Wilma E Behm

Treks, Trails and Tales Wilma E Behm

TREKS, TRAILS AND TALES The history of America is one of emigration and migration. In the 1600s and 1700s, brave souls crossed the Atlantic to escape political instability and religious intolerance in Northern and Western Europe. They wanted more opportunities. The story of settlement, the French and Indian Wars and the battle for independence was in fact the story of people, ordinary people, who undertook a huge challenge to better themselves and their families. The migration westward began even before the Revolution when the unclaimed land appeared endless. During the 1800s, descendants of the colonists traveled by wagon and trail across the new continent. While the government encouraged settlement through a variety of land laws, successive generations of settlers pushed westward seeking free land, a better life and economic opportunity on the prairies of the Midwest, across the Rocky Mountains all the way to California and Oregon. In time their descendants populated the west with sturdy folks who believed and lived the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. There are many books with the focus on leaders, wars, politics and policy that make up the traditional version of American History. But there is another type of American History. Treks, Trails and Tales tells the stories of four families who came together in the mid-1800s as early settlers in Nebraska. It is a story of emigration and migration viewed from the level of genealogy with the reality of the hard economic life that was America from the beginning. The book adds a layer to American History which has been missing.