Jacob's Journey - by William Murphy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The year is 1832. Twenty-year-old Jacob Hart, against all advice, is leaving his Vermont home to strike out into the American frontier to begin a new life. His journey leads him into the wilderness of the Michigan Territory. There he faces toil, danger, and death. But he also eventually finds common cause and the joys that come from hard-earned friendships and family.

On his twentieth birthday, eldest son Jacob Hart fulfills his secret ambition of departing his family's hardscrabble Vermont farm to create a new life on what he hopes are the more fertile lands of the American frontier. The move left him utterly alone, with his childhood home and family forever out of his life. The year is 1832, and America is changing rapidly. Dreams come hard in the wilderness, however. Death and danger are ever present, and every action requires careful thought, as well as accepting the vagaries of fate and of powers beyond one man's control. In the unbroken wilderness he carves out a farm, and for the next thirty years plays a major role in the journey that he and his neighbors are on, as well as the journey that America herself is making in that epochal period of our history. Jacob finds that being at the forefront of history comes at a high cost but also can have great rewards. In the end, he finds that when one generation's role is ending, it is just beginning for the next. Life goes on and journeys continue. Time passes and circumstances change, but aspirations for a life that fulfills the desires of the dreamer continue unabated.

Review Quotes

"Jacob's Journey is a wonderful tale of courage and adventure that takes the reader back to a time when strong and determined individuals, like homesteader Jacob Hart, forged new lives in the Michigan frontier. It is the parallel story of a young man and a young state both struggling to carve out an existence and prosper in a challenging and often unforgiving environment.

William Murphy, through his meticulous research and creative writing, masterfully depicts both the life of pioneer Jacob Hart and the formation and growth of Michigan." -Matt VanAcker, director/curator of Save the Flags; director of education, emeritus, Michigan State Capitol; board member at Michigan Civil War Association

"A fictional, yet historically accurate, account of Michigan's 1830s-1860s transition from a territory to its first two decades (from 1837 on) as the great state of Michigan, at a time when its property was the most sought after in the Union. You find yourself spellbound while pulling for the generations of characters created by the author, characters representing folks that built the Michigan we know today." -Doc Fletcher, Michigan Library Association Michigan Author Award winner

"Jacob's Journey is terrific reading. It's adventure and history all in one. It's an American story of vision, courage and hope-compelling fiction and important history at the same time." -Dave Dempsey, senior advisor, FLOW (For Love of Water), author and winner of multiple Michigan Notable Book Awards