show Scott to be a famous Webster-Hayne debate; he gives a rich account of that discussion and its personalities. By Thomas D. Clark -
Doc, My Tiger's Got An Itch: The True Story of a Kentucky Hill Country Veterinarian Who Occasionally Runs Away With The Circus HARDBACK VERSION By John G. Martin -
Sale!
"Nothing is impossible to a determined woman."
This quote by Louisa May Alcot adorns a beautiful tote bag available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation. This large, 100 percent cotton bag is more than 16 inches deep, and it will handle books, bottles, groceries, mail and anything else you choose to carry. The bag normally retails for $35.00. You can purchase it for $28.00 on this website. It will make a meaningful gift to the "determined woman" in your life. -
Jesse Stuart's enduring story to this idyllic love that conquered hate and fear draws strength from the calmness of the surrounding Tennessee mountains, where nature, in all her glory, heals the wounds inflicted by men. It is a rich and poignant story, full of local mountain life and humorous touches. Daughter of the Legend is a master storyteller's finest, most lyric book, a book rewarding in the reading and delightful in the memory. It touches the heart and eternity. SOFTBACK By Jesse Stuart -
Winning of the West: Book 1 This riveting book may well be the most historically accurate and detailed telling of the 1846-47 Donner-Reed Party's traumatic journey to California. Of the hundreds of wagon trains traveling west, only the Donner Party left an indelible imprint on our national imagination, the wagon trains fame sealed by its terrible fate. Eckert's masterful telling brings alive the Donner Party's 88 members and the fates of the eleven families and numerous single men who risked all, of whom just 51 survived. He enriches the compelling tale with vivid descriptions of the colorful characters, both in the party and among those they met: mountain men, native peoples both hostile and helpful, and more. This poignant and dramatic account provides a rigorously accurate and comprehensive telling of one of America's great pioneer sagas. SIGNED HARDBACK By Allan Eckert -
Best known for his nonfiction work "Night Comes to the Cumberlands," Harry M. Caudill also wrote fiction, including “Dark Hills to Westward: The Saga of Jenny Wiley,” first published in 1969 and recently reprinted in a new softback edition by the Jesse Stuart Foundation. When Jenny was an old woman, a preacher had sat down with her and wrote out her captivity story. Although Jenny may have embellished it many times, it is the only first-hand account we have, and it’s the primary source for Caudill’s novel. Briefly, here is her story. Thomas and Jenny Wiley had pioneered land on Walker’s Creek in Bland County, Virginia. On October 1, 1789, while Thomas was away, a small band of Indians, seeking revenge for a recent defeat at the hands of white settlers, attacked the Wiley cabin and killed and scalped Jenny’s three older children and her brother. Jenny, seven months pregnant, was taken captive along with her baby son, Adam. SOFTBACK VERSION By Harry M. Caudill -
Jesse Stuart brings Greece, both ancient and modern, to life with his well loved sense of humor, color, and poetic descriptions. Dandelion on the Acropolis is a unique account of Jesse and his wife Naomi's travels throughout Greece in 1962. Extensively illustrated with photographs taken by the Stuarts. By Jesse Stuart -
Cruelly Murdered: The Murder of Mary Magdalene Pitts and Other Kentucky True Crime Stories: In this follow-up to Murder in Old Kentucky, Keven McQueen presents detailed and thoroughly researched true crime stories from Kentucky history, spanning in time from the state's early history to the Roaring Twenties. The stories include the case of the governor's son who was tried for murder five tmes and eventually pardoned by his father; Edward Hawkins, a murderer on the move with a pronounced taste for bigamy; the 1883 shooting of a promising young Louisville artist; the infamous 1887 murder of Jennie Bowman, a Louisville maid, by two burglars; and the abuse and murder of three-year-old Mary Magdalene Pitts of Greenup County by her father and a housekeeper, still one of Kentucky's most notorious crimes. SOFTBACK By Keven McQueen