A Place Called Home: The Story of German Immigrants from Cincinnati, Ohio to New Ulm, Minnesota 1856-1862

Follow the story of the fictional Beck family as they travel by steamboat from Cincinnati, Ohio to the new western frontier settlement of New Ulm, Minnesota in 1857.They and their neighbors face unexpected challenges.  Constructing a house, growing a garden, hunting and fishing for food, and building a community while surviving sickness, prairie fires,  weather extremes, and mosquitoes. In 1862, they defend their town against an attack by frustrated, starving and desperate Dakota warriors.

The Dakota gave up land they had lived on for generation©s in several treaties in the early 1800s.   U.S. government policies tried to assimilate them into European farming methods and culture. The Dakota were left dependent on yearly payments of food, supplies and money that always seemed to be late and too little.

Inspired by memoirs, personal accounts and historical sources, fact and fiction blend in this novel of tragedy and survival in a place both the Dakota people and the settlers called home.

Publication is coming soon.  For advance notice, email [email protected]

Follow excerpts from A Place Called Home on the BOOKS menu under the title.

© 2023Nancy Noyes Silcox