Publisher's Synopsis
The Journey of the French Coat: Adventures in the Wilds from Old Fort Niagara to the Our House Tavern is an engaging and illuminating regional historical fiction book directed toward youth and young adults. Dr. Gretchen Duling's background and experience in teaching Social Studies, as a Gifted Programming Specialist, to youth and her writing and publication success in varying genres provided the development of an interesting style of writing and approach to history which is both engaging, exciting and easy reading for youth and adults. Over a number of years she extensively researched and gathered data which is interspersed into the story of a gold velvet French coat's journey through several historic time periods from 1759 to 1825. The geographical region covered is from Fort Niagara in Western New York to the Our House Tavern in the southern Ohio River town of Gallipolis, Ohio. Dr. Duling knows these regions well because she lives near Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York, and was born, raised and educated in Gallipolis, Ohio. Which was once called an exotic French frontier colony. She integrates the history and story with actual events involving Iroquois Indians, white English settlers, French settlers escaping the French Revolution and the tour of General Marquis de Lafayette as "Guest of the Nation" in 1825. The coat's journey comes full circle by possibly ending where it began. An actual gold velvet French coat on which this story is based does still exist. Western New York's history has many connections to the history of other regions. As one reader wrote: "The Journey of the French Coat: Adventures in the Wilds from Old Fort Niagara to the Our House Tavern, is a good example of the never ending trail of history with one trail leading yet to another."
