Synopsis
Carter County, Kentucky was blessed with an abundance of diverse natural resources, including timber, iron ore, coal, and limestone…
…during the Industrial Revolution one of its towns, Olive Hill, became the center of a 600 square mile hotbed of fireclay, a unique heat-resistant clay used to make firebricks. For decades, thousands of hard-working Olive Hillians dug, moulded, and fired that uncommon clay into hundreds of thousands of firebricks per day to line open hearth steel furnaces, locomotive fireboxes, and steamship boilers. Without the steel, there would be no skyscrapers and no rail lines. Without the trains and ships, there would be no movement to expedite a growing nation. Olive Hill firebricks helped make this possible. Olive Hill and its people gave all that it had in a time it was most needed until a time it was needed no more. More people need to know the Olive Hill story. More people need to know more American History. Olive Hill the book is a historical fiction novel that follows the Reed family from May of 1800 thru June of 1959.
Olive Hill is published in two volumes.
Volume 1 covers eighty-four years and three months, from May 1800 to September 1884. Volume 2 covers seventy-four years and seven months, from September 1884 to June 1959.
There are nine Timelines.
A Timeline is a specific time period in which the Olive Hill story is told.
Example:
Timeline 1 covers May 1800 to June 1801 (one year and one month). This timeline contains Chapters, 1-37. The chapters are divided by months and most of the chapters are divided by numbers to distinguish different time periods within that month (1) (2) (3), etc.
Timeline 2 covers November 1806 to June 1815 (eight years and seven months). Timeline 2 contains chapters 38-59.
The last is Timeline 10. It covers September, 1945 to June, 1959. It contains Chapters 212-237.
There is an Epilogue. Chapter 238.
There are nine Nutshells.
Nutshells summarize what happened between the previous Timeline and the one coming up.
The Nutshells cover a longer time period that the Timelines. Nutshells are divided by geography and characters – not by chronological years…e.g. What happened in the United States, in Kentucky, in Carter County, in Olive Hill, assuming they existed at the time of the Nutshell. What happened to the Reed family, Samuel, Noah, Sally, etc.
There are maps, original illustrations, and a Reed Family Tree.