BOOK REVIEW

Kathleen Firestone's latest book, The Way to Cottage Street

Since I have previously shared my own writing about family on this blog, I would also like to mention an excellent family history book by Kathleen Firestone, another descendant of the same family lines. If you enjoy History, you will relate to many of the stories and lives that are recorded in her pages. If you are a relative, like me, I'm sure you would feel privleged to have such a family record for reference.

The Way to Cottage Street  was finished just this year. Firestone has done extensive research on the genealogy of family members, both in Michigan and in New York, as well as some other locations. It represents years of work! It is profusely illustrated with a great many black and white photographs by family members, some taken around the time of the Civil War, and representing about 150 years of History involving New York and Michigan. It contains about 130 full sized pages.

This book is the story of Laura Starr Bowers and Alfred Bowers, who married in Ellenville on March 15, 1877, and lived in Hurleyville, a hamlet of Fallsburgh, Sullivan County, New York State. Both Alfred’s and Laura’s families had founded the Free Methodist Church in their area, and were active in the church in Michigan, after moving to the Kingsley area in the early 1890s.  

Like many people in the 1800s, the couple moved west, where they hoped to benefit from a wealth of resources and opportunity. With other Bowers and Starr Branches, as well as other families of other names and neighbors, many re-settled in Michigan near the Grand Traverse Bay region, which helped them maintain old family ties and connections. The book covers some details of lives, such as places where they lived, how they survived difficult times and how even still, extended family members maintained relationships over all the many years.

Some progenitors of the Starrs and Bowers are recorded, and also many parallel descendant branches of both families are documented in Firestone’s book. She estimates that the count of descendants of Alfred and Laura from 1897 through 2013, amounts to around 300 people.

If you would like to purchase a book from Ms. Firestone, contact her at her email: michmemories@charter.net. The book sells for $20 plus $3 shipping. She does not have many left.

Other books by Kathleen Nickerson/Craker/ Firestone based on the history of Northern Michigan:

The Fox Islands, North and South

An Island In Grand Traverse Bay

Swift As A Vanishing Dream

 

 

They Came to South Fox Island is about the history of South Fox Island in the north part of Lake Michigan. The focus included the lumber industry on that island  in the 20th Century.  Kathleen's father and his family were involved in lumber and were in business there, requiring them to transport lumber by boat to various market places on Lake Michigan, both in Michigan and in Wisconsin.

Swift as a Vanishing Dream, is a true life story, full of suspense and tension for a reader., proving that fiction is no more dramatic than real life. 

This book is a more personal and tragic story about the family lumber business. This story centers upon the eventual loss of Kathleen's father, Sterling (Fuzzy) Nickerson and an uncle, Glen Nickerson, who went down with the Company boat or ship, the Bridgebuilde, in 1959. Another brother, Ken Nickerson had also been lost previously in a different  accident when an old tree fell on him.