Celia Hayes

Adelsverein: the Gathering Celia Hayes

Adelsverein: The Gathering is Volume 1 of the Adelsverein Trilogy, a saga of family and community loyalties, and the challenge of building a new life on the hostile frontier.

They came from Germany to Texas in 1847, under the auspices of the "Mainzer Adelsverein" - the society of noblemen of Mainz, who seek to fill a settlement in Texas with German farmers and craftsmen.

Among the hopeful immigrants are an extended family who will survive and endure, making their mark in Texas, their new land. Christian "Vati" Steinmetz, the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, has brought his sons and daughters: Magda - passionate and courageous, is courted in Texas by Carl Becker, a young frontiersman with a dangerous past. Her sister Liesel wants nothing more than to be a good wife to her husband Hansi, a stolid and practical farmer called by circumstances to be something greater. Their brothers scapegrace Friedrich and shy Johann, have always been close - but in the Civil War one will wear Union blue, the other Confederate grey homespun . . . and never forget they are brothers.

Adelsverein: The Gathering - It's about love and loss, joy and grief . . . and the sometimes wrenching process of becoming American.