The stuff of social and cultural history is the people - how they were born, lived, worked, and died - and it all happened within the context of their times and their locales. The treasure trove of thousands of documents, diaries, business records and all manner of day-to-day things, the clothing they wore and textiles they sewed and wove, the beautiful and usually mundane contents of their homes all sprang back into life as Darcey Hale unearthed them over a twenty- year period and told their story with Orrin Clark as their centerpiece. First, in
The Long Trek North,
then
a Journey through Childhood
and then
Once Upon a Lake.
Now in
There is a World Beyond
she takes us through the early 1830's - a period in which the Champlain Valley of New York truly burst forth into a world far beyond the shores of its lake. Trade and hopes of gaining fortune through lumber trade carried men from the shores of Lake Champlain into Canada and some even captained ships that crossed the Atlantic to the British Isles. Goods of every sort flowed easily southward through the Champlain Canal, then on to New York City, or westward where pioneers who were lusting for change and land and prosperity poured through the Erie Canal to Ohio, Michigan and even beyond. Although Orrin's world remained on his lake, he was keenly aware of the impact that this movement of people and goods was having upon him, his family and his lifestyle. Communications was the big word. It changed his world dramatically. Suddenly, Ligonier Point and Willsborough were no longer isolated villages. The world had come to them, for better or for worse. Orrin is beckoning to you as he invites you to step back in time and journey back in time to life as he experienced it between1831 and 1835.