Grady T. Birdsong

A Fortunate Passage: Two Families' Journey into the Heartland Grady T. Birdsong

They journeyed from opposite ends of the globe into America's heartland. Displaced by heart-wrenching circumstances and orphaned at age five, "Hiram" finds his way from devastated Georgia and its Civil War aftermath to an early Kansas frontier. Martha, the youngest daughter of Volga-German immigrants, struggles with a settler's existence on an arid, primitive, high plateau of the "Great American Desert." From their austere and troubled beginnings, both earnestly strive with courage and purpose to do that is right during their passage through life. They meet early in the century, and together they raise a family in the midst of a world at war. Their environment transforms from an established industrial society and begins steadily evolving into the age of technology. The story of their chaotic beginnings and continuing life challenges paints a poignant picture of life in the early 1900s society during this most "Fortunate Passage."