A page from the diary of Thomas Richards, my great-grandfather (Walker Price in “Open Country”). I found the diary a month ago after years of searching for it. It is 12 pages long and covers October 9, 1862-February 24, 1863. Below is a fragment: “Monday Morning Dec 31, 1862, in the line of battle on the left wing at Stones River, Hascall’s brigade, Woods division, Crittenden’s ... Read More »
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40,000 Irish Confederates
In Open Country, there are many characters like in a Russian novel but I hope they are not hard to tell apart. For instance, there is only one Irish Confederate, Owen O’Grady. Robert E. Lee once said that his favorite soldier was the Scotch-Irish who came to the U.S. by way of Ireland, “because they have all the dash of the Irish in taking a position, and all the stubbornness of the Scots in ... Read More »
My Relations in Chester, Ohio
All my Union relatives and their friends are from Chester, Ohio, a composite of the three small towns in Ohio, New Philadelphia, Urbana, and Ripley. My mom is from Urbana, Dad New Philadelphia, and nobody I know of from Ripley but I needed it because that’s where the novel takes place across the Ohio River from my Confederate relations. I know mostly about Urbana because that’s where my grandmas ... Read More »
L.M. Bounds House Part of the Underground Railroad
Open Country comes out in less than a month and I thought I’d build up some interest by putting it in historical context. The novel commences at the John Rankin house in Ripley, Ohio that Connie and I toured while we were taking a trip down the Ohio River on a steamboat. Rankin was an abolitionist minister who used his home as a stop along the Underground Railroad. It was an inspiration for “Uncle ... Read More »
The Novel is Fact not Fiction
The unnamed narrator in the Preface of Open Country inherits a Quaker Wedding certificate. Here it is in our house on the wall of the living room proving the novel must be fact not fiction. ... Read More »
Lily Judge Van Lew
This mansion on Church Hill in Richmond belongs to Lily Judge. During the late Civil War she rented out one of her rooms to the Confederate representative from Kentucky Emmett Ellis and his wife, Faye. Faye was a dear friend of Lily from their school days at Quaker seminary in Philadelphia. The room that Emmett and Faye rented was behind the tree to the right. It overlooked all of Richmond. They ... Read More »