Coverart for item
The Resource Our family dreams : the Fletchers' adventures in nineteenth-century America, Daniel Blake Smith

Our family dreams : the Fletchers' adventures in nineteenth-century America, Daniel Blake Smith

Label
Our family dreams : the Fletchers' adventures in nineteenth-century America
Title
Our family dreams
Title remainder
the Fletchers' adventures in nineteenth-century America
Statement of responsibility
Daniel Blake Smith
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"In the early years after the Revolution, Americans were on the move, seeking to establish a new way of life. More than the church, school or courthouse, it was the family that nurtured the American Dream. In this novel-like narrative, Daniel Blake Smith vividly brings to life the Fletchers, a family of loving, ambitious, at times insecure pioneers who scattered across the vast expanse of post-revolutionary America but kept in touch through letters despite their wildly different life paths. On a hard scrabble farm in Vermont, the patriarch, Jesse Fletcher, struggled with debt and depression but managed to educate his children, especially his son Elijah, a Yankee who moved to Virginia, shocked by the horrors of slavery but then seduced by the plantation lifestyle. Another son, Calvin, left at age 17 for Indianapolis to become a self-made lawyer, banker, and a prominent citizen and passionate abolitionist. The grandchildren include Indiana, a women's education activist who donated her home to create Sweet Briar College; black sheep Lucian, who went to California to join in the gold rush; and physician Billy captured as a spy during the Civil War. Through letters and diaries, we find that the Fletchers appear surprisingly similar to us; they dream, fret, fight, and love. Despite numerous heartaches and setbacks, their spirit of enterprise, sacrifice, mobility, and education endures as American values to this day"--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Biography type
collective biography
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Smith, Daniel Blake
Dewey number
  • 973.5092/2
  • B
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • portraits
Index
index present
LC call number
CT274.F593
LC item number
S65 2016
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Fletcher family
  • Fletcher, Jesse
  • Fletcher family
  • Fletcher family
  • Pioneers
  • United States
Target audience
adult
Label
Our family dreams : the Fletchers' adventures in nineteenth-century America, Daniel Blake Smith
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-270) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Beginnings -- Heading West -- Settling In -- "The Best Fortune We Can Give Our Children" -- Public Life -- Calamities -- War and Loyalty -- Legacies
Dimensions
25 cm
Edition
First edition.
Extent
x, 275 pages
Isbn
9781137279811
Lccn
2015028245
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, portraits
System control number
  • (OCoLC)ocn930462935
  • (Sirsi) o930462935
  • (OCoLC)930462935
Label
Our family dreams : the Fletchers' adventures in nineteenth-century America, Daniel Blake Smith
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-270) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Beginnings -- Heading West -- Settling In -- "The Best Fortune We Can Give Our Children" -- Public Life -- Calamities -- War and Loyalty -- Legacies
Dimensions
25 cm
Edition
First edition.
Extent
x, 275 pages
Isbn
9781137279811
Lccn
2015028245
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, portraits
System control number
  • (OCoLC)ocn930462935
  • (Sirsi) o930462935
  • (OCoLC)930462935

Library Locations

    • Des Plaines Public LibraryBorrow it
      1501 Ellinwood Street, Des Plaines, IL, 60016, US
      42.041061 -87.886650