Flow On Sweet Missouri [Paperback]

Carol Troestler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2005

Based on true events and combining genealogy, history and imagination, Flow On Sweet Missouri spans the years 1861 to 1938. It is the story of a family searching for freedom and a story of America as it seeks a more perfect union. The story begins as Mary Boothman gives birth on the banks of a coal mine to daughter Minnie. Mary is fleeing bushwhackers who have terrorized her home. The family recently settled in the river town of Lexington, Missouri, but finds a peaceful life cannot be, for in 1861 America has turned on itself. Mary's husband, William, joins the Union cavalry as Missourians divide their allegiance between the North and the South. The reader is swept into the family's history and the history of America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: PublishAmerica (January 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413742815
• ISBN-13: 978-1413742817
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,253,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Troestler was born in 1938 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois in a three generation home. After graduation from high school, she attended Ripon College where she majored in biology and psychology. She got married to Tom Troestler in December of 1959 and then returned to Ripon to complete her requirements for graduation in January 1960 before joining her husband who was in flight training for the Marine Corps in Pensacola, Florida. After moving to Beeville Texas where they had twins, and Beaufort South Carolina where they had a third child, they moved to Illinois where her husband became employed as a pilot with American Airlines.

After having three more children, the family moved to rural Wisconsin. Carol got a Master's Degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1980 and then worked as a social worker. She wrote many nonfiction books for schools and also a program for people with life threatening illness, Renewing Life.

She wrote two historical novels based on family stories, and a book of fairy tales. She has written a book on the Cuban Missile Crisis waiting for a publisher.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Historical Novel, November 4, 2006

By 

Abe F. March "To Beirut and Back, They Plotte... (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flow On Sweet Missouri (Paperback)

The Author brought to life real people who lived through a very important period in our nation's history. The Civil War played a major role in the lives of her ancestors and the author was able to express with realism how they were affected. A most interesting aspect of this tale shows how a town is split down the middle with one side supporting the Union Army and the other side the Confederates. The living conditions and family life during this period of our history is woven with color and flavor. Genealogy can be boring especially when it is not our own, however Carol Troestler makes the reader part of her family allowing the reader to experience their pain, their sorrow and their happiness.
Carol Troestler can be proud of her ancestors who made a significant contribution to this country.


Abe F. March
Author, To Beirut and Back

5.0 out of 5 stars Appeals to all ages., February 21, 2006

By 

Nancy L. Holum - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flow On Sweet Missouri (Paperback)

I followed this book as it was being written. My 10 seconds of fame come in the introduction. This story takes on the character of the writer, honest, compassionate, gentle, fun, passionate about writing and her family, past and present. It is an honor to be her friend. No foul language and therefore good for young people as well as those who appreciate clean language. I just ordered her second book, IOWA BORN AND BRED, from Amazon, and I think she is writing a third at this time.
Nancy Holum, Summerland Key, Florida

5.0 out of 5 stars History with a Human Touch, August 6, 2005

By 

Joyce A. Edmondson "jaebooks" (Sunrise, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flow On Sweet Missouri (Paperback)

There was nothing even remotely uplifting about the Civil War, yet Carol Troestler's poignant and thoroughly researched novel about a Missouri family that experienced it firsthand gives a new focus.

We read about the Boothman family, based on her own ancestry, whose spirit and values go above and beyond the divisions within their chosen country, state, and town to achieve unity in family and nation through romance, marriage, birth and death.

Ms. Troestler describes eloquently the tensions produced in each member of the family by the warring factions of North and South, as the men or boys leave home to join one or the other side--the Union or the Confederate--and position for battle in the border state of Missouri.

As schools and churches close for the duration, Elizabeth "home schools" the children with a "play" to teach a history lesson about the lives of Lewis and Clark's expedition down the Missouri River to find a route to the Pacific. As a former teacher who often used this method, this reader found it delightful.

In another joyful moment that made her heart pound, Elizabeth dances the jig--an Irish dance she knew from her youth in Ireland--that also brought back memories of a time when I was part of an Irish Dancing Group.

Not allowing anything to totally destroy their family, not even suffering and death, moving to different states or far distances, Elizabeth Boothman's strong character gives the history an authenticity as she employs spiritual values and qualities of life that redeem an otherwise dreary and depressing moment in the history of America's struggle to become a united nation.

The question we cannot help but ask ourselves is "was the country already in the throes of a peaceful resolution of the evils of slavery, or was this a necessary war with all the suffering and loss of life it produced?"

Bringing the question to a different level--one that is very much in the minds of Americans today who face similar divisions and a war many do not support in a country not their own--Ms. Troestler describes with compassion the sorrow and emotional confusion of those Missouri soldiers who faced an "enemy" and found it was "themselves."

This is a novel that would be an important piece of literature in high schools and colleges to teach history because it is written with knowledge of the issues involved, not just facts, and with a human touch. Five brilliant stars.

Joyce Ann Edmondson
The Listening Tree