Stitch of Courage: A Woman's Fight for Freedom (Trail of Thread Series) - Softcover

Hubalek, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1886652082 ISBN 13: 9781886652088

Publisher: Butterfield Books Inc, 1996

Synopsis

Feel the uncertainty, doubt, and danger faced by the pioneer women of Kansas as they defend their homes and pray for their men during the Civil War.
We think the Civil War took place in the South, but the plains state endured their share of battles and tragedy. Not only did Kansas and Missouri experience a resurgence in the terrorist raids that had plagued them in the years before the war, but the Confederate Army tried several times to sweep across the Great Plains and capture the West.
Stitch of Courage, the third book in the Trail of Thread series, tells the story of the orphaned Maggie Kennedy, who followed her brothers to Kansas in the late 1850s. The niece of Margaret Ralston Kennedy, the main character in Hubalek s Thimble of Soil book, Maggie married the son of Deborah Pieratt, whose story was told in the Hubalek s Trial of Thread book.
In letters to her sister in Ohio, Maggie describes how the women of Kansas faced the demons of the Civil War, fighting bravely to protect their homes and families while never knowing from one day to the next whether their men were alive or dead on the faraway battlefield.
Twelve quilt patterns are stitched into this story.

About this title

About the Author:

In sixth grade we had to write a paper on what we wanted to do when we grew up. My mom had kept it and I found this paper while cleaning through my closet during my college days. According to my dreams back then, I wanted to be a farmer, but my last line was -but alas, girls can't be farmers. Well, I got my Bachelors Degree in Agriculture/Horticulture from Kansas State University, did agronomy research for years before starting a wholesale horticulture business. My company, Prairie Flower Creations, grew and dried flowers, ornamental corn, and mini pumpkins for the florist trade. In 1990 I was featured in Country Woman Magazine, but at the same time, my husband's job was transferred to California. I sold my business and tried to cope, growing flowers and pumpkins in five-gallon buckets on our cement lawn. I started writing about the family and farmland I was homesick for and started a new career, writing about women ancestors who had moved to the new state of Kansas and farmed its land. We eventually moved back to Kansas, bought land next to my family, raised buffalo, and I have a garden again. So not only have I fulfilled my dream to be a farmer, I've written about past and present women that have also tilled the prairie land of Kansas. Please read and enjoy my book series which are about the family that homestead our family farm, and my ancestors that homesteaded in Kansas in the 1800s. Considered historical fiction, these quality paperback books are age appropriate for everyone from age 9 to 99. Book, quilt, and Scandinavian gift shops sell them (or ask your local store to stock them for you) and schools use them in class studies to portray early pioneer and Kansas history. My writing time most days is spent on the computer with marketing my businesses, and working on the next book series.

Review:

Linda Hubalek has created an impressive three volume trilogy of historic fiction spanning the years 1854 through 1865. Trail of Thread: A Woman's Westward Journey is the life of Deborah Pieratt as she treks to the new Territory of Kansas. Through her letters we hear stories of humor and despair, along with trail-side camping, cooking and quilting. Readers will feel as if they pulled up stakes and traveled along with Deborah themselves. Thimble of Soil: A Woman's Quest for Land tells how the widow Margaret Ralston Kennedy travels with eight of her thirteen children from Ohio to the territory of Kansas in 1855. Then, while her sons are away fighting to free the Kansas territory from Missouri's pro-slavery forces, Margaret valiantly defends the homestead itself and holds the families together through the savage years of "Bleeding Kansas". Stitch of Courage: A Woman's fight for Freedom tells of the orphaned Maggie Kennedy, niece of Margaret and, later, wife of Deborah Pieratt's son. Maggie describes how the women of the new State of Kansas faced the horrors of the Civil War. Women alone banding together to protect their homes and children, never knowing from one day to the next whether their husbands and sons are alive or dead on some far lonely battlefield. Linda Hubalek has paid great attention to historical detail while her gifts as a storytelling draw the reader into the lives and events of her heroines with a charismatic intensity that is rarely equaled and never surpassed. This is historical fiction at its finest as both history and as narrative fiction. Although each book can be obtained separately, the recommendation is for acquiring the entire trilogy. --Midwest Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Butterfield Books Inc
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1886652082
• ISBN 13: 9781886652088
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 126