This is the fourth and final novel in the Mathews Family Saga, which are based upon known facts about the lives of real people and contain actual correspondence. Dr. Increase Mathews mourns Nabby?s death, struggling to raise a newborn and toddler while managing his farm, medical practice, trading post, and sawmill. Though Ink soon remarries, his life is filled with adversity: natural disasters, land disputes, disease, and even war. When Ohio?s legislators follow the necessary steps to reach statehood in 1803, it becomes a slave-free state by only one vote. Within a brief time, restrictive laws against blacks are enacted. He wants to help his sister with fugitives but doesn?t want his activity to be known. Yet the town that he founded in 1801 becomes a hotbed for abolitionist activities by the 1830s. Dr. Increase built structures that still exist today.