The story of Tilman Manus is compelling. Born in the middle Tennessee hills in 1835 when Andrew Jackson was President, he learned early the meaning of hard work. Leaving Cannon Country to transport the Wallace family to Shreveport, Tilman and Uncle James decide to seek a future in the fertile Mississippi River land of Union County, Illinois. An eyewitness to some of the greatest events of history, Manus attended a Lincoln-Douglas debate, fought for the Union in the Civil War under Grant, helped lay the tracks for the railroad, and was a farmer who found the secret of a long life in simple living. Nearing the age of 106, Tilman lived to see the Roosevelt New Deal and the great depression. He was a remarkable man and quite the storyteller. In this historical fiction novel, Keith Pruitt, a kinsman, relates the remarkable nature of a bygone era.