A Heritage Not Forgotten: The Stories of Four Courageous Pioneers and Their Journeys to Minnesota Territory

A Heritage Not Forgotten is based on the adventurous lives of four of the author's great-grandparents who were among the first settlers in Mower County, Minnesota, in the 1850s. Adam left his family in Germany, sailed the Atlantic, worked at a lumber camp, and hopped the freight trains to arrive in Wisconsin as a farm laborer. Matilda, a teenage girl, left Hamburg with her family for a grueling journey to Wisconsin. The book includes the romantic account of Adam and Matilda's courtship and marriage in Wisconsin and their eventful journey to Minnesota by covered wagon. Phillip, a lonely, discouraged young man, left Germany and worked his way through the port in Amsterdam onto a ship bound for New York. As a lumberjack and a farm hand, he found his way to Minnesota Territory. Lucinda, as a nine-year-old girl, traveled with her family about six hundred miles by covered wagons from Ohio to Minnesota Territory. When she was sixteen, Phillip convinced Lucinda's father that she was old enough for courtship and marriage. Woven into the stories are the faith longings of these four people that drew them to transforming conversion experiences that sustained them through the hardships of pioneer life. These two couples conscripted land, raised large families, and were pillars of faith who helped establish a dynamic church in the author's hometown of Racine, Minnesota.