Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: The American Story is the first book in "The American Story" series. There are many biographies and accounts of individuals who fought in the Civil War, who went west to mine for silver, who piloted boats on the Erie Canal, who migrated west to become photographers, artists, historians, businessmen and adventurers. However, within these pages is the story of three men who, collectively, were all of these: William Sayre Gramesly, Charles Gramesly and Henry Gramesly, father and sons. The story begins in Palmyra, New York on the Erie Canal and takes the reader west to Illinois with exciting side trips through the Confederacy and the silver mines of Leadville, Colorado. It is an intriguing portrait of their endowment, our inheritance - the accounts of these ordinary men told through the journals and letters they left behind. It is a story of the intimate details of their lives and how those lives impacted the places where they lived, where they journeyed and where they died. They didn't yearn for a better life like many others, so much as they yearned for a different life. Nothing seemed to suit them for very long and they were the first to eagerly jump at the chance for something new and exciting that infused their soul with energy and satisfaction. Their story is truly The American Story.