Mount Vernon Love Story

Oh, my.  I have only read a few pages, but I can already tell that this will be my favorite book of the year!  It is easy to read.....I don't know how Mary Higgins Clark makes reading history so enticing.  And it is hard to say how much is imagination and how much is really based on documents and research.  But here is a good example of why I like the book so much.  The scene is the last day of George Washington's two terms as first president.  He decides to walk to the inauguration of John Adams.  And we get to share in his thoughts as he leaves office.  And then as he walks into the inauguration site the crowd begins to clap and his entrance is to a room full of people clapping to show their appreciation of a great man.  

I will write more as I read more......

Then back to the story when George was 23 and accepted a commission as an officer under General Braddock.....I understand Braddock's defeat after reading only a few pages of Mary Higgins Clark's book better than if I had read an entire book on the incident.....But there is no doubt that it is the beginning of George's career as a military leader!  As Braddock died, he made it known that he wanted George to have his horse and his body servant.  And in turn George buried Braddock in the road that the entire group would trample so that his grave would not be found by Indians who might mutilate the body......And Mary Higgins Clark says that the soldiers that accompanied George ....well her words are that George blamed himself for his part in the failure....and did not see the worshipping glances of the troops who were still at camp as he rode away.  He did not know that all of Virginia was telling the tale of his bravery.  He did not even consider the fact that he was riding the dead general's horse and attended by the dead general's servant.

He did not consider that the mantle of leadership had settled firmly on his shoulders.

Then on page 176 George's very best friend, George William Fairfax, tells George Washington that he and his wife, Sally, are moving back to England.  George William tells George that the consolation in this move is that he will be removed from the position of having to take sides for or against the mother country.  If he remained in Virginia he would be forced to alienate either family or friends by taking a side. 

And George William Fairfax says:  

I couldn't help but enjoy the part of the story when George is worried about Patsy in Virginia ....and well....just worried about everything.  And one night there is a party and Nathaniel Green's wife, Kitty.....Mary Higgins Clark describes her as desperately in love with her husband but a bit of a flirt...says to George: "Your excellency rumor has it that you are the finest dancer in all Virginia. May I help you prove worth of that reputation?"  and at the end of the dancing she says:  

And George was reminded of Sally Fairfax and her husband, George William, who sat on the sideline with his rheumatism.  And George decided to write and ask Patsy to come to him.

And she answered:  "if you had not sent for me, still I would have come to you"  And Lund, the overseer, wrote George that Patsy had all the slaves near collapse preparing food to take to Cambridge.  She would be accompanied by Mr and Mrs Custis (Patsy's son and bride)

 

The Book of Lost Things

Very Odd book.  When I finished the book I was not sure if I liked it or not.  However, I rarely finish a book that I really DON"T  like....

Basically John Connolly intertwines a Harry Potter kind of character with a plot where a child enters a land other than his own homeland.  And then the author throws in fairy tales that we all recognize, but often they have a twist.  Such as Snow White is FAT and unpleasant.....
 

Information from Audible

Audible sent me a recap of my fiction reading in 2025 on Audible:

 

Strangers in Time

 Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.

Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via “Operation Pied Piper,” Molly has been away from her parents—from her home—for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she’d hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there, only her old nanny, Mrs. Pride.

Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where "a book a day keeps the bombs away". Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other—over the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seen—they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.

The above is audible's synopsis.  This was not a great book.  But I did finish it and I don't finish books that I don't like.  An easy read....it does give one a good picture of the bombs that London endured during WWII.  

Wilderness War On the Ohio

Amazon's synopsis:  There is an untold side of the American Revolution; a forgotten, lost war fought within the context of that better known war for American independence from Great Britain. It is an untold story surrounded by mystery and misconception to this day because of the very nature of what happened. While Washington’s patriot armies were battling British redcoats in set-piece actions across the colonies in the East, a war of a far different nature was being conducted in the West to determine who was to control the frontier and Indian lands of the upper Ohio River Valley, and the Ohio Country to its west. It was fought without fixed boundaries or large armies, without accepted rules of engagement, or agreed-upon noncombatants.

Alan Fitzpatrick spoke today at the Christmas luncheon hosted by the Parkersburg WV SAR.  He is a terrific speaker and I thoroughly enjoyed his talk.  However, his topic was so new to me that I didn't have a good place to hang all that I learned....so I want to jot down a few thoughts to come back to.

Alan was born and raised in Canada.  In the process of researching an ancestor who was a Tory during the Revolutionary War, he happened across the Haldiman papers in Ottawa, Canada. 

From AI:     Yes, the 

Haldimand Papers (spelled with an 'i') are extensively available on microfilm at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in Ottawa. The original documents are held at the British Library, but LAC created both transcriptions and microfilm copies, which are available for public use. 

These papers are a collection of handwritten copies  done by an aid to Col Haldimand in a journal of correspondence between Col Haldimand and his officers in the field. (Alan says the handwriting is excellent)  

Alan spent years ordering the microfilm copies one at a time....there are 98 reels......for his use to write this book.  

British Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, operating from Detroit, was a major figure in the western theater, known for inciting Native American attacks on American frontiers and being captured by George Rogers Clark near Vincennes.  Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton received a command from the British King to bring the Indians into the fight to subdue the American patriots.  He did this by giving the Indians gifts, sending 17 men to recruit the Indians to fight the American patriots in order to retain their lands, and sending six gunsmiths among the Indians to repair their guns and weapons.

I wish that I could recount the battles and history of this conflict on the western frontier/wilderness.  But I would have to study for hours to have all of the information in my head that Alan presented today.  But some of the main ideas that were of interest  to me were the fact that many of these men who fought in these skirmishes had Indian wives or were connected to the Indians in personal ways.  And that these were not battles as one finds in the battles on the eastern colonies.  These were ambushes where every man was killed.  Or battles from combatants who trekked through the wilderness on paths barely wide enough for a man or a horse.  Or Boats carrying troops that were intercepted and all of the men on board killed or captured.

The other surprise to me was that this war did not stop when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown 19 Oct 1781.  The last battle of this part of the war took place in 1782 and is considered the last battle of the Revolutionary War.

Something I would like to follow up on is from a Slideshow in my possession from Ronald.  My memory is faded and I don't have time to work on this tonight.....and I do believe that this time in the militia was BEFORE William, John and James joined the continental army in the begining of the Revolution rather than after they came home after the winter at Valley Forge....but I would like to look at this. 

1.William, John and James in Captain Martin ‘s Militia on the Western Front.

 

Revolutionary Mothers

October 2025 I am reading Revolutionary Mothers to take part in the WV DAR book club via zoom.  I am not sure I will finish it in time for the meeting.  But it is of interest.  

Martha Washington is shown as a wife who joined her husband every winter and is seen in a most complimentary light.

Nathaniel Green's wife, Catharine Littlefield Greene

was an American patriot who traveled to her husband, Continental Army General Nathanael Greene's, encampments during the American Revolutionary War. She entertained and comforted the soldiers, officers, and officer's wives. During that time she had four children and a fifth after the end of the war. Greene followed her husband, regardless of cold weather or illness in the camps, notably spending the winter at Valley Forge. 

Caty visited her husband at his headquarters as often as possible, with or without her children. As a general’s wife, she was naturally made the center of attention. She became close friends with Martha Washington and Lucy Knox. Her vivacious behavior elicited a spontaneous response from admiring gentlemen. She listened with genuine interest to stories told by men like General Israel Putnam. Young aides became smitten with her looks and playfulness, and Nathanael was delighted by their admiration. Even General Washington asked that she come to camp for her convivial nature brightened the hardest of winters. During an officers’ party in February 1779 at the Middlebrook, New Jersey encampment, Caty danced with General Washington for three hours straight without sitting down. Nathanael commented that they had “a pretty little frisk.”  (it is said that Martha knitted while they danced)

Grace Gallaway was turned out of her home but kept a good attitude. 

But perhaps my favorite chapter was the chapter about the Indian women.  William Johnson and his wife, Molly Brandt lived in the Mohawk Valley

In February 1759 in the Village of Canajoharie (New York), the Baronet of New York, Sir William Johnson, married under the Mohawkian tradition, with the Mohawk leader Molly Brant Degonwodonti. The couple had eight children....don't know if either of the below depictions have any sort of "realness". but they do give one a feeling of how complicated their relationship was.  No portraits of her are known to exist; an idealized likeness is featured on a statue in Kingston and on a Canadian stamp issued in 1986.

Their marriage was never recognized by the British nor Americans.  William was the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs.  Molly was a loyalist 

I found the information about how much more power and influence the Indian women had in their tribes than did the European women enlightening.

Mohawk Valley  

Nancy Ward was also mentioned in the chapter.  Nancy was known as Beloved Woman and Was Cherokee.  I know Nancy from my research in the Wautauga, Clinch, Holston area of early NC and VA that later became part of Tennessee.  

 In the end of the book, I was taken by how little power the women of the time period actually had.  It is pretty amazing to realize that women didn't even have the right to vote until 1920.   Women have made huge progress in the last 100 years in controlling their own destiny.

What to read next

 My life has gone back to normal after a HUGE summer and early Fall.  I have read almost no fiction in that time.  I started a book that took place in the Galapagos in June, but did not finish it while we were on that trip.....then too busy in July to think of much more than what we might eat the next meal....then too busy in August catching up....and DAR district meeting and DAR "stuff"....

I found Emma by Jane Austen on audible as a free download and started it because it was the book for the month of September for the Colonial Dames book club.  But the date of the zoom meeting came and went with my having only read a small portion of the book.  Next is the state DAR zoom meeting for book club featuring 

I have already bought it on audible and it is only six hours long....hmmmm.....just writing this post is helping me get my mind in order.  I think I will put it on my calendar.