Description
First in a new paternal series!
1858: John Westerhoff finds himself at the cross roads of a life changing decision—three or more years in the Prussian Cavalry or emigrate to America. He decided to take the gamble and sails for America. John arrives in German-settled Warsaw, Illinois where his dreams of owning a farm are dashed with the onset of the Civil War. Submitting to what his conscience and heart tell him, he joins Merrill’s Horse of the 2nd Missouri Union Cavalry. He is a farrier by trade and a valued member of the cavalry. “Without horses the cavalry becomes infantry!” The fighting takes him to the hotly divided state of Missouri—the Western Front of the Civil War. After numerous bloody battles and terrible suffering, John returns to Warsaw, marries, and becomes a farmer and a father. The bitterness of the war lingers causing John and Elizabeth to take their three children and travel by covered wagon to the fertile rolling hills of Nebraska to homestead. There, they are baptized by the peace, hope, and promise of a new beginning. Every day brings a new trial and tribulation, it’s called ‘life’.
