A Settler’s Year

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Pioneer Life through the Seasons

By Kathleen Ernst
Photographs by Loyd Heath

Experience what life was like for early immigrants in Wisconsin through Kathleen Ernst’s carefully crafted prose and Loyd Heath’s beautifully rendered photographs.

200 pages, 8 x 9, 179 color and b&w photos
Hardcover: $29.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-714-3
Ebook: $19.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-715-0
Publication Date: 9/22/2015

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Description

Early immigrants to the Upper Midwest faced many challenges and enjoyed many triumphs through the seasonal rhythms of rural life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In A Settler’s Year, readers travel from sprawling farm to tidy crossroads village, and from cramped and smoky cabins to gracious, well-furnished homes to experience the back-straining chores, cherished folk traditions, annual celebrations, and indomitable spirit that characterized pioneer life. Evocative photographs taken at Old World Wisconsin, the country’s largest outdoor museum of rural life, lushly illustrate the stories woven by historian and interpreter Kathleen Ernst and the compelling first-hand accounts left by the settlers themselves.

At its heart A Settler’s Year is about people dreaming of, searching for, and creating new homes in a new land. This moving book transports us back to the pioneer era and inspires us to explore the stories found on our own family trees.

Author Bio

Kathleen Ernst

Kathleen Ernst is an award-winning author of more than thirty mystery, historical fiction, and nonfiction books for adults and young readers. She has a master’s degree in history education and writing from Antioch University. Ernst spent over a decade as curator of interpretation and collections at the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Old World Wisconsin site. She lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin

Photographer Bio

Loyd Heath

Loyd Heath’s interest in photography began when he was a high school student in Milwaukee in 1945. In the ensuing half century, he attended numerous photo courses, participated in countless photo shows, and was widely published. He earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a professor of accounting and an associate dean during a thirty-six-year career at the University of Washington. He was best known for his photos of the University of Washington campus, Pacific Northwest totem poles, and Old World Wisconsin, where he judged an annual photo contest for a decade. He passed away in 2020.

In 'A Settler’s Year,' we relive the early settler’s experience in the wilds of Wisconsin. We learn of the challenges of each season of the year, from ‘when spring softens the landscape’ to the long days of winter—the quiet season. And we come to understand what these early arrivals endured as they struggled to make a living in a new land.