Belfast: The Williamson Family Papers Volume I: The College Years, 1844-1852
- SKU: 2056
- ISBN: 0897255038
- Our Price:
$17.95
-
Description:
128 pages, illustrations, soft cover. 2003.
Joseph Williamson, Sr., born in 1789, settled in Belfast, Maine along with others belonging to the first generation of Americans – men and women born in the years just following the Revolution. They were dedicated to building a new country, educating their families and living wholesome lives. Joseph and his wife Caroline raised three sons and a daughter, a generation which came of age in the mid-nineteenth century and lived to see the start of the twentieth.
Here published for the first time are nearly 90 letters from the Williamson Family Papers. Spanning the sons' adolescence and college years, 1844 through 1852, they are full of trials, tribulations and family pleasures. Editing has been minimal in order to retain the letters' natural cadence and originality. With wit, scholarly asides and acute observations, the collection is a treasure-trove for students of the period as well as general readers. From politics and religion, to the laying of telegraph lines and the lure of the Gold Rush, they tell the fascinating tale of the development of our country as it plays out in one burgeoning New England town.
