The Story
Two Prussian boys step off a ship in 1836 and begin a family story spanning generations and continents. Across the Grain of Time follows their descendants from the Old World to the American frontier, through war, hardship, migration, and the ordinary lives that became family history.
Second Edition – Revised and Expanded
About the Book
Drawn from family records, historical research, and stories passed from one generation to the next, the book follows ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times: immigration, settlement, war, economic hardship, family tragedy, and the constant pull toward someplace new.
As the story moves into the twentieth century, it follows my father’s life in the outdoors, his love of hunting, fishing, trapping, and wild country, and the experiences that shaped the world in which I grew up. Part family history and part American story, Across the Grain of Time traces nearly two centuries of people adapting, surviving, and finding their own way forward.
John "Reety" Rietman 