About This Book
Born near Tain, Scotland and the Great Glen, John Ross, the son of a Scottish warrior became engaged in many hair-raising adventures during his youth. At eighteen he travels to America in 1774 to escape persecution and death. Settled in Virginia, he fights for his new land in the Revolutionary War. Then, in the long tradition of family warriors, his grandson James enlists with the Confederacy. In, 1870 after five years of reconstruction
following the Civil War, James and his young family move to Kansas to homestead in the Welcome Community on Upper McDowell Creek.
Narative:
I am moved to pen the story of the Ross clan for those others of us to come, who may one day wonder why this land, America, holds such meaning for us.
In but nine more years it will have been one hundred since Grandfather John Ross left his own beloved braes and glens of Scotland in search of new horizons, with the will to survive a mighty force burning strong within him, as he longed for a national peace and personal tranquility.
I write to tell you first of where the Ross clan has been, and then to where it has now come, in these verdant hills of Virginia, after a torment anew within our adopted nation.
I pray that the Almighty would somehow finally grant, to us all, that unity and peace which we have so long sought.
James Franklin Ross, 1865
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling, original, and highly recommended narrative, February 13, 2003
By: Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
This review is from: Horizons West (Paperback)
Set in America during the Civil War (and with a side look at Scotland), Horizons West by Harold G. Ross is the story of the Ross clan being caught in the national rift that precipitated years of blood and misery, turning brother against brother over questions of ideas, idealism, loyalties and politics. Written with a distinctively Old West flavor, and deftly presenting a harsh and tragic view of America's internal conflict, Horizons West is a powerful, emotional, compelling, original, and highly recommended narrative to anyone who enjoys the kind of historical novel that simply grips the reader's total attention from first page to last.
Readers should be familiar with the Ross name on books dealing with fictionalized frontier history…Harold Ross spins a fine warn with a fantastic cast of frontier characters…
Glenn M. Busset, The Manhattan Mercury
Harold Ross is the next great Western story teller….His characters come alive….
Jim Roberts
Roberts Cowboy Outfitters
Abilene-Salina-Manhattan, Kansas
