Journeys Toward Home: Essays on Ancestors and Their Paths to Missouri (Paperback or Softback)

To appreciate our ancestors, one must understand the times and places in which they lived and events and experiences that shaped their lives. We must know about their struggles and recognize how much is owed to the perseverance and sacrifices of generations that came before us. This is an illustrated collection of essays on the ancestors of James H. Wehmer and Hazel M. Snoddy, placed within the context of significant periods of history. Though these ancestors immigrated from different countries, they all ended their journeys in Missouri. Their journeys to get there took them through waves of European immigration, the American Revolutionary War, Indian Wars, the War of 1812, the Louisiana Purchase, America's Civil War, the Great Depression, World War I, World War II and other important historical events.

Land ownership was almost always a primary goal for early westward movement in the United States and the subjects of these essays are no exception. In the 1840s, Manifest Destiny came to represent the inevitability of expansion across the continent. These family lines arriving in Missouri, however, did not follow others to the Pacific Coast. Instead, they remained in Missouri through the 20^th century and into the 21^st century. Destiny carried them only so far as the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in what became the State of Missouri in 1821.

Ruth Hawkins grew up in Florissant, Missouri, and resides in Jonesboro, Arkansas. During her career, she has been a television reporter, newspaper feature writer and public school information officer in Tidewater, Virginia. She served as a higher education administrator in various capacities at Arkansas State University for more than 40 years before her retirement in 2019. Ruth is author of the book Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow: The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Marriage, a biographical work on author Ernest Hemingway's relationship with the Pfeiffer family of Piggott, Arkansas. It is considered a landmark study on Pauline Pfeiffer and her influence on Hemingway's life and work. She is an inductee into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame, along with such notables as Hillary Rodham Clinton, actress Mary Steenburgen, poet Maya Angelou, and entrepreneur Alice Walton. Ruth is recipient of numerous state and national preservation and heritage tourism awards for her activities throughout Arkansas. She holds undergraduate degrees from Christian College (now Columbia College) and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, a master's degree from Arkansas State University and a doctorate from the University of Mississippi. She also has certifications in American Records and methodology through the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. Ruth and her husband Van have a son and daughter-in-law, Curt Hawkins and Amy Schmidt, who also live in Jonesboro.