This book continues my story about the family of Reverend Nathaniel Wolde, his wife, Mary Catherine, and their friends, Patrick and Lucy O'Connor, and Albert and Martha Sawyer. It is a close friendship, and the husbands, proclaimed themselves to be brothers. The story is set in the 1850", near Fairmont, in western Virginia, close to the Mononghela, River.
The Wolde’s have five children, sons, Roy and Riley, and daughters, Martha Jane, Sarah, and Lucy; Patrick and Lucy O'Connor have two sons, Sean and Michael and a daughter, Megan. The Sawyers, having no children, adopted those of their friends.
The book begins with the return of the Wolde family, and the O'Connor children, from New York City, where they had spent Christmas. None of them had ever been outside Marion County before, and it was quite an experience. The second Wolde son, Riley, returned to Scotland with his uncle, Ian MacTavish, to live with his grandfather, Baron Robert MacTavish, in Dunne, Scotland.
James Marsden, Superintendent of Construction for the B & O Railroad, was impressed by young Sean O'Connor, and offered him a job with the railroad, saying he would send the young man to Baltimore to finish his education, the from there to college, to become a full-fledged engineer. Thus, his career began.
Reverend Wolde and his two "brothers" formed a company to buy and sell land. Knowing he would not have time to look after the family farm, he gives this responsibility to Roy. The young man tells his father he cannot manage the farm with all the horses, cattle, and sheep they own, and no help to raise crops to feed them; the animals had to go; he would make money by cutting timber. Roy convinces Michel O'Connor to become his partner in the venture. The two young men form a bond that is never broken during their lifetime. It was further enhanced when they each married the other's sister; Roy and Megan, Michel and Martha Jane.
The book deals with all their successes as well as the heartbreaks they encounter. It follows young Sean O'Connor through the beginning of his career as a railroad man. It introduces a new character, David Sullivan, who comes from New York City, to live with the Wolde family, and join Roy and Michael in their timber business.
The story continues in Book # 3.
