Grand Times Amid the Sorrows: The Gilmer Family in North America
- ISBN-10
- 1883141001
- ISBN-13
- 9781883141004
- Pages
- 215
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1993
- Publisher
- Victoria Publications
- Author
- Kirk J. Besse
Description
All history is, in the final analysis, local. Mr. Besse, a graduate of Hamline University, has dug deep into 19th & early 20th century rural newspapers, court records, diaries, letters, & oral histories to create a lively, candid & very readable history of Scotch-Irish immigrants in North America. Focusing on one family, the Gilmers, he presents an intimate portrait of pioneer & rural life in Ontario, Minnesota, Saskatchewan & Alberta from 1830-1945. He explores not only the traditional subjects of immigration such as crossing the Atlantic & building a farm in the backwoods but long overlooked topics such as housekeeping & life as a single mother in the 1890s. Life's darker side is not neglected either as detailed accounts of divorce, child abuse, lawsuits & crime make pioneer life startlingly modern. Illustrated with over 90 photographs, it's a virtual parade of fashions from the 1850s through the 1940s. GRAND TIMES is a solid addition to the literature of North American social history. Supplemented with a Scotch-Irish genealogy of over 2,400 names going back eight generations & fully indexed, it is also a major new reference for the genealogist. It also happens to be a jolly good read.
