My third book scheduled to release this summer

History is full of cool stories. It’s one of the reasons I like researching it and writing about it. It’s the cool stories that really enhance the who, what, where, when stuff. Answering questions like how and why, as well as finding out people’s thoughts and feelings on what transpired gives history its flavor.

I’m now working on my third nonfiction book, one that will celebrate the 200th anniversary of First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana. This will be the first of my books that will be published by PathBinder Publishing LLC Having already conducted double-digit interviews (with more scheduled), scoured through the church’s files as well as those at our county historical society and public library, and made great use of my subscription to Newspapers.com, I’ve come across lots of cool stories to augment the event timeline that will be presented in this book.

I share a couple of quick little nuggets that I came across regarding two of the church’s founding fathers, as it were:

*Regarding Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Hart, who went on to become a founding member of the church, as well as its only official for the first several years of its existence: Hart was only 17 when he was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1778 after having been wounded in the right hip by a musket ball that was never extracted. He carried the lead British minnie ball in him the rest of his life and limped due to it. When he was nearly 70, he was offered a pension for his service, but declined, saying “The government is now in debt, and I cannot ask for the money.”

*On John McElroy Dickey, the minister present at the church’s chartering service in 1824: The Dickey family, and all their earthly goods, were carried on the backs of two horses. When Dickey paid the ferriage for the family to get across the Ohio River from Kentucky into Indiana, he had only twenty-five cents left. He kept a close account, and his average salary for the first 16 years in Indiana, including money and gifts, was $80 a year (equivalent to about $2,500 today).

I’m looking forward to finding more fun facts. The book will be out sometimes this summer.