Customer Reviews

Iowa Born and Bred

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For many people recording their family history is a cold exercise of names, dates, and occasional by-lines of notable events, but in her book, Iowa Born and Bred, Carol Troestler reveals an intimate look at life in the middle years of the United States from the viewpoint of the amazing women in her immediate ancestry. Troestler's power is not in the rather stilted dialogue which by her own admission is strictly the creative contribution of her keen imagination to this engaging story, but in her extensive research and loving, historical accounts of the emotions and dreams which compelled her foremothers to pioneer in the American heartland during the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
With Iowa Born and Bred, Carol Troestler generously offers her hand to any that are willing to travel with her as she retraces the steps of her remarkable matriarchs. Take Iowa Born and Bred in hand and reflect in awe that you too are but three handshakes away from history! By deVoll Fisher for deVoll Reviews, author of Caleb's Branch: An Incomplete Tale of Unfinished Lives

It was with utter amazement that I read this very well researched story which began in Civil War times and continued on until the present. Carol has a unique way of expressing her thoughts and let me assure you, she has many deep thoughts. There is nothing artificial or unbelievable about her. I appreciate the painstaking care she has given this story and will not spoil the book by attempting to retell it.

She has the distinction of being related to one of The Great Locomotive Chase heroes. This movie made quite an impression on me as a young person and I am now inspired to watch it again.

This book belongs in a Civil War museum and certainly should be required reading for anyone majoring in history.
Why do I say this? Because it is so well recorded you feel as though you were there.

Anything Carol Troestler writes I will buy--here's hoping there is a lot more.

Alice Crooker

For me this book was a slow start, and then it grabbed my complete attention finding it hard to put down. It is compelling and factual. The author makes history come alive with real characters who were heroic and who made a significant contribution to the development and advancement of technology in America.

Abe F. March
Author - To Beirut and Back

With the creative ability she shares with her ancestors, Carol Troestler has a gift for gathering the remnants of historical research on her family and creating stories in full raiment to enlighten and delight her readers.

Remembering the days when a history lesson was merely a laundry list of dates, names and places, I found Carol's newest novel, Iowa Born & Bred, a much more pleasant, realistic and entertaining way to learn about our country's heritage through the lives of those who experienced it, including her own.

Thus, a person, whether student or reader, can enter into the story of Alf Wilson's capture, escape, and travels on foot and by boat during the Civil War, as he returns to his homeland and receives a medal of honor for bravery and service to his country. We learn of his emotions, thoughts, fears and hopes for our country, and his willingness to fight for it.

Woven within the tales are intimate moments of reflection by the author who describes herself as a restless, creative spirit among like souls. As I read of Carol's trip by train as a child, after saving her money to buy the ticket to California to see her Great Grandmother, I was caught up in her emotions as I recalled the time my own daughter after high school graduation, traveled with a family by car to the west to meet her own grandmother for the first time. There is in all of us a deep need to reconnect with our roots. Carol has learned how to do this and does it well.

She writes of her great-great grandfather, Martin Luther Kellar, who wentfrom farmer to preacher, never satisfied until he could attach theoccupation in his heart to his name, and Martin Lyle Nelson, her grandfather, "who claimed no other profession than inventor." These and others influenced Carol's journey to having her own business, writing and developing activities of the mind. My own Georgia relatives went from farming to occupations in government, law and medical fields. Thus, I could identify with them.

Carol describes some of Martin Lyle's inventions for which he held 100 patents. Having worked for an inventor myself, Wallace Coulter, who invented the first "blood counter" in a Chicago basement, I was reacquainted with the awesome feeling of being in the presence of a gifted man for over 11 years and getting to know him as a person. This must be the feeling Carol had as she describes some of his patents.

When writing "The Listening Tree," one goal of mine was to encourage others to tell their family stories so a group of family storytellers would emerge at the grass roots level of American life to enlighten and inspire future generations of children and adults. I am happy to write I have found such a group within PublishAmerica. Carol has written a tribute to American ideals and the people who lived them.

Genuine examples of freedom and hope for ourselves and other nations are needed more than ever in this age as the world grows smaller and smaller through the communication media. I look forward to reading more of Carol's research and writing in the future and sharing it.

Finally, in quoting Pope Benedict XVI, she writes "Each of us is a result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed; each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary."

*****

Joyce Ann Edmondson
Author
The Listening Tree, Falling Petals,
In the Arms of the Shepherd

Review: Iowa Born and Bred by Carol Troestler
It has been a privilege to read this wonderful book. Carol Troestler has woven facts about her ancestors and the accounts of their lives into the realistic lifestyles of that era to create a treasured novel for her descendents, and an unforgettable read for those who love history and genealogy. It is the story of Sophia and Martin Luther Kellar as their young lives start out prior to and in the first years of the Civil War. Their children and their moves from Iowa to other states are documented by Carol. Conversations are orchestrated by Carol by carefully weaving the events and facts of her ancestors into them. Separations of family members to move on to different ways of life and vocations cause much pain to Mothers and heartches to Fathers who take it in stride as to that being the way children are suppossed to do to answer their own calling in life. Accounts of the Civil War are told to the Kellar family over several nights of a nearly uninterupted monologue from Martin Kellars cousin, John Alfred Wilson, who was simply called ALF for short. As he keeps the family entranced to the stories he tells of his suffering and of other Union Soldiers by the hands of the Confederate and the escapes and daring events that filled their lives throughout their whole time of enlistment. He recalls the time he met Abraham Lincoln shortly before the brutal asassination of the president that startled and grieved this great nation of ours. Overall Carol gives us updates in a time released fashion that keeps us informed with the movements of the family, the new births, the deaths, and the accomplishments of her beloved ancestors. Leading up to and naming her grandfather Lyle Nelson and his many accomplishments in being a pioneer to industry and science is done with much clarity. Proving he helped get a young nation introduced to inventions brought on and patented by him that have changed all our lives with the beginning of the telephony system and by that system helped develop as many as 100 inventions that he had patents for. Carol's determination in writing down the facts and memories of her life and those of her ancestors from her great-great-grandfather Martin Luther Kellar who was a preacher, farmer, and inventor; to Martin's daughter Maria who was Lyle's mother, down to Alice who was Lyle's daughter and mother to Carol has been handed down from the Grandfather as in his recorded patents. His legacy will live on but not any more lovingly than the written word that Carol has left her family and the world. I loved the book and highly recommend it to everyone. Review done by Mary E. Preece author of In This Valley I Grew, Life on Blacklog and Happy Hollow ISBN 1-4137-9399-1 _________________ In This Valley I Grew ISBN 1-4137-9399-1