Publisher's Synopsis
In 1812 a chest of drawers was made in New Hampshire for Ruth
Noyes, the first of six generations of women who cherished the bureau
and passed it down over the years to the author. This bureau held its own
history within it, along with family letters and documents. These treasures
revealed a compelling story of the early settling of rocky New England
then, two generations later, of the great westward migration to the fertile
prairies of the Midwest.
The chest of drawers bore silent witness to the histories of the families
connected to it as they forged their lives first in New England then in
Illinois. After remaining there until the mid-nineteenth century, the
bureau began its journey back to its roots in New England. This book tells
this very American story.
