Jefferson Era in Jefferson, Iowa

Remarkable tale of a mother and her long lost kin

A Detroit plot summary tells of a woman who, born to English parents who died early, was raised by foster parents in Elmira New York. She later married, moved west, and after her husband and later a second husband both met grim fates, discovered through a Chicago encounter that her husband and her long-lost East India sailor brother were the same man. She traced her foster parents, learned of the shocking kinship, and began a painful journey back toward her early home while facing abandonment by her foster family. The tale is recounted with moralizing tone and local notes about governors and regional news.